Welcome, Theresa Danley!

When people think of the Mayan culture, the first things that typically come to mind are impressive stone pyramids, elaborate murals, human sacrifice and, more recently, ancient calendars and the end of the world as we know it slated for December 21, 2012.  But there is more the Mayan history than ruins and doomsdays. 

While much of the traditional Mayan culture was destroyed with the arrival of the conquistadors and conversion-driven priests, the Maya survived Spanish colonialism to…

The third significant calendar used in Mesoamerica is the Long Count Calendar.  This is the big one.  This is the one best known as the Mayan Calendar, a version of which is still being used by the Quiche Maya today.  It’s the calendar blamed for 2012’s anticipated apocalypse, or celebrated for the coming new age of humanity’s evolution.

It’s also the calendar…

“…the New Ager felt Quetzalcoatl’s energy soaking into his pores—an energy stripped from the surface of Venus and transported to him on the rays of sunshine. He rejoiced in the glow, in the feeling of the Venus Transit.”  -excerpt from EFFIGY

Not to be excluded from the list of astronomical bodies finding relevance amongst the cultural mix of…

There it is – that tell-tale dark orb slipping across the bright sun-disk in the sky.  It reaches, stretches, smothers the sun until only the outer ring of fire can be seen – but not without eye protection of course.  90% of the sun hides behind the moon’s shadow, and yet it’s powerful brightness will not be outdone.  We just witnessed an eclipse.

It isn’t every day we…