New year, new bandwagon
The light is gradually increasing, Imbolc is just around the corner, and it's about time I woke this blog up from its unintended dormancy. Much as the season might demand otherwise, I have only been dormant online. In the real world, I have been kept busy by Yule, and my daughter's birthday, and running the first workshop of the year at a local community centre. All of which were pleasingly successful.
All those things done, the urge to write is bubbling back, and I find myself wondering about the bandwagon that 2012 has become, at least in New Age circles. The Mayans predicting the end of the world at Winter Solstice 2012, doom and apocalypse, all that. There are many entertaining predictions out there, planetary collisions and geomagnetic reversals, solar storms and supervolcanoes. There was a programme on the Discovery Channel (2012 Apocalypse, aired in 2009), so it must be true. Right?
Well, no. Clearly this is New Age sensationalism. But it did get me wondering if there's a grain of truth in any of it, especially as 2011 was a year of change happening around the world - protests and revolutions, the Arab spring and the Occupy movement, riots on English high streets.
The Mayan calendar consists of long cycles of 5126 years, each called a B'ak'tun. We are currently in the thirteenth B'ak'tun, which started in 3114 BCE, and which finishes on December 21, 2012. There is some debate over whether the thirteenth B'ak'tun was supposed to be the final one, or whether a fourteenth will follow straight on. Interestingly, the long cycles of Hinduism run to similar dates - the current Kali Yuga began in 3102 BCE and is seen by many Hindus as ending in 2012.
However, there is no particular correlation between the Mayan calendar and Western astrology. The movements of the planets this year, while dramatic, are not quite as apocalyptic as the hype suggests. Astrologically, the changes we are seeing around us are mainly linked to the Pluto Uranus square, which will be exact for the first time this summer, and then seven more times up to March 2015. The aspect was within a degree of exactitude last summer, and formed a grand cross with the June eclipse in Cancer. Pluto in Capricorn transforms the structures our society is founded on, especially economic and financial structures. And Uranus in Aries demands that something new, something authentic, replace them. A square aspect is a clash of energies, and the protest and violence around the world has shown energy literally being released, frustration and anger compelling people to action. With the square coming exact for the first time this summer, the change we have seen so far can only intensify. And as with any energy, it's all about what we do with it - in some places, violence has erupted on the streets, and in others people have come together to form Occupy camps and try to build more positive change. It might not be the literal end of the world, but the potential is there in the next few years for the world to become a very different place.
All those things done, the urge to write is bubbling back, and I find myself wondering about the bandwagon that 2012 has become, at least in New Age circles. The Mayans predicting the end of the world at Winter Solstice 2012, doom and apocalypse, all that. There are many entertaining predictions out there, planetary collisions and geomagnetic reversals, solar storms and supervolcanoes. There was a programme on the Discovery Channel (2012 Apocalypse, aired in 2009), so it must be true. Right?
Well, no. Clearly this is New Age sensationalism. But it did get me wondering if there's a grain of truth in any of it, especially as 2011 was a year of change happening around the world - protests and revolutions, the Arab spring and the Occupy movement, riots on English high streets.
The Mayan calendar consists of long cycles of 5126 years, each called a B'ak'tun. We are currently in the thirteenth B'ak'tun, which started in 3114 BCE, and which finishes on December 21, 2012. There is some debate over whether the thirteenth B'ak'tun was supposed to be the final one, or whether a fourteenth will follow straight on. Interestingly, the long cycles of Hinduism run to similar dates - the current Kali Yuga began in 3102 BCE and is seen by many Hindus as ending in 2012.
However, there is no particular correlation between the Mayan calendar and Western astrology. The movements of the planets this year, while dramatic, are not quite as apocalyptic as the hype suggests. Astrologically, the changes we are seeing around us are mainly linked to the Pluto Uranus square, which will be exact for the first time this summer, and then seven more times up to March 2015. The aspect was within a degree of exactitude last summer, and formed a grand cross with the June eclipse in Cancer. Pluto in Capricorn transforms the structures our society is founded on, especially economic and financial structures. And Uranus in Aries demands that something new, something authentic, replace them. A square aspect is a clash of energies, and the protest and violence around the world has shown energy literally being released, frustration and anger compelling people to action. With the square coming exact for the first time this summer, the change we have seen so far can only intensify. And as with any energy, it's all about what we do with it - in some places, violence has erupted on the streets, and in others people have come together to form Occupy camps and try to build more positive change. It might not be the literal end of the world, but the potential is there in the next few years for the world to become a very different place.