Does Maya calendar predict 2012 apocalypse?
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THE YEAR FOR BOOKS

Current and coming books on 2012:

2012: The Return of Quetzalcoatl by Daniel Pinchbeck (Penguin/Tarcher,
May 2006)

2013 Oracle: Ancient Keys to the 2012 Awakening by David Carson & Nina
Sammons (Council Oaks, November 2006)

Apocalypse 2012: A Scientific Investigation Into Civilization's End by
Lawrence Joseph (Random House/Morgan Road, January 2007)

The Revolution of 2012: Vol. 1, The Preparation by Andrew Smith (Ford
Evans, January 2007)

Serpent of Light by Drunvalo Melchizedek (Red Wheel/Weiser, Autumn 2007)

By G. Jeffrey MacDonald, Special to USA TODAY

With humanity coming up fast on 2012, publishers are helping readers
gear up and count down to this mysterious — some even call it
apocalyptic — date that ancient Mayan societies were anticipating
thousands of years ago.

Since November, at least three new books on 2012 have arrived in
mainstream bookstores. A fourth is due this fall. Each arrives in the
wake of the 2006 success of 2012: The Return of Quetzalcoatl, which has
been selling thousands of copies a month since its release in May and
counts more than 40,000 in print. The books also build on popular
interest in the Maya, fueled in part by Mel Gibson's December 2006 film
about Mayan civilization, Apocalpyto.

Authors disagree about what humankind should expect on Dec. 21, 2012,
when the Maya's "Long Count" calendar marks the end of a 5,126-year era.

Journalist Lawrence Joseph forecasts widespread catastrophe in
Apocalypse 2012: A Scientific Investigation Into Civilization's End.
Spiritual healer Andrew Smith predicts a restoration of a "true balance
between Divine Feminine and Masculine" in The Revolution of 2012: Vol.
1, The Preparation. In 2012, Daniel Pinchbeck anticipates a "change in
the nature of consciousness," assisted by indigenous insights and
psychedelic drug use.

The buildup to 2012 echoes excitement and fear expressed on the eve of
the new millennium, popularly known as Y2K, though on a smaller scale,
says Lynn Garrett, senior religion editor at Publishers Weekly. She says
publishers seem to be courting readers who believe humanity is creating
its own ecological disasters and desperately needs ancient indigenous
wisdom.

"The convergence I see here is the apocalyptic expectations, if you
will, along with the fact that the environment is in the front of many
people's minds these days," Garrett says. "Part of the appeal of these
earth religions is that notion that we need to reconnect with the Earth
in order to save ourselves."

But scholars are bristling at attempts to link the ancient Maya with
trends in contemporary spirituality. Maya civilization, known for
advanced writing, mathematics and astronomy, flourished for centuries in
Mesoamerica, especially between A.D. 300 and 900. Its Long Count
calendar, which was discontinued under Spanish colonization, tracks more
than 5,000 years, then resets at year zero.

"For the ancient Maya, it was a huge celebration to make it to the end
of a whole cycle," says Sandra Noble, executive director of the
Foundation for the Advancement of Mesoamerican Studies in Crystal River,
Fla. To render Dec. 21, 2012, as a doomsday or moment of cosmic
shifting, she says, is "a complete fabrication and a chance for a lot of
people to cash in."

Part of the 2012 mystique stems from the stars. On the winter solstice
in 2012, the sun will be aligned with the center of the Milky Way for
the first time in about 26,000 years. This means that "whatever energy
typically streams to Earth from the center of the Milky Way will indeed
be disrupted on 12/21/12 at 11:11 p.m. Universal Time," Joseph writes.

But scholars doubt the ancient Maya extrapolated great meaning from
anticipating the alignment — if they were even aware of what the
configuration would be.

Astronomers generally agree that "it would be impossible the Maya
themselves would have known that," says Susan Milbrath, a Maya
archaeoastronomer and a curator at the Florida Museum of Natural
History. What's more, she says, "we have no record or knowledge that
they would think the world would come to an end at that point."

University of Florida anthropologist Susan Gillespie says the 2012
phenomenon comes "from media and from other people making use of the
Maya past to fulfill agendas that are really their own."