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Let's chat about the ancient history of the "great conjunction" of Jupiter & Saturn which will occur on the night of December 21 (e.g. Kepler's depiction In 1596) & the development of Apocalyptic Astrology. It's intimately tied to Near Eastern ideas of a "New Age" & millennium.
First, let's talk about where I am drawing my info. I am basing this predominantly on the work of Prof. Nicholas Campion, who has a great book on Astrology and Popular Religion: https://www.routledge.com/Astrology-and-Popular-Religion-in-the-Modern-West-Prophecy-Cosmology-and/Campion/p/book/9781138261624 @NickCampion1
Zoroastrian millennialism was developed by Persian astrologers, although Augustine later coined the term "millenarianism" (in Greek it is chiliasm from χίλιοι). It is a belief in the segmenting of time into roughly 1,000 year periods. Today, we call this a millennium.
According to this apocalyptic astrology, large historical events like the fall of empires, beginning of religions, and various social upheavals would be signaled by "great planetary conjunctions" of Jupiter and Saturn as they revolved in 960 year cycles.
In the 12th & 13thC, medieval astrologers adopted the work of earlier Persian astrologers & the idea of the great conjunction as predicting apocalyptic events. e.g. a prediction in the end of Christianity in 1484. Columbus also believed in such predictions https://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/05/books/chapters/the-fated-sky.html
The idea of millenarianism as connected to the great conjunction continues today, as Campion notes. Rather than applying it to the apocalypse, perhaps let us focus on theories of the "Golden Age" emerging from cooperation and sensible use of technology...from tomorrow night on.
Post Scriptum: I am only addressing the “Great Conjunction” within the Mediterranean and Near Eastern roots of apocalyptic astrology. I am not qualified to discuss Mayan or more global ideas of the apocalypse. Thx 
