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2012: A Beginning, Not the End

Wed, 12/28/2011 - 10:52 am PST by Jeff Jawer

My 20-year-old daughter told me that she’s been hearing concerns from some of her friends that 2012 will be the end of the world. This idea comes from the so-called Mayan prophecy based on one of this ancient people’s many calendars. While it is true that the long count calendar of over 5,000 years reaches an end on December 21, 2012, the tradition is that calendars roll over and start whole new cycles. There is no evidence that the Mayans thought that this date marks the end of time, nor are there any other meaningful prophecies that reinforce this apocalyptic notion.

It is understandable, though, for some people to think that human life on planet Earth is about to end. The “end of times” idea has been prevalent since the dawn of Christianity and the notion that the impending return of the Messiah would complete our collective journey here, with true believers ascending to immortal bliss in heaven while the rest die or descend to an eternity in hell. We’ve had millennial end of world predictions leading up to the years 1000 or 2000 with the latter’s modern technological twist of the Y2K meltdown. Minister Harold Camping has had final days predictions fail within the last year, as did new ager Benjamin Creme in the 1980s.

When we lack imagination and hope, it’s easier to think of the end of life rather than its transformation into new and different forms. The failures of our economic and governmental systems are reflected in rising unemployment, financial crises and political upheaval, which feed collective fears that make some feel as if the curtains are closing on human history. Astrologically, we are coming to seven revolutionary Uranus-Pluto squares between 2012 and 2015 that underscore the notion that we’re in for major changes. Yet there is no reason to think that the fall of governments and natural or manmade disasters will erase our species.

I’m confident that 2012 will not be the end of the world, but even if it is (which again I insist is not going to happen) what would be the value of this knowledge? Would some people party like it’s 1999, give up their responsibilities, live in constant fear, or act out their most primal impulses? There’s nothing to be gained by sowing seeds of terror when there’s no evidence that we’re in immanent danger.

The challenge before us is not how to deal with death but how to deal with life. The Uranus-Pluto square represents breakthroughs in consciousness that may produce so much change that it will feel like we’re living in a new world. Yet this is change to embrace, to nurture and to foment with all the creativity and love we can muster. With your participation we can make 2012 the beginning of a new world, a better one in which respect of life and liberty and cultivating individual and collective growth will take us to an exciting and brilliant stage of awakening and human evolution.

See the Top-10 Failed Doomsday Predictions of All Time»

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