Tuesday, January 06, 2009

4 Ollin, or the end of the world, is Thursday


Thursday is 4 Ollin/Caban/Earthquake, the date the Aztecs think the world will end. Well, on SOME 4 Ollin, we don't know which one. (Unlike the Mayans, who left us the long count pointing to 2012 for whatever reason, the Aztecs only counted their years in sheafs of 52, and didn't include a solar month with their sacred calendar enddate). 500 years ago, they believed the 5th sun was already old and dying and the final 4 Ollin earthquake was eminent. So I guess it could be Thursday. If not Thursday, then in 9 months, on the next 4 Ollin (09-25-2009).
My subconscious must have known 4 Ollin, and possibly the end of the world, were coming, because I had a very odd end of the world dream, very short and very vivid.

In the dream, I sat in the living room of an apartment. My mother slept in the bedroom. It was night, and everyone knew the world was ending that evening. Although you'd think everyone would be outside, rioting, in reality, it everything was quiet. Two laptops sat open and on before me, and I turned them both off, shut the covers, and unplugged them, thinking rather sadly "this won't save them." I knew my mother was in denial and that's why she stayed alone in her room. (I have no idea where my husband, grandmother or pets were--they weren't in my dream consciousness at all--or why I was in an apartment.)
I walked over to the big picture window, maybe 3 or 4 stories up. The building was located on a hill, so I could see pretty far across a city whose lights twinkled below, spread out to the horizon. I couldn't stand the silence so I opened the window and leaned out and started shouting; I don't remember what I said. As I yelled, I saw the lights that were nearest the horizon go out. It was like a dark cloud was racing over the earth (probably the earth turning). I stopped yelling and watched the darkness spread toward me, EMP-ing everything electronic and killing everyone. I wished my mother was awake to watch with me (somehow that, and knowing my computers would be EMPed, were sadder than my own impending death). Watching the world die is a once in a lifetime thing, and here I was alone. The darkness blotted out everything I could once see, and came up the hill, and then it took me, even as I started shouting again.
I realized I was still standing there. I wasn't dead! I turned to feel my way to my mom's room and see if she also survived.
The darkness was complete--no moon, no ambient light. But somehow I never stumbled and my outstretched fingers never encountered furniture. Before I was halfway across the room, I realized that I was indeed dead, and my body was crumpled in front of the window.
But I wasn't a ghost; somehow all at once I realized (or was told) that I was an AI and my memories and sense of self had been transferred from my body at the instant the darkness hit. (Why the EMP wouldn't have taken out an AI, I don't know.) And I also knew that my mother hadn't been spared and she was dead, most everyone else was dead, and only a few were now AIs, but I didn't know how or why.
And that was it.

Here is a list of 4 Ollins between now and 2013
  • Friday, September 25, 2009
  • Saturday, June 12, 2010
  • Sunday, February 27, 2011
  • Monday, November 14, 2011
  • Tuesday, July 31, 2012 (143 days before 13th Baktun)
  • Wednesday, April 17, 2013 (117 days after 13th Baktun)
if you want to mark your calendar....or just buy mine!

(Image is from flickr)

1 comment:

na said...

I am in the process of reading an interesting paper by Arnold Lebeuf. In his analysis of the Calendar Stone, he proposes that 4 Ollin in the year 2080.