Mayan Calendar Prophecies: The Complete Collection of 2012 Predictions and Prophecies
Page 7
A comet consists of a head called a coma and a long tail. A crocodile also consists of a head and a body that merges into a long tail thus it would be easy to see why the ancient Maya would use such an animal to symbolize a comet.
According to Stuart, the crocodile heads in the aforementioned glyphs “each display the long-lashed ‘star’ eye and the long deer ear, also decorated by a ‘star,’ that readily identify it as the Starry Deer Crocodile.”[92] Stuart also noted that “the Starry Deer Crocodile serves as the head variant of the day sign Lamat and also in the month patron for Yax, which in their standard forms are simply the ‘star,’ probably read EK’, ‘star, planet.’”[93]
In other words, the Cosmic Crocodile had strong associations with stars/planets. Coincidentally, a comet does not begin growing its tail until it enters the inner solar system near Jupiter. Until that point it is indistinguishable from a star or planet. Perhaps the Maya referred to comets as “crocodile stars” once they grew their tails similarly to how the Chinese referred to comets as “long tailed pheasant stars.”[94]
If Palenque’s Cosmic Crocodile was, in fact, a comet then what sort of astronomical phenomenon could account for the decapitation event? A clue comes from the text itself that states the crocodile was decapitated eleven years after God GI was enthroned in the sky. It is known that the sun has an eleven-year sunspot cycle; i.e., every eleven years the sun enters an active phase wherein sunspots increase on its surface and solar flares and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) increase. Could a solar flare or CME be responsible for the decapitation event?
On April 20, 2007, NASA’s STEREO-A probe was recording Comet Encke when the comet was hit by a massive coronal mass ejection from the sun. The CME ripped off the comet’s tail leaving only its coma or head.[95] The CME decapitated the comet! This phenomenon is now referred to as a “tail disconnection event.”[96] (Watch a time-lapse video of this event at NASA.gov.)
Interestingly, Stuart noted that the phrasing of the Palenque decapitation event was somewhat complex. It started with the word CH’AK meaning “to cut, chop something” followed by U-BAAH meaning “his/her/its self/body/head.”[97] This suggests that the cosmic crocodile cut off its own body, which is precisely how the event would have appeared to an earth-based observer. A witness to the event would have simply seen the body and tail of the ‘crocodile star’ blown away leaving a disembodied head (coma) in the sky.
Is there any physical evidence that the sun was experiencing a heightened level of activity in 3300 BC? In fact, there is. Scientists have noted a Beryllium-10 spike in the Antarctic ice core that corresponds to 3300 BC[98]. Such spikes are associated with an increase in cosmic rays hitting the upper atmosphere, which can be caused by either supernovae or increased solar activity. Thus the physical evidence supports an interpretation that the ancient Maya recorded a tail disconnection event caused by a CME.
What was the flood of blood?
After the decapitation event, the myth recorded a flood of blood: “copiously flowed the blood of the one who raises the stream, the one who drills the fire.”[99] Researchers have noted that crocodiles were associated with catastrophic floods throughout Mesoamerica.[100] The only way a comet could cause such a flood is if it or its fragments crashed into the ocean causing an impact tsunami. Evidence of four impact tsunamis dating to 3300 BC has, in fact, been discovered in the sedimentary record.[101] (Details later.) Yet how would a tail disconnection event lead to impacts in four separate oceans? The only way this could happen is if the comet fragmented into at least four large pieces.
When Comet Encke experienced its tail disconnection event the comet did not fragment and the tail later reformed. Is there any evidence that a CME could either cause or coincide with a fragmentation event?
The answer to this question came in August 2011 when Comet Elenin was struck by a CME. The comet immediately flared up and then astronomers noted it appeared to be breaking apart:
“Shortly after the coronal mass ejection the comet flared up and you could see some beautiful details in the tail, with the tail was twisting about in the solar wind. But shortly after that Earth- bound amateurs reported a huge decrease in the intensity of the comet. We think it may presage a falling apart of the comet.”[102]
Scientists doubt the CME caused the breakup and believe that, instead, it was caused by the sun’s gravitational pull and the CME just happened to hit at the same time. Regardless, to an eyewitness on earth the comet’s tail being ripped off followed by a fragmentation that led to impacts and mega-tsunamis would have seemed connected regardless of the true physics behind the event. (Interestingly, another Mesoamerican crocodile known as Cipactli was always represented as the disembodied head of a crocodile missing its lower jaw. Could this missing lower jaw have been meant to represent the fragmentation of the comet nucleus?)
The fact that a CME was involved in this event likely explains the description of this flood as being “a flood of blood.” When a CME hits earth it can cause the sky to turn blood red via intense auroras. For instance, in 1859 during the strongest solar storm in recorded history known as the Carrington Event, red auroras were seen as far south as the Caribbean. The New York Times noted, “At that time almost the whole southern heavens were in a livid red flame, brightest still in the southeast and southwest.” The New York Herald reported that the sky appeared “blood red.”[103] The Sydney Morning Herald noted, “the spectacle presented by the southern heavens at this time was very impressive, the sky being of a deep, blood-red colour.”[104] Interestingly, the ancient Greeks referred to aurora as ‘red rain.’[105]
Coincidentally, immediately preceding the red auroras, exploding meteors were also reported in Australian eyewitness accounts:
“…a brilliant meteor was seen to shoot through the sky…and when near the horizon, burst like a rocket. Almost immediately afterwards the rays of an aurora Australis were most brilliantly visible in the N.E.”
“A very brilliant meteor was seen towards the south, which fell in a curve from about 45 deg. elevation, standing to the eastward. Almost immediately following this the glancing rays of a vivid aurora shot up the sky, at first more fully developed to the west, but afterwards stretching across the whole of the south from the hills to the sea.”[106]
Interestingly, these accounts give a close approximation for the events that were recorded in Mayan Flood Myth: first, meteor impact(s) followed by the sky turning blood red.
Yet this flood of blood may not have been purely a flood of red auroral light in the sky. A phenomenon known as blood rain has consistently been associated with comets and meteors throughout the ages. For instance, astronomers believe an impact event was the cause of the severe weather event of 536-541 AD in which temperatures plummeted across the globe. Eyewitness accounts from this time period record,
“In the year of grace 541, there appeared a comet in Gaul, so vast that the whole sky seemed on fire. In the same year there dropped real blood from the clouds, and about the same time…a dreadful mortality ensued.”[107]
This red rain is thought to be the result of dust-laded rain although other theories exist.[108] Yet the flood recorded in this Mayan myth was much more devastating and catastrophic than a simple flood of red auroral light and red rain. This flood was said to have brought one world age to an end. As suggested previously, the only way a comet could have caused a flood is if a sizeable fragment crashed into the ocean creating an impact tsunami. Coincidentally, evidence suggests earth really did experience multiple high-energy mega-tsunamis in the year 3300 BC.
Mayan flood caused by impact mega-tsunami?
Edward Bryant in his book Tsunami: The Underrated Hazard, found evidence in southeastern Australia of “six separate tsunami events…over the past 8,000 years, with peaks at 7500 B.C., 5000 B.C., 3300 B.C., 500-2000 B.C., A.D. 500, and A.D. 1500.”[109] He also noted in another paper that the “North Atlantic region has additional evidence for at least seven major tsunami…[that] occurred in 60 BC, 218-216
BC, 1763 BC, 1862 BC, 2153 BC, 3309 BC, and 4000-5000 BC.”[110] He also noted that three more tsunami events happened in the northern British Isles in “AD 500, 3250-3150 BC, and 3300 BC.”[111] Additionally, Baille has noted that the 3200 BC event was “a prime candidate of an impact event that affected more than one ocean.”
The hypothesis that the flood recorded in the Mayan Flood Myth was caused by an impact event is further supported by an account of the same event in the Chilam Balam of Chumayel. This Mayan book of prophecy and history described the events surrounding the flood that ended the last age. These descriptions sound remarkably like an eyewitness account of an impact event:
Then it was that fire descended, then the rope descended, then rocks and trees descended. Then came the beating of
Another version of this event was recorded in the Chilam Balam of Mani:
…the days and night that fell without order, and pain was felt throughout the land….[Ah Mesencab] turned the sky and the Peten upside down, and…there was a great cataclysm, and the ages ended with a flood….fire, stones, and clubs came down…After that the evil sons and daughters were buried, although alive [they had no hearts], and those who were on the beach were buried between the waves of the sea….an avalanche of water came and…everything came to an end. It was said that four gods, four Bacabs, were the ones who destroyed the earth.[113]
Any doubt as to the true nature of the Bacabs is cleared up in a passage from the Chilam Balam of Tizimin that noted, “The four Bacabs slide to earth on the back of a green rainbow. One by one the stars fall.”[114] Clearly the Bacabs were seen as meteors. The “green rainbow” is likely a reference to the green color many meteors emit when they burn up in the atmosphere. The fact that there were four Bacabs (meteors) coincides nicely with the evidence that there were four mega-tsunamis in four separate oceans around 3300 BC.
The order of events listed in these Mayan “mythological” accounts coincide well with the eyewitness accounts from the Tunguska event, one of only three known witnessed impact events in the last 100 years. The Tunguska event took place in the year 1908 in Russian Siberia. The meteor exploded before hitting the ground creating an airburst similar to that of a nuclear bomb. The eyewitness accounts match perfectly to the effects of nuclear explosions as recorded in film footage from nuclear tests in the 1940s and 50s. One eyewitness account from forty miles of the epicenter of the Tunguska impact noted:
the sky split in two and fire appeared high and wide over the forest…The split in the sky grew larger, and the entire northern side was covered with fire. At that moment I became so hot that I couldn't bear it, as if my shirt was on fire; from the northern side, where the fire was, came strong heat. I wanted to tear off my shirt and throw it down, but then the sky shut closed, and a strong thump sounded, and I was thrown a few metres. I lost my senses for a moment, but then my wife ran out and led me to the house. After that such noise came, as if rocks were falling or cannons were firing, the earth shook, and when I was on the ground, I pressed my head down, fearing rocks would smash it. When the sky opened up, hot wind raced between the houses, like from cannons, which left traces in the ground like pathways, and it damaged some crops. Later we saw that many windows were shattered, and in the barn a part of the iron lock snapped.[115]
Another account from tribal members who lived in the area noted:
We had a hut by the river with my brother Chekaren. We were sleeping. Suddenly we both woke up at the same time. Somebody shoved us. We heard whistling and felt strong wind. Chekaren said, 'Can you hear all those birds flying overhead?' We were both in the hut, couldn't see what was going on outside. Suddenly, I got shoved again, this time so hard I fell into the fire. I got scared. Chekaren got scared too. We started crying out for father, mother, brother, but no one answered. There was noise beyond the hut, we could hear trees falling down. Chekaren and I got out of our sleeping bags and wanted to run out, but then the thunder struck. This was the first thunder. The Earth began to move and rock, wind hit our hut and knocked it over. My body was pushed down by sticks, but my head was in the clear. Then I saw a wonder: trees were falling, the branches were on fire, it became mighty bright, how can I say this, as if there was a second sun, my eyes were hurting, I even closed them. It was like what the Russians call lightning. And immediately there was a loud thunderclap. This was the second thunder. The morning was sunny, there were no clouds, our Sun was shining brightly as usual, and suddenly there came a second one!
The primary difference between the Mayan accounts and Tunguska accounts is the Tunguska accounts lacked the “sudden rush of water” and “avalanche of water” referred to in the Mayan accounts since the event took place over land and not water. It is believed the Tunguska event was caused by meteors that were part of the Taurid meteor stream produced by fragments of Comet Encke.
A Cycle of Cosmic Catastrophes?
The Mayan Flood Myth was recorded in Palenque’s Temple XIX, which was dedicated on January 14, 734 AD. Yet this was likely a re-dedication of a rebuilt structure, the previous temple having been destroyed by invaders. It is unknown when the original temple was built but an inscription noted the dedication of an okib (the platform on which the inscriptions appear) was made in 561 AD. Why would this platform with its 3500 year-old flood myths be constructed at this time? Could a similar celestial event have occurred which reminded the Mayan priests of this ancient myth and thus led to its revival?
In fact, in March 536 A.D. a major climactic event occurred worldwide which dimmed the sun, caused summer to turn to winter, and caused crops to fail. Originally thought to have been the result of a volcanic eruption it is now thought the event resulted from “multiple comet impacts.”[116] The fact that this event occurred at the beginning of March[117] is eerily similar to the Mayan Flood Myth which began with the enthronement of God GI on March 10, 3309 BC. Perhaps the appearance of a comet that broke up and crashed into the ocean causing worldwide haze that dimmed the sun and floods resulting from impact tsunamis made the priests remember these old myths and revived them at Palenque in 561 A.D.?
In fact, scientists believe at least two comet fragments crashed into two separate bodies of water during this climate event. One fragment “roughly 640 metres wide slammed into the Gulf of Carpentaria in Australia, and the other…smaller object crashed into the North Sea near Norway.”[118] These led to mega-tsunamis in two of the planet’s oceans. In fact, researchers noted that of the “’six separate [Australian] tsunami events that can be recognized over the last 8000 years’…two dates stand out, namely 5250 cal. Yr BP (3300 BC) and 1450 cal. Yr BP (AD 500)”[119] because these same dates can be found over and over again in publications devoted to tsunami research. Interestingly, researchers have noted that the peak of the A.D. 500 tsunami event corresponded “with a clustering of meteor sightings that is believed by astronomers to be one of the most significant over this time span…[and is] associated with the Taurid complex”[120] created by Comet Encke.
Thus it seems clear that the 500 A.D. event was so similar to the 3300 BC event that it likely revived the memory of the older 3300 BC event, which then inspired the Maya to create a hieroglyphic text of this earlier catastrophe.
Just as in the 500 AD event[121], the Earth experienced rapid global cooling in the 3300 BC event as well.[122] (Coincidentally, the famous Otzi the Ice Man who was discovered in the Alps frozen to death died around 3300 BC and his stomach contents showed this occurred sometime in Spring making him a likely victim of this rapid global cooling.) Victor Clube and Bill Napier, authors of The Cosmic Serpent, theorized in their second book, The Cosmic Wi
nter, that comet impact events would lead to a global winter much like a nuclear winter as dust from the impacts would block out the sun. Thus the similarities between the 3300 BC event and 500 AD event likely explain why the 3300 BC event was recorded at Palenque so soon after the 500 AD event.
Supernova or Galactic Core Explosion?
So far we have discussed the possible astronomical basis of the “main event” recorded in the Mayan Flood Myth; namely, the flood caused by multiple meteor impacts into the world’s oceans. Yet this was not the first event mentioned in the myth.
The hieroglyphic text begins with the enthronement of God GI in the heavens on March 10, 3309 BC, overseen by a deity named Yax Naah Itzamnaaj. Curiously, the myths surrounding God GI have him being born and enthroned multiple times. This has confused scholars but makes sense when one realizes that his enthronement in the sky is best explained as the appearance of a supernova in the sky. Supernova can brighten, becoming visible, and dim, becoming invisible, multiple times before they finally explode. Thus, GI’s multiple births become explicable via an astronomical interpretation.
The fact that God GI was enthroned on March 10, 3309 BC suggests he was not in the sky before this date. Most stars are always in the sky night after night thus they do not “come to power.” They are simply always there. Only a supernova appears out of nowhere and takes its position in the sky, i.e., is “enthroned.” The fact that supernovae are usually so bright they are even visible during daylight hours is likely another reason they are said to be “enthroned,” since they are the “king” of the stars during their short reign in the sky.
Is there any physical evidence for a supernova in 3300 BC? In fact, there is. Scientists have noted that a Beryllium-10 spike appears in the east Antarctic ice core record around the year 3300 BC. Beryllium-10 spikes are associated with increased cosmic rays reaching earth. This has been shown to have two causes: increased solar activity and supernova outbursts.