The New American Ephemeris, 2007-2020: Longitude, Declination, Latitude and Daily Aspectarian Book

This book is both informative and incredibly frustrating. I decided to read it because a friend recommended it as a way to understand all the hubbub about the Mayan calendar and the supposed apocalypse the end of the calendar signals. In the first few chapters, Barbara Hand Clow does an adequate job of explaining the calendar and organizing her argument of what the calendar means. A large part of her argument relies on the work and research of others, but if you are looking for a basic understanding of how the calendar works and some possibilities for what its end in 2011/2012 means for humankind, the beginning of the book is a solid place to start.

To be honest, that should have been enough and was really all I was looking for. Unfortunately, that information would not have filled a typical book, so the author proceeds to look back through history (both fossil and recorded) and attempt to correlate dates in the calendar with things that have happened in the past. She covers history we have very little knowledge of, throwing in an entire chapter on Atlantis, and moves all the way up to and past 9/11. What frustrated me about this part was that her evidence was all over the place.

In general, that "all over the place" feel to the book is my biggest complaint and frustration. As a former editor, I felt like I wanted to take the original manuscript and X out entire pages of information that felt extraneous. Hand Clow brings up so, so many various topics that I found myself putting the book down and going to wikipedia for significant lengths of time just looking up the information she referenced. I consider myself more liberal and well versed in new age topics than the general public, but I had no previous knowledge of the Vela supernova, the Keepers and Enochians, the Ica Stones, or countless other topics that are thrown at the reader at a fast and furious pace. Hand Clow would write about plate tectonics in one sentence, sacred geometry in the next, and human enlightenment in the next. I found it difficult at times to keep up with her, and I often wondered how what I was reading had anything at all to do with the Mayan calendar. By the time I got to the appendices at the end of the book, I was forcing myself to sit and finish the reading. Sure, the section on finding your Mayan day sign is fun, but I am still not sure why it is included here. The same goes for the detailed appendices on the tilt of Earth's axis and the detailed astrology guides. Imagine reading a horoscope that covers every person on the planet for the next three years, and you can get an idea of how convoluted that appendix, and much of the book as a whole, is.

I also disliked the tone of the book. Despite the lengthy endnotes, do not be fooled into thinking this is a scholarly book. Hand Clow has no qualms about asserting her opinions and pointing the finger here. By the end of the book, I felt like I had read a treatise filled with conspiracy theories. Even when I agreed with Hand Clow, her brash opinions struck me as unprofessional accusations, and I believe some of her points could have been made without resorting to sarcasm, exclamation points, and not-so-veiled references to the comeuppances she believes some people are about to receive for their actions as the end of the calendar nears.

Overall, I started off reading this book with a great deal of enthusiasm and was excited about the information Hand Clow presents about the calendar. My excitement waned, however, as her arguments became more scattered and the organization of the book became unclear. I do believe there is some important information contained here, but I wish it had been more tightly compiled and more scholarly in tone. Thinking back on the content of this book, I am torn between giving it 2 or 3 stars. I went ahead and gave it 3 because I did enjoy reading it, but there were aspects of this book that I found extremely frustrating.