Centuries ago, Mayan astrologers found several cycles that will culminate at the winter solstice in December 2012. The 13 baktun, begun in 3114 BC, lasts about 5126 of our years. Another has been called the Mayan Sky Portal or Great Cycle. It lasts about 26,000 of our years, and is due to end/begin simultaneously with the 13 baktun cycle.

"Specifically, the winter solstice Sun will conjunct the Milky Way, which is the edge of our spinning galaxy as viewed from Earth. Furthermore, the place where the Sun meets the Milky Way is where the 'dark rift' in the Milky Way is—a black ridge along the Milky Way caused by interstellar dust clouds. This is a feature of the Milky Way anyone can see on a clear midsummer's night, away from the light pollution of industrial society. At dawn on the winter solstice of A.D. 2012, the Sun will be right in this dark rift, and the orientation is such that the Milky Way rims the horizon at all points around. Thus, the Milky Way 'sits' on the earth, touching it at all points around, opening up the cosmic sky portal. The galactic and solar planes are thus aligned." (2)

The Maya symbolized this dark rift as the universal mother god's vagina, from which is born the new god of our world—in some accounts the Sun god of enlightenment corresponding to the Christian Christ. In Western astrology and astronomy, the Mayan Sky Portal or Great Cycle is called the Precession of the Equinoxes. (3) There is evidence that ancient astrologers all around our planet were aware of it centuries before the invention of the telescope.

In 3114 BC at the beginning of the 13 baktun cycle, human beings were emerging from the Stone Age and entering the Bronze Age. During this cycle, humans made tremendous advancements in how we provide food, shelter, clothing and amenities for ourselves. This period also marks the first use of money in the form of metal coins. During this 13-baktun cycle metal coins gave way to paper money. The Chinese used paper IOU's centuries before the Swedes, in 1661, introduced paper bills denominated in specific amounts, an experiment that stimulated rapid inflation, landing the head of Sweden's central bank in jail. But the idea was catchy, and one cycle of Saturn later, in 1694, paper money began to spread throughout Europe and into the American colonies.

A third Mayan cycle has a direct bearing on money and economics. It lasts around 256 of our years and is composed of 19.7 year periods called Days and Nights. This cycle last began in 1755 and is due to end in 2011, and/or on the cusp of the winter solstice of 2012.

Each Night period of this cycle has been characterized by economic difficulties of one kind or another: 1775, the American Revolution followed by a great depression; 1814, the War of 1812; 1854, the financial crash of 1857; 1893, a severe (although not quite great) depression; 1932, what we now call The Great Depression; and 1972, "stagflation" and an OPEC oil embargo. During the most recent Mayan Night in 1972 the Nixon Administration took the dollar off the gold standard. Prior to that time, dollars could be exchanged for their value in gold—theoretically, at least. Disconnecting from the gold standard meant the dollar "floated free," fluctuating in value against other currencies.

Today, most of what we call money is not greenback paper bills but numbers stored in bank computers and spent or earned via checks, credit cards or electronic transfers from one bank's computer to another bank's computer. The European Union's new currency, the euro, is purely abstract money. In effect, Europeans decided that since the American dollar did so well after it was taken off the gold standard, why not create a European currency that floats free from day one?

"Assume that, for whatever reason, all the information in the computers of the banks of the world were suddenly eradicated. This would mean that all accounts and holdings of money, stock, options, etc., would disappear. Although many individuals would regard this as a catastrophe, we may ask if anything of value would be lost. Obviously not! All natural resources, buildings, machines, human knowledge, goods, etc., that existed before, would remain untouched by such a hypothetical synchronistic crash in all the world's bank computers. In terms of real values, nothing would be lost and the world could easily pick up the day after (leaving aside the emotional effects this occurrence would have on many)." (1)

The author of the above quote is Carl Johan Calleman, a biomedical scientist with a Ph. D. from the University of Stockholm. He has dedicated himself to studying the Mayan Calendar and finding correlations between it and economic history. And he has concluded this:

"The correlation between (economic and Mayan cycles) is so strong that most economists could only dream of attaining a similar concordance to support their theories. What is more, it is based on very simple facts that anyone with a basic economic education can verify."

The Mayan texts concerning 2012 have been translated as meaning "the end of the world." From what Calleman and others have found in studies of Mayan astrology and economic cycles, I think we can safely assume the Maya did not mean the literal end of the physical world. Mayan astrologers were students of perspective, so what is more likely to end is the perspective humanity developed since 3114 BC. The winter solstice 2012 will also mark our entry into the Age of Aquarius, as it is called in Western astrology. In fact, one could argue that a new perspective around this time was even predicted by the ancient Egyptian astrologers, who were also aware of the precession of the equinoxes.

The Maya believed in an "Underworld," a causal realm of pure energy/consciousness, the realm of the gods. From this realm arises the ma

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Robert Gover's book Time and Money: the Economy and the Planets came out in late May, 2005. Euromoney Magazine reviewed it in late 2005. Robert has partnered with a fund manager in Florida, Mike Mansfield, to do a financial newsletter. Robert was the featured speaker at a conference of investors from around the world in Denver on September 24, 2005, He has a BA in economics and has studied astrology since 1965. By the mid-1970s, he had become interested in stock market astrology, and by the mid-1980s, with the advent of astrological software, his interest had expanded to the whole economy. Time and Money may be purchased from www.hopepubs.com, or amazon, B&N and other online vendors, as well as book stores. Robert is a memmber of the International Society of Astrological Research, the International Society of Business Astrologers, and the American Federation of Astrologers. He is also a novelist, and the latest edition of his most famous book One Hundred Dollar Misunderstanding can be purchased at most online bookstores. His other novels may be obtained from used or rare book dealers. He has written one other nonfiction book: Voodoo Contra, about the conradictory meanings of that ominous word. Visit the author's website. Send an email to the author. For more information about Robert Gover, click here. Other StarIQ articles by Robert Gover: Pluto and the Fed    12/7/2007 The Real Estate Cycle    5/14/2007 Saturn-Neptune and the U.S. Monetary System    6/9/2006 Global Corporations & Territorial Imperative    3/24/2006 Neptune and the New Fed Chairman    2/24/2006 Saturn-Neptune Avian Flu    1/16/2006 Saturn & Neptune: Money and Oil    11/4/2005 Money: Dollar & Yuan    7/29/2005 Wal-Mart's Dilemma    5/20/2005 Social Security and Murphy's Law    1/28/2005 Mercury, Pluto and the Vote Count    11/12/2004 Vietnam, Iraq, Saturn & Pluto    10/8/2004 Planetary Aspects & Belief    7/16/2004 Zhu Di to G. Bush    5/28/2004 The 72-Year Cycle    4/16/2004 Class War    1/9/2004 Economists and Astrology, Part 5    10/6/2003 Economists and Astrology, Part 4    9/29/2003 Economists and Astrology, Part 3    9/22/2003 Economists and Astrology, Part 2    9/9/2003 Economists and Astrology, Part 1    9/8/2003 Dollar, Euro and War    4/24/2003 Stock Market Alert    12/12/2002 War Fever    10/3/2002 Long-Range Economic Forecast    8/29/2002 Pep Rallies & Scouting Reports    8/15/2002 The Virtuous Circle    8/2/2000 Neptune, Pluto and Boundaries    5/24/2000 Volatile Stock Markets and Pluto    4/19/2000 Neptune and Inflation    3/29/2000 Financial Panics Past and Future    3/8/2000 The Bubble and Gap of the 1990s    3/1/2000 Saturn and Great Depressions Part 2    2/2/2000 Saturn and Great Depressions Part 1    1/12/2000