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THE HOW AND WHY OF THE MAYAN END DATE IN 2012 A.D.
by John Major Jenkins
¾ May 23rd, 1994
Originally published in the Dec-Jan '95 issue of Mountain
Astrologer.
Why did the ancient Mayan or pre-Maya choose December 21st,
2012 A.D., as the end of their Long Count calendar? This
article will cover some recent research. Scholars have known
for decades that the 13-baktun cycle of the Mayan "Long
Count" system of timekeeping was set to end precisely on a
winter solstice, and that this system was put in place some
2300 years ago. This amazing fact - that ancient Mesoameri-
can skywatchers were able to pinpoint a winter solstice far
off into the future - has not been dealt with by Mayanists.
And why did they choose the year 2012? One immediately gets
the impression that there is a very strange mystery to be
confronted here. I will be building upon a clue to this
mystery reported by epigrapher Linda Schele in Maya Cosmos
(1994). This article is the natural culmination of the
research relating to the Mayan Long Count and the precession
of the equinoxes that I explored in my recent book Tzolkin:
Visionary Perspectives and Calendar Studies (Borderlands
Science and Research Foundation, 1994).
The Mayan Long Count
Just some basics to get us started. The Maya were adept
skywatchers. Their Classic Period is thought to have lasted
from 200 A.D. to 900 A.D., but recent archeological findings
are pushing back the dawn of Mayan civilization in
Mesoamerica. Large ruin sites indicating high culture with
distinctly Mayan antecedents are being found in the jungles
of Guatemala dating back to before the common era. And even
before this, the Olmec civilization flourished and developed
the sacred count of 260 days known as the tzolkin. The early
Maya adopted two different time keeping systems, the "Short
Count" and the Long Count. The Short Count derives from
combining the tzolkin cycle with the solar year and the
Venus cycle of 584 days. In this way, "short" periods of 13,
52 and 104 years are generated. Unfortunately, we won't have
occasion to dwell on the properties of the so-called Short
Count system here. The Long Count system is somewhat more
abstract, yet is also related to certain astronomical
cycles. It is based upon nested cycles of days multiplied at
each level by that key Mayan number, twenty:
Number of Days / Term
1 / Kin (day)
20 / Uinal
360 / Tun
7200 / Katun
144000 / Baktun
Notice that the only exception to multiplying by twenty is
at the tun level, where the uinal period is instead
multiplied by 18 to make the 360-day tun. The Maya employed
this counting system to track an unbroken sequence of days
from the time it was inaugurated. The Mayan scholar Munro
Edmonson believes that the Long Count was put in place
around 355 B.C. This may be so, but the oldest Long Count
date as yet found corresponds to 32 B.C. We find Long Count
dates in the archeological record beginning with the baktun
place value and separated by dots. For example: 6.19.19.0.0
equals 6 baktuns, 19 katuns, 19 tuns, 0 uinals and 0 days.
Each baktun has 144000 days, each katun has 7200 days, and
so on. If we add up all the values we find that 6.19.19.0.0
indicates a total of 1007640 days have elapsed since the
Zero Date of 0.0.0.0.0. The much discussed 13-baktun cycle
is completed 1872000 days (13 baktuns) after 0.0.0.0.0. This
period of time is the so called Mayan "Great Cycle" of the
Long Count and equals 5125.36 years.
But how are we to relate this to a time frame we can
understand? How does this Long Count relate to our Gregorian
calendar? This problem of correlating Mayan time with
"western" time has occupied Mayan scholars since the
beginning. The standard question to answer became: what does
0.0.0.0.0 (the Long Count "beginning" point) equal in the
Gregorian calendar? When this question is answered,
archeological inscriptions can be put into their proper
historical context and the end date of the 13-baktun cycle
can be calculated. After years of considering data from
varied fields such as astronomy, ethnography, archeology and
iconography, J. Eric S. Thompson determined that 0.0.0.0.0
correponded to the Julian date 584283, which equals August
11th, 3114 B.C. in our Gregorian calendar. This means that
the end date of 13.0.0.0.0, some 5125 years later, is
December 21st, 2012 A.D.1
The relationship between the Long Count and Short Count has
always been internally consistent (both were tracked
alongside each other in an unbroken sequence since their
conception). Now it is very interesting to note that an
aspect of the "Short Count", namely, the sacred tzolkin
count of 260 days, is still being followed in the highlands
of Guatemala. As the Mayan scholar Munro Edmonson shows in
The Book of the Year, this last surviving flicker of a
calendar tradition some 3000 years old supports the Thompson
correlation of 584283. Edmonson also states that the Long
Count was begun by the Maya or pre-Maya around 355 B.C., but
there is reason to believe that the Long Count system was
being perfected for at least 200 years prior to that date.
The point of interest for these early astronomers seems to
have been the projected end date in 2012 A.D., rather than
the beginning date in 3114 B.C. Having determined the end
date in 2012 (for reasons we will come to shortly), and
calling it 13.0.0.0.0, they thus proclaimed themselves to be
living in the 6th baktun of the Great Cycle. The later Maya
certainly attributed much mythological significance to the
beginning date, relating it to the birth of their deities,
but it now seems certain that the placement of the Long
Count hinges upon its calculated end point. Why did early
Mesoamerican skywatchers pick a date some 2300 years into
the future and, in fact, how did they pinpoint an accurate
winter solstice? With all these considerations one begins to
suspect that, for some reason, the ancient New World
astronomers were tracking precession.
The Precession
The precession of the equinoxes, also known as the Platonic
Year, is caused by the slow wobbling of the earth's polar
axis. Right now this axis roughly points to Polaris, the
"Pole Star," but this changes slowly over long periods of
time. The earth's wobble causes the position of the seasonal
quarters to slowly precess against the background of stars.
For example, right now, the winter solstice position is in
the constellation of Sagittarius. But 2000 years ago it was
in Capricorn. Since then, it has precessed backward almost
one full sign. It is generally thought that the Greek
astronomer Hipparchus was the first to discover precession
around 128 B.C. Yet scholarship indicates that more ancient
Old World cultures such as the Egyptians (see Schwaller de
Lubicz's book Sacred Science) and Babylonians also knew
about the precession.
I have concluded that even cultures with simple horizon
astronomy and oral records passed down for a hundred years
or so, would notice the slow shifting of the heavens. For
example, imagine that you lived in an environment suited for
accurately demarcated horizon astronomy. Even if this wasn't
the case, you might erect monoliths to sight the horizon
position of, most likely, the dawning winter solstice sun.
This position in relation to background stars could be
accurately preserved in oral verse or wisdom teachings, to
be passed down for centuries. Since precession will change
this position at the rate of 1 degree every 72 years, within
the relatively short time of 100 years or so, a noticeable
change will have occurred. The point of this is simple. To
early cultures attuned to the subtle movements of the sky,
precession would not have been hard to notice.2
The Maya are not generally credited with knowing about the
precession of the equinoxes. But considering everything else
we know about the amazing sophistication of Mesoamerican
astronomy, can we realistically continue to deny them this?
Many of the as yet undeciphered hieroglyphs may ultimately
describe precessional myths. Furthermore, as I show in my
book Tzolkin: Visionary Perspectives and Calendar Studies,
the Long Count is perfectly suited for predicting future
seasonal quarters, indefinitely, and precession is
automatically accounted for. Some of the most incredible
aspects of Mayan cosmo-conception are just now being
discovered. As was the case with the state of Egyptology in
the 1870's, we still have a lot to learn. In addition,
Mayanists like Gordon Brotherston (The Book of the Fourth
World) consider precessional knowledge among Mesoamerican
cultures to be more than likely.
The Sacred Tree
We are still trying to answer these questions: What is so
important about the winter solstice of 2012 and, exactly how
were calculations made so accurately, considering that
precession should make them exceedingly difficult?
If we make a standard horoscope chart for December 21st,
2012 A.D., nothing very unusual appears. In this way I was
led astray in my search until Linda Schele provided a clue
in the recent book Maya Cosmos. Probably the most exciting
breakthrough in this book is her identification of the
astronomical meaning of the Mayan Sacred Tree. Drawing from
an impressive amount of iconographic evidence, and
generously sharing the process by which she arrived at her
discovery, the Sacred Tree is found to be none other than
the crossing point of the ecliptic with the band of the
Milky Way. Indeed, the Milky Way seems to have played an
important role in Mayan imagery. For example, an incised
bone from 8th century Tikal depicts a long sinking canoe
containing various deities. This is a picture of the night
sky and the canoe is the Milky Way, sinking below the
horizon as the night progresses, and carrying with it
deities representing the nearby constellations. The
incredible Mayan site of Palenque is filled with Sacred Tree
motifs and references to astronomical events. In their book
Forest of Kings, Schele and Freidel suggested that the
Sacred Tree referred to the ecliptic. Apparently that was
only part of the picture, for the Sacred Tree that Pacal
ascends in death is more than just the ecliptic, it is the
sacred doorway to the underworld. The crossing point of
Milky Way and ecliptic is this doorway and represents the
sacred source and origin. In the following diagram of the
well known sarcophagus carving, notice that the Milky Way
tree serves as an extension of Pacal's umbilicus. The
umbilicus is a human being's entrance into life, and
entrance into death as well:
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 anomaly. 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.
13.0.0.0.0 Winter 2012 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.
Summary
This has been my attempt to fill a
vacuum in Mayan Studies, an answer to the why and how of the
end date of the 13-baktun cycle of the Mayan Long Count. The
solution requires a shift in how we think about the
astronomy of the Long Count end date. The strange fact that
it occurs on a winter solstice immediately points us to
possible astronomical reasons, but they are not obvious. We
also shouldn't forget the often mentioned fact that the
13-baktun cycle of some 5125 years is roughly 1/5th of a
precessional cycle. This in itself should have been
suggestive of a deeper mystery very early on. Only with the
recent identification of the astronomical nature of the
Sacred Tree has the puzzle revealed its fullness. And once
again we are amazed at the sophistication and vision of the
ancient New World astronomers, the decendants of whom still
count the days and watch the skies in the remote outbacks of
Guatemala.
This essay is not contrived upon
sketchy evidence. It basically rests upon two facts:
1) the well known end date of the
13-baktun cycle of the Mayan Long Count, which is December
21st, 2012 A.D. and
2) the astronomical situation on
that day. Based upon these two facts alone, the creators of
the Long Count knew about and calculated the rate of
precession over 2300 years ago. I can conceive of no other
conclusion. To explain this away as "coincidence" would only
obscure the issue.
For early Mesoamerican skywatchers,
the slow approach of the winter solstice sun to the Sacred
Tree was seen as a critical process, the culmination of
which was surely worthy of being called 13.0.0.0.0, the end
of a World Age. The channel would then be open through the
winter solstice doorway, up the Sacred Tree, the Xibalba be
, to the center of the churning heavens, the Heart of Sky.
Notes:
1Linda Schele and David Freidel,
unlike most Mayanists, continue to support the work of Floyd
Lounsbury in promoting the 584285 correlation. This is 2
days off from the Thompson correlation that I use. The
decisive factor in supporting the Thompson correlation of
584283 is the fact that it corresponds with the tzolkin
count still followed in the highlands of Guatemala. To
account for this discrepency in his correlation, Lounsbury
claims that the count was shifted back two days sometime
before the conquest (not likely), thus explaining its
present placement. This means that either correlation will
give the December 21st end date. Nevertheless, Schele and
Freidel still report that the end date is December 23rd,
2012 rather than Dec. 21st, an unfortunate faux pas
understandable only because they aren't particularly
interested in the specifics of the correlation debate. For a
detailed discussion of this topic, refer to my book Tzolkin:
Visionary Perspectives and Calendar Studies.
2Case in point is the mysterious
existence of myths obviously describing precession in the
ancient verses of the Kalevala, the Finnish National Epic.
These myths were relayed from the earliest times by way of
singers. Many of these stories are thoroughly magical and
are filled with sky lore. The Finnish language is not of
Indo- European origin and up until the late 19th century
peasants in Finland and northwestern Russia had little
contact with Europe. Indeed, their heritage suggests more
contact with Central Asia than Europe. Some of the Kalevala
stories describe a sacred Mill called the Sampo (derived
from sanskrit Skambha = pillar or pole) with a "many
ciphered cover". This spinning Mill is a metaphor for a
Golden Age of plenty and the starry sky spinning around the
Pole Star (known as the Nail of the North), which in the Far
North is almost straight over head. The Mill at some point
is disturbed, its pillar being pulled out of its peg, and a
new one - a new "age" - must be constructed. This becomes
the chore of Ilmarinen, the primeval smith. In this legend,
ancient knowledge of precession among unsophisticated
"peasants" who were nonetheless astute skywatchers, was
preserved via oral tradition almost down to modern times.
3EZCosmos is a graphic software
package that can accurately plot and animate the positions
of planets, stars, nebula and so on, for 14,000 years. It is
well suited to this research because it accounts for
precession in its positional calculations. It also happens
to be the software that Linda Schele used to discover the
astronomical meaning of the Mayan Sacred Tree.
4 Here we briefly converge with the
ideas of
Terence
McKenna. In the book he co-
authored with his brother Dennis (Invisible Landscape,
Seabury Press 1975 and Harper San Francisco, 1993), Terence
suggests that the position of winter solstice sun within 3
degrees of the Galactic Center in the year 2012 A.D. (a
"once-in-a-precessional- cycle" event) may provide the
eschatological end point for his theory of time known as
Timewave Zero. His end date was chosen for historical
reasons and was, apparently, only later discovered to
correspond with the Mayan end date. The McKennas point out
that this unusual astronomical situation has been noted by
other writers, namely, Giorgio de Santillana and Hertha von
Dechend in Hamlet's Mill (1969). As ACS Publication's The
American Ephemeris for the 21st Century shows, in the year
2012 the Galactic Center is at 27 Sagittarius (within 3 of
winter solstice). Thus McKenna demonstrates that on winter
solstice of 2012, Galactic Center will be rising heliacally
just before dawn, in a way reminiscent of how the Maya
observed Venus's last morningstar appearance.
5This basically follows the "1
degree every 72 years" rule of precession. In this way, back
in 3114 B.C. the sun conjuncted the Sacred Tree on Oct 10th,
which is 72 degrees, or 1/5th of the ecliptic from the
winter solstice. The Fall Equinox sun conjuncted the Sacred
Tree about 6400 years ago (1/4th of a precessional cycle).
Ancient cultures in Mesopotamia may have recognized this
alignment, and called it a Golden Age. The fall from this
state of alignment may be responsible for the original Fall
from Paradise myth, which filtered out to the Judaic
tradition.
6The Long Count has other strange
astronomical properties. For instance, the 13- katun cycle
of 256 years was known to the Yucatec Maya as a prophecy
cycle. We see it used in the Books of Chilam Balam. The
astronomical reference here is to conjunction cycles of
Uranus and Pluto, two of which equal 256 years. From another
angle, 3 katuns equal exactly 37 synodical cycles of Venus.
Sources:
Brotherston, Gordon. The Book of
the Fourth World. Cambridge University Press. 1992.
Edmonson, Munro. The Book of the
Year. University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City, Utah. 1988.
EZCosmos. Astrosoft, Inc. DeSoto,
Texas. 1990.
Jenkins, John Major. Tzolkin:
Visionary Perspectives and Calendar Studies. Borderlands
Science and Research Foundation. Garberville, CA. 1994.
Mayan Calendrics. Dolphin Software.
48 Shattuck Square #147, Berkeley, CA. 94704. 1989 &1993.
Meeus, Jean. Astronomical Tables of
the Sun, Moon and Planets. Willmann- Bell Publishers.
Richmond, VA. 1983.
Michelsen, Neil F. The American
Ephemeris for the 21st Century. ACS Publications. San Diego,
CA. 1982, 1988.
Ridpath, Ian (ed.). Norton's
2000.0: Star Atlas and Reference Handbook. Longman Group UK
Limited. 1989.
Schele, Linda and Freidel, David. A
Forest of Kings: The Untold Story of the Ancient Maya.
William Morrow and Company, Inc. New York. 1990.
Schele, Linda; Freidel, David;
Parker, Joy. Maya Cosmos: Three Thousand Years on the
Shaman's Path. William Morrow and Company, Inc. New York.
1993.
Tedlock, Dennis. The Popol Vuh: The
Definitive Edition of the Mayan Book of the Dawn of Life and
the Glories of Gods and Kings. Simon & Schuster. New York.
1985
Author's Biographical Information:
John Major Jenkins (March 4th,
1964, 9:19 p.m., Chicago) is a student of Mayan time. On
several trips to Central America in the late 80's, he worked
and lived with the Quich» and Tzutujil Maya in Guatemala.
Observations gathered on these trips were published in
Chicago area newspapers. Since then he has devoted his time
to studying Mayan cosmo-conception and the mathematical and
philosophical properties of the sacred calendar. More
thought provoking ideas can be found in his recent book
Tzolkin: Visionary Perspectives and Calendar Studies
(Borderlands Science and Research Foundation, 1994).
Additional information on the Mayan end date alignment is
available by writing the author at Four Ahau Press: P.O. Box
3; Boulder, CO 80306.
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