The Spherical Gnosis of the Sage and the Release of the Vedic Waters ⁓ Intro & Part One

NAVADURGA – the 9 Forms of Durga
celebrated via the Navaratri (Nine Nights of Durga Puja)
and Vijaya Dashami – Durga’s Tenth Day of Victory

[Link to Parts 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7,7.2, or 8]

⁓ INTRODUCTION ⁓

When I sat down to begin writing what I thought was Part 9 of The Obstruction of the Vedic Waters and the Fixed Water Sign of Scorpio series [1] on 26 September 2022, I was not aware that it was the first day of India’s Navaratri Festival. The dates of this festival – celebrating Durga’s nine-night battle with a great asura (Mahishasura) to restore dharma in the world, ending with her Tenth Day of Victory (Vijaya Dashami) – change a bit every year because it is linked to the New Moon of Virgo. Please note that the dates of the Navaratri in India are calculated via the sidereal measure of the Zodiac, which Thea considered to be a post-Vedic, mismeasure and distortion of the Zodiac/Vedic Year. Regardless, she always considered the Navaratri (as measured in India) to have substantial relevance in the course of her own yoga. In 2016, Thea passed away on the 8th day of the Navaratri festival (9 October) and was cremated on the 10th Day of Victory (11 October). 

Instead of beginning Part 9 with words, I constructed two images to help readers see and understand the sacred number 9 and the many sacred numbers that reduce to 9 in their proper circular and spherical context, which Thea began writing about in 1972, the year before the Mother’s passing. As I was constructing these images, so began the process of receiving and organizing all that wanted to be expressed through Part 9. I quickly realized that Part 9 was not just the end of the Scorpio series, but the beginning of something else. It felt like the beginning of another series or book, but not just that. 

I knew for over a year that Part 9 was going to focus on the number-power of 9 in relation to the Supramental Yoga and the release of the Vedic Waters, and I had already written a few sections of it in 2021. I did not know, however, until the 2022 Navaratri that Part 9 would focus on the shift from the obstructive linear consciousness of the 8th sign of Scorpio to the cyclical and spherical consciousness of the 9th sign of Sagittarius, the sign known in India as Dhanu, the Sanskrit word for "bow", as in the bow of the Archer. As I began to write about this shift in conjunction with the six-year anniversary of the release of the geometric and zodiacal sense of the Vedic Rivers and the six-year anniversary of Thea’s passing, I experienced a substantial shift in my consciousness and likewise in my understanding of the Supramental Yoga. From the moment the Vedic rivers revealed themselves to me as symbols of the arc or bow (dhanu) of the vesica piscis that measures out the circle of the Zodiac, on 2 October 2016, I knew of course that it was Thea’s 46 years of revelations and teachings regarding the circular keys of Vedic and Supramental Gnosis, and my deep connection with her yoga,—as well as with the yoga of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother—, that had enabled me SEE the eternal law and divine measure of the Vedic rivers at the age of 47. 

Regardless, before the Navaratri of 2022, I did not fully see and understand the shift from the obstructions posed in the 8th sign of Scorpio to the expansiveness of the 9th sign of Sagittarius in terms of the shift from the linear mental consciousness to the spherical supramental consciousness of the Vedic Sage-Son. As such, up until October of 2022, I did not fully understand Sri Aurobindo’s avataric yoga and descent in our 9th (Sagittarius) Manifestation in relation to the Sage-Son of the Vedic Year/Zodiac. Certain pieces and parts of what I did understand had just not fallen into their proper place in my mind yet.

During the 2022 Navaratri it all became crystal clear and wonderfully cohesive. I came to see and understand what the ancient iconography of the divine HALO actually represents, and I understood the birth of the Vedic Son-Sage in the ancient Vedas, and likewise Sri Aurobindo’s birth and rebirth in our 9th Manifestation, as the seeding and awakening of the spherical (Sage) consciousness in Humanity (the Man of Aquarius). Without this birth, and its accompanying body of spherical (supramental) gnosis as presented by Thea, the release of the geometric and zodiacal sense of the Divine Son-Sage’s seven mothers-rivers in our world,—along with ALL of the Vedic and post-Vedic ancient symbols and mythologies that this gnosis has illuminated—, simply would not have been possible. What the linear consciousness had long obstructed and imprisoned, the spherical consciousness quickly released in our Aquarian Age within the 9th (Sagittarius) Manifestation of the Maha Yuga cycle. And thus, the entire Vedic and Biblical story of the coming of the conquering and unifying Divine Son and the purifying apocalyptic release of his seven rivers/vials (equivalent to the release of the waters of the Aquarian Kumbha) can be seen as an evolutionary symbol-prophecy of the inevitable birth, expansion and rise of the spherical supramental consciousness,—the consciousness of the 9-rayed Vedic and zodiacal Sage/Horse—, which naturally serves to purify and dismantle the dimly lit linear mental consciousness that forms the unsound foundation of our current civilization and its many woes. 

When this shift or deepening of my understanding occurred, I could hear Thea laughing and saying, “It’s about Time”, which in turn made me laugh for many reasons, including that I KNOW such events happen exactly when they need to. In this case it took precisely six years for me to fully connect the dots of what was revealed in 2016 about the Vedic Sage-Son-Horse with the spherical consciousness of Vishnu’s 9th Avatar [2] – the Divine Sage of our 9th (Sagittarius) Manifestation. As I have discussed at length since 2016, the Divine Sage of the Vedas is Agni, born forward by his seven rivers (=mothers, cows, mares, etc.) as the self-purifying Soma-Pavamana who goes by many names and descriptors, including the triply-seated or triply-born Agni, the Sage, Horse, Son (Child of the Waters), Trita, the Hidden One (Guha), the Archer, Bull and Eagle who flows with and pours out his seven rivers on his way to the Heavenly Jar (=Kumbha). The Sage's jar-destination is also known as the reservoir of Soma [3] (=Amrita), the gods' banquet and meeting place, Agni's resting place, Indra's heart, and by many other names as well. Thea equated this conquering Son-Sage-Horse of the Vedas with Kalki, Kartikeya, Skanda, Murugan, Subramanya of India mythology, Aeon of Greek mythology, the “threefold warrior” Triptolemus of the Eleusinian Mysteries, and Ares/Mars (the God of War) of Roman and Greek mythology. The fifth day of the Navaratri festival celebrates Durga as Skandamata – the mother of Skanda. In truth, Durga’s Tenth Day of Victory is inseparable from her act of giving birth to her Divine Son-Sage-Conqueror, and fittingly the celebration of her victory includes a procession of statues of Durga, Kartikeya and her other children to (and into) a river or ocean, i.e., to a reservoir of water, symbolically equivalent to the Son-Sage’s victorious ten-month journey with his seven mothers-rivers to the Kumbha – the gathering place the gods and goddesses and the waters of the Vedas.

Finally understanding the birth of this Vedic and Zodiacal Sage-Son as the awakening of the spherical consciousness in humanity elicited much joy circa the anniversary of Thea’s 9 October 2016 passing because it made me feel even closer to her and to her work, as well as more centered and aligned in my own yoga, more wonder-struck by the yogic journey and its progressive revelations, and more compassionate with regards to humanity’s self-destructive ignorance. It has helped me to better see and understand the entire Supramental Descent and all that is transpiring in our world not only via a more expansive and spherical perspective, but also via a more focused lens. Finally coming to terms with what exactly the SAGE-SON represents, or rather IS, in terms of our evolutionary journey, occurs to me as a fitting culmination of my 45-54 ennead (12 Feb 2014 ‒ 12 February 2023), which began in Pondicherry, India, at Thea’s The Future Realisation exhibition. [4] Moreover, it feels like a fitting culmination of the first 54 (= 9 x 6) years of my entire life, completing a certain level of work and establishing the foundation of whatever is to come next.     

So, with all of that said, I welcome readers to the beginning of this new series focusing on the birth of the spherical, supramental and solar truth-consciousness of the Sage of Sagittarius in Vishnu’s 9th Manifestation. I do consider "The Spherical Gnosis of the Sage & the Release of the Vedic Waters" to be the culmination (Part 9) of the Scorpio Series, but at the same time it is something new that will stand on its own. Before proceeding it is essential to make sure readers understand what is meant by Vishnu’s 9th Manifestation, and the best way to explain this is via Thea’s Map of the 12 Manifestations, which spans three Great Years (three Precessions of the Equinoxes = 3 x 25,920 years = 36 astrological ages). The progression of these 12 Manifestations corresponds to the progression of the 12 months of the Zodiac, and each Manifestation contains, in itself, three astrological ages (3 x 2160 years = 6,480 years).

Image source: Symbols and the Question of Unity (Thea, 1974)

& The Gnostic Circle (Thea, 1975)

As discussed by Thea in The Gnostic Circle (pp. 18-31), the heart of each of these 12 Manifestations is one of Vishnu’s four Preservation Ages – the Ages of Taurus, Leo, Scorpio, and Aquarius; and these are the Ages when Vishnu the Preserver manifests in order to periodically restore the eternal law (Sanatana Dharma) in our world.

The image above-left, which I constructed some years back, illustrates how the 12 Manifestations, along with 9 Kali Yuga (Dwarpara Yuga = 2 Kali Yuga, Treta = 3 Kali Yuga, and Satya Yuga = 4 Kali Yuga), function as one 360° circle or cycle. Vishnu’s first 9 fixed-sign (preservation) ages are highlighted in red. Above-right is a close-up of the third [mental] quadrant of this cycle, spanning the 7th (Libra), 8th (Scorpio), and 9th (Sagittarius) Manifestations. As Thea discussed and as readers can see in this image, the center of the 9th Manifestation is our own Age of Aquarius, which Thea saw as beginning in the 9-power year of 1926, the year of Sri Aurobindo’s Siddhi Day and Immortality Day (24 & 26 November). 1926 was also the year when Sri Aurobindo, at the age of 54 (9 x 6), retired from contact with the public in order to focus on his spiritual work, placing the Mother in charge of the establishment, organization and activities of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram.

⁓ PART ONE ⁓

“I had entered a state of consciousness in which unity is the foundation. But more than that, I had finally reached the Source of every symbol, of everything in creation in fact. And that Source was the Divine Mother. She was that Circle, that ‘symbol’, denoting the All in its essential unity: all symbols emerged from the Circle. It was only one more step and that All could be reduced to Number. The number of the circle was 9. The 9 was the Divine Mother…. With the Zero the Knowledge was complete….

“By starting from 0 and ending in 9, I found the invaluable key to that spheric wholeness which could never manifest in a system (or a world) where the linear movement from 1-10 prevailed.… This, perhaps more than anything else, would be my single most important contribution to the study of cosmic harmonies.” 

Thea, The Tenth Day of Victory, Vol. 1 (pp. 206-07, 226)

[Commentary on her September 1972 revelations about the Circle of 9]

*

“We are describing here the method placed at the disposal of seekers to affect a real and not illusory transformation of society, based on a principle which applies to the individual as well as to the collectivity as a whole. This method is devised to bring about a shift from the actual binary status of the human race to a unitary structure which then alters entirely the conditions of collective living on Earth. The first major effect of such a shift is the factor of a spherical as opposed to a linear progression….”

Thea – “Vedic Symbol of the Universe – Part 3.3

The Horse as an example in the Gnostic Circle application”

The Vishaal Newsletter, Volume 9.6, February 1995

The most formidable obstruction of the Vedic Waters in the Fixed Water Sign of Scorpio has been humanity’s linear mental consciousness which is oblivious of the integral wholeness and basis of our existence and evolutionary journey in Time and Space. This linear mental consciousness, proper to both the 7th and 8th signs or stages of the twelve-stage evolutionary journey of the Zodiac, can equally be referred to as the binary mental consciousness. It expresses itself in every facet of our present human civilization, including our collective ignorance regarding the circular, cyclical, and spherical essence of our ancient 10-base number system, named as such because it uses 10 digits – 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 – to construct any number. 

Via this ignorance, many who revere the number 9 are not fully aware of its connection to the circle and to the circular, cyclical and spherical patterns and structures of our cosmos, our world, and our individual lives. Likewise, the basis of many of our world’s mythologies and symbols and sacred 9-powered numbers – including the sacred number of 432 and the 432,000 measure of the Kali Yuga – have long been disconnected and disassociated from their real circular and cyclical context and measure, void of their true meaning and power in the world.

As Thea made clear throughout her writings spanning from 1970 to 2016 (46 years), the central key of the Mother-Goddesses’ (Durga’s) victory of dismantling the limitations and purifying the accumulated toxicity of humanity’s fragmented linear consciousness, and thereby enabling humanity to progress into the expanded consciousness of the divine Vedic Sage-Son in our present 9th (Sagittarius) Manifestation of the Maha Yuga cycle, is precisely the gnosis of the cyclical, circular and triadic (3 x 3) essence of our 0-9 number system. 

The 0-9 number system, as noted by Thea, functions not as a linear progression (shown above), forever moving away from its origin and seed point of 0, but as the circle of an ouroboros, whose head and tail (9 and 0), and every part of its body, remain eternally connected, and eternally ONE.

When we see and understand the circular base of our number system, we can also see and understand the true sense of the tradition of casting out nines (aka Theosophical addition or reduction), whereby any finite number, no matter how large or small, reduces to one of the 9 digits of our “10-base” number system. We can also see that the circle of 0-9 contains all numbers in itself. Without this knowledge, sacred numbers, numerology, and math at large are all cut adrift from their true source, context, and power. The direction of the flow of the 9 numbers in Thea’s illustrations of the Circle of 9, and of the Gnostic Circle corresponds to the direction, flow and developmental stages of the Zodiac. It is worth noting here that Thea saw the modern teachings of the Enneagram with its 9 personality types,—wherein the flow of the 9 digits is clockwise and excludes the 0—, as incomplete in terms of its disconnection from the body and flow of cyclical Time (i.e. from the body and flow of the Zodiacal Year). 

We could, of course, continue adding more rings to this Circle of 9, unto infinity. I stopped at 12 cycles of 9 culminating with the sacred number of 108. I did construct a 0-144 version (16 cycles of 9) which I will publish at another time. Anyone under the age of 109 can find the number-power of their own age in the above circle. For instance, I am currently 53, and the number and age of 53 (5 + 3 = 8) is found in the “ray” containing all other 8-power numbers.    

The Circle of 9 is, of course, the basis of the 360° (9 x 40°) division of the circle and sphere, and likewise the basis of the 360° measure of the Earth’s 12-month Solar or Tropical Year (aka the Zodiac), which also functions as an Ouroboros, with 0° and 360° seated at the exact same point in the circle. In the case of the zodiacal year, this point is the March Equinox. Thea recognized the Solar-Tropical measure of the Zodiac to be the true measure of the Vedic year or Yajna. She considered the various sidereal measurements of the Zodiac adhered to in India as “post-Vedic”, and as a distortion of the Vedic year and of the Zodiac itself. The Vedic Yajna, often translated a “sacrifice”, is the largely forgotten origin and basis of Yoga. As illuminated by Sri Aurobindo and Thea, the Vedic Yajna or Year represents the upward and progressive evolutionary journey of life and consciousness on Earth whereby we complete the task of manifesting our indwelling divinity or Divine Self in Manifestation, in Time and Space, and thereby come to experience Time and Space, together with all that which manifests in it, as the multidimensional body, field, force and expression of the Divine, not something separate from the Divine or from ourselves. In the following illustration of the Gnostic Circle, I have nested various key measures of the 360° Year and Great Year.

All measures shown above are cumulative. In other words, just as the integer 2 is an accumulation of two units or two 1’s, each measure shown is an accumulation of that one segment and all of the segments before it. Thus, in the circle of the Zodiac, the measure of 0° Taurus marks out 30° = 108,000", 0° Gemini marks out 60° = 216,000", 0° Cancer marks out 90° = 324,000", etc.; and in the circle of 9, the 1 Point is precisely 144,000" (=40°), the measure of the 2 Point is 288,000" (=80°), the measure of the 3 Point is 432,000" (=120°), etc. 

The first (inner) ring shows the 12 division of the 360° circle: 12 x 30° = 360°. The second ring shows the 12 ages of the Great Year (= the Precession of the Equinoxes). The third ring shows the number of years contained in the Great Year: 12 x 2160 years = 25,920 years. The fourth ring shows the seconds of degrees contained in the 360° Circle: 12 x 108,000" = 1,296,000". The fifth ring, to be seen in conjunction with the rings before and after it, puts the measure of the Kali, Dwapara and Treta Yugas in their proper context. Together these three yuga measures mark out the 3, 6 and 9 points of the Circle. The measure of Satya Yuga, not shown in this circle is four Kali Yuga (=16 ages = 4 x 432,000" of the Precessional Cycle). The sixth ring contains the hieroglyphs of the 12 signs of the Zodiac. The seventh ring and the outer numbers (0-9) together show the 9 division of the circle wherein each unit (each ONE) is 144,000 seconds of degrees (= 40° x 60" x 60") of the circle: 9 x 144,000" = 1,296,000". 

All of the numbers of the 3rd, 4th and 7th circles reduce to the number power of 9. Many may recognize various sacred numbers and measurements shown above, including the measurements of the radii and diameters of the Sun and the Moon (in miles). I constructed this image to help readers see and understand that our world’s sacred measurements – especially the measurement of the Yugas – must be seen and understood via the language and math of the 360° circle of 9, together with the language and math of the 360° circle of the Zodiac. [5] Disconnected from this One circle, sacred numbers loose the entire context of their sacredness.

I constructed a version of this last circle with another ring showing the 2,880 years that correspond to each 40° of the Great Year – 1 Point: 2,880 years; 2 Point: 5,760 years; 3 Point: 8,640 years, 4 Point: 11,520 years, 5 Point: 14,400 years, 6 Point: 17,280 years, 7 Point: 20,160 years, 8 Point: 23,040 years; 9 Point: 25,920 years. Another version could include the 24 hours of the 360° measure of the day and its minutes, seconds. 

In Part Two of this series —"The Establishment of the Supramental Consciousness in the 9th (Sagittarius) Manifestation"—I present various excerpts from Sri Aurobindo, the Mother and Thea's works concerning the establishment of the spherical supramental consciousness on Earth. In Part Three I will give readers an historical overview of Thea’s early revelations regarding the Circle of 9 and the Circle of the Zodiac. In Part Four I will share many of her discussions regarding the evolutionary shift from the linear (binary) mental consciousness to the spherical supramental consciousness. 

[Link to Part 2, 3, 4, 5 or 6]

---

Endnotes: 

[1] Links to "The Obstruction of the Vedic Waters and the Fixed Water Sign of Scorpio" series: Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7.1, 7.2, 8.1.

[2] As I discussed in “The Sacred Measure of 432,000 ⁓ Part 5: Vishnu and the Triadic Division of the Circle”, Thea considered Sri Aurobindo (not Gautama the Buddha) to be the rightful 9th Avatar of Vishnu, who promptly reincarnated, 13 years after his passing, as the 10th in the Line [as the Son]. In Secrets of the Earth: Questions and Answers on the Line of Ten Avatars of Vedic Tradition, she wrote:

“Imagine [the descent of the 9th Avatar] as an organic process. See the 9th Avatar's coming as 'seed'. From that Seed [Sri Aurobindo] planted in 1872, the ineluctable unfolding or evolving of its contents was 'decreed'. The work was done, we could say, because when Time is the executive force in the operation, as ally, as Creator not Destroyer, its irreversible forward march can only make manifest what the Seed contains…. 

“[The coming of the 9th Avatar] provides us with the truth-conscious structure it is his duty to introduce in this 9th Manifestation, i.e., the Cosmic Truth.”  (pp. 50, 65) 

[3] ”Flow on for the God's banquet, [Agni, Soma-Pavamana], as a Steer, and enter Indra's heart, the Soma's reservoir [somadhā́nam]. Bear us beyond misfortune ere we be oppressed, the man who knows the land directs the man who asks.” – Rig Veda 9.70.9, tr. RTH Griffith

[4] I was a docent for Thea’s February 2014 “The Future Realisation” exhibition which she described as “An Exhibition connecting the Supramental Gnosis of the Mother to the Vedic Age”. This exhibition featured the Vedic significance of the Mother’s original measurements for the inner chamber of her spherical temple, the Matrimandir, which were distorted and thus not manifested in the temple that goes by her name in Auroville. 

[5] See: “Correcting the Ongoing Misperceptions of the Kali Yuga”.

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