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The ancient Maya say surprisingly little about what will actually occur at the end of the calendar. They don’t talk at all about the celestial events we have been describing. References to the end times come from the katun prophecies in the book of the Chilam Balam. We know there will be a time of purification and we know there will be a time of transformation, the return of Kukulkan. This chapter will tell you about the katun prophecies and what they reveal. It will also tell you what to expect in the end times, what purification entails, and what the return of Kukulkan might bring.

The Mayan Prophecy in a Nutshell

There are two sides to this coin. On the one hand, we’re going through a difficult time leading into 2012. These difficulties are the result of our own disharmony of spirit. Governments and religions will let us down and lead us astray. Resources will be scarce and people will be afraid. Natural disasters will increase through the period and the age will end with destruction by fire.

On the other hand, Kukulkan returns representing a rising of consciousness. People are reunited with the wisdom of the past as a new age unfolds. Not only does Kukulkan return but Mayan masters and initiates also return to help spread the wisdom of the Maya. People are drawn to the temples and ruins to remember the past age of knowledge. It’s a time for recording and writing things down.

As we return to lost wisdom, we also return to living with the natural cycles represented by the calendars. People begin to elevate their own consciousness through the evolution of the energy centers in the body. We write the next phase of earth, the next age, together as people from all places unite. What happens in this phase depends on us. The “Golden Age” of the Maya begins. This is a synthesis of the katuns. Curious as to the details? Read on!

The Katuns

The prophecies are part of the katun cycles and were written in the Chilam Balam. The book, however, holds much more than the simple katuns. It holds the visionary predictions of the author of the Chilam Balam, nicknamed “the singing Chilan.” The katuns were read for divination and prediction in tandem with the Tzolk’in.

The last day of the Tzolk’in “week” was named Ahau. The Maya named things on the last day of a cycle rather than the first, so all the prophecies occur on Ahau days. There are 13 katun prophecies, 1-13 Ahau. They do not occur in numerical order, but in the order that synchronizes with the Tzolk’in calendar.

Prediction Methods

The Maya watched life unfold and wrote the events they saw into the daily record. They believed cycles repeat and used the past records of cycles for prediction. It’s not as simplistic as it sounds. Every number had a quality. Studying the events that happened and how the number’s quality was expressed provided insight into how it might express again in the future. However, katun prophecies did not predict events; they only determined the quality of the cycle. Like a mathematical fractal, the same information was repeated over and over in a symmetrical wave. Understanding this allowed the Maya to organize their lives.

Codex Cues

Here’s a one-line synopsis created by J. Eric Thompson from the books of Chilam Balam of Chumayel and Tizimin. The katuns always end on an Ahau day in the following order. This order synchronizes the “katun short count” with the Tzolk’in calendar.

The Shaman’s Role

How the katuns worked and what rules were followed in naming and numbering them is complex, not a simple matter of just reading the past. The actual predictions required that the shaman enter a trance state and read the “flavor” of the future. Each katun was only a few paragraphs long; the predictions were developed by the shaman. The Chilam Balam reveals many predictions gained in trance. Here’s what the katuns have to say about the times we’re in, 2012, and beyond.

The katun translations we summarize in this book are from The Book of the Jaguar Priest: A Translation of the Book of the Chilam Balam of