Fractal Time:
The Secret of 2012 and a New World Age

    by Gregg Braden

 reviewed by Theresa Welsh

In this book that promises answers to the "secret" of 2012 , Gregg Braden offers fresh perspectives on the concept of "time." Can time be just another dimension that repeats in endless cycles, like the repeating leaves of a fern? Nature shows us the ubiquity of repeating patterns known as fractals. Are these patterns embedded in the workings of the universe?

Braden explores the ideas of various ancient cultures regarding "World Ages" and shows their similarity. One of these cultures is that of the Mayans, who have risen to public awareness because their calendar, an astronomically accurate and incredibly lengthy measure of time, goes only to 2012, then stops. Pop culture has turned this into a possible "doomsday" scenario. Since I am writing this in 2013, it is obvious that the world did not end.

But did a World Age end with the winter solstice of 2012? Other authors on this subject did not consider 2012 "the end of the world" but as a fluid point between two ages, generally based on the precession of the equinoxes, a 26,000 year cycle that traces a path around the twelve constellations of the zodiac. This time period, known to the Mayans, can be divided into five World Ages of 5125 years each. Braden says we are at the end of the last of these five cycles. But that would assume that this point in the sky (at the beginning of the Age of Aquarius) was somehow the starting point. How is there a starting point to a cycle that presumably endlessly repeats?

One answer might be that this is the point where (as author John Major Jenkins said in his book, Maya Cosmogenesis 2012: The True Meaning of the Maya Calendar End-Date) our solar system lines up with the midpoint of our galaxy, the Milky Way. But it's not clear that we are lined up with the galaxy, and I confess to finding the whole business confusing. But perhaps 2012 really is a dividing line between World Ages, and perhaps it actually means something for human consciousness. Braden discusses the concept that how we think and feel influences matter, and, if this transition time does mean more natural disasters, we have the power to reduce their impact through our thoughts and actions.

It certainly does seem like we are living through a difficult time in our planet's history, for whatever reason. We know there has been climate change and extinction events in earth's past. Should we read some ominous meaning into the strong storms and earthquakes we've had since the century turned? There have also been way too many human-caused tragedies, with wars, terrorist attacks and nuts with guns shooting innocent people. If this is the turmoil of a transition from an age that is ending and leading to a Golden Age (as alleged by authors like David Wilcock, in The Source Field Investigations: The Hidden Science and Lost Civilizations Behind the 2012 Prophecies), then let's hope we get through it intact.

Braden also offers a "time code" and a "time code calculator" for figuring out when "seed" events might repeat, or at least when conditions will exist for them to repeat. I was less interested in this, since it cannot predict actual events and it seems questionable as to which events are really "seed" events that might repeat. The basis for this calculator, which relies on the number known as "phi," seems dubious.

The book makes some attempt at an explanation of the repeating nature of time, stating that time IS space as space expands outward from its beginning. Conditions on earth (and human consciousness) change with earth's position in the galaxy. There's the influence of the mysterious movement of earth known as the precession, as the position of the morning star slowly moves around the twelve constellations as it rises in the morning, a movement that takes almost 26,000 years to complete, a period much longer than human history. Yet this cycle was known to ancient peoples, including the Mayans. How are we and our planet influenced by this long cycle?

Fractal Time explores many interesting questions. Like other authors, Braden offers interesting speculation, but is unable to provide solid answers to "The Secret of 2012 and a New World Age" (the book's intriguing subtitle).

Buy Fractal Time at amazon.com.  

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