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2012-12-23

Happy new Baktun!

As I mentioned earlier, the Mesoamerican calendar ticked from 12.19.19.17.19 to 13.0.0.0.0. And as people have noticed, this did not mean the end of the world. Not too much of a surprise there, as the Mayans never did predict any end of the world. Indeed, the calendar didn't even end!

This was all made up by people who wanted to make some quick bucks, and so it is a little upsetting to see news stations now claiming that the Mayans were wrong. In one interview, a woman thought that the Mayans had purposely pulled our collective legs on this one. No, it wasn't the Mayans, it were 21st century businessmen who pulled so many legs.

Others ask if this means we have entered a new golden era. So here's my attempt at multiple approaches to figure out what the 14th baktun has in store for us.

The 14th Baktun

I say "14th Baktun" because the numbering begins at 0. So 0 is the first baktun, 1 is the second, and so on. So what does this mean? To start off with, nothing. It's a way of counting days, and there is nothing magical about it.

Skywalker to Wizard

From what I gather, different cultures had their own localized variation of the Mesoamerican calendar. Since the specific culture everyone keeps refering to is Mayan, I'll stick to that.

So, given that there are 20 baktuns in a piktun, and there are 20 gods, we could make a wild assumption that we went from the 13th to the 14th god, i.e. from the Skywalker to the Wizard.

The 392 year reign of the Skywalker, started September 18th 1618. The Skywalker is an explorer and adventurer. One could easily argue that a lot of exploration has been going on in these last 392 years, and certainly there has been a lot of adventure. (That said, the vikings belonged to the age of the fun inviting monkey, and the late middle ages were run by the human, inviting wise choices and free will.)

The Wizard, on the other hand, invites magic and the feeling of empowerment.

Tzolkin

Another way of looking at a baktun, is the energy predicted by the religious Tzolkin calendar on the first kin of the baktun. For this new baktun, the energies are as such:

The destiny of this baktun is the blue hand, healing and accomplishing. It cooperates with the yellow human, choosing wisely and with free will. The guiding force is the storm of transformation and allowing self-generation. The major challenge is red earth, being grounded and open to synchronicity. There may be the occult surprise of the white wizard, creating magic and the feeling of empowerment. All this goes to the Crystal Tone, cooperating and facilitating team work. Be aware, however, that this baktun is born during the wavespell of the yellow warrior, planning strategically and questioning.

"May the energy of the Blue Hand help me to heal in all levels and accomplish what I am looking for. I am guided by the power of Transformation. Yellow Castle. Fourth Castle of Giving. Time to use the Lessons Learned."

Sounds good to me. Because it doesn't say too much about what happens on the macro scale of things on Planet Earth. It says more about the energies available to us. After all, the macro perspective is merely a reflection of what happens within us all.

Conclusion

If the last years before the so called end of the Mayan calendar (it didn't end) has shown us anything, it is an enormous increase in the number of people who want a change for the better in this world and are willing to do something about it. This is very positive.

There is no reason to put off betterment.

Remember, therefore, that you do have free will. You are free to focus on what the world has become, and you are free to become the world you want. Must you find peace in your heart and choose wisely.

2012-12-21

The world ends Januar 19th 2038!

Congratulations! The fact that you are reading this means that the world did not end this night, as the Mayan calendar ticked from 12.19.19.17.19 to 13.0.0.0.0. This could be because most computers do not use the Mayan calendar to keep track of time, and they do not use the number 13 to denote negative numbers.

So let me talk about something much more serious. On January 19th 2038 at 03:14:07 UTC, the 32 bit signed integer clock, the most accurate time measuring mechanism ever devised, will turn NEGATIVE! Indeed, we will be thrust back to December 13th 1901! A time when Texas was booming with oil, and right before the death of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom.

With so many bits in a computer, what prompted computer engineers to use only a 32 bit SIGNED integer to keep time? Possibly, because they figured there would never be a need to go beyond 2038. What did they know that we don't know? How does this link in to the Unix World End Prophecy? And how do you prepare youself for 2038?

So many questions, so little time to exploit the 2038 phenomenon before everyone figures out I'm pulling their leg. Look out for my future seminar: The 32 bit signed integer clock and how to elevate yourself to an unsigned integer of positivity to survive the end of the world!

2012-12-06

New year or end of the world?

As we're closing in on December 21st 2012, the stories I see about the end of the world are getting annoying. Even the jokes look really bad, because quite frankly, even the jokes are based on lies. So for those who wonder if the world will end on December 21st.. no, it won't. And here's what mass media and doomsday tellers and others who want to capitalize on "the end of the world" won't tell you:

The conceptual end of the calendar is not religious per se

The calendar in question is not the religous Tzolkin calendar, but the civil calendar. While the religious calendar has names of gods and energies, the civil calendar is a series of numbers. The combination of the civil calendar and the religious calendar made a cycle of 52 solar years. Obviously, the world has lasted more than 52 years, just ordinarily, that's about the time span you'd usually need to address.

In terms of having to date beyond 52 years, the long count was introduced, where there are 20 days in a winal, 18 winals (360 days) in a tun, 20 tuns (7200 days) in a k'tun, 20 k'tuns (144000 days, ca 394 years) in a b'ak'tun. So it is this calendar that comes to an end, right? No.

The calendar doesn't end on December 21st

I know, everyone are saying that the calendar ends. So let's look at the facts. The long count is written in the format b'ak'tun.k'tun.tun.winal.kin (kin is a day). So December 20th is 12.19.19.17.19. So, move on to the next day, 19 is the last kin, so take that back to 0 and increase the winal. 17 is the last winal, so set to 0 and increase the tun. 19 is the last tun, so increase the k'tun. 19 is the last k'tun, so increase the b'ak'tun. 12+1=13. Hence, December 21st will be written 13.0.0.0.0.

Which means that the date is about as significant as going from 1999 to 2000.

So when does the Mayan calendar really end? Well, based on those 5 numbers, the last day would be 19.19.19.17.19 - October 12th 4772.

And that is not the end. Because 20 b'ak'tuns make 1 piktun (ca 7885 years). 20 piktuns make 1 kalabtun (ca 157700 years). 20 kalabtuns make 1 k'ilchintuns (ca 3.15 million years), etc. The date of creation is expressed as 13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.0.0.0.0, where the units are 13s in the nineteen places larger than the b'ak'tun.

These are incredibly large dates. So while the last day of the world according to the Christian calendar is December 31st 9999 because we run out of digits for the years, the Mayan calendar will be able to specify dates after the entire universe has collapsed and been recreated. Twice.