A Guide to 2012

John Major Jenkins. © September 2009
Alignment2012.comThe 2012 StoryThe Center for 2012 Studies

This outline is for journalists, reporters, press people, interviewers, media people,
screenplay writers, documentary producers, novel writers, and researchers — anyone writing about 2012

1. Here are the general facts of the matter. These facts are not my own opinion or my own theory. These are basic facts and should be the first principles of any honest approach to 2012.

2. Regarding my own pioneering reconstruction of why the Maya chose 2012 to end a cycle of time, and how they thought about it: this involves what can be defined as "the solstice-dark-rift alignment theory" or, less specifically, "the galactic-alignment theory." This theory is a subset of a larger paradigm that I have termed "the galactic cosmology", which involves precessional movements in relation to three different cosmic centers in Maya cosmology— the polar center, galactic center, and the zenith-Pleiades center (in the New Fire tradition). This paradigm was documented in my books The Center of Mayan Time (1995), Izapa Cosmos (1996) and Maya Cosmogenesis 2012 (1998). A chapter-by-chapter summary of the latter book is online here. You will find highly inaccurate paraphrases and summaries of my work online and elsewhere. Here are the main factual points of my solstice-dark-rift alignment theory.

3. Related comments on the modern treatment of 2012:

The 2012 Story

My new book (my ninth on Maya-related topics since 1989), The 2012 Story: The Myths, Fallacies, and Truth Behind the Most Intriguing Date in History (Tarcher/Penguin, October 2009) is a comprehensive survey of the 2012 topic, covering a number of important areas:

Part II of The 2012 Story explores the spiritual teachings within Maya time philosophy, which are identified as belonging to the perennial wisdom (Primordial Tradition). Topics covered here include the identification of the Maya's "cycle-ending prophecy" in the Creation Myth (The Popol Vuh), and its manifestation and fulfillment in current world events. This interpretation involves not specific prognostications but the rise of self-serving egoism, which is indicated in the archetypal message of the Maya Creation Mythology. The Maya renaissance, a global renaissance of partnership values, awakening to the Big Picture, and addressing the tendency of pop culture to plan for "Party time 2012" are discussed.

My book was written because a clear and comprehensive survey and truth-telling from a veteran 2012 insider was needed. Many misconceptions clog the 2012 marketplace of ideas. Irrational and under-informed opinions come from New Age writers, doomsday alarmists, as well as professional Maya scholars. The so-called "2012 debunkers" need to be debunked themselves.

Inside all of this, authentic and ancient Maya ideas connected with the Long Count and 2012 are practically drowned out. These relate to both scientific understandings (astronomy) and spiritual teachings of the ancient Maya that signify a breakthrough in Maya studies — one triggered by independent investigators that many professional Maya scholars denounce and resist. That's another prevalent situation in the 2012 discussion that the media have failed to report, as if it was invisible.

The Maya teachings connected with 2012 are exceedingly relevant to the crisis that the world is experiencing today. This is because Maya teachings belong to the Perennial Philosophy—universal ideas and insights into the nature of time, consciousness, and reality.

About John Major Jenkins

John Major Jenkins has spent twenty five years investigating Maya traditions. He lived and worked with Maya groups in the late 1980s and 90s, and traveled to many sites throughout Central American and Mexico between 1986 - 94. In the late 1980s he wrote journalistic pieces on atrocities in the highlands, then started studying the calendar and ancient traditions. Wrote his first book on the Maya, Journey to the Mayan Underworld, in 1989. Wrote Tzolkin: Visionary Perspectives and Calendar Studies in 1992 and several others in the early 90s. Made breakthrough on reconstructing the ancient 2012 cosmology in 1993-94, and published Maya Cosmogenesis 2012 in 1998. Galactic Alignment in 2002; Pyramid of Fire in 2004; other projects and field investigations continued. The 2012 Story was published in October 2009. Visited and did field work at Izapa in 2001, 2003, 2006-9; led to National Fellow membership in the Explorer's Club in 2008.