2012 the end of times, the year ahead, Jupiter and Venus

So it is here at last. What is it in our human pessimism that so loves an end-of-the-world scenario? How many times since I have been an astrologer (since 1978) have I been asked if now is the end? Every year. So comes now an old piece of archaeological information that has swept the collective imagination. The world ends at the Winter Solstice of 2011? or of 2012?
All worlds end over and over. Our destructive seeds were born in us. The planet has been made and remade over billions of epochs that seemed important and ultimate in their height. Like us, now, we have reached an apex of civilization, and yet there is still country music. We are mired in our baseness after all.
In planetary positions, this is a year much like many others, not nearly so remarkable as the spring of 2011, and the great oppositions of Jupiter and Saturn which have been exact all of 2010 and 2011. Those oppositions were bound by the Pluto position at right angles in Capricorn, and every month was a perfect square completed by the Moon.
So far, the remarkable planets are the beautiful visibility of Great Jupiter, brightest it will be for the next 12 years. And of Venus, war planet of the Mayans as bright this January and February as she ever gets. Those glowing nighttime companions are our most beneficial planets, they should be a good omen for the year's beginning. Testing period comes in late January when Mars retrogrades in Virgo opposite the sun, and retrograding Mercury in Pisces. Look for health issues and the cyber war. So shore up your data, dust off the electric typewriters, and learn your account numbers again. This is a messy group in a messy arrangement, and has little to do with the Mayan predictions other than showing how details can unravel a great set of systems.
Party like it's 2012!