[Aztlan] 2012 and pre-Columbian Calendars

[Lynda Manning-Schwartz]

I think I have to finally quit lurking and put in my one cent's worth on the
2012 issue.

I have been working on correlating astronomical events with Precolumbian
calendars for twenty years. I have no definitive proof of specific
correlations yet, but I am convinced of certain facts.

1. First, 13.0.0.0.0 is a Period Ending. There is no evidence that
prophesied catastrophic events happen on certain dates or that Period Ending
dates are targeted. The warnings we have span twenty years; they are K'atun
prophesies. A Period Ending is the marker date at the end of an era. It is
equivalent to saying "the Eighties" or "the 16th century" or AD 1600. AD
1600 is the century ending date after the Spanish incursion, a Christian
Period Ending date.
2. The 2012 designation is a Christian date. Sixteen hundred tropical years
is 584,387 days. The 584,285 correction is 1,600 tropical years, less 103
days. Twenty-nine Calendar Rounds (1,508 vague years of 365 days each =
1,507 tropical years exactly) after the Christian era beginning is a great
cycle, beginning at the start of the Christian calendar (January 1, 1 AD).
The year AD 1507 is near the date of the last Fire Ceremony celebrated in
central Mexico. Incorporating the Christian date and with the 1 Reed
(Quetzalcoatl birth date) Calendar Round date cycle melds Christianity with
prior dates, a practice the Christian church did not discourage.
3. The Period Ending date is actually not December 21, 2012, but December
24, 2012. This date was justified to the Christian Period Ending after the
Spanish calendar changes were instituted (Gregorian calendar AD 1582). In
other words, the calendar we recognize as "Maya" today is justified to
11.19.1.0.0 December 29 (364 days leap year), AD 1600. This is 3 days before
January 1, 1601, so this count is 3 days off from the Julian date. There are
three non-leap year century years (1700, 1800, 1900) between AD 1600 (a leap
year), the Conquest Period Ending, and AD 2100, our current Period Ending.
Therefore, modern calendars are 3 days off from Colonial Maya calendars. In
other words, in keeping with the Quetzalcoatl = Jesus link, the Period
Ending is Christmas eve, because the god will be born on Christmas Day.
Instead of continuing to correct the Maya dates according the Gregorian
calendar, we froze the Colonial correlation at AD 1600 and we continue to
translate dates according to this correlation. This works for Classic Era
Maya dates, but it is useless for assessing early dates which use a
different correlation, especially for dates before the first century AD.
Thirteen Baktuns only correlates to August 13, 3114 AD in the
Maya-to-Christian correlation set at AD 1600.
4. Also, 13.0.0.0.0 is a contrived number. It is 134 days after 5,125
tropical years. Pakal's birth date is 9.8.9.13.0, another contrived date, or
225 days after 3,715 tropical years. Pakal's birthday is thus March 26 (Day
85), 603 (225 days after August 13 (Day 225), AD 602), six days after the
current Vernal Equinox (March 20). 13.0.0.0.0 is 91 days (225 - 134 days =
1/4 year or one season) before Pakal's birth date, or 7 Calendar Rounds (364
* 365) less 364/4 days, or 364 vague years. In other words, the 13 Baktuns
date is justified to Palenque's Pakal the Great's birth date. The reason we
think of this dating system as universal is that our studies are principally
based on translations at Palenque. Other dating systems exist, probably
based on other important starting dates, such as other rulers' births or New
Fire ceremonies for the founding of other dynasties or sites. Reference the
well-known 2-day discrepancy between some dating systems and the Maya (later
copied by the Aztecs and given to Colonial scribes). Places like Copan,
Teotihuacan, Oaxaca, and the Olmec probably had different beginning dates,
some in Spring, like Pakal's birth date and the Christian resurrection, some
in Summer (Copan?), some in Fall (original Mixtec calendar, based on
Zapotec?). The calendar mechanics are universal, but differing starting
dates make the calendar dates different for different sites. Witness the
various rounds of justifications among Mixtec, Aztec, and Spanish Colonial
dates in Oaxaca.
5. So as we argue about whether the world will end on December 21 or 24,
2012, maybe we should start looking earlier to see what is happening during
this decade. After all, AD 1600 is only important in hindsight. All the
really important stuff came before that.

Lynda Manning-Schwartz