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 `Starry Messengers`

 

Alison's first book and a limited first edition. There are just a few copies left. This book was re-published as the `Future in the Stars`, so you do not need to buy them both. Click on the image to find out more.


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THE CRAZY PHENOMENON OF 2012

 

The sensible, no-nonsense guide to 2012 by academic research astrologer Alison Chester-Lambert. This is the only one you need to read.

 

What’s Really Going to Happen in 2012? And why are we asking ourselves that question? Well it’s because there is a whole lot of hoo-ha and sensationalism being hawked about by Doomsdayers and its frightening people.

 

Basically, we are told the world will end in a cataclysmic event and this has been foretold by a civilisation called the Maya who lived in Middle America up to 1,000 years ago. According to students of the Maya, a certain calendar of theirs runs out on 21st December 2012, so this is when an event will happen. Well actually, MY calendar runs out a few days later than that every year, but it doesn’t make me think that the world will end. I just start a new calendar and I think it is worth dwelling on that point.

 

It should also be noted that the prophecy of a doomsday event and the ending of the calendar are two separate issues and there is nothing to imply that one is connected to the other. They have just been put together by current Mayan fans with no basis for this correlation. That in itself is enough to cast real doubt on the whole thing. Doomsdayers have picked on every legendary cataclysmic event known and declared it will come true in 2012.

 

My overall impression is that there is no cataclysmic single event, or any need what-so-ever to fear 21st December 2012, so you can un-cover your eyes and read on.

 

 

The Maya

 

The Mayan dynasty existed in the area between North and South America (or Mesoamerica) that is now Guatemala and Mexico. They rose to power in 300AD before declining in strength in 900AD and then finally fizzling out when the Spanish arrived in the 16th century. As can be seen from that timeline, the Mayans weren’t ancient ancient, like the Egyptians…… think Roman Empire timeline and you’re in the right ball park.

 

But despite the fact that they only existed for 600 years, the Maya had an extraordinary ability to accurately calculate and record immense passages of time covering millions of years. They developed many sophisticated and ingenious calendars and `counts` to assist them with this. Some of these calendars may date back to the Olmecs, who preceded the Maya.

 

According to one author, the Maya had 21 different cycles, counts or calendars running at the same time, so their `date` was a long string of numbers giving the count in some of the calendars. One of these counts was called the Baktun count or the Long count, and it is this cycle that is supposed to end or go back to the beginning on 21st December 2012.

 

It is important to note here that all the other counts don’t end at the same time. There are two broad groups, within which counts are constantly ending and beginning in their own rhythm, irrespective of each other. One is synchronised with other planets, the other with the turning of our Earth and its light/dark cycle called a `day`

.

 

There is NO Record of How the Maya Actually Celebrated the End of a Calendar or Count

 

No one can say with any accuracy what the Mayans predicted for the end of this count because there is no record of this anywhere. So because there is no record, one of the Doomsday authors has described what the Aztecs did, who were neighbours on that bit of land which connects North America with South America. His description is interesting.

 

It describes the end of the Aztec 52 year calendar. Apparently they always thought the world was going to end, so they extinguished all fires and swept their homes, throwing statues into water. After they didn’t die, the people would mass at the nearest high point and the priests/astrologers would climb up to get a view of the stars and make predictions.

 

These practises are in complete accord with an academic author called Mircea Eliade, who point out that in ancient civilisations as far apart in time and space as the early Polynesians, Iranians and North American Indians, there were always strong religious practices that enacted the end or death of everything and a new beginning. In fact we have a watered down version still evident in our New Year, when everything is put off until the coming New Year or `after Christmas`.

 

As Eliade makes clear, the point is that this end-of-the-world thing was absolutely common place and part of most, if not all, ancient cultural celebration at the end of a cycle. It was deemed as simulating the Creation or beginning of time, when Life and our Universe just sprang into existence from nothingness.

 

In order to have that new beginning, that resurrection into youth and whole-ness, we have to let go of the old and past-it’s-sell-by-date first. And THAT is all the Mayans celebrated. It was a ritual observation of the passage of time and a opportunity for a new beginning. That simple.

 

What the Doomsdayers did not know, is that you have to take into account the CONTEXT in which the ancients lived. Their culture, beliefs and life style was different to those of today. We don’t understand things in the same way these days, so we misunderstand what they meant by it all.

 

The civilisations in that part of the world did have creation myths that describes how the world was repeatedly created and destroyed by flood, fire and terrible demons, but then the Christians have one of those too. And there is absolutely no evidence to connect the myth with the end of the Baktun Count anyway.

 

Only 4 Mayan documents survived the Christian purging by the Spanish, but it appears that each was astrological in nature. Astrological understanding requires an appreciation of cycles but these are not meant to be interpreted as endings as in `end-of-time`, they are symbolic of new beginning actually. Lots of the Mayan cycles were taken from the movement of the planets which can be seen from Earth. However, the particular cycle which is causing all the fuss however, was not part of that group.

 

The Baktun Count or cycle is simply a multiple of days, as in revolutions of the Earth. So adding them up and calling them spiritually important is like adding up the days in a millennium and calling that spiritually important. A great time for a party and yes, we did all dwell more than usual at the passing of a thousand years, and yes, we did all know it was coming, but did we get hysterical about it before hand?

 

Ooops……. now I think about it, yes we did. Something to do with the millennium bug and computer clocks?

 

One academic states that the end of a Baktun count was always simply about great change.(2) Since the last one ended and started in 1618, a period of great change, I would have to agree with him.

 

What Does the Maya Prophesy About the End of the Baktun Count Actually Say?

 

As previously stated, there is no evidence of any doomsday endings specifically reported for the next Baktun cycle in December 2012. In fact, there is only one specific prophecy relating to this date and that is harmless. An inscription was found at a place called Tortuguero in Mexico. It mentions the end and beginning of a new Baktun cycle, but the left wing of the stone cross is missing and the central part is damaged. The prophecy has a big crack in it so a translation is not possible, but they think it is:

 

`…..will occur. The descent of the nine support gods to the ……`

 

And that is it I’m afraid. That is the only real prediction regarding what will happen at the restart of the Baktun count. According to one source, there is a myth that at a similar point on the 13th August 3114BC there was a creation with an ordering of gods, the forming of a hearth and a planting of stones, but again, nothing more scary than that.

 

A Look At The Various Claims Made About 2012

 

 

I’m afraid that some of these claims are really wild. But you have to be able to understand astronomy to be able to refute these claims. And this is why the Doomsdayers can get away with it, so few people are sufficiently qualified and interested enough to provide the credible arguments necessary. Neither spiritual people nor scientists are interested in dialogue with a group that they consider to be un-enlightened.

 

 

Astronomers Making Predictions! What Next?

 

You just have to laugh at this! Some astronomers have decided to join the doomsday party with a few predictions of their own. Mike Brown (3) has declared “the world is not going to end in 2012” and even NASA has joined in with a confident “2012…won’t be the end of the world” and “Nothing bad will happen to the Earth in 2012”.

 

I’m not sure how they can make these statements since they are predictions and they can’t possibly know this for sure. Shouldn’t scientists stick to facts based on double blind, repeatable experiments? The irony is that these predictions make them guilty of the very same act of fortune-telling as the Doomsdayers they seek to ridicule.

 

This is made all the more amusing when we look at a recent event which left them all with their trousers down. In July 2009, a giant asteroid whizzed into the solar system and slammed into the side of the mighty planet Jupiter and…… no-one noticed!

 

The asteroid left a huge whole in the side of poor Jupiter and none of our Earthly space agencies and monitoring systems have any idea where it came from and what it looked like. So any lofty assurance that they have the whole thing under control doesn’t do a lot for me. Fortunately the Doomsdayers’ claims are easily disproved anyway, so we don’t have to rely on NASA’s observational skills for comfort.

 

Anyway, let’s have a little rummage about…..

 

Galactic Alignment Stuff

 

OK. What on earth is a Galactic Alignment? Well, this one supposedly describes how the equator of our galaxy is in an imaginary line with the Sun and the Earth on the Winter Solstice of the northern hemisphere which is on 21st December 2012.

 

However, this is not the sensation claimed. To start with, there is real doubt as to where the exact equator of the galaxy is since we don’t really know precisely where the edges are. No-one has been outside the Solar System, let alone the Galaxy, to have a look. We also have to remember that the Galaxy is a collection of hundreds of billions of stars, so how can it have a line round it like a planet?

 

However the International Astronomical Union has approved a co-ordinates system, re-drawn in the 1960’s, which gives the galaxy lines, like latitude and longitude lines here on Earth, so that they could pin point positions when discussing galaxy stuff. And one of these lines, the central one, is called the Galactic equator….but it is just a line for mapping purposes. It certainly has no importance in astrology.

 

Furthermore, IF this `alignment` between the Earth, Sun and Galactic equator is important at all, then we should understand that whatever it represents has already happened. For the line-up that one chap claims shows the significance of 21/12/ 2012, has been happening twice a year for decades. In fact it was most exact in 1998, but it occurs twice a year from 1980 until 2016. It happens twice a year because there is a solstice on 21st June and one on 21st December.

 

The line the International Astronomers Union calls the Galactic Equator does pierce the centre of the galaxy at one point, but that fact does not make the whole line spiritually important. It’s just a line used to mark out the sky so that astronomers can measure it. Let’s look at an illustration to try to understand this.

 

Say that London is spiritually and physically important as the centre of somewhere. As we know, the imaginary Greenwich meridian line (0° longitude) runs through it – another line in a co-ordinates system, just like the Galactic Equator line. The Greenwich meridian line runs from the South Pole to the North Pole and goes through London. Now……. if you walk across that imaginary line somewhere in Scotland, it does not make your crossing spiritually important does it? This is the claim that some Mayan fans are making.

 

There are other claims that the centre of the Galaxy (which is not the same thing as the equator) is lined up with the Sun and Earth during the December 2012 solstice. Ah, now! The centre of the Galaxy is VERY important. It is a spot in the middle of our Galaxy, which emits strange radio signals and likely has a black hole which regulates our whole Galaxy of hundreds of billions of stars or suns.

 

In astrology we have long known that the centre of the galaxy amplifies the power of anything that is in its direction. However the claim that the centre of the galaxy, the Sun and the Earth are in alignment on the 21st December 2012 is wrong. They are roughly 4 degrees apart, and this is too big a gap to make the 21st Dec important.

 

The centre of the galaxy is at 26°(ish) of Sagittarius and the Sun will be at 0° Capricorn. Therefore they are NOT in line at the solstice. The Sun is in line with the Centre of the Galaxy about 4 days before the solstice actually, but that has happened twice a year since the formation of the Solar System and is completely normal, so no news there.

 

 

 

 

This extremely simple diagram can’t give an impression of height, but if it could we would see that the dotted line goes under the under the Galaxy Centre and so there isn’t a really exact joining of the dots this way either. But that is the way we do it in astrology.

 

 

The solstice point of 0° Capricorn will eventually `precess` or `wobble` back to the centre of the Galaxy, meaning, there will come a day when the Earth is on that line on the 21st December, but not for another 200 years or so.

 

So the `Galactic Alignment` theory is not valid. There is no alignment, the facts have been stretched and manipulated until they are just not correct any more. Sorry folks. The galactic alignment they talk of does not happen for another 200 years or so.

 

By the way, here is a curious fact that I noticed, but have no theory about. If you reverse-mirror-image the shape of Middle America it seems to be similar to the shape of the Milky Way (the Galaxy). Why is that then? No idea, but look out for the next scary Doomsday theory on it!

 

 

Planet Nibiru Will Hit Earth

 

Whilst I’m quite happy to shop NASA and tell everyone that they got caught with their trousers down when they failed to notice the comet or asteroid hitting Jupiter in July 2009, I think even they would probably notice a spare planet!

 

In the July incident, an amateur astronomer in Australia was looking at Jupiter and noticed the big hole and advised NASA; in this way, amateur astronomers all over the world would have spotted a spare planet lurking in the stalls and alerted us by now.

 

There is a funny story attached to the discovery of Jupiter’s wounding which I MUST tell, since it will go down great at your mate’s dinner party. Having suddenly spotted the hole in Jupiter’s side, the dazed Australian astronomer then sent an e-mail to NASA. An e-mail! You mean somebody at NASA reads the e-mails? You can just see it now can’t you?

 

Dear info@nasa.com

Subject: Jupiter’s been hit by something!

“G`day Mate, Maybe I had one Fosters too many, but could you just check Jupiter? He’s got a large hole in his side. Cheers Sheelah!”

 

I love it. The whole thing was made even more mind-boggling because at the time, Chiron, a `planet` which symbolises deep wounding was in the same part of the sky. Chiron’s mythological namesake had an un-healing wound in his thigh and now Jupiter the planet had one in his thigh too. Astrology is just fascinating. Anyway, back to Nibiru…

 

It was the Sumerians who originally wrote of Nibiru. They lived in the region of Iraq between 7,000 to 4,000BCE and are considered to be the first highly advanced master race. Fortunately, tablets inscribed with their creation myth have survived to this day and we are lucky enough to have good translations.

 

The hero, Marduk, symbol of the light, future, mankind, and Masculine energy, battles Tiamat, a fierce Mother Nature, darkness, or Feminine energy. The simple everyday occurrence of the Earth rolling out of the dark night and towards the light may have stimulated this symbolism, which has a more modern day equivalent in the myth of Hercules and the Hydra, or the story of George and the dragon. Light conquers dark.

 

Nibiru is mentioned ONCE, and here is a full transcription of that text from `Ancient Near East Texts` by Pritchard,

 

 

Nebiru shall hold the crossings of heaven and earth; those who failed of crossing above and below, Ever of him shall inquire. Nebiru is the star which in the skies is brilliant. Verily he governs their turnings, to him indeed they look, Saying “He who the midst of the Sea restlessly crosses, Let `Crossing` be his name, who controls [holds] its midst. May they uphold the course of the stars of heaven; May he shepherd all the gods like sheep. May he vanquish Tiamat, may her life be strait and short!”(4)

 

I challenge anybody to find the bit where it says “scary planet which will hit Earth and annihilate the planet in 2012.”

 

It’s interesting to read those ancient texts and then consider what we now know of the Sun’s influence over the Solar System. However, historians don’t believe the Sumerians could have had such sophisticated knowledge of the Sun’s gravitational pull over the rest of the planets in the Solar System because we think `ancient` means primitive and unsophisticated.

 

They believe that the further back in time you travel, the less well-informed they were. I don’t share that opinion, I believed we devolved or lost knowledge. So therefore I am prepared to believe that the Sumerians who carved the tablets of creation knew enough about the Sun to perhaps state that it was a star, which it is - “Nibiru is the star which in the skies is brilliant”. And that the Sun “determine[d] the limits of all stars, so that none might err or go astray”, meaning that he kept all the planets in place with his gravity.

 

Another quote for consideration: “May he vanquish Tiamat, may her life be strait and short”. Our Sun vanquishes darkness (Tiamat). Or, getting really technical, our Sun fuels an invisible, protective `Heliosphere` or bubble around the Solar System which holds back life destroying Gamma rays and other space chaos and could be called Tiamat. There are lots of ways of looking at it.

 

Mind you, Venus is the most brilliant star-like star in the sky and Nibiru could be the name given to her most brilliant emanation. We’ll never know, but at least there is sufficient here to dismiss the Doomsday theory.

 

 

The Magnetic North Pole Will Flip, Reversing Polarity With The South Pole

 

Er…..yep….possible. This happens to the Sun quite regularly and it has happened here on Earth before. To understand the implications of this, we have to understand what the magnetic north pole is…… and what it isn’t. The Earth spins on an axis. Think of a model globe and how you can whiz it around because it spins on a metal rod.

 

The axis of the Earth isn’t actually a metal rod, but there is a point at either end of our planet which marks one end of the axis of rotation. This is the end of the `pole`. So we have a North Pole and a South Pole and they are the `real` ones and they can’t move. Then, just to complicate matters, there is another `pole` which arises because the Earth is like a giant magnet, with a North and South end, or pole.

 

 

 

 

If you can remember back to science lessons at school, then you may remember sprinkling iron filings over a sheet of paper with a magnet underneath it. The iron filings fell in a pattern that looked like butterfly wings and this was due to the magnetic field lines around the magnet. And just as all magnets have a north and south end, so too does the Earth. But the magnetic north and south poles are not static and they move around.

 

A report in National Geographic(5) in 2006 stated that the magnetic north pole “is hightailing it towards Siberia at a clip of 25 miles a year.” Since its discovery in 1831 it has moved some 700 miles and it is projected to move from Canada to Siberia in Russia within 40 years.

 

One of the manifestations of the magnetic pole is the beautiful lights that appear in the far Northern skies, called the Aurora Borealis. These are due to the arrival of energetic solar wind (stuff!) from the Sun.(6) It forces sub-atomic particles to be funnelled down the magnetic poles towards the Earth.

 

Their energy connects with other `stuff` in the atmosphere and hey presto! Curtains of ethereal light in a big ring around the magnetic north pole. These particles don’t get to the rest of our planet because they are channelled away by the Earth’s magnetic field which protects our planet from the worst of the solar wind.

 

So how important is this movement of the magnetic pole? Well, if it just wanders about, the official line is that it’s probably ok, since we really don’t rely on compasses any more. (Compasses always point to magnetic north.) Our Global Positioning System (GPS) uses satellites.

 

But there is something more that we should take into account. If the poles of the Earth wander around so much that they actually `flip`, it means that North becomes South and South becomes North. This is known as magnetic field reversal(7) and according to the award winning Georgia State University web site, there is evidence that it has happened 171 times in 71 million years. If it should happen again, it may not be noticed by us personally because these magnetic lines aren’t noticeable in human bodies, but the satellites we have in space will need protecting.

 

An article in Newscientist(8) in 1996 stated that the last flip was 780,000 years ago and suggested we were therefore due another one since they have happened about every 500,000 years. It also reported evidence of one flip that happened at the rate of 6 degrees per day. Since it has to move 180 degrees in total, it would therefore theoretically take about a month to happen, but this vehemently denied by some scientists who talk in terms of years.

 

However long it took, the protective magnetic field lines (magnetosphere) would be weakened and in disarray, leaving the Earth vulnerable to receiving the damaging solar wind. The resulting magnetic storms, which usually cause the Aurora, would then happen all over the planet and not just at the poles. This would affect our satellites and therefore all communications. However the powers-that-be are well aware of our vulnerability in this respect and they are hopefully putting safeguards in place. (A quick note to your M.P. might jig this along.)

 

Since all migratory animals, insects and fish use the magnetic field lines to find their way around this may cause them some initial difficulty. However it seems they are better equipped for this than we are, because they have an apparent `software update` mechanism hard-wired into their clever little brains.

 

According to another Newscientist(9) report published in 2008, birds re-align their magnetic-line-reading capabilities when that special blue light of dusk and dawn appears. Migratory garden warblers were found to re-orient their magnetic capabilities when the Sun’s light was about to rise, or had just set.

 

That makes SO much sense of the spiritual importance of dawn and dusk and also explains the Dawn Chorus. It has also been found that all tuna fish the world over always dive for the ocean floor when the Sun is in that position compared to where they are. Meaning - they perform these `spike` dives when the Sun is 6° (about half an hour in time) below the horizon. Apparently, “At this time of their day, magnetic interference created by solar wind is at its lowest”, so they will be able to `tune` into the Earth’s magnetic field lines under the best conditions.

 

This amazing capability to `update` their software is obviously hardwired into their DNA. This was tested further in October 2009, when Newscientist wrote that experiments carried out on robins (how awful!) reported that a flock easily coped with a magnetic north flip of 120° and did so using their eyes to ‘see’ the magnetic field lines.(10) Such magical creatures! All this is Mother Nature’s way of ensuring that life on Earth can cope with changes in the magnetic field, so the only species to struggle maybe the human one, although, as I said before, the scientists are supposed to be preparing the satellites for such an event.

 

Phew, that’s alright then……wouldn’t want anything to happen to the robins… they’ve been through enough already!

 

 

The Sun Should be Very Active With Sun Spots.

 

Here we go…. more science…

 

The last Doomsdayers prophecy worth looking at is the Sun one, since once again it sounds credible and has some science behind it.

 

Our Sun seems to go through an 11 year cycle of greater or lesser sun spot activity. The periods of higher activity are important because they produce much more electromagnetic `stuff` which hits the Earth and affects our weather, and communication and GPS satellites.

 

This cycle is proving to be unreliable though, because the Sun should have been half way between low and high periods in 2009, but was still in a low period. Back in 2007, it was estimated that the Sun should reach a high activity period in 2010 or 2011, then that was revised to 2012 when things didn’t seem to be going according to plan.

 

The Doomsdayers appear more confident than the scientists in predicting when the Sun will next reach peak activity, but basically nobody really knows when it will happen. And even when it does happen, the effect should be similar to that talked about in the previous section. Once again, as long as the powers-that-be start protecting the satellites, there shouldn’t be too much of a problem, since this cycle repeats every 11 years and we are still here. (Don’t forget that note to your M.P!)

 

 

Actual Astrological Events For 2012

 

Astrology shows that there were always going to be challenges in the 2008 - 2012 era. These could be real, as in climate change, over-population and a fragile world financial situation, or imaginary as in the Maya doomsday stuff.

 

Maybe the dis-information about 2012 was useful because it made a percentage of the population jumpy enough to start to care about life and not take things so much for granted. We had become mindlessly, technologically self-gratifying and disconnected from Nature and her cycles. Maybe the reported end of a Mayan cycle awakened people to a greater appreciation of cycles.

 

For whilst the Mind/Body/Soul market was (fearfully) noticing cycles, so were the world financiers who had to accept that growth just couldn’t keep on happening. Life on Earth is embedded in cycles and it must experience the ‘down’ or contraction bit. The winter or dying back part of the cycle has to happen too.

 

If the industrialised nations were galloping in a direction that was not sustainable to Mother Nature, then their established hierarchy would come up against her natural cycle, and they would not win for a correction has to happen. Great civilisations have come and gone and none has survived her relentless cycles, although mankind HAS.

 

The Divine works in mysterious ways. And somehow s/he found a way to focus much attention on 2012, even if the initial facts were wrong. Had we not had a Doomsday movie and masses of cyberspace devoted to 2012 we may not have thought more about our polluting, resource-wasting, spiritually-denying tracks.

 

So….if the spiritual population was scared of a Doomsday, and the green/scientific population was scared of climate change…….and the industrial, corporate financiers were scared of loosing their money…..now we have a population primed and ready for change……and enlightenment.

 

But what sort of enlightenment? To find the answer, we must to our most important spiritual signposts which are embedded in that which is closest to us and most obvious – the environment, the Sun, Moon, stars and planets. All the ancient civilisations, including the Maya, knew this.

 

Let’s have a look at the astrology……

 

 

Venus Passes Across The Face of the Sun.

 

On 6th June 2012, the planet Venus will pass across the face of the Sun. This is among the rarest of planetary alignments and only 7 such events have occurred since the invention of the telescope, in 1631, 1639, 1761, 1769, 1874, 1882 and 2004. These years are in pairs, for the event happens twice in 8 years and then doesn’t happen again for over 100 years.

 

It just so happens that we are living in a time when a pair of crossings will happen. There was one in 2004 and the second of the pair will happen in June 2012. It should be pointed out that Venus’s meetings (conjunctions) with the Sun are a common occurrence. But normally she passes by him either high or low. She doesn’t exactly cross his face. This is the important bit about the 2012 event.

 

Venus is the brightest thing in the sky after the Sun and Moon and of equal importance to many ancient races. Her brightness is compelling, but the ancients would have been equally fascinated by the really interesting things she appears to do in the sky, which is because she has a particular orbital relationship with our Earth.

 

She is much nearer the Sun than we are and although she can appear to be as much as a quarter of the sky away from the Sun, that is the extent of her travels before she starts to look as if she is travelling backwards to join with him again. If Venus appears in the morning before the Sun rises she is known as the Morning Star, if she appears in the Evening after the sun has set, she is known as the Evening Star.

 

Venus was revered because of what she represented (her astrological meaning). She was known as a vital reproductive force and she stimulated virility and success, even in war. Her influence celebrates earthly pleasure but also the accumulation of wealth, things of value (for the ancients this included domestic animals) or objects of desire.

 

For this reason it was vital to be able to predict where Venus would be in relation to the constellations of stars and her position as the Morning or Evening star. For if she rose before the Sun in the morning she was much more aggressive and warlike, denoting power, leadership and harness-able malevolence.

 

As the Evening star she could be as symbol of fertility, death, old age and benevolence to the human race.(11) The theme of duality comes up since she was so utterly dual in nature, some races even knew her as two separate deities.

 

We can’t really say that the Mayan Long Count calendar pointed to Venus’s passage across the face of the Sun in 2012, because their experts insist it is 21st December that is important and Venus does this in June. But let’s just believe that it did for a moment. To believe this, we have to understand just how important Venus was to the Mayans.

 

And she was very important, even having her own calendar, which was the basis of others. So even though the single day that a Mayan Count ends is not important, coincidently we are still left with the fact that the planet Venus does actually pass across the face of the Sun in June 2012. And astrologically, this may be important.

 

Equally, it would have been immensely significant to the ancients who saw such events in the sky as indicating important events here on planet Earth. So what important events could happen? To find this out, it may be useful to look at the events that happened around the previous pairs of Venus transits. We do this a lot in astrology, if that particular planet did X before and the outcome was Y, then we consider this a precedent.

 

 

Events Around the Last Three Pairs of Venus Transits

 

From1631 to 1639

 

Europe was being torn by the terrible upheaval of the 30 year war in which nations were tortured, plundered and ruined. Villages were stripped and burnt and the European population was halved, but despite that a new world view was beginning. Galileo wrote a book that echoed early treasonable suggestions from Copernicus that the Earth was not the centre of the Universe, the Sun was.

 

He was summoned to Rome by the Inquisition and taken into custody. One of the emerging influences was Rene Descartes who “brought order to thought….this was a revolution in the intellectual life of Western man.”(12)

 

The Catholic Church remained powerful, but now it could be challenged. A new generation of scientists were making nonsense of theories that had been rock solid for generations with microscopes and other inventions. They sought answers to motion and dynamics; things that had been unquestioned because they were holy and under God’s control. Now science demanded human investigation and therefore, control.

 

Groups of communicating European scientists emerged. Authority, power and establishment were shattered or suddenly shifted. Prosperous merchant classes challenged the power of the old aristocracy and feudalism….and chocolate had arrived. (yyesss!!)

 

From 1761 to 1769

 

After a spectacular year of military successes in 1759, Britain signed peace treaties with France and Spain in 1763. Britain was now the dominant power in North America. However, the American Revolution started brewing at this time and the Anglican Church was ousted in 1761.

 

Exploration for the achievement of scientific knowledge began with Captain Cook’s mission to Tahiti. He makes an unprecedented contribution to the knowledge of the Pacific. An industrial revolution occurred in Britain and the first of the mills, factories and canals were opened. Catherine the Great ruled Russia and Japan too had a female monarch. The Russian – Ottoman war broke out in 1769.(13)

 

From 1874 to 1882

 

The American Civil War had ended 9 years previously so there was no association at all. According to the BBC History timeline, the most war-like things occurring world wide involved thousands of Bulgarians being slain by the Turks and North American Indians were fighting for their lives against the white settlers.

 

The British were exploring or invading Africa and in 1878 they invaded Afghanistan. (Some things just don’t change) The Theosophical Society and the Christian Science movement were both founded in 1875.

 

There were huge leaps in technology, electricity for public use and the telephone, light bulb and recording equipment were all invented.

 

 

Do Those Three Periods Give Us Events Which Contain Useful Information?

 

Well the first thing to note is that they weren’t war-free periods, although it might be difficult to find any war-free periods in history. However, they are conspicuous in that the Transits of Venus did not occur during the periods of world war. Considering Venus’ ancient associations with war-like behaviour I had been expecting this.

 

A common feature is the seeking of scientific knowledge and exploration. As this is written in 2009, it is very apparent that we are in the middle of huge advancements in scientific exploration and so this concurs with the history around these Venus Transits. It is interesting to note the gathering of species and detailed illustration that was done on the Capt Cook expeditions.

 

This painstaking recording of information marked a change in the history of human inquisitiveness and acquisition of knowledge, unknown since the demise of the Classical Greek era. Astrologically, this is attributable to the 2 Zodiac signs in which the Venus Transits occur.

 

Gemini and Sagittarius are all about exploration and the gathering of knowledge for books in an effort to gain gnosis and superiority. Religion and spiritual questioning is associated with the sign of Sagittarius and each of the eras has notable milestones concerning issues of Faith.

 

The last obvious common theme is revolution. In the 17th century it was about scientific revolution which the Catholic Church could no longer contain. In the 18th century it was about an industrial revolution in Britain (a dominant world super-power) and a government revolution in America (to get rid of the afore-mentioned dominant world super-power.) In the 19th century a technological or electrical revolution began.

 

The `revolution` theme is a little surprising, but most welcome when we think about it. For right now what we need most of all is a revolution!

 

 

Bring on the revolution!

 

Or perhaps a better way of describing it would be that we need to revolutionise many areas of the way we conduct ourselves on this planet. As this is written in the winter of 2009, the world faces enormous problems for we have been sleep walking aboard the equivalent of the Titanic for two decades. We are heavily over-populated with resulting challenges for food production and fresh water.

 

Polar ice is melting and it is predicted that large areas of land will flood. Industrial growth, which funds western lifestyles and social care, was funded by credit which threatens to bankrupt the Western world……… and apparently the scientists at the Large Hadron Collider are going to create a black hole in Switzerland.

 

But wait, that could be it. (No, no! Not the destruction of Switzerland.) We need another science revolution……..and Industrial Revolution, in fact. For nothing at this stage, could change the direction of mankind as comprehensively as an Industrial Revolution. It’s what we need, and indeed, the planets describe it.

 

We need it to find a way of producing limitless, free, non-polluting energy and we need it fast. (At any moment we could hear a booming voice from above saying “OMG! Superman….you only have 24hrs to save the world…..) These Venus Transits have previously coincided with periods of exploration and the gathering of knowledge and we could really do with another one of those to get us out of this mess.

 

The particle science being explored by the teams at the Large Hadron Collider could take us into the realms of harnessing the strong nuclear force found in an atom or even energy from the 96% and this could solve oh-so-many problems.

 

The other revolution experienced during those 3 Venus Transits was spiritual and again, it may be time for such change. People who listen to angels and go to the local Reiki night are whispering of awakenings and “Changes to Earth Consciousness” or “Ascendance to Higher Dimensions”, and that from Leighton Buzzard to Newcastle-under-Lyme, whilst we sleep and gossip at the school gate, something is stirring.

 

Changes in one sphere of human consciousness will always be synchronous with rapid growth in another – because everything is connected in the great web. If we listen to our god/desses and do as they bid, we may be guided into a revolution that enables us to live in harmony with our planet. But first, perhaps we will have to cease to pray at the altar of greedy financial growth without regard to Mother Nature.

 

So…..vive la revolution!

 

 

Wrong Solstice?

 

The Mayanists insist that the end date is 21st December 2012, but I’m not so sure that is the date we will continue to keep our eyes on. The astrology is very much more concentrated on the first solstice of that year, which is on 21st June 2012 and there is a plausible explanation as to why the Solstice of June could rightfully be called the Winter Solstice too!

 

The seasons in the two hemispheres alternate, so when it is winter in England it is summer in Australia. The 2 solstice dates are the same in each hemisphere, i.e. around the 21st June and around the 21st December, but the date takes its name from the accompanying season.

 

Therefore the summer solstice is during the June date in the Northern Hemisphere, but during the December date in the Southern Hemisphere. And transversely, the Winter solstice is in December in North America, but in June in lower parts of South America (as we saw in the chapter on Easter Island)

 

So what if the glyph or information for these Counts of the Maya came from an earlier civilisation? One that lived below the Equator, in Peru, 8,000 years before the Olmecs and Maya. And what if the symbol for winter solstice was carried over the equator into Middle America where it would be mis-interpreted to mean the December solstice, not the June one? It’s just a thought and there is no evidence, except that the astrology for the June one is so much stronger…….. It’s just a thought!!

 

 

Astrological Symbolism Started in 2008

 

Astrology seems to point to a slow evolution of events and changes that lead up to and through 2012, then on into the next 4 years. All the events that happen between 2008 and 2012 are part of the transformation and there is no single catastrophic event, more a series of steps with a goal in mind. The celestial dance moves seamlessly from one highlight to another as if all in the same musical with different actors becoming more or less important at different times.

 

But for this whole 2008/15 period there are planetary links, so that even though a large time frame is involved, it can be seen as the same dance within the musical; with different partners coming and going, rather than a new act or scene beginning. There is no doubt that it is a difficult and challenging time for human race as so many rotten apples have got to be weeded out. There will have to be a lot of deconstruction and changes in attitude before reconstruction new growth can begin.

 

There are peaks of action, such as the summer of 2010, but the tension produces something important. Something enlightening and generative is being forced out. It is productive and it is likely to involve science and the Underworld or 96%. The energies concerned can push each other on into revolutionary higher concepts of great magnitude.

 

The internet has fuelled rapid and accelerated growth and discovery is now shared amongst discoverers at an unprecedented rate, facilitating even faster discovery and gnosis. However, earthy realism must follow rapid, careless consumption and the edifices and structures of years of expansive over-consumerism and unchecked, greedy, reckless growth will be fully tested.

 

Perhaps established World order and even the `free market` conditions introduced by Thatcher and Reagan have too change. One of the planets involved in this testing is Pluto, and as we saw in the Pluto chapter, he is quite capable of razing stuff to the ground with his purification process.

 

So anything mired in old fashioned practices may well come apart. If so, it is only to allow healthier growth, but perhaps in a different direction.For in order to get rid of a boil, we have to destroy it first for there is no point in sticking a plaster on it and expecting growth on top of that.

 

By 2010 Pluto had already challenged the World’s financial edifices and people were shocked at how easily giant global companies like Lehman Bros and the banks fell. But when the house appears to be coming down we need to have faith and deep trust in the process, for they will not let us down in the long run – we have let ourselves down – they are putting it right!

 

There is an atmosphere primed for ground-breaking change and newness. Fossilised, entrenched views will be challenged, but on the other hand the genius of the Collective can be revealed. Inspiration, awakening, power and light can flow freely in the Ether, bringing new concepts in innovative technology, government and the future.

 

There is potential for a symbolic birth of all that is innovative and revolutionary. Fundamental cornerstones of how-we-did-it-before will be questioned and rightfully so. The rut of squandering and lethargy must give way to original, futuristic and revolutionary concepts for the brotherhood of mankind. These are potentially very exciting times!

 

Concerning the year of 2012 itself, there is more emphasis on change in the summer than the winter and in fact by December 21st Pluto has linked up harmoniously with Saturn and on this day they are big buddies. They each empower the other to bring forth magic and the re-building is in full swing. From November 2012 and for most of 2013, the planets that signified World financial crisis and melt down are drawing from deep reserves of constructive and life enhancing energies that facilitate and coax each other into rich rewards.

 

There is emergence in the structure of civilisation and they build on a fundamental mastery of the deeply profound. Something presently un-known or from deep within the Collective unconscious emerges. The reality behind the perceived reality is exposed. Hopefully world finances and resource over-use may be sorted by them. Perhaps the breakthrough we so desperately need regarding a free, unlimited pollution-less energy source finally happens.

 

There isn’t a single problem in our lives today that can’t be improved by harnessing the strong nuclear force in an atom. If we were able to draw power from thin air we could solve all the problems in the world. Given sufficient eco-friendly power, we could provide all the fresh water we need by desalinating sea water and wouldn’t that solve some food security challenges!

 

As this chapter is written in 2009 it is impossible to know the details, but a potential to draw from the matrix of Mother Nature herself is evident. A New Dawn is possible.

 

 

Some Final Thoughts About the Necessity to Experience Collective Fear Concerning 2012

 

The Collective has leapt upon the Doomsday predictions and their connections to a date in 2012 because it needs a tangible expression of the challenge that really exists in the world. These things affect the psyche of the human race and an archetypal fear of extinction raises its head.

 

The population succumbs to an irrational fear rather than the known rational ones. After all, those involving ancient mystic prediction are the scariest of all. However, in view of the list of very real threats to the human race an end and beginning would be perfect! How about an end to all that pollution and over-commercialism and a beginning to a new way of living and using the Earth?

 

Outrageous and frightening fantasies are simply metaphors from the Collective unconscious. It is commonly accepted in psychology that dreams of cataclysm and apocalypse often precede times of great revelation, evolution and sea change in the personal consciousness of a human being.

 

Perhaps the psyche cannot accurately translate the perceived `thunderstorm` on the horizon, so it just imagines the worst and works back from that. According to Carl Jung, the Collective works in a similar way with certain members of society mouth-piecing the fear. The Collective gets worked up just like a human being does.

 

So does the idea of change on a big scale frighten you? Consider the following facts. We have to produce more food in the next 50 years than we did during the last 10,000. We have nearly exhausted the planet’s raw materials – copper is becoming rare. Western countries are technically bankrupt…extinction of species is happening at an accelerated rate…..

 

Do we need change? By crikey we do. We need to change drastically, swiftly and comprehensively and thank goodness the planets confirm sufficient quantities of change to make a difference.

 

 

 

Some Recommendations For Dealing With 2012

 

 

Join a Galactic Synchronisation Crew? A What…?

 

One of the Mayan fans, José Argüelles, instructs us to organise ourselves into Galactic Synchronisation Crews. Interestingly, he teaches that humanity should “break out of the shell of organised religion” but then wants to organise everyone into groups to assist with a telepathic influence on the higher consciousness of Planet Earth. (Has to be an Aquarian!)

 

 

Stand Back…… The Indigos Come Into Their Purpose!

 

In the late 1980’s and early 1990’s a generation of Kick-Ass babies were born who have already defined themselves as different, some more strongly than others. Putting it gently, they assume an `older and wiser` or `different` attitude to previous children and they have a superior strength of mind which is dismissive of attempts to tame it into mainstream ways of thinking.

 

The whole field of Indigo children is too large to enter into here, but I would like to flag up certain general traits which astrology tells us are lying latent in their generational unconscious and will be revealed strongly from early 2012 to 2016.

 

The first thing astrology has to say about them is they are here to change the fundamental vision and ideals of the whole human race. They have views on love, social structure, authority, values and religious beliefs that are probably far more realistic than those of the Western industrial nations in the second half of the 20th century.

 

These views are entangled with mystical yearning so strong they will endure hardship and tolerate de-construction to build the Golden Age whose blue print appears to be hidden in their DNA, awaiting the switch on. Their self-sufficiency and preferred isolation is really a determination to remain uncontaminated and dismissive of their parental upbringing.

 

They have strong focus and potential for mastery, although this is small comfort for the mother who cannot believe she has just been spoken to so sneeringly and dismissively.

 

Thankfully this generation sees the mystical power of the numinous in solid matter and they happily accept that there is a reality behind the perceived reality. Their minds are open to the fact that matter has intelligence, that God exists in a tree and the spiritual meaning of the Universe can be found in planets around the Sun or electrons round a nucleus.

 

Their unique view point allows them to accept that the nature of the physical universe is not what it seems; in fact they KNOW it isn’t. They are desperately disappointed and disillusioned and will happily adapt to a new view of the Universe ….. in fact they can’t wait, it’s exciting. They’ve had enough of us older ones and it’s what they came here for.

 

They have new values for sacred-ness, loving passion and meaningful faith. They view the current world as too cold, disposable, lacking in spiritual appreciation and meaning. They are painfully aware of a split between the clear, cold logic of science and the euphoria of fusion and harmony with a loving, compassionate and unconditional divinity. They will find both, but only when they have brought these two very separate worlds together. They’ve certainly got their work cut out!

 

 

Know Thyself!

 

“A great thinker, after studying all the philosophies and sciences known at that time, came to a Seer of Truth and said:

 

"Sir, I am tired of this lower knowledge that can be gained from books or through the study of the world of phenomena; it no longer satisfies me, for science cannot reveal the ultimate Truth; I wish to know that which is the highest. Is there anything by knowing which I can know the reality of the universe?" The sage replied: "Yes, there is; and that knowledge is the highest, by knowing which you can know the true nature of everything in the universe." And he continued, "Know thyself.

 

If thou canst learn the true nature of thine own self, thou wilt know the reality of the universe. In thy true Self thou wilt find the Eternal Truth, the Infinite Source of all phenomena. By knowing this thou wilt know God and His whole creation." As by knowing the chemical properties of one drop of water, we know the properties of all water wherever it appears, so by knowing who and what we are in reality, we shall realize the final Truth.

 

Man is the epitome of the universe. That which exists in the macrocosm is to be found in the microcosm. Therefore the knowledge of one's true Self is the highest of all knowledge.”(13)

 

In her book “The Outer Planets and the Collective”, Astrologer Liz Greene is very clear about her strong agreement with Carl Jung that the Collective (Human Race) is the sum total of all the individuals and there is an unconscious link from all of us into some great Universal consciousness which takes two-way, psychic traffic.

 

This book was written in 1980 and since then we have discovered the 96%, so we can understand more fully how this individual soul or spirit connection to the Universal or Collective lake of Soul or Spirit can exist. And since it is 2-way traffic we can now understand how our own self awareness and spiritual understanding can contribute to the strength, wisdom and well-being of the Collective soul, as well as giving us personal peace.

 

Greene suggests that uncomfortable or catastrophic events in the Collective would not need to happen if everyone were prepared to work with their own self-awareness, as painful as this so often is. She says: “If I am prepared to work with my own agony, and you are prepared to work with yours, then maybe the Collective won’t have to plunge itself into blind agony.”(14)

 

That’s one good reason to go for self awareness and here’s another more selfish one. Greene says of Carl Jung: “He seems to suggest that when something is due to erupt in the collective, the only safety and sanity to be found is in the firm sense of your own individuality. Otherwise, there is no way in which the eruption can be channelled without you becoming a victim along with the collective.”

 

It is a fact that those who study astrology for self awareness learn to understand and process their issues in a lot less pain than those who refuse to accept they need to be self-aware. For if people do not willingly go into the metaphorical Underworld of depth analysis then the Divine will give them `events` to take them there anyway.

 

And these events can be breathtakingly cruel. Better to get one step ahead and give yourself up for symbolic self-learning than have the Universe decide to teach you the same lesson, since it has to knock harder than you would to get you to listen in the first place.

 

After studying astrology for a while, my students always comment that life becomes smoother and they feel less like a cork bobbing around in the Bay of Biscay. Self awareness stabilises. This then, is comforting when scary stuff comes on the telly.

 

Obviously, I believe that astrology is able to offer an unrivalled framework for self analysis and spiritual awareness. Its worth saying again that our most important spiritual signposts are embedded in that which is closest to us – the Earth, Sun and planets and the cycles and spiritual energy they symbolise. However, you can always develop your own system. You could start by listening to the birds…..

 

Do Not Fear Change, Embrace It.

 

Since the Mayans have come up, let’s look at their attitude to beginnings. Well interestingly, they usually killed something to invoke a beginning. They were so acutely aware of the universal principal that something must give way for something else to begin; they hastened the beginning of the rain by offering the death of a human.

 

Ok, perhaps we don’t have to go that far…….. but the principle is sound. For as one door closes another always opens. In order for a new group of students to start a course, the last group must end, etc. To have new birth, growth and transcendence we must have the death of old attitudes and worn out, rigidly dogmatic beliefs.

 

Carl Jung believed that great movements, sea-changes or re-birth in the collective would be preceded by images of death since death and re-birth are totally linked in the individual and collective unconscious. Greene states that she encounters clients whose dreams of earthquakes, tidal waves and great catastrophe indicate a tremendous breakthrough or major transformation in that person’s spiritual growth.

 

She speculates that clairvoyants are simply tapping into the collective unconscious and impending change. This would make complete sense of the Doomsdayers predictions for 2012 and what is clearly going to be a period of much-needed revolution and change in attitudes.

 

For if we are to change the course of the Titanic that we are sleep walking on, if we are to stop chopping down the last tree, burning the last lump of coal or fishing the last fish, we must change our attitude. To control the overall world population we must change our attitudes.

 

With a massive change, upheaval and revolution, we can correct our course and then re-build in an environment of wisdom and discovery. We need enough change to shatter our entrenched political and national hierarchies. We need a major breakthrough in scientific understanding to allow us to take limitless green power out of thin air and for this we need to understand the reality behind the perceived reality…. the nature of reality….or the reality of nature.

 

It is very difficult for us to understand just how important the sky was to all ancient civilisations. The stars were so much brighter then and they provided a vast television to watch every night. There was so much movement. During the course of the night, stars and constellations appeared to travel from one side of the sky to the other.

 

Planets, which look like stars, moved around independently and the Moon also provided a nightly story. As the Earth moves in her orbit she passes through fields of debris which look like shooting stars or distant firework rockets and comets and fireballs appear and disappear.

 

The ancients were aware that the nightly soap opera in the sky coincided with the events in their daily lives, the success of their food supply and the power of their rulers. The conquests of their armies and the birth of royal children could all be predicted once they had worked out which starry event was synchronous with the earthly one. This is how astrology was born.

 

The planets will go on into almost infinity and their celestial dance never stops. And all we have to do to work in harmony with the Divine and follow the messengers. Most importantly, we need to look after our centre of gravity, the Earth, for she is also our spiritual centre. We lost touch with our friends the planets, the birds and the cycles. We needed to be reminded of our obligations to them.

 

We needed to be afraid that we would loose everything before we would listen, so our fear around 2012 has been useful because it has contributed to our wake up call.

 

Now we must listen, or one day there may be a real 2012!

 

This chapter appears in `Future in the Stars`, which is itself a re-print of `Starry Messengers` with the above chapter added to it.

 

 

References:

 

 

(1) Mircea Eliade, The Sacred and Profane The Nature of Religion. (Orlando: Harcourt Books. 1959) p. 78

 

(2) Dr E. Barnhart, The Long Count and 2012AD. Maya Exploration Centre. http://www.mayan-calendar.com/ancient

 

(3) Mike Brown, Sony Pictures and the End of the World, Mike Brown’s Planets. http://www.mikebrownsplanets.com/

 

(4) PRITCHARD, J. (1955) Ancient Near East Texts Relating to the Old Testament. Princeton, New Jersey. Princeton University Press.

 

(5) BOURNE, J. (2006) The Vaulting Pole. National Geographic. Vol 210/6

 

(6) DENLINGER, M. Auroras, Paintings in the Sky. Regents of the University of California; http://www.exploratorium.edu/learning_studio/auroras/happen.html

 

(7) NAVE, R. (2005) The Dynamo Effect, Earth’s Magnetic Field Hyperphysics at Georgia State University. http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbasees/magnetic/MagEarth.html (accessed 13/12/2009)

 

(8) BERGERON, L. (30/3/1996) When North Flies South. Birds Could Loose Their Bearings and Geophysicists Their Precious Theories When.. NewScientist. http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg14920234.100-when-north-flies-south--birds-could-lose-their-bearings-and-geophysicists-their-precious-theories-when-the-earths-magnetic-field-flips-lou-bergeron-asks-just-how-fast-it-could-happen.html?full=true

 

(9) BRAHIC, C. (30/4/2008) Birds Can `See` the Earth’s Magnetic Field: Newscientist: http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn13811-birds-can-see-the-earths-magnetic-field.html (accessed 13/12/2009)

 

(10) TAYLOR, K. (31/10/2009) Birds Navigate by Seeing Magnetic Field Lines. Newscientist, 204(2732). pp18

 

(11) IWANISZEWSKI, S. (2005) Venus in the East and West. in CHAMBERLAIN et al, (ed) Songs From the Sky, Indigenous Astronomical and Cosmological Traditions of the World. PO21 5HD Ocarina Books. pp 151-162

 

(12) BLITZER, C. (1969) Age of Kings. Netherlands. Time Inc.

 

(13) ABHEDANANDA, S. (1902) How to be a Yogi Sacred Texts: http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/hby/hby03.htm

 

(14) GREENE, L. (1983) The Outer Planets and the Collective: CRCS Publications; California, U.S.A. pp172