Saturday, December 22, 2012

Oh, hi. Still here, then? What happened to the apocalypse?

Tory Shepherd From: news.com.au December 21, 2012 5:59PM

Mayan shamans

Mayan shamans in El Salvador perform a ceremony. Apparently it worked. Picture: AFP Source: AFP

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Well, this is a little bit awkward, isn't it? All that stuff about the world ending and then this morning we all just got up and ate our Weet-Bix.

There was meant to be this Mayan Apocalypse thing, a doomsday. Some people thought the planet Nibiru was going to obliterate Earth. Others thought the zombies were coming.

People bought bunkers, dam'it. Or one-way tickets to France where the aliens were going to play superhero and rescue them. And now here we all are.

What happened?

There's only one person who can answer that. Carlos Barrios.

He's from the World Council of Mayan Elders. He's also the author of Book of Destiny: Unlocking the Secrets of the Ancient Mayans and the Prophecy of 2012, an expert on the Mayan calendar and a shaman. When it comes to the Mayan Apocalypse, he's kind of a big deal.

He told News.com.au that December 21 was never the end, but rather, a beginning.

"The Mayan people and elders are very upset that people have said they believe the end of this calendar cycle is the end of the world," he said.

"It is the end of one cycle and the beginning of another."

Mr Barrios says the ‘Long Count' calendar – the Mayan calendar that ended yesterday, prompting global speculation that the end was nigh – just marks 5200-year cycles. As one cycle ends, the next begins.

"The first cycle had a dominant feminine energy and was associated with fire. The second cycle had a male dominant energy and was associated with earth. The third cycle was once again feminine and associated with air. The fourth cycle, the one we are concluding, was male energy associated with water," he said.

"The new cycle that begins on the 21st will be a cycle of balanced male and female energy with a new element of ether.

"This is not a time of apocalypse. It is a time to let go of old patterns. A time to heal the planet. The changes will be profound but gradual and subtle.

"The Mayans do not want people to believe this is the end of the world. They want people to take this very rare opportunity to come together to find balance and work to health the damage we have done to Mother Earth."

There you go. So the world will carry on, just with a bit more gender equality. Or something.

Yet another apocalypse has passed. We survived Y2K. We survived Harold Camping. And today you can probably, somewhere, buy a cheap cotton top that reads ‘I survived the Mayan Apocalypse and all I got was this lousy T-shirt'.

Everything's fine. Enjoy your Christmas.

Because it might be your last. Psychics and religious nuts predict an apocalypse almost every year.

Some are predicting an enormous solar storm will wipe out the Earth in 2013.

Then there's the Second Coming of Jesus Christ, which is predicted to happen in 2018.

Then there are some Koranic predictions of doom for some time in the next century.

And if none of those get you, the Sun eventually will. Scientists predict that in a lazy few billion years the Sun will become a red giant and obliterate Earth.

Sorry to break this to you, but that last one is true.

Oh, hi. Still here, then? What happened to the apocalypse? | News.com.au

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