Description
The Earth entered the Age of Aquarius in 1926. There is now a push for mankind to move beyond a sense of isolation and separateness toward a universality, toward a gnostic society. That is the meaning of Aquarius, sign of the Friend. This movement is not the product of past ethical or religious or spiritual ideas – it is the outcome of a new manifestation and descent of what Sri Aurobindo calls a Supramental force on Earth.
In the 10th stage of the journey, Capricornland, the main protagonists – the children – enter a mountain cave, they stand face to face with the Time Spirit and undergo an initiation which leads them to find out who they really are. After this nothing will ever be the same in their lives again. Capricorn is the Earth (sign) and it is ruled by the planet Saturn; even Saturn is transformed and takes on a new magic – its rings become symbols of the cosmic carousel.
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… If ever I were to write a book about Sri Aurobindo, this is the book I would write, like a sort of fairy tale… “Picture it to yourself like this – you see life, you see it as it is, you are used to an existence of this sort, and it is dismal and sad (there are people who enjoy themselves, but it is because they amuse themselves with very little!). Well, there is, behind all that, a fairy tale. Something which is being prepared and which will be beautiful, beautiful, beautiful, inexpressible. And in which we are participating… You are not aware, you believe that when you die you will forget everything, leave everything, but it is not true! And all those who are interested in a beautiful, luminous, joyous, progressive life – well, they will all take part in it in one way or another. Now you do not know; after some time, you will… Voila.”
‘So, a fairy tale.
‘And the images, my child! All the outer images, like cinema images: of this activity, and this other, and another – a beautiful presentation. That seems to me the only thing that can really be said, because it is the only thing I see. So, one sees, one says, “Yes, but there is someone (Sri Aurobindo) who is trying to do something with all that. Look, look, at the beautiful image behind, a beautiful story… and he was trying to bring that story down on Earth, and the story is sure to come.”
(Preface – The Mother of Pondicherry, 31.5.1962, L’Agenda de Mere, III, 1962,Insitut de Recherches Evolutive, Paris, pp 285-86)
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Prologue: ‘All the lands rejoice on this twenty-first day of March, the beginning of a new cosmic year. The day is especially important for two Earth children who are the main characters in this story. They are being sent to Saturn in the family’s rocket for a vacation with their grandparents who live on that planet. All alone they’ll travel because the rocket will be guided from Earth and Saturn. There is so much excitement. Many preparations have been made and the children are scrubbed clean, their bags neatly packed. The rocket is filled with the necessary provisions and in no time Val, short for Valentina, and Pom-pom – whose real name has long been forgotten – find themselves soaring into space. In the beginning all goes well, but on the ninth day a most peculiar thing happens. . . ‘ (pp.3-4)
