Since 1582 the standard world calendar has been the 12-month Gregorian calendar, in which the months have an unequal number of days (28,29,30, and 31) and do not correspond to any cycle of nature. It does not reflect or teach us about the natural rhythms of our journey around the Sun – nor does it help us with our relationship to our orbiting moon

The word ‘Calends’ comes from Roman words meaning an account book, referring to monthly debts to be paid.  The Gregorian calendar obtains its names mostly from gods (March from Roman Mars) or leaders of empires (July and August from the first Cæsars), or ordinals that got out of synchronisation (September through December, originally seventh through tenth, now ninth through twelfth ).

One proposal is that we should move to a 13 month count:

13 moons x 28 days = 364 + one day out of time = 365 days.

The extra day is called “the day out of time”, which is the Mayan New Year’s Day and it corresponds to our 25th July.

The Mayan calendar integrates many “twin” aspects, like Sun and Moon which represent male and female. Its concepts are based on moon, tides and human biorhythms, similar to female cycles. As well as Mayans, Druids, Incans, ancient Egyptians and Polynesians also used a 13 month count.

In 1933 there was a proposal to the League of Nations that was going to switch to a 13 month calendar but the proposal was vetoed by the USA following objection from representatives of the Catholic Church saying that it would anger God and cause “chaos, barbarism, and war.”

At the root of the world’s imbalance is humanity’s alienation from nature. This alienation is emphasised by our use of the artificial man-made frequency of time called the “12:60″. We could even say that the motto of the 12:60 paradigm is “time is money.”

Perhaps if we were to start using a nature-based rhythm 13 month measure of days it would help us to reconnect us to the wisdom of our ancestors as well as increase our harmony with the planet and galaxy we live in.

Sources:

http://www.13moon.com

Calendar reform from Wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calendar_reform

Into this group go all kinds of meditators, (and I speak as someone who has meditated twice daily for 40 years) and spiritual seekers, 2012ers, fundamentalist Christians who believe in the Rapture (Jesus will come on clouds and the chosen ones will be lifted up into the sky), some Shia Muslims (including President Ahmadinjead of Iran) who also believe in an imminent second coming of the Prophet that will sort everything out.

There are a growing number for whom 2012 has become an obsession and a justification for just carrying on as before. For me I do have a strong sense that a transformation of consciousness is actually happening and that is what many 2012 predictions are about. There is a global awakening happening on all sorts of levels, something Paul Hawken spotted and has called ‘the other superpower’.

The issue we might have is not with any particular spiritual belief itself, but with the thinking that follows that there no need to do anything because the angels or the Divine will sort it out. There is an Arabic saying ‘trust in God and tie up your camel’.

For me Joanna Macy’s three actions sums up what we need to do: resist destruction (direct action), build new ways of living (transition initiatives), transform consciousness (inner transition). None of them on their own are enough and we need to engage on all levels.

What clicked for me some years ago was that whatever angle you looked it was becoming clear that we were heading to a big crunch. Whether one looked at economics in the Financial Times, energy constraints on Energy Bulletin, Climate Chaos, water, food production, etc etc or from a spiritual angle; they all seemed to be predicting a crunch of issues around about the same date. I found that a pretty compelling reason to get out there and do more!

For me a little knowledge of 2012 ideas is just an added motivation to do more for Transition Initiatives, not an excuse to leave it all up to cosmic forces.

As the joke goes – ‘Jesus is coming. Look busy.’