If you have read my article Sarcophagus' Hidden Secrets you already know about the prophetic meaning of the glyphs corresponding each one to a 3-yr period from 1952 to 2012. It is of concern though, the last glyph, ending in 2012, the discussion of this section because of the way how Pakal falls into the Underworld.

" During his fall from the Tree of the World, Pakal is seated upon the Monster of the Sun. The monster is aptly represented in its state of transition between life and death: a skeleton from the mouth down, with eyes that have the dilated pupils of living beings. The sun enters into this state of transition at dawn and at dusk. Here, however, the emblem of the Monster of the Sun contains the cimi or sign of death, emphasizing imagery representing the "death of the sun" or sunset, with the sun located on the horizon, ready to sink into the Underworld . . . and take the dead king with it."

On December 21, 2012, a rare celestial alignment will take place, aligning the galactic and solar planes. At this point, the winter solstice sun will conjunct the Milky Way, creating a “gate to the underworld, the Xibalba kingdom ” in the “dark rift” of the Milky Way. Compare also the last glyph of Pakal's Lid representing the culminating period 2009-2012 with the glyph of the Table of 96 Inscriptions. This glyph describes one of Xibalba's six houses of the underworld.

In the Mayan mythology, we have arrived after 26,000 years to the gate of the Underworld, a kingdom with nine levels where the dead spirits are ruled by the God of Death: Ah Puch. The lowest point of this world coincides with the dead Sun also. At this time, humanity will face a test when Earth succumbs to the human population exceeding its natural capacity to nurture humans. This is the point of no return and no hope as the Mayans calculated as well for population control and their habitat because every land has a population density and limited natural resources. Fortunately for them, they abandoned their cities and settled in other lands. For us, unfortunately we cannot escape Earth and settle in another planet yet. The competition in the future will be fierce and devastating in this New World: our long-awaited Xibalba characterized with greed, social predation and destruction. At the end of the dieback curve (the collapse), population will stabilize itself with a new environmental resistance. Can you calculate how many will die in the process as the Mayans did to protect their people?

The Milky Way was much venerated by the Maya. It was called a number of things: the World Tree, the Crossroads, or the Wakah Chan. Wakah can mean "six" or "erect," while Chan or K'an can mean "four," "serpent" or "sky". The Milky Way consists of many star clouds and was believed to be the birth place of all life by the Maya. The Milky Way was the Tree of Life. But in the center of the Milky Way lies the "dark rift"- a black ridge cause by so much interstellar dust which blots out the light of stars within it and behind it. This dark rift was known to the Maya as Xibalba Be, the Road to the Underworld. It was sometimes called "the Black Road." It figures prominently in the Popul Vuh story of "How the Hero Twins Defeated Darkness." Where the World Tree (the Milky Way) meets the ecliptic, near the constellation of Sagittarius, was given special attention by the Maya. [The World Tree lies near the road to Xibalba and it is the tree in which One Hunahpo's decapitated head is hung. Is the Popol Vuh a mythological description for an astronomical process in which the winter solstice sun (One Hunahpo) "will conjunct the crossing point of [the] Milky Way and ecliptic in Sagittarius" (Jenkins 1994) on December 21, 2012 A.D., the date when the great cycle, of approximately 5125 years, of the Mayan Long Count calendar ends?]

In the interpretation of the 2012 glyph, we see four points that represent the four cardinal directions, for lightening, thunder, fire, sky, water, corn, darkness, daylight, earthquakes, stars, planets, the sun and the moon, etc. The barrier represents the dark rift that will be broken on December 21, 2012, and then we see a narrow passage for which Earth will enter between two natural symmetrical forces or dimensions to the Underworld: space and time.

John Major Jenkins goes beyond this idea, in a web-article entitled, "Thesis (From The Center of Mayan Time, c 19994," to argue that the primary event in the Popol Vuh is the encoding of a rare astronomical alignment that is caused by precession. This alignment will occur when the winter solstice sun (One Hunahpu First Father) conjuncts the crossing point of the ecliptic and the Milky Way (the Tree of Life, First Mother). Specifically, the crossing point is where the "dark rift"(the Road to Xibalba, the birth canal of First Mother) is located in the Milky Way. This rare alignment is to occur on December 21, 2012 A.D. according to the calculations of the Maya. This date is also the end-date of this great cycle of the Mayan Long Count calendar. Stated another way, a precession-caused rare alignment, in which the December solstice sun (specifically the December 21, 2012 A.D. winter solstice) will move into conjunction with the great bulge (the pregnant Xquic) of the Milky Way near Sagittarius, heralds the end on one World Age and the birth of the next.

"I think Mother Nature will teach us a lesson that we will never forget. It's too bad that the poorest people on Earth will be the group to die first."
(Pakal Ahau).