In recent times there has been a lot of hype about the significance of the year 2012. December 2012 in particular marks the end of the period of b'ak'tun, a period of about 394 years, in the Mayan Calendar. Since 11 Aug 3114 BC, the date of the Mayan mythical beginning of the world, there will have been 13 of these periods culminating in December 2012. As far as we know, these b'ak'tun periods will continue on after the end of 2012. There are no significant or recurring references in Mayan classic inscriptions, which say that at the end of the 13th b'ak'tun the world will end. But even if there were, would that make the prophesy true? Modern Maya people do not attribute any significance to the year 2012. Rather it is Western culture that has become obsessed with it for various reasons.
The variety of beliefs in what is going to happen in 2012 is astounding. These beliefs range from the instantaneous spiritual transformation of the Earth to its apocalyptic destruction caused by a collision with a cosmic body. From "New Age" sources we hear about the forthcoming astrological galactic alignment in 2012, when the universe will achieve a singularity of infinite complexity, bringing vast amounts of new spiritual energies to the Earth, causing it to ascend into fifth dimensional consciousness. Those who are not ready for this change, and are unable to respond will be removed from Earth to continue their evolution on less-evolved planets, etc.
On the apocalyptic side, there are speculations that the Earth's magnetic poles will reverse in December 2012, continents will sink, a new ice age will begin, and there will be super volcanoes, massive solar storms, cosmic collisions and the apparently inescapable one: on that year God will punish Earth for our sins.
These speculations are presented and distributed through all possible media sources today including the documentaries aired on History Channel and Discovery Channel under titles like "2012 Apocalypse", "The Last Days on Earth", "Nostradamus 2012" etc. On November 2009 a film was released called 2012, which depicts a global environmental catastrophe, with a message for the audience at the end of the film to "find out the truth". Some fake websites have appeared offering people the chance to enter a lottery to be one of the chosen few to gain a place in a survival shelter, against the impending global disaster in 2012 and so on...
In other words the media and some companies and individuals are cashing-in on people's fears, hopes and imagination. However this is not necessarily just a harmless game of profit and attention seeking. Some of the victims of these projected mental images of the forthcoming disaster have admitted to contemplating suicide in order to avoid seeing the end of the world. Some scientists have had to make official statements to counter the rise of this absurd hysteria. The year 2012 has risen to the level of show business, and has also become an opportunity for new prophets of doom or salvation to rise and gather the true believers.
Within the Theosophical Society of England, we have observed these extraordinary claims for 2012 with amusement and tolerance so far, but unfortunately things have gone too far and we have to make it clear that nothing in the theosophical teachings gives any significance to the year 2012. To the best to our knowledge no mention has ever been made about the significance of the year 2012 by H P Blavatsky, C W Leadbetter, Annie Besant or Alice Bailey, neither for good nor for ill. In fact the whole idea that there could be a single date, or even a single year, that is somehow predestined to be the moment of sudden and imposed planetary transformation is totally non-theosophical and non-evolutionary in its approach to life.
Theosophy teaches that the life on Earth evolves gradually through vast cycles and it passes through transformations caused by the inflow of cosmic spiritual energy. When it comes to the development of the world as a whole, there are transitional periods that can take hundreds if not thousands of years - one of these periods was the Renaissance and Enlightenment. Everything that humanity has achieved so far in human history, as far as we know, and this has been conveyed to us by the Masters of Wisdom, is a result of human effort to live rational and ethical life, and correctly responding to the spiritual stimulus coming from the Cosmic levels through the Great Avatars.
The great spiritual beings such as Hermes, Krishna, Buddha and Christ never came to save the world by their own single effort! They came to show the way, to provide the energy for those who ask and are receptive and to open the door of enlightenment and liberation. With their help humanity can "save" itself, but we have to walk through the door of spiritual initiation by ourselves, by demonstrating our spiritual nature, ethical living and solidarity. Nobody can do this for us.
Orthodox Christianity and some other religions preach that humanity or at least the righteous ones will be saved by divine intervention. The same sentiment has now found a new form in the 2012 phenomenon. This is a sentimental glamour or a wishful thinking, which perfectly fits a materialistic society. Instead of transforming society for the better people sit down and do very little, yet they hope that someone else will save them: like Jesus on a cloud, extraterrestrials or 2012, while all the time the business of the selfish world goes on as usual. Such change is never going to happen by itself, for it would mean a complete breakdown of the Law of Karma and an infringement of human free will.
The fact is that human free will has brought us to this situation and it is human free will that can save us - for what can make a real difference to the future of our planet is how do we use our free will. It is true that there are great divine beings that want to help and are available now. It is true that there are spiritual energies flowing into Earth today, which can galvanize a great transformation, but it all depends whether we truly respond to them. This is not something which depends on any date in a particular year, thus what will happen in 2012 will be what we make happen in cooperation with the great spiritual forces on this planet, which is no different than any other year and there is no better time to make a better world than now!
Sometimes I see this camp referring to that new epoch as occurring due to a "thinning of the veil" between the spiritual and material worlds or as Jenn noted due to an increase in spiritual energies flowing into the world, whatever that means. I think many New Agers, being an optimistic bunch, are always expecting that spiritual awareness will markely increase just around the corner collectively. Thus a similar embrace by many New Agers in the dubious concept of "indigo" or "crystal" children-the notion that there are or will be increasing numbers of folk incarnating in the world with advanced spiritual and/or psychic abilities and awareness. Certainly, I've seen nothing to support that notion. But, as humanity has and will evolve physically over the millenia, one could wonder what psychological, cultural, or "spiritual" "mutations" might occur over further centuries or millenia. Who knows? But, overnight-quite doubtful. The concept of individual or collective spiritual evolution has always attracted New Agers and certainly the writer Ken Wilber has spent decades toying around with that notion himself, though he would not ascribe to the foregoing concepts. Like other posters here he would see whatever spiritual fruits of our labor occur will be just that -fruits of our labor as opposed to some gift simply dropped into our laps. But could there be a source of external "spiritual" assistance always there to assist those who are open to/willing to do the work? Again, who knows but in 1 way or another plenty of our current religious traditions have actually of course long taken that view in 1 form or another. earl