The “End of the World” and 144,000

Humanity has always been fascinated by the phrase "the end of the world". Not always as a vision of fire and collapse, but often as a threshold – the closing of one great age and the dawning of another. From biblical prophecy to Mayan astronomy, cultures separated by oceans and centuries seemed to point to the same idea: that time itself moves in vast cycles, and that endings are never simply destruction, but also renewal. Numbers – like the mysterious "144,000" – symbols and celestial patterns became the shared language through which these turning points were recorded.

What are the odds of the Mayan Long Count calendar also using this exact same number – a bʼakʼtun, one of their great cycles of time, is measured as 144,000 days (about 394 years). The completion of 13 bʼakʼtuns (≈ 5,125 years) marked what they saw as the end of a world age. Solar timekeeping versus symbolic theology – two very different approaches, yet converging on the same figure.

Most modern interpretations placed that ending at December 2012, sparking worldwide conversations about prophecy and new beginnings. But if the true completion instead falls in December 2025, then those earlier calculations were off by exactly 13 years. And what looks like error reveals itself as design – divide the entire Mayan great cycle of 5,125 years by those 13 “missing” years and it collapses back into its own sacred unit: 394 years, the precise length of one bʼakʼtun. The cycle proves itself by folding inward.

The Mayans measured their ages in 144,000 days, while Revelation spoke of 144,000 souls. Two cultures, worlds apart, yet both pointing with surgical precision to the same number as the sign of completion and awakening.

Perhaps the deeper message is this: whether through astronomy or prophecy, whether carved in stone or written in text, humanity has always sensed that we are part of something larger – a story unfolding in cycles, carrying us toward both endings and beginnings. The number 144,000 may not simply be a statistic, but a symbol: a cosmic clock reminding us that completion is also renewal, and that time itself is alive with meaning.

Anyway, I’ll leave you with further details about one of my favourite pieces of art of all time – the badass little sky-watcher from the Madrid Codex at the top of this post, commonly interpreted as a Mayan astronomer. The Madrid Codex, one of only four surviving Maya codices, is packed with astronomical tables including Venus cycles, solar movements, eclipses and ritual calendars. It was completed sometime between the 12th and 15th centuries CE (public domain).

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