I decided to keep a log of my own experiences during time between two fabled dates, 12.12.12 and 12.21.12, and then to add two more days as a gradual denouement of this time that so many had been looking forward to for the last 25 years — since Harmonic Convergence in August, 1987 — with dread or anticipation.

Either the world would end or it would begun, many thought. Or, of course, a more nuanced (and way more likely) view, the cycles would roll over and start up again.

But many people saw this time as an either/or, Doom or Ascension. And where you stood on the matter seemed to depend on where you stood in your life. Did you like your life, or not? Did you need to be “saved” from it, or would you rather just end it now, get it over with.

These were people who took these dates, especially the supposed the Jose Arguelles version of the Mayan Calendar End Date, 12.21.12, extremely literally as a magical 24-hour period when all would be changed in the blink of an eye.

Me? I stood aside from the fray and marveled, viewing this kind of thinking as yet one more brand of “fundamentalism” humans fall heir to in early stages of their evolution as truly conscious beings.

So here’s my process, chronologically, day by day, with an astrological preface:

On the Astrology of This Year’s Epochal 12 “Days of Christmas”: 12.12.12 – 12.23.12

“On the Morning of the First Day of Christmas”: 12.12.12

12.13.12: New Moon in Sagittarius, plus Uranus turns to go Direct!

Morning of Day 3 of 12 Days of Christmas, 2012: Corbett, Keenan, Dentist, Prius, right/left brain, and atmospherics!

Morning of Day 4 of 12 Days of Christmas, 2012: shootings, suffering, why oh why, and tonglen

Afternoon of Day 5 of 12 Days of Christmas, 2012: communion, near-collision, and TGI Friday send-up: “Make your final meal a great one! Go out with a full stomach.”

Late afternoon, Day 6 of 12 Days of Christmas, 2012: strange sky phenomena (color and sound), a hair cut, and the rise and fall of civilizations

Afternoon of Day 7, 12 Days of Christmas, 2012: the woods, suicide?, “self-remembering,” and the field of love crowded with spirits

Late morning of the 8th day of “12 Days of Christmas,” 2012: on birthday, “perfectly positioned,” Dad’s ashes in garden

Afternoon of Day Nine, “12 Days of Christmas” 2012: tumultuous skies, Draco, Serpent Mound, the Year of the Dragon

12.20.12, 9:45 p.m.: In this pause between worlds spun out of cycles within cycles within cycles, . . .

12.20.12, 9:59 p.m. Still in the pause, imagine THIS! as the new world we will create from spinning, spiralling cycles within cycles . . .

December 21, 2012: first light swirling snow, cancelled plans, one earth, one voice

Late afternoon of Day 11, “12 Days of Christmas,” 2012: Journey to Oakwood, veil paintings! “Woman and Nature” book reading by a grizzled old guy! Circle of Love, and “Do we have doubles?”

Afternoon of day after 12th day of “12 days of Christmas” 2012: Day trip to Angel Mounds with Steve