The Point of the 2012 December Solstice & the New Age

December 20, 2012

The Point of the 2012 December Solstice & the New Age

Throughout 2012 friends and family have been asking me what I think about the importance of the end of the Maya Calendar and the 2012 December Solstice. This past week, with the Solstice approaching, I have taken on the task of writing out my thoughts on this very misunderstood and sensationalized topic.

Honestly, I have no idea whether or not modern man has correctly calculated the end-date of the Maya cycle. Actually, I doubt it considering how very off we humans can be in our calculations of such things ‒ often not even knowing what it is that is being measured as is the case of the Hindu Yugas.¹ It is not hard to imagine that the Maya Age may have been miscalculated in some way or another, by days, months, years, decades, centuries, or more. What seems most clear and most important to note is that the knowledge-base or Gnosis that informed the Maya calendar has been long lost and this loss leaves our very agitated human population to speculate endlessly about this calendar and what its ending might mean for our Earthly home.

Many crave an end to their suffering and actually look forward to a colossal catastrophe that will either 'end it all' or at least destroy soul-suffocating infrastructures that they are incapable of destroying via their own limited will power or limited means. Others crave an end to their suffering and look forward to a miraculous global uplifting of consciousness as we pass through some special band of, or alignment with the Milky Way Galaxy. These are variations on the same theme of some Earthly extravaganza that will result in the destruction of our current world order, corrupt and toxic as it is. This theme is part of our cultural heritage and our collective consciousness in large part thanks to St. John's apocalyptic revelation prophesying the violent end of our civilization and the simultaneous establishment of Heaven on Earth.

But well before St. John's time and before the Maya Civilization, the Vedic Seers of Ancient India predicted the same future mega-shift for humanity, in terms of the recovery of the Lost Sun, or the lost Truth-Consciousness from the dark caves or hold of the misers, usurpers, hoarders and coverers of the unified Truth of our existence. These villains are the personification of the limited mental-egoic consciousness that 'rules' the world for a time, until it is TIME for the emergence, evolution or manifestation of our indwelling Solar or Divine consciousness. This inevitable reorganization of life based on the long awaited emergence of our higher consciousness is also contained in the 12 month Vedic Year which we know now as the Tropical Zodiac, i.e. the Earth's Year.

It is in the revolution of the year that the recovery of the lost Sun ... is effected, for we have the explicit statement in X.62-2… 'by the truth, in the revolution of the year, they broke Vala' ²…

‘This victory is won in twelve periods of the upward journey, represented by the revolution of the twelve months of the sacrificial year, the periods corresponding to the successive dawns of a wider and wider truth, until the tenth month secures the victory…’

‒ Sri Aurobindo, The Secret of the Veda (1915)

In order to understand how such a huge evolutionary Shift in consciousness could be accurately predicted or foreseen by anyone thousands of years ago or could be contained in the Zodiac, one must actually begin to shift or uplift one's consciousness towards the understanding of what it actually means to be a SEER in the highest sense of the word, and what it is that has been lost in the dark caves of the mind and is to be uncovered and SEEN. To be sure, even developing a vague understanding or recognition what it means to be a SEER, and what it is that is to be SEEN would constitute a tremendous advance of consciousness for the human race as it is presently oriented. Spiritually minded people across our world frequently talk of 'awareness' and needing to become 'aware'; but obviously that begs the question 'to become aware of WHAT exactly?'

From my studies of Vedic Gnosis I have learned that a SEER of the eternal truth of both our Being and our Becoming (i.e. a SEER of sanatana dharma) is necessarily aware of the wholeness which is contained in the SEED point of our existence. He or she knows the compressed design or matrix of the Seed which will expand or manifest in the course of Time. In a real sense, the Seed is a compression of both Time and Space, and the Seer's vision is necessarily born of that same compression. Put another way, the Seer's perspective, vantage point or assemblage point is the singularity ... the compression of ALL DIMENSIONS of Time and Space ... the compression of the Transcendent, Cosmic and Individual Self. From this perspective, the Earth's year is known to be the expansion of the Divine One. And the measure of the Earth's Year, ‒ the Zodiac ‒, is known to be the measure of the body of the Divine One.

With awareness positioned at this Point of all Being and Becoming, ‒ which can also be understood as a portal and a womb ‒, the Seer sees and operates within the Living Matrix in an entirely new way. Space and Time no longer occur as separating one person or thing from another, rather they are the expression, the force and the field of eternal and infinite connectivity. What seemed dead or pointless is known to the SEER to be alive and purposeful, which really sums up what it means for something to be redeemed. The true purpose and usefulness of each unfolding moment is known in its larger context, its energies hence available rather than trapped or enslaved in ignorance or unconsciousness.

Such was the basis of the Vedic Gnosis and the Vedic Year, traces and symbols of which can found world-wide in our mathematics, languages, science, navigation, mythologies, religions, calendars and other measures of time. The symbols and infrastructure remain but are mostly dead to our current consciousness which does not fathom their original point and purpose. In other words, humans lost the unified perspective by which we could delight and commune in the true purpose of the potent symbols and systems of knowledge and measure we have inherited from our world's ancient Seers. Religions and all branches of knowledge, including all branches of sciences and academia have attempted to carry on with some semblance of this delight and community of purpose; but having lost the vantage point of Eternal Knowledge or Gnosis that can truly unite all of creation, each branch of religion or knowledge has naturally become a faction, cut off from the love, harmony and power of the wholeness of what we are. The pain and unpleasant results of this ignorance-based factioning off (of fracturing of the whole) is of course the basis for why many hope the end is near via some cataclysm, or via some spiritual ascension to nirvana or heaven where the suffering will finally end along with our connection to the Earth.

Earlier I wrote, 'What seems most clear and most important to note is that the knowledge-base or Gnosis that informed the [Maya] calendar has been long lost.' It is most important to note this because only when soberly recognizing this very real loss, rather than fantasizing and speculating about the 'End Times', people can begin to seriously consider the return of actual Gnosis and what this means for our world, now. This same epic loss needs to be noted or considered in terms of all that we do not fathom about our current calendar system, our own systems of calculation, measure, navigation, mathematics, time keeping and our prevalent archetypes, mythologies, religious symbols and traditions. Like the Maya Calendar and Codices and such, these systems of Gnosis are dead to most all of humanity, and hence what used to be all-harmonizing Gnosis is now just used unconsciously without any true sense or understanding of the underlying divinity, consciousness-force or power.

The incredibly important difference to note between the Maya and the Vedic systems and symbols of Gnosis is that the Vedic systems and symbols of Gnosis still endure or persist throughout the world. They are used far and wide to this day, but they are used unconsciously. The same cannot be said of the Maya systems and symbols hence they do not constitute a viable avenue by which our modern world will re-collect, re-convene as a Divine Being. Vedic Gnosis on the other hand simply waits to be recognized, remembered and seen as the hidden heart and soul of all modern day sciences, spiritual paths and languages even. This Gnosis has been thoroughly scrambled by the Tower of Babel of the egoic mind over many thousands of years.

The epic evolutionary task of unscrambling this universal Gnosis has been carried out in various stages by Sri Aurobindo, the Mother and Patrizia Norelli-Bachelet since 1872. This unscrambling hinged entirely on these Seers' knowledge of the hidden One ‒ i.e. the very Point of our individual and collective Self. Through them it has become clear that it is Time for this Hidden One or Sun of our Being to no longer be hidden or occulted from humanity. Hence, the Divinity that has been hitherto Transcendent, attainable only in some Transcendent state of consciousness, detached from the Individual, from the Earth and Cosmos, and from the dynamics and play of Space and Time; is now Immanent on Earth. This Immanence, or Oneness, is the Point of our Being that contains and harmonizes all dimensions and forms of the Transcendent, Cosmic and Individual/Earthly Self. It is the divine consciousness-force of Time and Space.

Seers for aeons have known that the direct and Earthly experience of this Divine Immanence would constitute an evolutionary leap, establishing Heaven on Earth. The Vedic Seers knew that this leap was to be made in the Age of Aquarius (which they referred to as the highest step of Vishnu). St. John 'saw' this leap in terms of the emergence of the One who took his seat on the throne of heaven. This One ‒ who died and was reborn in the CENTER of heaven's temple ‒ could open and read the sealed Book that no one else in Heaven or on Earth could read up to the time of his emergence. Now it has come to pass that Seers in our times, in our Age of Aquarius, have lived this foretold experience and have opened the previously sealed Book of the One which can now be read by any individual who has the will, fortitude and capacity of consciousness to cross this newly revealed evolutionary threshold.³

One of the very first things that will have to be noticed or realized by such individuals, who will be pioneers of the new age and new consciousness, is that the Book on the throne (this Book that ushers in the new age as its seals are broken) cannot be read by those without Gnosis of the structure of Time and Space that extends or expands from the Point. Supporting this realization is the fact that, in St. John's vision of heaven, he saw the throne of the Divine One in the center surrounded by four figures or 'beasts' of the Zodiac (precisely the four fixed signs of the Zodiac) and he saw '24 elders fall down before him that sat on the throne that worship him that liveth forever and ever'. The structure of the Book to be read and the structure of the heaven St. John describes are simultaneously the structure of the Earth's Tropical Year, and the Earth's day (as well as larger cycles of time such as the Precession of the Equinoxes) which again is the basis of Vedic Gnosis. And so not only St. John's sealed Book, but his entire cryptic Apocalyptic vision along with the higher consciousness of the new age he 'prophesied' cannot be properly fathomed or experienced without knowledge of the womb of Time and Space that actually births any new age. After all how can one learn a new language or new consciousness with out any knowledge of the structure of that language or consciousness. In the case of the language of the One ‒ the language Unity ‒ that will be the language of our new age, the structure to be 'read' is the 360° structure of Time and Space.

In the course of their yoga and teachings throughout the entire 20th century and into the 21st century, Sri Aurobindo, the Mother and Patrizia Norelli-Bachelet have progressively and in great detail revealed this basic and all-pervasive structure of the Unity Consciousness as the Seed Point of our New World order. Through this progressive revelation, they have opened the Book of the One (and saw what no one else in our modern era could see) based on the keys and consciousness of eternal and universal Vedic Gnosis. This opening is, in itself, 'Ground Zero' of the SHIFT from the Old Age of divisive consciousness, to the New Age of unity consciousness.

Put simply, these three Truth Seers have already ushered in the New Age of Unity Consciousness, and well before the December Solstice of 2012. Hence people who know something of this astounding accomplishment, refer to Sri Aurobindo as an Avatar ‒ the Supramental Avatar who has established the seeing or seed of the all-integrating Supramental or Unity Consciousness on Earth. Sri Aurobindo Ashram resident Peter Heehs stirred up much controversy in his 2008 academic biography of Sri Aurobindo by saying that Sri Aurobindo never claimed to be an Avatar and that the matter was not even important (not to Mr. Heehs at least). I recently read an entry in The Mother's Agenda, in which the Mother says, 'Sri Aurobindo ... as the Avatar, represented the supreme Consciousness and Will on earth.'⁴ So unless the Mother and Sri Aurobindo never communicated about such things (which is preposterous given their relationship) and unless her words and SEEING mean nothing, Heehs' attempt to disassociate Sri Aurobindo from the grand mission of being the Avatar of our New Age is based on his own academic and egoic filters, and not on the actual truth of the life and work of Sri Aurobindo.

It is clear that millions and millions people on Earth actively want to evolve, want to shift their consciousness and help to usher in the New Age that has been prophesized for aeons and that is noticeably emerging in the midst of the old. This is wonderful, but from what I can tell, very, very, very few as of yet are willing to come to terms with what it is that has already been born, with what has already been established in our midst and with the real structure of our living Matrix ... the real structure of our Oneness. Many do have a strong and true sense that our current course is unsustainable and that we are collectively due for an upgrade, overhaul, reorganization or re-birth. And so naturally people theorize and speculate about when this will happen, how this will happen, what will this mean. But considering the mental-egoic origin of all of these theories and speculations, they are not accurate and they continue to scatter and fragment our individual energies and efforts.

The truth is that eventually all our various theories and speculations about the apocalypse and Birth of a New World will one day necessarily give way to actual and precise Gnosis, to the actual and precise Truth of what exactly is being Born in our New Age, in the Age of Aquarius. Sri Aurobindo, the Mother and Patrizia Norelli-Bachelet have presented this Gnosis and some do seem to be paying attention. But apparently it will take some time before many come to understand their Seeing and consequently, their very real impact on our Age. Eventually their lives and teachings will be understood as an accurate portrayal of the processes by which the mortal (mental-egoic) human individual is reborn into the Divine Matrix as One who Sees, as the Immortal One.

Capricorn and the Birth of the Immortal One

Interestingly enough, it is precisely the Capricorn cardinal point of the Zodiac (the Earth's year) wherein this rebirth takes place. This cardinal point is of course the December Solstice. Every year this point signifies the rebirth of the LIGHT OF THE ONE, and the divine uplifting of the human consciousness and of material existence. Every year (in the northern hemisphere) the majority of Earth's population experiences a 'compression' of the light via a shortening of days from the time of the Cancer cardinal point (the June Solstice), until Capricorn cardinal point (the December Solstice). From that point on the Light returns, 'expands' or increases until the June Solstice. And hence every year the 'compressed' Light of the December Solstice is a living symbol of the Point of all Being and Becoming which is the full compression or contraction of ALL dimensions. This is why the December Solstice is significant, why it is Sacred. It is the Point or portal or gateway through which we eventually ‒ individually and collectively ‒ are reborn, on Earth, in full consciousness, into what Sri Aurobindo termed the Supramental or Truth Consciousness or what the Vedic Seers called Swar. It is the Point from which our vision (in the course of our evolutionary journey in time) becomes un-obscured. From this Point, our vision becomes a full panorama of all dimensions and facets of our Being, which is why Capricorn is associated with the mountain top, and the peak upon which shadows do not fall.

John Mayor Jenkins has calculated that from 1980 to 2016, on the December Solstice the Sun is in alignment with our Galactic Equator. Being a phenomenon of the Precession of the Equinoxes, this alignment would happen on the December Solstice once every 25,920 years. Whether he correctly calculated the exact position of the Milky Way's equator is up for debate, but it does seem that the 36 year period⁵ within the 25,920 year Precession in which the December Solstice Sun is in alignment with the Galactic Equator is a special time in the course of Earthly evolution, but what people across the globe are failing en masse to understand is the underlying reason WHY the December Solstice IS SPECIAL in the first place, and what this Time IS a manifestation of in terms of our collective Center, collective Soul as described in the previous paragraph. A prime example of this failure to understand WHY it is special, is that the majority of Indians celebrate this hallowed Capricorn cardinal point of the Zodiac some 23 days after the December Solstice.

So perhaps all those who sincerely feel compelled to celebrate or herald the birth of a new era on the 2012 December Solstice, can contemplate the reality that the entire POINT ‒ the actual sacred meaning of Capricorn, of the Solstice and hence what it means to align with the Center ‒ is entirely lost on the majority of humans, on our mental consciousness. This loss is epitomized of course by the prevalent ignorance of the universal Gnosis contained in the Zodiac, but also by the belief of so-called Vedic astrologers that the Capricorn cardinal point perpetually slips backwards throughout the year (due to the Precession of the Equinoxes). In the true SEEING, this point does not move.

Those who attempt to cultivate some understanding of the true significance of the December Solstice (the Capricorn cardinal point) as the very point wherein the compressed Light of the Soul, is born on Earth, becoming the 'savior', or unifier and harmonizer of all layers and factions of the being, will find themselves approaching a conscious alignment with the December Solstice and the New Age. But to imagine that this New Age is beginning just now, in the year 2012, is truly incorrect. A sincere study of the combined work of Sri Aurobindo, the Mother and Patrizia Norelli-Bachelet will make the details of the already-born New Age quite apparent.

I will conclude and hopefully drive home the Point of this article, with quotes from the writings of Patrizia Norelli-Bachelet on the 'innermost secret of the December Solstice'.

'There is the mysterious [galactic] center that keeps all the stars in orbit around itself. This Centre, that Science knows so little of as yet, is located with respect to our Sun and planet in the direction of the Constellation Hercules or the zodiacal sign Capricorn, and slowly, at the rate of 12 miles per second ... our sun orbits around and moves closer to this solar apex, as it is called. That is, at the end of December each year, the earth is directly behind the sun with respect to this Great Void ...'⁶

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'[A]part from being the moment when a reversal takes place and the compression of the Light (cows/rays) begins to increase, [the December Solstice's] import for a Vedic Rishi and Initiate is that the Light experiences the same ‘death’ as the human being who faces his own death: one’s consciousness-being is compressed to a ‘point’; and through this method of extreme contraction a portal is reached which alone can give us entry to Swar – not ‘heaven’ as we wrongly understand the word today, but the dimension of immortality, the home of the Immortal Ones.'⁷

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'For the real and essential question to ask is, When, in effect, does the Sun truly move into that special time-space of Capricorn, India’s own [astrological] ruler and an entry which, in spite of the loss, continues to be celebrated throughout the country each year? In Sanskrit it is called the Makar Sankranti, or the Capricorn Gateway. But given the decline of the Knowledge, the loss of the correct connection between time and cosmos and the Earth, this entry point has slipped back as if the civilisation’s pulse were skipping vital beats here and there. Finally, in this Age of Aquarius of our 9th Manifestation [begun in 1926], the loss consists of a full 23 days in terms of the year; regarding the cosmic age – the same circle extended to embrace larger cycles of time – it amounts to hundreds. The Makar Sankranti is celebrated on 15 January rather than the true date: the solstice of 22-23 December [or 21-22, depending on the motion of the Earth].

'Be this as it may, conforming to its role of preserver of the highest cosmic Knowledge and land of the new order based on that Vedic Truth, the nation does continue to foster the true things simply by openly celebrating an event cosmic and zodiacal. In the West this date is camouflaged in the tale of the birth of the Christ-Child: 24-25 December. Closer to the mark indeed, but still imperfect, it was adopted as the birthday of Jesus simply because it fell in the traditional Festival of Light, perhaps the most auspicious and universal of all celebrations in antiquity. It was associated with the ‘light’, entirely due to a cosmic/planetary configuration: the Capricorn solstice marked the point when, from its period of longest ‘imprisonment’ (in the cave of the Panis?), the Sun would pass into the experience of increase of its light. This would be reflected in the increase of the length of the day from that moment onward. Hence, the Festival of Light was a celebration of a cosmic event and to locate this ‘gateway’ at any other point in time than the one which would indeed identify the exact beginning of the increase, would make no sense at all, if we place value on the physical harmony and the lived experience. Yet this is what has come to pass in India – largely because that physical reality came to be looked upon as ‘illusion’. Thus, the Yogis of old who should have been responsible for maintaining that correct link with time and cosmos, saw themselves drawn away from their duty by this concept which gradually undermined the act of seeing to the measurable degree of ‘23 days’. Thus that ‘gateway’, which bears no relation to the true entry into Capricorn, is the Makar Sankranti we know and celebrate today. Nonetheless, I repeat, it is indeed respected though the significance and measure may have been lost. The impact of the Vedic Seeing was just too powerful and electrifying to be ignored.

'Yet, the Avatars do carry on with their work and in spite of the loss they even contrive to rectify matters, similar to the Egyptian sages, and locate the Makar Sankranti at the real Gateway where it belongs in the divine Measure.'⁸

^Endnotes

¹ The Yuga measurement of 432,000 is thought to be measuring years, some say a yuga is 432,000 years and some divide 432,000 by 360 and say that a Yuga is 1,200 years. Patrizia Norelli-Bachelet writes that the measure is in arc seconds of the circle, and measures off a third of the 25,920 year Precession of the Equinoxes. The 360° circle = 360 x 60 x 60 = 1,296,000". So one third of the circle, in arc seconds = 432,000. In terms of years of the Precession, this is 8640 years. Link HERE for more on this topic.
²   Vala is translated as coverer, or enclosure. It basically means falsehood, or the coverer of the Truth-Consciousness or Light of the Sun.
³   See The Hidden Manna - being the Revelation called Apocalypse of John the Divine with complete text and commentaries, by Patrizia Norelli-Bachelet, Aeon Books, 1976.
⁴   The Mother, The Mother's Agenda, Volume 1, 10 October 1958.
⁵   In terms of the Precession of the Equinoxes, it takes 72 years for the Earth to precess 1° of celestial longitude. John Major Jenkins writes, 'Because the sun is one-half of a degree wide, it will take the December solstice sun 36 years to precess through the Galactic equator'. See LINK.
⁶   PNB, The Gnostic Circle, Aeon Books (1975).
⁷   PNB, 'Ramlal and the Makar Sankranti – revisited' (2009)
⁸   PNB, 'Ramlal of Ayodhya: the Retrieval Conspiracy', The Vishaal Newsletter, Volume 6, Special December Solstice Edition, 1991

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