The Solstice Gateways and the Polar-to-Solar Shift
John Major Jenkins
My 1998 book Maya Cosmogenesis 2012 provides the context
and background for certain clarifications of René Guénon’s polar-to-solar shift
and the location of the solstice gateways.
I know that my contribution to this area of Traditionalist thought will
be met with suspicion, and rightly so—all advances in our understanding should
not be greeted with casual acceptance, but with careful consideration. And so I
would like to take the time to summarize the key points in my new book, points
of clarification that invite a reassessment of the true location of the
solstice gateways. The implications of
this reassessment are quite surprising and relevant to one of today’s most
important topics: the timing of the end of Kali Yuga. An important consequence
of this reevaluation is that we can understand the galactic framework of
Guenon’s polar-to-solar shift. The
clarification I propose will also help us understand the astronomical cycles and alignments that underlie the yuga
doctrine, and thus clarify for us when the end of descending Kali Yuga occurs,
according to Traditional concepts.
1. The solstice gateways. Porphyry’s information is used by
Guenon and others to identify the solstice Gateways with Capricorn and Cancer.
However, as Macrobius points out, it is the constellations that rise heliacally
at the time of the solstices that reveal the gateways. Thus, in Porphyry’s era,
these are Sagittarius and Gemini. The ecliptic (the zodiac of twelve constellations
along which the moon, sun and planets move) intersects the Milky Way in
Sagittarius and Gemini. This “crossroads” is an important though little
recognized feature of many ancient cosmologies. For the Maya, this crossroads
denoted the cosmic center. Also, a dark-rift feature along the Milky Way, near
this crossroads, was understood as a “doorway” into the underworld. It also
symbolized a place of emergence for the Maya, a “gateway” to and from this
dimension. While the solstices are the temporal gateways irregardless of where
they may be positioned against the background of constellations, the
astronomical phenomenon of precession moves them around the zodiac in a cycle
of 26,000 years. The solstices are always devayana / pitriyana
gateways, but only on the level of the solar year. We need to consider the
larger Great Year of precession, and we need to differentiate the solstice axis
from the sidereal background that, in effect, doesn’t move. In other words,
Porphyry implies—and Macrobius literally states—that Sagittarius and Gemini are
the locations of the “gateways” not because the solstices are nearby, but
because of the features in those constellations. Namely, the features being the
two points where the ecliptic intersects the Milky Way. As mentioned, Macrobius
literally states (in his Commentary on the Dream of Scipio) that the
gateways are where the zodiac intersects the Milky Way. These are fixed
background positions; the solstice axis can precess in and out of alignment
with these gateway locations, and this hints at the astronomical alignment that defines the end of descending Kali
Yuga. (In my previous book, I pointed out that this rare galactic alignment or
solstice-galaxy alignment culminates in the years around the Maya calendar end-date
of AD 2012.) Now, it is important here
to identify something very significant about the framework that is created by
accepting the ecliptic-Milky Way crossing points as the true location of the
gateways. The ecliptic-Milky Way “crossroad” in Sagittarius is in the “nuclear
bulge” of the Milky Way, where the center of the Milky Way galaxy is located.
Thus, the gateways as defined by Macrobius (clarifying Porphyry) define an
axial framework that runs from the Galactic Center to the Galactic Anticenter (which
is above Orion in Gemini). With this
clarification, let us turn to Guénon’s polar-to-solar shift material.
2. The polar-to-solar
shift. Here, I feel it is best
to simply provide an excerpt from my book. However, I will preface the excerpt
with the following: Because the Pleiades are the general indicator of the
Galactic Anticenter, Guénon’s exposition of the symbolic and conceptual shift
of the stars in the Big Dipper to the stars in the Pleiades indicates not only
a polar-to-solar shift in cosmological orientation, but a shift to a
galaxy-oriented axis as a superior cosmological framework in comparison to the
older polar axis. This is nothing more than the esoteric shift from a
Hyperborean to an Atlantean phase of the historical cycle (spoken in Traditionalist
or metaphorical terms). An excerpt from
Chapter 14 follows:
Guénon’s primary argument for a shift from a polar
to a solar framework involves the transfer of the seven stars or Seven Sages (sapta
riksha) of the Great Bear to the Pleiades. Each constellation has (or had)
seven stars and the Pleiades resemble a tiny dipper. (The number seven also
refers to the seven stages or rungs on the ladder of the cosmic pillar that the
soul passes while ascending to the highest heaven.) A relationship between the
Great Bear and the Pleiades is found in many stories. For example, the Pleiades
are still referred to as the Seven Sisters, but there are now only six Pleiads.
The Greek legend tells that one of the Pleiads, Elektra, was kidnapped by one
of the Seven Kings (one of the stars in the Big Dipper, Alcor) and now
accompanies him as a binary star companion. This myth is associated with the
Fall of Troy, which as we saw in Chapter 9 symbolizes the “fall” of the Big
Dipper out of proximity to the North Celestial Pole, signaling a new World Age
around 2200 BC. (See Homer’s Secret Iliad by Florence and Kenneth Wood.)
The Pleiads or Atlantides were the daughters of
Atlas, and were therefore the children of the new Atlantean tradition. In
addition, in Egypt the Big Dipper was called the “shoulder of the bull,” while
the Pleiades are located in Taurus/Bull constellation, right on the bull’s
shoulder. Guénon brings in linguistic comparisons as well, but the point is
clear: The Pleiades symbolically replaced the function of the Big Dipper. This
equation is rich in implications, especially when you understand that the
Pleiades mark the direction opposite the Galactic Center. The cosmological
framework that once revolved around the circumpolar constellation Ursa Major
was transferred to the north pole of the Evolutionary Axis that extends from
the Galactic Center to the Galactic Anticenter. The Pleiades are not precisely
on the Galactic Anticenter, but then neither is the Great Bear precisely on the
Polestar. They serve as symbolic marker points at the crown of their respective
pillars.
Guénon writes that these two symbolic frameworks map
onto each other and share the same astronomical references, making it difficult
to identify the true intention of a given symbol, but the Hyperborean
(northern) traditions is probably older. Generally, however, the same set of
ideas regarding the “cosmic center” were applied, in two different eras, to two
different parts of the sky. The first is the Hyperborean polar symbolism. The second
is solar or sun-centered symbolism which Julius Evola refers to as Olympian and
others call Atlantean. Both locations occupy the summit of a cosmic axis and
serve as centering points. Notice that the Pleiades are only solar in the sense
that they are near the ecliptic and the sun passes by them once a year. Their
true function, above being a solar reference point, is that they indicate the
direction of the Galactic Anticenter, the crown of the galactic axis. In this
way we can amend Guénon’s reconstruction and call it, with good justification,
a polar-to-galactic shift.
Here we can clarify our identifications in the
polar-solar-galactic equation:
|
|
Polar |
Solar |
Galactic |
|
North |
Great Bear
/ |
Cancer / |
Pleiades |
|
South |
South |
Capricorn / |
Galactic Center |
Three Cosmic Frameworks
|
|||
When the “seven lights” of spiritual growth were
shifted to the Pleiades, a new framework was identified that operates on the
level of the galaxy. This galactic level comprises the tree or axis that starts
at the Galactic Center (the muladhara root of creation), extends through
earth, and proceeds outward toward the Pleiades (the sahasrara crown of
creation)—the direction of the Galactic Anticenter (in Gemini). The Galactic
Anticenter is the topmost center in this new framework, because it is the
direction out of our galaxy, into trans-galactic domains. The Pleiades, like
the Great Bear, are a short distance from the highest point of the system, but
nevertheless they serve as a mythic and symbolic indicator. By this reasoning
it follows that the Galactic Center is analogous to the south celestial pole,
and has special affinities with the southern hemisphere. In fact, from the
viewpoint of the northern hemisphere, the Galactic Center always arches through
the southern skies, and its highest altitude at meridian transit is related to
ones latitude of observation.
This clarification emphasizes, once again, that our attention must
go to Sagittarius and Gemini. It just so happens that the symbolic, esoteric,
and metaphysical qualities of Sagittarius were explored by Ananda Coomaraswamy
in an essay he produced late in life.
The symbolic features he explored are an extension of his enquiry into
the “sundoor at world’s end” and therefore relate to the solstice “gateways”
involved in human spiritual transcendence. However, his essay is not about
Capricorn, but about Sagittarius. This should not surprise us, given the
clarification on the true sidereal location of the gateways.
3. Coomaraswamy’s “Early Iconography of Sagittarius.” Coomaraswamy’s essay was apparently written
in response to an article by Dr. Willy Hartner that appeared in Ars Islamica,
1938. Hartner’s paper identified the locations of the lunar node’s exaltations
in Islamic, Greek, and Hindu astrology. This is simply the two positions in the
zodiac at which the lunar nodes (Rahu and Ketu) are considered particularly
powerful. The sidereal locations he identified are at 3° Sagittarius and 3°
Gemini; the one in Sagittarius is within 3° of the Galactic Center-Galactic
Anticenter axis discussed above. It wasn’t openly, or perhaps even consciously,
recognized that the lunar nodes (which indicate the intersection of the solar
and lunar planes) are analogous to the “nodes” of the ecliptic and galactic
plane. The Bundahishn comes into play here too, but I must keep this brief;
Chapter 8 in my book is devoted to this interesting material. At any rate,
Coomaraswamy’s exploration of Sagittarius confirms the astronomical location of
the “gate” as well as the metaphysical importance of the Galactic Center within
the Vedic doctrines, especially the Theft of Soma. The ideas he explores relate
to the cosmic tree, the cosmic center, the grail cup that holds the elixir of immortality
(soma), and the doorway between the symplegades that leads to a domain
transcendent to the earth-plane of attachment to duality. Although the
astronomical references are not made explicit, these metaphysical concept can
be said to have their material extensions on the galactic level of the
cosmological house.
I feel I have already exceeded the space that I wanted to occupy
for fear of losing the interest of my readers. This is not a simple,
uncomplicated topic; that is why I’ve devoted many chapters in my forthcoming
book to it. I don’t want my book to pass into the remainder bin without being
made known to those in the world who might appreciate its perspectives, and so I offer this concise
summary. I have not sought to summarize or explore the advanced metaphysical
challenges of Traditionalist thinking, but only to clarify some points relating
to the astronomical anchoring of the yugas. As such, the end of descending Kali
Yuga may very well be signaled by the same astronomical alignment that the
ancient Mayans sought to indicate with their 2012 end-date: the alignment of
the solstice sun with the Milky Way—specifically, that part of the Milky Way
that houses the Galactic Center. This is an alignment in precession that occurs
once every 26,000 years. John Michell, in his introduction to Robert Bolton’s The
Order of the Ages, posed the question as to where we are located within the
great precessional cycle of the Platonic Year. My work indicates that the
original Vedic World Age doctrine was congruent with Mayan cosmology, in that
the end of the current historical cycle occurs when the solstice sun precesses
through the Milky Way—near the Galactic Center. As such, modern astronomy
offers a precise dating for this: May of 1998 (Jean Meeus, Mathematical
Astronomy Morsels, 1997). Many questions arise from pursuing this line of
enquiry, and certain parameters may extend this date into a range of years, and
I weigh these various considerations and options in my new book.
My work to reconstruct ancient Mesoamerican calendrics and
cosmology has taken me in a certain direction over the years, and I have found
it necessary to distance myself from the New Age self-promoters who pollute the
field (necessary because my work has been lumped into the same category, or
mistakenly assumed to be derivative). These writers are opportunists who have
sought to appropriate the ancient Mayan tradition—which is really congruent
with Traditional sciences—and create their own systems. My work has only been
to reconstruct and give voice to the traditional Mesoamerican wisdom and, in
seeking an explanation for the Mayan calendar 2012 end-date, I was led to
precession and the alignments to the Galactic Center, which are factual
occurrences. The Galactic Center, as is apparent from the forgoing
clarifications, is apparently one of the gateways in Vedic cosmology. Yet I understate. The Galactic Center may
well be considered to be the Hypercosmic Sun, the Well of Remembrance, the
Sundoor at World’s End, the eye of the heart, the cosmic center, the Holy
Grail, etc. It is an academic and scholarly challenge to demonstrate how
ancient metaphysicians and cosmologists—not to mention astronomers—had attached
their eschatological doctrines to the rare alignment of solstice sun and
galactic heart. And it should be thought-provoking and productive to introduce
the fact of this alignment—considering its esoteric, symbolic associations—into
contemporary Traditional discourse.
4. The end of descending Kali Yuga
I have been reading Robert Bolton’s intriguing new book, The
Order of the Ages. I am especially interested in his discussion of the Kali
Yuga, where he computes (by one method) the end of the Kali Yuga to occur in
the late 21st century. He even makes a general association between
this Vedic Yuga computation and the
Mayan end date, which occurs “in the same century” (in AD 2012). My research
shows that this association is not inappropriate; in fact, the Vedic and Mayan
traditions were both concerned with calibrating the same astronomical
alignment, and anchoring their eschatological doctrines to it. This alignment
is none other than the alignment of the solstice sun with the galactic equator
(the Milky Way), with the Galactic Center nearby. European astronomer Jean
Meeus and the U. S. Naval Observatory calculated this alignment—with a
precision perhaps unwarranted—to have occurred in the year 1998. I have demonstrated in my books (Center
of Mayan Time, Izapa Cosmos, and Maya Cosmogenesis 2012) that
the Maya intended to target this “galactic alignment” with the 2012 end-date of
their Long Count calendar, first carved in stone some 2,100 years ago. Now, in
my next book, I show how this alignment is the key to the Vedic Yuga doctrine
and it defines our shift from descending Kali Yuga to ascending Kali Yuga.
My analysis of the yuga timing question proceeds differently than
Bolton’s, and is based on the insights uncovered in my study of Mayan
metaphysics, cosmology, and calendrics. I began with the first Vedic source of
commentary on the yuga doctrine, the Laws of Manu. That ancient text implicates
a 24,000-year period for the yugas, clearly a reference to the precession of
the equinoxes. The larger numbers generated in some yuga calculations are
usually base-ten multiples of the key yuga numbers (given below), and derived either from an inappropriate
excitement over generating “big numbers” or from an interest in speculating
about very large cosmic cycles. However, let’s stick to the Laws of Manu. The Hindu
swami, Sri Yukteswar, in his little book The Holy Science (originally
written around 1895), explains the Vedic and Hindu ideas related to the yuga
doctrine as found in the Laws of Manu. The 24,000-year period, following the
devayana / pitriyana doctrine of ascending and descending phases of all
temporal processes, is divided into two halves. One ascends toward the cosmic
source and the other descends away from it. One extreme indicates a Golden Age,
the other extreme indicates a very Dark Age. Each half is divided into four
ages, with the following numerological scheme:
Golden Age = 4800 years
Silver Age = 3600 years
Bronze Age = 2400 years
Iron Age (Kali Yuga) = 1200 years
The total equals the half cycle of 12,000 years, one-half of a
precession cycle. At the “bottom” of the cycle, when descending Kali Yuga ends,
a fundamental shift occurs and the universal cycle shifts to the ascending
phase; “ascending” Kali Yuga thus begins, moving upward to eventually culminate
in a new Golden Age. Since this process is rooted in precession, we must ask
ourselves what kind of alignments within precession might define the shift
points. It is perhaps best here to
insert an extensive excerpt from Chapter 12 of my new book:
Vishnunabhi and the True
Anchor of the Vedic Yugas
One
of the oldest writings in Vedic literature comes from a pseudo-historical
god-man called Manu. René Guénon pointed out that Manu belongs to a family of
related archetypal figures, which include Melchezidek, Metatron, St Michael,
Gabriel, and Enoch. As an angelic inspiration for the rebirth of humanity at
the dawn of a new era, or manvantara, Manu is the primal law-giver, and his laws
were recorded in the extremely ancient Vedic text called the Laws of Manu. Much
of its contents describe moral and ethical codes of right behavior, but there
is a section that deals with the ancient Vedic doctrine of World Ages — the yugas. Manu indicates that a period of
24,000 years — clearly a reference to precession — consists of a series of four
yugas or ages, each shorter and spiritually darker than the last. In one story this process of increasing
limitation is envisioned as a cosmic cow standing with each leg in one quarter
of the world; with each age that passes a leg is lost, resulting in the absurd
and unstable world we live in today—a cow balancing on one leg.
According
to the information in the Laws of Manu, the morning and twilight periods
between the dawn of each new era equals one-tenth of its associated yuga, as
shown in the [table above].
In Vedic mythology, a fabled
dawn time existed in the distant past, when human beings had direct contact
with the divine intelligence emanating from Brahma—the seat of creative power
and intelligence in the cosmos. This archaic Golden Age (the Satya Yuga) lasted
some 4800 years. After the Golden Age ended, humanity entered a denser era,
that of the Silver Age, lasting only 3600 years. In this age, humanity’s
connection with the source was dimmed, and sacrifices and spiritual practices
became necessary to preserve it. The
Bronze Age followed, and humanity forgot its divine nature. Empty dogmas arose,
along with indulgence in materialism. Next we entered the Kali Yuga—in which we
remain today—where the human spirit suffers under gross materialism, ignorance,
warfare, stupidity, arrogance, and everything contrary to our divine spiritual
potential.
As the teachings tell, Kali,
the creator-destroyer Goddess, will appear at the end of Kali Yuga to sweep
away the wasted detritus of a spirit-dead humanity, making way for a new cycle
of light and peace. Notice that the Manu text takes us from a pinnacle of light
to the ultimate end-point of the process—the darkness of Kali Yuga. And notice
that the four ages, when the overlap period is added, amounts to only half of
the 24,000-year period of the Vedic Yuga cycle. This points to an obscure
aspect of the doctrine that a Hindu Master, Sri Yukteswar, sought to clarify.
Sri Yukteswar’s
Update
Sri
Yukteswar was a Hindu saint active in the late 1800s and early 1900s. He was
the master of the famous Yogananda, founder of The Self Realization Fellowship,
whose book Autobiography of a Yogi
awoke many people to the magic and mystery of Indian spirituality. Yukteswar
was interested in contemporary scientific advances and in showing parallels
between Hindu religion and Christianity. His book The Holy Science is
primarily about these correspondences. It was written in the mid-1890s at the
behest of his teacher, Mahavatar Babaji. However, the Introduction contains an
intriguing clarification of the World Age system of the Yugas.
Although
the exact timing of the Kali Yuga’s beginning is subject to debate, no one
argues that we are deep into it.
Unfortunately, the cycles and year-counts of Hindu chronology are subject to
gross exaggerations and manipulation—the sorry effect of clueless Hindu
scholars trying to reconstruct the ancient doctrines. And these errors have
been inserted into doctrines as long ago as the fourth century AD, thereafter
being passed down to unsuspecting students as a kind of conventional wisdom. However,
it strikes me that Sri Yukteswar got closest to the true intention of the Yuga
doctrine. Yukteswar based his “updated Yuga model” on the Laws of Manu as well
as other traditions in Vedic and Hindu astronomy and mythology. The tradition
he shares is as follows:
. . . the
sun, with its planets and their moons, takes some star for its dual and
revolves around it in about 24,000 years of our earth—a celestial phenomenon
[precession]. . . . The sun also has another motion by which it
revolves around a grand center called Vishnunabhi, which is the seat of
creative power, Brahma, the universal magnetism. Brahma regulates dharma, the
mental virtue of the internal world.[1]
In
reading an account like this, it is immediately apparent that things could be
worded more clearly. This is a typical problem in translated works, and,
unfortunately, as a reader it is always tempting to mentally ignore the unclear
section and keep reading. But there is a huge grain of wisdom inside of
Yukteswar’s description, and it is worth looking at very closely. Let us see if we can read between the lines
and get a sense for what Yukteswar is really referring to.
We have an important identification of the “grand
center” as Vishnunabhi or Brahma, the seat of creative power. Vishnunabhi is
the navel of the Hindu god Vishnu, the emanation point of the cosmos, and
modern Vedic scholar David Frawley identifies Vishnunabhi with the Galactic
Center. In his 1990 book Astrology of the Seers he writes, “The galactic
center is called ‘Brahma,’ the creative force, or ‘Vishnunabhi,’ the navel of
Vishnu. From the galactic sun emanates the light which determines the life and
intelligence on Earth . . ..”[2] Without mincing words, it is clear that the
ancient Vedic skywatchers were aware of the Galactic Center, and, indeed,
considered it to be the center and source of creative power in the universe.
Again, as I’ve argued for the ancient Mayan skywatchers, recognizing the
Galactic Center as an important place along the Milky Way is completely within the
possibility of naked eye observation (although that may not have been the only
method used).
Yukteswar suggests that the sun
“takes a star for its dual” and revolves around it in one precessional cycle.
Clearly, the reference is not to an actual orbital period, such as the moon
orbiting around the earth, but is rather to the precessional shifting of
the sun around the zodiac. If the sun’s dual is a fixed star against which the
sun’s precessional motion is measured, then we can understand this more clearly.
This kind of conceptual or linguistic muddiness can delay deeper understanding
right away. Now, in order to measure the precessional motion of the sun, the
ancient astronomers would need to
identify a specific “sun,” or solar position, in the seasonal cycle—for
example, the vernal equinox sun or the summer solstice sun. This specification
will anchor the sun to a seasonal quarter so that the “orbital” motion referred
to by Yukteswar (which is really precessional shifting) can be measured against
a fixed sidereal location, the sun’s “dual.” Aldebaran might be a candidate,
but the real fixed “dual” against which the cycle of precession is tracked in
this Vedic description may actually be Vishnunabhi—the Galactic Center.
In
the quote given above Yukteswar also mentions “another motion” of the sun
around the Galactic Center, which is probably its actual orbital period—a huge
cycle of some 225,000,000 years. Although it is striking that he mentions this
(writing back in the 1890s), this larger cycle applies to the meaning of
multiple precession cycles and is not relevant to the immediate question under
consideration. Back on track, Yukteswar continues:
When the sun in its revolution around its dual comes
to the place nearest to this grand center, the seat of Brahma (an event which
takes place when the Autumnal Equinox comes to the first point of Aries),
dharma, the mental virtue, becomes so much developed that man can easily
comprehend all, even the mysteries of the spirit. . ..[3]
The
precessional movement of “the sun” closer to “the grand center” causes the full
expression of a Golden Age of Light, a time indicated in Vedic and Hindu
traditions as occurring a dozen or so millennia ago. As such, it must be the
precessional motion of the June solstice sun around the grand center that is
indicated, because the June solstice sun was “closest to” the Galactic Center
roughly 12,000 to 13,000 years ago. I should emphasize that this “closeness” is
in terms of alignment (as viewed from earth), not distance. Unfortunately,
Yukteswar attempts a precise dating based upon a 12,000-year period for
one-half of a precession cycle. As a result, he backdates to the time of the
fabled Golden Age (which he later gives
as 11,501 BC) by using an autumn
equinox point in Aries that is in error.
Yukteswar’s diagram preserves the important insight of a descending
phase and an ascending phase of the precessional cycle, but the timing of the
shift from descending Kali Yuga to ascending Kali Yuga must be adjusted (see
diagram at left).
The
outer wheel shows the descent of time clockwise from the Age of Leo a the top,
when the June solstice sun was closest to the “grand center.” The shaded wheel
indicates the equinoctial age of precession according to the unadjusted Western
zodiac. The inner wheel shows the actual sidereal position of the solstice
axis. Why the need for an adjustment? Sri Yukteswar wanted the end of
descending Kali Yuga to correspond to his historical understanding, based on a
nineteenth-century education, of the European Dark Ages and his belief in the
elevation of human consciousness beginning around 500 AD. He cites scientific
advances and Europe’s slow emergence from the Dark Ages to support this, but in
my opinion technology has thrust us deeper into material dependency and
spiritual darkness. In addition, his scenario is Eurocentric and ignores
Islamic and Chinese civilization. I realize it may seem presumptuous to correct
a saint on this point, but his intention was to elucidate astronomical details
of ancient doctrines that, by his time, had eroded into semantic vagaries. And he was writing before modern science had
rediscovered the Galactic Center. Perhaps it seems that I’ve injected my own
biased reading into Yukteswar’s work. But my conclusions—and corrections—are
fairly straightforward. The reader must judge with discernment.
Let’s
look at it this way: Yukteswar writes that the Golden Age ended and we began
our descent into spiritual darkness in 11,501 BC. This was roughly 13,500 years
ago. Now, Yukteswar also said that this Golden Age occurred when “the sun” was
close to Vishnunabhi (the Galactic Center). And the context of his description
is solar movements within the cycle of
precession. Now, the question we must ask is this: what kind of
precessional alignment between the sun and the Galactic Center happened roughly
13,500 years ago, the reverse of which
happens one-half of a precession cycle later? The answer is quite apparent
— the Golden Age shift is timed with the alignment of the June solstice sun and
the Galactic Center. The reverse event is the alignment of the December
solstice sun with the Galactic Center, and we can get a true bearing on the
timing of this event, as modern astronomy has calculated it. We must shift
these timing parameters to accord with solstice-galaxy alignments, and
therefore we have two dates: era-2000 AD and era 10,800 BC. There are actually
several factors and features involved in the timing issue which enrich our
understanding of what these Galactic Alignment might mean to us. I’ll address
the issues and parameters of the current galactic alignment in Part IV.
An important implication in this material is that
the Golden Age mentioned in Yukteswar’s quote given above represented the
culmination of the previous ascent phase and the shift to the descending phase,
the archaic “fall of man” scenario. The flipside—the shift to
ascending—therefore occurs at the astronomically opposed event (in era-2000
AD):
After 12,000 years, when the sun goes to the place
in its orbit which is farthest from
Brahma, the grand center . . . [then] dharma, the mental virtue,
comes to such a reduced state that man cannot grasp anything beyond the gross
material creation.[5]
This
is the Vedic doctrine, clearly based in astronomy, that underlies René Guénon’s
belief that modern people are unconscious degenerates with little resemblance
to the full human potential that our ancient ancestors manifested. Furthermore,
as we will see shortly, it underlies and defines the end of Kali Yuga that
Guénon (without being specific) foresaw occurring very soon.
The Galactic
Dimensions of Vedic Astrology
Vedic scholar and teacher David Frawley assessed
Yukteswar’s model and adds some clarity: “When the Sun is on the side of its
orbit wherein its dark companion comes between it and the galactic center, the
reception of that cosmic light appears to be greatly reduced. At such times
there is a dark or materialistic age on Earth.”[6] David Frawley
(Vamadeva Shastri) is qualified on many levels to make this statement. As a
respected Vedacharya (Vedic teacher), he is one of the few Westerners
recognized in India as an authentic teacher of the ancient Vedic wisdom. His
work includes translations and interpretations of the ancient scripture, and
books on ayurveda, Vedic astrology, and studies on mantra and yoga. His work
can be found on the internet at http://www.vedanet.com] I would add that the
June solstice sun’s “dark companion” could be the December solstice sun, the day
of greatest darkness in the solar year. In this scenario, the June solstice sun
continually revolves around (in opposition to) the December solstice sun.
Whether or not there is an actual occulting of the June solstice sun in terms
of energetic radiation may simply be besides the point; the metaphor points us
to the astronomy involved in this doctrine and the Vedic belief system woven
around it.
The critical information
encoded in Yukteswar’s book—written decades before the Galactic Center was
“officially” discovered in the 1920s—is that the ancient Vedic Yuga doctrine
was calibrated with the periodic alignments of the solstice sun and the
Galactic Center. If we do sense that the Vedic wisdom speaks a truth to us
(nothing less than a lost science of the galactic influences on human
evolution) the words of David Frawley may help us understand the importance of
our impending “harmonization” with the Galactic Center:
An important cosmic event is
occurring now. The winter solstice is now at a point in conjunction with the
galactic center . . . This should cause a slow harmonization of
humanity with the Divine will as transmitted from the galactic center
. . . By the accounts of thinkers like Plato, the flood that
destroyed Atlantis (and probably ended the Ice Age) occurred about 9300 B.C.
(9000 years before Plato). This appears to have been when the summer solstice
was in conjunction with the galactic center—a point completely opposite to the
one today.[7]
In
fact, Frawley believes that all of Vedic astrology “orients the zodiac to the
galactic center” as the source of creative intelligence, mediated to human
beings by the fixed stars of Sagittarius and the guru planet Jupiter, the
Divine teacher.[8] Frawley gives
an astronomically accurate sidereal location for the Galactic Center: 6° 40’
Sagittarius. This corresponds to 28° Sagittarius in the unadjusted tropical
system, wherein the December solstice is nearby at 0° Capricorn (by
definition). Again, the precise parameters of the galactic alignment will be explored
later.
The lunar mansions of Vedic astrology indicate the
Galactic Center region as a “root” place. The naksastra or lunar mansion corresponding to the 13°-wide lunar
“sign” that embraces the Galactic Center is called mula, which means “root.” The mansion that occurs before “root” is
called “the eldest,” suggesting that this spot in the sky is the end-beginning
nexus in an ancient concept of the zodiac, which would be understandable given
the precessional importance of the Galactic Center as a “root” or beginning point for time. This material augments
the Vedic and Islamic information about the lunar south node being exalted at
3° Sagittarius, explored earlier.
There are compelling events in
Hindu-Vedic mythology that are associated with the Galactic Center,
Sagittarius, the theft of Soma, and the solstices. These events comprise a
Vedic metaphysics of spiritual transcendence. However, many eras of overlapping
symbology makes it difficult to sort out the original meaning with certainty.
The head of the horse, the Ashwin twins, and the Churning of the Milky Ocean
myth are all involved. The head of the horse and the head of the simshumara
crocodile (or makara) could very well be the bulging area of the nuclear
bulge with the dark-rift mouth. The story of the Ashwin twins is symbolically
identical to the Hero Twins in the Popol Vuh: they facilitate the resurrection
of their father, the winter solstice sun. Some of these topics will be explored
further in Chapters 14 and 15. [end of excerpt]
This is only part of the material that I cite. There is a school of interpretation that, many centuries ago, tried to calculate the yuga doctrine with a slightly erroneous conception: it was believed that the dawn of the age (the dawn of time) began when the sun, moon, and all the planets were at their “station” or beginning points. Hindu astrologers thus tried to back date with planetary periods and arrived at a calculation in 3102 BC. It is intriguing that this is close to the beginning of the 13-baktun cycle of the Mayan Long Count, but there is a problem. The idea in this conception is that the end of the yuga should be when the sun, moon, and all the planets return to their beginning points. This sounds like a half-understood fragment of the ancient doctrine. The “stations” of the sun might be better understood as the equinox or solstice stations. And the references to all the planets seems to indicate the ecliptic in general. When the equinox or solstice “stations” of the ecliptic precess back around to the “starting point,” the age ends and begins anew. According to my understanding of the probable true basis of these ideas, the “starting point” of precession is the bright band of the Milky Way, which stretches like a finish line across the night sky. The primary solar station of the ecliptic (the December solstice) has now precessed back to its starting point on the Milky Way, signaling the end of descending Kali Yuga.
As my book is moving along in the publication process, I am in dire need of feedback and commentary, even endorsements. I believe this is an important contribution especially in the realm of Traditional ideas, and I have been working largely in a vacuum. I know my concern here is really only a small fragment of Traditional metaphysics, and a rather exoteric one at that (in that it concerns astronomy). However, we can at least now see how Mayan tradition belongs on the same level with Vedic and Egyptian metaphysics. In fact (and I may be somewhat biased here) Mayan cosmology seems to provide the clearest exposition of a very central part of all Tradition—the galactic alignments that define the alpha and omega of time.
The millennium has passed. However, the “end of world” discussion now relates most directly to the Mayan 2012 date, a subject I have researched and written about at length. It is my interest to be a voice of clarity on this, to define its astronomical basis, and thereby also frame the “end of Kali Yuga” in empirical terms. This is actually a compelling doorway into the metaphysical idea of spiritual transcendence explored by Coomaraswamy and others, and that is where the discussion leads. In my work, I have always been in service to (even before discovering Traditional writers) elucidating the Traditional understanding, rather than emphasizing my own efforts or framing my views as “my system.”
John Major Jenkins
November 21, 2001
Revised March 21, 2002
Many pages are available at my website: http://www.Alignment2012.com
Relevant is the Introduction to my previous book, Maya
Cosmogenesis 2012, at http://www.alignment2012.com/mc-intro.html
Or more generally: http://www.alignment2012.com/mayans.htm