We must ponder over the fact that our solar system presents a clear demarcation. Between Mars and Jupiter a dramatic change sets in: the ‘outer planets’ are gigantic compared to the ‘inner planets’, excepting Pluto. And all have been found to have many more moons than the inner planets, as well as rings, when formerly only Saturn was believed to be a ringed planet.

          Science does not offer any explanation for this pattern – so clear, so obvious to even an amateur star-observer. But the Gnostic Circle does offer one, or at least a visually satisfying experience. We see in the diagram below that the line demarcating his inner and outer boundary is the Circle’s 4.5 Orbit (a position occupied by the Asteroid Belt in the heavens). Beyond this demarcation all the bodies in the Sun’s kingdom are dramatically different than those standing before it. The Gnostic Circle informs us by its 12-part superimposed zodiacal division that this same 4.5 Orbit marks the borderline between the lower and upper hemisphere of the zodiacal wheel (between the 6^th and 7^th signs, Virgo and Libra). Hence there are two distinguishing aspects to the Gnostic Circle’s 4.5 Orbit: one is that it indicates a decisive physical change in all the planets beyond Mars, or the planets which stand BEFORE the 4.5 Orbit; and the other is that this point is the entry into the higher hemisphere of the zodiac – the ‘voyage home’, as it were. The 4.5 is consequently the nadir of the circle, where the System curves and the family of the Sun is drawn back to its bosom and confined within the boundaries of its macro body.

In other words, the 4.5 Orbit is the halfway mark in our planetary system. Therefore beyond that point a shift occurs, as if massive Jupiter is required by its sheer size to offer the gravitational action which will CURVE the direction at this 5^th orbit and steer the individual voyager upward through the higher hemisphere and on to an exploration of those summits above, those kingdoms of hitherto undiscovered and dazzling lights. For as one voyages through the remainder of the orbits beyond gigantic Jupiter the sizes of the bodies we meet begin to diminish until finally the comparatively minute Pluto appears in the last stage of our cosmic odyssey. Science does not explain why this is so, why this remarkable physical factor exists. Nor can Mars be considered an ‘inner’ planet since it is located beyond the earth’s orbit. These properties are only explained by the Gnostic Circle. It seems as if science is not bold enough to consider anything that would draw the exercise into ‘something else’, a plunge into some other area of human awareness and perception to which it is closed.

The Gnostic Circle goes further in its spectacularly precise marriage of all the worlds, those physical as well as supraphysical. It shows us – visually – how Jupiter ‘curves’ the direction of the System by its gravitational pull, thereby producing a ‘shattering’ in the asteroid belt, or the 4.5 Orbit; while in the Circle’s zodiacal background the traveller on this discovery of inner and outer dimensions is thrust into the most intense and demanding portion of the wheel: Scorpio and the plunge into the unknown, into the ‘cave’ of the hostiles where the ‘light’ is hoarded, hidden, and must be retrieved from the depths of Time, from Time’s impenetrable fortress. At that point in the journey, Jupiter, planet of divine Grace, thrusts the voyager into and through Scorpio (for Jupiter stands at the threshold of the 8^th sign) with a massive impact due to its size, identical to the impulsion Voyager 2 received as it skirted on past Jupiter and was forcefully launched toward Saturn’s realm.

This massive induction of force is explained in the Gnostic Circle by the activity required of the traveller on the path of self-perfection in the quarter of the Circle where Jupiter and Saturn stand. Once the traveller reaches Saturn that massive induction or release of ‘fuel’ is no longer required and consequently thereafter the physical sizes of the planets gradually diminish. The size of Pluto, the 9^th and last body in our solar system, again conspires in its physical characteristics to prove the astonishing accuracy of the Gnostic Circle as a tool of knowledge that weds multiple dimensions. Pluto’s size is small, similar to the inner planets. This gradation shows us indeed that the 9^th turns into the system, draws it back in and upon itself, providing us with an aphorism which we may adapt from the biblical text: The smallest shall meet the largest – as Pluto by its 9 number-power, unites with the 0 of the Sun and weds Matter to Spirit.

The qualities of elusiveness and mystery are considered properties of Neptune, the natural 8^th planet. But Pluto has boldly moved into Neptune’s realm and by this impertinent invasion it has taken up the position of 8^th. We wonder then if it is meant to assume those 8^th-stage characteristics of Neptune. Indeed, Pluto is now the elusive and the mysterious, for it stands as the only body in the System yet to be unveiled. It is as if the qualities of the 8^th planet are provided by the orbit rather than the body itself. But this is only a temporary transference, a necessary ingredient for the cosmic play in which this ‘unveiling’ is controlled and meaningful and full of a divine Purpose. To be more accurate, the intrusion of Pluto, the higher octave of Mars, into Neptune’s 8^th space is the ingredient in the process which has been responsible for Neptune’s unveiling, for her secretive nature to become transformed. This was the central issue of the Yoga during 1989; the whole of which witnessed the difficult and dangerous action of drawing things held secret, and therefore full of power and harmful, into the light. Beyond Skambha we witness at the close of 1989 and this intense yogic process, the same exposing of things secret and harmful.  Curtains (iron or other wise) have been definitively lifted because the Scorpion’s stinger has been cut.

What has all this Gnostic Circle ‘probe’ together with the scientific exploration of the System to do with the process of unification the world, or at least Europe is experiencing? The point is that to realise one’s fullest potential the true and real self or system must be known, thoroughly explored – and accepted. We live on a particular planet at a specific location within that System. Our vision is coloured by this location like a prism through which we view the surrounding universe. This viewing is in itself the subject of a controlled unveiling in which Time is the active agent. That control is measured according to our place in the System and the harmony of the planet’s orbit around the Sun and her own axial rotation; while the orbits of the other bodies, in conjunction with the Earth’s, provide more complex measures in this grand act of BECOMING CONSCIOUS of who we are, what we are, and what our relation to the Whole truly is. All of this is implied in the act of controlled unveiling in the harmony of gnostic time which we, as a civilisation, have been living for the past twelve years and five days via the Voyager odyssey and via concurrent developments in the world which have similarly brought down barriers and introduced dramatic changes on Earth as we draw this millennium to a close and initiate a new one. We stand at the most formidable threshold of Time humanity has ever known. Is it any wonder then that in rapid succession, as time draws us to the portals of this exciting crossing, we are witnessing an acceleration in the process which is so faithfully detailed in the Gnostic Circle?

*

I must refer once again to The Magical Carousel odyssey or ‘voyage’, insofar as it too consists of a measure of 12 – through 12 signs/lands. The Voyager 2 probe began in 1977 and the student may remember that 1977 was the Enhancement Year of the Third (whose planetary essence is the Earth itself). That Enhancement gave the final thrust to the New Way, to set it upon its definitive journey of completion, formulated thereafter in the first two volumes of the book of the same name, the writing of which began in October 1977 and was completed on the Mother’s birthday, 21 February 1978 (see The New Way, Volume 2 for a discussion of the Enhancements).

    The New Way is a discussion of the great harmony of which we are a part (‘…You’ve always been swimming in this cosmic sea, only unawares…’), of the grand Reality which is our own individual and collective Essence. But that Essence is not different from the macrocosmic. With the exploration of the solar system we simultaneously unveil that Cosmic Truth. That is, with the unveiling of all but one planet – Pluto, the 9^th. Pluto’s term, properly speaking, is the ennead of the 90s. Therefore as we close the 80s we stand poised on the threshold of a time-orbit wherein the essence of Pluto will be integrated into the greater whole.

In the new cosmology the factor of an overlapping of the orbits of the two outermost planets is not insignificant. It bears a relation to the deepest truth of the Gnostic Circle, the foundation upon which the new cosmology is constructed. For the key feature of this diagram is the union of Sun and Pluto via their respective number-powers, 0 and 9. I state repeatedly that in our number scale the 0 and 9 are equal, and that this can be demonstrated by eliminating them together from any addition in the Mathematics of Unity and we arrive at the same results. But this turn back into the system, as the Gnostic Circle indicates, is physically displayed by Pluto’s bold plunge into Neptune’s orbit where it remains for a certain span of time, thus creating this intertwining of orbits and a turning in of the system upon itself. The erratic orbit is not Neptune’s. Quite the contrary. Neptune is perhaps the most regular and ‘harmonious’ in the System, whose actual orbit of the Sun forms an almost perfect circle. This is not surprising since Neptune is the higher octave of Venus (second only to Neptune in physical perfection of orbit) and the planet par excellence of HARMONY.

Thus, into this sea of utmost harmony Pluto plunges with blasé unconcern – for Pluto as well must be true to his own essential being. He must carry the movement of time-orbits back into the System, turning it upon itself in the nature of the Serpent biting its own Tail of ancient occult traditions.

I have been writing extensively on this question of an expanded, enhanced System and what this implies for a civilisation that makes this breakthrough in both the physical and metaphysical realms. For the two cannot be divided any longer. Just as the demarcations are fast falling between various disciplines, so must the line be drawn between physical and ultra physical be reassessed according to our new vision. Indeed, the new cosmology demonstrates continuously the flaw inherent in a division of this nature. It exists because of our unfocussed veiled seeing Eye; and in the unveiling of Neptune in harmony with gnostic time this last dividing line is erased as we cross the threshold of Time into the next and final ennead of this century/millennium.

This is the deeper significance of the Voyager 2 odyssey – the unveiling for our civilisation of the enhanced System, expanded by the greater triad of three new planets. This transpires in Neptune’s ennead because it is the planet of the cosmic harmony. And, above all else, of ORDER, of ‘each thing in its place’ – which can only emerge when the full System, any system, is known. Until the true boundaries are known no real order can emerge, with the consequent collapse into chaos that a limitation of this sort inevitably entails.

But boundaries are not fixed and eternal in an organically growing system, a system which has a true centre. The eternal element is the Centre. All the rest must find its place according to the pulse that centre-sun emits.

The rhythm moves to the beat of 3. We expand by triadic leaps: 3 to 6 to 9. Thus we have this triadic tempo engrained in every fibre of our being and drawn into our innermost core with every breath we take. For it is the truth of the universal manifestation, our inner and outermost reality: Transcendent, Cosmic or Universal, and Individual – God, Cosmos and individual soul. This is the foundation of our existence in a system whose measure is Nine.

Skambha, October of 1989

(concluded)