Let me start this review by praising John Major Jenkins for his intense scholarship and dedication to the Mesoamerican culture. If there's one person who should be consulted in any effort to understand or speculate on the various cultures of Central and South America, it is he. Jenkins' opinion is highly thought out, scientifically tested and comes with a solid passion for the material. In many ways, he is more qualified than those scholars that walk around teaching the very same subject matter.

In fact, it's Jenkins' lack of tied-down scholarship (the political end of it) that allows his theories to branch out into the mythological - and even somewhat mystical.

Maya Cosmogenesis 2012 was a book that I've had on my shelf for a long time. I finally got around to reading it after a few years of procrastination; and although the book itself is a marvel, I was very much disappointed in the end result.

This book is nearly 400 pages of pure content, but unfortunately Jenkins' concluding theory is less than six pages long. I bought the book expecting a theoretical examination of the Mayan end date, but mostly I found the book to be an examination of the Mesoamerican astronomical practices. Jenkins' does a phenomenal job of offering evidence that the Mesoamerican people were extremely advanced in their astronomy and understanding of the cosmos, but he offers little information of just what the significance of the 2012 date actually might be. What he does offer is a conclusion more likely to be found in a New Age book rather than a scientific inquiry.

To Jenkins' defense, hearing a 2012 theory that is not doom-and-gloom, but instead offers a brighter outlook is refreshing to say the least. It just seems out of place in a book whose primary focus in its almost 400 pages has been mathematical, calendrical and cosmological. The picture he paints of these star-obsessed ancients is one of intelligence and purpose. His passive conclusion seems to be out of character for such a culture working off of definitive knowledge and in a highly active manner to harmonize with this cosmology (such as their various complex rituals and human sacrifice games).

Ultimately Jenkins' research also reveals a false misconception with 2012. The galactic realignment placing the Sun in conjunction with the center of the Milky Way (and the possible black hole existing therein) actually will not occur according to his evidence. Instead the Sun barely touches the bottom edge of the "dark rift" that it's supposed to align with. Jenkins dismisses this fact, believing that the proximity is enough for the Mayans to be right, but it does offer some opposition to the theory.

Jenkins' balances nicely his scientific evidence with an examination of Mesoamerican mythology and mysticism, and even goes out on a limb to speculate on the "powers" of shamanism and their control and access of cosmological principles. All of this builds a solid foundation, but ultimately his theory isn't as fleshed out as one would have expected given the evidence. But once again to Jenkins' defense, if the Moon affects people through its manipulation of water (which gives some credence to other heavenly bodies having an affect - hence astrology), then the possibility of this galactic alignment having an impact on consciousness is highly plausible. I just wish Jenkins gave us more in his theory than he did.