12/12/12: Twelve must-know facts about last once-in-a-lifetime date this century Published: 12 December, 2012, 12:12
People pray for peace during 12:12:12, at an event called "Light Meeting" in Tama, west of Tokyo December 12, 2012, marking the last day in this century where the numeral date appear with the same numbers. (Reuters / Yuriko Nakao)
It’s the century’s last sequential date. For some, it represents luck. For others, it’s a day of romance. For most of us, it’s just another Wednesday. Regardless of your beliefs, 12/12/12 comes along with some rather amusing facts and superstitions.
Ballons fly in air as newlywed couples celebrate their mass wedding in conjunction with the date 12.12.12 outside a Chinese temple in Kuala Lumpur on December 12, 2012. Some 200 couples gathered at the temple to attend a grand colourful wedding ceremony on December 12, 2012, which many in Asia marks an auspicious date on the calendar. (AFP Photo / Saeed Khan)
1. Wedding bells will be ringing in Hong Kong and Singapore, where couples are keen to tie the knot on a day which they say symbolizes love. But it’s not just Asia which will see an increase in love birds heading to the altar. A survey conducted by US-based David’s Bridal estimates that around 7,500 brides will be getting hitched in America – a 1,446 per cent increase from the less significant 12/12/11. The surge comes as no surprise, considering the sharp increases in marriages which took place on 11/11/11 and 10/10/10.
Jiaqui Yuan signs his marriage certificate dated 12/12/12 at a marriage office in central Sydney December 12, 2012. A record number of couples are getting married today in Australia in celebration of the last time for almost 90 years that the date will have the same number for the day, month and year. (Reuters / Daniel Munoz)
2. For some, the day will be anything but joyful. Many doomsdayers believe 12/12/12 will be the end of the world, thanks to an interpretation of the Mayan calendar. But, most of the end-of-the-world believers are convinced that the actual doomsday is on 12/21/12, when the Mayan calendar is set to end.
3. In response to “end of the world” preparations taking place across the globe, the Astronomical Society of the Pacific has declared 12/12/12 “Anti-Doomsday Day,” in celebration of rational thinking and reasoned discourse.
4. Palindrome lovers will rejoice in the fact that at 1:21:02 am, they can celebrate the second which marks a date-time combination which will be read the same both backwards and forwards. 2012-12-12 1:21:02 = 201212-1-212102.
(AFP Photo / Thomas Coex)
5. Those who wish to take part in yet another time-based phenomenon but find themselves snoring away at 1:21:02 will be given a second chance. At 12:12:12 pm, the number 12 will be given a “sixer” – 12/12/12 12:12:12.
6. Number crunchers have a profound respect for the number 12, mainly because of its divisibility capabilities. After all, it can divided into halves, thirds, fourths, sixths, and twelfths. So it can only be assumed that mathematicians will find 12/12/12 to be three times more exciting than a normal “12” day.
7. According to Chinese numerology, the number one is a yang number which is ruled by the sun and represents independence and individualism. Two is a yin number which is ruled by the moon and represents symmetry and balance. When placed together, the number 12 brings harmony to the yin and yang, balancing the feminine energy of the moon with the masculine energy of the sun. So, what we can gather is that 12/12/12 equals lots of harmony.
People practice Taiji, a form of Chinese martial arts. (Reuters / Claudia Daut)
8. Three is generally considered a heavenly number and often represents the soul or godhead. Four is the number of earth and mankind – for example, there are four elements (earth, air, fire, and water) and four cardinal directions (north, south, east, and west). Because of this, the product of the two numbers, 12, has been said to encompass both the secular and the sacred. So 12/12/12 should mean that both sides will be represented more than usual.
9. December 12, 2012 is exactly 6 years, 6 months, 6 days from June 6, 2006, or 06/06/06.
10. From culinary cuisine to calendars, 12 has been a significant number since its creation. Just think about it – 12 months in the year, 12 hours of night and day, 12 astrological signs, 12 Olympic gods and goddesses, 12 days of Christmas, and Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night. Oh, and let’s not forget about eggs – which are cheaper by the dozen! With so much significance on its side, 12/12/12 was seemingly destined to be a meaningful day.
Indian nurses from Kasturba Gandhi hospital pose with two female babies born after midnight in conjunction with the date 12.12.12 in New Delhi on December 12, 2012. (AFP Photo / Prakash Singh)
11. Kiam Moriya of Birmingham, Alabama will turn 12 at 12:12pm on 12/12/12. Since approximately 267 babies are born every minute, many other people will share the same moment – in their respective timezones, of course!
12. Students at Moscow State University have been given motivation to study after their professor posted a sign on his door stating, “The last chance to retake your History of Foreign Literature exam will be 12/12/12. If you choose not to take it, it will not only be the end of the world…but also the end of you.” source: http://rt.com/news/features/december-12-marriage-doomsday-844/
Once-in-a-lifetime 12/12/12 date spawns mass weddings, superstitions
By Holly Yan, CNN
updated 8:31 AM EST, Wed December 12, 2012
(CNN) -- From India to Las Vegas, superstitious lovebirds and numbers geeks are reveling in a once-in-a-lifetime event: the date 12/12/12.
Sure, it might be just another set of numbers for some. But unlike the past 11 years, this will be the last such triple date for almost a century -- until January 1, 2101.
That means one last chance for couples to get hitched on such an easy-to-remember wedding date (read: anniversary date).
Those tying the knot at the Viva Las Vegas Wedding Chapel have 40 different 12/12/12 wedding packages to choose from. Six of those options include an Elvis impersonator. Others include pirate, gangster and gothic themes.
"Besides a traditional wedding, the most popular is Elvis in a pink Caddy, where Elvis drives the couple down the aisle in a pink Cadillac," said general manager Brian Mills, who doubles as an Elvis impersonator. From midnight to midnight, more than 100 couples will walk or ride down the aisle at Viva Las Vegas. That's more than 10 times the number of couples who get hitched there on a typical Wednesday in December, Mills said.
"The charismatic and fun-loving couple that gets married on a 12 day is lucky and balanced, but seeking constant goals to achieve," the chapel's website explains. "The 'go-getting' 1 and the 'sensitive' 2 make this a very balanced number.
"1 is the vibration of 'new beginnings' and starting things afresh. The 2 vibration is about seeking 'balance' and that's certainly something that many will struggle with -- balancing the bank balance, balancing the food and beverage intake, balancing the emotions ... balancing in every way."
For professional numerologists, 12/12/12 isn't just a cool repetition of digits or a lucky day for lovers.
It's a fantastic day to start a new business venture or make a significant purchase, Indian numerologist Swetta Jumaani said.
According to numerology, 12 is considered a "three" number because the digits add up to three.
And three is a very good number because it corresponds with the largest planet, Jupiter, in addition to wealth. (In case you're wondering, Jumaani says the No. 1 "planet" is the sun, and the No. 2 "planet" is the moon.)
"If you're in a business of trading money, or the buying and selling of anything, (Wednesday) is a good day to make investments," Jumaani said. "If you want to buy something -- property, if you want to buy gold -- it'd be a good day."
But Wednesday is a terrible day to wear black, she said.
"Black is a very inauspicious color. Something bad always happens."
Halfway across the world in Alabama, Kiam Moriya will turn 12 on 12/12/12 -- at exactly 12:12 p.m., AL.com reported.
"It's like one minute out of a whole lifetime," Kiam told the news site. "You know, it's all 12s."
Wednesday also marks a milestone for the Vatican, where Pope Benedict XVI sent his first official tweet to the world.
12/12/12, December Solstice and the Sentient Earth 2012
Nature-lovers have an intimate relationship with Earth and understand the mutual partnership with our planet. The concept that Earth, like all planets, is a conscious, sentient entity may be more difficult to grasp.
Indigenous peoples, environmentalists and some religions have always known and revered Mother Earth and Father Sky and live lightly on her surface. Ditto for “whisperers” and others who have special relationships and great love for animals, plants and rocks.
Earth’s ancient name Gaia is now familiar. Other planets in our universe have ancient names as well, indicating old knowledge of planetary consciousness until they were renamed.
Everything is changing now, more rapidly every day. Humanity is in the most important time of its existence. The month of December 2012 marks two tipping points:
For the planet and all non-human inhabitants, the evolutionary gate/stargate to higher spiritual/vibrational levels is 12/12/12 at 12:12 p.m. This is a pivotal moment marked by global meditations and celebration, the real “Earth Day”! Have lunch outside! Watch your pets! Hug a tree! Appreciate a flower, a leaf, a blade of grass, a yard, a park, a stream, a mountain, a vista!
The gateway for humans, the upcoming solstice (shortest day of the year)—12/21/12 at 6:14 a.m.–marks an unbelievable planetary and galactic alignment that occurs only once every 186 million years! This alignment permits a massive influx of benevolent energies which in the past have not been able to reach us. The cosmos and God in many forms—spirits, angels, time travelers, interdimensionals, humans—will at last be able to visit en masse. The significance of the solstice, 12/21 at 6:14 a.m., is not the end of the planet but the end of business as usual, the end of reign and tyranny of our controllers, the end of Old School, the end of all we “know”, and the emergence of a New Earth and a New Society.
Earth changes—drought, flood, earthquakes and tsunamis, tornadoes and other severe weather—are occurring for two main reasons:
The first is that hurricanes, blizzards and the jet stream certainly are being steered and triggered by HAARP—the high altitude auroral research project—based in Gakona AL but active in installations all over the globe. This incredible technology is an ionospheric heater that can cause illness and destruction to one person, one submarine or airplane, or a wide area. It is also used in mind control and other applications.
A second technology, activated after World War II in Russia, is scalar technology, harnessing energy from the “void” to create massive weapons. This same technology will soon provide us with clean, zero-point energy, and fossil fuels will be delegated to the past. The second aspect of these changes is a cleansing for the planet itself and its atmosphere to help get rid of near-fatal pollution. From a metaphysical/spiritual viewpoint, our beautiful Earth has come within a hair of total destruction, and our controllers would have us believe that the winter solstice marks the end of the physical world (as has happened 4 times before) in a great cataclysm/apocalypse of fire and water to usher in the Second Coming.
The real Battle of the Gods is underway! Our globalist controllers want to consolidate their New World Order to kill or control us all. They plan to annihilate 80% of us with disasters—not only earth changes but lethal epidemics, ongoing foreign wars, fascist military declarations (including trains to FEMA camps and crematoria) and civil wars everywhere (including yes, in the USA!).
Global warming, for example, has not been created by common folk at all but is a cyclical phenomenon also experienced by our neighboring planets. It has been made worse, much worse, by nuclear testing, rocket launchings, and daily stealth bomber launchings to control local weather. These events have torn massive holes in the ozone layer and ionosphere. (Think we’re responsible? Find out about the USA’s secret space program and weather control!)
Counteracting our controllers are GOD/LOVE and a host of benevolent spirits/ETs/angels who have not been able to interact freely with Gaia and her inhabitants for all of our known history. Certainly there has been contact and miracles with individuals and small groups but not with all of us at once. These friends of humanity are incredible magicians at making lemonade: earth changes are being mitigated or prevented; miracles abound; toxic radiation is being neutralized; nourishment for our physical bodies is still possible for some but soon will be global. With intuitive/spiritual guidance, human “mystics” and “witches,” are leading the way and many others are following, “walking the talk,” and “being the change.”
The Battle of the Gods is being won human heart by human heart. Living in the moment, hearing and obeying our own intuitive guidance, appreciating beauty and love everywhere and in everyone, feeling love/praise/gratitude with every step, selecting compassion and generosity over control and greed is our work. Every choice is based on love rather than fear.
We are beginning to see (especially in children and young people) attitudes of love, compassion and gratitude which will “go viral” and affect everyone. Each of us participates in creating the New Earth, with all its inhabitants, by living in the moment, seeing beauty everywhere, following our intuition, and being grateful, aware and loving.
By Jeanna Bryner, LiveScience Managing Editor | LiveScience.com
A seemingly benign number that defines everything from a dozen eggs and the hours of day and night to the days of Christmas and the astrological signs, 12 may be in the spotlight today, 12/12/12.
This date structure, in which the same two-digit number gets repeated three times, won't happen again until 2112, according to the Astronomical Society of the Pacific (ASP).
But does the triple dose of 12 hold any meaning? Depends on whom you ask, but in Hong Kong and Singapore, couples are crowding the aisles for a chance to tie the knot on a day they say symbolizes love, according to news outlets. Las Vegas is also abuzz with nuptials, according to CNN, which also reported an Indian numerologist saying today is a great day to start a new business venture. Making the rounds online, a boy who will turn 12 today at 12:12 p.m. in Bronxville, N.Y., suggests we're all a bit "number crazy."
Doom isn't far behind the celebrations. While most believers in the Mayan apocalypse think the end of the world will come on Dec. 21, 2012, apparently some have interpreted the end of the Maya Long Count calendar differently, pinpointing Dec. 12, 2012, as a day of reckoning. (There is no evidence to suggest the Mayans predicted the end of their calendar to mean the end of the world.)
Turning doomsday on its head, the ASP has coined today "Anti-Doomsday."
"While many pundits and prognosticators lament the supposed end of the world on December 21, 2012 (thanks to misinterpreting Mayan predictions), here at the ASP we encourage everyone to go in the opposite – and accurate – direction. Thus, we are declaring December 12, 2012 as Anti-Doomsday Day in celebration of rational thinking and reasoned discourse," according to an ASP statement. [End of the World? Top Doomsday Fears]
And if one were to tie any significance to today, and numerology in general, the ASP reminds us of plenty of auspicious associations with the number 12: the months in a year on contemporary calendars; 12 traditional zodiac signs; 12 Olympic gods and goddesses in Greek mythology; and 12 bottles of wine in a case. In Christian belief, Jesus had 12 apostles.
Then there's Mars, which is 12 light-minutes from the sun, and Jupiter, which takes 12 years to orbit the sun, according to the ASP.
The most recent triple-digit setup like today's occurred on Nov. 11, 2011 (11/11/11), another day some associated with Mayan doom. That day most likely became linked with Dec. 21, 2012, when believers noticed that the U.S. Naval Observatory had set the exact time of the 2012 winter solstice — when Earth's tilt is angled at its farthest from the sun — for 11:11 Universal Time on Dec. 21, John Hoopes, a scholar of Maya history at the University of Kansas, told LiveScience last year. (The Observatory now lists the official time for the winter solstice at 11:12 Universal Time.)
While the meaning behind numbers, called numerology, has yet to be grounded in science, humanity seems hard-wired to find such numerical associations.
"Cognitive scientists have demonstrated that our brains are hard-wired to look for meaningful patterns in the sensory data it collects from the world," said Alan Lenzi, professor of religious studies at University of the Pacific. "Numbers that are already significant to us, such as calendar dates, that also coincidentally fall into an obvious pattern become doubly significant," Lenzi told LiveScience in 2011, speaking about 1/11/11.
Lenzi added, "Given the propensity for people to look for significance in particular days and times (e.g. the "end of the world"), patterns are easily imbued with imaginative meaning," Lenzi said.
And patterns tend to stick in our heads — you're more likely to remember a birthday that's on 11/11, 12/12, or 10/10, than one on 12/5, for instance. The same would be the case for various times of the day. "People are more likely to remember 11:11 than they are, say, 4:29 or 6:53 or 3:17 or something like that," Hoopes said.
For years people have been fixated on the date December 21, 2012, because of its connections to the end of the Mayan calendar and, to some, the predicted date of the end of the world. But, in Numerology, just as important is the repeating date December 12, 2012, or 12/12/12.
Right off the bat 12/12/12 is an interesting date, solely because of its repetition of the number 12. This repeating date is an annual pattern we've experienced for the last 12 years -- since 1/1/01, to be exact. But a 13th month does not exist, and so next year -- and until January 1, 2101, in fact -- we will not experience another of these repeating dates. After 12/12/12, it will not happen again for another 89 years.
Even more importantly, the numbers that make up the date 12/12/2012, plus the numbers derived through Numerology calculations, are the exact same numbers as those in the widely-known date 12/21/2012. The numbers in both dates add to 11, and the Pinnacle numbers and Challenge numbers are exactly the same for each date. In both dates, almost every Challenge number (the numbers that suggest difficulties) is 2. So what do these numbers combine to mean?
In Hans Decoz' 2012 Numerology article, in which he analyzes the date 12/21/2012, he says: "The sum total of 11 ... combined with a Second, Main, and Fourth Challenge of 2 is what makes this date particularly promising. Not only does it reflect that the level of sensitivity and insight into all matters of the heart is sky-high, but the 2 Challenges also create a vacuum that needs to be filled with a sense of love and brotherhood. It's the perfect storm of brotherly love and individual awareness. It is a Bringer of Peace."
Answer:Meso-American star charting started around 680 B.C. by the Olmec civilization who were recording astrological patterns in the sky and eventually shared this information with the Mayans. The Mayans had a long history of tracking the winter solstice (probably for planting crops) and creating calendars (at least 17 that we know of). At some point, they developed the belief that our sun is a god and that the Milky Way, called the “Sacred Tree,” was a gateway to the afterlife. After learning from the Olmecs, they began keeping records of the stars’ patterns of movement and continued to do so for the next 200-300 years. The Mayans then developed their own calendar (The Long Count) ca. 355 B.C. They were able to use their observations and mathematical prowess to calculate the future movements of stars across the sky. The result was that the Mayans discovered the effect of the earth’s wobbling as it spins on its axis. This wobbling rotation causes the stars’ patterns of movement to drift gradually in the sky (called “precession”) in a 5,125-year cycle. The Mayans also discovered that once every cycle the dark band at the center of the Milky Way (called the Galactic Equator) intersects with the Elliptical (the plane of the sun’s movement across the sky).
[This image - enlarge - shows a view from the earth of the sun crossing the galactic equator]
During that year, the sun reaches its solstice (a brief moment when the sun’s position in the sky is at its greatest angular distance on the other side of the equatorial plane from the observer) on December 21 for the Northern Hemisphere and June 21 for the Southern Hemisphere. That year, the solstice occurs at the moment of the conjunction of the Galactic Equator with the Milky Way. The year this occurs (in relation to our Gregorian calendar) is A.D. 2012, and happened last on August 11, 3114 B.C. With Mayan mythology teaching that our sun is a god and the Milky Way is the gateway to life and death, the Mayans concluded that this intersection in the past must have been the moment of creation. Mayan hieroglyphs seem to indicate that they believed the next intersection in 2012 would be some sort of end and a new beginning of a cycle....
(more to the story here)...
Unfortunately this event has to take place on a week night as a worldwide event I believe that there will be a souvenir designed for 12-12-12. There should be be ample parking in the compound for all if not most vehicles, I might even have the option of putting on a minibus to run between the event and Polmont railway station (TBC). For security reasons I will have to have a Nominal Role of all attending the event.
So the very special and significant numerological date 12/12/12 comes upon us. To me, as someone who reads synchronicity as a way of life, numerology is very important. It symbolizes the interconnectivity of life: apparently random acts happening in concert. I read numbers but feel the impact in my knowing being. During the build up to 12/12/12, synchronistically I’m having an amazing Twin Flame experience: souls that notionally divide into two,and are then experienced through the ‘holy trinity’ – the ‘father’, the ‘son’ and the ‘holy ghost’. And it feels doubly significant at these times of planetary transition…
An eternal affinity
As we’ve written about before here on Openhandweb, when a soul comes into being, it notionally subdivides into two. One part stays close to the source, the other incarnates. To the incarnated partner, the Twin Flame is the polarity constantly whispering in your ear, singing into the depths of your heart, reminding you of who you are, why you are here and guiding you home.
There will never be a love more powerful than the Twin Flame. It’s the ‘other part of you’, the completion of the whole eternally romancing you through the apparent universe of separation.
Your Twin Flame has an eternal affinity with you. No one will ever know you as well. No other soul outside of this heavenly interplay will ever understand you in the way your Twin Flame does, no one can empathize that deeply, not another soul can cause you to melt into your own being in the same way.
Yet here’s the heavenly paradox – our ‘purpose’ is to experience this infinite sense of unity THROUGH the separation. Otherwise the pull back to unity would be so strong and so rapid the universe would disappear for you in an instant. The apparent separation would no longer exist, the relativity no longer relative – duality would instantly disappear as two lovers drawn passionately into one another and melting into one. It is the dance of separation that makes life complete.
In and through all things
So one’s Twin Flame expresses in and through all things. She’s ‘tempting’ you into the chaos and disorder, to make sense of it. He’s alluring you into the deepest intimate love affair with another soul, yet inviting you to always taste and remember unity with your very own self.
It takes the internal sense of completeness to experience the Twin Flame in day-to-day life, but that is where ‘he’ is to be found. She is out there, hiding beyond every smile, through ever twinkle of a shining eye, in the melody of the bird’s dawn call, in the rustling sound of autumn leaves crushed tenderly under foot.
Have you begun experiencing this yet? How might we begin? It’s all about being thoroughly in the experience of separation but not of it. Beware all you “non-dualists” out there, you simply don’t get this experience at all if you’re denying the separation – the raptuous relativity – between one thing and another.
You have to be totally immersed in life, not resisting a drop of it – the pleasure the pain, the joy and the tears. It’s not about denying one tiny morsel of this human experience. And it’s as this divine poetry plays out that the Twin Flame rises from the page of life.
The infinite cycle
So how would you like to take part in the greatest romance of your life? Just take a moment out of your busy day. Reflect on the greatest loving partner experiences of your life. Recall the images, let the feelings well up within.
Maybe you’re still together and it’s changed now. Or maybe that romance has long ended. It matters not – feel the feelings, drop deeply into the sensations, let the dream wash through you.
Then let the dream flow outwards into the moment, into images, people, situations, into mother nature. Keep energising the flow, sending it out into everything you see and touch. Give your love to the swirling skies, to the flowing streams, the rustling wind, but then…..
“take that love back inside yourself”
Feel the infinite circle of the figure 8 complete itself within you. In the beginning, in some circumstances it will be easy, in others it will be hard. I can be hardest when you’re deeply in love with another, when they carry the closest vibration to your Twin Flame: the soul mate experience is so easily confused, because there’s so much yearning to dive deeply into the joy of this heavenly separation. It’s almost as difficult when another is carrying the polar opposite of your vibration. They are so different, so dissonant, that they can irritate you with everything they do, every word and nuance uttered by them seems to tweak those deep inner buttons. Yet even this offers a powerful Twin Fame experience – if you can find your completeness in the depths of irritation, then you’re being done the greatest favour.
Eternal Flame
So a 12/12/12 approaches, if you’re not yet having Twin Flame experiences, how about giving some energy to it? How about daring not to be owned by the drama at all? Instead, how about looking deeply and intently through all experience and finding that joyful part of yourself that may have been lost?
BIG SUNSPOT: One of the largest sunspot groups in years rotated over the sun's northeastern limb this weekend. With a least four dark cores larger than Earth, AR1476 sprawls more than 100,000 km from end to end, and makes an easy target for backyard solar telescopes. Amateur astronomer Alan Friedman sends this picture of the behemoth from his backyard in Buffalo, NY:
"AR1476 is firecrackler," says Friedman.
Indeed, the active region is crackling with impulsive M-class solar flares. Based on the sunspot's complex 'beta-gamma' magnetic field, NOAA forecasters estimate a 70% chance of more M-flares during the next 24 hours. There is also a 5% chance of powerful X-flares.
"This one is going to be fun as turns to face us!" predicts Friedman. He might be right.
Currently:
X-ray Solar Flares 6-hr max: M1 1431 UT May07 24-hr: M1 1431 UT May07 explanation | more dataUpdated: Today at: 1900 UT
Will this alignment cause megaquakes or just an uptick in large earthquakes?
Will this alignment cause strange weather phenomenon? ...Okay, so we are already experiencing that...
OR...will this just be an amazing thing to have witnessed in our lifetime? ...this is what I think it will be.
Rare Venus Transit of Sun Occurs in June: Skywatching Travel Tips
Imelda B. Joson and Edwin L. Aguirre
Date: 02 April 2012 Time: 07:00 AM ET
Mark your calendars! On June 5-6, a rare celestial event called a transit of Venus will take place, and it won't be repeated in your lifetime.
During the transit, Venus will pass directly in front of the sun from Earth's perspective, appearing as a small, slowly moving black dot. The last time this happened was in June 2004, but the next one won’t take place until December 2117. This is the last chance for anyone alive today to see the rare celestial sight.
Unlike a total eclipse of the sun, which is visible only within a long narrow track traced by the moon’s shadow, during the 2012 transit of Venus the entire hemisphere of Earth facing the sun will get to see at least part of the planet’s solar crossing.
The entire transit will be widely visible from eastern Asia, eastern Australia, New Zealand and the western Pacific, as well as Alaska, northern Canada and almost all of Greenland.
Perhaps you have heard the suggestion that an alignment of earth and the sun is contributing to a doomsday scenario in 2012. When the page turns for the Mayan calendar and the solar system is aligned somehow, the world is supposed to end. In fact, there is a significant alignment of planets in 2012 that much of the world will be watching.
Without question, Earth, Venus, and the sun will line up in a row as the nodes of their planetary orbits intersect on June 5-6, 2012. This is not a mere "close conjunction." Rather, it is a near-perfect alignment, a rare transit of Venus, and it has a track record of influencing humans since the first recorded observation in 1639. How will people of the world react? Will our existence end in some cataclysmic global event?
First to the latter question. "Umm, no."
No, the world will not end, any more than it ended for the Y2K turn of the calendar, when earth completed another orbit around the sun to end 1999. The Venus transit is simply the happenstance of three solar system bodies being in a line. It occurs naturally, periodically, and predictably as the planets dash around the sun, like two people running at different paces around an un-level field.
Don't be scammed. While hucksters will gladly try to separate you from your common sense (and more urgently, from your wallet), predictions of catastrophic disasters in 2012 have no basis in science. Ignore the ignorance. Surely some innocent people will be anxious about seemingly well-founded assertions of doom. Advocates of demise will bandy around scholarly-sounding credentials in an attempt to gain credibility, but they are only creating public anxiety where none ought be.
Be more concerned about climate change, for example. That's something for which there is a preponderance of scientific evidence--a human path toward global harm about which you can do something.
Returning to the question about how people will react to the transit of Venus...Hopefully they will come out in droves to witness this syzygy (a very cool word unlikely to make it on a Scrabble board). In centuries past, nations mounted global expeditions in cooperative scientific endeavors to tackle a common mystery. They wanted to figure out where we fit in the cosmos--specifically, how big is the solar system? A transit of Venus can reveal the answer.
Yes, the 2012 transit of Venus is a cosmic alignment, and you can witness it directly if you protect your eyes. Here are some recommended steps to survive the event without peril. Details are at www.transitofvenus.org.
