The 2010 Winter Solstice/Lunar Eclipse: A Global Tuning Fork

[This article was published as a 'main feature' in Bhavan's Journal
28 Feb 2010, Vol. 57, #14]

The 2010 Winter Solstice not only coincided with a Full Moon Total Eclipse but the date of the Solstice amounted to 3.3.3 (21.12.2001 reduces to 3.3.3 via Theosophical Addition) and further reduces to the number 9 (3 +  3 + 3 = 9). While studying the various details of this particular and spectacular display of Cosmic Harmony, it began to occur to me as the equivalent of a Tuning Fork struck across the globe.

As always, the December Solstice completes the 4-armed Cardinal Cross of the Earth's year and marks off successful passage through 9 of the 12 months of the Tropical Zodiac (3 out of 4 quadrants). The triadic structure of this Solstice date 21.12.2010 (3 + 3 + 3 = 9) emphasizes, draws out and lodges in our awareness, a harmonious synthesis and synchronicity between the Trinity/Circle of 9, and the Cardinal Cross of the 12 month Tropical year.  Looking at the image below, the reader can perhaps appreciate the perfect alignment that is the foundation of the Earth's year and our own number system which we have inherited from Vedic civilization. 

This is a simplified version of Patrizia Norelli-Bachelet's Gnostic Circle which represents the recovery of Vedic knowledge in our own civilization and an open invitation for the individual and human collective to properly attune to, align with and harmonize with the One 'Song' or Uni-Verse of Creation.

The Vedic Seers who extolled and established the value and usefulness of these basic measurements of Time and Space, understood that the Divine Triadic Self -- simultaneously Transcendent, Cosmic and Individual -- evolves and expresses its Self in cycles of Time and Space with a precision that can be witnessed by those who are properly attuned or oriented. In the Vedic mind, the 'apocalypse' or the uncovering of the hidden Sun, Light, and Truth-Consciousness-Bliss was achieved or won by those who journeyed through the Earth's Year and larger cycles of time in tune with the very real structures of Time and Space. For the Rishi it was simple enough: the intricate and resounding rhythms and rhymes of the Divine Soul's dynamic expression can not be heard when the true order is not observed and can be heard when the true order is observed.

In addition to the coincidence of the Eclipse/Solstice falling on a '3 + 3 + 3 = 9' date, the total eclipse lasted 72 minutes. 72 is not only a multiple of both 9 and 12, it is also the number of years in one degree of the 25,920 year Precession of the Equinoxes. 72 minutes equals 4,320 seconds. This is interesting because in Vedic India the basic unit for measuring out the Precession and larger cycles of evolution was the Yuga equaling 432,000 seconds of degrees of celestial arc (i.e. one third of the 360 degree Precession) according to Patrizia Norelli-Bachelet. Please click on this LINK for more on Ms. Norelli-Bachelet's calculation of the Yugas versus the common belief that the 432,000 figure for the Yuga is in years (i.e. NOT a unit of the Precessional Year).

On the December 2010 Solstice/Eclipse, a harmony of Sun, Moon, Earth and Tropical Zodiac which last happened in 1638 (372 years ago), Ms. Norelli-Bachelet (herself age 72 at the time) set off from her home in the Palani Hills of India for Tirumala, Andhra Pradesh where she was invited to present a paper at the First National Conference on Panchanga Ganitam (Calendar Calculation). Her paper [see LINK] strongly called for the recognition of and realignment with the Tropical Zodiac as the true Vedic Calendar, not the Sidereal or Constellational Year as measured by most so-called 'Vedic' astrologers in India. As is, modern-day Indian astrologers celebrate a calendar (panchanga) that slips further and further behind the Tropical Year. The current slippage is 23 days.

From a post-conference report given by Ms. Norelli-Bachelet, it seems that there was no acknowledgment that such a special Lunar Eclipse falling on a (9-powered) day that much of the world celebrated as entrance into the Cardinal Sign of Capricorn/Makar on the eve of their Calendar reform conference could be a SIGN from the Earth and Her Luminaries (the Sun and Moon) that the time has come for Indians to correct the distortion which mistakenly encourages people to celebrate entrance into Capricorn/Makar in mid-January. Thankfully, as with the temporary eclipse of the Moon’s/Sun’s light as seen on 21 December 2010, the eclipse of the true measure or knowledge of the Year is bound to give way to the true measure/knowledge.

[20 January 2011 Update: Interestingly enough the 2010 Summer Solstice also simultaneously highlighted the Square (the Axes) and the Triangle of the Tropical Zodiac and 360 degree circle. See the link above to see a larger image and explanation]

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Additional Notes: In the following quote from The Secret of the Veda, Sri Aurobindo refers to the sacred (i.e. sacrificial) 12 month year 'in its fixed seasons'. This statement alone from the greatest sage India has seen in Ages, should give Indians serious pause to consider the error of the slippage of their calendar. The sidereal (nirayana) calendar that is used to calculate the sacrificial or holy calendar today in India has no 'fixed seasons'.  The Earth’s 'fixed seasons' define and measure out the Tropical Year/Zodiac.

‘…Night holds hidden in her bosom her luminous sister; this life of our ignorance taught by the gods in their veiled human working prepares the birth of the divine Dawn so that, sped forth, she may manifest the supreme creation of the luminous Creator [Surya]. For the divine Dawn is the force or face of Aditi; she is the mother of the gods; she gives them birth into our humanity in their true forms no longer compressed into our littleness and veiled to our vision.

But this great work is to be done according to the ordered gradations of the Truth, in its FIXED SEASONS, by the twelve months of the sacrifice, by the divine years of Surya Savitri. Therefore there is a constant rhythm and alternation of night and dawn, illuminations of the Light and periods of exile from it, openings up of our darkness and its settling upon us once more, till the celestial Birth is accomplished and again till it is fulfilled in its greatness, knowledge, love and power.'  [bold emphasis and capitalization added]

‒ The Secrets of the Veda, The Guardian of the Light