March 17th, 2009 | Published in Nature, Society and People, Spirituality and Religion
Thousands of people in the Netherlands say they expect the world to end in 2012, and many say they are taking precautions to prepare for the apocalypse.
The Dutch-language de Volkskrant newspaper said it spoke to thousands of believers in the impending end of civilization, and while theories on the supposed catastrophe varied, most tied the 2012 date to the end of the Mayan calendar, Radio Netherlands reported Monday.
Among their other accomplishments, the ancient Mayas invented a calendar of remarkable accuracy and complexity. At right is the ancient Mayan Pyramid Chichen Itza, Yucatan, Mexico. The Pyramid of Kukulkan at Chichén Itzá, constructed circa 1050 was built during the late Mayan period, when Toltecs from Tula became politically powerful. The pyramid was used as a calendar: four stairways, each with 91 steps and a platform at the top, making a total of 365, equivalent to the number of days in a calendar year.
There are three predictions regarding the end of the world (or the end of an age, depending on the translation). They are by:
The Mayans – 2012 (12 / 12 / 12)
Nostradamus – 1999
Sir Issac Newton – 2060
Mayan
The Mayans
The sacred Aztec calendar is properly called the Eagle Bowl. It represents the solar deity Tonatiuh. The amazingly accurate calendar has been in use in various forms for more than 2,000 years. A Zapotec prophecy, based on the Eagle Bowl, states:
“After Thirteen Heavens of Decreasing Choice, and Nine Hells of Increasing Doom, the Tree of Life shall blossom with a fruit never before known in the creation, and that fruit shall be the New Spirit of Men.”
The 13 Heavens and 9 Hells were each 52 years long (1,144 years total). Each of the 9 Hells were to be worse than the last. On the final day of the last Hell (August 17, 1987), Tezcatlipoca, god of death, would remove his mask of jade to reveal himself as Quetzelcoatl, god of peace.
In the mythology of the Aztecs, the first age of mankind ended with the animals devouring humans. The second age was finished by wind, the third by fire, and the fourth by water. The present fifth epoch is called Nahui-Olin (Sun of Earthquake), which began in 3113 BC and will end on December 24, 2011. It will be the last destruction of human existence on Earth. The date coincides closely with that determined by the brothers McKenna in The Invisible Landscape as “the end of history” indicated by their computer analysis of the ancient Chinese oracle-calendar, the I Ching.
The Mayan calendar is divided into Seven Ages of Man. The fourth epoch ended in August 1987.
Nostradamus
Nostradamus
The most famous doomsday prophet is Nostradamus. He is best known for his book Les Propheties. He wrote his prophecies in a poetic style, in “quatrains.” Many of his prophecies dealt with disaster such as plagues, earthquakes, wars, floods and the coming of three antichrists. However his predictions are vague and people tend to apply his words to many situations. Some examples of his predictions are:
The year 1999, seventh month,
From the sky will come a great King of Terror:
To bring back to life the great King of the Mongols,
Before and after Mars to reign by good luck.
The present time together with the past
Will be judged by the great Joker:
The world too late will be tired of him,
And through the clergy oath-taker disloyal.
The year of the great seventh number accomplished,
It will appear at the time of the games of slaughter:
Not far from the great millennial age,
When the buried will go out from their tombs.
Long awaited he will never return
In Europe, he will appear in Asia:
One of the league issued from the great Hermes,
And he will grow over all the Kings of the East.
Sir Issac Newton
His famously analytical mind worked out the laws of gravity and unravelled the motion of the planets. And when it came to predicting the end of the world, Sir Isaac Newton was just as precise.
He believed the Apocalypse would come in 2060 – exactly 1,260 years after the foundation of the Holy Roman Empire, according to a recently published letter.
Luckily for modern scientists in awe of his achievements, Newton based this figure on religion rather than reasoning.
In a letter from 1704 which has gone on show in Jerusalem’s Hebrew University, Newton uses the Bible’s Book of Daniel to calculate the date for the Apocalypse.
The famous scientist
The note reveals a deeply spiritual side to a man more usually regarded as a strict rationalist. Newton, known as the founder of modern physics, secured a royal exemption from ordination in the Church of England – something normally expected of academics in his day – so he would not have to follow its teachings.
But he confidently stated in the letter that the Bible proved the world would end in 2060, adding: “It may end later, but I see no reason for its ending sooner.”
Continuing in a decidedly sniffy tone, he wrote: “This I mention not to assert when the time of the end shall be, but to put a stop to the rash conjectures of fanciful men who are frequently predicting the time of the end, and by doing so bring the sacred prophesies into discredit as often as their predictions fail.”
The exact words from the Book of Daniel that inspired his prediction are not clear.
But he got at least one thing right – in another document, he interpreted biblical prophecies to mean that the Jews would return to the Holy Land before the world ended.
The letter is on public display for the first time
Newton, who died 280 years ago, wrote that the end of days would see “the ruin of the wicked nations, the end of weeping and of all troubles, the return of the Jews (from) captivity and their setting up a flourishing and everlasting Kingdom”.
Yemima Ben-Menahem, one of the curators of the exhibition, said: “These documents show a scientist guided by religious fervour, by a desire to see God’s actions in the world.”
The papers – including more prosaic notes about his income and the price of tin – lay in a trunk at the house of the Earl of Portsmouth for 250 years before being auctioned in the late 1930s.
Since 1969, many have been locked away in Israel’s national library.
The Mayan calendar comes to an end on Sunday, December 23, 2012. Only a few people will survive the catastrophe that ensues. In the fifth age, humanity will realize its spiritual destiny. In the sixth age, we will realize God within ourselves, and in the seventh age we will become so spiritual that we will be telepathic.
Sir Issac Newton
