Come on by to check the tour stop for todays SHADOW VISIONS virtual tour. Brought to you by Innovative Online Tours, you don’t want to miss out on what Gabriella has to say about her book, bound to be on your TBR list.

The Aztec Calendar & 2012 Prophecy

Okay, I am first going to stand up and say that the 2012 Prophecy is from the Mayans and not the Aztecs.

Do I believe in it?

I really hope the world doesn’t end on December 21st, 2012, because I have 3 more books in the Shadow Warrior series slated to come out after that date. So, I have to stay positive.

Do I think their calendars are a hoax?

Absolutely not!

The calendar had great significance in the Aztec culture.  Although, Shadow Visions and Out of the Shadows both are fiction, I did use the rich history of the Aztecs to enhance the stories. In my research, I came across the Aztec Calendars and found them fascinating.

Time was important to the Aztecs, but not the same way it is for us. We see time as linear. 24 hours in row, plotted out and leading to an uncertain future. The Aztecs saw it as cyclical.  All things come back around. The future was clear and predictable.

They used two calendars instead of one. Similar to the calendar we know today, they had a calendar that consisted of a 365-day calendar cycle called xiuhpohualli.

The xiuhpohualli was the 'counting of the years.' This calendar was kept on a 365-day solar count. This was also the agricultural and ceremonial calendar of the Aztec state, just like we have the Farmer’s Almanac. This was a time of festivals. People came to the festivals with their best clothes on, and took part in singing and dancing. This is also when the priest would perform sacrifices, most of these sacrifices were human, but others were performed on animals and fruit.

The second calendar that is different than ours is the tonalpohualli, which has a 260-day ritual cycle. According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, the tonalpohualli is a 260-day sacred almanac of many ancient Mesoamerican cultures, including the Maya, Mixtec, and Aztec. Used as early as the pre-Classic period (before c. ad 100) …almanac set the date for certain rituals and was a means of divination. It is a cycle of days resulting when the numbers 1 to 13 are juxtaposed with 20 day names: 1 Alligator, 2 Wind…13 Reed, 1 Jaguar, etc. Each combination of name and number occurs once in 260 (20 × 13) days. The cycle is still observed in the 20th century by the Mixe (Oaxaca) and the Maya.

According to http://www.azteccalendar.net/ --These two types of Aztec calendar are used for different purposes. One is used to measure time, whilst the other was used to fix religious festivals. The time measuring calendar was used to fix the best time for planting crops, while the religious calendar told priests when to consult the gods. In the Aztec calendar that measured time, each month had 20 days, and there were 5 extra days at the end of the year, which were thought to be bad luck days, when disasters were most bound to happen. Both parts of the Aztec calendar ran at the same time and the same day in each fell at the same time once every 52 years. Thus, the Aztec calendar and time were divided into 52 year cycles, similar to our current 100-year cycles.

We use years or dates like BC and AD to say which time period we are living in (eg: 2012 AD) The Aztecs believed that the world was destroyed and re-created four times previous to the current epoch (time period).  The current epoch is the fifth,
Nahui-Olin (Earthquakes Sun). The face in the middle of the calendar is the Sun God, the present era in which we reside. According to the Aztecs it is the Fifth epoch in the solar age, the next and last destruction of human life in the world. They believe the current epoch will be destroyed by earthquakes.

Oh no! The fifth era was going to be our last? 

Not if I could help it. And thus, an idea was born.

Shadow Warriors!

The brave, ultra sexy protectors of humanity were fallen Aztec warriors who served the Sun God, who wished to protect us from other gods trying to usurp power and destroy earth to remake it over in their image. The 52 years will soon be upon us and there are other gods waiting in the wings, vying to control humans. They wish to destroy humanity and remake us in their image.

The Sun God and brave warrior fighter, Huitzilopochtli, has a plan. He has chosen women called guardians to protect ancient powerful gods from falling into the wrong hands but in case they do, he will make sure to send his Shadow Warriors in to save the day. Of course, even the best laid plans don’t always go according to plan. *wink, wink*

Shadow Warriors are all that stand between us and ancient Aztec gods bent on killing off humanity.

What do you think? Do you believe in the 2012 prophecy?

Share your thoughts and be entered to win an ebook copy of SHADOW VISIONS!

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Synopsis:
Manuel has been tracking down a demon bent on sacrificing women with hummingbird tattoos. He is in danger of losing his humanity to his eagle spirit until he comes across Ixa Reyes, a beautiful San Diego Detective working on the same case, who also bears the mark of Huitzilopochtli. She is his salvation and redemption from a past filled with failure. Only she wants nothing to do with him or her heritage.
When a demon kidnaps her grandfather, the wind god, they must work together to save him and all mankind. He has twenty-four hours to help her control her elemental power over wind, that is if he can control his own desires to claim her body and soul. Because if he should fail, then the god of war will bring in a new era filled with blood and destruction.
When the last Shadow Warrior falls, so will humanity.

Read an Excerpt here: http://www.gabriellahewitt.com/bookshelf/shadow-vision/



About the author:

Gabriella Hewitt is the pen name of creative writing talents Sasha Tomaszycki and Patrizia M.J. Hayashi. Together they weave tales of romantic suspense and dangerously sensual paranormals. Check out the website http://www.gabriellahewitt.com/ to find out about upcoming releases and events on her blog.

Twitter : https://twitter.com/#!/gabriellahewitt

http://innovativeonlinebooktours.com/

Be sure and visit http://www.readergirlsblog.com/ today also where Gabriella is having a guest blog!