Author Archives: Robert Wilkinson

Answer to Freedom Cole’s Tale of Two Zodiacs

The Keys to the Map of the 12 Manifestations

Map of the 12 Manifestations

1 Age (1 sign/astrological age) = 2160 years
1 Manifestations (3 signs/astrological ages) = 6480 years
1 Round (12 signs/astrological ages) = 25,920 years
1 Great Circle (12 Manifestations) = 77,760 years
1 Greater Circle (4 Great Circles, or 144 signs) = 311,040 years

1. Of Vishnu now I declare the mighty works, who has measured out the earthly worlds and that higher seat of our self-accomplishing he supports, he the wide-moving, in the threefold steps of his universal movement. 2. That Vishnu affirms on high by his mightiness and he is like a terrible Lion that ranges in the difficult places, yea, his lair is on the mountain-tops, he in whose three wide movements all the worlds find their dwelling-place. 3. Let our strength and our thought go forward to Vishnu the all-pervading, the wide-moving Bull whose dwelling- place is on the mountain, he who being One has measured all this long and far-extending seat of our self-accomplishing by only three of his strides. 4. He whose three steps are full of the honey-wine and they perish not but have ecstasy by the self-harmony of their nature; yea, he being One holds the triple principle and earth and heaven also, even all the worlds. 5. May I attain to and enjoy that goal of his movement, the Delight, where souls that seek the godhead have the rapture; for there in that highest step of the wide-moving Vishnu is that Friend of men who is the fount of the sweetness. 6. Those are the dwellings-places of ye twain which we desire as the goal of our journey, where the many-horned herds of Light go traveling; the highest step of wide-moving Vishnu shines down on us here in its manifold vastness. (RigVeda 1.154) – Sri Aurobindo, Secret of the Veda, Vishnu the All-Pervading Godhead p. 331.

Twelve spokes, one wheel, navels three. Who can comprehend this? On it are placed together Three hundred and sixty like pegs. They shake not in the least. (Rig Veda 1.164.48)

One is the wheel; the bands are twelve; three are the hubs – who can understand it? Three hundred spokes and sixty in addition have been hammered therein and firmly riveted… Though manifested, it is yet hidden, secret, its name is the Ancient, a mighty mode of being; in Skambha is established this whole world; therein is set fast all that moves and breathes.(Atharva Veda 10.8)

The work of the Supramental Avatars has largely been to reveal the inner essence of profound spiritual truths which over time have been insecurely grasped and only superficially understood. Sri Aurobindo led the way by unveiling the ‘Secret of the Veda’ which had remained undiscovered for thousands of years. The Mother weaved those sublime truths into architectural form in the body of her Cosmic Temple. But it is the Third of the Line, Thea who has brought this knowledge into sharp relief because the very nature of the Third is Precision in Truth. The ability to see with such detail comes about because the action is observed from the most intimate dimension the human consciousness can experience, the ‘center’ or individual Soul. It was Sri Aurobindo who introduced the mystery of Supramental Time, but it was Thea who gave it language and form in her Gnostic Circle and Map of the 12 Manifestations. Following the manner in which these discoveries unfolded is one of the greatest detective stories of all time.

In Chapter 12 of the Secret of the Veda, Sri Aurobindo gives an unparalleled interpretation of the Rig-Veda 1.154 which deals with Vishnu, the All-Pervading Godhead. It is the story of Vishnu Trivikrama which begins with a declaration of how Vishnu measured out the universe and that ‘higher seat of our self-accomplishing’ in the threefold steps of his universal movement. In Sri Aurobindo’s translation he described Vishnu’s first step as a‘terrible Lion’. His second step is as a ‘wide moving Bull’ and Vishnu’s third and highest step is as ‘that Friend of men’. To the ordinary scholar these passages may have suggested a form of zoomorphism in which certain archetypal qualities are given to a God by comparing him to an animal. But to ‘One who Sees’, these verses were pregnant with cosmological significance. Not only was Sri Aurobindo the only translator to interpret these passages in this particular way, but he had emphasized these epithets of Vishnu by capitalizing them in the text. One can only imagine Thea’s excitement when she grasped the inner meaning of these passages. By this time she was well aware that the Rig Vedic Myth contained the same story of the evolution of human consciousness as depicted in the Zodiac, but these verses gave a specific period in Time to the concluding stages of Vishnu’s incarnations. Not only did they confirm that the God of Preservation appeared in the Fixed signs of the Zodiac, his own signs, but since the verses had given these symbols in reverse of their normal order, it revealed that the Vedic Rishis who wrote these passages thousands upon thousands of years ago were fully aware of an astronomical phenomenon known as the Precession of the Equinoxes which was believed to have only been discovered in the 2^nd century BC, by the Greek astronomer and mathematician Hipparchus. As Thea later wrote:

‘Vishnu’s famous three strides (to measure the universe) cannot be more revealing. The first `step’ is like a lion (Leo), according to the Veda; the second is a bull (Taurus); the third, and most revealing of all, is the Friend. This is the same Aquarius of Agastya’s birth, which is also known as the sign of the Friend. More conclusively, they are given in their correct backward moving order, and are Vishnu’s own zodiacal domains because of their quality of PRESERVATION (`Fixed’ in zodiacal terminology, stable, balancing).’ Thea, Cosmology in Rigveda — the third premise

It is well known to astronomers and astrologers that the complete round of the Precessional cycle is 25,920 years giving a period of 2,160 years to each zodiacal age. The last three steps of Vishnu’s Measure included the signs Leo (the Lion), Taurus (the Bull) and Aquarius (the Friend) each comprising three signs or a ‘Manifestation’ of 6,480 years. Moreover, these last three periods conclude with Vishnu’s ‘highest step’ which was to occur in our present Age of Aquarius.

Rectification and the Act of Seeing

One of the Seers many gifts of consciousness is the unique ability to synthesize seemingly disparate fragments of information into a coherent body of self-evident knowledge. This process is known as ‘Rectification’ or the ability to See each thing in its proper place. A lesser version of this technique is used to solve problems that arise in Astrology. When an astrologer is asked to cast a chart and does not have the client’s exact time of birth, he will ask a series of time specific questions in order to synchronize the time of the birth chart with the client’s own lived experience. Through the use of certain ‘Keys’, the Truth of What Is cannot help but reveal itself. We can see this process of rectification employed in Thea’s reading of the Rig-Vedic verses to Vishnu Trivikrama as well as the passage from the Atharva Veda that speaks of the ‘One Wheel with three Hubs’. What to the uninitiated might seem random and insignificant has given Thea a key to the order of the ages. Her ability to See the exact relation of Time and Archetype allows us to follow the unfolding of human history against the backdrop of a precise and purposeful evolutionary plan. There is of course far more to the story. The Vedic verses are just the beginning of a much larger process of unveiling. As Sri Aurobindo used to say when he was trying to solve a particularly difficult problem, ‘I’ve got the tail of it’ and he began to pull until the knot finally unraveled. For Thea the Vishnu verses are the tail of a far bigger picture which takes us into a precise understanding of our evolution in time.

The Ordering of the Ages

The Vishnu verses give us the signs and zodiacal order of three of the God’s emanations. When these appearances are seen in relation to the 25,920 year precessional cycle they reveal that Vishnu’s Avatars take birth on Earth every 6,480 years (a Manifestation) in the Fixed signs of the Precessional cycle: Scorpio, Leo, Taurus and Aquarius. But for Thea, there was another problem; exactly when did these Ages begin? Only with this knowledge could she be absolutely precise in the field of cosmic harmonies. There had been numerous dates put forward by pundits, astronomers and esoteric schools claiming to know the beginning of the Age of Aquarius. Most of these dates were the result of scriptural interpretations or astronomical calculations that differed from each other by as much as 2,000 years. Through a series of yogic experiences and careful mathematical calculations* Thea was able to work out this complicated issue and and in a letter to the Mother on 30 March, 1973 she wrote that she had finally been shown the exact date and it came within a design that included a sacred name of three Greek letters, ΘΕΑ (Thea) and the numbers 1, 5, 9. The date of the beginning of the Aquarian age was 1926 and it corresponded to the official beginning of Sri Aurobindo’s and the Mother’s joint work in the form that we know it today.

On 24 November, 1926, after a lifetime of yoga, Sri Aurobindo and the Mother sent word to their sadhaks asking them to assemble in the upper verandah of the Library House in their Ashram in Pondicherry to hear about something of supreme importance that had happened in the history of the Earth and Universe. On what was later to become known as ‘Victory Day’ or the day of Siddhi, Sri Aurobindo announced that Krishna, the Overmental Godhead had descended into the physical, meaning Sri Aurobindo himself. As the Mother explained, ‘…Krishna consented to descend into Sri Aurobindo’s body – to be FIXED there. Then I saw him – I saw him with my own eyes (inner eyes, of course), join himself to Sri Aurobindo’. With the integration of the Overmental consciousness begun by the 8^th Avatar Krishna, Sri Aurobindo could now retire to his rooms and begin the establishment of the Supramental Consciousness-Force. This event marked the true beginning of his mission, the platform from where he could carry the evolution to greater heights. Sri Aurobindo’s Siddhi Day, 24/11/1926, was also the close of the Age of Pisces (234 BCE to 1926) and the beginning of the Aquarian Age. It was a victory for the whole world, because without it transpiring right on time, the Avatar could not have begun his transformative mission to bring down the Supermind.

With this date, Thea could begin an ordering of the ages that would reveal an irrefutable divine plan and purpose to our collective evolution. It would also take us deeply into an understanding of the ‘Involution’.

The Mystery of Involution

Evolution is not some meaningless product of random chance as the old science and otherworldly religions would have us believe. It is a controlled and intentional process, a movement in time toward an ultimate and supreme apotheosis. This is a foundational principle of the Rig Veda whose entire cosmogony is contained in the ‘Hymn of Creation’, an incomparable account of the birth of the universe from a ‘golden embryo’. All material creation proceeds from this original involved ’seed’ as involutionary forms move across the event horizon, extend themselves, multiply, and grow in accordance with the laws of causation and the principles of time.

As we follow this passage from the Un-manifest to the Manifest it begins with an inverse compaction on the ‘other side’ into a Golden ‘Bija’ or Seed wherein Life is involved in Matter and Mind in Life. Crossing a certain threshold, what was originally compacted begins to unpack itself in an orderly predetermined manner. Similar to the nature of any Seed or embryo, Time is the driver of this process of unpacking because it is precisely what was compacted in the first place. The order of the evolution is simply the inverse of what was originally involved; Life emerges from seemingly inert Matter and Mind emerges from Life. But perhaps the most amazing quality of this passage is that the process occurs in exquisitely timed stages of development that follows a natural gestation process. The Vishnu Purana describes the unfolding of the cosmos and the coming into existence of the earth and its living beings as taking place in nine ‘creations’ or periods of evolution. In the Bhagavata Purana we find a similar division in the story of Vishnu’s periodic descent into human form as the evolutionary Avatar. According to Sri Aurobindo, the appearance of Vishnu’s Avatars through the ages is a parable of the evolution.

‘…First the Fish Avatar, then the amphibious animal between land and water, then the land animal, then the Man-Lion Avatar, bridging man and animal, then man as dwarf, small and undeveloped and physical but containing in himself the godhead and taking possession of existence, then the rajasic, Avatars, leading the human development from the vital rajasic to the sattwic mental man.’ Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga – The Purpose of Avatarhood

What is important to note is Sri Aurobindo’s description of the development from the ‘undeveloped and physical’ to the ‘vital rajasic’ and finally the ‘sattvic mental man’. Here we have a perfect description of the evolutionary unfolding from the Physical, to the Vital and finally to the still incomplete Mental human being who is balanced upon Three pillars of Being with the Spiritual yet to emerge. But in the later stages of the Nine Puranic Creations, the 7^th, 8^th and 9^th we will see the Mental, Overmental and Supramental Manifestations. Vishnu’s final Avatars come to unveil the Fourth pillar, the Supramental/Spiritual principle which resolves the contradictions of the Mental species and brings the Kingdom of the Divine upon earth.

Vishnu’s Final Emanations

In the Line of Ten Avatars we can see the order of the evolution unfolding over thousands of years in a precise order from the Physical to the Vital to the Mental man. The Rig Vedic verses to Vishnu Trivikrama allow us to focus in on the final stages of that unfolding taking place in the ages of Leo, Taurus and our present age of Aquarius. If 1926 was the beginning of the Aquarian Age, then the Avatar of the Age of Leo (the Lion) would have appeared some 12,000 years ago around 11,034 BCE. Historical records of that period are almost non-existent but we do have the Indian Epics which recount the lives and mythic adventures of two of the most recent of Vishnu’s incarnations, Sri Rama and Sri Krishna. While there are no reliable records of Lord Rama’s birth date, we know that he preceded Lord Krishna who was born around 3,100 BCE at the mid-point of the age of Taurus. In the Indian Epic, the Ramayana, we find a detailed account of Sri Rama’s life that reveals to the eye that sees volumes about his purpose in the scheme of evolution.

Lord Rama was born in the 7^th Manifestation some twelve thousand years ago in the Age of Leo. He was what is called a ‘Solar’ manifestation and details of his epic, the Ramayana, reveal him to be the IDEAL or Sattvic man. Lord Rama’s purpose was, ‘to fix for the future the possibility of an order proper to the sattvic civilised human being who governs his life by reason, the finer emotions, morality, and higher Mental ideas’. The story of the Ramayana Epic revolves around Rama’s love and devotion to his wife Sita, an unmistakable theme of the 7^thzodiacal sign, Libra. The plot of the epic involves the abduction of Sita by the demon king Ravana. In his pursuit to rescue Sita, Rama assembles an army of allies who attack Ravana’s army, slay the demon king and reunite Sita with her loving husband, thus restoring balance and order to the world.

Lord Krishna, the 8^th Avatar was the Overmental Superman. He was born in the 8^th Manifestation around 3,100 BCE in the Age of Taurus. He was a ‘Lunar’ manifestation as the meaning of his name ‘the dark one’implies. The most important document of Sri Krishna’s teaching is the Mahabharata Epic which contains the Bhagavad Gita, revealed during the battle of Kurukshetra. The ‘Gita’ is woven around a discourse between Krishna and his student Arjuna which centers on War, Duty and Death, an essential knowledge for the ‘Kshatriya’ or Divine Warrior. As all initiates know, the subjects of War and Death are the preeminent themes of the 8^th zodiacal sign Scorpio.

Just as the overarching sign of the 7^th Manifestation was the 7^th zodiacal sign Libra, ruled by Venus, the sign of the 8^th Manifestation is Scorpio, ruled by Mars, the god of war. The passage from the 8^th Manifestation to the 9^th follows the same progression from the sign Scorpio to Sagittarius. Scorpio is regarded in the Veda as the stage of the un-illumined Vital, the ‘cave of darkness’ where the ‘light’ or ‘shining cows’ are penned in. It is the stage in the Vedic sacrifice where the demon Vala is said to obstruct the journey. In other words, the passage through Scorpio represents the final contraction before the great expansion in the 9^th sign Sagittarius where the release of the penned in energy (cows) occurs. According to the Veda, it is the domain of the ‘nine-rayed seers’ who by the utter thought of the soul broke open the fortified pens and released the Sun’s radiant herds.

As we follow this progression of Time and Archetypes we would naturally expect the 9^th Avatar of Vedic tradition to appear in the 9^th Manifestation in the Age of Aquarius. He would be a Solar manifestation and the overarching theme of his life and mission would correspond to the 9^th sign Sagittarius, which represents a body of higher knowledge. Since we have been told by Thea that Vishnu’s 9^th Avatar would immediately return as the 10^th, in keeping with the Rig Veda injunction, we must view their appearance in the context of the culmination of the Vedic journey. What makes these final incarnations so absolutely unique is that they represent the last and supreme emergence of that original involutionary principle, Time. While Rama and Krishna prepared the soil for the conquest of Time, it is not until the concluding members of the Line that we see the complete apotheosis of Time as the ultimate feature of an integral Gnosis. We must expect therefore that their teachings would represent a radical reversal of an old transcendental spirituality whose strategy involved a complete denial of Time and Matter in order to reach the opposite pole, Spirit. Moreover we would expect Vishnu’s final Avatars to open an entirely new path for humanity, one that can at long last resolve the ancient paradoxes and unite the poles of Spirit and Matter through the instrumentality of Gnostic Time.

Sri Aurobindo

Our expectations of Vishnu’s 9^th Avatar are overwhelmingly realized in the person of Sri Aurobindo. He was born in the 9^th Manifestation and ushered in the Aquarian Age. He was the epitome of the Solar manifestation, born under the sign Leo which is ruled by the Sun. Considered to be one of India’s greatest sages, not simply of this age but of all ages, Sri Aurobindo fulfilled his Sagittarian mission by producing hundreds of volumes of an all-embracing and profound philosophy that has been described as a contribution to human thought the equivalent of which has not been attained by any other known thinker. Any serious student of Sri Aurobindo’s life and yoga will immediately recognize that his work represents a radical departure from all previous spiritual paths. It challenges thousands of years of traditional wisdom that believes transcendence of the physical world is the highest possible attainment. In an epochal reversal of direction, Sri Aurobindo and his line have presented humanity with a New Way, an entirely new direction that foresees the possibility of A MATERIAL UNION WITH THE DIVINE, one that takes us into the core of this world of matter and the innermost mysteries of time.

The Birth of the One

If we view the periods of Vishnu’s final emanations, the Mental, Overmental and Supramental Avatars, we see that they have occurred in the 7^th, 8^th and 9^th Manifestations. This parallels the conclusion of the 9 Puranic ‘Creations’ and, so far as we know, the Line of Avatars. Since Vishnu’s 9^th Avatar quickly returns as the 10^th, Kalki, we must view them as a single incarnation which closes the circle so to speak and establishes the Supramental life on Earth. After Nine Creations and Nine Avatars unfolding in a perfect progression of Gnostic time the Birth of the One has finally taken place, bridging the planes of Spirit and Matter. As the Mother explained:

‘The consciousness is like a ladder At each great epoch there has been one great being capable of adding one more step to the ladder and reaching a place where the ordinary consciousness has never been… one more step to the ladder without losing contact with the material (consciousness)… to reach the Highest and at the same time connect the top to the bottom… To go up and down and join the top to the bottom is the whole secret of realisation, and that is the work of the Avatar.’ The Mother, Collected Works of The Mother, First Edition, Volume 10, pp. 137-40

To reach this goal, the two ends of existence, the spiritual summit and the material base had to be purposefully linked and this had never happened in the history of the world. But the time had come for the final unpacking or ‘Birth’ of what had been involved into that golden seed at the dawn of creation.

Switching our view from the widest possible perspective of the 7^th, 8^th and 9^th Manifestations, let us now focus in on the 9^th Avatar and his evolutionary entourage.

‘The 9th Spiral and the 9th Manifestation present the earth with the appearance of not only the Father but the Mother and Child as well. The full birth is lived through, and is probably the only time that the Divine Mother becomes actually singularly embodied, because it is then that she descends and literally brings forth her Child.’ Thea, The Gnostic Circle, The Twelve Manifestations, p. 41

Just as the wider view revealed an entire body of Cosmological knowledge, the final Four staged descent of Sri Aurobindo and his Solar Line takes us on a plunge into the Individual Soul. This means that we have entered into a new stage of human development the expression of which requires an entirely new language, one that needs must include what Sri Aurobindo described as, ‘the rhythms and metres of the stars and the symbol powers of number and form’.

While it was Sri Aurobindo’s task to bring about the descent of this truth- consciousness of the Supreme Divine Nature into himself, that was only the beginning of a descent and compression that would extend to subsequent members of his Line, disclosing in the process the most profound knowledge ever revealed. Of course the Mother had foreseen this possibility in connection with the establishment of the Supramental life on the earth.

‘I do not think that a single individual on the earth as it is now, a single individual, however great, however eternal his consciousness and origin, can on his own change and realise — change the world, change the creation as it is and realise this higher Truth which will be a new world, a world more true, if not absolutely true. It would seem that a certain number of individuals — until now it seems to have been more in time, as a succession, but it could also be in space, a collectivity — are indispensable so that this Truth can become concrete and realise itself… That is to say, however great, however conscious, however powerful he may be, one Avatar cannot by himself realise the supramental life on earth. It is either a group in time, extending over a period of time, or a group spread out in space — perhaps both — that are indispensable for this Realisation. I am convinced of it.’ The Mother, Collected Works of the Mother, Volume 3, p. 178

The Mother was exactly right. As the final emanations of the Time Spirit, the births of Sri Aurobindo and the members of his Line illustrate the stages of descent from the Spiritual to the Cosmic, to the Individual and finally to the Immanent Physical and in so doing, they recreate the mystery of the Involution by which knowledge of the entire creation is compacted into a tiny ‘Seed’. The ancient Alchemist expressed this same process of descent in the numerical formula: “One becomes Two, Two becomes Three, and out of the Third comes the One as the Fourth.

Indeed, the very incarnation of the 9^th Avatar and the births of the members of his line reveal the occult dynamics of the process by which Spirit becomes Matter. Their births in time reveal a non-speculative objective truth which is both MEASURABLE and APPLICABLE and leads to the deepest understanding of the operations of the Supermind. Sri Aurobindo considered the numerical formula of this descent to be so important to his work that he included it in his Seal which is also known as the ‘Seal of Vishnu’ or Lotus of the Avatar. In it we find an arrangement of 9 and 6 lotus petals in a descending order, resting on 3 leaves.

In terms of the Solar Line and the fields that they represent, Sri Aurobindo was the Transcendent principle[9], the Mother was the Cosmic principle [6], Thea is the Individual principle [3]. They incarnate as a mathematical trinity to unveil the occult process by which energy-consciousness becomes crystallized into material forms. To illustrate how precise and specific the actions of the Supermind can be we need only look at the dates of birth of the Supramental Line. You have to ask yourself what kind of consciousness is capable of arranging the births of a group of individuals to reflect a geometry of Time that becomes the basis of a New Gnosis? Since the manifestation of the Avatars is determined by their inherent association with the Time-Spirit, their three-staged descent upon the earth occurs within an exquisite Geometry of Time that cannot possibly be concocted. It can only be arranged by the Supermind and thus becomes the basis of their objective cosmic credentials. As revealed below, these seed numbers calculated through the ‘Mathematics of Unity’ appear in the exact order of the actual descent:

Sri Aurobindo was born in 1872: 1+8+7+2 = 18 = 9
The Mother was born in 1878: 1+8+7+8 =24 = 6
Thea, (ΘΕΑ) was born in 1938: 1+9+3+8 = 21 = 3
The Fourth (Kalki) was born in 1963: 1+9+6+3 = 19 = 1

Sri Aurobindo’s withdrawal in 1950 and return in 1963 completes the descent from the Transcendent to the Immanent Divine and provides us with the final integer of the formula by which the Supermind deploys itself on earth; 9-6-3-0/1. Thea explains:

‘…Whole numbers, as number-powers, alone ‘explain’ reality…The Zero/Contraction is what holds the universe together. It is the binding force – the eternal all-pervading Centre. Without that there is no universe at all. And those number-powers encapsulate the Transcendent, the Cosmic, the Individual Soul. These are the triadic principles of all creation, of all created things. These principles through the 0/1 are at the root of our universal manifestation – and they are the components of the individual Soul, our vahana in this material creation of 9.’ Thea, ‘The Miracle of Oneness’, 2012, p.1

The Birth that ‘Fills the Void’

In order to appreciate the full significance of this birth we must locate its position in the Map of the 12 Manifestations. According to Thea, there are four births, corresponding to the four different ‘sheaths’; Physical, Vital, Mental and Spiritual. We must proceed through the Circle of 12 Manifestations four times before the full birth is accomplished; nearing the fourth, the Child is truly born and delivered into his rightful destiny. We are now in the Third body or quarter, the realm of the Higher Mental body and Sagittarius, the 9^th sign, is the last sign of that group. In the Circle of 311,040 years, the 9^th Manifestation and the 9^th spiral of the Greater Circle are equivalent to the 9^th month of gestation and this is where the Child is born.

We are told by Sri Aurobindo that Kalki comes to correct ‘the error of the Buddha’, to solve the paradox that the mind imposes which leads to theories of illusionism ‘Maya’, and strategies of escape. The nature of the ‘Void’ the mind creates is due to an irreconcilable split between Spirit and Matter, Becoming as discontinuous from Being, and because of this, the absence of any Plan or Purpose.‘This void’, says Thea, ‘is the crux of the entire human dilemma, spiritually and physically and the reason why all spiritual paths until now have failed is simply because none have been able to ‘fill that void’.

When we follow the lives and mission of the Solar Line we see that they re-enact a process of ‘contraction to a point’ in which the undifferentiated Transcendent is reduced to a seed of itself, a Zero Womb. The compressed energy within this seed becomes ordered as a triadic force, the 9,6 and 3, known as the three qualitative modes of nature or ‘Gunas’. When the Zero womb or compaction of the 9-6-3 crosses a certain threshold, Contraction is balanced with Expansion, the Vertical is harmonized with the Horizontal, and Being and Becoming are continuous without any ‘gaps’ whatever. As Thea writes, ‘Time propels the contents of the Zero-Womb-Seed to the extension of Itself in our material dimension – with no separation between the two; that is, never leaving a void but bearing the seamless continuity of an upholding plenum’. The 9-6-3 extends itself as the 0/1 and thus the Child is born. Kalki corrects the error of the Buddha by joining the two poles of existence and erasing the separation that for millennia has depleted the reserves of higher energy necessary for our individual and collective transformation.

‘…The key to salvation of the civilisation lies precisely in eternal Time, the very vision Arjun shied away from. But that was another age, the 8th Manifestation of Sri Krishna; while this is the time of Kalki who returns to humanity the saving formula of sacred Time.’ Thea, The Sanctity of Materialism.

Thea

In past ages this precious knowledge has been the possession of a small group of initiates who had opened the doors to occult and spiritual knowledge and were charged with its preservation for future generations – the ‘few who shall see what none yet understands’. But with the advent of the Supermind the time has come at last for these mysteries to be revealed. In a prodigious body of higher knowledge Thea has laid bare the evolutionary ‘scheme of Avatarhood’ and disclosed in its entirety the full face of the Cosmic Truth. With the coming of the 9^th Avatar, Sri Aurobindo and his return as the 10^th, Kalki, we can now follow the evolution through its incarnational stages of becoming to its final apotheosis of a Supramental Species and a Life Divine. For those who see, there can be simply no question of who Sri Aurobindo describes in his epic poemSavitri, book Two, Canto Six, when he writes: ‘She has lured the Eternal into the arms of time, caught the boundless in a net of birth, cast the spirit into physical form and [lent] speech and thought to the Ineffable’. Through Thea’s unique recognition of the Vishnu verses and the passages from the Atharvaveda as Keys to the Cosmic Order, we no longer need to simply believe in the Divine but we can See and Know and Marvel at the perfection of which we are a part.

* I had previously written that Thea had arrived at the exact date of the beginning of the age of Aquarius through a process of prayer. I stand corrected that her realization of the correct date of the beginning of the age was the product of certain yogic realizations which, ‘…opened up new vistas and permitted a higher light to illumine the regions obscured by the passage of time’. This led Thea to a process of careful mathematic calculations that revealed the exact date of 1926 as the beginning of the Age of Aquarius. An example of her notes and calculations may be found illustrated on p. 319 of The Tenth Day of Victory, Vol. 2 Book One.

CERN – Temple to the OLD CONSTANT

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‘…Up until now, the philosophy of reductionism, which tells us how things work by breaking them up into parts has served us well. However the present crisis in particle physics can perhaps be expressed by the simple statement that reductionism and the search for grand unification seem no longer to be working.’ Lee Smolin, The Life of the Cosmos, Oxford University Press, 1997

In his opus work, The Life Divine, India’s greatest sage, Sri Aurobindo, wrote that the world had reached a point which he characterized as an ‘evolutionary crisis’. It is a crisis driven by man’s limited mental capacity and understanding and the burden of his past beliefs. And because it is an evolutionary crisis there is the implication of an unrelenting force and compounding pressure behind it seeking some form of resolution by pushing the mental consciousness and species into a more acute state of tension whereby it might exceed itself in a new more inclusive vision of reality. Before this happens however, the Mental world we have created with its bi-polar oppositions, irreconcilable beliefs and intractable positions will be pushed to the brink of destruction. And nowhere will these evolutionary tensions be so great as in our deeply entrenched beliefs about Spirituality and Science because neither of these traditions are open to the concept of evolution, let alone the reality.

Inextricably linked with the Evolution, which is a self-evident fact for most people, is the Involution without which there would be no evolving in time. This is a terrifying notion for our 21st century Science which is wedded to the idea that there is no meaning, purpose, or preexisting plan to what presents to our senses as the Physical universe, but Sri Aurobindo tells us otherwise,

“…From the beginning the whole development [of the universe] is predetermined in its self-knowledge and at every moment in its self-working – it is and moves to what it must be by its own original Truth, and will be at the end that which was contained and intended [Involved] in its seed.”

Sri Aurobindo goes on to explain:

‘…We speak of the evolution of Life in Matter, the evolution of Mind in Matter; but evolution is a word which merely states the phenomenon without explaining it. For there seems to be no reason why Life should evolve out of material elements or Mind out of living form, unless we accept the Vedantic solution that Life is already involved in Matter and Mind in Life because in essence Matter is a form of veiled Life, Life a form of veiled Consciousness. And then there seems to be little objection to a further step in the series and the admission that mental consciousness may itself be only a form and a veil of higher states which are beyond Mind. In that case, the unconquerable impulse of man towards God, Light, Bliss, Freedom, Immortality presents itself in its right place in the chain as simply the imperative impulse by which Nature is seeking to evolve beyond Mind, and appears to be as natural, true and just as the impulse towards Life which she has planted in certain forms of Matter or the impulse towards Mind which she has planted in certain forms of Life.’ Sri Aurobindo – The Life Divine —The Human Aspiration, pp. 4-5

According to Sri Aurobindo, what is an ultimate and last derivation in the involution is the first to appear in the evolution. What was original and primal in the involution is, in the evolution, the last and supreme emergence; a mind of Unity and Knowledge that knows all things as itself and in itself and therefore knows them intimately, completely, in their reality as well as their appearance. This emergent faculty is the Vedic Truth-Consciousness or what Sri Aurobindo has termed the Supermind. It is characterized by Precision, Clarity and a more integral Vision of the whole which Sees each thing in its proper place. As Thea has written, ‘…It embraces the past but only because it reveals at the same time that which lies far beyond it.’ It is for this reason that the ACC website with its Supramental perspective is utterly unique in its ability to facilitate a discourse that leads beyond Science and Spirituality.

The purpose of this posting to the ACC Forum is to apply this higher perspective to the condition of modern Scientific Cosmology and its dogmatic adherence to a philosophy of fragmentation and reductionism which attempts to tell us how the world works by breaking up the constituents of matter into smaller and smaller pieces. Central to this discussion is the Standard Model of Physics and its implementation at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider which is Science’s $13 billion dollar Temple to the OLD CONSTANT.

The Large Hadron Collider

Just outside Geneva, in an underground facility between France and Switzerland, CERN – the ‘Conseil Europeen pour la Recherche Nucleaire’ built a 17 mile circular tunnel to house the most complex and expensive machine ever built. It is the world’s most powerful particle accelerator known as the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). In a maze of tunnels, some as much as 30 stories underground, the world’s leading physicists have created a machine which they hope will reconstruct the conditions that may have existed at the ‘Planck Scale’, a billionth of a second after the Big Bang. They do this by smashing beams of protons together inside the LHC at close to the speed of light and examining the debris. Their hope is that by analyzing these high speed experiments on ‘fundamental particles’ they will be able to peer deeper into the building blocks of nature. To achieve these incredible speeds the LHC uses some 10,000 super-cooled, superconducting electromagnets and superconducting cables that must be maintained at ultra low temperatures of -271°C.

The LHC went live in September 10th, 2008 and almost immediately, within 9 days, on September 19th it experienced a major accident caused by a faulty electrical connection between two of the accelerator’s magnets. In an instant an electrical arc was created that punctured the liquid helium enclosure leading to the release of the gas into the insulation vacuum of the cryostat. When the pressures were released into the tunnel they were unable to contain the rise in force. Pressure valves failed to vent the gas and a shock wave ran through the tunnel. The forces brought to bear on the vacuum barriers attached to the quadrupole magnets, each 5–7 metres long, which focus the beams, were so strong that the cryostats housing these magnets actually broke their anchors in the concrete floor of the tunnel. A 400 meter section of the collider was completely wrecked taking one year and $60 million to repair. In March, 2013, after three and a half years of operations, the LHC was shut down again, this time for two years to give scientists, engineers and technicians the opportunity to upgrade the machine. It is scheduled for a Super Restart on March 25th, 2015 with an increase of the collision energy of over twice the force of previous levels. The collision energy at restart will be 13 Trillion Electron Volts (TeV). Following a revision of their Gravity Model, CERN scientists plan to conduct new experiments at these higher levels in the hope that a completely new universe will be revealed, rewriting not only the physics books but the philosophy books as well.

The Standard Model

Since the 1930s physicists have developed a well tested body of theoretical knowledge about the fundamental structure of matter that has come to be known as the Standard Model of Physics. It describes what matter is made of and how the basic building blocks of matter interact with the four fundamental forces at work in the universe. Scientists have been able to reduce and classify these forces in categories according to the strength of the force that they carry and the subatomic particles with which they interact.

The basic grains of matter are called fermions and the force carriers are known as bosons. Fermions come in two families; leptons and quarks each containing six members. The twelve Fermions are the building blocks of matter. These particles interact with each other through fundamental forces and each force comes with one or more force carriers. There are complex mathematic equations expressing these interrelationships in a way that allows theorists to make very precise predictions. Nearly every quantity that has been measured in particle physics laboratories over the past five decades falls right on the predicted value except one: the now infamous Higgs Boson. It is the missing link in the Standard model that ostensibly explains how other particles get their mass.

The Old Constants are Dangerously Incomplete

While the Standard Model accurately describes the visible phenomena within its domain, it is still incomplete. Research based on gravitational studies which the Standard Model does not include tells us that all of the visible matter around us including ourselves, the stars and planets only amounts to about 4% of the material volume of the universe. The remaining 96% of the universe is composed of Dark Matter and Dark Energy which the Standard Model does not acknowledge and cannot explain. Another, more serious problem, described by physicists is that that the Standard Model lacks robustness at higher levels of energy. In experiments conducted at low energy levels particles behave as expected, but with scientists and technicians at CERN more than doubling the power and collision energy of the LHC to levels of energy that existed only trillionths of a second after the so called Big Bang, all bets are off. This is where the Old Constants and the equations of the Standard Model begin to break down including Einstein’s theory that nothing can travel faster than the speed of light. At these levels of collision energy it is impossible to predict what will happen. It will all depend on the unknown physics at the Planck Scale, which at this point remain unknowable.

All assurances to the contrary, it is becoming increasingly evident, even to the non-scientist, that the Standard Model of Physics no longer works, nor does the belief that empirical observation of the known is the only sure course to discover the mysteries of the universe. With recent discoveries of so-called ‘dark matter’ and ‘dark energy’ it appears that no less that 96% of the universe is completely unknown to us and more importantly, un-measurable. A reductive empirical observation of the behavior of Matter is simply no longer an option. If scientist can only guess at what is going on based on the 4% of the universe that they can measure, this is clearly insufficient to provide any credible picture of the universe, let alone a grand unified field theory. As a result of their failures, particularly in finding the Higgs Boson, scientists are slowly beginning to understand what the ancient sages had known for millennia; that the physical and measurable reality accounts for only a minute portion of the Whole.

‘The material universe is only the facade of an immense building which has other structures behind it, and it is only if one knows the whole that one can have some knowledge of the truth of the material universe. There are vital, mental and spiritual ranges behind which give the material its significance…I myself see certain fundamental truths underlying all the domains and the one Reality everywhere. But there is also a great difference in the instruments used and the ways of research followed by the seekers in these different ways (the physical, the occult and the spiritual) and for the intellect at least the bridge between them has still to be built. One can point out analogies, but be maintained very well that Science cannot be used for yielding or buttressing results of spiritual knowledge.’ 11 Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga, p. 212

Courting Disaster

Clearly the truth physicists seek through the Old Constants at CERN cannot be found in sub-atomic particles no matter how long or hard they search. But their naïve willingness to tamper at the threshold of the awesome forces that created the universe exposes us all to incredible danger. The question to consider is this: What kind of careless risks are arrogant scientists willing to take to try and justify this patently untenable position? Since it is moving in a direction counter to what a supramental knowledge would consider prudent, the odds of an unexpected accident grow stronger every day. Grave warnings over the Super Restart at the LHC have been given by a number of scientists including the eminent physicist, Stephen Hawking and Neil deGrasse Tyson, American astrophysicist and director of the Hayden Planetarium. And if that doesn’t give us cause for concern, there is the enigmatic passage from the seer Nostradamus that appears tailor-made for the possibility of an accident at CERN.

“Leave, leave, go forth out of Geneva, all Saturn of gold shall be changed into iron, the contrary of the positive ray shall exterminate all, before it happens, the heavens shall show signs.” Nostradamus – Centuries, Quatrain 9: 44 ^[1]

The Large Hadron Collider in Geneva, bears a certain similarity to the legendary power source of Atlantis known as the ‘terrible crystal’ or the Tuaoi Stone. It was a huge 6 sided cylindrical crystal which was said to be able to capture solar, lunar, atmospheric and telluric energies and focus them in such a way that produced tremendous power. According to the renowned psychic Edgar Cayce, the crystal amplified the powers of the Sun itself to create a Ray that could generate energy from the disintegration of the atom. As the arrogant priests of the Great Crystal became greedy for more power, said Cayce, the energies of the Firestone were tuned to higher and more destructive frequencies until in their carelessness they finally destroyed their entire civilization. The story of Atlantis has special meaning for our modern world in the sense that we too are vulnerable to an arrogant science that has become disconnected from the true nature of the universe.

The Speed of Gnosis

The only thing that can reverse this dangerous threat is a willing embrace of a sweeping change beyond the old Mental consciousness and species into a new Supramental Gnosis where the truths of the creation may actually be found. Thea explains:

“Einstein was the prime example of Mind in control. Mind dictating the course of evolution – making it in Man/Mind’s image. This is the tragedy. Therefore, he had to forego the cosmological constant that would have been his finest hour. It is all so very clear when one has the New Way as touchstone. We have to view what is happening in our very times as supremely important. Just like the chemists and their Cold Fusion breakthrough, the Italian scientist who measured the speed of the neutrino and declared that perhaps the speed of light could no longer hold as the determining constant of physics, so too is he being denigrated by his co-scientists. HE HAS BEEN FORCED TO RESIGN. ^[2] They claim they will re-test at some future date, but you can be certain that those results will not be matched again – the same story as Cold Fusion. They have put the lid on the issue because it means the end of science as we know it.

The speed of light as constant confined us, imprisoned us in this material universe. With it, based on that constant we could never know Oneness. Astronomers continue to probe EXTERNALLY seeking for the first moment ‘out there’, in the far and farther beyond; and only then will they have the secret to the origin of our universe. Light is MATERIAL. It is not of the essence of consciousness. Only through consciousness can we come to that Zero compaction ‘on the other side’. Only then can we experience Oneness and ’see along with the Supreme’. For this is the goal: to consciously ’see along with the Supreme’. To consciously be its instruments for the delight of Being – and this delight can only come through Becoming, never otherwise. And only Supermind can reach these heights – never Mind. We have exceeded Mind. There is no doubt about it; otherwise I could never have formulated what I did this morning. The FORMULATION is the breakthrough, the moment of integration when the threads come together in the experience of Oneness.

The world stands on the threshold of this great breakthrough – but the old Constant blocks the way. No other scientist will dare seek the truth of the neutrino because they have made an example of the one who did dare: forced to resign. Mon Dieu, our world is sick indeed. Never like now do we need a new Constant.” Thea – Private Correspondence

From the ancient Greek Hubris (ὕβρις) means extreme pride or willful self-confidence. When it offended the gods of ancient Greece, it was usually punished severly. Nemesis appears as the avenger of crime and the punisher of hubris. She was also called “Adrasteia”, meaning “one from whom there is no escape”; her epithet Erinys (the implacable) is specially applied to Demeter, the Mother Goddess. Researchers at CERN should take note of the wisdom of the Greeks and the fact that that they are pursuing a willful and dangerous course that obstructs the progress of the evolution as well as the demands of the Time Spirit. It is not likely to end well.

[1] In the language of Cosmology, the planet Saturn, because of its function of precision and measure, has long been associated with Science. ‘All Saturn of Gold’ could thus be understood as the wealth or positive effects of science. In alchemy ‘Iron’ is representative of the planet Mars, which is often associated with war and destruction. ‘Shall be changed into Iron’ suggests that the golden age of science will be changed to an age of destruction. (It should not be overlooked that one of CERN’s symbols is Nataraja, the dancing Shiva, Hindu God of Destruction) That Nostradamus even speaks of Geneva and the ‘Ray’ in the same quatrain is truly remarkable in light of CERN and the LHC. The ‘contrary of the positive ray’ can only be understood as a negative ray; radiation, electro-magnetic effects, strangelets, mini black holes or something as yet unknown from other dimensions. ‘The heavens shall show signs’ is an oft repeated phrase that can be found in the Bible and the broader body of world prophesy. It is a nod to the law of correspondences, As Above, So Below’ and the Manifestations that decree the exact timing of great periods of evolutionary change.

[2] In September of 2011, Prof. Dr. Antonio Ereditato – University of Bern, High Energy Physics and director of the Opera project at CERN announced the possibility of Superluminal travel (beyond the speed of light) by Neutrinos which are subatomic particles that appear to have no mass. The experiment timed neutrinos produced at CERN, Europe’s premiere particle-physics laboratory near Geneva in Switzerland, as they arrived 730 kilometres away at OPERA’s underground detector at the Gran Sasso National Laboratory in Italy. High-precision atomic clocks stationed at each end of the beam were synchronized using the Global Positioning System (GPS). The team reported in September 2011 that neutrinos arrived at Gran Sasso 60 nanoseconds faster than a light beam would do. To fully appreciate the outcry that followed, we must understand that the phenomenon of Fundamentalism is not unique to religion. There is a scientific fundamentalism, dogmatism and rigid adherence to tradition perhaps even worse than religion because of the long standing academic tradition behind it. As Peter Plichta wrote in his marvelous book, God’s Secret Formula, ‘…In this world nothing can, or can be allowed, to be wrong which for hundreds of years has been blessed by scientific approval’. In Dr. Ereditato’s case it was his challenge to Albert Einstein’s theory of Special Relativity which holds that NOTHING can travel faster that the speed of Light. The furor that followed upon Dr. Ereditato’s discoveries might be compared to a scientific inquisition suddenly thrust upon someone found guilty of the greatest heresy. Excuses were made, faulty instruments, miscalculations, and Dr. Ereditato offered himself up with a very dignified resignation as director of the Opera project. As yet, the matter has not been revisited. But to quote Peter Plichta’s book once again in a passage that recalls the words spoken to him by the famous Physicist E.O. Fischer. ‘…One day, perhaps it will take 30 or 40 years – someone will come, someone with an individual mind, and then modern physics will collapse like a house of cards…I am a physicist, I have been awarded the Nobel Prize and I know that modern physics is wrong.’

The Map of the Manifestations

A Wider View of History

‘As archaeologists and scientists advance in their knowledge and probe with greater skill through the strata of time, they come closer and closer to the conclusion that not only is our civilisation much older than has been believed, but that long before ours came into being there may well have been civilisations which existed, flourished in a manner undreamt of today, and then were apparently completely demolished… There is indeed evidence of advanced civilisations having populated the Earth in ages gone by, and a history that extends into a past far more distant than any contemporary academic would allow us to believe.

—Patrizia Norelli-Bachelet, The Gnostic Circle, p. 20

This wider view of history was part of a revered tradition of the ancient Mystery Schools whose sages, record keepers, and astrologer priests preserved and sustained the thread of higher consciousness and knowledge that we find woven through the culture of all civilizations. And while they understood that history was cyclical in character, with a vast repeating series of ages or ‘Yugas’, it was nevertheless a Static vision, an endless cycle consisting of two golden ages, two silver ages, two bronze ages, and two iron ages, with the larger cycles or yugas subdivided into the smaller yugas of: Satya, Treta, Dvapara, and Kali, whose lengths follow a ratio of 4:3:2:1.

As with all knowledge and the passage of time, the underlying cosmological basis of the Cycle of Yugas became corrupted and the original realization was lost.

“What we have inherited from the Middle Ages regarding the Yugas is not really the way things ARE out there. Somehow this ‘tradition’ got established and passed on, just like the wrong calendar in use based on the Nirayana (sidereal) system. These things get established by some authority or another; and then everyone goes on repeating them, and the errors compound. The situation has reached the absurd point where it is believed that Kaliyuga will last 432,000 years!”

—Patrizia Norelli-Bachelet, Private Correspondence

It is for this very reason that these ancient ‘keys’ of knowledge require a periodic updating and this is the role of the Avatar. Sri Aurobindo, the 9th of Vishnu’s line, found the Yugas with their circular view of evolution to be incomplete, just as the more modern secular view of endless linear progress. In The Life Divine, he proposes that the procession of human history follows a ‘Spiral’, which contains something of both the circular and linear movements but which goes beyond these to imply an ordered and purposeful evolution. According to Sri Aurobindo,’ the wheel of Brahma rotates forever, but it does not turn in the same place; its rotations carry it ever forward’.

While Sri Aurobindo gave us the overview of his Supramental Time vision in the Synthesis of Yoga, the details of this forward moving spiral of time were set forth by Patrizia Norelli-Bachelet, (Thea) in the ‘Map of the 12 Manifestations’.

The Spiral Movement

‘In order to give the proper understanding of the movement, the circles are drawn in a spiral, since this is the motion in space of the universe, reflected in the very structure and movement of our galaxy. Then, each of the sections of the spiral corresponding to a quarter of the Circle is given a number, going backwards, or clockwise, through the spiral as the precession of the equinoxes moves. These are called the Manifestations. When they are all numbered we find that there are twelve, and if we count the number of zodiacal signs included in this triple spin, there are found to be thirty-six in all….’In this manner we find that our spiral is really a reproduction of what some astronomers and archaeologists consider the oldest existing astrological documents on Earth, the ‘astrolabes’ of Mesopotamia, which as yet they are unable to decipher.

‘This Map of the I2 Manifestations, as we have termed it, becomes dynamic when we add to it the factor of Time, and this is accomplished by the Precession of the Equinoxes. It takes 25,920 years (12 X 2,160) for the Precession to make one complete round of the Circle, or to pass through the twelve signs of the zodiac once, taking us through four Manifestations. The completion of the entire three circles on the spiral takes then 77,760 years (3 X 25,920), and this we call one ‘Great Circle’.

Ibid, p. 20

When we study the Map of the 12 Manifestations in conjunction with the Gnostic Circle it becomes self-evident that there is a direct correspondence that exists between the cycles of the Earth and the life of the Individual. Both are based upon the Earth’s orbit around the Sun. Owing to the 23 ½ degree tilt of the Earth’s axis, its Annual cycle is divided into four quarters which causes us to experience the Solstices and Equinoxes – four points which mark off the stages of the great cycle of life. Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter are the seasons that organize all life on Earth from birth to death to rebirth in an eternal cycle. They represent the ebb and flow of energy-consciousness in various stages of manifestation. But it is not just the Earth that experiences orderly and purposeful seasons in its cycle, the individual follows an identical plan in the cyclic unfolding of his own life. Once again we are given correspondences that bring to light the structure and process of our own becoming. When we explore these symmetries we discover that the Earth’s four seasons find their equivalence in the individual as he cycles through the four planes of consciousness and the four parts of his own being.

The Structure of the Circle

‘…as we have studied the Circle divided into four parts and seen its profound meaning in the flow of energy, we can also see this division of four as meaningful in the question of the Earth’s birth. There are four births, which would correspond to the four different sheaths. We therefore proceed through the Circle of 12 Manifestations four times before the true and full birth is accomplished; nearing the fourth, the child is truly born and delivered into his rightful destiny.

‘If this is related to time we must allow 311,040 years for the full process (4 X 77,760). Each Great Circle (twelve Manifestations) completed signifies the birth or the fulfillment of one of the four parts of the Body. Therefore, 311,040 would correspond to a full and total manifestation. Within this period, 77,760 years is the time necessary for any one of the ‘sheaths’ to be matured. Thus in the span of the Greater Circle there are four civilizations or empires that come forth and each one points to a particular sheath, the Physical, the Vital, the Mental and the Spiritual. Remnants of these past achievements always remain on Earth during the full gestation, until the time when the entire work is to be dissolved and drawn back into the womb of the Mother.

‘Traces of these other ‘sacks’ are to be found in the legends and fossils and ruins of olden times, of other Great Circles… For this purpose humanity is left with fragments of past teachings, to assist man in understanding his place on the spiral of evolution. This is the sole and only reason that wise men passed down the Knowledge, as well as constructed monuments that show the race the heights of the achievements of lost civilisations. In our times this would perhaps be Atlantis, and the monument that captures and preserves something of that civilisation’s accomplishments absorbed by the present race is the Great Pyramid. From that point we work to bring about another birth or shedding of the sack. We have moved through two such births. The first corresponded to the Physical, the second to the Vital, to which the civilisation of Atlantis belonged, and the third is the Mental. It is supposed that after our period of 77,760 years the birth of the Spirit will fully take place. In this way, 144 signs of the Zodiac are traversed to complete the process, the square of 12.’

‘…During the Third Great Circle, our own times it is in the 2nd Manifestation that the Mental development begins, only 6,480 to 12, 960 years after the commencement of our Circle, or approximately 47,520 years ago. Then each passage through the Vital quarter would be a time when destruction would be necessary, in order to subdue the development of that part of the Earth’s being, so that a balanced and harmonious growth could ensue. If this did not occur, humanity could never reach the pinnacle toward which it moves. Destruction is particularly necessary when dealing with the bodies of the lower half of the Wheel, the Physical and Vital, since in this region Prakriti is particularly strong and the Ignorance can often be dealt with only in this way.

‘Referring to the map of the Greater Circle it can be seen that passing though the 77th, 89th and 101st signs would perhaps signify the breaking down and absorption of the Vital formation of the previous Great Circle. If this is referred to events of our times, what we call the Atlantean civilization would appear then to have undergone certain periods of destruction, the first occurring about 40,000 years ago and the second about 12,000 years ago. The Third, which Edgar Cayce has referred to, might have been the destruction that took place during the Second Great Circle itself, not affecting the Atlantean race but rather the remains of the Manifestation of the previous Great Circle, the Physical.

Ibid, pp. 23-27

The Cosmic Necessity of Destruction

‘In the Fourth Great Circle to come, as well as in ours, though there may be destruction, it is hardly likely that we shall have to lose the conscious link with the past. Working in full consciousness with the harmonies and laws of evolution this evidently will not be necessary. The ‘missing link’ periods correspond to the great destructions when it is necessary to erase certain evidences of the passage to a higher state, and that only the species perfected up to that point remain. What disappears in the destruction is the negative appendage that served as a transition. No specimens of man’s leaps to a higher state remain, the real transitional beings. These are carried away during the periods of the great catastrophes, and it is usually at the solstice points of the Circle that this occurs; so this possibility is present while passing through any Cancer or Capricorn Age. The time of destruction in the coming Capricorn Age, some two to three thousand years from now will most likely leave only the Supramental beings and do away with the transitional race.

‘If Nature did not cover up her footprints, man would cling to his old form and would be unwilling to move to the next stage, because he always fears the unknown. Thus destruction is a prime part of evolution and is a process that cannot be eliminated. It corresponds to the guna of tamas, Shiva’s force, the force of our times. But there is one factor that must be stressed again: if man is conscious enough and understands the coming stage and the work being accomplished, accepts it and willingly discards his old ways, he can avoid destruction. Evidently it has never happened yet it is possible at this time. It is also possible that instead of sweeping catastrophes being employed, a gradual process of elimination may now occur. Presently the guna of tamas or destruction, can be realised as an active passivity, an action in non-action, a conscious surrender.’

‘…The period that served to leave us the traces of the Atlantean civilisation was between 12,000 and 15,000 years ago. After this or precisely around 8,640 years before the beginning of this Aquarian Age, which took place during the 20th Century, there was evidently a minor natural catastrophe, minor compared to the great destruction that overtook the Atlantean civilisation. It probably occurred during the time that the precession of the equinoxes was moving over the second Cardinal point Cancer, or to be more precise, during the last 360 years of the Age of Cancer, which being a Water sign we can understand why there exists to this day the legend of the Great Flood. That disaster is said to have covered the globe in water but perhaps it was only the Mediterranean area that suffered, most of our records of the flood having come from this portion of the civilised Earth. The Great Pyramid survived the disaster and was later restored: it appears that many different hands have passed over this monument, but the essential structure remains the same.

‘We shall not dwell to lengthily on that civilisation, though if the student is inclined to he can reconstruct this epoch on the basis of the zodiacal wheel, not so much in the details of the material life of the times, but rather with the knowledge of the zodiac and its symbols and time relationships it is possible to understand the spiritual development of the civilisation existing then and what it was to contribute to the movement of evolution. In precisely the same way that we know what the contribution of the actual 9th Manifestation is to be, culminating in the Age of Capricorn, so that we can reconstruct the direction of the evolutionary urge during any particular period, `based on the zodiac and the harmonies of the spheres. To study ancient history properly the only way possible is on the basis of the cosmic harmonies; there is no other key that can be used in such a precise way. These harmonies do not depend on methods of preservation of knowledge that are fallible and subject to the decaying hand of Time.’

Ibid, pp. 27-32

The Involution and the Evolution

When we think of the Map of the 12 Manifestations as ‘a spiral of evolution’ we must also understand that ‘Evolution’ is simply an inverse action of the ‘Involution’. What the Map expresses is the orderly unfolding or Becoming in Time of an original Involutionary principle. What is an ultimate and last derivation in the involution is the first to appear in the evolution. What was original and primal in the involution is in the evolution the last and supreme emergence; a mind of knowledge that knows all things as itself and in itself and therefore knows them intimately, completely, in their reality as well as their appearance. This is the Supramental Gnosis that gave rise to Thea’s Map and for which reason Sri Aurobindo wrote:

‘The secret truth that emerges in Supermind has been there all the time, but now it manifests itself and the truth in things and the meaning of our existence.’

—Sri Aurobindo, Essays in Philosophy and Yoga, p. 592

A Letter From the Vice President of Aeon Group/USA