The word shift is commonly used in reference to the motifs associated with the 2012-”End of the Mayan Calendar” phenomena (2012-MC).  The expectations of those most realistically attuned to the mytho-symbolic significances of 2012-MC sense that there are large scale socio-cultural shifts in the works.

Emergent-Culture.com is essentially dedicated to the planet wide socio-cultural movement (planetary culture) that I believe lies at the heart of the “co-incidence” between the end of the 5125 year Maya Long Count Cycle and the unprecedented levels of socio-economic turbulence seen all around the world.

The notion of mere “coincidence” is dispelled once one understands what the Ancient Mesoamericans (Maya, Toltecs, Olmecs, etc) discovered about the nature of time and reality. I use the the term Ancient Mesoamericans because precolumbian Mesoamerica was home to upwards of 80 different tribes and most followed the same calendrical system.

Additionally the Maya were not the first to use the core of the Mesoamerican calendrical system—the tzolkin cycle.  Although they were the ones who developed Mesoamerican calendrics to its highest degree.  I also prefer to use Ancient Mesoamericans because it helps differentiate between present day Mesoamericans and those who lived in Middle America prior to the European invasion. Since it was the ancient ones who were responsible for the development of Maya-Meso-American Calendrical system. (MMAC)

And What is Time?

In the Western world time is a very muddled concept. Western science is only now beginning to acknowledge that their classical conception of time is ill defined, overcomplicated and just plain wrong. Have a look at Wikipedia’s treatment of time to get a taste of what I mean. Time has been so misunderstood that Western scholars have written entire books about the subject without reaching any kind of conclusion or consensus about what time is.

Those of you familiar with my writings on time and Mesoamerican calendrics (calendar/time science) know that from my vantage point, time is nothing more than movement and that’s how the Ancient MesoAmericans (AMA) saw it as well. Albeit a special kind of movement. Something I call ordered movement. There are various definitions of time and many are useful, but I’m talking about time in the most fundamental of terms. Time is not the fourth dimension as Einstein believed.[...]

[NOTE: The foregoing paragraphs serve as an introduction to a chapter on my developing book on The Legend of 2012.  The remaining text below this note is the tail end of the chapter where I show how one may apply MMAC time science to one's life in order to anticipate significant personal life events, and as a way to self validate what I consider to be the most profound and universally relevant cosmology (worldview) presently available.

It is universally relevant because it applies to everyone regardless of whether one believes in it or not. It is universally relevant because it's a mesocosmically scaled cosmology and that means that you don't need to understand equations or use special tools to observe and appreciate, e,g. microscope, telescope.

The chapter goes on to develop the idea of time as ordered movement/change and of how the earth's basic movements translate into the scheduled and sequential movements of all organisms.  The mechanism is detailed down to the DNA molecular level in an attempt to show how all of life unfolds to the beat of some cosmic piper.  The piper's "musical score" is intrinsic to the earth's movements, the workings of DNA code and all human activity in general.  I suggest that the Ancient Mesoamericans discerned the cosmic score from their study of astronomical and earthly cycles both overt and subtle.

Some cycles are so subtle that no other culture discovered them.  The most subtle of these cycles were encoded into their Tzolkin cycle calendar.   I also relate the tzolkin and genetic codes and then show their relationship to the implicate and explicate orders that the Physicist David Bohm describes in his Holomovement cosmology.  

This article focuses on a particular type of movement we call a shift or transition.  These shifts happen at predictable time scales because the growth and development of all organisms happen according to timing constants built into the very fabric of our reality. It seems that the AMA discovered those constants. The following excerpt tells you how to apply those constants.]

Shifting to a New Worldview

The preceding has sought to establish the earth’s 3 basic movements as a timing mechanism that sets the pace for all of earth’s inhabitants  I’ve alluded to the probability that the earth’s basic movements stem from a deeper timing order. I also suggest that the AMA discerned this deeper timing order and that they encoded their knowledge of it as the 260 day tzolkin calendar.

They then mapped an array of cycles that culminated with the development of Maya Calendrical System. I went on to propose that these cycles in turn govern the entire spectrum of human activity in terms of emergence, development, cultural evolution, growth, renewal and dissolution of humans and their human made worlds.

This segment of our story is concerned with a particular stage of the developmental process. It’s a type of movement we call a shift or transition. My usage of the word shift implies permanent and/or changes of long duration in the qualitative and quantitative arrangement of the internal (mental-emotional) and/or external elements that constitute an individual’s or a group’s set of circumstances. 

Shift movements can be incremental or abrupt.  Relocations typically involve a series of incremental shifts over time, while death, birth, or being fired are abrupt type transition events. Whatever the case a shift is precipitated by whatever events have come before. We notice abrupt shift events more so than the build up of events that lead up to abrupt shift events.  The point being that nothing happens “out of the blue”. Learning the hidden nature of time tunes you into the subtleties of change.

Enter the Cycle Juncture

The ouroborus or snake eating its tail is an ancient symbol of cyclical process. A cycle juncture is where the head meets the tail. This model places attractive forces and scale in relation to the ouroboric symbol. The smallest and largest scales meet at the cycle juncture.

A permanent shift could be the death of someone you know, a relationship breakup, a new child etc.  Shifts into long duration states could be a new job, a new roommate, a relocation, a new relationship, a new pet or a new hobby etc.  According to my studies such shifts are most apt to occur near cycle junctures. A cycle juncture being the end of one cycle and the start of the next.

The kinds of signifying changes that I am speaking about can happen days or weeks either side of a cycle juncture.  The span of time in which we are apt to experience shifts is relative to the size of the cycle in question. For example if we are tracking intervals of 260 days (tzolkin cycle) and 365 days (year cycle) on the personal level then we can expect shift type movements to take place within an approximate 26 day window either side of the 1st day of a new cycle.

If the cycle is large such as the 5125 year Long Count cycle then we are apt to see large scale shifts measured in terms of tens or even hundreds of years before or after the start of a new cycle. If we use December 21st, 2012 as the anchor date for the start of a new grand cycle of time then we can look back 20 years to the emergence of the internet for a proportionately timed large scale transition process, and the subsequent incremental shifts to the digital way of doing things.

A shift that will be ongoing for who knows how many years into the future. Well, let me back up a bit.  Using MMAC time science one could approximate the timing of minor and major shifts both in the further development of the digital realm and when we might expect a shift to an entirely new medium.

Find your Personal Shift Junctures in Times Past and Future

Timing of some of our most significant and frequent of personal shifts are measured in tzolkin and solar cycle intervals. But there are also cycles of less than 260 days, and of more than 1 year. Everyone knows their most common shift juncture. It’s the cycle you complete every birthday.  To self verify what I am talking about one only need pay attention to a few other cycles.

If you remember significant dates or periods of time in your life then apply the following time intervals into the past to check for co-incidence.

Solar Birthday Cycle: The day you were born according to the Gregorian calendar.

Tzolkin Birthday Cycle: To track this cycle you need to count in intervals of 260 days starting with your birthday.

AA-Tzolkin Cycle: To track this cycle you need to know when it starts and ends. The current AA-Tzolkin cycle as of the publication date of this article started on September 11, 2011 and it ends on May 28th 2012. And that means the new AA-Tzolkin cycle starts on May 29th, 2012.  To test this cycle into the past simply count back in increments of 260 days starting with either the September or May date. To track this cycle you can use one of two pages on emergent culture.com.

The first page is entitled ARTSOS and its link is listed in the top navigation bar of every EC.com page. That page is used primarily by those tracking the Hyper-Day Phenomena, but there is a tzolkin chart on that page and the current place in the tzolkin is always ascertainable as are the start and end dates of the current tzolkin cycle.

The second page is known as the Learning Center on Tzolkin Cosmology and its designed for those who wish to track the tzolkin on a day by day basis.  It is also used by those learning the Art and Science of Synchronicity(ARTSOS)  and the Art and Science of a Social Chemistry (ASSC) as per AA-Tzolkin Cosmology.

52 Day cycle: Earlier I mentioned subcycles of 4, 13 and 20 days, but there are five 52-day cycles within the tzolkin cycle as well.  This article was started on the last 52 day cycle of the current tzolkin cycle or April 7th.  Either of the two pages mentioned earlier can help you track this cycle.

Solsticial New Year Cycle: Gregorian new year is a theocratic appropriation of a natural time marker known as the winter solstice, as are the purported birthday of Jesus the Christ and his “resurrection” on Easter. The former is also an appropriation of the winter solstice and the latter an appropriation of the spring equinox.  The start of the natural time new year is marked in the northern hemisphere by the winter solstice and in the southern hemisphere by the summer solstice.

Solar-Galactic New Year Cycle: This cycle starts on July 26th. The how and why of this date is too lengthy for this article. But my own experience can attest to the preponderance of significant shifts and/or experiences that occur within an approximate 26 day period either side of July 26.

The 4 Seasonal Cycles: Each being  91.25 days long aka the solstices and equinoxes.

• Lunar Cycle 29.53 days: Women know this cycle all too well, but we can all expect significant events at the full moon point.
• 5 Year Life Cycle: Measure your life in 5* year increments to uncover the significant changes that took place at such junctures.
• 10 Year life cycle. If you were born 2-3 years before the start of a new decade or in the first 2-3 years of a new decade then this life cycle will synchronize with the 11 year sunspots cycle. They will seem as one and the same in other words.
• 13 Year Color Cycle: There are four 13-year color cycles and they form the 4 divisions of the 52 year solar-galactic cycle. Each 13 year segment is designated by a color.  The 1st cycle is red, the 2nd is white, the 3rd is blue and the 4th is yellow. Use July 26, 2006 to count back in 13 year increments to assess this cycle. July 26th was the start of the red 13 year color cycle.
• 13 Year Life Cycle: Measure your life in 13* year increments to uncover the significant changes that took place at such junctures. .
• 20 year Life Cycle: Measure your life in 20* year increments to “     ” .

* Use your birthday as the start date.

11 Year Sunspot cycle: Human behavior/activity of various kinds rise and fall with the sunspot cycle. This is a major planetary scaled cycle. This cycle is easy to track since the approximate midpoint of each solar maximum since 1960 has concurred more or less with the turning of the decade.  Meaning that solar activity begins to ramp up 2 to 3 years before the turn of the decade. Solar activity peaks the first and second year of the new decade and then begins to subside toward solar minimum near mid-decade.

The onset of sunspot activity coincides with the disruption of whatever patterns were set in place during the subsidence period of the last solar maximum. The greatest amount of turbulence (change) is experienced during the height of solar activity and then a period of increasing relative stability begins as solar activity begins to subside.

Recessions, and depressions tend to correlate with solar maximums.  Economic activity is a direct measure of human activity. But that does not mean to imply that people are less active during solar maximums. During the solar minimum period more people are engaged in economically productive work. During the sunspot maximum economic activity dips as millions lose their jobs. But those people will be busy finding other work, getting retrained, back to school, stay unemployed, or do something else with their time that does not necessarily increase GDP.  Everybody is affected by the sunspot cycle in someway.

Cycle Synchrony

In some case cycle junctures overlap (cycle synchrony).    Cycle synchrony implies a compounding effect and that typically means that some of our most significant shifts, changes and experiences could occur when two or more cycles synchronize. Certain cycles “wander” and so their start dates are always shifting relative to any solar year date. The tzolkin cycle is one such cycle, but it wanders in a fixed manner was as does the moon’s 19 year metonic cycle. The tzolkin cycle takes 52 years for the same date on the tzolkin calendar to once again coincide with the same day on the Gregorian calendar. Other cases of cycle synchrony occur if you happen to be born close to the start of another fixed date cycle such as the start of a season or  solsticial new year.

Collective and Planetary Scaled Cycles

Cycles names ending with tun are traditional Mayan terms. Use December 21st, 2012 as the 0 date to count backward in time to check for major shifts at individual, collective and planetary scales. The 52 year solar-galactic cycle and the 13 Year color cycle use July 26th as a start point.

• The 4 Seasonal Cycles: Every organism experiences the atmospheric shifts from season to season. Though the solstices and equinoxes are cycle junctures nonetheless.
•  Holtun Cycle: = 1800 days = 5 tun cycles of 360 days or 26 days shy of 5 solar years.
• 11 Year Sunspot cycle: Human behavior/activity of various kinds rise and fall with the sunspot cycle.
• 13 Year Color Cycle: There are four 13-year color cycles and they form the 4 divisions of the 52 year solar-galactic cycle. Each 13 year segment is designated by a color.  The 1st cycle is red, the 2nd is white, the 3rd is blue and the 4th is yellow. Use July 26, 2006 to count back in 13 year increments to assess this cycle. July 26th, 2006 was the start of the Red 13 year color cycle.
•  Katun Cycle: Katun = 7200 days = 20 tun cycles of 360 days or 105 days shy of 20 solar years.
• 52 Year Solar-Galactic Cycle: This cycle is commonly known as the Calendar Round.  This was Ancient Mesoamerica’s most celebrated and revered long duration cycle. Use July 26, 2006 to count back in 52 year increments to assess this cycle.
• Baktun cycle: = 144,000 days or 394.25 years. Use December 21st, 2012 to count back in 394 year increments to assess this cycle.

The 13 Year Color Cycle

For this brief introduction into cycles and shifts I’m going to highlight the 13-year color cycle because I think many people will find that they experienced major shifts in their life starting circa mid-2006 to circa mid-2007.  I discovered the starting basis for the 52 year solar-galactic cycle when I realized that any day of the solar year has a 13 year cycle as defined by the color of the 13-day tone cycles that will govern said day for 13 years. A tone cycle’s color is set by the first day of the tone cycle.

So for example July 26, 2006 was Red 1 Water or the first day of a red colored tone cycle.  July 26, 2007 was White 2 Jaguar or the second day of the Red 1 Skywalker tone cycle.  July 26, 2008 was Blue 3 Storm or the 3rd day of the Red 1 Earth tone cycle and July 26, 2009 was Yellow 4 Seed or the 4th day of the Red 1 Alligator tone cycle and so on.  Every tzolkin date that falls on July 26th starting with 2006 and ending in 2018 will be part of a red tone cycle. Thereafter for another 13 years July 26th will coincide with tzolkin dates belonging to White colored tone cycles and then Blue and finally yellow tone cycles.

Case in Point: 13 Year Color Cycle

I will use my own life experiences from mid-2006 through mid 2007 to illustrate the major shifts that I went through as a major 13-year color cycle began.  A significant long term relationship came to an end in August 2006. In January 2007 I discovered blogging as a way to begin writing and then in May of 2007 I decided to sell my house and quit my business of over 20 years so I could devote myself to creation of a research and writing career.  My house finally sold on the 18th of December 2007 or near the winter solstice new year and just 15 days after my birthday.

My transition to a new career was underway.  Remember that birthdays and the solsticial new year are significant life cycle junctures and when two or more cycle junctures happen to fall closely together as in my case then you have what is known as cycle synchrony and we experience what amounts to a compounding effect. So the end/start of the solsticial new year is for me always filled with some of my more significant life events because my birthday and the solsticial new year are only 15 days apart.

Case in Point: 52 Day cycle

I mentioned earlier that I’d started the article you are reading on the first day of the last 52 day cycle within the current AA-Tzolkin cycle. That was AA-Tzolkin date 209 or April 7th. Tzolkin date 207 left us with one complete tzolkin cycle before December 21st 2012. A full moon coincided with April 6th. This juncture was especially jolting for me.

On April 5th my uncle passed away. The hard drive on my main computer began to fail. Part one of my book was more or less complete and the design of the book cover came into full blossom.  I learned that my nephew was on his way home from Afghanistan and as an ardent antiwar activist and out of concern for his safety his home coming was a major relief for me. I suffered two of the most significant physical injuries in years practicing one of my favorite sports. All of the aforementioned happened during the 1st tone cycle of the tzolkin’s last 52 day cycle. This same period also happens to be start of last 260 day period before December 21st, 2012.

Case in Point Collective Shift: The 13 Year Color Cycle

The housing bubble reached its peak in March 2006. The shift toward recession had begun, and by spring 2007 the housing and mortgage swindle began to rear its ugly head. The entire world economy had begun to slow. Wikileaks and Twitter were founded in 2006. A recession always brings massive job losses and that means major life transitional events for millions of people.  Recessions tend to coincide with sunspot cycle maximums, but the latest recession started a little early relative to the sunspot cycle. I think that was due to the start of a new 52 year solar-galactic cycle (SGC) or the start of the 1st 13-year color cycle that began on July 26th, 2006. Bear in mind that a 13 year color cycle is one fourth of a 52 year SGC.  Sunspot activity did not begin until September 2009.

Shift Windows for 2012

The year mid-2012 through mid 2013 will see major shifts for everyone at some level as we enter a new grand cycle of time as measured by 13 baktuns or the 25,770.1 precessional cycle.  The approaching mega-cycle renewal is also expected coincide with the peak of the ongoing sunspot cycle.

• One complete Tzolkin cycle before 12/21/12: 13 Days before and after April 7th.
• New AA-Tzolkin Cycle: 26 days before and after May 29.
• 2nd 52 day cycle: 13 Days before and after July 20th.
• New Solar-Galactic Year: 26 days before and after July 26.
• 3rd 52 day cycle: 13 Days before and after September 10th.
• 4th 52 Day cycle 13 Days before and after November 1st (close to election day)
• Last 26 days of baktun 13 starts November 26.
• Last 13 day tone cycle of Baktun 13 is December 10.

The End of a World Age and the Start of a New One

December 21st, 2012 may also be understood as the culmination of…

• 1 Long Count cycle
• 13 Baktun  cycles
• 260 Katun   “
• 5200 Tun   “
• 7200 Tzolkin   “
• 5125.36 years
• 1,872,000 days

On a much larger time scale December 21st may also be seen as the closure of a 25,770.1 year precessional cycle as measured by the solstice sun’s near complete traverse of the galactic plane. The sun is in the 32nd of the 36 years that it takes for the sun to traverse the 1 degree wide galactic plane.

When the precessional cycle is divided into 4 seasons a remarkable set of seasonal event shift markers emerge. Any cycle can be divided into 4 parts and distinct properties will characterize each part or season much like the distinctions between spring, summer, fall and winter.  I’m rounding off the precessional cycle to 26,000 years for this example.

Approximately 26,000 years ago the earth was in the frozen grasp of what is known as the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) and that means that the last ice age cycle had peaked as measured by the extent of the ice sheets. Let’s call the LGM the winter solstice of the current Great Year as the precessional cycle is also known. The end of the last ice age was approximately 13,000 years ago and that event marks the summer solstice or the mid-point of the Great Year.

The emergence of civilization as we know it happened around 6500 years ago or what would amount to the fall equinox of the current precessional cycle. We are now fast approaching the winter solstice of a new precessional cycle. And what a “coincidence” that the planet finds itself facing so many tipping points. A tipping point is the straw that breaks the camel’s back type event and it typically marks the most overt transition events.   All of this implies that planetary scaled shifts of one or another are looming.

A few of us know that socio-political business as usual is on its way out. We will make significant collective change either by choice or by compulsion and then we must consider that the fetus does not “decide” to be born, it is forced out when in utero conditions say its time to transition. But then again if you are reading this you are by no means unaware of what is happening and that means that you have the responsibility to educate the uninformed. Midwives serve to facilitate the birth process.

Related Posts:

• Validating Terrence Mckenna’s Timewave: Global Crisis has Entered a New Intensity Phase
• Targeting a New World Age: At the Cross Roads of Cosmic and Earthly Synchronicity
• The Universal Meaning of 2012 and the Mayan Calendar. The Mythos, Astronomy and Sociology of 2012-MC
• Jose Arguelles: Father of Present Day Mayan Calendar-2012 Phenomena, Has Died
• On the Trail of the Super Organism: The Question of 2012 and the Marvels of the Mayan Calendar
• A Review of the Most Awaited Day in History D21-2012: The Grains of Truth and an Expose´of Those Who Obscured It
• Searching for A Universal New Year: In Honor of August 13th or “The Day the World Began”
• Maya Elders and Emergent-Culture.com Agree on Key Meaning of Mayan Calendar-2012