By Jaime Licauco Philippine Daily Inquirer These terms conjure visions of calamities, cataclysms and upheavals. They induce fear and anxiety because they are believed to be the end of the world. The great Mayan Calendar, which predicts the end of the present cycle to occur precisely at midnight of Dec. 21, 2012, suggests not the end of the world, but merely the end of a 26,000-year earth cycle, divided into five sub-cycles of about 5,200 years. According to the Mayan Calendar we are on the last fifth earth cycle where a new beginning looms. According to Mayan prophecies, “All moons, all years, all days, all winds, reach their completion. Measured is the time in which we can know the benevolence of the sun. Measured is the time in which the stars look down on us.” On Dec. 21, 2012, several heavenly planets will be in complete alignment with the earth and solar system, an event which takes place only once in about 26,000 years. And such an alignment will exert a great magnetic pull that ...