Gnostic Cycles
Extrapolations
on the Teachings of Patrizia-Norelli Bachelet
in
Light of the Thelemic Paradigm
by
Frater Zephyros
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
"By the force of Truth I have conquered the Universe while living."
English translation of Crowley's motto upon attaining the Grade of Magister Templi 8=3 A.'.A.'.
The
time spirit is called ‘Kala’ in the Hindu religion and is the feminine form
of Kali, the Great Mother. Kali
gives life to and devours all things, much like Babalon in Thelemic doctrine.
Note that Babalon is given the sign of Mulier in Liber Reguli.
Kala is Chronos in the Greek pantheon, which is the eldest of the gods.
The lessons of time then become the fount of all wisdom and the key to
everything subsequent. Time itself is cyclic and experienced so intuitively, that we
don’t seem to realize that we are even experiencing it in certain moments.
We come next to the Gnostic Circle.
We start with the Triangle, as it is the strongest structural shape in
the Universe. And of course, we add
the circle, as its involvement in the Universe is apparent in both the motion of
the planets and the Will for that matter as well as the cyclic nature of life.
The realization of the circle simultaneously produces the realization of
the number nine, as it is the highest of all known numbers (0 through 9) and at
the opposite end of the numbers, which start with the circle or zero.
This should become more obvious if you consider the circular nature of
things and note that the end is connected to the beginning.
Perhaps also, one could consider that there are nine planets circling the
Sun in our Solar System. The circle
then represents the orbit, which is the nature of the Will whose highest
expression is then the number nine.
Madame Blavatsky writes in her commentary to the Secret Doctrine; Stanza 4, Verse 5:
“0.”
This means that the “Boundless Circle,” the zero, becomes a figure or
number only when one of the other nine figures precedes it, and thus manifests
is value and potency; the Word or Logos in union with the Voice and Spirit* (the
expression and source of Consciousness), standing for the nine figures, the thus
forming the Cypher, the Decad which contains in itself all the Universe.
The Triad forms the Tetraktys, or the Sacred Four, within the Circle, the
Square within the Circle being the most potent of all the magical figures.
AL
III.47: "This book shall be
translated into all tongues: but always with the original in the writing of the
Beast; for in the chance shape of the letters and their position to one another:
in these are mysteries that no Beast shall divine.
Let him not seek to try: but one cometh after him, whence I say not, who
shall discover the Key of it all. Then
this line drawn is a key: then this circle squared in its failure is a key also. And Abrahadabra. It
shall be his child & that strangely. Let
him not seek after this; for thereby alone can he fall from it."
* The footnote HPB adds here provides further clarification:
This
refers to the Abstrct Thought and concrete Voice, or the manifestation thereof,
the effect of the Cause. Adam
Kadmon, or Tetragrammaton, was the logos in the Kabalah. Therefore this Triad answers in the latter to the highest
Triangle of Kether, Chokmah and Binah, the last a female potency, and at the
same time the male Jehovah, as partaking of the nature of Chokmah, or the male
Wisdom.
Blavatsky also states, much later in her tome (Vol. IV, Section 8):
The idea of representing the hidden deity by the circumference of a Circle, and the Creative Power (male and female, or the Androgynous WORD), by the diameter across it, is one of the oldest symbols. It is upon this conception that every great Cosmogony was built. With the old Aryans, the Egyptians, and the Chaldeans, it was complete, as it embraced the idea of the eternal and immovable Divine Thought in its absoluteness, separated entirely from the incipient stage of (the so-called) creation; and comprised psychological and even Spiritual evolution, and its mechanical work, or cosmogonical construction.
The Will is the singular point,
Hadit, whose symbol is the dot. Therefore,
when there is realization of the dot or point, we can comprehend zero.
Zero and nine are then, the numerical essence of the Sun whose symbol is
the dot in the circle. The Universe
is the circle, Nuit, whose circumference, though “nowhere found” is
discovered through the orbiting points embedded in her fabric.
Note also that number is the key to time, which is also connected to
Astrology and its cosmic harmonies.
Nuit is attributed to Binah of
which the planet Saturn is also attributed.
And Saturn is in the position of the sixth orbit and holds three
principal rings about it, suggesting the nature of the Supernal Triad.
Three, six and nine with zero become important numbers and go to the
points of the triangle as shown above. There’s
an amazing amount that can be gleaned from this if one takes the time to
consider it. Most notably or at
least initially, the circle and symbol of the Sun is 360 degrees with 9 planets
orbiting about it. Nine is Yesod,
six is Tiphareth and three is Binah; these are the principal Initiations in the
A.’.A.’. system and pertain to the three veils on the Tree-of-Life; Qesheth,
Paroketh and the Abyss.
Note also that the Aeon of
Aquarius will start in 2597ev when the Earth’s ‘Vernal Point’ will for the
first time, be in Aquarius, 693 years after the revelation of Liber AL vel
Legis! And the Sun will find
alignment with the center of the Milky Way Galaxy, symbolized by the Nile in the
Egyptian Gnosis in 2012ev, 108 years after the start of the Aeon of Horus.
108 of course, reduces to 9 by AIQ BKR but more interestingly is thrice 22*33,
which is why 108 is usually the number of beads on a rosary; a hint back to the
Rosicrucian truth and it is also the number of beads on the Mala that Yoga
students wear. The reduction to 9 then also becomes a key to the nature of
our Solar System. And as will be
shown, a key to the nature of the present Manifestation, which is ruled by
Sagittarius. Also 2*3=6
or Tiphareth or the Sun. Note the
Sun (6) is 93 million miles from the Earth; another recursion of 693.
The mathematics shows still more
recursive values if we consider 3, 6 and 9 as fractions.
1/3, 1/6 and 1/9 are fractions when expressed by decimal equivalents,
give infinitely repeating numbers; .333, .1666 and .111 respectively.
The only other integer giving a fraction that yields an infinite decimal
equivalent and outside our consideration here is the number 7, which of course
is the number of the original sacred planets.
7 also gives us the repeating decimal .142857, which are the remaining
numbers in our number set if we take out the 0, 3, 6 and 9.
Interestingly enough, Saturn
contains four sub-rings that are really a part of the three principal rings and
gives us again, the number 7. Note
also that Saturn is the only planet that orbits the Sun on the same plane as the
Earth. This is particularly
fascinating when noting that the 32nd Qabalistic path has Saturn and
the Earth as dual attributions. Traditional
Astrology then becomes misleading when it states that the other planets transit
those constellations that are on the ecliptic.
In actuality, they are transiting several of the other constellations in
the starry sky and perhaps, provide a clue for how someone like Nostradamus
could create his Astrologically based prophecies.
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The information presented in this work, particularly the true date of the start
of the Age of Aquarius seemingly presents a problem for Thelemic cosmology.
Aleister Crowley has gone through some effort to equate the Aeon of Horus
with the Aeon of Aquarius. And of
course, Kenneth Grant has amplified this to a considerable degree.
And yet the Astronomical information leaves us with no doubt about the
fact that this is all in error. This
is compounded by some confusion as we note also Astronomically, that the Aeon of
Pisces started in 69 BCE. This
gives us an Aeon much longer than two-thousand years in length.
As a matter of fact, the present Aeon of Pisces is actually to be 2,666
years in duration. Yet isn’t it interesting that the Renaissance comes at
about the halfway point. And during
this period, the Rosicrucians thought the Aeon of Aquarius had already begun.
The ‘Platonic Year’, giving us twelve Aeons is actually 25,920 years in duration and based on the Earth’s orbital wobble and the observable precession effect that moves the Vernal point. An exact division by twelve gives us 2,160… of which we are still in this present Aeon, to eventually exceed 500 years over the average. Remember that the Earth does not orbit the sun in an exact circle, but rather, an ellipse. This is going to result in some Aeons being longer and others being shorter than the average. The Aeons themselves are grouped together in sets of three for each quarter of the sky or Astrological Circle. And so one Platonic Year yields four Manifestations and twelve Manifestations give us one ‘Great Year.’
Moreover, Crowley seems to have intuitively understood that we are really still in the Aeon of Pisces. His solution to the pronouncement in Liber AL vel Legis that Tzaddi is not properly attributed the Star Atu is solved by the Moebius Ribbon and lying on the Virgo/Pisces axis of the Astrological wheel. Though it may be to many that this mundane Aeon of Horus has an Aquarian quality to it. It is really the transition between the Cosmic Aeons of Pisces and Aquarius; a correction of the superstitious lie put in place by the Roman Emperor Constantine, the original Anti-Christ and destroyer of human genius. It seems certainly more than a coincidence that this correction also is announced through the Emperor Atu in its juxtaposition with the Star Atu.
Interestingly enough, one nautical mile represents one minute of arc about the circle of the Earth. The linear measurement for this is 1,852 kilometers. Multiply this by 60 to get one degree and 111.12 kilometers per degree. Multiply this product by the 360 degrees that comprise a circle, and we get 40,003.2 kilometers, which doesn't seem significant until we convert this back to nautical miles by dividing the product by 1.852; we get 21,600 nautical miles. The earth is 21,600 nautical miles in circumference; ten times the number of years in an Aeon.
Clearly, the movement of Aeons traversing the cosmic wheel in reverse has already become common knowledge in Thelemic Philosophy. Therefore, the Aeon of Aquarius will follow the Aeon of Pisces. In her book: The Gnostic Circle, Patrizia Norelli-Bachelet draws a perfect argument for the fact that not only do the Manifestations move in the opposite direction along the cosmic wheel from the Aeonic or precessional cycle, but indeed, we are in the 9th Manifestation here on Earth. This Manifestation is attributed to Sagittarius, the ninth sign along the ecliptic. This Manifestation is the Manifestation of Truth as Truth is the nature of Sagittarius. And it will contain three Aeons; Pisces, Aquarius and Capricorn.
Madame Helena Petrovna Blavatsky provides more insight into this by stating in Vol. II, Chapter 9 of Isis Unveiled:
Nearly all
the prophecies about Christ are credited to the patriarchs and prophets. If a
few of the latter may have existed as real personages, every one of the former
is a myth. We will endeavor to prove it by the hidden interpretation of the
Zodiac, and the relations of its signs to these antediluvian men.
If the reader
will keep in mind the Hindu ideas of cosmogony, as given in chapter vi., he will
better understand the relation between the biblical antediluvian patriarchs, and
that puzzle of commentators -- "Ezekiel's wheel." Thus, be it
remembered 1, that the universe is not a spontaneous creation, but an evolution
from pre-existent matter; 2, that it is only one of an endless series of
universes; 3, that eternity is pointed off into grand cycles, in each of which
twelve transformations of our world occur, following its partial destruction by
fire and water, alternately. So that when a new minor period sets in, the earth
is so changed, even geologically, as to be practically a new world; 4, that of
these twelve transformations, the earth after each of the first six is grosser,
and everything on it -- man included -- more material, than after the preceding
one: while after each of the remaining six the contrary is true, both earth and
man growing more and more refined and spiritual with each terrestrial change; 5,
that when the apex of the cycle is reached, a gradual dissolution takes place,
and every living and objective form is destroyed. But when that point is
reached, humanity has become fitted to live subjectively as well as objectively.
And not humanity alone, but also animals, plants, and every atom. After a time
of rest, say the Buddhists, when a new world becomes self-formed, the astral
souls of animals, and of all beings, except such as have reached the highest
Nirvana; will return on earth again to end their cycles of transformations, and
become men in their turn.
As the Precession of the Equinoxes
takes 25,920 years to complete one zodiacal round or spiral on the cosmic wheel
(composed of four Manifestations), three spirals are needed to complete one
Great Circle of twelve Manifestations. As
we know from the study of the Holy Qabalah, humanity is composed of four bodies:
the Physical, Vital (or Emotional), Mental and Spiritual.
And the main teaching is that with each Great Circle (144 Aeons or 122),
one of these bodies evolved to full maturity.
And yet once that maturity is obtained, the memory of it is wiped from
our history in order to focus on the evolution of the next body…as
Norelli-Bachelet writes:
“[H]umanity
is left with fragments of past teachings to assist man in understanding his
place on the spiral of evolution. This
is the sole and only reason that wise men passed down the Knowledge, as well as
constructed monuments that show the race the heights of the achievements of lost
civilizations.”
The first Great Circle dealt with the Physical body and was a time of evolution from primates through and until the homo-sapien fully emerged and developed. The next Great Circle had us discover the occult forces of nature. Life perfected the instinctual and vital essences that brought us great cultures such as Atlantis and Lemuria. But like our mastery of our bodies, we then forgot the mastery of what we now may see connected with a sub-strata underneath the material of our bodies. We are now on the Great Circle corresponding with our Mental bodies where that which is unconscious is brought to manifest in the conscious mind. And in that, we are in the Ninth Manifestation of twelve and before moving onto the last stage, which seems far beyond anything we could begin to comprehend at this point.
So what of the highly touted and even mystically revealed Aeons of Isis, Osiris and Horus…and indeed Ma’at? By way of a deductive explanation, we have to go back to the note above, that the Renaissance starts at about the halfway point in this Aeon. This suggests that the Aeons themselves being cosmic, have mundane divisions that describe human history. And Crowley clearly in his commentary to Liber AL vel Legis, describes them in this manner:
The
Hierarchy of the Egyptians gives us this genealogy: Isis, Osiris, Horus.
Now the 'pagan' period is that of Isis; a
pastoral, natural period of simple magic. Next
with Buddha, Christ, and others there came in the Equinox of Osiris; when sorrow
and death ware the principal objects of man's thought, and his magical formula
is that of sacrifice.
Now, with Mohammed perhaps as its
forerunner, comes in the Equinox of Horus, the young child who rises strong and
conquering (with his twin Harpocrates) to avenge Osiris, and bring on the age of
strength and splendour.
His formula is not yet fully understood.
Following him will arise the Equinox of Ma, the Goddess of Justice, it may be a hundred or ten thousand years from now; for the Computation of Time is not here as There.
Liber AL vel Legis itself is not fallible. The error was committed by Crowley in his presumption that he was the transmitter of the ‘New Aeon’, should that Aeon be the Aeon of Aquarius. But really, this was more Kenneth Grant's mistake as he tried to appeal the emerging Hippie generation of the 1960s ev and mistook this mundane Aeon of Horus for the cosmic Aeon of Aquarius. In actuality, all Crowley could see was the Eucharistic/Alchemical transformation that was the Rosicrucian secret involved in the onset of the Aeon of Pisces. Crowley of course, still maintains a greater vision than Grant as Crowley was looking into the light and Grant, merely pontificating upon a poorly constructed Qabalah. Evidence of Crowley's insight can be found in the following paragraph from his Aeon Atu essay in The Book of Thoth, where he seems to explain this large gap between 1904ev and the coming Aeon of Aquarius:
It is also important to study very thoroughly, and meditate upon this Book in order to appreciate the spiritual, moral and material events which have marked the catastrophic transition from the Aeon of Osiris. The time for the birth of an Aeon seems to be indicated by great concentration of political power with the accompanying improvements in the means of travel and communication, with a general advance in philosophy and science, with a general need of consolidation in religious thought. It is very instructive to compare the events of the five hundred years preceding and following the crisis of approximately 2,000 years ago, with those of similar periods centered in 1904 of the o9ld era. it is a thought far from comforting to the present generation, that 500 years of Dark Ages are likely to be upon us. But, it the analogy holds, that is the case. Fortunately, today, we have brighter torches and more torch-bearers.
In this Aeon, which is the start of the Manifestation of Sagittarius, the idea of a man being nailed (Vau-Son [of God] in Tetragrammaton) to the ‘Cross of Light’ or the two-directional electro-magnetic force (as per Dion Fortune) is the key to both spiritual and physical transformation.This card is beautiful in a strange, immemorial, moribund manner. It is the card of the Dying God; its importance in the present pack is merely that of the Cenotaph. It says: "If ever things get bad like that again, in the new Dark Ages which appear to threaten, this is the way to put things right."
If we examine all of this very carefully, Crowley is still clearly showing his own inability to fully understand the nature of Aeons as this Arithmetic and Astrology expert can’t even compute but can only glibly guess at the start of the Aeon of Ma’at. And this has caused even more confusion with Grant and the Ma’atians using their pseudo-scientific excuse to claim that time is an illusion in complete disregard for the time/space dimension, and that the Age of Ma’at is already upon us.
Note also, that the appearance of various Avatars occur at times that defy any cosmic explanation of Aeons. Rather, the bulk of prophecy is emerging during the approach to the Aeon of Pisces and even well into it. Pisces is the Sign of prophecy with Sagittarius the Manifestation of truth. Prophecy as proof of contact with the Secret Chiefs and the channeling of new Gnosis to humanity is the proof of Magick at this time. No Magickal order can claim legitimacy without such production.
|
Lao
Tze Christian
Rosencreutz Crowley |
TAO ? |
600BCE 1572ev
and 1604ev[1] 1904ev |
We could almost deduce a period of five hundred years for the duration of a mundane Aeon. And we wouldn’t be too far off the mark if only for want of something to have happened around 1000 BCE. Perhaps we could consider the Crusades or even the legend of Merlin and the Graal, which originated in and around that time. If so, we could put Lao Tse, Confucius and Buddha in the Aeon of Isis, Jesus in the Aeon of Osiris and perhaps even inserting an Aeon of Set for Mohammed, especially considering the work of the Council of Nicea, which simultaneously occurred; and an Aeon of Thoth for Christian Rosencreutz and the flowering of Hermetic Magick. This five hundred year mundane cycle would allow a certain symmetry to give Ma’at the start of the cosmic Aeon of Aquarius.
From the Aeon Atu of the Book of Thoth:
It is very instructive to compare the events of the five hundred years preceding and following the crisis of approximately 2,000 years ago, with those of similar periods centred in 1904 of the old era. It is a thought far from comforting to the present generation, that 500 years of Dark Ages are likely to be upon us. But, if the analogy holds, that is the case. Fortunately, to-day we have brighter torches and more torch-bearers.
Cycles of five hundred years represent a certain natural pace of development in human society. This certainly finds a larger complement in the cosmic cycles of time. The Manifestation of Sagittarius (Truth) coincides with the Aeon of Pisces. So this Aeon represents the essential mystery that will flow through the two succeeding Aeons. Though the mystery of Death was dealt with at the beginning, this would flow into the mystery of the Eucharist and even into the mystery of Transformation at the present time. The reason that we can deduce a particular strength to the first Aeon of any Manifestation comes from a review of previous Manifestations.
Scorpio with its three Aeons being Gemini, Taurus and Aries was the Manifestation that gave us the Deluge and destroyed the Earth by Water, the elemental sign attributed to it. And with Sagittarius being ruled by Fire, we have a highly spiritual cycle that will produce any number of prophets and praeter-human contacts. The Message of the Sphinx originates at the Manifestation of Libra, containing the Aeons of Virgo, Leo and Cancer. We can even group Manifestations into periods that I’ll call ‘Epochs,’ which contain three Manifestation.
In analyzing the Cosmic Wheel, one will discover that there are four peculiar manifestations, denoting the epochal Manifestations and that occur just before the Angular Manifestations; Aries, Cancer, Libra and Capricorn. These Manifestations are of course; Pisces, Sagittarius, Virgo and Gemini. What is particularly interesting about these Manifestations is that their last or third Aeon has the same sign attributed to it as the succeeding Manifestation. And the succeeding Manifestation has as its first Aeon, the attribution of the Sign that belonged to the previous Manifestation. These seem to release a very special power as provided for us in the example of the Deluge and warn us to heed the power of the present Aeon by considering it much more carefully than has been done so far.
In order to do so, we append the following from Runar's Enochian archives:
"A translation that I did
from a book by O. Aukrust, Dødsriket, on the word 'aion' tells that the
theme of aions and it successions may also have been confusing to the Greeks.
And as Gnosticism was suppressed, the discussion faded and the terms and ideas
got simplified; where they survived.
The word aeon has got its history and most of it is found as the
God and greek word Aion. In the days of Homer (800BC) the word started to
mean Life while the original meaning is not known. Still lots of indogermanic
and vedic sources points to the same. In Homers poetry its possible to loose
ones aion-life / power of life. This aion does Homer place together with psyche
which together makes up the human life. Later in greek tragedy (500) aion
becomes understood as content of life / span of life. Platons use of the the
term aion as the timeless ideal eternity while kronos was linear time was the
happening that seems to have made the change. The word became further extended
by its use after this time; Sophocles speaks of the coming aion after the worlds
apocalypse. The philosophers used the term mostly as age of time and therein the
difference between aion and kronos is visible.
Kronos is time while Aion is its content. This extension of the expression went
from the small vita/life to aetas/age of time to tempus/time (in general) and
ended in Aeternitas/the infinite, plus the word in singular could also denote
the summary of a undefined group of individuals aionos ( aion in plural).
All these usages in Greek are translated by their context and therefore there
exist of course a degree of uncertainty of what is meant by the use of Aion, as
all these meanings were in use at the same time.
O. Aukrust.
So we see that the Greeks could have been confused as well. What I read out of
this now, becomes an interpretation that says that Aion/Aeon means prime source;
first seed and divine spark of life; that which endures infinitely. And to
me; Abrahadabra connects to Hadit, not the average Heru. In this
perspective; When Set says: The word of the Aeon of Set is Xeper; it refers to
his essence, and not some doctrine of passing of ages. And further; In
this light, we can speculate if Maat at all will have her Aeon, because her true nature and domain is beyond essence, and as such her true
Aeon will be the Aeon of Horus." And it's easier to understand the
contention of AL:
AL III.46: "I am the warrior Lord of the Forties: the Eighties cower before me, & are abased. I will bring you to victory & joy: I will be at your arms in battle & ye shall delight to slay. Success is your proof; courage is your armour; go on, go on, in my strength; & ye shall turn not back for any!"
If this was projecting over twenty-one hundred years of time, the decades of the Forties and the Eighties would make little sense at all. But in the smaller span of time, they make a lot more sense. Crowley was right about one thing, the Aeon of Horus is not a fixed duration of time...but a work to be accomplished, an egregore.
But what is time?
Well, it’s certainly something that can’t be separated from matter
and note that matter is but the greater densification of spirit.
So time is NOT an illusion…only our perception of time can be illusory.
The cycles and undulations of time as we have shown, help us to see our
relation to this life. And on a
larger scale, the involution of Babalon, the Earth Mother herself (so
misunderstood by Dee & Kelly) is becoming recognizable.
As Patrizia Norelli-Bachelet says:
“In this
manner one can look at the cycles of a woman and thereby understand the labour
of the Earth to bring the entire race forth from its womb.
Our times are indeed the period of labour pains.
The Earth Mother is bringing forth her child and is ejecting it into it
own independent existence.”
The labor pains she speaks of are the world wars prophesied in light of Liber AL vel Legis. After all, we are but cells of the Earth. As the earth goes through the violent process of birthing, so do we move in sympathetic vibration. The political powers that be have only the illusion of control over this. And those forces that would have it that we never see war don’t understand the ebb and flow of even the tide along the beach, no less the celestial mechanics that afford to everything its place in time.
The
four Epochal Manifestations also correspond to the four Watcher
Stars, Regulus (Leo), Aldebaran (Gemini), Fomalhaut (Pisces) and Antares
(Sagittarius). The only adjustment
that needs to be noted is Regulus, which is in Leo, rather than Virgo. But it is 28 degrees Leo and almost on the cusp of Virgo.
All of these stars returned to their fixed positions
between 1865 and 1873ev. This was the time of the American Civil War and
the start of the Industrial Revolution...war leading to an evolutionary leap for
humanity.
Anthropologists
go back in time and look for evolutionary evidence in various hominids, proved
by their use of tools. With the onset of the industrial revolution, we
graduated fully from the use of tools and were initiated into the use of the
meta-tool...the machine. Today, even the computer is but a machine and
machines have changed our culture and us so dramatically that we even talk about
how accelerated the changes in the world since the Industrial Revolution,
distinguished from thousands of years before that point.
Love is the law, love under will.
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