To add to the frenzy, it just so happens that the years building up to 2012 mark an unusual astronomical alignment, one so rare it occurs only in 30 out of every 26,000 years. During this period, the Sun will make its annual crossing of the galactic equator–the plane that bisects the Milky Way as it appears in the sky–on the same day as the winter solstice. So what does all this mean? A small group of doomsayers believe a life-ending cataclysm is on the horizon. Patrick Geryl, a Belgian researcher, says he believes the alignment will trigger a reversal in the magnetic fields of the Sun, causing it to get 10 or 20 times hotter, which will reverse the Earth’s rotation on its axis and flood its inhabitants (mainstream astronomers don’t agree).
Meso-American scholars are far less concerned. In Mayan cosmology, time proceeds in cycles–not in a straight line. “The world collapses, but then it gets reborn,” says Davíd Carrasco, professor of Latin American religions at Harvard University. (The Maya believe the same thing happens when the Sun rises and sets each day.) Literary-magazine editor Daniel Pinchbeck, author of " 2012: The Return of Quetzalcoatl," sees the new cycle as an opportunity for personal and spiritual growth. Instead of looking at the completion of the 5,125-year cycle as “the end,” Pinchbeck suggests that 2012 “could be more like the birth of the world.”
Holly Lebowitz Rossi
CORRECTION: A photo caption in “Beliefwatch: 12/21/12” (Periscope, Sept 25) erroneously identified Machu Picchu as a Mayan site. It was built by the Incas. NEWSWEEK regrets the error.
