Decades prior to the arrival of Christopher Columbus in the New World, an ancient civilization flourished in the dense jungles of Central America. These people, known as the Mayans, developed a written language and a calendar. They built grandiose stone cities and made significant astronomical discoveries.
In spite of the Mayans’ achievements, between the eighth and ninth centuries AD their civilization abruptly fell. No one knows exactly why the great metropolises were abandoned, why the people scattered to live modest lives in the jungle. The collapse may have been due to a combination of drought, misuse of land, and overpopulation.
While the descendents of the pre-Columbian Mayans live on, they have lost almost all the cultural knowledge of their ancestors. In order to study the ancient civilization, anthropologists have had to decipher the Mayans’ writing, known as glyphs. Glyphs remain on the stone walls of ruins, on fragments of pottery, and in the sacred texts known as codices. These beautifully illustrated accordion books speak of ancient kings, gods, the calendar, the history of the world, and predictions for the future. Because the Spaniards burned the codices, only four remain in existence.
Through the glyphs, anthropologists have learned that centuries before Galileo invented the telescope and Copernicus discovered that the earth revolves around the sun, the ancient Mayans accurately calculated the 26,000-year trip of the solar system through the Milky Way galaxy, recognizing that instead of spinning in place, our sun and group of planets whirl in a gigantic loop through space. The Mayans kept track of this span of time with a precise calendar, using a numerical system called the Long Count.
The Long Count documents four previous journeys of the solar system through the galaxy. The Mayans believed that each time the earth reaches the epicenter of the galaxy, it encounters a burst of cosmic energy and suffers a cataclysmic destruction.
On December 21, 2012, our solar system is again due to pass through the heart of the Milky Way.
On this date, the Mayan calendar mysteriously ends.
This termination has been the subject of much speculation. There is terrific power in predictions of doom. Most recently, the world saw this during the Y2K scare. It was predicted that computers hadn’t been programmed to recognize the year 2000, and would therefore stop functioning at the stroke of midnight. Because our world is so dependent on computers, civilization, including the delivery of food and water, would come to an end. Happily, that did not happen. On January 1, 2000, everyone woke up to find the world functioning normally.
Today, recent books like Apocalypse 2012, by Lawrence E. Joseph, have made an explicit connection between the Mayan prophesy and environmental destruction.
However, Mayan scholars agree that the prophesy merely speaks to the closing of a natural cycle. According to the Mayan calendar, the Solar System has visited the center of the Milky Way four times previously and has survived. Why would this time be any different?
The story of Starfields explores a little of both perspectives, trying to imagine how two young girls from very different backgrounds might interpret the prophesy in relation to their own lives.
In the sixteenth century, an anonymous group of Mayan nobility re-created some of what the ancient codices had contained. They called this sacred text the Popol Vuh. The Popol Vuh is roughly equivalent to the Bible in Christianity, the Koran in Islam, or the sutras in Buddhism. It brings to life several important myths, including that of the Mayan creation.
In writing Xunko’s sections, I relied heavily on the beautiful language and mythical accounts of the Popol Vuh.
For Rosalba’s story, I gathered information from the photographs and accounts of those who’ve spent time among the contemporary Mayans. Having spent time in Mexico and Belize, I also called upon my own personal experience of Mayan culture.
Carolyn Marsden is the acclaimed author of The Gold-Threaded Dress and its sequel, The Quail Club, as well as Silk Umbrellas, Moon Runner, When Heaven Fell, The Buddha’s Diamonds (with Thy Pháp Niêm), The Jade Dragon (with Virginia Shin-Mui Loh), Sahwira (with Philip Matzigkeit), and Take Me With You. About Starfields, she says, “I have always been fascinated by the Mayans. The approach of 2012 gave me a good excuse to resurrect an old story about the Zapatista conflict, using it for inspiration to write the story of Rosalba, Alicia, and Xunko.” Carolyn Marsden lives in California with her family.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or, if real, are used fictitiously.
Copyright © 2011 by Carolyn Marsden
Cover photograph copyright © 2011 by David Dennis Photos (girl)
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, transmitted, or stored in an information retrieval system in any form or by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, taping, and recording, without prior written permission from the publisher.
First electronic edition 2011
The Library of Congress has cataloged the hardcover edition as follows:
Marsden, Carolyn.
Starfields / Carolyn Marsden. — 1st ed.
p. cm.
Summary: While big changes are coming to her Mexican village, nine-year-old Rosalba hears that the Mayan calendar predicts the end of the world in 2012 and she dreams of an ancient Mayan boy, eyes bound in a shamanistic ritual, who hints at what Rosalba can do.
ISBN 978-0-7636-4820-6 (hardcover)
[1. Mayas — Fiction. 2. Indians of Mexico — Fiction. 3. Prophecies — Fiction. 4. Mexico — Fiction.] I. Title.
PZ7.M35135Sta 2011
[Fic] — dc22 20100457910.1701
ISBN 978-0-7636-5622-5 (electronic)
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