Starfields (18 page)

The Long Count documents four previous journeys of the solar system through the galaxy. The Mayans believed that each time the earth reaches the epicenter of the galaxy, it encounters a burst of cosmic energy and suffers a cataclysmic destruction.

On December 21, 2012, our solar system is again due to pass through the heart of the Milky Way.

On this date, the Mayan calendar mysteriously ends.

This termination has been the subject of much speculation. There is terrific power in predictions of doom. Most recently, the world saw this during the Y2K scare. It was predicted that computers hadn’t been programmed to recognize the year 2000, and would therefore stop functioning at the stroke of midnight. Because our world is so dependent on computers, civilization, including the delivery of food and water, would come to an end. Happily, that did not happen. On January 1, 2000, everyone woke up to find the world functioning normally.

Today, recent books like
Apocalypse 2012,
by Lawrence E. Joseph, have made an explicit connection between the Mayan prophesy and environmental destruction.

However, Mayan scholars agree that the prophesy merely speaks to the closing of a natural cycle. According to the Mayan calendar, the Solar System has visited the center of the Milky Way four times previously and has survived. Why would this time be any different?

The story of
Starfields
explores a little of both perspectives, trying to imagine how two young girls from very different backgrounds might interpret the prophesy in relation to their own lives.

In the sixteenth century, an anonymous group of Mayan nobility re-created some of what the ancient codices had contained. They called this sacred text the
Popol Vuh.
The
Popol Vuh
is roughly equivalent to the Bible in Christianity, the Koran in Islam, or the sutras in Buddhism. It brings to life several important myths, including that of the Mayan creation.

In writing Xunko’s sections, I relied heavily on the beautiful language and mythical accounts of the
Popol Vuh.

For Rosalba’s story, I gathered information from the photographs and accounts of those who’ve spent time among the contemporary Mayans. Having spent time in Mexico and Belize, I also called upon my own personal experience of Mayan culture.

Carolyn Marsden
is the acclaimed author of
The Gold-Threaded Dress
and its sequel,
The Quail Club,
as well as
Silk Umbrellas, Moon Runner, When Heaven Fell, The Buddha’s Diamonds
(with Th
y Pháp Niêm),
The Jade Dragon
(with Virginia Shin-Mui Loh),
Sahwira
(with Philip Matzigkeit), and
Take Me With You.
About
Starfields,
she says, “I have always been fascinated by the Mayans. The approach of 2012 gave me a good excuse to resurrect an old story about the Zapatista conflict, using it for inspiration to write the story of Rosalba, Alicia, and Xunko.” Carolyn Marsden lives in California with her family.