Today is the Equinox, 23 September, 2022; it is Cosmic Sunset (yellow in the map). Earth and her family enter Libra, the 7th zodiacal sign, ‘the sign of Yoga’. On this day, as on the March Equinox, the tilt of the Earth with respect to her Sun is 0 degrees and the duration of day and night are almost equal on all parts of our Earth.
Earth and her family have moved from the southern rim of the ecliptic, from the darkness of Cancer (Cosmic Midnight), toward the mellow rays of the Sunlight again with hope and anticipation. This part of the journey, traditionally known as Dakshinayan, is not ‘inauspicious’, Thea explains; rather it is ‘gestational’, a time to prepare to receive the full rays of the sun once again. The goal of the journey – Cosmic Midday – is in view.
The true seekers, like the Warriors in the Rig Veda, awaken to their purpose for taking birth on Earth – to release the ‘rays of light hidden in the cave of darkness’, to unveil the divine Agni in their being. They can expect ‘the sons of darkness’ to rise up and place obstacles in the way.
Part One: Cosmic Sunset - a Review
At this midway point through the Cosmic Year, let us review three basic concepts:
- At this point in the evolutionary scale, the human species is a ‘binary creature’; i.e., at birth, with the involution of the divine spark into matter, the soul is hidden as the growing individual matures around the ego that makes him/her a separate person from the Divine One. We cannot escape the inevitable finality of death.
This binary condition was well understood by the ancient Rishis; their hymns indicate a system of knowledge that maps out a path for the Aryan Warrior to give him/her the wisdom and the protection needed to make their way through the perils of their ‘journey’ toward Immortality, toward Swar – ‘the realm of the Truth-conscious Sun’.
Their ‘journey’ was based on the cosmic harmonies: the yearly revolution of the Earth on her axis through the ecliptic around her Sun with the four Cardinal points of the Equinoxes and Solstices as the stable markers supporting the journey.
The zodiac was the script describing the path and the goal: each of the signs described the progressive inward movement in consciousness to achieve their goal, ‘to become the Sun’. The twelve stage journey opened with the first zodiacal sign, Aries, Agni, (God of Fire); his vahana is the Ram. He, first of the Gods, led the traveler to the mountaintop of Capricorn, 10th zodiacal sign and entry into Swar, the realm of Truth-Consciousness.
When the Atharvaveda was written, ‘Skambha was the object of the spiritual endeavour’; it was the binding energy of the Vedic civilization (1). They made the choice to live for the Divine principle known as the Cosmic Pillar or ‘axis mundi’ . to establish their entire society on this profound ‘support, Skambha.
Toward whom does the rising Flame aspire?
Toward whom does the Wind eagerly blow?
On whom do all the compass points converge?
Tell me of that Support (Skambha) – who may he be? (Atharvaveda 7 )
‘Their hymns describe a civilisation at the height of its spiritual and cultural creativity‘; Thea explains that they saw a correspondence between the physical path which Earth orbits yearly around the Sun to the journey they undertook in search of their inner Sun-soul. As Above, So Below – it was one and the same journey. Through their Calendar they aligned their society with the Cosmos; it was TIME, ‘unrolling’ itself through the flow of the days and months of the Year that opened to them the ’eternal worlds’, or stages of consciousness, the last and highest ‘world’ was the Supramental, the immortal world of the Truth-consciousness.
2. As the decline set in there was a great undermining of these profound realisations. The lost Vedic knowledge was destined to be discovered again with the appearance of Sri Aurobindo, the 9thEvolutionary Avatar. His coming was not only to reestablish the Vedic dharma and to imprint once again the eternal Skambha on the evolutionary matrix, but to erase the separation that existed between matter and spirit. With his collaborators, the ‘Solar Line’, they were to open the pathway to the Supramental, the next spiral on the scale of evolution.
Thea equates the four Cardinal pillars to cosmic periods of Time (diagram A): Dawn/Sunrise opens with Aries (March); Midnight opens with Cancer (June/July); Sunset – Libra (September) and Midday – Capricorn (December). The last quarter of the journey, opening with zodiacal sign Capricorn, corresponds to Swar (diagram B); it was a part of the year. Swar, the Vedic heaven, was not up there or out there, or after life on Earth; rather, it was the final quarter and the most significant part of the journey – it was the ‘lost sun’ held captive in the cave of the hostile misers, that had to be recovered! (3).
Swar was the ‘lost sun’ held captive in the cave of the hostile misers. As Thea explains: ‘…in the language of the Rig Veda the Lost Sun (Swar) is recovered and the cows/rays are released from the cave of the Sons of darkness (ibid, p. 148). The circle must be completed, the Warrior must bring the Solar World into his/her conscious experience of life, the energy hoarded away in the many unconscious layers must be found and released and become the base for a new life. (ibid, p. 147).
3. India is at the centre of the new Aquarian Age. The nation has always been at the centre – this is an evolutionary process, stretching over thousands of years. it is India’s destiny to work out the cosmic ‘knot’ or cosmic ‘purpose’ for the world. It is a huge burden; but no other nation is up to this task – ‘the yoga of the Earth is lived in India’ (4).
India is not just a landmass, she is the manifestation on Earth of a new cosmos, she is Bharatmata, Mother India. India is that particular place on the planet through which the Cosmic Truth is given physical consciousness expression (ibid). India was able to maintain a ‘sense of Bharat’ or a unifying force over the centuries despite or even amidst foreign rule. There has been an ‘unbroken thread‘ from its origins in the Vedic culture to the eternal Dharma of the nation today (5).
The symbol below, found in the cosmic harmonies of our Earth, gives a cosmological proof: the hieroglyph of the tenth sign of the zodiac, Capricorn, known throughout the world as the ‘ruler’ of India, superimposed on the landmass of India with great precision.
Entry into Capricorn – Uttarayana, or the northern gateway – is that month of the zodiacal year the nation considers auspicious. In the hymns of the Rig Veda it is honoured among all the signs: ‘…the victory of the Warrior who embarks upon the singular Journey the hymns describe (through the pathway of the Year) occurs in that 10th month, holiest of all.’ (ibid, p. 19). This same day – Makar Sankranti – is honored as the national holiday still today.
But there has been a disturbance in this harmony; in India Makar Sankranti is not celebrated on the Solstice of December, the shortest day of the year, but 23 days after the actual Solstice, on 14-15 January. As strange as it may seem, Nirayana pundits use the wrong circle as their guide: the Constellations located far out in the heavens, instead of Earth’s own Tropical Zodiac.
Entry into the last of the Cardinal Poles, Capricorn, Uttarayana, northern gateway, is always equal to the December Solstice; it never shifts or requires someone to determine the proper ayanamsha (starting point).
Part Two: Cosmic Sunet - Third Stage of the Journey
Sri Aurobindo wrote in The Life Divine that it was a ‘terrestrial evolution’ he was interested in; nature herself was to undergo a radical transformation. The ‘lid of Mind’ was to open so that a new consciousness exceeding the limitations of Mind could come forward. This was entirely possible here on Earth; in fact, this is what humankind has been preparing for during its long period of evolution. Within our Solar System, this is our Earth’s unique contribution: it is only on this planet that there emerges a psychic centre/a soul which allows a consciously evolving species.
In many systems of cosmology of the past, our Earth’s contribution was veiled; this planet was used merely as a ‘springboard’ for a better place after death. The goal was to leave and not return. However, in this 9th Manifestation with the coming of Sri Aurobindo and his Solar Line, the ‘truth-essence’ of our Earth is being unveiled and there is emerging a Gnostic Society who embody the universalized spirit of the Aquarian Age (6).
Their function is to assist the planet during this third stage of the journey (the mental quarter, diagram below), to open the individual to a ‘higher hemisphere’, a completer knowledge, a unity of individual Will with the Eternal will. This is a critical phase, entry into this higher hemisphere can only be done with an intervention from above, an inner awakening of our being, a felt aspiration for a new nature, a new way of being.
Sri Aurobindo’s revelations connect the human journey to cycles of time, specifically the yearly ‘journey’. As he explored the Rig Vedic legend of the Angirasas for its true meaning, he declared
‘The goal or victory of the human journey is won in twelve periods of the upward journey, represented by the revolution of the twelve months of the sacrificial year, the periods corresponding to the successive dawns of a wider and wider truth, until the tenth secures the victory…’ (7)
It was ‘Indra’s battle’ – who would possess heaven and earth? The ‘sons of darkness’ rose up in great force during this part of the journey to prevent the traveler from achieving his/her goal, from finding ‘the lost sun’, continues Sri Aurobindo. The Aryan Warrior knew that ‘the subconscient darkness and the ordinary life of ignorance held concealed in it all that belongs to the divine life and these secret riches must be recovered…’ (ibid)
It was only those Rishis who could supplicate the gods and rely on them for protection during the battle who were able to stay the course; that is, as Sri Aurobindo tells us, that it was only those who could extend their tapasya from nine months (the Navagwas) to ten months (the Dashagwas) who could be assured of the victory, entry into the light-filled world of Swar (ibid).
Thea adds a cosmological understanding to Sri Aurobindo’s revelations (8). She turns to this significant verse of the Rishi:
‘Certain eternal worlds are these which have come into being, their doors are shut to you, (or opened) by the months and the years; without effort one (world) moves into the other, and it is these that Brahmanaspati has made manifest to knowledge.’ (RV )
She explains that Brihaspati (Brahmanaspati) is ruled by Jupiter, 7th planet – ‘he is seven-rayed’ (ibid, p. 412). His work is to open the seeker to higher stages of mental consciousness (certain eternal worlds); this knowledge will unfold to the true seeker – the warrior – through the flow of the days, months and years of TIME.
The 7th month of the journey (Cosmic Sunset), opening with zodiacal sign Libra, takes the traveler into the higher regions of mental evolution. And in the 10th month the Warrior enters Capricorn – the illumined world of Swar, the Supramental (diagram above).
To come:
Part Four (conclusion): Cosmic Midday – 21 December 2022
References:
- The Vishaal Newsletter, Volume 7, no. 2
- The Vishaal Newsletter, Volume 6, no. 6
- Chronicles of the Inner Chamber, no. 12, 2018
- The Vishaal Newsletter, Volume 6, Number 4
- Partition of India, 2009, p. 19
- The New Way, Volume 1, p. 88
- Sri Aurobindo, Secrets of the Earth, CWSA, volume 13, p. 182
- The New Way, Volume 2, Chapter 10