Specific Information About Mayan 2012 Prophecy & Calendar Predictions

Many in the media are beginning to speculate about the ancient Mayan prediction that the world will come to an end in 2012. Over the years, Mayan predictions have gained some degree of legitimacy, as evidence suggests their calendar has successfully predicted other world events -- perhaps even the start of World War II, 9/11, and other large-scale conflicts or societal changes.

What, exactly, did the Mayans predict about the year 2012? The Mayan calendar is broken down into 260 days, as opposed to our 365, which roughly equates to the 9 month gestation period for a human baby to be born. In addition to this "everyday" calendar, the Mayans had a second and third calendar dedicated to prophecy about the future.

A day marked for the end of the world as we know it translates on our 365 day calendar as December 21, 2012. Now, whether the world will "end" or not is up to speculation, but what has intrigued media and astronomers is that we know this date does correspond with a fairly extraordinary astronomical alignment. On December 21, 2012, our Sun will be "in alignment" almost perfectly with the center of our galaxy (the Milky Way galaxy). On top of this astonishing fact, December 21, 2012 will mark the day when the Earth's precession (a slight wobble in our planet's orbital path) completes and starts over.

Earth's precession is an extremely slow and subtle wobble along the planet's axis; according to astronomers, it takes 26,000 years (yes, 26 millennia) for a single precession to complete.

So, regardless of whether we have anything to worry about on 2012, it is an astonishing feat of astronomical calculation that a pre-industrial and pre-computer society such as the Mayans were able to successfully predict this precession with complete confidence -- and hair-raising accuracy.

The actual prophecy for this day in 2012? Well, the translation is somewhat vague. It talks about struggle and famine, but this is a fairly common theme in many other past prophecies (ancient societies were clearly concerned about famines and power struggles -- so it makes sense that their priests would want to predict them in advance).

I am fairly skeptical of doomsday claims, so I will remain optimistic over the next few years, but I am still amazed that the Mayans were able to predict very subtle astronomical events with dead-on accuracy.