Mayan Calendar Prophecies: The Complete Collection of 2012 Predictions and Prophecies (3 page)

With this knowledge of cycle science let us now take a look at the actual Mayan prophecies from the past and see what they might predict about the future.

As stated previously, the primary
 
Mayan prophecies or predictions
 
for 2012 (or any other date) can be found in their books called the
 
Chilam Balam
. According to their
katun
cycles, we presently live in the cycle named
Katun 4 Ahau
. This cycle began on April 6, 1993 and ends on December 21, 2012. What predictions did the Maya make for this cycle?

There are currently nine known books of
Chilam Balam
. Each contains basically the same predictions with minor variations. I will use a combination of the
Chilam Balam of Chumayel, Codex Perez, and Chilam Balam of Tizim
as the source for this book. According to these sources, the prophecies or predictions for our current cycle,
Katun 4 Ahau,
that began on 4/6/1993 and ends on 12/21/2012 are as follows:

This is the katun for remembering knowledge and recording it.
[20]

“The quetzal shall come, the green bird shall come.
 
Ah Kantenal
 
shall come.
 
Blood-vomit shall come.
 
Kukulcan
 
shall come with them for the second time
[21]
.”

There will be scarcities of corn and squash during this katun that leads to a great loss of life. A plague will threaten beehives.
[22]

The most interesting part of this Mayan prediction for our present
katun
cycle that ends in 2012 is the first part: "It is the
katun
of remembering and recording knowledge." It was in our present cycle that the World Wide Web was invented!

The World Wide Web was created by Tim Berners-Lee and became publicly available on August 6, 1991 but really went under-utilized until 1993 with the creation of the Mosaic web browser. According to Wikipedia, "Scholars generally agree that a turning point for the World Wide Web began with the introduction
 
of the
 
Mosaic web browser
 
in 1993...."

Interestingly, Mosaic was released on April 22, 1993. As was stated earlier our present
katun
,
Katun 4 Ahau
, began on April 6, 1993. Interesting.

No technology has enabled the "remembering of knowledge and recording it" more so in the history of civilization than the World Wide Web. In just seconds one can access research on any topic in humanity's entire realm of knowledge. What used to require driving to a library, searching card catalogs, finding the book on the shelves and searching its index and table of contents to see if it had the information you were looking for can now be done in seconds from home. What is more, though, is no library could ever match the amount of information available via the Web thus the odds of finding what you are looking for is greatly increased on the Web than in a library.

More importantly, as Google CEO Eric Schmidt noted in 2010, every two days we create and record as much information as we did from the dawn of civilization up until 2003.
[23]
If you were a modern-day Mayan calendar priest, the arrival of the Web in the present
Katun 4 Ahau
period would not be very surprising and would seem to verify the perceived character and nature of the
Katun 4 Ahau
period.

The Mayan
katun
predictions are cyclic.
Katun 4 Ahau
repeats once every 256 years. So, let us back-test this theory and just as a Mayan Jaguar Priest would have done look back through recorded history at previous
Katun 4 Ahau
periods to see what events happened and if the pattern holds up.

The previous
Katun 4 Ahau
coincided with the years 1736-1756. Interestingly, the theoretical underpinnings of the Internet, known as graph theory, were first presented in 1735 and published in 1741. On August 26, 1735 Leonard Euler presented his solution to the mathematical problem known as the Seven Bridges of Konigsberg. The Internet utilizes a technique called packet switching to move data around the network that is only possible because of Euler's solution to the Seven Bridges mathematical problem. Thus it seems that discoveries in this
Katun 4 Ahau
cycle led directly to the fulfillment of a prediction in the
next
Katun 4 Ahau
cycle.

According to Wikipedia it was also in 1728 and 1751 that the first modern encyclopedias were created. An encyclopedia certainly represents the idea of "remembering and recording knowledge."

The next prior
Katun 4 Ahau
cycle coincided with the years 1480-1500. This corresponds to the Age of Exploration as well as the invention of the printing press. According to Wikipedia, "by 1500, printing presses throughout western Europe had already produced more than 20 million volumes." It seems the printing press had the same impact on information during its time period that the World Wide Web did in its time period and both fell within a
Katun 4 Ahau
cycle. By 1620, Francis Bacon noted that printing had "changed the whole face and state of things throughout the world." The same quote could be used in regards to the World Wide Web today.

The next previous
Katun 4 Ahau
coincided with the years 1224-1244. Coincidentally, the most quoted Encyclopedia of the Middle Ages, the
 
De proprietatibus rerum,
 
was created in 1240 by Bartholomeus Anglicus. Thus it does appear that this katun cycle is associated with advances in recording information.

What about the other part of the Mayan predictions for
Katun 4 Ahau
, namely:

"
Ah Kantenal
 
shall come…There will be scarcities of corn and squash during this katun that leads to a great loss of life.
"

According to one researcher,
 
Al Kantenal
 
means "he who adulterates maize."
[24]
Interestingly, it was in 1996 that the first genetically modified seeds came on the market. The first of these were corn, soybeans, and cotton. Genetically modified squash was introduced later. Fifteen years later around 86% of all corn grown in the U.S. is genetically modified thus there certainly is a "scarcity of corn," real corn, that is. The arrival of
Ah Kantenal
, “he who adulterates maize” would certainly seem to have been fulfilled as well.

As we have seen earlier, events that occur in one
katun
can apparently bring about the predictions the next time this
katun
cycle rolls around such as with the invention of graph theory in 1736 leading to the subsequent creation of the World Wide Web in 1993. Thus what is in store for the future?

One recent event in South Africa should give us all pause about the path we are currently on with genetically modified crops. In 2009 there was an
 
86% crop failure of genetically modified corn in South Africa
. Scientists still do not fully understand the cause. If the same were to happen in America, it would cause a worldwide food crisis. What will the state of the world's agricultural system look like 256 years from now when the next
Katun 4 Ahau
cycle rolls around? Global warming, peak oil, and genetically modified crop failures are all very real concerns for the future.

Additionally, between the years 1993 and 2012 there were several famines caused by the lack of corn. The southern African nations of Zimbabwe, Malawi, and Mozambique all experienced famines resulting from shortages of corn in the year 2002. North Korea experienced famines in 1996 and again in 2008. Thus “a great loss of life due to the scarcity of corn” seems to have happened just as the Mayan “prophecies” predicted.

Another Mayan prediction associated with agriculture was the one that stated, “
A plague will threaten beehives.”
It was in 2006 that a new disease causing the disappearance of countless beehives was first discovered and named Colony Collapse Disorder. According to Wikipedia, “Colony collapse is significant economically because many agricultural crops worldwide are pollinated by bees; and ecologically, because of the major role that bees play in the reproduction of plant communities in the wild.” Thus once again it seems a prediction for
Katun 4 Ahau
has come true.

What about the part of the “prophecy” or prediction that states, "Blood vomit shall come?" It is thought this references a disease experienced by the Maya during the
Katun 4 Ahau
cycle that immediately preceded the arrival of the Spanish in their lands. The sickness started with a fever followed by "body swelling and being filled with worms." The victim also vomited blood, hence the name. Some believe this disease was yellow fever.

Interestingly, in January of 1993 the first cases of Yellow Fever in Kenya were first diagnosed. They later determined that the outbreak had begun several months earlier. Kenya had never experienced a Yellow Fever outbreak in its entire history before this.

The “blood vomit” disease also sounds very similar to the effects caused by the Ebola virus. Several outbreaks of this virus have occurred since 1993 such as in 2000, 2001, 2004, and 2007. In fact, there have been more outbreaks of Ebola since 1993 than in all previous years. In this time period there were 18 known outbreaks that killed over 1,000 people. The mortality rate is staggering with the disease, which kills between 51%-83% of those who become infected.

There is one final part of the katun predictions for this cycle that is interesting. As the predictions state, "Kukulkan shall come."  This refers to the arrival of the Toltec leader known as Topiltzen-Quetzalcoatl. (Kukulkan was the Mayan name for Quetzalcoatl.) This leader attempted to make reforms to violence-filled religious practices of the day that included child sacrifice. He commanded that instead of human sacrifices his followers should only sacrifice butterflies. This aroused the ire of the conservative religious authorities of the day whose power was threatened by this decree. Thus they persecuted him and drove him from their cities. He fled to the Yucatan peninsula where he took a leadership role at Chichen Itza.

In 2009 another leader took the world stage and on him the world pinned their hopes and dreams. That leader was Barack Obama. Articles written about him frequently used the terms "savior" and he was even given a Nobel Peace Prize within one year of being elected with the Nobel committee noting, “Only very rarely has a person to the same extent as Obama captured the world's attention and given its people hope for a better future.” More importantly, Obama was the first black President of the United States, undoubtedly one of the most powerful nations in the history of civilization. (Strangely enough, Obama has a sister named, of all things, Maya.)

A quick Google search reveals that, like Topiltzen-Quetzalcoatl, Obama was also attacked by conservatives and even accused of being an "anti-christ" and “socialist." He even issued an executive order, the first of his presidency, whereby the children of undocumented immigrants would no longer be “sacrificed”, er, “deported.” (Interestingly enough, most of these immigrants are descendants of the Maya and other Mesoamerican cultures.)

Obama's term happens to expire in 2012 just one month before the “end” of the Mayan calendar. He will then be up for reelection. Will he be expelled from Washington, DC just as Topiltzen-Quetzalcoatl was expelled from Tula?

Interestingly, all of the Founding Fathers of the United States were born in the previous
Katun 4 Ahau
cycle (1736-1756.) Thomas Jefferson was born in 1743.
 
James Madison was born in 1751. Alexander Hamilton was born in 1755 and John Jay was born in 1745. All of these figures are today seen as "saviors" who were most responsible for the new Constitution. They also
 
moved the capital from New York City (which Jefferson referred to as a "sewer of all depravities of human nature") and created a great new city, Washington, D.C., just as Topiltzen-Quetzalcoatl was forced to flee Tula and founded Chichen Itza whose great pyramid has become the
de facto
symbol for 2012.

These examples provide compelling evidence that the Mayan beliefs about the nature of the
katuns
and specifically the predictions for
Katun 4 Ahau
may have a sound basis. Perhaps the Maya over the course of centuries of careful observations discovered a cycle of predictable patterns that governs human civilization. As the Harvard economist and founder of the Foundation for the Study of Cycles, Edward Dewey, noted in 1967,

“Cycles are meaningful, and all science that has been developed in the absence of cycle knowledge is inadequate and partial. …any theory of economics, sociology, history, medicine, or climatology that ignores non-chance rhythms is as manifestly incomplete as medicine was before the discovery of germs.”