In a recent posting Thea says that to consciously participate in the Supramental manifestation, it is first necessary ‘to see in understanding’ (www.aeoncentre.com). As the Third in the Solar Line her task is to present a vision of how the Divine acts on Earth, how a gnostic society becomes established on this planet.

This KEY presents text from her autobiographical study, The Tenth Day of Victory (TTDV), to examine how Thea sees and the power derived from what she calls ‘The Act of Seeing’. All the keys we now use in a new way of being flow from her central Act of Seeing: the Gnostic Circle, the Map of the Manifestations and The Geometry of Time found in the original plan of The Mother’s Temple. As we study her methodology/her yogic sadhana, students of the new way can learn to align their own seeing with hers.

Recently a colleague sent news about a series of workshops given by a well known Indian author in the USA. The focus is on enlightenment of the participant through a series of spiritual exercises and meditation. This line of thinking and action has been around in New Age Circles for some time and it continues to attract people who are looking for short-term change without a deeper effort.

The goal of A New Way of Being for the earth is quite different. In the introductory quote above Thea makes the goal for the serious practitioner quite clear: let us not see visions or lights… let us rather have realisations. In 1985/86 when we first met her and set up Aeon Group, USA, these were the words she told us to use on our flyer; with this quote she was giving us the KEY. At the time we did not understand and our yoga over the years has been precisely this goal: to see in understanding.

It begins with the name THEA, a Greek word for Goddess. In a quotation from her journal of 31.8.75 Thea says: ‘’…the Mother has said it beautifully; indeed the key to the manifestation is Seeing – it is a power of seeing; a vision that unfolds and is contemplated by the Divine Consciousness…’’. The journal ends with these words:

She explains that this name given to her in an initiation with the Mother in Rome in 1970 held the key to her destiny, to the work that she was meant to accomplish as the Third in the Solar Line. The Mother as Cosmic Divine is one who sees, but the experience of seeing as the Third in the Solar Line (the Transcendent Divine, the Cosmic Divine, and the Individual Divine) is different: she sees from the plane of the physical, the Earth, the Individual Soul.

Thea says she prefers to use the verb form of the name, Act of Seeing, rather than the literal meaningGoddess or devi: “…This is the purpose of individual incarnation, this ability to see and hence to know and to live consciously the act of creation along with the Supreme.” (TTDV 2, p. 215 – 7)

To sing the harmonies of the universe came to Thea through the Mother in a very natural way. As she explains it: “…this transmission, if you will, was in the form of ‘seeds’ planted in my consciousness – usually felt as a descent from above, through the crown of my head. I would then give a body to that seeding. Gradually it became evident that the process was controlled and following a pre-determined plan. I could see this unfolding in harmony with the Gnostic Circle, one of the very last ‘gifts’ received from the Mother before her passing… I did not see them as having been ‘keys’ with which I could carry out the tasks allotted to me as a member of the line. But that is exactly what they were: keys of Gnosis by which I could carry forward the next stage of the work”. (Ibid, p. 278)

By 1976 Thea had been in the 5^th year of her yogic sadhana at the Sri Aurobindo Ashram. She writes there was so much to do, so much remained unfulfilled, but she felt she was prepared to carry the task forward – she had been granted the privilege of ‘seeing’ by a Divine grace that was preparing her for the work she was born to do. There was no personal satisfaction except the ‘’immense gratitude such acts of seeing always left in their wake. I was allowed to see…” (Ibid p. 297).

She was also aware by this time that one person’s seeing was not enough. There is a falsehood deep in the human being, she laments (Ibid, p.304), and her intention was “to give forth the keys of a higher knowledge by which perceptive, sincere disciples could discover for themselves the wisdom in the Mother’s choices and know how accurately the Supramental Manifestation had been arranged.”

Seeing in Understanding: Applications

The system which began to evolve from her ‘seeing’ was something new and Thea could no longer call it astrology. Although she used that ancient tool of higher knowledge, the zodiac, as the base in the circle of 12, a new language was emerging. In 1974 she published The Gnostic Circle with the subtitle, a synthesis in the harmonies of the Cosmos. The focus was entirely on the harmony of the spheres and her book became a “testimony to the new approach” being revealed in her yogic practices (Ibid p. 145). The entire “wheel of time” as she called it was central and each astrological sign was seen totally in relationship to the whole. In this new formulation, each sign, along with the nine planets, and number system of 0 though 9 became the alphabet in her new language of understanding (see The Gnostic Circle/key).

A few years later, Thea’s seeing in understanding provided the insights needed to decipher the core of the Mother’s Temple. This plan with its very precise measurements re-established a very ancient knowledge, which had been lost in time. Thea tells us that nothing in her seeing was based on arbitrary assumptions: “Nor was I ever satisfied with that one date or one piece of the mosaic and with that to formulate or fashion by deduction the whole design. This was a body of knowledge with its own science. Truthful assessment of certain conclusions could be made only on the basis of scrutiny of the entire corpus because bearing a foundation of unity, each piece joins with others to finally convey the complete design; each supports the other and removing one the entire structure might collapse. This was fully in keeping with Sri Aurobindo’s description of the properties of the Supermind. The Mother’s plan was the first non-speculative example of that truth-consciousness in its applicability for this Earth dimension, honouring the planet’s own Divine Measure, or her contribution to the cosmic harmonies.” (Ibid p 325)

The Laws of Equivalence and Correspondence

In the first volume of The New Way Thea writes about the new language of form; she gives detail about how she sees and the tools that assist her. She explains that the Laws of Equivalence and Correspondence are the foundation for a new kind of seeing and that this kind of knowledge is based on what is called ‘models of the universe’:

“… temples, pyramids and other structures which capture universal principles relative to Earth by means of the laws of correspondence: a microstructure, when built according to a knowledge of the laws of correspondence, can reveal the destiny of all that such a structure is able to synthesise; moreover these structures not only contain knowledge but power as well, for the harmony of the higher laws of correspondence endow a structure with the power to influence in the realm of that which the monument embodies. (see End Notes 1 – 2)

“The key to this is naturally to be found in an understanding of the laws of correspondence, and this is a field almost wholly ignored in the world today, – so predominantly ‘scientific’. Likewise the key to the understanding of the laws of correspondence lies in the experience of the oneness of creation, the lived realisation of the equality of the microcosm and macrocosm, because these are merely parts of just One Being. In a word, such an understanding can come only to one who lives in a consciousness of unity and who has reached such a consciousness through specific disciplines devised for this purpose.” (Patrizia Norelli-Bachelet, The New Way, 1, Aeon Books, 1981, p. 60).

On 17 January, 2003, Thea and a group of like-minded people formed the Matrimandir Action Committee (MAC) so that, as stated in the Dedication: “…the Mother’s Vision of the inner chamber of her Temple would be recorded for posterity and would be recognised as the finest example of sacred architecture the world has known, comparable only to the Great Pyramid at Giza. This document will serve future generations in the discovery of ‘the symbol of the future realisation’, her own words to describe the Core of the chamber and its place in the Supramental Manifestation.” (www.matacom.com)

Chronicle 7 (Ibid) focuses attention on the laws of Equivalence and Correspondence to explain the ‘higher laws in the Mother’s Chamber’. Again she states that they are the foundation of the new Seeing, or as the Mother would say, ‘the new precision’. The law of ‘one day equals one year’ is one such law and familiar to many people, as it is used in the western system of astrology to progress a horoscope. This law, she explains, is entirely Vedic; but when the Divine Maya was lost, so was this formula.

Thea has written extensively about these very precise measurements given by the Mother for the core of her Inner Chamber. Although these were ignored by the people who built the structure now standing in Auroville, the Mother’s sacred plan became for Thea ‘a philosopher’s stone’ – a guide for the renewal of these ancient truths (see End Note 3).

The Mother stated that the 12 columns of the room were the 12 months of the year. And by the Law of Correspondence, the 24 metre floor plan is the 24 hours of the day which is equivalent to 365 days of the year: “…the earth lives the experience of the Sun on a proportionately reduced scale when she makes one complete spin around the pole of her own being or her inner sun. For our planet this experience is lived in a time span of 24 hours, and therefore the contribution of the Earth in the chamber (in the floor measurement) is 24 metres…by the Laws of Correspondence these are equivalent to the 24 hours of the Earth’s inner solar experience.” (The New Way 2, pp. 204 – 5).

Thea divided 365 (the year) by 24 (hours) and found this to be 15.20, – the exact measurement (in metres) given by the Mother for the Shaft of Light that extends from the ceiling of the room and descends through the translucent Globe down to the top of the Pedestal, (Ibid).

These laws are part of the new language evolving to help the student of the New Way see along with the Divine. Thea writes that the core of the Mother’s chamber revealed itself to her, and because of her ability to see in terms of interrelationships, to see in unity, she was able to give us the exact meaning and measurements of each part of the Mother’s vision. (Chronicles of the Inner Chamber, p. 43)

In the second volume of her autobiographical study, The Tenth Day of Victory, (Part 11), Thea shows the depth of her seeing in understanding when she describes the use of the ancient geometrical design, the Vesica Pisces, to discover Sri Aurobindo’s rebirth as the Son. She calls this the Transcendent’s Birth as the Immanent and tells us that for those who have eyes to see and a desire to know, all of this is written in the core of the Mother’s Chamber.

End Notes

[1] “… Just the fact that the urn had been given a measurement was sufficient for me to take it as sacrosanct. The reason is that imprinting occurs when an item is brought down from a higher, subtle plane and rooted in the Earth; this is consolidated through Measure. But only a sage of a very high order has the capacity to carry out this measuring act and resultant imprinting. This capacity is referred to in Chapter 21 of The Revelation. In verse 15 it is stated: 15. And he that talked with me had a golden reed to measure the city, and the gates thereof, and the wall thereof.

The ‘golden reed’ refers to this unique ability to establish the higher things in material creation based on the gnostic measure – that is, the measure of truth and knowledge. (TTDV2, p 84)

[2] “Nowhere in the Entretiens does the Mother state that the building of the Temple is for the experience of human unity… She gave birth to a soul, a gnostic temple, with such power in its dimensions and arrangements that its building could become a power of transformation upon the Earth…

The meaning for the Earth’s evolution in the Matrimandir is that in its heart one does not come upon a Void, one comes to the Sun, the divine light in the heart of matter… all this is subtle and has nothing to do with human unity . It is the essence of the Matrimandir according to the Mother’s vision and plan, as a gnostic temple which is to reflect Sri Aurobindo and the Mother’s work and which is to be a generator of transforming energies upon Earth…(ibid,pp.101-103)

[3] Thea describes her method of discovery and says there is nothing complicated in these ancient laws. She quotes from Charles Malamoud, in the Unesco Courier, May 1993:

“…Such correspondences exist, but it is up to humans to discover them, to become aware of them, to formulate them – and in so doing, to confirm them. Solving the Vedic riddles … involves linking similar elements from the different levels of existence… A ritual object, a particular moment in a ceremony, is thought to have a replica or counterpart in some specific spatial or temporal element of the universe…

“This network of correspondences is not static. The Vedic authors… gave much thought to finding new, more refined and complex equivalences. Several Sanskrit words convey this idea, words that mean ‘connection’, ‘link’, even ‘kinship’. In Vedic India, the idea of correspondences is more important than the concept of causality – whereas Buddhism insists on sequence of cause and effect…” (Chronicles of the Inner Chamber, Chronicle 7, 5 May 2003, p. 43)