The short answer is that December 21, 2012, is the last date of the Mayan Long Count calendar, after which there is no more information given by the Mayans about subsequent events. It is extrapolated that 2012 will bring so much chaos and devastation that life as we know it will either end or never be the same. It may mean nothing – it may simply be that the count starts all over again for a new cycle. But warnings by the Mayans about sun activity that caused global problems in the past, coupled with any number of other apocalyptic warnings from other sources, make 2012 proponents wary of the future.

At the very least, 2012 is said to bring change – according to most predictions, the change will be for the worse, although it will eventually get better. It is hard, however, to think optimistically when you realize just how much worse things will get before they get better. Predictions include solar flares, geomagnetic reversals, volcano eruptions (including supervolcanoes), earthquakes, tsunamis, war, famine, possibly mass extinction, planets or near-earth objects striking or coming near enough to Earth to affect magnetic pull. The end could be natural or supernatural, extraterrestrial or terrestrial, but there is no doubting that all of these are profoundly disquieting to even imagine, much less to live through.

The year 2012 will bring us into the age of Aquarius, when the stars and sun are in a certain place in the heavens. In more than one predictive source, this astrological alignment signals a time of turmoil. However, it’s also a point of incredible cosmic significance. 2012 will mark the time when the sun eclipses the central plane of the galaxy called the dark rift – in other words, it will eclipse the black hole in the center of the galaxy.

Mayans associated the central point of the galaxy with the Tree of Life. It is undeniable that 2012 will be a terrible time, but its intensity will inevitably lead to a time of renewal, when man has to reconsider his place in the world and in the universe. Many 2012 believe that indeterminable good will come out of the indeterminable bad – some believe that we have a dormant trait in our DNA that will return, attuning us to the world around us. Others believe that extraterrestrial or divine interference will cause an evolutionary leap for a spiritual renewal.

In preparing for the worst to come, we can also cling to the hope that the best will also come. Whether nothing happens, whether something bad happens, or whether something good happens, the world will be watching as the December 21, 2012, date comes closer … ready to celebrate, or ready to batten down the hatches for the chaos to come.