Mayan Doomsday

 Mayan Doomsday 'Safe Zone' Shut Down

Stephanie Pappas

Citing fears that doomsday believers, curiosity seekers, and "above all" journalists will flood a French mountaintop on Dec. 21, the supposed day of the Mayan apocalypse, local officials are banning access to the mountain.
The spot, Pic de Bugarach, is rumored to be one of the only safe places on the planet on Dec. 21, according to Raw Story. On that date, a major cycle of the Maya Long Count calendar ends. The calendar is split into several chunks, including 400-year spans called b'ak'tuns. Dec. 21, 2012 on our calendar marks the end of the 13th b'ak'tun and the beginning of a new cycle.
The calendar change would not have been seen as the end of the world by the ancient Maya, scholars agree. But in New Age and other online subcultures, believers have come to expect something major on that day, with predictions ranging from a new dawn of peace and harmony to an explosive doomsday.
One online rumor holds that on this day of destruction, Pic de Bugarach will open up to reveal an alien spacecraft, which will save believers nearby. That has local officials worried.
"We are expecting a few visionaries, a few people who believe in this end of the world, but in extremely limited numbers," state official Eric Freysselinard told Raw Story. "We are expecting greater numbers of people who are just curious, but in numbers we cannot determine. Above all, we are expecting lots of journalists."
In response, officials will call in 100 police and firefighters on Dec. 21 to seal off approaches to the mountain, Freysselinard told Raw Story.
Other areas are welcoming the doomsday attention. In Belize, the Chaa Creek resort is trying to lure tourists with a seven-day, all-inclusive "Maya Winter Solstice" package, which includes workshops on Maya crafts, traditional Maya garb and names of guests inscribed into a giant stele that will be erected on Dec. 21.
In Guatamala, the national tourism bureau is organizing all sorts of festivities, including a "New Dawn for Humanity" summit in Tikal, a major ancient Maya city. Elton John, Bruce Springsteen and U2 will provide entertainment.
Mexico is aiming for the action, too, launching a tourism campaign called "Mayan World 2012" and encouraging visitors to seek out sites in southern Mexico, where the ancient Maya once built complex cities. In Cancun, the National Institute of Anthropology and History has opened the enormous "Museo Maya de Cancun," a museum dedicated to Maya history.
livescience.com

The Spirit of 1486

by Dennis

by Aztarieth

In 1486, two demented monks named Kramer and Sprenger published a book entitled Malleus Maleficarum, or the Hammer of the Female Evil-Doers, which led to untold misery, suffering and death in an age when people saw witches as being responsible for all the world’s ills. The thrust of the Malleus Maleficarum was that while men were capable of wrong-doing, women were by their very nature Vessels of Satan.
Try as I might to wrestle with what is undoubtedly a knotty theological problem, I cannot for the life of me see any substantive difference between the principle behind Kramer and Sprenger’s ghastly tome and the decision of the Anglican Church to vote against the ordination of women bishops. Well, I’m not a member of this church, so I suppose my opinion counts for nothing, but it seems to me that my pagan and Druid friends take a rather more enlightened view of the matter.
eternalidol.com

Happy Thanksgiving to my friends in the USA