2012 End of the 5th Sun

2012: End of the 5th Sun
by Will Hart

Certain aspects of the interlocking Maya calendar system have filtered into public consciousness in the last decade and a half. One of them is the prediction that we will come to the end of a solar-planetary cycle in 2012. But what is this cycle exactly and why is it going to end on the winter solstice of that auspicious year? Is the world going to end as some people are forecasting?

The Maya conceived of time and human history as moving in cycles, small and large. While we use a single calendar to keep track of our annual solar circuit and to mark all of the important days within a year, the Maya used a variety of calendars. The array included a 365-day solar calendar; a 260-day sacred calendar and a Long Count calendar that operated something like an odometer with a zero start date. Unlike the other calendars the Long Count clocked linear time and was programmed to stop after 5,125 years elapsed.

The Long Count was begun at the onset of this current cycle, known as the 5th Sun, in 3114 BC. It will clock the required number of years to complete a full cycle of five suns on December 21, 2012. John Major Jenkins has made the case that this date corresponds to two major alignments, (one between the winter solstice sun and the galactic equator; the other an approximate one between solstice sun and galactic core) and it also completes the Great Zodiac precession cycle of 26,000 years. I am not questioning this thesis however I do wonder if that is all there is to the end of this solar cycle- the 5th Sun?

The Maya began their Long Count on what they referred to as the ‘Birth of Venus.’ Scholars have never been able to determine what the Maya were referring to and neither have alternative researchers. Nevertheless their sacred calendar, the Tzolkin, placed the synodic cycles of Venus in a central role. The 104-year ‘Venus Round’ cycle (2 Calendar Rounds of 52 years each), was a very important ceremonial event as this was the point in time when the solar and sacred calendars realigned with the cycle of Venus.

I need to insert an important numerical progression at this point to provide a basis for the rest of the article. The number thirteen was a root number for the Maya. It is both a prime number and the eighth number in the crucial Fibonacci series that is one source of the Golden Ratio, 1.618.

If we use 13 as the root of the Mayan calendar system we find the following sequence: 13, 26, 39, 52, 65, 78, 91 and 104, which are achieved by simply adding 13 to each succeeding sum. These are the key numbers in the Mayan calendrics and they have a solid scientific footing. Venus was the central component of the Mayan cosmology. It is for good reason that our nearest planetary neighbor is called earth’s sister planet. They have a phase-locked orbital cycle that is based on a 13:8 ratio. That is derived from the fact that Venus revolves around the sun 1.6 times faster than Earth so that 13 Venus revolutions is equal to 8 years.

Why is this important? By establishing Venus as the key component of the sacred calendar they automatically built the Golden Ratio (1.6) into the system since that ratio defines the differencebetween the two planets orbital cycles. By using 13 as the root number they also included the crucial multiples, or powers, of thirteen - 13,000 and 26,000 - or half as well as the full number of years in the precession. We see that the 5 Suns, each lasting 5,125 years, also add up to the Great Zodiacal Year.

We can break these numbers down in different ways and each will show that there was nothing arbitrary about the Mayan system. We somewhat arrogantly disdain other cultures for being superstitious until we come to the number 13 and our own irrationality surfaces. But let’s examine how deeply embedded this number - as well as 26, 52 and 91 - are in our own calendar. Our year is divided into four seasons that are demarcated by the equinoxes and solstices.

Each of the four seasons is 91 days or 13 weeks long, which gives us a year of 52 weeks. We see the key Maya 13-base numerical progression reflected in our own calendar. Half of a year is 26 weeks. It is beyond the scope of this article to delve into all of the intricacies of the Mayan calendrical and mathematical systems; they were extremely adept in these fields.

What I have uncovered during my decades of research into this topic are two crucial keys to understanding the system: the ‘Transit of Venus’ and solar output cycles. It just so happens that the 2012 end date corresponds to a Venus Transit cycle that occurs twice in the next 10 years in 2004 and then in 2012. As mentioned above Venus was central to the Mayan cosmology. The Long Count began on what the Maya call the “Birth of Venus” so it is perhaps not too surprising that it ends on a Transit of Venus.

My research has revealed that a Transit of Venus occurred in 1518 and 1526. This was the period when Cortez landed on the shores of the Yucatan and wound up conquering the Aztec empire. The next transit was in 1631-’39. It was followed by a complete stoppage of the sunspot cycle, which lasted for 70 years (science has no explanation for this event). The ‘little ice age’ occurred between 1645 and 1720. What do we find associated with the next transit in 1761-‘69? We discover the birth of the American Revolution.

There is no doubt that the Transit of Venus was an important divinatory alignment factored into the Maya calendar. We will not have to wait for long to test this theory and also get a glimpse of 2012 during the ‘passage’ years. But in reality as Jose Arguelles and others have pointed out the precursor years began in 1987 and the final stages of this cycle really kicked into gear in 1991-’1993. How do we know? There has been a tremendous surge in the number and magnitude of natural disasters and this was also forecast as a harbinger of the 5th Sun’s demise.


Priests of Palenque. C. 2003,

by Will Hart

13,000 years is a very important time period since we know that the last ice age ended then. This indicates that there is a periodicity to the solar output cycle. There are short and long term fluctuations in solar output and as a result great ice ages, little ice ages and warm interglacials, which we are in nearing the end of now.

The cyclical nature of the long range weather patterns are well established is are the variable nature of solar activity. We know that that is true since we have been in a ‘global warming’ period for the past 300 years. The “little ice age” started to thaw in the early 1700s when the sunspot cycle returned. The level of solar activity has been increasing steadily from that ‘zero sunspot point’ right up to our recent sunspot cycles in 1989-‘90 and the double peak in 2000- ’02.

Is it a coincidence that 2012 also coincides with the next solar sunspot maximum? The actual peak of this 300-year cycle of increasing solar output occurred in 1960 when the number of sunspots exceeded 200, the usual peak is around 100-150. Now, what is interesting is that during the first half of the 20th century the Earth’s seismic and volcanic activity were comparatively quiet.

Then after 1960 the level of seismic and volcanic activity increases steadily to the point that the 1990s can accurately be called the ‘decade of disasters’. The surge in major earthquakes and volcanic eruptions radically departed from earlier decades. According to the chief scientist for the world’s largest reinsurance company Zurich Re, “since 1960 natural disasters are a growth industry.”

I hardly need to mention “global warming” since it is constantly in the headlines. However, the truth is obvious for those that care to see it. The Earth has been warming for 13,000 years with periodic short-term cold spells. However, solar output is the forcing mechanism behind global warming and the 5th Sun is intimately tied to that phenomenon. What does the end of the 5th Sun really mean?

I take it very literally to mean that the sun’s output is going to change. We are going to enter the flip side of a new 13,000 year cycle. The earth is overheated and so is the sun, the result being planetary instability manifested in rising earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and erratic weather patterns.

These will increase further starting in 2004. The volcanic ash will create more and more cloud cover and that will begin to cool the planet down. If my theory is correct the Maya knew that the Venus Transit acted like a circuit breaker switching off the sunspot cycle and impacting the Sun-Moon-Earth-Venus system. This appears to have happened just prior to the previous two ‘little ice ages’ that were preceded by what solar physicists call the Spoorer (1400-1510) and Maunder Minimum(s) 1640-1710), periods of radically diminished solar activity.

The Venus Transit will trigger the demise of the 5th Sun and set the stage for the next cycle, the 6th Sun. That is the physical side of the Maya 5th Sun forecast. Unlike many predictions this one is built into the Maya calendar and it can be verified with some historical research. Is the world going to end in a violent crescendo of natural disasters and impacts from cosmic objects? I do not think that is likely nor is it what the Maya predicted.

However, a prolonged period of change is on the horizon that will be ushered in by the 2004 – 2012 ‘passage’. It will culminate in the galactic alignment and complete the precessional cycle at that point.

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The Republic of Plato by Francis M. Cornford
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Seven Spiritual Laws of Success by Deepak Chopra
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Conversations with God Vol. 2 by Neale Donald Walsh
Conversations with God vol. 3 by Neale Donald Walsh
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The Path to Tranquility by HH the Dalai Lama
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The Bhagavad Gita by Paramahansa Yogananda
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Conversations with Yogananda by Swami Kriyananda
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The Dancing Wu Li Masters by Gary Zukav
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Entangled Minds by Dean Radin
The Mirror of Wisdom by
The Five Love Languages, by Gary Chapman
From Amma’s Heart by Mata Amiritanandamyi Devi
Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism by Chogyam Trungpa
The Man Who Talks To Flowers by Glenn Clark
This Thing Called You by Ernest Holmes
The Nine Insights Of the Wealthy Soul by Dr. Michael Norwood
The Path Of The Wealthy Soul by Dr. Michael Norwood
The Essential Zohar by Rav P S Berg
The Secrets of the Light by Dannion Brinkley
The Rain of Wisdom by the Nalanda Translation Group and Chogyam Trungpa
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Space, Time and Energy by Osel Tendzin
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Gems of Dharma, Jewel of Freedom by Je Gampopa
The Complete Works of William Shakespeare
Music In The Sky by Michelle Martin
The Tibetan Book of the Dead translated by Gyurme Dorje
The Holy Science by Swami Sri Yukestewar
Becoming Like God, Kabbalah and Our Ultimate Destiny by Michael Berg
Busting Loose From The Money Game by Bob Shienfeld
Chagyam Trungpa, His Life and Vision by Fabrice Midal
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Kabbalistic Astrology by Kabballist Rav P. S. Berg
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The Art of Power by Thich Nhat Hanh
The Few by Alex Kershaw
The X in Mexico by Irene Nicholson
The Crystal and The Way of the Light by NaKhai Norbu
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Our Dreaming Minds, by Dr. Robert L Van De Castle
The Soul and It’s Mechanism, by Alice Bailey
The Light of the Soul, by Alice Bailey
Secrets of Enlightenment (abridged), by Dr. Acharya Yogeesh
Distinguishing Phenomena and Pure Being, by Maitreya
The Sun of Wisdom, by Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso
Training the Mind, by Chogyam Trungpa
Mind in Comfort and Ease, by HH The Dalai Lama
Turning the Mind into an Ally, by Sakyong Mipham
Green Eggs and Ham,
Hop on Pop,
The Cat in the Hat,
One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish, all by Dr. Seuss
Always Maintaining a Joyful Mind, by Pema Chodron
No Time to Loose, by Pema Chodron
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Power vs. Force, by Dr. David R. Hawkins
The Divine Matrix, by Gregg Braden
The Energy Healing Experiments, by Gary E. Schwartz, PhD
The Star Born, by Solara Antara
The Emerald Tablets of Thoth, The Atlantean, by Doreal
Glimpses of Mahayana, by Chogyam Trungpa
A Confederacy of Dunces, by John Kennedy O’Toole

Books by Yours Truly;

Metamorphosis: A Beginning Guide to Trasformation

Electricity and Resistance: A Practical Guide to Transformation and Understanding Universal Law.

All of the Universal Laws and Principles Governing Life

Lightning: An Examination of Energy Fields

Yin & Yang: A Study of Universal Energy When Applied to The Law of Gender

Time, Space & Now: A Journey Down The Rabbit Hole

Buddism And God

Thoth, God of The Moon, Magic and Writing

And finally, my sole reference material for the English Language

The Oxford Dictionary of Current English