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Diagram 1: Pacal and
the Sacred Tree.
We may also remember
at this point that the tzolkin calendar is said to spring from the Sacred
Tree. The Sacred Tree is, in fact, at the center of the entire corpus of
Mayan Creation Myths. We should definitely explore the nature of this astronomical
feature.
The first question
that came up for me was as follows. Since Lord (Ahau) Pacal is, by way
of divine kingship, equated with the sun, and he is portrayed "entering"
the Sacred Tree on his famous sarcophagus lid, on what day does the sun
come around to conjunct the crossing point of ecliptic and Milky Way? This
would be an important date. In the pre-dawn skies of this date, the Milky
Way would be seen to arch overhead from the region of Polaris (Heart of
Sky) and would point right at where the sun rises. This (and the corollary
date 6 months later) is the only date when the Sun/Lord could jump from
the ecliptic track and travel the Milky Way up and around the vault of
heaven to the region of Polaris, there to enter the "Heart of Sky."
It should be mentioned that 1300 years ago, during the zenith of Palenque's
glory, Polaris was much less an exact "Pole Star" than it is
now. Schele demonstrates that it wasn't a Pole Star that the Maya mythologized
in this regard, it was the unmarked polar "dark region" symbolizing
death and the underworld around which everything was observed to revolve.
Life revolves around death - a characteristically Mayan belief. The dates
on which the sun conjuncts the "Sacred Tree" are thus very important.
These dates will change with precession. Schele doesn't pursue this line
of reasoning, however, and doesn't even mention that these dates might
be significant. If we go back to 755 A.D., we find that the sun conjuncts
the Sacred Tree on December 3rd. I should point out here that the Milky
Way is a wide band, and perhaps a 10-day range of dates should be considered.
To start with, however,
I use the exact center of the Milky Way band that one finds on star charts,
known as the "Galactic Equator" (not to be confused with Galactic
Center). Where the Galactic Equator crosses the ecliptic in Sagittarius
just happens to be where the dark rift in the Milky Way begins. This is
a dark bifurcation in the Milky Way caused by interstellar dust clouds.
To observers on earth, it appears as a dark road which begins near the
ecliptic and stretches along the Milky Way up towards Polaris. The Maya
today are quite aware of this feature; the Quich» Maya call it xibalba
be (the "road to Xibalba") and the Chorti Maya call it the "camino
de Santiago". In Dennis Tedlock's translation of the Popol Vuh, we
find that the ancient Maya called it the "Black Road". The Hero
Twins Hunahpu and Xbalanque must journey down this road to battle the Lords
of Xibalba. (Tedlock 334, 358). Furthermore, what Schele has identified
as the Sacred Tree was known to the ancient Quich» simply as "Crossroads."
This celestial feature
was not marginal in ancient Mayan thought and is still rec- ognized even
today. In terms of how this feature was mythologized, it seems that when
a planet, the sun, or the moon entered the dark cleft of the Milky Way
in Sagittarius (which happens to be the exact center of the Milky Way,
the Galactic Equator), entrance to the underworld road was possible, which
could then take the journeyer up to the Heart of Sky. Shamanic vision rites
were probably involved in this scenario. In the Yucatan, underground caves
were ritual places used by shaman to journey to the underworld. Schele
explains that "Mayan mythology identifies the Road to Xibalba as going
through a cave" (Forest of Kings, 209). Here we have a metaphorical
reference to the "dark rift" in the Milky Way by way of its terrestrial
counterpart, a syncretism between earth and sky which is characteristic
of Mayan thinking. Above all, what is becoming apparent from the corpus
of Mayan Creation Myths is that creation seems to have taken place at a
celestial crossroads - the crossing point of ecliptic and Milky Way.
To clarify this ever
growing picture, we should stop here and plot out some charts. In addition
to the detailed star maps from Norton's 2000.0 Star Atlas which allowed
me to pinpoint the crossing point of Galactic Equator and ecliptic, I use
EZCosmos to plot these positions3. What I found answers the question of
why the Maya chose the winter solstice of 2012, a problem seemingly avoided
by astronomers and Mayanists alike. While it is true that the sun conjuncts
the Sacred Tree on December 3rd in the year 755 A.D., over the centuries
precession has caused the conjunction date to approach the winter solstice.
So, how close are we to perfect conjunction today? Exactly when might we
expect the winter solstice sun to conjunct the crossing point of Galactic
Equator and ecliptic - the Mayan Sacred Tree? Any astronomer will tell
you that, presently, the Milky Way crosses the ecliptic through the constellation
of Sagittarius and this area is rich in nebulae and high density objects.
In fact, where the Milky Way crosses the ecliptic in Sagittarius also happens
to be the direction of the Galactic Center.4
The Charts
So the quest returns
to identifying why December 21st, 2012 A.D. might represent some kind of
astronomical anomoly. I'll get right to the heart of the matter. Let's
look at a few charts.
Chart 1.
Here is a full view
of the sky at noon on December 21st, 2012 A.D. The band of the Milky Way
can be seen stretching from the lower right to the upper left. The more
or less vertical dotted line indicates the Galactic Equator. The planets
can be seen tracing a roughly horizontal path through the chart, indicating
the ecliptic. The sun, quite strikingly, is dead center in the Sacred Tree.
Let's look closer.
Chart 2.
The field is now reduced
from a horizon-to-horizon view to a field of 30 degrees. Part of the constellation
of Sagittarius can be seen in the lower left portion of the chart. The
planet in the middle-to-upper left portion of the chart is Pluto, which
rarely travels directly along the ecliptic. The center square near the
sun is placed on the Trifid Nebula (M20). According to the star chart I
used, this nebula is very close to the crossing point of Galactic Equator
and ecliptic. However, a small star (4 Sgr) is even closer; it sits right
on the Galactic Equator and its declination is only 00 .08' below the ecliptic.
Let's look closer at these features. 
Chart 3.
The field is now reduced
to a 5-degree span, what astrology considers to be within conjunction.
The dot to the lower right of the sun is the star 4 Sgr. Amazingly, the
Sun is right on target. We couldn't have hoped for a closer conjunction.
1 day before or after will remove the sun a noticeable distance from the
crossing point. December 21st, 2012 (13.0.0.0.0 in the Long Count) therefore
represents an extremely close conjunction of the winter solstice sun with
the crossing point of Galactic Equator and the ecliptic, what the ancient
Maya recognized as the Sacred Tree. It is critical to understand that the
winter solstice sun rarely conjuncts the Sacred Tree. In fact, this is
an event that has been coming to resonance very slowly over thousands and
thousands of years. What this might mean astrologically, how this might
effect the "energy weather" on earth, must be treated as a separate
topic.
But I should at least
mention in passing that this celestial convergence appears to parallel
the accelerating pace of human civilization. It should be noted that because
precession is a very slow process, similar astronomical alignments will
be evident on the winter solstice dates within perhaps 5 years on either
side of 2012. However, the accuracy of the conjunction of 2012 is quite
astounding, beyond anything deemed calculable by the ancient Maya, and
serves well to represent the perfect mid-point of the process.
Let's go back to the dawn of the Long Count and
try to reconstruct what may have been happening.
Why: Winter Solstice Sun Conjuncts The Sacred
Tree in 2012 A.D.
First, the tzolkin
count originated among the Olmec at least as early as 679 B.C. (see Edmonson's
Book of the Year). We may suspect that astronomical observations were being
made from at least that point. The tzolkin count has been followed unbroken
since at least that time, up to the present day, demonstrating the high
premium placed by the Maya upon continuity of tradition. In this way, star
records, horizon positions of the winter solstice sun, and other pertinent
observations could also have been accurately preserved. As suggested above,
precession can be noticed by way of even simple horizon astronomy in as
little time as 100 to 150 years. (Hipparchus, the alleged "discoverer"
of precession among the Greeks, compared his own observations with data
collected only 170 years before his time.) Following Edmonson, the Long
Count system may have appeared as early as 355 B.C. Part of the reason
for implementing the Long Count system, as I will show, was probably to
calculate future winter solstice dates.
We must assume that
even at this early point in Mesoamerican history, the crossing point of
ecliptic and Milky Way was understood as the "Sacred Tree". Since
the Sacred Tree concept is intrinsically tied into the oldest Mayan Creation
Myths, this is not improbable. At the very least, the "dark rift"
was already a recognized feature. Early skywatchers of this era (355 B.C.)
would then observe the sun to conjunct the dark ridge in the Milky Way
on or around November 18th.5 This would be easily observed in the pre-dawn
sky as described above: the Milky Way points to the rising sun on this
date.
Over a relatively
short period of time, as an awareness of precession was emerging, this
date was seen to slowly approach winter solstice, a critical date in its
own right in early Mayan cosmo-conception. At this point, precession and
the rate of precession was calculated, the Long Count was perfected and
inaugurated, and the appropriate winter solstice date in 2012 A.D. was
found via the Long Count in the following way.
How: Long Count and
Seasonal Quarters
Long Count katun beginnings
will conjunct sequential seasonal quarters every 1.7.0.0.0 days (194400
days). This is an easily tracked Long Count interval. Starting with the
katun beginning of 650 B.C.:
Long Count Which Quarter?
Year
6.5.0.0.0 Fall 650 B.C.
7.12.0.0.0 Winter 118 B.C.
8.19.0.0.0 Spring 416 A.D.
10.6.0.0.0 Summer 948 A.D.
11.13.0.0.0 Fall 1480 A.D.
Note that the last
date is not only a katun beginning, but a baktun beginning as well. It
is, indeed, the end date of 2012.6
The Long Count may
have been officially inaugurated on a specific date in 355 B.C., as Edmonson
suggests, but it must have been formulated, tried, tested, and proven before
this date. This may well have taken centuries, and the process no doubt
paralleled (and was perhaps instigated by) the discovery of precession.
The Long Count system automatically accounts for precession in its ability
to calculate future seasonal quarters - a property which shouldn't be underestimated |
