CHANGE IS THE ONLY CONSTANT
part II
At the close of the present Kali Yuga, Sri Kalki returns do battle Kali and his dark forces that prevailed during this cycle.
At the close of the present Kali Yuga, Sri Kalki returns do battle Kali and his dark forces that prevailed during this cycle.
It seems as if celestial and terrestrial events preceded, even initiated the changes in the human psyche that made the Age of the Ram what it was. In this the ancients were correct, the universe is indeed one big correspondence.
The Age of Pisces, the fish, is the era in which we find ourselves, a cycle dominated by monotheism and resurgent spirituality and the questions it raises about the essence of the self, even if the answers have generated much conflict. It is also the age when we examine our relationship to water. Certainly we have mastered the ability to cross the oceans and establish trade on a worldwide scale; conversely, it has raised our awareness of water as a fundamental and precious ingredient that sustains life, and ironically, just as fast as we learn to appreciate this, fresh water is now a scarce commodity.
Cycles are not hard and fast periods, yet the effects of an impending age are felt the closer they approach, just like water becomes more agitated the closer it reaches boiling point. Technically speaking we still some 145 years from entering the Age of Aquarius and yet its influence is already palpable.
Aquarius is all about the rule of freedom, technology and dominance of the skies. Unquestionably, there has been a steady progress over the last centuries to overturn tyranny, despotism and the control of the many by the few. The abolition of slavery marked one giant step for humanity, followed by the emancipation of women's rights, and now with the advent of the World Wide Web (technology) we are finding freedom of self expression in a way that would have the Sun Kings and Popes of old Europe rising out of their graves. Likewise, we have begun to master the element of air with our discovery of flight. Our exploration of space takes new and bolder steps with each successive generation, just as the invention of radio and wireless communication dominates the airwaves.
So again, the new cycle slowly influences the established paradigm.
Although interpretations may vary, many old cultures recognize the cycle of ages. The Tamil, which precedes the great flood of 9703 BC, immortalized its oral traditions in the Sangams — the Yugas of Hindu cosmology — and despite its time-frames differing somewhat to the Egyptian, it nevertheless recognizes the perpetual churning mill of the heavens. In Tamil/Hindu eyes each Yuga effects gradual changes in which the cycles of the Earth and human consciousness are intertwined, because both are part of a grand machinery involving the solar system's motion around a central Sun and its relationship relative to the centre of its galaxy. The Yugas are epochs within a cycle of four ages that wax and wane like the seasons, from creation to destruction, gestation and re-creation.
In the previous cycle, humanity found itself immersed in a Golden Age, a time of technical and spiritual advancement, a time of grand temples and gods. The great flood and the magnetic flip of the poles c.10,300 BC heralded the fall of this grand era, and we presently find ourselves in Kali Yuga, the cycle of quarrel, war, strife, discord, hypocrisy, spiritual degradation, and a move away from god: essentially the time of solar/masculine power, an age of vice. This cycle began c.3003 BC, ironically around the same period of major climatic changes and the sudden rise in temple construction around the world.
The Toltec marked the final age of their present cycle c.3114 BC. Eventually adopted by the Maya culture, this has been the most discussed calendar of all, least of all because of its closing date of 2012 AD. My view is that the Toltec never intended to signal the end of everything as we know it. December 21, 2012 represented the end of one 144,000-year cycle and the first day of the 14th baktun ('great cycle'). The closure of cycles and the heralding of new opportunities were cause for celebration in the ancient world, not a time for cashing-in on death and apocalyptic thinking.
Our obsession with cycles may be borne out of the fear of the unknown, after all, a parameter defined offers a degree of control. For the ancients, gaining a thorough understanding of the mechanics of the celestial spheres meant predicting, with great accuracy, the arrival of events that may not bode well for the tribe. Luck, as they say, favours the prepared. Thus if your reading of the skies indicates a chance of being hit by a meteorite, at least you are prepared for the certainty that your life is going to be impacted in a negative way. The ancients accepted the fickle way of nature but they also appreciated its mechanics, thus they did not live at the mercy of events but were prepared to deal with the consequences.
Of course, the growing pains that come with new cycles do not come cheaply. Whenever change beckons it asks much of us, from the re-examination of our narrow perception of reality to the dissolution of frameworks we firmly hold to be the true construct of life. Our perception of things is not the same as their true nature, our tools of analysis are shaped by experience, upbringing, social environment and religious perception. We adjust as necessary, or not at all, in which case resistance to change is met with chaos. For people with control issues or reputations at stake the response is typically violent, they hold on to power by any means, and as we are witnessing today these outdated systems are gradually eroding in spite of desperate attempts at holding the reins of dead horses.
People in touch with the earth do not regard the change of cycles as calamitous, merely steps toward a new set of experiences, and the concept of temple-building illustrates this well. The temple is a material expression of a creator god, its effulgent light solidified in stone, and thus the center of every old civilization and city. Modern research proves that temples throughout Egypt, India, Tibet, France and Britain were designed in such a way that the earth’s telluric lines of energy create a kind of force field around their perimeter, funnelling an essential life force into their inner sanctum that is capable of influencing human consciousness. And because of their alignment over the Earth's magnetic hotspots they also influenced, to a degree, the actions taking place on the planet. The temple was everything to societies from the Celt to the Tamil, and the downfall of the temple meant the downfall of the people. And yet its custodians we well aware that the physical structure, from time to time, comes under the destructive influence of events. The idea, then, was to go with the flow and, following cyclical catastrophes, rebuild the temple and promulgate the knowledge of the gods.
Let's take Stonehenge as an example. Established in 8000 BC, the first bluestones were added c.3100 BC in response to climate changes; at this time it was used as a lunar temple. With further, and more deteriorating climatic conditions c.2500 BC, the tall trilithons were added and the site becomes a solar temple, an important move during a period of extreme cold and season after season of failing crops. Thus the site was adapted to the prevailing experience of the times, helping initiates understand the processes taking place.
Continue to part III
Return to Articles