On 21 December 2012 the Mayan Long Count calendar completes its thirteenth b'ak'tun, and the date, interpreted since Argüelles and Terence McKenna as a hinge of consciousness, draws convergences, festivals, and worldwide media attention to a transformation that arrives as a day like others. The phenomenon is the movement's last great dated expectation and a standing case study in how its prophecies are absorbed when they pass.
Tagged: New Age
The Event
- Date
- 2012 (exact)
- Era
- The Commercial Afterlife; Standard periodization of New Age history
- Location
- Chichen Itza; today Yucatan, Mexico
- Traditions
- New Age Spirituality
- Streams
- New Age
- Key figures
- José Argüelles, Terence McKenna
Connections
Primary Sources
- The Long Count inscriptions of the Classic Maya (the calendar's own record), and the phenomenon's literature from Argüelles, The Mayan Factor, 1987.
Secondary Sources
- Hanegraaff, Wouter J. New Age Religion and Western Culture: Esotericism in the Mirror of Secular Thought. Leiden: Brill, 1996.
- Heelas, Paul. The New Age Movement. Oxford: Blackwell, 1996.
- York, Michael. The Emerging Network: A Sociology of the New Age and Neo-Pagan Movements. Lanham: Rowman and Littlefield, 1995.
Provenance: HIST-1483; confidence 0.95; accessed 2026-10-30.
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World View
New Age Spirituality
New Age spirituality is an eclectic search for the divine within: through healing, meditation, and ancient wisdom, each person awakens to their own sacred power.