Galactic Underworld and Venus Rising

Venus's Heliacal Rising, November 2010: her return from the Underworld

Something in between dreaming and doing
Something arching down from there to here
We are the arching
We are neither here nor there
We are the hope that lives between
The continual blooming outward and upward
of something we want
but cannot see
– Author unknown

On winter solstice this year, December 21st, the longest night in the northern hemisphere will be graced not only by a full moon but a total lunar eclipse at 8:14am GMT — 00:14am Pacific time.

It is a cosmic sign, a prelude to our annual rendezvous with Galactic Center — that dark patch in the Milky Way — when the Sun, including us, microscopic specks of energy clinging on to the plane of the ecliptic, all nine planets of our system as one, align with our Motherboard, the Creator-black-hole, call it what you will, in the middle of our Galaxy. Then, spiralling away one more time, we shall head off for another year of peripatetic searching through infinite realms of space until, two years from now, we return for that Great Meeting with Source prior to winter solstice 2012.

The Ancients always took note of appearances like this solstitial eclipse as they occurred at the cardinal points of the year (later on the same day, the Sun enters zodiac sign of Capricorn). In our 21st century world, I am not alone in thinking this heavenly sign — the apparent total annihilation of the moon’s disc — will probably go relatively unnoticed. Western minds filled with Christmas concerns, getting the car to start or catching the commute to work in snowy conditions, tend not to be looking skywards.

For the Maya, on the other hand, Mesoamerican life in the 9th century and later was an ongoing succession of cosmic appearances. They came in time cycles, each with a predictable quality. And their fascination with the night sky, like many prehistoric and classical cultures, allowed them to develop a deep knowledge of time which dwarfs our numerical western (Gregorian) system.

Time was seen as an evolution of human consciousness, split into Great Ages through which society would evolve. The Maya developed separate calendars for mathematical, ritual and functional purposes, but the great Long Count calendar which began in 3114BC and which comes full circle on winter solstice year-after-next is the one which has caught hold in our collective imagination as presaging the ‘End of Days‘.

For the Maya as well as for many other Ancients, celestial movement was at the root of astrology, theology, cosmology, history and social change. For them, the purpose of life was to understand sky rhythms that created time and to reflect in their culture the beauty and cosmic order seen in cyclical heavenly repetition.

‘It becomes clear….that the Maya always expected history to repeat itself’
Bruce Scofield, Signs of Time (1997)

Kukulkan, feathered serpent god of the Maya, Toltec and Aztec (Quetzalcoatl)

The Tzolkin, which is the oldest Mayan Calendar, repeats itself every nine months. The Long Count calendar’s 5124-year cycle with its so-callled end date of December 21, 2012 actually measures the precession of the equinoxes, the sun’s apparent motion through each of the twelve zodiac signs once in 25,920 years, but theoretically stretches to infinity. To give an idea of this precession cycle’s massive scale, it takes the Earth 72 years to move through one degree (1º/360º) of one zodiac sign.

West Acropolis of Yaxchilan (Maya: 'Green Stones') in Mexican state of Chiapas

There are carvings on the walls of a ruin at Palenque that give dates beyond AD4000. It is our modern short-sightedness that assumes, based on only one of the several Mayan calendars, that time stops at winter solstice, December 21st 2012. It is specifically this ending and new beginning chronicled in the Long Count Calendar which in New Age parlance is called the ‘dawning of the Age of Aquarius‘.

Documentation of this extremely long cycle was an amazing achievement for a culture whose belief in cycles of time had them keep astronomical records for 6000 generations, projecting forward and (20,000 years back) into a distant past. It is evident in the placement of some of their most sacred buildings that they saw purpose in heavenly movement.

Cosmology and religious icons were intimately intertwined.

While several pyramids and ballcourts at Tikal, Palenque and Chichen Itza are sited on extreme sun positions (solstices, equinoxes), the Governor’s Palace at Uxmal is precisely aligned to view the heliacal rising of Venus at its southernmost point in an 8-year cycle.

Whereas Megalithic and Egyptian complexes can sometimes be obscure or difficult to understand from our modern non-sky-viewing cultural perspective, (Newgrange and Stonehenge heelstone aligned on solstice sunrise, Aberdeenshire recumbent stone circles aligned on midwinter sunrise and midsummer moonset), the writings and hieroglyphs of the Maya are more easily understood as they can be compared easily with recent calculations of the same recorded astronomical cycles.

The ancient Maya left codices, systems of hieroglyphic recordings devised to include celestial sightings and predict events. The complexity with which these sightings and predictions are woven seamlessly into their entire culture is almost surreal.

Dresden Codex fragment, water-damaged in WWII, restored: shows Lunar series and Venus tables

One of these codices, the ‘Dresden Codex’ details an elaborate recreation of a cosmic environment which the ancient Maya believed regulated life. It contains an illuminated calendar recording observations of the planet Venus. Working with their solar Haab calendar and the separate sacred ritual Tzolkin, the Maya saw the heliacal rising of Venus, (Venus rising before the sun, visible in the east as a ‘morning star’) as a sign of resurrection of Light after Darkness, rebirth of a New Age. But its resurrection might also be seen as presaging evil, invoking wars, sparking conflict.

In Mayan mythology, the planet/goddess was inextricably linked with the sun and power of serpent god Kukulkan –his name means ‘one who emerges from the serpent-spirit’ or cosmic kundalini force. To the Maya the two bodies seemed conjoined, stand close to each other in the sky, never stray more than 47º apart.

Lamat: glyph for Venus as 'evening star'

Venus either follows the sun (when she appears as evening ‘star’, Lamat), hides behind the sun, descending into the Underworld, or reappears before the sun — her heliacal rising as a ‘morning star’, Ah-Chicum-Ek’. Seen in mythological context, their joining symbolized at times his masculine domination over female-desire-sexuality producing cultural balance, art and architectural beauty; at others (when she rides into the Underworld — below the horizon) her ability to wreak havoc on society. This warrior-goddess aspect of her femininity is not easily understood in our modern rush for ‘male’ pursuits in business, military dominion and political power. But it is this aspect of Venus which lingers in mythology and which is the natural, intuitive deep feminine of the mother consciousness which early patrilineal cultures (Hellenist Greece, Latin Rome, Judaism, pharaonic Egypt) wished to suppress. In examining the Venus cycles — particularly as they relate to upcoming 2012 date — we may be delightfully surprised to learn something ‘new’ which is very old.

According to observations made by the Maya, episodes of upheaval linked to the cyclical motion of the planet Venus play out as life-changing events.

Venus’s astronomical cycles are legendary.

Fascinated with sequences, periodicity and numbers, the Maya must have adored Venus. Not only does she disappear and reappear with amazing regularity, her luminescence is also measurable, on some clear nights actually capable of casting a shadow. They noticed that Venus travels faster round the sun than Earth, orbiting 2.6 times to Earth’s 1.6 orbits. Venus orbits the Sun 13 times in 8 years, passing between Earth and Sun 5 times until they return to that meeting point in the synodic cycle (synod = meeting place). Point of closest ‘meeting’ is called ‘inferior conjunction’, taken as the start of the cycle.

It is also when Venus cannot be seen from Earth because of the sun’s brilliance, but as she continues to orbit, not only does she appear to go into ‘retrograde’ motion — a phenomenon caused by both bodies in orbit passing each other at different speeds — but she suddenly becomes visible again at greatest brilliance. Five Venus cycles of 548 days exactly equals 8 Earth cycles of 365 days — 8 Earth years — to bring both planets back in line to synodic point. When Venus is on the opposite side of the Sun its position is called ‘superior conjunction’ and has weakest brilliance. In between Venus appears to stretch to ‘extreme elongation’ to either side of Earth. The Maya also noticed Venus’s ‘stages’ took exactly 36 days, or multiples of 36.

So, Venus reaches maximum brightness 36 days after inferior conjunction, traveling direct and in the morning sky; maximum elongation (Venus’s farthest distance from the Sun) occurs 36 days later; then at superior conjunction, 216 days after that (6 x 36 days) Venus is on the far side of the Sun and traveling at its fastest speed, about 1º15′ per day, but obscured by the Sun from Earth eyes. Thirty-six days after superior conjunction, when the Sun and Venus are about 10º zodiac degrees apart, Venus first appears in the evening sky, setting after the Sun. In evening star phase, maximum elongation happens 216 days after superior conjunction, with maximum brightness reached 36 days following maximum elongation; 36 days more bring her back to inferior conjunction (and retrograde motion). This calculable sky embrace between Venus and the Sun, their apparent duel for supremacy in brilliance, disappearing into the ‘Underworld’ and reappearance in reborn brilliance, must have delighted the Maya.

Venus's orbit and Earth's over an eight year cycle

Not only did they know every nuance of Venus’s synchronicty with Earth, but they figured that in a complete cycle of 8 years the two planets did a dance round the zodiac (and the Sun) which resembled a sacred pentagram. Some of their written motifs reflect this knowledge. It is no surprise, then, that they also knew when Venus made a double transit of the Sun, a phenomenon that occurs less than once per century.

To bring their supreme, detailed and laborious calculations into modern context, it is synchronous that in 2012, there will be two profound solar eclipses and a rare ‘transit of Venus’ on June 6th, when Venus will pass directly in front of the Sun from our Earth perspective. It forms a perfect alignment of Earth, Venus and Sun. Transits come in 8-year pairs, with the precursor to this transit seen in June 2004. Transits of Venus happen on average only twice every 121 years. The last transit of Venus occurred in 1874 and 1882, around the time of rediscovery of ancient Mayan sacred sites. The 2012 Venus transit completes the pair and the phenomenon will not recur until 2117 and 2125.

Their solar calculations are renowned, too, with a system of years split to reflect numbers 13 and 20 still used by present-day Maya and many devotees.

A prophecy is attached to each of the twenty year Katun cycles. Each cycle starts on the day of the Ancestors, Ajpu or Ahau as Ancestors are known to the Yucatec Maya. The first 20-year cycle starts with 11 Ahau.

The present cycle (see Underworlds, below) starting on a 4 Ahau date began in 1999 and completes in 2012.

The Maya thought this katun brought scarcity and the arrival of great leaders. It is also the katun of remembering knowledge and writing it down.

4 Ahau: Food scarcities. Half the katun good, half bad. The return of Kukulkan

Kukulkan, depicted in the ancient Classical period as Divine Serpent, at Maya city Yaxchilan, modern Mexico

Legend of Kukulkan, Plumed Serpent god of the Maya, shares prophecy with the Aztec legend of Quetzalcoatl, known as Feathered Serpent, god of intelligence and self-reflection.

Serpent god Kukulkan in more recent Maya tradition

In the Mayan version of the legend the king and his court had descended into weakness and debauchery. He decided to redeem himself by sailing out into the ocean alone on a flaming boat. The gods forgave him and he was reborn. He came back to the Maya on a vessel from ‘across the waters’.

This Katun prediction implies that a great hero will come from across the waters to heal the problems of the people. It was during one of the 4 Ahau time periods, between 1480 and 1500 that Christopher Columbus came to the continent of the Americas from across the waters.

Chichen Itza
Although Kukulkan was mentioned as an historical person by Maya writers of the 16th century, earlier 9th century texts at Chichen Itza do not identify him as human and instead artistic representations depict him as a Vision Serpent entwined around figures of presiding priests. Chichen Itza’s famous step pyramid, El Castillo, shows Kukulkan depicted presiding over sacrifice, but the magnificent pyramid

Serpent god seen undulating down the staircase on fall Equinox at Chichen Itza

is most famous for his serpentine ‘appearance’ via the sun, which on the equinoxes (March 21, September 23) casts a serpent shadow that descends the steps of the famous pyramid’s north side in the late afternoon before fall equinoctial sunset and ascends its serpentine undulation prior to spring equinox sunset.

The living Maya still hold ceremony to celebrate equinox.

At autumn equinox this year Carl Johan Calleman called for a convergence to prepare ourselves for Unity Consciousness, our renewal as a species.

‘As the seventh day of the Galactic Underworld is activated we will actually finally come to a point when it is time to celebrate the end to male, western and rational dominance and to create a balance between the different aspects of the human mind associated with the left and right brain halves‘
Carl Johan Calleman

He suggested that, beginning November 3-7, 2010 (‘Yellow Galactic Seed’ Tzolkin date) careful contemplation of the Shift of the Ages and an awareness of our position in affecting the way we move forward will facilitate the dawning of the last step in our evolution. Seeing all of Creation from 3114BC divided into nine ‘Underworlds’ of ever-decreasing length, Dr Calleman (and others) agree with Mayan calculation that in that week in November we emerged from the last ‘night’ of the penultimate phase –the eighth Galactic Underworld which began January 1999, consisting of a wave-cycle of six fluctuating ‘days’ and ‘nights’– and that we now stand in the seventh ‘day’ of that wave, preparing to enter the final Universal Underworld, the Ninth Wave, in February next year. That is only two months from now. In that final cycle of existence, according to the Maya — and to thousands of believers of other faiths around the world — we are capable of manifesting ‘one thousand years of peace and harmony’ on our shared planet.

On that weekend of Yellow Galactic Seed in November — coincidentally when Venus’s heliacal rising returned her to our skies as an ‘morning star’, the leaders of nations representing East and West on Earth held separate but spiritually-cohesive celebrations and ceremonies to invoke peace on earth and a joining of minds. In the West, Don Alejandro Oxlaj, 13th Generation Quiche Mayan High Priest — ‘Wandering Wolf’ — and Buddhist spiritual leader of the Orient, Seiyu Kiriyama, joined their flocks in mutual meditation, flooding the airwaves and ethers with positive affirmation. Calleman saw this not only as the meeting of West and East but a mingling of the feminine, intuitive right-brain half of humanity with the masculine, rational left-brain side.

Unity Consciousness. Our ‘Awakening’.

New Age philosophy and astrology support a path to ascension required of its vision-keepers, lightworkers (through meditation and right living) as a process of uniting these two conflicting polarities, emphasizing the need to bring harmony to the male-female yin-yang, left and right brain hemispheres which must operate before the Earth may return to a balanced state of wholeness and oneness.

As a small postscript, or just to keep us on our toes, Mayan Elder Don Alejandro has suggested that shortly after the solar system’s 2012 re-alignment with Galactic Center — when our sun and all planets are conjunct the dark ridge in the middle of our Galaxy, the Milky Way —

Earth will “pass inside the center of a magnetic axis and that it may be darkened with a great cloud for 60 to 70 hours”
Don Alejandro Oxlaj

To some Mayan scholars, in a continuing calendar the doom-and-gloom scenario is far more likely to play itself out, not in 2012, but around the year 2032.

Several other events are in the lineup for 2012:
May 4 partial lunar eclipse off Mexico
May 14 1st standstill Venus during retrograde loop
May 20 annular eclipse of Sun
June 6 transit of Venus (above) and Inferior Conjunction
November 13 2012 total solar eclipse in which sun and moon align with head of the Serpent (constellation Serpens)
November 18 Solar system conjunct dark ridge Galactic Center
Nov 28 partial (penumbral) lunar eclipse

We know our future is in our own hands. This is seen by believers with faith in Man’s ability to transcend his inglorious past as positive, glorious rebirth, awakening, resurrection of our soul, our apotheosis, potential to become one with the gods. The opposite is also true –especially if we continue to contribute to the misuse of energy, pollute and dissipate earthly gifts.

As we know, cycles exist to show choices in the Path: overall the future is golden. Venus’s malevolence may only be a wayshower to direct us away from a mistaken ‘Way’. The future, in the form of the Ninth Wave, is upon us — all the heavenly signs say so — and it’s up to us to embrace it.

Galactic Center calling Earth: Blue Moon signal; pick up please

December Full Moon rises exactly at sunset on the opposite (NNE) horizon - latitude 57ºN

New Year’s Eve – the last day of 2009 or Hogmanay, as the Scots call it – will be triply auspicious. Not only is it the eve of a new year, a new decade no less, but it will be graced by a full moon, a partial lunar eclipse, and the Moon will be Blue. In celestial spheres you might say we are being given the royal treatment; or at least being sent a signal.

When a month is graced with two full moons, the second one is called a blue moon. You know, the ‘once in a blue moon’ blue moon? Because our modern calendar calculates by the sun (annual orbit of the Earth round the sun takes 365.25 days), its 30- and 31-day months take us out of synch with our nearest neighbour, whose cycle is 29.53 days. Only the female menstrual cycle and the oceans remain in touch with our lunar companion. The rest of humanity seems to have forgotten what cosmic rhythm is.

Blue moon of May 2007 seen at 40ºN latitude USA

Because of the lunar/solar anomaly, only 41 months in every century can be called true blue moon months, hence a fairly rare occasion. The blue moon cycle of 2.72 years, therefore, makes it something special. December 2009 already had a full moon on the night of December 1st/2nd. The last blue moon month was May 2007 and the next will occur in August 2012.

This New Year’s Eve, because the full moon always rises at the moment of sunset on the opposite horizon and because the moon will not be full this December 31st until 7:13pm GMT, those of us in the Old World will be able to witness the full orb of Luna rise at sunset in the Northeastern skies on Hogmanay night. That’s 4pm GMT in London, home counties, Midlands and Birmingham and about half an hour earlier (3:20pm) in Edinburgh where Hogmanayers will only just be starting their all-night revelry. Four hours later, as Jupiter prepares to set in the southwestern sky, the moon’s disc reaches its fullest and the Earth moves between her and the sun to cast a shadow over her in partial eclipse. This moment of maximum partiality occurs at 19:23 UTC, 7:23pmGMT or 11:23am PST. In astronomical terms it is not a full (total) eclipse because earth’s shadow (eclipse magnitude) will only reach 0.0763, but for us earthlings in the eastern hemisphere it will still be a singular sight.

Solar system planets from outer orbits looking in

At midnight when Hogmanay reaches crisis point in Scotland’s capital, when they shoot off fireworks from the battlements of Edinburgh castle to welcome the new year to the screech of bagpipes, very few, I suspect, will note that the ‘New Year star’, Sirius, reaches its zenith in our northern skies. Sirius will stand behind Orion in the south with the Moon, in Cancer, followed in close proximity by our secondmost close neighbour Mars, the ‘red’ planet, retracing its steps through Leo as we enter 2010. The ringed giant does not arrive on the scene until late when the revellers are wending their weary way home: Saturn is a ‘morning’ planet right now, best seen in the east in the hours before dawn, with its spectacular rings just starting to ‘open’ to our view.

That’s the astronomical picture.

The astrological one is a little different. It reflects a vastly complex array of planetary influences to which our ancestors paid heed, but which Technological Man tends to ignore. However, like the menstrual cycle affecting the female population, it is well, occasionally, to pay attention to heavenly bodies and the way they appear to sway our passage through the cosmos.

At winter solstice the Sun enters the cardinal earth sign of Capricorn, having played and filled us with optimism in late November while in fiery Sagittarius, encouraging us to look to the future, fulfill our dreams. Capricorn Sun and Cancer full Moon bring those dreams and our grasp on reality into sharp focus: both make us examine our ‘outer’ career, capabilities, achievement potential and ‘inner’ love of family, home, need for a peaceful centre: their polarity challenges us to fix our relationships. Cancer may be content to be dependent, Capricorn urges us to be grown-up and responsible. Cancer represents the origin, Capricorn looks to the goal. In this mix stands the astrological giant Saturn in Libra, exerting discipline, demanding that we find balance. Mars, because of retrograde motion in Leo, is teasing us, telling us ego fantasies, diverting our attention from the path of loving acceptance. Our usual mental messenger, our Mercurial helper is currently useless; he is doing a backwards dance through Capricorn and being uncommunicative. It is up to us to review how well we’re using our own natural-financial-mental resources. However, on January 5th, Mercury is joined by loving Venus, so all is not lost. There is hope in the days ahead. The loving, healing solution may show us a way through our planetary difficulties.

Fortunately, we may still call on the largest of the planets: Jupiter, which presently consorts with another friendly giant, Neptune, the bringer of change. Together they stand in forward-looking Aquarius and are guaranteed to bring abundance into our lives, fresh ideas, a new focus, perhaps even a totally unexpected way of solving our problems. Both reflect the potential for the spiritual, the mystical, even a miracle, to bring about the change we cannot perceive ourselves.

This brings us to the spiritual view.

At the time of the December solstice each year the sun approaches the heart of the Milky Way, our Home Galaxy, and conjoins with Galactic Center in the constellation Sagittarius. At this time of year the Earth also gets closest to our own star, Sol. Closest point in our orbit, perihelion, happens annually on January 2nd/3rd.

Through the ages, after solstice when the sun moves northward along the horizon again, each month setting farther and farther north, the period from winter solstice to summer solstice was festival season. In several ancient civilizations winter solstice was associated with the return of a Sun-God to save the world, the bringer of light and fruitfulness to the earth, and hope to humanity.

Spiritual communities too, mindful of ritual handed down from ancestral hierarchies, hold winter solstice sacred, meditating and communing with the silence of winter in a kind of mental hibernation which itself opens up communication with Source. It is at midwinter that many begin preparations for the three major festivals of spring and summer: in the Celtic calendar they are known as Imbolc (February 2nd), spring equinox (Ostara, Easter) and Beltainn (May 1st).

Other indigenous cultures celebrate on these dates, the Hopi, Maya, Chinese, Arab, Vedic and Zulu, but one which has gained world-wide recognition is the May full moon celebration of Wesak, the greatest festival in the Buddhist calendar. All surviving cultures which perpetuate these ancient forms begin with a meditation at winter solstice which culminates in the May celebration.

It is fascinating, then, to discover that in using an ancient technique of knowing when the planet is at its closest to Galactic Center, by aligning with cosmic energy emanating from the black hole at the center of the Milky Way, at the crossing of Galactic Center with celestial ecliptic, at a time when the Earth is herself at her perihelion, closest to her own star, and when the stella maris, the ‘spiritual sun’ Sirius is at her zenith, ancient civilizations and their modern devotees discovered a means to tuning into the cosmic Source of all energy, knowing, and guidance.

In the sacred Long Count calendar of the Maya, one of the most accessible of ancient calculations to modern man, within a period called a Great World Age, an eon, an unimaginably-huge 26,000-year timespan, there are only a few moments when we Earth people come closest to the center of this cosmic cross, the point where the ecliptic crosses the Milky Way, at precise center of our Galaxy.

Galactic Center where stars are born

This nebulous area of the Universe, where stars are born, is our own cosmic womb, from which we, as stardust emerged. It is from this hole in the Cosmos that many spiritual masters and followers believe emanates a divine energy; that the centre of the galaxy is constantly emitting and transmitting a pure energy source which may be utilized in our conscious co-creative process to amplify and transmit new programmes of operation to us, to amplify our awareness and to broadcast light energy directly to enhance human DNA.

Winged serpent sun god Quetzalcoatl of the Maya from Codex Borgia

In the mythology of the Maya, it is to this great birth canal or womb aperture that Creator-sun-god Quetzalcoatl, mythical feathered serpent, one who crawls on Mother Earth but also flies in the heavens will return on winter solstice 2012. This cosmic re-union symbolizes the joining of spirit with matter, in order to be reborn: the Shift of the Ages.

Our alignment with Galactic Center occurs only once in every 25,800 years. We have come close to it several times in the last three decades. During the so-called ‘Galactic alignment period’, or ‘era-2012’ between 1980 and 2016, the closest the Earth came to Galactic Center was on December 21st, 1998.

Galactic center is exactly where the December solstitial sun will stand at noon Universal Time on December 21st, 2012.

Is it any wonder then that we as a species are being given a few reminders of this cosmic date only a couple of years up the stellar turnpike?

If Galactic Center is transmitting messages, is it not logical for us, a technologically advanced civilization, to pick up the spiritual phone?

Galactic Stillpoint: Longest Night on Earth

‘Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known’
Carl Sagan In Memoriam

Stone circle and midwinter sunset light

It is Solstice. Tonight is the longest night of the year for planet Earth’s northern hemisphere dwellers. It is at midwinter when all animals (except the human creature) go within, curl up and meditate in their own fashion; and wait for the light to return.

Neolithic farming communities in Scotland between the 56th and 57th parallel dragged massive 50-ton blocks of stone over the snow to form windows on the sky.

Recumbent stone circle at winter solstice

They took time out from their hard agricultural working life to create ‘recumbent’ stone circles which would mark forever that point on the horizon where the sun set at winter solstice. Five thousand years ago solstice was celebrated with fire. They’d learned that fire embodied in the Sun seemed to disappear forever; then was miraculously rekindled, reawakened and with it their land, their precious earth on which all depended, would respond; it began anew to nurture seed into growth, to produce fruit and harvest all over again.

Fire festivals reenacted fire of the dying sun in stone circles

Flames from solstitial fires reached for the heavens all through that cold winter night.

It must have seemed like a miracle at solar standstill when, after disappearing for seventeen hours, the sunlight returned and days began to lengthen once more. Seventeen hours of darkness is a long time if you live in a cave, an earth dugout or a stone mound.

The human subconscious appears to retain partial memory of this primordial condition which animals have, because in northern latitudes midwinter is often celebrated to an irrational degree. It is as if at a cellular level we remember that after galactic stillpoint is reached, the Earth starts to awaken once more and we realize that the Universe is going to keep on turning. What a blessing. What a miracle. What better reason to rejoice?

It is said our biological form is quintessentially-adapted for language: that the Word has created in our brain’s motor centers a highly developed auditory discrimination, with rapid muscular response in tongue, lips and palate; but we were not its makers. It was a gift from Creation which we have evolved to a remarkable sophistry. Fire, on the other hand was Man’s ultimate discovery.

At the forty-fifth parallel of latitude, in the cave vaults of Choukoutien near Beijing, a heavy-browed paleoanthropic form of Man with a cranial capacity as low as 860cc gnawed marrow bones and chipped stone implements. His time lies 500,000 years remote from this and yet in those years of the second Ice Age, this Man, with scarcely two-thirds of our modern cranial capacity, used fire.

Is it any wonder, then, that world mythology is filled with tales of sorcerer-priests who conjure light, the hero-giant stealer of fire from the gods? In discovering fire, were we not amazed at our ability to do as the gods themselves, to create Light?

In that dark cave half a million years ago ‘Peking Man’ created a spark which dispelled the darkness. His was the crucible which contained our entire human future. Have we not ever since – at a cellular level – been searching to return to that same realm of Light?

Round Zodiac of Dendera, from 50BC during Roman rule of Upper Egypt

In our reaching for the stars we have for generations been guided by mythology, world religions, the ancient astrological zodiac calendar and by our own deep need for an otherworldly force which is both strong and loving. In myth, the goddess Ishtar/Isis is the celestial mother/lover (Roman Venus); in a crossover with astronomy she is seen as the stella maris, the heavenly guide to mariners, the star of the (celestial) sea, Sirius, Canis Major, the brightest of the fixed stars, whose heliacal rising marked the beginning of the Ancient Egyptian calendar on July 19-20: end of zodiacal Cancer, beginning of astrological Leo.

In Babylonian legend, the redeemer of the world, Celestial Man, is expected to rise from the heart of the (cosmic) Ocean.

Ancient Man looked to the heavens for inspiration. Medieval Man was convinced heaven was right out there among the stars. It is only we, modern homo (so-called) sapiens who forgets to do that kind of communing with the Universe.

On the other hand select niches in our society still seek: within the scientific establishment the search for extra-terrestrial life (SETI) continues apace. Carl Sagan, exobiologist, astronomer and visionary, along with his colleagues at Cornell, created a fashion in the early ’70s for that kind of exploration.

He said:

‘We are starfolk, but we live in the galactic boondocks where the action isn’t’

and took steps, aided by NASA, to communicate with any advanced civilizations out there which might deign to reply. In sending the Pioneer 10’s message plaque of gold-plated aluminum to a star region in the vicinity of Taurus/Orion, they hoped to trigger a response from any listening/receiving civilization.

Pioneer 10 gold-plated plaque continues to travel for 80,000 years

His argument was that any evolved star-beings who were less advanced than us (and in his day, we earthlings were only ten years into being categorized as ‘advanced’ ourselves), would be incapable of responding. Only civilizations more advanced than us would understand the message and have the capability to reply. He also rationalized the graphics of the message sent: reasoning that other galactic residents might not understand English, German, Swahili, Urdu; but they would understand mathematics, astronomy, physics.

Shortly after launching interstellar spacecraft Pioneer in March 1972, SETI directed efforts to beaming radio telescope transmissions to the stars. The latest of these was sent from Arecibo, Puerto Rico towards the Vega-Altair-Deneb triangle in 1999. By that time radio frequency was a speedier means of transmission than the fuel-propelled Pioneer space vehicle where a destination of even the nearest star (four light years distant) would not be reached for 80,000 years.

Besides they reasoned that if any civilizations were listening in/eavesdropping on us the Arecibo message was joining a century of transmissions from our planet, starting with Marconi’s first wireless communication in 1897.

It is thirteen years since Carl Sagan’s premature death on winter solstice 1996. He would be intrigued to learn of the massing body of evidence in favour of extra-terrestrial communication. The crop circle archive alone is superb. Not only does it communicate in the languages of science he advocated (mathematics, physics, astronomy), but, based on his premise that a more advanced civilization would find a more sophisticated means of communicating with us than we had with them, their graphics succeed in touching us at a cellular and emotional level, as well as pointing us to the stars.

Ancient World religions like the Judaic, Arabic, Egyptian, Babylonian, Greek and Vedic faiths have frequent admonitions to look to the stars, to ‘observe in the east’, to watch the heavens for signs.

Our society is on the cusp of the year 2010. We have a Space Station partially operational; Hubble and SOHO (Solar and Heliospheric Observatory) are in orbit; CERN has just collided atoms at an unprecedented rate in the tunnels below Geneva in Switzerland. We are technically advanced.

What about our spirit?

Neale Donald Walsch says:

Individuals — if their thought (prayer, hope, wish, dream, fear) is amazingly strong — can, in and of themselves, produce such results. Jesus did this regularly. He understood how to manipulate energy and matter, how to rearrange it, how to redistribute it, how to utterly control it. Many Masters have known this. Many know it now.
Neale Donald Walsch Conversations with God

If our heads were not so clouded by traffic jams and mind jams and living in a race for security and success, we might pause for this moment of solstice – the last in a single digit year for a century – and look to the heavens with awe. Two of our neighbours in the solar system, the crescent moon and Jupiter, shine brilliantly together shortly after sunset in the night sky. We have just experienced a multi-colour array of Geminid meteors emanating from the constellation which follows Orion through the night, with our brightest star, Sirius, stella maris, hovering below. It is the season for aurora borealis, which has already peaked over the Canadian Arctic. These are ‘commonplace’ wonders. However, we have also been treated to some unusual cosmic ‘signs’.

Spiral of light over Tromsö, Norway on eve of Obama's Nobel Peace Prize acceptance

On the day that President Barack Obama was travelling to Oslo, Norway to accept his Nobel Peace Prize, a spiral of light appeared in the skies over Tromsö and reflected light down to earth for twelve minutes ending in a circular hole of light. The spiral is an archetypal symbol representing cosmic force. It was used by all formative cultures in their art: civilizations from the Neolithic North Britons to Celtic Gaul, Egyptians, Japanese, Hopi, Nazca, Arabic, African and Hindu all use this representation of Cosmic Energy. Its appearance added to world spiritual expectation of a sign in the heavens to herald the birth of a New Age.

Great Eye of Sauron in Fomalhaut

Surrounded by these new signs, we may not have noticed that there have been a number of transmissions from Sirius; not beamed, like the crop circles, via light or laser technology, but in a method which travels equally as fast. Using a transference common in the realm of mind messages or ‘channeling’, an entity calling itself SaLuSa speaks from the Galactic Federation through Mike Quinsey, using the most comforting and inspiring words of encouragement to those of us experiencing difficulty adjusting to effects of the long predicted ‘end-times’.

‘We ask you once again to keep your eyes on the skies. These are the days when the signs have become talking points, that will awaken people’s awareness, not just to our presence but our methods of contact with you. For many years we have made crop circles as one means of getting your attention. As you will have noticed in more recent times, they have become more sophisticated. The messages they send have been interpreted, and their symbolism correctly understood. They have carried energy with them, and even although everyone has not understood them, it has connected with them sub-consciously.’

If Carl Sagan were still with us, I think he might consider this form of transmission equally valid from an advanced stellar civilization. After all his criteria suggested that those who had survived a post-nuclear age without exterminating either themselves or their habitat would be in a better frame of consciousness to extend the vibration of ascension and assistance to help another up the ladder of evolution.

If you’re listening, Carl. We miss you. Happy Solstice.

Hologram of Time and Sacred Endings, 2012

On the time spiral headed for 2012

In a deluge of blogs about 11:11, Veterans’ memorial services, poppy day and the like, it is easy to forget that we are spiralling inexorably, one day at a time, towards another date of elevens: November 11, 2011; and then, BANG into the great 12:12:12 date, nine (Gregorian) days before the end of the Great Cycle on December 21, winter solstice 2012, the last date in the Maya Sacred Calendar.

As great calculators, theirs is one of the few remaining World Calendars that still makes some degree of sense. The Celts had a sophisticated calculation based on lunar months which lasted well into the medieval period. Julius Caesar’s great innovation was originally also lunar, but not versatile enough to include more than ten months and, by the end of Roman rule, was already out of date. The extra two ‘moons’ which had to be added in medieval monasteries to balance out the solar year made a mockery of his calculations.

Have you ever noticed that the last four months which we call September, October, November and December are in fact names based on the Latin numbers septem, octo, novem, decem, seven, eight, nine and ten; Caesar’s original ten? The months added to make twelve, before the Gregorian calendar redressed the balance, were June and July (and July was, of course, named for its caesarean creator).

The Julian calendar was superceded by the Gregorian in most European nations, when Julian calculations went wildly out of synch with the solar year and whole cultures realized they were missing large chunks of time. The Russians refused to catch up, only adding their quota of 10 missed days in 1752. By then the Western world was calculating by the sun and in another mindset.

Other cultures have their own unique way of calculating: we are currently in Jewish Year 5770 since the date of Creation. In the current Islamic lunar calendar of 355 days this year is 1430 anno Hegirae, from the date of the Hijra, when the prophet Mohammed migrated from Mecca to Medina.

In all these Old World computations, time is seen as a linear concept.

Maya Long Count calendar ends on 13.0..0.0, winter solstice 2012

In the Sacred Long Count Calendar of the Maya, however, time was seen as a spiral or hologram, where each age condensed and collapsed into a logarithm or microcosmos of the one immediately prior. The term used by the Maya for Man’s Great Sacred Ages of Time was ‘Underworlds’. There were believed to be nine Underworlds and as we progress as earth beings through each Underworld, we swim, slither, creep, crawl, walk-on-all-fours and finally stand as creatures subject to our own evolution; in ‘now’-time, we are evolving as a species into our Godselves at such a rate that the calendar’s ending in 2012 seems to be right on target. End of Time. Time as a linear concept comes to a close.

Ages of Man, Spiral of Time

In a spiralling time capsule that collapses and kaleidoscopes with each passing age, however, each successive timeframe is not only a progression on the last, but, according to Maya calculations, 20 times shorter than its predecessor.

Taking time from its ‘origins’ in 100,496BC until the Calendar of the Maya begins in 3114BC, the count is a period of 97,000 years. From 3114 until 1756: a period of 4870 years; from 1756 until 1999: a period of 243 years; from 1999 until the middle of 2012: a period of 13 years.

Albert Einstein's fourth dimensional concept of space-time

It is no wonder that the last decade has been fraught with predictions of the ‘end of time’. Time is indeed ‘ending’ in the context that we knew it. It is speeding up, we are evolving at a greater rate than ever before; the fourth dimensional gateway that Einstein talked of when others thought he was the only human able to understand ‘relativity’ is now something that many of us see with our own eyes, read in our own literature, calculate in our mathematics and quantum theory, and, at some level at least, understand.

We are progressing at such a rate that, as I have blogged before, the expression ‘the human mind is evolving’ is obsolete before we reach the end of the sentence.

Messages from the stars: the Pleiades

It is not difficult to see that the proliferation of blogs on the New Age, New Science, New Earth, New Species (star-children, light beings, Pleiadians, Sirian energetics, Bird Tribes, crop-circle-consciousness) have had a massive following. We all want to know where we’re headed, as a species, as a planetary capsule or Mothership travelling through space; or as sentient beings with group consciousness. And, while some bloggers are unreserved in expounding on the topic of our being led by light entities from outside the solar system, it is probably more likely that we, when at peace and centred in our higher or Godselves, have the ability with which we were originally conceived to create our own loving, caring, sharing world.

It is sometimes hard for us to believe this great truth, when outside influences and external circumstances pound us into emotional blobs, or we become so tired from physical and mental exertion that we are unable to feel our core, sense our own evolution, know our own sacred power.

The messages being transmitted – whether you are drawn to Archangel Metatron, Mother Mary, Jeshua or, outside the Judaeo-Christian terminology, Sirians, Pleidean energies and ET – are remarkably similar: by focusing on our Godselves, our ‘still small voice within’, our loving living spirit-core, by allowing nothing that is not of light to penetrate and move us, we may begin to master our own nature and move as a whole in the direction perceived by a sentient Universe at the time of its conception. The Big Bang, ‘…and the Word flowed upon the Waters’, ‘Let There be Light’.

There has been talk of Stargates, Energy gateways, vibrational doorways and increased vibrational DNA codes. It makes sense that our star, the long-suffering Sol, should encourage us to increase our quantum light particles, to upgrade from sod-bound Neanderthals to starseed beings, capable of instant understanding, telepathic and empathic communication, with the ability to raise ourselves and our sisters to the heavens. Denser energies bog us down, mire us in thought patterns unworthy of our spiritual circuitry, send out thoughts which turn around and slam right back at us.

We are a little of what we eat, but more so, we are what we project in thought, feeling and belief.

And New Consciousness bloggers are helping us with daily updates from the spiritual hierarchy to become those godlike entities we are capable of believing ourselves to be.

When the Calendar of the Maya completes its last cycle of 13 years on winter solstice 2012, will we be ready for takeoff? Will we, as a planet, as one consciousness, be able to spread our wings? To create Heaven on Earth? Will we be ready to fly?

Hallowe’en: Celtic New Year

Little pumpkin all set to trick or treat

Ghouls and ghosties are the order of the night for Hallowe’en. Trick or treating, visiting neighbours – to leave a dare or receive a treasure – has become not just an American ritual, but one which has caught on in the Western World.

How many of our children know the origins of the celebration which fills their imaginations with scary images until they shake with glee or cry for consolation?

2000 years ago the Celtic year began at Samhain. And as the Celts calculated in moons, their ‘new year’ night was celebrated during the moon of 31 October – 1 November: what is now known worldwide as Hallowe’en. For all Celtic peoples – contemporary with the height of Roman civilization – Samhain was a time of deliberate misrule and contrariness, rather like the Roman Saturnalia which was celebrated at winter solstice, or if calculated in the Julian calendar, beginning December 17 and lasting for a period of six days.

Pumpkins ready for carving into Hallowe'en lanterns

Saturnalia no longer has many followers, unless you count Scots Hogmanay (New Year, December 31st), when celebrations echo a nighttime element of misrule, rôle reversal, with servant placed in magisterial position and the master serving him – or in boarding schools, the reversal of master-pupil for a brief moment of glory.

Saturnalia did not otherwise survive 2000 years of change.

Hallowe’en, on the other hand, seems not only to have survived, but blossomed: its increasing popularity attributed perhaps to its ability to touch on the element of fire – candles flickering in lanterns – the dark, calculation by the moon, the unknown.

Celtic names                   Modern months                  Meaning

Silver People on the Shoreline Let Us Be

 

Crop circle code triggers human DNA

We did it.   We transitioned through the Gate.  That’s what they say. On 8th August this year – 08-08 – g8-eight – we as a species ascended. Along with our habitat, our flaws and our failings, our flashes of genius, we and our planet ascended into the fifth dimension.

It’s been predicted for centuries.  All major religions have a cosmic beginning, a human middle and a cosmic end. The Maya, for instance, didn’t do things by halves.  They decorated their pantheon with gold and revered their gods for their mathematical skills. They made it into a science: their calculations are vast,  their calendar precise. Not only that, it is beautiful.   Mathematical functions appear as images. Calendrical pictograms ending in the year 2012. 

Human consciousness has been greatly influenced of late by the calendar.

In 1969 a large section of the world’s youth population believed that they were creating a new world.  ‘Silver people on the Shoreline Let Us Be’ are words from the Crosby, Stills and Nash song ‘Wooden Ships’ composed that year. Richard Alpert, West Coast philosopher became guru, Baba Ram Dass. Forty years on, we celebrate this week the anniversary of Woodstock; music from a magical time reenters the sphere of consciousness; there is a nudge from Father Time: Cronos, Saturn, ruler of the universe, for humanity to wake up and get on with it.  Saturn is said to move through each astrological sign once in 30 years.  So, as a species we’re already 10 years past our Saturn Return, overdue for our awakening.  The Earth waits for us to move into our sacred space within the circle of life, switch on our antennae and tune into the music of the spheres: that motherboard we were always intended to reconnect with.

We are after all, the braincells of the planet.  We’ve been genetically modified to function as her intellect: our neurones, our DNA merely need the correct activation sequence. Ten percent of our mind’s circuitry is wired, like a computer, ready for the other 90% to wake up and use our god-given powers.  The trigger seems to be the recent barrage of electrons being showered in our direction.   We are after all energy, a mass of electrons ourselves.  We respond to waves of energy like solar wind, ionic disturbance in the light spectrum and minute fluctuations in the planet’s magnetosphere all the time. Since around May scientists agree cosmic rays, solar flares, light transmissions – said by starseed followers to bring new code to activate human DNA – have increased. Even the scientific community concede DNA has the capacity to expand. We, the central database, are capable of assimilating these charged particles as they arrive, but we have to be bright-eyed and bushy-tailed to do it:  we’re meant to be on the alert, awake, aware.  Be Here Now.

For generations ancestral wisdom preached the peaceful life;  joy in simple things. When people used to listen to their elders there was a subconscious equilibrium that kept in balance the environment, their surroundings, their world. But the habitat became too restrictive for the new human; he needed to push the boundaries, to expand, explore beyond his physical arena. In the ‘eighties a large chunk of humanity broke off from the home iceberg and sailed into the sunset.

I mentioned Richard Alpert.  Twenty years previously he, along with a number of his generation, chose to prolong their experience of ephemeral ‘sixties enlightenment and make it a way of life.  As Ram Dass he influenced a generation.  He and his contemporaries are coming to ‘maturity’; they are ‘the ancients’ now.  They are being heard again. Some of the human race, at least, is listening to its elders.

Where does that leave the rest of continental earth? Adrift in a concrete ship, adorned with tentacles of freeways and air lanes, looking for a port of call?

Thing is: they weren’t set adrift without directions, a guidance system.  It is built-in in the system’s consciousness: this is the way home – arrow pointing to nirvana.  Some people in the boat are beginning to swither. How does looking for the moon by means of acquisitions bringing them any closer to home? to inner contentment? is it bringing them joy?  Some of them are turning the ship into the wind, accessing the guidance system, asking the pilot to turn a lighted beacon to the promised shore.  The Jews knew it as the Promised Land.  Christians: Heaven-on-Earth. New Agers like Eckhart Tolle call it the New Earth.

We train ourselves to rise above the mind and return home to the place we have always been, but have forgotten.

According to the Elders of the Maya, the Hopi, Lakota and several other native American tribes, we are due to move through a Shift. Depending on your point of view, this shift is polar, calendrical or as a frame of consciousness. Ram Dass led a swathe of his generation from mind-altering to living beyond mind. One of his contemporaries, Drunvalo Melchizedek, bridges the cultural divide and brings to the Western world oral teachings the Maya handed down to prepare for this time.  Both men believe that the Shift is imminent and thousands of groups of New Agers agree with them.  While one practice focuses on non-duality and non-attachment as the way to enter heaven/nirvana/the NOW, the other reminds its followers that the way back home is through the Earth, that by giving respect to all beings, or ‘treading lightly upon’ our home planet, we shall simultaneously reconnect with earth’s dynamo, to bring us back into balance with lost knowledge, the key to unlock the secret code to living as we were designed to: in possession of all our faculties, self-healing mechanisms, ability to nurture one another and raise the group mind to the next level.

Many networks proclaim the way forward through the Shift is to be present, follow intuition and show love: to ourselves, our friends, extended family and groups. As if reflecting this need to connect, internet pages have sprung up which fill an inner void, as counseling support groups did in the psychiatric age. Now, instead of seeing your shrink, you can blog about difficulties, twitter your daily thoughts, boost another’s confidence, share dreams with cyberfriends – some you may never physically meet.  It takes only minimum hyper-knowledge, a little netiquette and a willingness to let go of old ways like ‘can’t type, don’t know how it works, why do I need a support group of total strangers?’ 

Rainer Maria Rilke (1892-1910) asks us to ‘welcome the new year, full of things that have never been’, suggesting we open our hearts to the concept of possibilities.  The ancient East advocated ‘before and after nirvana, chop wood and carry water’.  New agers say ‘Expect Miracles’. Either way, it seems a pity, at the dawning of a new era, not to use our full potential.   
©2008-2019 Marian Youngblood