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22/12/2012
Originally published 18 August 2003 Grant Morrison can be considered either a madman, a genius, or a prophet. My first exposure to Morrison was actually in an interview conducted by Wizard a few years ago. At first appearing to be nothing more than a publicity piece for The Invisibles, it quickly captured my imagination what with Morrison saying that The Invisibles was actually a spell he was conjuring and the various crazy theories he put forth. One particular item stood out and has always captivated my imagination - 22 December 2012. That particular date is well known not only amongst scholars of the occult and also in the fields of ancient South American studies. The ancient Mayan calendar ends on 22 December 2012. What's supposed to happen on that particular date? Even more intriguing is the fact that NASA scientists are expecting unusually heavy sunspot activity at around that time, give or take a month or two. Does this mark the end of an era and the beginning of another? Another point of interest is the various mythologies from around the world that speaks of the end of an era or even the end of the world as we know it in our present era. Indian mythology speak of the coming of the end of the Kali Yuga, which is the fourth and supposedly final stage of mankind as described in the Baghavat Gita, the Srimad Bhagavatam, and the Vana parva of the Mahabharatha. According to the text, the people in the age of Kali will be "lazy, quarrelsome, greedy, and deceitful". Certainly a very apt description of modern man. And then there is the Judeo-Christian mythology, extolling the coming of the end of days with the birth of the Anti-Christ, the re-emergence of the Roman Empire, and the creation of a single, unified global government, all marking the beginning of the end of humanity. There are scholars that purport that the Roman Empire has returned what with the formation of the European Union, and speculation of the identity of the Anti-Christ has been bandied about for decades with fingers pointing at individuals ranging from Ronald Reagen to Bill Gates. And of course conspiracy theory buffs and Christian scholars contend that this is the beginning of the great Rapture, which began on September 1999 and will end on 22 December 2012. Popular culture has grappled on to the subject. Fans of The X-Files will note that 22 December 2012 was displayed prominently in the series finalé as the date when the expected alien invasion is supposed to begin. Nobody can safely say what, exactly, will happen on 22 December 2012. Will the world end in a ball of nuclear fire? Will there be a cataclysmic shifting of the Earth's tectonic plates? The beginnings of an alien invasion? The return of the Messiah? Asteroid impact? The folding of the space-time continuum? Or even a big, fat nothing? Going back to the Baghavat Gita, it is said that after the tumultuous end of the Kali Yuga, there will be an enlightened golden age of peace and prosperity for mankind. That is if there's even a trace of humanity left to enjoy this supposedly forthcoming age of enlightenment. However, history has shown that even mighty civilizations and empires can crumble, as can be seen with the Egyptian Middle Kingdom, the Mayan, Incan, and Aztec empires, or even the great Roman empire. Perhaps the Beatles got it right. Why worry about tomorrow when you can live for today? The sun is up and the world is (relatively) good, so why worry about things beyond your control? Heck, I could be killed in a road accident the minute I upload this article to my FTP server. What do I think will happen on 22 December 2012? I am not a believer of the Judeo-Christian and Abrahamic religions, nor am I one to fall into flights of fancy based on hearsay or conspiracy theories. But it is uncanny how many different ancient text from around the world are pointing to a great event happening at this stage in human history, and it is this sheer volume of coincidence that lends credence to it to merely just shrug off as superstition and nonsense. I believe that heavy solar sunspot activity in the sun will cause some climatological changes to the planet. How bad it is is uncertain. How much technology can buffer and protect us from these changes is unknown. That is just my 2-cents. Time will tell if this all pans out or if all this is just one big cosmic joke. READING MATERIAL |