What happens when the Long Count ends? That's what a team of scientists situated near Izapa, Mexico, sets out to determine in the years leading up to December 21, 2012 - the end date of the Long Count, the ancient Mayan calendar which some believe predicts the end of the world. When infighting threatens to break up the team before the solution is found, one unscrupulous member advances a theory that puts world armies on alert, brings religious organizations to a tipping point and global society to a panic. As thousands flock to Izapa on the end date to wait for the world to end, the team realizes too late that the danger they thought would come from outside the human race actually comes from within.

Taking advantage of recent advances throughout the sciences, Matthew Hedman brings the distant past closer to us than it has ever been. Here, he shows how scientists have determined the age of everything from the colonization of the New World over 13,000 years ago to the origin of the universe nearly fourteen billion years ago. Hedman details, for example, how interdisciplinary studies of the Great Pyramids of Egypt can determine exactly when and how these incredible structures were built. He shows how the remains of humble trees can illuminate how the surface of the sun has changed over the past ten millennia. And he also explores how the origins of the earth, solar system, and universe are being discerned with help from rocks that fall from the sky, the light from distant stars, and even the static seen on television sets. Covering a wide range of time scales, from the Big Bang to human history, The Age of Everything is a provocative and far-ranging look at how science has determined the age of everything from modern mammals to the oldest stars, and will be indispensable for all armchair time travelers. “We are used to being told confidently of an enormous, measurable past: that some collection of dusty bones is tens of thousands of years old, or that astronomical bodies have an age of some billions. But how exactly do scientists come to know these things? That is the subject of this quite fascinating book. . . . As told by Hedman, an astronomer, each story is a marvel of compressed exegesis that takes into account some of the most modern and intriguing hypotheses.”—Steven Poole, Guardian “Hedman is worth reading because he is careful to present both the power and peril of trying to extract precise chronological data. These are all very active areas of study, and as you read Hedman you begin to see how researchers have to be both very careful and incredibly audacious, and how much of our understanding of ourselves—through history, through paleontology, through astronomy—depends on determining the age of everything.”—Anthony Doerr, Boston Globe

From the pioneering author who helped introduce the question of 2012 into the global spiritual community comes an epic exploration of the authentic origins and meaning of this portentous date. Drawing from his own groundbreaking research (including his involvement in the modern reconstruction of Mayan 2012 cosmology), John Major Jenkins has created the crucial guide to 2012, surveying its roots in Mayan cosmology, modern astronomy, ancient prophecy, and metaphysical philosophy and exploring why it has become a focal point for millions today.

Calendars of Mesoamerican civilisations are subjected to what is categorised as “ritual practices of time”. This book is a comparative explication of rituals of time of four calendars: the Long Count calendar, the 260-day calendar, the 365-day calendar and the 52-years calendar. Building upon a comparative analytical model, the book contributes new theoretical insights about ritual practices and temporal philosophies. This comprehensive investigation analyses how ritual practices are represented and conceptualised in intellectual systems and societies. The temporal ritual practices are systematically analysed in relation to calendar organisation and structure, arithmetic, cosmogony and chronometry, spatial-temporality (cosmology), natural world, eschatology, sociology, politics, and ontology. It is argued that the 260-day calendar has a particular symbolic importance in Mesoamerican temporal philosophies and practices.

Since humans first looked up at the stars, astronomy has had a particular ability to stir the imagination and challenge the thinking of scientists and non-scientists alike. Astronomy: The Human Quest for Understanding is an introductory astronomy textbook specifically designed to relate to non-science majors across a wide variety of disciplines, nurture their curiosity, and develop vital science-based critical-thinking skills. This textbook provides an introduction to how science operates in practice and what makes it so successful in uncovering nature's secrets. Given that the study of astronomy dates back thousands of years, it is the ideal subject for tracing the development of the physical sciences and how our evolving understanding of nature has influenced, and been influenced by, mathematics, philosophy, religion, geography, politics, and more. This historical approach also illustrates how wrong turns have been taken, and how the inherent self-correcting nature of science through constant verification and the falsifiability of truly scientific theories ultimately leads us back to a more productive path in our quest for understanding. This approach also points out why, as a broadly educated citizenry, students of all disciplines must understand how scientists arrive at conclusions, and how science and technology have become central features of modern society. In discussing this fascinating and beautiful universe of which we are a part, it is necessary to illustrate the fundamental role that mathematics plays in decoding nature's mysteries. Unlike other similar textbooks, some basic mathematics is integrated naturally into the text, together with interpretive language, and supplemented with numerous examples; additional tutorials are provided on the book's companion website. Astronomy: The Human Quest for Understanding leads the reader down the path to our present-day understanding of our Solar System, stars, galaxies, and the beginning and evolution of our universe, along with profound questions still to be answered in this ancient, yet rapidly changing field.

A contemporary and practical guide to Mayan astrological techniques • Discusses the logic and meaning of the 20 day-signs of the Mayan calendar • Explains the many cycles of Mayan astrology, such as the 9-day cycle of the Night Lords and the 13-day trecena • Contains extensive tables of Mayan astrological data, allowing readers to cast their own Mayan horoscopes How to Practice Mayan Astrology presents a contemporary guide to one of the most sophisticated astrological systems ever developed. Like other ancient peoples, the Maya looked to the cycles of the planets as markers of time and designators of order. The predictable cycles they observed became codified in the Mayan calendar and astrological system as a way of organizing the seeming chaos of human life. Mayan astrology is based on 20 named days that are cycled 13 times to create a 260-day calendar, the Tzolkin. The authors explain the symbolism, logic, and meaning of the 20 day-signs; how these signs reflect 260 possible personality types; and how they can be used for divination. They also explain the important role of the Four Directions and the planet Venus in one’s personality matrix and life issues. Included are extensive, easy-to-use tables of Mayan astrological data, allowing readers to determine their day-signs, to see how these signs are also influenced by the cycle of the Night Lords and the 13-day trecena, and to cast their own horoscopes.

Does the eerily precise Mayan calendar prophesy doomsday on December 21, 2012, or does it predict a glorious new age of raised consciousness? Does a hidden monument in Mexico finally put to rest what the Maya knew? 2012: Day of Reckoning takes readers on a hair-raising journey to unlock the mystery behind the lost prophecy of the ancient Maya. From galactic alignment to pole shift to Planet X/Nibiru and a starling prediction of time travel and The Singularity, 2012: Day of Reckoning elucidates the Mayan prophecy with commentary from top Maya scholars and leading voices in the movement.