Who really knows what the Mayans meant with their calendar. They could have just run out of rock!
Actually, we have a pretty good idea about what the Mayans "meant" with their calendar.
A calendar tracks the cycles of the celestial bodies. The Earth rotates around the sun; one of these cycles is called a 'day'. The moon goes through
phases; this is where we get our month from. The time it takes for the sun to rise at the same point on the horizon is 1 year, when the sun returns to
the same place it arose from 1 year ago. These are cycles we are familiar with, because our calendar tracks these cycles ( months not so accurate
these days, though ).
However, other calendars track cycles of other things. The sun also moves from one astrological sign ( or "house" ). Just as the sun returning to
the same rising point on the horizon is called a "year", the sun moving from House to House is called an "age". Our calendar doesn't really track
this; we decided to use base 10 and talk about centuries.
There are 12 houses in the sky ( 12 signs in the zodiac ). The sun moves from sign to sign, and as you can extrapolate, after 12 movements, it will
have completed a cycle in the houses of the zodiac. This is called the Great Year, and it takes about 26,000 years to complete.
So, what's so special about 2012 in the Mayan calendar? Why does it end there? Well, first, notice that it's a circle. That means that the calendar
also *starts* there. A calendar is a measure of *cycles*. Just as the old year ends and the new year begins at the same time, the Great Year begins
and ends at the same time.
So, to answer our original question, what happens at 2012? Well, the old Great Year ends, and the new one begins. Folks, it's a cycle. 26,000 years
if the life cycle of a sun, according to the Maya.
OK, but why did the Maya pick *that* time? To answer that, you have to look at Mayan mythology. Mayan mythology tells that the Father Sun was born of
the Dark Mother, the Milky Way. He was born there, right in the dark center of the Milky Way ( where some astronomers suspect a black hole exists,
right in the heart of our galaxy ) , and that's where he began his journey around the zodiac.
Our current sun is quite old -- in fact, he's only got four years left! When he finally makes his way back round to the dark, chewy, chocolaty center
of the milky way, there he will die in the loving arms of his mother, and a new sun will be born, and begin his own journey through the houses of the
zodiac.
So what did the Maya "mean" with their calendar? Well, they were just keeping track of the cycles of the celestial spheres. They knew from mythology
that the sun was born in the center of the Milky Way, so they just clocked the journey back to figure when he was in the center, and put the start
there.
Just as day and night affect life and society on earth, as do the months and the years, so too did the Maya believe that the Ages and the Great Years
affected life on earth and society. It's not too much of a stretch to witness the workings of animals and people function according to the cycles of
night and day and the seasons to therefore extrapolate that the Ages and the Great Years would have similar effects. All it means is that as the New
Age ( Aquarius) approaches, and we usher in a New Great Year, society and life on earth will change accordingly.
[edit on 16-10-2008 by amaxa]
[edit on 16-10-2008 by amaxa]
. I at this moment do not have the power to
change the way those people live. 
