The Spherical Gnosis of the Sage & the Release of the Vedic Waters ⁓ Part Three
The Horse-Man Avatar of Vishnu (Hayagriva) with his Solar Halo restoring the Vedas to Brahma. Equivalent to Dadhikravan of the Vedas & the 9-rayed Sage-Son-Horse of Sagittarius.
⁓ Thea’s Initiation into the Spherical Gnosis of the 9 ⁓
[Link to Part 1, 2, 4, 5 or 6]
Readers may want to revisit Part 1 to review the various images of the Circle divided by 9 and 12, along with the illustrations of what is meant by the 9th Manifestation in Thea's Supramental Cosmology. In Part 2 I included a visual of 1968 as the 6 Point (0° Sagittarius) of the 144-year cycle from Sri Aurobindo's birth in 1872 to Thea's passing in 2016, as well as the Mother's writings on the new consciousness – which she referred to as the "superman consciousness" – that descended on 1 January 1969.
In this segment, I will present various excerpts from Patrizia Norelli-Bachelet’s (Thea’s) writings, which give us some picture of her 1970-72 initiation into the cyclical, spherical and supramental gnosis of the Circle of the Zodiac and the Circle of 9, which formed the basis of her yoga and her writings. The reason for sharing this history and the germane excerpts from Thea’s writings is to help readers understand that Thea’s “Third” stage of Supramental Descent involved an awakening or re-awakening of the spherical consciousness-force of the Supermind and likewise of the Vedic Sage, out of the dark slumber of the linear-binary mental consciousness.
“I knew that [THE MOTHER] was the creator of The Magical Carousel, as of all my other works. It was not a mediumistic process at all. She did not 'communicate' words to me, even though there was this capacity also. She planted seeds in my consciousness, precise ones, with a determined purpose and inherent form. The Magical Carousel was therefore one of those 'seeds'. The creative impulse and inspiration came from her, and all I did was to give the seed a fertile terrain in which to grow. I gave the subtle inspiration I received from the Mother a 'body', as it were.” – The Tenth Day of Victory, Vol. 1, p. 247
In this same book, Thea tells of the number 9 as another pressing key of her initiation into the supramental yoga of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother. On 9 September 1972 (9.9.1972), [1] —almost one year after moving to Pondicherry with her son—, Thea wrote a letter to the Mother, pointing to what she was learning and seeing regarding the 9 and the circle.
9.9.72
Mother, it is incredible! All has come, the nights are full of revelations. Truly incredible.
I have understood the 9, finally! And with it I have understood the whole of it, all the symbols, living things, not abstractions. Ignorance is the abstraction. The joy is immense. All this work done so far was true, had its basis in Truth, but now there is a variation, with this understanding everything has come "into focus". Truly wonderful. The threads...I could not put them together: the 9, supermind, the square, your symbol, above all the circle. How could they all fit? They do, because all has its origin in That. And the name THEA, of course...It all fits.
The first impulse was to tell the students...but really there can be no words...it is for them to discover. All one could do would be to draw the number 9, or the Circle and then remain silent.
The vision I had of the square tail made of geometric forms, springing from the golden red Sun. It was incredible, an exact revelation of what has now been understood. So many things, everything makes sense.Can there be any doubt as to what will happen. After all, is not the address of the Ashram 9, and Auroville a 9?...
– Thea, The Tenth Day of Victory, Vol. 1, p. 205[A photocopy of the original letter is found on p. 256]
The date of this letter contains multiple 9's in itself and reduces to the number power of 1.
9.9.1972 = 9 + 9 + 1 + 9 + 7 + 2 = 9 + 9 + 1 + 9 + 9 = 36 + 1 = 9 + 1 = 10 = 1.
During her 1970-1972 initiation the Mother gave Thea her spiritual name: THEA; [2] and at some point during this initiation, I don’t know exactly when, Thea came to see and understand the Greek letters Θεα, in terms of the Zodiacal circle.
“Thea is the Greek word for goddess. But it has another more significant meaning which may be translated as 'the act of seeing'. It is in this context that the name was given to me as a sacred key of knowledge. Because of this significance, it was truly my name since the 'act of seeing' was revealed to be the essence of my destiny. When a name is given in an initiation of that order ‒ a real initiation, I might add ‒ then it must hold the key to the innermost truth of the person's being and destiny. In some way this must be so, otherwise it is not a true initiatic name. Today 'names' may be given freely by gurus, but this has nothing to do with the process I am describing.“'Thea' is formed of three Greek letters whose number values are Θ = 9 (in the ancient Greek, not modern), ε = 5, α = 1. When the breakthrough in knowledge came it did not take long to apply it to cosmic harmonies. The intuitive opening immediately revealed the secret message in 'Thea' when it was applied to the circle ‒ but the circle divided into twelve parts which was the zodiac as well as the Mother's symbol.” – Thea, The Tenth Day of Victory, Vol. 1, pp. 223-24
In the same book, Thea elaborated upon her 1972 “realisation of the 9 and the Circle” as follows:
“I wrote to the Mother, symbols were no longer simply abstract figures. They lived. There was no separation between what they ‘stood for’ and the actual figure. I had penetrated a realm in which these separations do not exist.
"And 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.
“But there was the Zero, the Point. This followed the realisation of the 9 and the Circle. With the Zero the Knowledge was complete. out of That came the whole of creation. This Silence was a fullness and no void. The void was an illusion. Only fullness was Reality.’ (pp. 206-07)
*
“For over a year I had been baffled, perplexed, sometimes even tormented by the phenomenon of the 9. Before leaving for India [3] I wrote to the Mother and begged her to tell me what that number meant and why it was pursuing me in such a persistent manner. Her answer reached Rome after I had left, but it was forwarded to me at the Ashram. Her reply was that the 9 signified ‘creation in matter’.
“This made no sense to me at all. What other creation could there be if not material, even though this might be of a subtle material substance? Yet these new experiences forced me to understand the great wisdom in those three simple words: creation in matter.
“When the veil had been rent and I entered the realm where symbols have their ‘being’, I ‘saw’ the 9 as Matter, as the opposite pole to Spirit. I ‘saw’ the 0 as Spirit. But my seeing came in such a way as to allow me to realise the unity of the two. And this was what so revolutionised my consciousness, and later provided me with an entirely new basis on which to build a new cosmological synthesis. This foundation was captured in one simple geometric design: a circle with a central point. That design has always been the symbol of the Sun. And the Sun is the symbol of the Supermind or the Truth-Consciousness.
“Indeed, as I had written to the Mother, all the threads had come together. I found myself plunged into a state of consciousness where all the symbols Sri Aurobindo had given for the Supermind became living things: the square, the sun, even the colours of the supermind, for they were the material substance of that truth-conscious Sun. Yet none of this was static. There was silence, true, but it was not static nonetheless. And the dynamism that I perceived as one with statics was provided by Number. And number was the measure of Time. Time was the dynamis, Time was the power of the Divine Mother, the kinetic expression of that Divine Consciousness.…
“This seeing resolved all the paradoxes. I had then the formula, a workable structure that harmonised the unity and the multiplicity. This too was the essence of the Supermind: the simultaneous realisation of the One and the Many. The circle was that Many, and it contained, within itself, one with itself, the Point. This was no linear design. The vision was of a spheric wholeness and an implicit simultaneity; and this rendered the circle the symbol of a unified multiplicity, because its foundation, its inner truth was the 0, the point.” [pp. 208-209]
*
“When I had the realisation of the essence of the 9 as ‘creation in matter’, I simultaneously understood the 0 and with it the entire scale from 0 to 9. This was indeed a further outcome of my September breakthrough: the scale of Number starts from the 0 and not the number 1, contrary to all esoteric teachings in which the 1 is the cipher of unity. Likewise, the scale ends with 9 and not 10. But this key too the Mother had held from her disciples, yet it formed the basis of the new synthesis, the truly esoteric significance of Number.
“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. The difference was revolutionising for it drew the cosmic manifestation back to its source in the Feminine Principle and away from the Masculine where it had been disfigured entirely. But it was not even that. Rather, each thing was put in its place for the first time. This, perhaps more than anything else, would be my single most important contribution to the study of cosmic harmonies.’ (p. 226, all bold emphasis in the above quotes from The Tenth Day of Victory, Vol. 1 is added)
The Mother passed in 1973 at the age of 95 (and 9 months), and from that time onward Thea began to write volumes of gnosis – all born out of her seeing and understanding of the 9 in relation to the 12 division of the 360° Zodiac and in relation to Sri Aurobindo’s supramental descent and yoga. Thea first wrote about the key of the Circle of 9 in conjunction with the zodiacal Circle of 12 in series of essays she wrote in 1973 and through January of 1974, published as Symbols and the Question of Unity in February of 1974.
“The key to understanding the Zodiac and other symbols lies ultimately in an understanding of the sphere, and the key to understanding the sphere lies in the number 9, and the key to understanding the 9 lies in the Divine Mother. But the Divine Mother is not a symbol, – she is to be experienced.
"All symbols, no matter which, spring from the circle; it is this that upholds their movement. That is, there can be no relation of lines which do not fall within the sphere, and this in turn can be ultimately translated into one numerical value, the 9. In India it has long been the number connected with the Divine Mother, as, for example, the Sri Chakra of the Tantra reveals, which is composed of 9 triangles. Also the whole system of predictions in Indian Astrology is based on the divisions of 9, of the Zodiac; the Figures attributed to each Yuga are all multiples of 9. One finds this reflected even in the simplest items such as the 108 beads used in the practice of certain rituals, and then revealed in the Gita, of the 18th book of the Mahabharata (of 18 volumes) which speaks of the 18th day of the war, itself containing 18 chapters, the Maha Puranas and the Upa Puranas of 18 books, and so on. In India the most popular feast of the Divine Mother is the Navaratri, where on the 9th day Durga slays the Asura.…
“Many, many instances could be brought forth, but the essential point is this: all that which is manifest, be it even the remotest planes of consciousness, —far, far removed from the physical, if it can be captured in a symbol, speaks of the Mother, for all symbols represent the Manifest. There is only one way to indicate the Unmanifest and that is the point, or dot. Thus we have the supreme symbol of the Sun, the magnificent representation of the Divine.” (pp. 20-21)
*
“9 and 0 are of the same importance in the play of numbers. 0 is the unmanifest and 9, the manifest, the zero brought to its farthest development, hence it confirms the Mother's definition of the number: creation in matter. Both these numbers are contained in the symbol of the Sun
“One point must be made clear: as the entire Zodiac is the "horoscope" of the Divine Mother, so all numbers can be regarded as representing the Mother. But there is one [number] that absorbs and contains them all within itself and also there is only one that has the same properties as the 0, and this is the 9. The combinations formed with it and its multiples can be achieved with no other number, its harmony and perfection none other can equal, for any multiple of 9 will equal 9 in theosophical addition, such as 9x2=18=1+8=9, or 63x40=2520=2+5+2+0=9, and so on. Also the combinations with dates and time cycles involving this number are unique. As it refers to material creation and matter, it can help one to understand that the ultimate perfection which is the Supreme's secret Will is only to be fully manifested in the very densest level of creation. Only in matter, the so-called lowest in the scale of creation can the Divine be fully realised or, better said, can the most perfect Perfection be understood. In the tradition of the Kabala this number is ''the archetype of the primordial Female, hence life from which all forms gradually evolve"; [4] in the same tradition it is considered representative of the cell. All of these traditions are contained in the Hindu concept of the Divine Mother, so it can be seen why the 9 is always associated with her manifestations. [5]
“The 9 and the 0 meet; this is the serpent biting its own tail, and it is only the temporary limits of our perception that make us view these questions in terms of linear dimensions, [6] in terms of lower and higher, matter being the lowest and spirit the highest. When one plunges into another dimension one learns to "see" in forms of circles, so to speak, and then one can understand that there is no question of lower and higher. There is unity; spirit and matter are always one and ever have been. “We go beyond the 3rd dimension and pass into a dimension that belongs to the sphere, widening our vision so as to perceive in "circles". Only in this way can the true Knowledge come. The matter of understanding this number and revealing its meaning is at present important for the following reason: we are now in the 9th stage of development of the collective and individual evolution, what we shall call "the 9th Manifestation".
“Therefore we are in the period of closest rapport or link with the universal force of manifested divinity. In a word, the force of the Divine Mother is pushing itself out into creation as it has only rarely done before, to our knowledge. We are at the summit or, better said, are approaching the summit, and we have a very practical example of the connection of the 9 to the sphere to the Divine Mother and to our present stage, if we observe the Matrimandir now under construction.” [7] (pp. 27-29, all bold emphasis in the above excerpts from Symbols and the Question of Unity is added)
In 1975 Thea presented this circular key of the 9—the key of the Vedic Sage and of the Divine Mother—in our 9th Manifestation in The Gnostic Circle, a book which she wrote in 1974 at the age of 36 (= 9 + 9 + 9 + 9). The following image is the cover image of the third edition (1994) of The Gnostic Circle, illustrating not only the 9 and 12 division of the Zodiac, but larger divisions as well (36, 108, 144 and 360).
In this book, Thea illustrated and illuminated the cyclical essence of our "10-base" (0-9) number system in conjunction with the 12 division of the 0°-360° Zodiac and the planetary bodies, orbits and structure of our solar system, and in conjunction with the 12 ages of the Great Year, and the 12 Manifestations (36 Ages) of the Maha Yuga Cycle. Note that Thea was the first person in who knows how many thousands of years to recognize that the Maha Yuga cycle and its Yugas are connected to the 12 zodiacal ages of the 25,920-year Precession of the Equinoxes. Below are several pertinent excerpts from The Gnostic Circle. All bold emphasis is added.
“[E]xpansion of consciousness is the imperative necessity of our times, and the circle as a symbol speaks to us of the many different aspects of the one all-pervading consciousness. Therefore we learn that however we approach the subject of cosmic harmonies we begin and return always to one element: the realisation of the Circle, or the Sphere. Hence all our studies will be centered on the various manners of dividing the circle.
“[W]hen there is the realisation of the Circle there is a simultaneous realisation of the number Nine-because this is its number. And when there is the understanding of the Dot or Point, one then can comprehend the Zero. Thus, in the symbol of the Sun the point is 0 and the circle is 9. These two therefore, 9 and 0, are the numerical essence of the symbol of the Sun. In fact, all the workings of the Cosmos which we can capture in symbol form can also be captured in numbers. This number is our link with the Cosmos, because it is by means of number that we relate the movement of the spheres to the time periods of Earth. Number is the key to Time, and the study of astrology and cosmic harmonies is essentially connected with Time. If this element is abstracted we have no study, nor do we have a cosmos or a manifested divinity. And there are various levels of perception of Time. The denser and the more ignorant the material creation, the more divided is our perception of Time; closer to Truth and the spiritualisation of the denser realms, the perception of simultaneous time becomes possible, nay, inevitable, which does not exclude Time but only brings the experience of this element into the field of Unity. The past, present and future are not eliminated, but are perceived as three elements of one whole and are experienced simultaneously.” [8] (pp. 11-12)
*
“[The Circle Divided into Nine] is perhaps the most meaningful division of the Circle for us on this planet, at this time.... [If] we want to delve deeply into the meaning of our times we must understand and make use of this key. First because we are in the 9th Manifestation, the 9th spiral of the Greater Circle….
“The second reason is that this number is the last digit of our numerical system; our numbers actually go from 0 to 9, as we have often stressed in this work, the 10 being merely the 1 again. In this way, the circle divided into 9 is what joins the heavens to the Earth's time cycles through the calendar, no matter what method is adopted of recording time and no matter what calendar is used.
“Third is the fact that 9 is a most meaningful cycle for any human being because the gestation process at present requires a period of 9 months; though there are some cases which break this pattern, for the majority a cycle of 9 months is required for the cells to evolve and for the foetus to fully develop into the infant. Thus, in the Circle divided into 9 we can see the cycle of a cell and its complete process of creation, preservation and destruction or dissolution, or its birth, generation and degeneration, the period of the cell's fullest experience.
“Finally the importance of this division of the Circle is to be understood with regard to our solar system, which consists of nine planets and the Sun, the zero. In this way it becomes evident that the 9 Circle is for us at present the most perfect representation of the microcosmos and macrocosmos, and tells us the way in which we can link these together. It tells us in its harmonics that in fact the vast and the small are one.
“To begin the study, let us look at the details of the division and see how by simply observing the play of the numbers it embraces the fine patterns of its harmonies come forth. As well, we can observe in this phase of the study how the method of theosophical addition is the indispensable formula in order to approach and understand cosmic harmonies, that it is in no way an arbitrary measure and that the justification of its usage is to be found in the numerical system itself, through geometry and plain arithmetic, and thus in no abstract way we must understand that form and number are one. Essentially we can see that no matter how high we count, how extensive our figures, these can and must always be reduced to one digit if we are to learn the secret of any process in creation, and that no matter what the process, the phases of its development are always nine to work, so that’s a good sign.” (pp. 106-07)
“In the Circle of 9 we are describing the most essential part is the 0 which unites itself with the 9, becoming the Serpent biting its Tail. Herein we see that Spirit and Matter are but different densifications or rates of vibration of the one all-pervading Energy, which to us is the Absolute, God, Brahman. And by means of this diagram we are going to see how this apparently abstract concept is related to us in the most intimate way and reveals this relationship in the experience of Time on our planet, using the mechanics of evolution.” (pp. 110-11)
*
“The purpose of the Gnostic Circle, particularly the phase of its 9 division, is to enable us to fully understand the occult laws which govern the structure of Matter, of the subtle and dense physical, for it is only by knowing the laws pertaining to both these realms that the actual transformation can come about. The 9 Circle represents the cell as well as the macrocosm with relation to the Earth. We have seen therefore that the Law of Three is essential to comprehend, and then '3 x 3', which represents the full scale or the fullest possibility of transformation given to the human race at this time. Humanity so far has progressed through two of these triads successfully; it is now time for the last to manifest. This is the deeper significance of the three newest planets. They are the physical bodies which govern the last triad of the Sacred Triangle.” (p. 120)
*
“[The Gnostic Circle is] the design that contains the means whereby it is possible to find one's place in the cosmic vastness. Its components, though they present us with an apparently complex design, are extremely simple to understand: the Gnostic Circle is nothing more than the combination of all that we have studied so far. It is the synthesis based primarily on the union of two major divisions of the Circle,—that of 12 with all its sub-divisions, and that of 9 which contains the division of 3, or the Sacred Triangle. It is this combination that makes it possible for man to join the heavens to his Earth cycles through the calendar years. It pertains to the individual, to nations, and the entire globe; it is the chart of the Avatars as well as the revelation of the path of development of each individual.
“The Gnostic Circle is merely the combination of the zodiac—the occult circle which contains the knowledge of evolution—and the structural pattern of the solar system. The Circle of 12 is the zodiac, and the Circle of 9 is our actual solar system, each orbit representing one year of Earth life. The joint harmony of these two, superimposed or synthesised in one circle, is what constitutes our key to the evolution and flowering of the seed of the Spirit. In fact we can say that the Gnostic Circle is mainly for this purpose: it shows mankind the ultimate and ideal perfection that can be attained during this particular phase of the evolution, during this great transition point from the animal-mental to the more divine mankind.” (p. 159)
Diagram from The Gnostic Circle, p. 284
“It is possible to show how these two essential divisions of the Circle [shown above] are captured in the core of the [Mother’s] temple, for it is the superimposition of the two, one upon the other, or the simultaneous vision and understanding of the Circle divided into both 9 and 12 that tells us what we need to know about the evolution of our planet, and though this might make one feel insignificant in the light of the cosmic vastness and transcendent beyond, it must be remembered that this very vastness, this Cosmos reduced to the Circle of 9 and 12 is the very core of man. He is That in all ways, and the details of his Earthly life follow the very same patterns of the Cosmos in all its vastness. The macrocosmos and the microcosmos are indeed one.
“It is to be recalled that these amounts of degrees are the segments of the 9 and 12 circles, 40° and 30° respectively, and that they accurately correspond to the dimensions to which their respective circles correspond, the dimensions of Time and Space on the globe. Therefore the central globe of the Matrimandir, with a diameter of 70 centimetres (40+30), captures the entire territory of India which is the symbol of Capricorn, known to represent the soul of the Earth, ruled by Saturn, ‒ a planet which holds the key of Time. Thus in the temple where the gnostic key of Time is contained, the core is the very land of the Time-Spirit upon Earth.” (p. 284)
Nine years after initially writing the “zodiacal odyssey” of The Magical Carousel, Thea wrote its companion The Magical Carousel Commentaries (1979). Therein she wrote:
“The nine-year cycle is a key element in my work, as anyone who is familiar with it knows....
“I have always stressed in my work that the nine year cycle adds a greater density to an event, a birth of an idea, etc. Here we have a clear example of just such an enneateric process. Nine years exactly after the Mother's [25 April 1961] experience of absolutism, and the consciousness of immobility bearing in it a supreme mobility, she brought this experience into a greater phase of density, or intensity, we might say. The experience became solidified in the [1970] vision of the chamber, and immediately thereafter in the Capricorn episode of The Magical Carousel [1970]. And now [1979] that a further nine-year cycle has passed, once more the densification occurs, for it is again exactly nine years after that vision and the writing of The Magical Carousel. Thus a total of eighteen years have passed since the original seed was sown [in 1961]....
“In 1971 Sri Aurobindo was 99 years old; he is the Spirit of a New Time in this episode. In 1977 the Mother's 99th birthday took place. The ladder has 99 steps. Indeed those six years between 1971 and 1977, his 99th to her 99th, brought the revelation of the perfect Measure, based on this number, or the cycle of nine upon ninety years. (pp. 113-14)
“Nine years ago, 1970, in this very month, The Magical Carousel was completed." (p. 150)
In Part 4 and possibly 5, I will present various excerpts from Thea’s writings from 1977 onwards which demonstrate and emphasize the role of these formative keys of the circle of 9 and the circle of the Zodiac have in the apocalyptic evolutionary shift from humanity’s fragmented linear-binary mental consciousness to the unifying solar, spherical and supramental consciousness of the Divine Sage-Son.
Endnotes:
[1] It is worth noting here that 27 (9 + 9 + 9) years after Thea wrote this 9.9.1972 letter, on 9.9.1999, Sri Aurobindo appeared to me in a waking vision and informed me I was going to India, where together Sri Aurobindo and the Mother impressed upon me the knowledge of a Third level of the Supramental Yoga that the calcified Sri Aurobindo Ashram would not accept. This supramentally guided journey ended with me finding The Gnostic Circle, which discussed and illustrated Thea's work as the Third of Sri Aurobindo’s line. A fuller account of this story is told in Geometric Keys of Vedic Wisdom.
[2] This initiation involved conversations and interactions with a consciousness-force that identified itself (in Thea’s mind) as the Mother of Pondicherry. See The Tenth Day of Victory, Vol. 1, pp. 45-50.
[3] Thea left Rome for India on 27 September 1971 (9.9.9).
[4] Thea’s original footnote: La Bible Restituee, Carlo Suares.
[5] For example, the 9 manifestations of the Mother Goddess Durga celebrated during the Navaratri (9 Nights) of Durga Puja, featured in the Intro of this series.
[6] In “Reflections on Sri Aurobindo’s contribution to the evolution of consciousness on his 143rd birth anniversary, 15 August 2015”, Thea wrote of “the unity of 0 and 9 of the number scale where mouth and tail meet”, as equivalent to “the circularity of the eternal rather than linearity”.
[7] Thea’s original footnote: ‘“The Temple of the Mother" now under construction in Auroville, 9 miles outside of Pondicherry, India.’ This text was written in 1973, before the distortion of the Mother’s Temple in Auroville.
[8] In Sanskrit, this wholistic Time-Vision is referred to as trikala drishti—the view or vision of the three times (Past, Present and Future)—attributed to the ancient Vedic Seers.
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