John Major Jenkins (1964- ) is an American author and independent researcher. He is best known for his ideas about the calendar systems used by the Maya civilization. His writings are associated with 2012 millenarianism and the development of Mayanism in contempary and popular culture, as a part of the New Age movement.

Jenkins on Jenkins

John Major Jenkins calls himself:

…an independent researcher who has devoted himself to reconstructing ancient Mayan cosmology and philosophy.¹

In an article in the New York Times Magazine, author Benjamin Anastas called Jenkins "perhaps the most lucid figure in the subculture of 2012 prophets"², and after having read some of the views of the other "2012 prophets"³, I have to agree with him.

Unlike some of the others, Jenkins writing doesn't make me look over my shoulder to find the deranged man in the room, and his analysis appears (at least to this non-scholar) to be clearly stated, and couched in the language of uncertainty that is necessary for good science.

I just think he's wrong⁴.

Nothing bad about being wrong, mind you. In science, it's as good as being right. But, like most people, I imagine Jenkins would rather be on the winning side of the argument.

To his credit, Jenkins does not support the idea of an apocalypse in 2012. "Personally, I think it’s about transformation and renewal. It’s certainly nothing as simplistic as the end of the world.”⁵

In this regard, Jenkins stands out from his fellow travelers in the 2012 movement.

John Hoopes, an archaeologist at the University of Kansas, is more complimentary of Jenkins’s research, even if he doubts the validity of his major conclusions, including the galactic-alignment theory. “John Jenkins has done his homework on the ancient Maya,” he told me, “and he’s thought about their culture a great deal. Arguelles and Calleman largely disregard what we know the Maya believed.” Still, like most Mayan experts, Hoopes is not convinced that the Maya would have considered the end of a world cycle to be an apocalyptic event; one cycle could be subsumed into the next without a hiccup in the system, let alone a rupture in the count of days.⁶

Jenkins phrases it this way: “A lot of people ask me if the world is going to end in 2012, and I’ve come up with the best way to address that. The short answer is yes. The long answer is no.”

Jenkins on 2012

"The trendy doomsday people… should be treated for what they are: under-informed opportunists and alarmists who will move onto other things in 2013,"⁷

So, Jenkins is (in my opinion) the best of the bunch. But hang on, because it's all downhill from here.

Alternative Science

Jenkins appears to reject the conclusions of science, because it has abandoned its 'sacred roots'.

Modern profane science is the degenerate descendant of an ancient sacred science that long ago perceived and embraced many dimensions of reality, including supra-sensory realms that lead into a higher integrative consciousness that is not anti-intellect, but transcends the intellect and is within reach of all human beings⁸.

Publications

Some of Jenkins' publications include:

• Journey to the Mayan Underworld (Four Ahau Press, Boulder, CO: 1989)
• Mirror in the Sky (Four Ahau Press, 1991)
• Tzolkin: Visionary Perspectives and Calendar Studies (Borderland Sciences Research Foundation, Garberville, CA: 1992/1994)
• Mayan Sacred Science (Four Ahau Press, Boulder, CO: 1994)
• Maya Cosmogenesis 2012 (Bear & Company, Santa Fe, NM: 1998)

Conclusion

John Major Jenkins speculates that a spiritual transformation may occur in 2012, and specifically rejects the idea of an apocalypse.