One of the funniest features of the 2012 Prophecies has been watching astrologers tie themselves in knots trying to explain the Mayan calendar. My own experience has been that it is a very strange and complex system for outsiders, but even a cursory study shows how sophisticated knowledge the Maya had. Not that we should be surprised at this. Their value of a 260 day Tzolkin has a clear parallel in the Morning and Evening Star arcs of Venus's 584 day cycle - a planet that they identified with the god Quetzacoatl, the so-called Plumed Serpent. The Maya's value for the length of the 365 day solar year corresponds to our own to within a second and a half, and whether or not we are heading off a cliff on 21st December (we're not), the Long Count concept should be respected.
What gets me is how astrologers and New Agers in general make the leap from this albeit impressive system to grand Utopian theories of a global consciousness shift. One model doesn't seem to entail the other. I want somebody to tell me what the end of the Long Count actually means, and, like the Hindu concept of Yugas, what will be the hallmarks of the next 5200 years, if any.
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