The Flower of Bliss

The Flower of Bliss

Book 1

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Chapter 1 The Temple’s Mystic Roots

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1.0 Sacred Seeds of Power Introducing the Sri-Nj-Mag.

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1.1 King of Wisdom Mantras The Inspiration for the “Temple of Paradise”

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1.2 The Mandalas of Time The Sri-Nj-Mag. and Kala Chakra Mandala

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1.3 The Diamond Way Vajrayana, the Path Towards Enlightenment

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1.4 Preliminary Purification Approaching the Mandala

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1.5 Consecration of the Space Yantra defined and Preparation of the Site

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1.6 Envisioning Archetypical Space Activation and the Art of Concentration

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1.7 Spiritual Reflections Siddhi, Transmission and Degrees of Initiation

1.0 Sacred Seeds of Power The formed and formless coalesce in the seed of becoming.

There are certain strands of truth and natural inclinations that demand acknowledgment, no matter how they are filtered or defined by any particular cultural orientation. Although social values and conventions change, geometry, number and the innate scales to which they refer, remain unvaried.

Computers are populated by digits that carry human ideas while nature is populated by phenomena that is impressed with divine ideals. Computers are man made but nature is beyond man and thus divine. In the same way that we project our dualistic rational onto a circuitry board the creator projects intelligence onto creation (nature). While computers are based on an underlying code, the universe is based upon an innate formula.

It is this cosmic formula that we are rediscovering on our voyage through the “Temple of Paradise”. The formula, the grand unified theory of the ancients, is the code that lies at the base of religion and indeed creation itself. Although lost, traces of it can be found beneath the dress of modern science and fragments remain preserved in ancient literature, architecture and hidden in the crypts of sacred tradition. Since the emergence of the renaissance and through the more recent works of R.A. Schwaller De Lubicz, John Michell, Alain Danielou and others, we have slowly begun to unveil this ‘Sacred Science’.

The universe, the awesome body of nature is indeed a body of interrelation. Like cells in the human body, each form of nature is an individual signature of creation that expresses a particular quality of truth, or in other words, a particular resonance, a note in the great composition of the world.

A few super-potent figures, more rare than precious gems, lay buried in the depths of time. These great jewels of wisdom have crossed the chasm of the epochs to seed the present with the insight of the ages. They are sacred centers of truth that like temples of the divine mind outline the creator’s plan. In the midst of countless constructs and so called spiritual systems there are only two that maintain their flawless beauty even under the bright light of discerning scrutiny.

It has been said that skeptics make the best mystics. I may not hold the claim of being a mystic but certainly accept the distinction

Figure 1

Figure 2

The New Jerusalem/Magnesia (NJ Mag.) is the grand matrix of the cosmos. It holds the standards of number that encode the dimensions and measures of the world as well as the ratios of geometry and music. It is the New Jerusalem of St. Johns Revelation and Platos perfect city of Magnesia.

The Sri Yantra is composed of nine interlocking triangles. It is a symbol of cosmic manifestation. Through sacred geometric analogies with phonetic pronunciation it encodes the Logos, the one true language. Through its nine steps it vividly invokes the timeless wonder of creation.

of being skeptical. After twenty plus years of thorough investigation the sacred gems that I am refering to have not only maintained their luster but have proven to be central to the cosmic formula. They spell out a story that can hardly be denied and for the first time in millennia they are once again united in the “Temple of Paradise”.

The New Jerusalem/Magnesia (NJ Mag. Figure 1) and the Sri Yantra (Figure 2) are more than mere mundane symbols. They are temples of sacred wisdom worthy of veneration. A symbol holds a correspondence with, or a degree of likeness to, the reality that it refers. A sacred symbol mediates between the above and below, the universal and individual or in more religious terms between god and man.

The Sri-NJ-Mag. (Figure 3) refers to a level of reality that is extraordinary, beyond human invention or simply, divine. As we explore its innate meaning and significance, I am certain that you shall find as I have, that it could very well be, the original blue print of the cosmos, creation and the design of pure consciousness. The “Temple of Paradise” is rooted deep in the fertile ground of the SriNJ-Mag. It draws upon the nutrients of profound intelligence and has become a renewed expression of divine revelation.

Figure 3

The NJ -Mag. (F igure 1) plots the structural relations that are exhibited throughout the known world. Its internal proportions and measures house pr ime secret s that among other mind bog gling ra mifications depict significant points that appear in the actual relationship between the Earth, Sun and Moon. It represents the cosmos and the twelve constellations of the zodiac. The NJ-Mag is the key that unlocks the true measure of things. It Figure 3 The Sri and NJ Mag. conjoin to form a dynamic maps the cyclic divisions edifice, an image created by what it illuminates and empowers, the magical web of universal correlation. of time and distances in The metaphysical principles that numeric symbols space. (Refer to (Chapter represent and the phenomenal world converge in the Reference) harmony of its proportions.

The Sri (Figure 2) is considered the greatest of all yantras. The elements and potentialities that define and constitute the hierarchal sequence behind both the formation of concept and phenomena are found within it. The Sri Yantra provides a synthesis of the creative process. It recounts the nine stages of becoming, the ordinal birth of the world and foreshadows the elemental makeup of phenomena. (Refer to Chapter 3, The Sri Mandala) The Sri is the seed Yantra (Form) that grows in and through all others. It is the graphic analog of the phonetic formula that was used to formulate Sanskrit, one of the most perfect languages ever conceived. (Refer to Book 2, The Code of Creation) The convergence of the Sri Yantra and the NJ-Mag. (Figure 3) constitute a symbol so comprehensive that it may never be fully explained.

Although I have had to rely on the precision of number and the makeup of language I am far from being a mathematician or a linguist for that matter. The more that I have come to understand this awesome symbol the greater I have come to respect it and what it stands for — the stitch that holds the world together.

1.1 The King of Wisdom Our adventure actually begins w it h t he “ K i ng of Wi sdom Mantras”, (KOWM) 1. This rather archaic name refers to an oracle originating in the verbal archives of Tibetan Buddhism. Against all odds it was this small eclectic treaties that led to the birth of the “Temple of Paradise".

The KOWM is composed of thirty six esoteric symbols. Each of these opened like portals in my mind. Gazing through them I caught glimpses of the ‘primordinal’2 vista. As I explored the dimensions they revealed.

My journey took me far beyond the confines of the tradition Figure 5. This image is a unique version of the that gave birth to the “King of Kalacakra Mandala. It is dated from around the end of the fifteenth century. It is held by a private colWisdom Mantras”. lector and was first published in “The Sacred Art The “Temple of Paradise" is of Tibet”. far from being a Buddhist text (sutra). However, it is an expression of its source and an attribute to Manjushri3, (Figure 4) the Bodhisattva who cuts away the illusion of separateness, and as Yamantaka even conquers death by devouring the limits of its illusion.

The KOWM was written by Mi-pham4, a highly acclaimed Tibetan Lama, a sort of eastern Leonardo da Vinci. Lama Mi-pham was a treasure finder (gTer-ston) and considered to be a master of concealed teachings. He was also a Rime 4a scholar meaning that he was part of a nonsectarian movement that embraced all four schools of Tibetan Buddhism.

Although penned by Mi-pham the KOWM was attributed to Manjushri, the embodiment of the Buddha’s wisdom and discrimination. Its translator, Robert Bereny suggested that the KOWM was also associated with the Kalacakra Tantra. (Figure 5). Although he didn’t go into detail this link eventually turned out to be a very fruitful hint.

The original heritage of the KOWM is buried deep in the crypts

of verbal tradition. The exact time of its introduction into Tibetan Buddhism can only be guessed. However, the thirty six symbols composing it are elemental components that appear in dreams, legend and in myriads of the mystical traditions the span the globe.

Even today, KOWM is used as an oracular accompaniment to the spiritual practice of monks and lay people alike and ultimately as an inner guide for those on the quest of Shambhala, the hidden valley of Paradise.

Figure 4

Manjushri, the Bodhisattva of perfect wisdom, was Lama Mi-phams source of inspiration and guide for his composition of the “King of Wisdom Mantras�

1.2 Mandalas of Time In this and the following sections we will see that as Bereny suggested, the KOWM and more profoundly the Sri-NJ-Mag., do indeed share an inherent connection with the Kala Chakra Tantra, ‘the wheel of time’. Being associated with time, the Kala Chakra can be thought of as a sort of spiritual clock or calendar that plots the steps an individual takes towards transcendence.

Even though it has taken tens of thousands of years to perfect most of us take the calendar for granted. Can you imagine a world without time. Where each year, day, hour and minute flows into the next with no distinction. This may sound appealing. After all we could throw our hectic schedules out the window. However time is built into the very nature of the space we occupy and the life we inhabit.

The seasons and cycles are the beat to which all phenomena dances. Knowing when to plant and when to harvest is but one of the calendars benefits. What is destiny but the path of life charted through time. Time is the corner stone of our sciences and of existence itself.

Time as we know is a measure. It is determined by movement through space and as Einstein pointed out, time and space are inseparably connected. In fact any true system of measure must not only apply to length but also to volume, weight and time. When the original French metric system was proposed to the US Congress, Thomas Jefferson rejected it because it fell far short of this.

The Sri-NJ-Mag. doesn’t represent a new approach. Its appearance actually suggests a renewal of a universal system of measure that is at once spiritual and physical. The threads of time and space are woven into and through it as they are through our lives. We will revisit this topic and explore the ancient system of measure much later in the book.

Understanding the simple complexity of the Sri-NJ-Mag. can be quite daunting. If you have ever visited a foreign country even going to the store for a loaf of bread can become a behemoth challenge.

Unless you have a background in such matters exploring the depths of the Sri-NJ-Mag. is more like travelling to a another planet where not only the language, culture and foods are different but even the way of thinking is new. Put it in more earthly terms, it is a fairly simple matter to move your hand but it is not so simple to describe how you did it. In other words how the mind works together with the nervous system, the bones and muscles to accomplish the

movement . Rea lity is simple but the way that reality works is not.

The Ka la Chak ra Ta nt ra prov ide s a n excellent example of a mandala based, spiritual t e c h no l o g y t h a t h a s amazing correlations with the Sri-NJ-Mag. (Figure 6). A few of the areas of similarity between the two include the for m of it s ma nda la, time based symbology and its technical precepts.

An expedition into the fundaments of a fully developed practice like Figure 6 The NJ. Mag is transposed over the Kalacakra the K a la Cha k ra w ill mandala. Besides the obvious graphic similarities they do much to make the are both intimately connected to the cycles of time, “ Temple of Pa radise” and Paradise, the perfect land of cosmic order. more readily understood.

Even before the Sri-NJ-Mag. became central to the present work and on the advice of Robert Lawlor, author of “Sacred Geometry”, the original thirty six symbols of the KOWM were expanded to fifty two. The fifty two symbols in the “Temple of Paradise” are divided into four ages: the Golden Age, Silver Age, Bronze Age and Iron Age. Each age represents a season of experience, a tendency of time.

The twelve symbols that populate each of these four ages are like months in the year. Its symbols also represent the fifty two weeks in a year and their seven distinct influences, as found in the “Oracle of Revelation”, correspond to the days of the week. Not only in this manner but in the many others that we will come across, the “Temple of Paradise” can indeed be compared to the Kala Chakra and refered to as a ‘Mandala of Time and Space ’.

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1.3 The Diamond Way The Kala Chakra Tantra is one of the most extensive and advanced spiritual compositions in the world. It is not only a mandala wherein the divine principles are organized but also a Tantra. It has its own text, sacred sounds (mantras), deities, meditations, devotional practices and ritual arts. Each of these aspects must be brought together and integrated before it is able to be fully realized.

Without being a full time monk this level of devotional coordination may not be easy to relate to. Think of it like a film.

A film has a script and a story board. These lead to a production of carefully choreographed scenes. The scenes themselves are made up of both visual and audible elements. It is only after these components have been integrated into a working whole that we are able to enjoy the film.

The “Temple of Paradise” also has its own mandala, mantras, elements, text, deities, meditations, mantras, history and oracle.

However besides the divination and meditations in the third volume, the “Oracle of Revelation”, its ritual use has yet to be fully developed.

The Kala Chakra Tantra sits at the summit of Tibetan Buddhism.

Its practice is associated with the Diamond Way, the indestructible path of Vajrayana.

“The follower of the Vajrayana cuts through the opaque and solid appearance of the world to find at its core, gleaming like a diamond, the clear and indestructible emptiness”.5 Of the three forms of Tibetan Buddhism, Vajrayana is the most direct. It is considered to be the only path (yana) that leads to enlightenment during the course of a single life. Some describe it as dangerous because the follower of Vajrayana unleashes the full power of his mind and ruthlessly faces its inner demons.

Clearing all repressed thoughts and aspirations, he blasts away the obstacles to enlightenment, like lightning dispelling darkness.

Through continually purifying the layers of self, energy is freed for to fully realize the effortless bliss which is the true nature of being.

The Vajrayana practice of the Kala Chakra predominately follows a structure of initiation and mediation that is static. The steps an initiate must take to progress are predefined and apply to everyone.

However, each day, month and year in our lives are not the same.

From day to day the influences bearing on our lives change as do our reactions to them. Therefore a teacher, a vajra master, is 11

required to carefully monitor the state of mind and needs of each initiate.

In contrast “Temple of Paradise” offers a fluid practise that responds to the current needs of the person using it. Performing divinations from the “Oracle of Revelation” allow the practitioner to go beyond their logical constructs, tune into the divine mind and discover the most suitable meditation for the moment. The variations of each meditation also allow it to be adjusted to whatever level a person desires. It can be used in a Vajrayana like fashion or on the other hand it can be used casually and easily integrated into daily life.

1.4 Preliminary Purification When wet behind the ears and learning the basics of language, we first had to learn the letters then the words, sentences and so on.

This simply depicts how one level of mastery builds upon the next.

It applies to all types of development from the most mundane to the most sacred.

Each stage of initiation is carried out in a matter of degrees.

However even before contemplating a path of conscious initiation the first step requires a certain amount of respect or reverence.

Approaching a subject that is considered sacred is like entering a holy place. Even if the temple is not of our own faith we would not want to go in smelling to holy heaven and covered with mud.

An initiation is passing from one state to another. In fact whether we conscious of it or not life is a series of autonomic rites of passage. The first passage is from our mothers womb into the world and then from non verbal infancy into childhood. Each progressive phase of life begins with the ending of the previous one and has new requirements that must be mastered. The death of the old self must occur before we can be revitalized and born again in a new environment.

You may recall being a big shot as a high school senior only to be reduced to the lowest rung on the ladder as a collage freshman.

Fraternity life begins with a ritual defamation character. The notorious and ridiculous harassing that a new pledge must endure is legendary. Be it the military, corporate life or any new environment the same thing occurs. Before you learn the ropes you have to surrender to the ordeal.

All spiritual disciplines also require a surrender of the ego, a letting go of self importance, of the very idea of who and what 12

we are. The qualities that constitute our deluded infatuation with self and hyped up arrogance, largely result from our divorce from nature. The effects that city life exerts on an individual cannot be over looked. They feed insecurity and deeply rooted neurotic complexes. Paradoxically it is the very conceptions that we have of ourself that keep us from realizing who we really are. What we hold onto most tightly is most often what is holding us back.

The submission and sacrifice of our narcissistic, self-serving subjectivity leads to a purification of both mind and body. Filling the mind with sacred knowledge before it is primed and cleansed would be like pouring a fine wine into a filthy glass.

The impurities that build up in our arteries, organs and nerves cause aging. Those that build up in our minds cause obstruction and suffering. We all have emotional and intellectual baggage that weighs us down. The old complexes of our personality and beliefs that limit us to being less than who we can be, need to be purged before transformation can occur. This often requires enduring embarrassing if not out right humiliating situations.

The rites of purification often take their own course. It is a dynamic process that weaves itself into and through the common occurrences of daily life. The difficulties that challenge who we are, and that we each must face from time to time, are perhaps responding to an ancient urge for purification. The tough situations in life are like dragons that must be slain, they actually build character, resolve and help us mature.

When purification is cultivated consciously it is ultimately empowering. Traditionally the rites of purification involve enduring rather painful trials or periods. Unfortunately this process can sometimes be confused with unhealthy self denial and martyrization. In some indigenous cultures the rites of purification have been taken to an extreme that includes self mutilation and sometimes even death. Mind you, none of us have to go the extent of being a martyr.

The whole idea is to let go of falsity and conditioning as quickly and effectively as possible. As the illusions of the outer reality fade the inner world blossoms. The most effective methods involve enduring extreme heat, like in a sauna or sweat lodge, isolation, fasting, diet and a practise like yoga. It may take weeks, months or even years before reaching the clarity of mind and body that is necessary for a fruitful rite of passage.

Even though it may be an old cliche, it is still true, that, the cleanest house is one that is cleaned most often. This is also true 13

for the initiate. Even after initiation the purification continues on deeper and deeper levels.

The commencement of ritual purification is actually the climax of the purging endured on the psycho-physical journey there. In the Tantric tradition a ritual bath is taken before initiation then the rites of touch (nyasa) are performed.

There are primarily three kinds of nyasa: the (kara) nyasa of the hands, the (anga) nyasa of the limbs and the (deha) nyasa of the body. These are performed variously depending on ones stage of growth and intension. All three forms involve touching different parts of the body in a particular order while intoning sacred sounds.

Similar to Christianity the Tantras see the human body as being created in the image of god. A divine principle and power resides underneath each part of the body. In daily life this divine consciousness remains concealed, out of reach and out of touch. The rites of nyasa purify the body and vitalize it with divine energy. In other words, by caressing and worshiping the body with sacred sounds the rites of nyasa call upon the hidden divinity and bring it to the surface.

Even the preliminary stages of purification often require the supervision of a teacher or master. Unconscious thoughts and fears may surface that can be overwhelming without the proper guidance.

While the “Temple of Paradise� offers a way towards self mastery vigilance during the purification process is still of the utmost importance.

Before meditating on the Sri-NJ-Mag. it is essential that your mind is clear of all distraction. It is also good practise to light some incense or burn some sage to clean the air and sprinkle yourself a few times with sanctified water. The water can be from a priest, a special mountain spring or simply water that you have blessed yourself.

1.5 Consecration of the Space With the preliminary stages of purification complete the next consideration is the consecration of the space that will house the yantra.

However before we explore what this entails lets take another look at just what initiation means and what a yantra is.

Every indigenous culture in the world, recognise initiation, as crucial to the health of the individual as well as to that of the tribe.

Initiation is the catalyst that prepares us to meet the necessities

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ahead. A young hunter, not yet initiated into manhood and still psychologically attached to the protection of his mother, may faint at the sight of a charging buffalo. An initiation is a rite of passage. The passage to another world of interaction, another level of identity and another stage of life. Before one can be born again one must die. A death experience is of such import, that initiations across the world often involve mock burials. Initiation is the threshold where we shed the skin of our old self to take on a glimmering new suit of identity.

A yantra or mandala is essentially a technical diagram or structure, though the later is often circular. It is a potent expression of alchemical art as well as an integral part of the Yogic experience.

These diagrams, imbued with supernatural power, appear in the mundane world yet remain hidden.

In spiritual terms the yantra is a dynamic receptacle where the world of man, spirit and god intersect. In other words, it establishes a place where different ’orders of things’ converge. The yantra is an instrument that engenders an awareness of that which is generally imperceptible.

We are surrounded by undetectable forces. Modern technology allows us to tune into what would otherwise be, nothing, but invisible waves. The television, radio and computer are based on a pattern of circuits. The circuit board itself, is a yantric formula, an interlinking design that connects various components (transistors, resistors and capacitors).

Ironically, even the appearance of some integrated circuits resemble traditional yantras. Instead of electrical components a yantra is composed of points, lines, shapes and symbols that correspond to the psycho-physical make up of man and the spacetime, phenomenal makeup of the universe. The yantra brings the two together as one.

Preserved like memories of space in time, yantras contain the world’s myths and legends. Its elements relate to the prime and incommensurable numbers, that are fundamental to both, the individual and the cosmos. The yantra establishes an opening through which invisible forces and stratas can interrelate with those of us in the visible and material world.

A yantra doesn’t use electricity but it does need to be constructed, in the most sanctified manner, at the right time and place. An immaculate environment is required to produce integrated circuits.

They are made in a dust free, clean room, to avoid contamination.

A yantra doesn’t require a clean room but its construction does 15

require a consecrated space.

Obviously, before a place can be consecrated, it must be located.

Some points on the earth, similar to the acupuncture points in the human body, are connected by meridians known as ley or song lines. These special places are found all over the world. They are often identifiable by rock carvings, pyramids, megalithic structures and even the cathedrals, that were built on the site of more ancient temples. These places of power are indeed holy and tend to promote a sense of harmony and well-being. Their influence has endured the rise and fall of civilizations, the changing of the ages. For example, the black meteorite stone of Mecca, was a place of worship long before birth of Islam. The followers of the Goddess Kore used to migrate there once a year to pay homage.

One of these points, imbued with extra telluric energy, provides absolutely the best setting for the construction of a yantra. If none of these places are available then the location could be a sanctuary in the mountains, close to a waterfall, spring, river or lake. However, with an observance of the proper preparation, a yantric initiation can be performed almost anywhere deemed appropriate. In 1988 a group of Tibetan monks constructed the Kala Chakra Mandala at the Museum of Natural History in New York City.

According to the Kala Chakra tradition the consecration of the site is carried out by a ‘ritual of preparation’. Firstly, a divination is performed at the site to confirm its suitability. After this the color, smell and richness of the soil is examined and any contaminant removed. A square, representing the sacred enclosure, is then drawn and divided into a grid of smaller squares.

Seated at its center, the vajra master evokes the spirit of the earth, and asks permission to construct the mandala. Ritual gestures, mantras and offerings are made to appease the local entities and deities of the place. The ten directions of space and their retinues are also recognized and called upon for support.

To prevent any type of negative interference or intrusion, a ritual dagger endowed with the wrathful power of protection, is placed at the co-ordinates of each direction. The space is further purified by the sprinkling of holy water, the burning of incense and spreading sacred substances, like mustard seed around the area. Each step of the ritual is accompanied by symbolic postures, dancing and elaborate visualizations.

The importance of purifying the space cannot be overstated.

Each and every sacred tradition has some type of purification ritual.

No matter how it is carried out the consecration of the site aims to 16

dispel all forms of negativity and create a protective environment.

If you have a place in your garden or a special room reserved for meditation, yoga or any other venerable activity, it is a good idea to occasionally purify it. A purification ritual can be as simple as sprinkling holy water in the four directions, while uttering the sound Ham Sa, or a personal prayer. While not as comprehensive as the process described above, with the right intension, it will still be quite effective.

1.6 Envisioning Archetypical Space Underneath each phase of initiation is a substrata that builds, and is built upon, concentration.

To really know what a yantra is it must ultimately be experienced.

Other wise it will remained disguised as simply geometric configuration. Our complex lives and livelihood have numbed the perceptive ability of our inner mind. The sensibility that a yantric realization requires is nearly inaccessible to us in today’s word.

The experience of a yantra, relies, somewhat on interpretation but mostly on our level of awareness. “No matter how thoroughly we interpret symbols, our usual surface consciousness will always treat them as mere signs or pictures. Only the deeper levels of mind can use them as windows that give direct insights into what they symbolise.� 11a The dynamic of a yantra unfolds when our reasoning, intuitive and supra-conscious mind unite, in a sense of lucid awareness. As we have seen a yantra is constructed to provide a link between humanity and the principles and powers that the gods represent.

Even though we have explored the consecration of the sanctuary there is still more ground to cover before we get to the actual construction of the yantra. However, in this section, we will visit the subject of its activation.

In this sense it is helpful to think of the yantra as a sort of sacred blueprint. Cathedrals, temples and the like are indeed three dimensional yantras. The secrets associated with their construction, are considered so powerful, that they have long been guarded by initiated guilds of master craftsmen.

Granted not everybody needs to know how to build a cathedral to enter and enjoy its beauty. Rather than working with stone and 17

mortar, the idea is to develop your concentration to the point, where you can envision the yantra in the inner regions of your mind.

Cultivating this level of concentration may come naturally to some, or, depending on your disposition, it could take years of practise to develop. Can you imagine the Notre Dame Cathedral just from its blue print. Even, with it in front of you, with its protective gargoyles and intricate Gothic detail, it would most likely still be challenging to envision its entirety.

The visualization techniques associated with the Kala Chakra involve the various deities that reside within its mandala. Each deity is seen as a different level or designation of reality. They are similar to the characters that populate legend and the symbols in the “Temple of Paradise”. They represent the indwelling physioemotional principles, the layers of mind that manifest through the cycles of time in the space of experience.

The yantra is at once a schematic of you as an individual and the cosmos as a totality. Like areas of a temple, each part of the yantra corresponds to distinct aspects, that appear both internally in the mind and externally in the world. Internally, they appear in the depths of our unconscious, as archetypes, the symbolic images that we come across in dreams and mythology.

The human body is a yantra perfectly fitted to the earths environment. However we get bent out of shape and twisted around by the nicks and knocks of experience. The yantra represents a body that is perfectly balanced and adapted. Through identifying with it, the initiate achieves a oneness with all the diverse aspects of his nature.

The initiate dissolves his normal state of consciousness and begins with an outward focus on the yantra. He envisions the central deity, Sri Lalita, seated on a throne at the yantras center. He raises a flower to his heart in offering. Taking a deep breath, he inhales the essence of the deity, until she comes to rest on the throne in his heart. As he exhales, the deity follows the path of his breath until she is comfortably seated on the flower. The flower is then placed in the center of the yantra.

The life essence that he breaths into the yantra is transferred, only to be reabsorbed at the end of the ritual. This practice is known as pranapratisha in Sanskrit. Edwin Bernbaum in his book “The Way to Shambhala” describes how this it is performed according to the Kala Chakra Tradition.

“At first he invokes a deity as an external source of power and wisdom, a

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source that seems to lie outside his surface consciousness. Then he moves the image into his heart and visualizes his body shrinking down and merging with it. By doing this, he experiences himself as the deity and gains access to the inner source of power and wisdom that it actually embodies” 6 “Along with this kind of meditation, the yogi also visualizes the sacred realm of his tutelary deity: a mandala or mystic circle enclosing a jewelled palace with four gates that open to the north, south, east and west. An outer ring of fire around a barrier of diamond scepters keeps out the profane and purifies those fit to enter.” 7 “The initiate visualizes each month, for example, as a presiding deity surrounded by thirty or so attendants—one for every day of the month. This has the effect of radically transforming his perception of time. As a particular deity, each day takes on a divine quality that partakes of eternity. The deities of time lead him through the illusions of the past and future to the reality of the timeless present.” 8 As he enters the yantra, the initiate unlocks areas of his consciousness, that contain primordial memories so vivid, that the sensations of the original experience are actually relived. Imagine for a moment that you are the initiate. Your journey into the mandala is as well a journey into innermost regions of your mind. In this way you are able to pierce the veil of temporal illusion.

Instead of the Kala Chakra your voyage is into the Sri-NJ-Mag. When accompanied by visualization and activated by the sacred formula of sounds in the “Code of Creation”, the Sri-NJ-Mag. helps cut through the falsity of self. With no false self to nourish or defend, you will find that your weaknesses vanish.

This visualization is not simply fantasizing it is a very powerful part of the yoga discipline. Visualization is a form of concentration. In Sanskrit it is referred to as ‘Dharana’ which basically means ‘to hold’. There are two types of concentration, outward and inner.

The outward form is focused on an object. It can be as simple as a dot or as complex as the cosmos. The inward form, as the name suggest, is on an image held only in the mind. Besides the two traditional forms of concentration there is also two other variants: spontaneous and intentional.

No matter what form of concentration is being practised the key is to sustain you focus for a prolonged period. The main obstacle to this is the barrage of thoughts that ripple through our minds like waves through the sea. We are constantly bombarded with

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sensory input that keeps our mind busy and preoccupied with the thin veneer of surface consciousness.

Consciousness cannot be measured, and while we know that it has something to do with our brain, it really cannot be limited to any one location. Actually, we really have know way of knowing if something is conscious or not. Sustained visualization breaks the hold of our normal level of consciousness. It suspends sensory input and memory so that we can tune into a greater level of consciousness. Being in a super-conscious state makes us more aware of the consciousness that pervades all things. As it is easier to maintain, we experience less stress, and are actually open to a greater range of possibility.

Traditional healers have long known the power of visualization and successfully use its techniques to heal even the most threatening afflictions. Several books dedicated solely to use of visualization, as a tool not only for health but for self improvement, have done much to introduce the subject to the western world.

At first visualization might not come easy. People have told me time and time again that they just can’t concentrate. What is really going on is that they are exercising a part of their mind that they are unfamiliar with. Without exercise the muscles in the body also grow weak and waste away. After the first couple weeks at the gym, the initial muscular soreness gives way to a feeling of greater vitality, strength and vigor. This is the same with visualization. The only difference being that visualization is an exercise of the mind.

To practice visualization, still your body and get into a comfortable sitting position with your spine as straight as possible. The yoga sutras further suggest to breath slow, deep, rhythmic breaths. For the beginner it is easiest to start by focusing on a simple shape like a triangle.

Initially it may only be a matter of seconds before thoughts distract your attention. The important point is to notice these thoughts while not examining them. Just let them go and bring your attention back to what you are concentrating on.

Emotions are likely to surface, like frustration or discouragement.

Your thoughts will try to trick you. You may hear yourself thinking “I can’t do this!”, or “this is stupid!” or maybe even something like “what’s for dinner?”. Let go of all judgement and again just bring your mind back to the point of focus. Concentrating your mind is similar to focusing your eyes. If your gaze is focused on a candle flame and something catches your eye, distracting you, all you have to do is return your gaze to the candle. The idea is to get to a place 20

of effortless focus.

It will take practise before your mind and body are able remain calm and still with no disturbances. Eventually you will experience prolonged and very peaceful periods with no intruding thoughts.

With progress, you will be able to concentrate inwardly, on gradually more and more complex shapes, until you are able to sustain a clear vision of the entire yantra for as long as you like.

The development of your ability to concentrate and visualize goes hand in hand with becoming more conscious and aware. You will have greater discrimination and more power to make the right choices.

1.7 Spiritual Reflections Visualization is one of the main keys to self mastery. Yet it is only one of the many components of the very rich and expansive compostion of sacred science. As we have scene the initiate ultimately fuses all the aspects of the mandala into a vivid sense of oneness.

Not all of us will be called to rise to the highest peaks of initiation but we can all benefit from an understanding of what’s involved. The path is labyrinthine. Each stage of mastery presents new challenges that must be successfully met in order to proceed.

In the Tantric tradition there are four primary levels of initiation from the animal nature (pasu) to that of the initiate (sadhaka) to the hero (vira) and finally to the realized being (siddhi). The animal stage involves fulfilling the base physical desires of the body. At the initiate level one learns how to guide these base desires towards fulfilling a deeper calling. It represents the quest to realize the nature of self and our place in the cosmos. The hero is one who has passed many trials, developed a supreme sense of self and is able to help others grow and evolve. The realized being identifies completely with god. This rare level of attainment is comparable to a prophet or messiah.

The obstacles along the way are legendary. Without a guide one can easily fall from the path into delusion and down right confusion.

The "Temple of Paradise" is a divinatory guide book. It uncovers the dangers and provides an opportunity to not only discern, but to influence, the course of experience. Through meditative practice you can develop the ability to attract and enhance what’s desirable or to neutralize, dispel and or destroy that which is undesirable.

There is a risk associated with this type of mastery. What appears

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undesirable may indeed be just what’s needed. However, with practise, you will eventually develop a level of acceptance that goes beyond self interest and personal desire. The goal is to harmonize your individual will with that of the universal being.

The “Temple of Paradise” reveals each event as an extension of your mind and ultimately provides the means to harmonize with each and everything that occurs. The practice involves intoning the mantric sound of the symbol while visualizing its image at the designated place in the Sri-NJ Mag. The yantra is a dynamic map of the inner universe. It is active on a level that effects and influences both individual and global patterns.

One of the main points of similarity, that the Kalacakra shares with the "Temple of Paradise", is that it: “attempts to embrace all phenomena, from the workings of the mind to the layout of the universe, in one all-inclusive system of knowledge and practice.” 9 The Kala Chakra is a revealed teaching that has had close to a millennia of active practice to develop into a full form of yoga. Being that it is largely founded upon Buddhist precepts, its visual-sound symbology, is necessarily sectarian and ‘mytho-centric’10.

The "Temple of Paradise" also relies on the world’s chronicles of tradition and mythic association. However, in contrast to the Kala Chakra, the "Temple of Paradise" is universal and largely ‘geohomo-centric’11. Its geometric and phonetic basis are innate and integral. Rather than being glued on, the meaning of its sounds, are phonetically derived from the very way they are actually pronounced.

Its geometric eloquence, resonating in universal harmony, is illustrated in the perfection of the Sri-NJ Mag. [Figure 3] Speaking of inate truth can be a bit of a tricky topic, since the Buddhists conceive the material world as a sort of ‘collective hallucination’, sustained by the mind’s projective illusion. On a transcendental level the temporal world is indeed illusory but this is no excuse to dismiss the power of our common reality.

All knowledge that applies to us, ‘the created’, is realized in and through, a tangible body. For knowledge to be universal and bring us closer to the realization of truth, it must utilize symbols which are tangent with human experience. Other wise it may as well be plain old gibberish.

Symbols are similar to, but not the same as, the thing that they describe. Their depth of meaning goes far beyond the limits of

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appearance. It is the symbols of sound, the crucibles of language, that seamlessly blend the subjective and objective states of being.

If a symbol is only a figment of belief, then we could rightly say, that it is a subjective hallucination, and one step further removed from the universal reality that we all share. In the words of the late Alain Danielou: “All of nature is but a symbol of a greater reality.”

The placebo effect is not only limited to medicine but also applies to spirituality. Charged with faith and devotion I believe that almost any sincere practice can become a conduit of realization.

Nevertheless, a placebo remains a substitute for the real thing.

There are two distinct types of spiritual success, that are intimately related. In some ways they cannot really be considered separately. Their difference is subtle and tough to discern. The edge that divides them is nebulous. The first kind of success stems from devotion (bhakti) and practise. It is a personal attainment that can be passed from master to student.

This type of success is initially achieved by some type of hero; someone who through exceptional effort attained a special gift marking their accomplishment with extraordinary ability. For example: an archery master who after many years of assiduous practice, developed the ability to hit the bull’s eye blindfolded, can pass this skill onto his most gifted students. However it is doubtful that others would be able to pick this up from a book or without his direct guidance.

The second kind of success arises through truth (Dharma), and being universal, is applicable to the lineage12 of humanity as a whole. The universal form is self secret, that is without the right keys it also remains disguised. While the previous form of success required a direct transmission, the universal form does not. It can occure naturally or be passed on in a variety of ways. We have all derived benefit from the use of penicillin, without needing a direct initiation from Sir Alexander Fleming, the man who first observed it.

The present mode of the Kala Chakra relies on the devotional form of success and stems directly from a lineage of initiated vajra masters. I don’t mean to imply, that all knowledge and practices that require an initiation, are not universal.

There are many reasons for initiation and in fact certain aspects of the "Temple of Paradise" can only be known by initiation. I do not intend to demean the Kala Chakra’s importance and place. It is indeed a great Tantra that has helped many people.

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The Kala Chakra’s aim is analogous with that of the "Temple of Paradise". Its main focus is— “to show people how to free their minds from the ignorance and illusions that cause suffering.” 13 Besides the differences, they both present a path of direct experience, that opens the seeker to eternal truths, that would otherwise remain ‘unknowable’.

In many ways the "Temple of Paradise" represents the primordial Kala Chakra transmitted anew. When learning the art of sword play one usually begins with a wooden sword. In this way mistakes are not likely to be fatal. The Kala Chakra has been the wooden sword and its practice has prepared the world to receive its full transmission.

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Chapter 2 Paradise Remembered

In Development 95%

2.0 Kalacakra and Paradise The Hidden Origins of the Kalacakra

In Development 95%

2.1 The Paradise Enigma Mythological Recollections of Paradise

In Development 85%

2.2 The Golden Age of Paradise The Primordial Epoch of Exsistence

In Development 85%

2.3 Virtual Reality of God Humanity is Divinity in Disguise

In Development 95%

2.4 Sumerian Paradise Sources of the Biblical Eden

In Development 99%

2.5 Gilgamesh The Most Ancient Hero

In Development 99%

2.6 The Sacred Quest The Trials and Temptations of Initiation

In Development 95%

2.7 The Redeemer The Choosen One of Many Names

In Development 95%

2.8 The Selfish Pharaoh The Probable Source of Monotheism

2.0 Kala Chakra and Paradise In the last chapter we have looked into the Kala Chakra Tantra and some of the parallels it shares with the “Temple of Paradise”. You may be wondering what the Kala Chakra has to do with paradise, and where it originated. In this chapter we will seek to answer these questions and further explore its links with the Sri-NJ Mag. According to legend the Kala Chakra was first revealed to Sucandra, the king of Shambhala (paradise). It arrived in India around the 10th century of this era. An Indian yogi named Tsilupa had heard about the hidden kingdom and set his mind on going there to receive the teachings of the Kala Chakra.

“On top of a mountain along the way he met a stranger dressed in robes who asked him, “Where are you going?” “To Shambhala in search of the knowledge of the Bodhisattvas,” Tsilupa replied. “The road there is extremely long and difficult. If you are eager to learn, you can acquire this knowledge even here.”

At this point Tsilupa recognized the stranger as Manjushri... and prostrated himself before him. Then Manjushri initiated him into the secrets of the Kalacakra...

Western scholars think that the Kalacakra did enter India from a place of origin in Central Asia around A.D. 960... “About sixty years later an Indian teacher named Somanatha journeyed up to Tibet and introduced the Kalacakra along with its system for measuring time. For this reason the Tibetan calendar begins with A.D. 1026 the year in which he brought the teaching of Shambhala to Tibet. ” 1 Shambhala is significant not only because it is the source of the Kala Chakra teaching but also because it is the Tibetan ‘Paradise’.

In its myth several traditions prophetically overlap. The legends surrounding Shambhala include a saviour king, Rudra Cakrin, who like Christ, or the Hindu Kalki, returns to dispel the reign of ignorance and reinstate justice, harmony and wisdom. He is the divinely anointed king who ushers in paradise anew. According to prophesy both Rudra Cakrin and the avatara Kalki will to be born in Shambhala. 2 The convergence of the Indian and Tibetan version is further crystallized by the fact that: “at least one Sanskrit version of the main Kalacakra text refers to Rudra Cakrin, the future king of the golden age as ‘Kalki’... and some of “the kings who follow him actually bear the names of Rama and other incarnations of Vishnu. (who were originally attributed to Siva .)” 3

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2.1 The Paradise Enigma Who wouldn’t like to be in paradise? No matter what it is called; Shambhala, ‘Never Never Land’, Shangri-la, Nirvana, Valhalla or Heaven, Paradise represents the ideal of existence. It is a place where every need is effortlessly fulfilled, where harmony, peace and perfection reign supreme. Paradise weaves its web across the globe and is humanity’s most compelling myth. Its legends are told more times and in more languages, than any other, yet its reality remains an enigma. Paradise is like a dream — very real when happening, and blurry or distant, if not completely forgotten upon awaking.

A Tibetan text cited in Edwin Bernbaum’s delightful book, “The Way to Shambhala”, states that Shambhala’s eighth King, Manjushrikirti, founded a second order of kings. This is likely indicative of a re-emergence after the flood, and if so, Manjushri-kirti would be comparable to Noah, the Sumerian ‘Ziusudra’ and the Babylonian ‘Uta-Napishtim’ who survived the flood.

According to the prophecy, the twenty fifth ruler of this new lineage of kings is Rudra Cakrin, who is coming reinstate Paradise on Earth.

In the pre-Buddhist, Tibetan Bon tradition, Shambhala is known as Olmolungring and at its centre is a mountain.

“The nine levels of this sacred peak, each dotted with caves of meditating hermits, represent the nine ways of Bon that lead to enlightenment” 4 This Bon description fits remarkably well with the Sri Yantra which has nine levels and sits like a mountain studded with peaks, in the centre of the NJ Mag. In the great traditions of India the northern land of Uttarakuru takes the place of Shambhala. It is India’s Paradise and references to it are much older than any of Tibet’s Shambhala myths. In the ‘Mahabharata’ epic it is described as a place on the northern side of mount Meru, the glorious centre of the universe. It is the legendary home to enlightened sages and yogis.

“The trees there bear sweet fruits and flowers... Some of the trees, again O King, yield fruits according to the will of the plucker.” 5 There are also trees that yield milk and amrita, the nectar of immortality.

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2.2 The Golden Age of Paradise Besides Uttarakuru, India’s recollection of Paradise, is pre-eminently associated with an epoch of time. The Satya or Kreta Yuga is viewed as a Golden Age without illness, troubles or toil. A section of the ‘Vaya Purana’ describes those who peopled this era. They existed; “With bodies which needed no decoration, they enjoyed perpetual youth...

Then truth, contentment, patience, satisfaction, happiness and self command prevailed.” 6 The Golden Age hearkens back to the biblical Eden before the fall of man. In ancient Egypt, this era was known as, the ‘Age of Re’. Since ‘Re’ is the sun god, this period could be called the ‘Age of the Golden Sun’. Like the Australian Aborigines, whose dreamtime ancestors were considered the true form and mould of life, the Egyptians believed that: “all life was predicated on the reenactment of the events of the First Time (Tep Zepi), which according to Rundle Clark, constituted “a golden age of absolute perfection...” 7 The conception of the Golden and subsequent ages, did not enter the modern era from the Bible or directly from India. Richard Heinberge suggests that the term “Golden Age is a translation of Ovid’s Latin phrase aetas aurea, which in turn referred to the time of the “golden race” described by the Greek poet Hesiod...

“First of all the deathless gods having homes on Olympus made a golden race of mortal men. These lived in the time of Cronus when he was king of heaven.

Like gods they lived with hearts free from sorrow and remote from toil and grief; nor was miserable age their lot, but always unwearied in feet and hands they made merry in feasting.10” 8 Hesiod, living eight hundred years before Christ was sickened by the decadent ways of the iron age in which he lived. He predicted that Zeus would eventually destroy the mortal world. His words of prophecy foreshadowed those of the Shambhala myth and the biblical book of Revelations.

It was from Hesiod that the western world inherited the concept of the ‘ages of man’. According to him, the Golden Age of paradise was followed by the ages of silver, brass, heros and iron.

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2.3 Virtual Reality of God The name ‘Paradise’ derives from the “Avestan (old Iranian) word Pairi-daeza, meaning walled or enclosed garden”.9 Indeed it is the garden wherein the seeds of all cultures were sown. Paradise is where the original desire of the Creator was planted in a receptacle of pure pleasure.

Although its historical existence bends the mind, goes beyond reason, defies Darwin and is steeped in controversy, its ideal is etched in the very fabric of existence. Paradise and the pleasure associated with it has guided the developing world ever since it was lost. The car, television, fridge and stereo in practically every home in the developed world, is in some naive, technological manner, meant, to bring us closer to the carefree existence of paradise.

Paradise is the holographic imprint of a universal culture. The human adventure began as a type of virtual reality of the gods.

The five senses are the filters with which consciousness chooses to conceal its supreme self in illusions of exteriorized partiality. The embodiment of the unlimited is humanity in its initial place and glory.

2.4 Sumerian Paradise The earliest traces of Shambhala and its biblical parallel, Eden, are derived from the ancient Sumerians.

Linguists believe that the “Hebrews probably borrowed the word Eden from the Sumerians, who occupied the Tigris-Euphrates valley from about the fifth to the third millennium B.C. To the Sumerians, Eden meant “ fertile plain”.10 According to the Assyriologist Benno Landsberger, the “Sumerian names corresponding with “Eden” and “Adam” were borrowed from a still more ancient preliterate Mesopotamian cultural group known as the Al-Ubaid.11 Although the people from this period are considered illiterate, much evidence shows that they had a remarkable understanding of geometry and astronomy. It is likely that their outstanding memory and conceptual agility made the use of writing unnecessary. When Hermes invented writing, his father suggested, that it would weaken the mind of man, enfeeble memory and make him mentally lazy.

The Sumerian Paradise, known as Dilium, ‘The land of the Living’ was populated by immortals. The Sumerian successors, the 29

Babylonians, inherited the myth of Dilium and left us a nearly five thousand year old epic poem of the semi divine king, Gilgamesh.

This poetic legend tells the tale of the deluge, and predating the Biblical book of Genesis, is considered one of its primnary sources.

2.5 Gilgamesh In the land of great rivers, the Tigris and Euphrates, stood a city named Erech (Uruk). Gilgamesh, king of this city, was built like a bull and renowned for his strength. No matter how many contenders challenged him, he was never defeated, in wrestling, his favorite sport.

Gilgamesh, known as the ‘Shepherd of the Sheep hold’, was both respected and feared by the populace. While his people celebrated his strength, they complained of his brashness and unbridled sexuality. The sky god Anu, heard their lamentations, and entreated the ‘Great Lady‘, the ‘Mother Goddess’, Aruru, to create a hero to be his match.

Aruru pinched off some clay, impressed it with the image of Anu, and threw it into the wilderness. In the dark depths of the forest, Enkindu, the fighter, was born. He was as wild and strong, as the wind. Enkindu lived with the animals and knew nothing of people.

One day at the water hole, a hunter chanced across him, and was struck with morbid fear. His heart was troubled by this awesome man and worry crept over him like a slow moving fog over the steeps. For it was Enkindu, who had been destroying his traps, and filling in his hunting pits.

On returning home, the hunter told his father about the wild man he had seen. “He is like a shooting star with awesome strength, who roams the hills with the animals and spoils my traps”. On hearing his tale, the father suggested that he travel to Erech to illicit the help of King Gilgamesh. The next day the hunter departed for Erech, to seek an audience with Gilgamesh.

After hearing the hunters plight, Gilgamesh tells him, to, “take a love-priestess from the temple to the water hole. She will seduce this wild man, weaken him and turn the animals away from him”.

The hunter picked out the most lovely and talented priestess and journeyed with her for three days. When they reached the water hole she took off her cloths and waited for Enkindu. Eventually, Enkindu arrived. His hair was long and unkept. He wore the skin of a bull and had wild, shining eyes. He was bewitched by the courtesan’s 30

beauty and laid with her for six nights and seven days.

The animals no longer approached him and his strength had weakened to the point that he could barely stand. The priestess taught him to speak and told him about Gilgamesh, who alone, was all powerful among men. Enkindu, was enticed, he hungered for a friend and sought to prove his strength before a worthy foe. So they set out together for Erech.

When they arrived the people were in awe. They gathered around and adorned this strange man, who was as large as Gilgamesh, but a little shorter and more stocky. The courtesan dressed him with fine clothes, introduced him to the pleasures of wine, cooked food and all the indulgences of the city.

Enkindu’s first meeting with Gilgamesh was at the gate of the brides house. He stood in the midst of the threshold and blocked Gilgamesh from entering. Gilgamesh was outraged! They seized each outer and fought like bulls. The ground shook, posts were shattered, yet neither won a clear victory. The fight ended in an accord of mutual respect. They embraced each other and the two became like brothers.

Prompted by a dream and wanting to further his name, Gilgamesh, asked Enkindu to help him defeat the ferocious monster, who the god of war, Enlil, had created to guard the cedar forest.

After some musing, and council from the elders, they left the city.

They began the long journey to to the cedar mountain, to conquer the monster, Khumbaba. They knew it would not be an easy task.

Khumbaba’s shout is the storm, his mouth the fire and his breath is certain death. After a fierce battle, and with the help of the sun god, Khumbaba fell.

They returned victorious, Gilgamesh washed in the royal baths.

He cleaned the blood and soil of the battle from his body, put on fresh clothes, draped his shoulders with a fine cloak, and fastened it with jeweled sash. He braided his long flowing hair and put on his golden crown.

The goddess Ishatar had seen the battle, and being taken by Gilgamesh’s beauty and courage, she was aroused. Ishatar, the Sumerian Innana, desired him for her husband. She promised him the world, only if he would take her as his wife. Gilgamesh would have nothing to do with her. He recounted the misfortunes of those whom she had wed, and rudely refused her advances. Ishatar was outraged! She went to her father, Anu, and implored him to send a giant bull to defeat Gilgamesh and teach him a mortal lesson.

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The bull descended from heaven. It bent his head, raised its horns and bellowed. As its hooves tore at the earth, making ready to charge, giant holes were opened and hundreds of men fell in and perished.

Enkindu leaped up and seized the bull by the horns, its fury was like the wildest storm. The earth shook and the heavens thundered, yet Gilgamesh was not to be defeated. He sunk his sword deep into the back of the bulls neck and it fell with a mighty thud. The heavenly bull was slain.

They tore out its heart and the whole city celebrated its defeat. All that is, except for, an even more furious, Ishatar. Ishatar, disguised as an old hag, cursed the heros. Enkindu, then made the same grave mistake as Gilgamesh. He threw part of the bloodied bull in her face and mocked her.

That night Enkindu dreamed of his own death. Indeed, in revenge, Ishatar, brought him down with a hideous illness. He was bed ridden and its thirteenth day he passed away.

At this point, our summary concludes the first eight, of twelve cuneiform tablets. Even so, we have just reached the midpoint of the story. In the first half we can see a clear pattern emerge. Thus far, Gilgamesh’s adventure resembles the first three phases of initiation, that we touched on in “Spiritual Reflections”, the last section of the first chapter.

The legend of Gilgamesh begins by noting that he is the semi divine, priest-king of Ereck. Being three quarters divine, and one quarter human, doesn’t detract from his youthful arrogance and folly. He is unmatched in both wit and brawn. His every desire is fulfilled by a legion of beautiful consorts.

With little exception, Gilgamesh is solely indulging in bodily pleasure. So much so, that the populace complain and divine forces come into play. His disposition very clearly relates to the first stage of initiation, that of the animal nature of man (pasu). This is further suggested by Enkindu, who is at once, both his challenge, and the wild part of himself.

After Gilgamesh fights Enkindu and they become friends, he has a dream, that prompts him and Enkindu to embark on a long dangerous journey, to slay the monster Kumbaba. Keep in mind, that through his friend, Gilgamesh has accepted his untamed wildness, and his journey is not only to the cedar forest, but also deep into the terrain of his unconscious mind. Gilgamesh has heard the call and even risking death, has set out into the unknown, surrendering as

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it were, to destiny. Here he embraces the second stage of initiation and becomes a full fledged initiate, (sadhaka).

Their way to the forest is marked by prophetic dreams, and each time they stop, they pay homage to the gods. After some days travel, and together with Enkindu, Gilgamesh defeats Kumbaba with three mighty strikes of his axe, to the monsters throat. His renown has grown. He is no longer the same man, and returns a hero, who even the goddess herself wants to wed.

Clearly Gilgamesh has risen to the third level of initiation, that of the hero (vira). He is now prepared to face even bigger challenges and this he does. Again with the help of Enkindu, Gilgamesh slays the bull of heaven. Even though his victory is sweet and marked by celebration, the price is steep. His adopted brother pays with his life and the people of Ereck weather a seven year famine. The next and last stage of initiation thus begins as Gilgamesh’s journey continues in the next section.

2.6 The Sacred Quest Gilgamesh bitterly mourned the death of Enkindu. As the solemn funerary rites began all the people of Erech gathered, and grieved his passing. As was tradition his body was treated with oils and all kinds of offerings were made. A long elegy recounted his glorious life and deeds. After the funeral Gilgamesh called on all the artisans and had them craft a life size statue of Enkindu in gold.

Normally the ceremony would have helped to heal the wounds of loss, but nothing helped Gilgamesh’s disturbed heart, and his sorrow seemed endless. Gilgamesh could not live with the dire consequences of Ishatars curse. He was mad with grief! Finding no respite to his sadness, he ripped off his clothes, put on the skin of a dog and vowed to roam the wilderness.

He wandered the steeps and cried out in the pain of suffering.

He had never known fear, yet now, Gilgamesh was overwhelmed by a futile sense of his own mortality. Not knowing what else to do, he set out on a long and strange journey to find the ancient sage, UtaNapishtim.

Uta-Napishtim had survived the deluge, and was the only human to ever be granted immortality. He lived over the horizon, in the paradise, garden of the sun (the Egyptian ‘Age of Re’). A place spoken of only in legend where no living soul had been.

With Erech and the familiar lands he had known far behind,

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Gilgamesh continued on towards the mountains. His way was perilous and was attached by lions, wolves and other ferocious beast. With fear and despair, he raised his mighty axe, and slays the beasts in a savage orgy of blood Making it over the foot hills, he approached the twin peaks of Mount Mashu, through which the sun god passes, with the coming and going of day and night. Mount Mashu is as high as the heavens and its caverns are as deep as the netherworld.

The only way through its twin peaks was protected by the fierce warriors of the scorpion tribe. The scorpion people were the giants that guarded the path of the sun. Their terror was awesome and their glance was death. When Gilgamesh saw them, panic gripped him and his faced turned ashen, as fear drained its color. He drew deep on the power he had learned as a warrior, composed himself, and approached the scorpion warriors. A warrior, who looked like their king, called out to his woman and said, “the one who has arrived is part divine.”

They were puzzled and asked why he had dared to come to the edge of the world, where no living man may pass. Gilgamesh told them of his quest to find Uta-Napishtim, the long living one. They warned him of the perils ahead and told him of the horrors that he would have to face, of the twelve double hours of darkness, through which he must pass.

Gilgamesh looked weathered. His face was sunken by the long shades of sorrow and his body had suffered from the journey. He spoke of the toils he had faced and the pain of loss that burned in his heart. He would not be dissuaded from the journey ahead and implored the scorpion king to give him passage. Because his flesh was part divine the scorpion king opened the gate and let him through.

Gilgamesh descended into impenetrable darkness. He could not see ahead, behind nor to either side. Each step was without sight or favor. The first hour of his journey dragged on as if it were a year.

His mind raced and his imagination conjured up all of his most hideous fears. Chilled to the bone by the north wind, hour after hour he trudged on. It wasn’t until the eleventh double hour that an eerie glow began to illuminate the landscape, suggesting that he was coming closer to the light of day.

On the twelfth double hour of his journey Gilgamesh emerged from the darkness in a garden of precious jewels. Its trees of lapislazuli were magnificent to behold and bore all manner of treasure.

He had made it to the abode of the veiled Goddess Siduri, who lives 34

on the edge of the great sea.

At sight of Gilgamesh, clad in a animal skin, with matted hair and weathered face, Siduri thought that he must be maniac or worse.

Being wary, she shut the gate and barred the door. Gilgamesh, wasn’t phased, he raised his staff, knocked on the door and threatened to break it down!

Siduri, the enchanting maiden of the gods, questioned his dreadful appearance and asked, why he had such evil in his heart and sadness in his gut. Gilgamesh again recounted his journey.

He spoke of the death of Enkindu and of his quest to meet UtaNapishtim, the one who lives in the paradise, garden of the sun.

She told him, that: “it is impossible to get there. The way is treacherous and even if you do reach the other side, you will still have to cross the marshy waters of death”.

No matter how much she pleaded, the Goddess Siduri could not convince Gilgamesh to abandon his journey and return home. He would not relent, and taking pity on him, agreed to help. She told to Gilgamesh find the boatman Urshanabi, who with the help of magic tokens can cross the great sea and even the waters of death.

Gilgamesh found Urshanabi as he was gathering the magical talismans in the forest of snakes. Gilgamesh took him by surprise and landed a blow across his head. As they fought all havoc broke loose. Many of the serpents vanished and the talismans broken.

Urshanabi was defeated, and Gilgamesh demanded his help across the sea and over the waters of death.

Urshanabi explained, that: “by destroying the talismans and killing the snakes you hindered our crossing. The only chance you have is to cut twelve, giant poles (sixty cubits) from the forest, socket them, coat them with bitumen and bring them to the boat”.

Gilgamesh raised his axe, pulled the dagger from his belt and went off into the forest to gather the poles. When he had finished he loaded them onto Urshanabi’s boat and they set out across the great sea. After a voyage of three days, that would normally have taken a month and fifteen days, they arrived at the marshy waters of death.

Gilgamesh put the first of the twelve punting poles into the water, and began to push the boat along its course. Urshanabi, warned him not to touch the water or he would surely die. Gilgamesh heaved until the first, second and all twelve poles had been worn down to nothing. Yet there was still farther to go before they could land safely on shore. Gilgamesh stripped the animal skin from his

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back and used it as a sail. That evening they reached the paradise, garden of the sun, the home of Uta-Napishtim.

As with those he had met before, Uta-Napishtim inquires about his disheveled appearance, Gilgamesh recounts the tale of his woe, the challenges of the journey and his desire to learn the secret of immortality. Uta-Napishtim listens silently, and when Gilgamesh is finished he, replies by asking: “Do we build a house forever?

Does hostility last forever between enemies?

Does the river forever rise higher, bringing on the floods?

From the beginning there is no permanence.

The living and the dead, how like brothers they are!

Do they not both make a picture of death”. 12 Gilgamesh argues, reminding Uta-Napishtim that he himself is proof of immortality. “We look the same and in fact you were born more human than I. How did you attain immortality?” Uta-Napishtim speaks to Gilgamesh about an unknown mystery. His story begins in a time, long ago, when he was a noble sage of Shurippak, (modern day Fara) a city on the bank of the Euphrates river.

He tells him of how the god Enlil created a great flood to wipe out humanity and how Ea had warned him of its coming. Ea (Sumerian Enki) did not speak directly to Uta-Napishtim, for all the gods had agreed not to warn mankind. So he spoke to a bank of reeds. UtaNapishtim was on the other side and heard the voice of the cunning god Ea. Speaking to the reeds as if they were a man, Ea said: “Man of Shurippak, tear your house down and build an ark with a breadth equal to her length. When it is completed load the seeds of all living things onto it.”

Uta-Napishtim, from behind the reeds, piously bowed and agreed to follow the lords strange request. However, he was worried about how to explain this odd endeavor to the towns people. Ea directed him, to tell them, that: “Enlil (the god of war) hates me. I cannot live in your city or even look in his direction. I must leave and go into the abyss to be close to Ea. Ea with shower you with riches, with birds, fish and make the land more fertile. A great abundance, he will cause to pour down 36

from heaven.”

In this way, by a play on words, ambiguity and metaphor, UtaNapishtim gained the assistance of all the craftsmen and people of the town, without telling them of the coming catastrophe. He drew up the plan and divided the labor. The people feasted and drank much beer and wine after their daily toils. The whole town celebrated the task. It was more like the ten days of new year festivities, than work.

It took seven days to complete the ark. The ark was filled with all manner of things and the seeds of all living creatures. When the last item had been loaded, Uta-Napishtim shut the gate and retired within, that night the sky opened and the rain began to pour.

The thundered roared and lightning cracked like a whip, lighting the darkness that covered both day and night. For six days and seven nights the rain plummeted down, until all the land was covered by a sheet of water, even the mountains were submerged.

When the rain had stopped Uta-Napishtim sent out a dove, then a swallow and then a crow all but the crow returned.

He followed the path of the crow and saw the shining light of the goddess in the distance. The ark finally came to rest on the peak of a mountain that stood above the waters like a great ziggurat. When Uta-Napishtim’s feet touch the ground he made offerings, of which all the gods partook, accept for Enlil, the unruly propagator of the flood.

When Enlil saw that Uta-Napishtim had survived, he was distraught with anger, and filled with wrath. For no man was meant to be left alive. The gods chastised him for punishing all of man for the evil of some. They criticized his brash and misguided action. Enlil heard the council of the gods and came to realize the gravity of his deed.

“He came to the ark and touched my forehead and that of my wife. He blessed us with a life like the gods, one without death. I was no longer human, and moved to the source of the rivers, to the paradie, garden of the sun.”

Even though he was part god, Gilgamesh had no one to bring his case before the gods, that is, accept for Uta-Napishtim himself.

Uta-Napishtim refused to help Gilgamesh, but eventually softened, and told Gilgamesh that to defeat death, he must stay awake for six days and seven nights. For life with out death is like a day and night without sleep. This yogic trial of self control proved to be too much. After such a long pilgrimage, Gilgamesh was exhausted, and immediately fell asleep. He slept for six days and seven nights.

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Gilgamesh awoke to the touch of Uta-Napishtim and didn’t even realize he had been asleep. A loaf of bread had been placed at his bedside each morning and the seven loaves were proof that he had indeed slumbered. Gilgamesh listened as Uta-Napishtim mocked him, and a sense of hopelessness crept into his heart.

The long living Uta-Napishtim called Urshanabi, the boatman, and told him to take Gilgamesh to the spring to wash. “Let him clean his matted hair, throw away the old skins and put on the shimmering garment of life. Take him back across the sea so that he may wear an elders robe and let it always be new and glistening.” He told Urshanabi never to return to the garden of the sun, for he was no longer welcome.

After Gilgamesh showered, the two boarded the boat. As they embarked on their journey, Uta-Napishtim’s wife took pity on the hero. She reminded her husband of the great toil he gone through and the challenges he faced on his journey. She convinced her husband to give Gilgamesh something to take back with him, a sort of boon.

Uta-Napishtim called the boat back to shore and revealed a secret to Gilgamesh. He told him about a thorny plant that rejuvenates youth and gives everlasting life. The shrub called ‘old-man-will-bemade-young’ only grows at the bottom of the great abyss.

Gilgamesh went to the edge of the abyss and dove in. He descended ten, twenty, thirty leagues and more, until he found the herb growing from a fissure at the bottom. When he grabbed it, his hand burned with pain. Its thorns ripped into his flesh. He bore the pain, and held on, until its roots were pulled clear. He rushed back to the surface and emerged with the plant in hand.

After all his trouble, Gilgamesh did not eat it immediately. Instead he planned to take it back to Erech and share it with the city elders.

The journey back was long and hard yet the time went quickly. He crossed the great sea with Urshanabi.

The two traveled across the lands only occasionally stopping.

Gilgamesh saw a fresh, cool pond and decided bathe. As he was enjoying its waters, a crafty serpent carried the plant away. This was just to much and Gilgamesh broke down in tears.

They traveled night and day until the great wall of Erech was in sight. Gilgamesh returned as an elder, a seasoned king and though he was not immortal he was greatly accomplished and much respected by the people.

Our summary of the second half of Gilgamesh here concludes

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with the end of the eleventh tablet. The twelfth tablet returns to an earlier part of the story and was likely used for, liturgical purposes.

Gilgamesh’s journey relates to all of us who are on a path of awareness. In the first half of the epic, Gilgamesh became aware of what was missing in his life and embraced it in the form of his spiritual twin, Enkindu. As a conscious initiate Gilgamesh surrendered to the task of proving himself. Facing an almost certain death he set out into the unknown to slay an indomitable foe. He was guided by dreams and paid homage to the gods each step of the way.

Finally, it was with divine assistance, that he was able to slay the terrible Kumbaba. He returned, not as a brash young man, filled with pride, but as a real hero. Gilgamesh had become bigger than life. He had grown in renown yet his journey had only just begun.

During the second half of the epic, Gilgamesh’s trials and tribulations are marked by hopeless despair and overwhelming sadness. His great spirit was broken by the loss of his friend, Enkindu, and this brings him face to face, with his own mortality.

Once it was his youthful pride that had to be relinquished and now it is the full mantle of a hero-king that must be sacrificed.

Gilgamesh shed his identity when he cast off his clothes, and put on the skin of a dog, symbolic of death.

He has utterly lost all direction and aimlessly wanders the wild lands. He roams the steeps, not like a hero, but like a mad man or animal. The uncontrollable impulses, buried deep his mind, have risen to surface with tumultuous force. It is the unconscious urges of instinct that drive him on.

Already past the edge of reason, Gilgamesh leaves the familiar steeps behind. He embarks on a pilgrimage in search of the legendary secret of eternal life. His journey is through strange lands, where he is no longer known or recognized, where he is no longer, Gilgamesh. He is but a shadow of his former self. The torment in his heart relentlessly gnaws away at all the things that he held dear, that gave him security, faith and confidence.

On the outskirts of the world of natural man, ferocious, wild animals attack him. They represent the parts of Gilgamesh that Enkidu embodied, and that he had yet to embrace in him self.

These wild, unruly aspects struggle against the pre-eminence of his destiny. They are the powers of his unconscious mind that seek to control him completely and devour ever last drop of his hope and vigor.

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The guide books to Shambhala depict a quest that is as much a journey through the stratas of life and death, as it is through earthly, topographical regions and magical dimensions. Like Gilgamesh’s odyssey, its path is studded with mystical landscapes and fraught with obstacles that no mortal can surpass.

Every step of the way Gilgamesh must battle past personal limitation, and overcome all fear, to find the power of rejuvenation.

His travels take him to the threshold between worlds, where the profane and sacred realms meet, where the line between nature and supernatural is blurred. Gilgamesh arrives at the pass between the twin peaks of the mount Mashu. It is guarded by the scorpion tribe, super-beings fortified with terrifying primordial powers. They are the timeless protectors that challenge anyone who attempts to pass beyond the brink of human limitation. It is only by way of the divine blood that flows through his veins, that Gilgamesh is not annihilated and allowed to pass.

Across the ancient world scorpions were associated with death and darkness. In Egypt they were considered to be protectors of the dead and guardian of hidden knowledge and treasure. The twin peaks of mount Mashu, represent the boundary of the dualistic world. Past their heavenly peaks the power of duality fades: pain and pleasure, day and night, birth and death, all the innumerable pairs of opposites that define life, dissolve into a transcendental unity, a singular totality.

Gilgamesh, like a corpse lowered into the dark womb of earth, descends into pitch-dark, blackness — into the deepest regions of his mind. He has entered a waste land, the realm of living death. His senses are numbed and utterly useless. Space and time converge in the rhythmic echo of his steps. Even as the north wind bitterly bites at his skin, Gilgamesh pushes on. Out of the blackness, his mind conjures up the shades, the collective fears that all men have known since the beginning of time. After twelve double hours, he emerges in the Goddess Siduri’s, jewelled garden.

At first she bars the gate against him. He overcomes her reluctance and recounts the tale of his quest. Siduri’s garden, on the coast of the great cosmic sea, is a sort of paradise, a place of euphoric repose. Gilgamesh has made it to the other side of awareness, to a level of super-consciousness-reality. However, there is still a raging sea and the turbid waters of death, that stand between him and his purpose.

Having made it to a place filled with beauty, joy and wonder, many of us would have been content. Not so with Gilgamesh, even 40

against the dire warnings of Siduri, he refuses to abandon his quest.

Unable to dissuade him she advises him to find the boatman to take him across the sea.

The chaotic sea represents the last frontier. It is the primordial source of life and is also where all the rivers of individuality once again empty their contents. Without the help of the boatman and his magical tokens no man may cross its waters.

When he finds the boatman in the forest of snakes, Gilgamesh unleashes his pent up frustration with a terrible fury. The boatman is beaten, the magic stones are broken and the way across the sea is now more uncertain then ever.

As advised he collects twelve giant poles and sets out with the boatman to cross the sea. After enduring its raging waves and whirling vortexes for what would have normally been a month and a half, they reach the edge of the marshy waters of death in just three and a hlaf days.

One after another, the punting poles are dissolved by the dark, acidic waters of death. Even with the shore in sight, without any poles to push onward, they are powerless and listlessly tossed about the deadly water. This could have been the end of his journey, but Gilgamesh, takes the hide off his back and uses it as a sail. Soon after he reaches the shore of paradise isle, the garden of the sun.

There are many similarities between Uta-Napishtim’s sanctuary, the garden of the sun and Shambhala. Both are all but impossible to reach. Uta-Napishtim is immortal and Shambhala’s inhabitants are nearly so, for they live for a thousand years. Even though Shambhala is the ideal of earthly existence, it is considered by the Tibetans, to be but the edge of a reality whose perfection is so great that it can hardly be imagined.

Even after he greets Uta-Napishtim like a father, Gilgamesh is rebuked and mocked for undertaking such a pointless quest. In due course, Uta-Napishtim agrees to tell Gilgamesh the secret, about how he survived the great flood and was made immortal.

Uta-Napishtim (Noah), is the great ancestor of all post diluvial humanity. The knowledge he imparts to Gilgamesh relates to the collective heritage of mankind. It holds the power to reawaken a part of the past that had been lost and forgotten. Even today the flood, Uta-Napishtim and his ark are remembered and form part of the holy testament of nearly all religions.

When Uta-Napishtim finished his story, he presented Gilgamesh with, what turned out to be, an impossible challenge. Uta-Napishtim,

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told Gilgamesh, that to defeat death, he must stay awake for six days and seven nights. Gilgamesh failed almost immediately and when he awoke, Uta-Napishtim had the boatman escort Gilgamesh to a magical spring, to wash and put on the shimmering garment of life.

Gilgamesh is purified and regenerated by the living waters of the spring. His rebirth is complete when he donnes the ‘shimmering garment of life’. However for his new life to take shape he must return home and share his hard one knowledge with the society of man. Uta-Napishtim tells the boatman to take Gilgamesh back across the sea so that he may wear an elders robe.

At his wifes urging Uta-Napishtim told Gilgamesh about a thorny plant, growing at the bottom of the abyss, that gives everlasting life.

Gilgamesh dove into the cosmic abyss and found the herb. As he pulled at it, its thorns ripped into the flesh of his hand. He bore the pain and rushed back to the surface with the plant in hand.

This was the last of his great challenges. Instead of immediately eating the herb, Gilgamesh, does something out of character, he takes it back to Erech to share with the city elders. On his journey home Gilgamesh took a refreshing bath in a cool pond. As he bathed a crafty serpent stole the plant and carried it away. Exasperated, Gilgamesh broke down in tears.

His failure to bring the herb back was exactly what he needed.

He was no longer concerned with winning or losing, and the fear that once haunted him, transformed into acceptance and peace.

Gilgamesh returned to Erech as one who had been anointed by the ancients. Gilgamesh came back as a fully realised master (siddhi) and revitalized the kingdom of Ereck. The seven year draught presumably ended with his return, and everyone celebrated his fascinating adventures. While he had not achieved physical immortality, he met death many times over and was reborn as an elder. His name still stands, today, alongside that of Uta-Napishtim, the long living immortal.

2.7 The Redeemer The quest of Gilgamesh’s and the magikal journey to Shambhala, are allegorical renditions of the spiritual voyage through the varied states of mind. Both myths have many parallels scattered about the world. Perhaps one of the most famous is with the quest of Perseus

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who visited the Grecco-Roman Paradise, Hyperborea.

“Wise in their ways, the Hyperboreans lived a thousand years, and when it came time to die, their virtue enabled them to go to an even better world... According to myth, none but the gods and great heroes could find the mysterious path that led to the land of Hyperboreans... While Apollo, the Greek God of Light and Truth, resides in the northern paradise during the winter months, his Buddhist equivalent, Manjushri, the Bodhisattva of Wisdom, incarnates from time to time as King of Shambhala. Just as Hermes guides Perseus to the land of the Hyperboreans, so a tutelary deity guides the traveller to Shambhala.” 13 Bernbaum further elaborates on the theme of a quest and besides reminding us of the great hardships of Ulysses’ voyage in the Odyssey, he points out striking similarities between the legend of the Holy Grail and Shambhala.

“In both myths we find a prophecy of renewal, of a golden time when the ruler is healed or spurned into action to destroy the encroaching forces of evil.” 14 The Holy Grail is a source of great magic. Its force is able to renew and harmonize the kingdom, thereby restoring justice, grace and wisdom throughout the land.

“In Shambhala we find a number of objects with comparable powers, such as a jewel that grants the rulers every wish, but the treasures closest in spirit to the Holy Grail are probably the mandalas, or mystic circles, of the Kalacakra that are kept in a park at the centre of the kingdom. A Tibetan says of them: ‘Just seeing them bestows the supreme attainment.’” 15 The power of divinity rests within the mandalas, but like the Holy Grail they have no effect unless the traveller knows their nature and how to use them. Then, and only then, can they cure him of the illusions that cause suffering.

The journey to Shambhala and its many analogous legends all require great sacrifice and yogic powers. Nowhere, and under no circumstance, is the quest described as easy or simple. In fact one’s life is often laid on the line and the sacrifices are of the illusions which one holds most dear.

These hardships recall the tribal initiations which mark major points of transition. They also provide preparation and are vital to the shift of consciousness that ultimately leads to the realization of Paradise. The journey makes the aspirant worthy of the destination.

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The Biblical Exodus of the Children of Israel is a markedly magical journey of a tribe who had to break free from slavery and then cross the desert’s barren sands, all the while being assaulted by the armies of their captors. Even after the Red Sea parted and delivered them from the army’s advance, they still had to wait forty years before they were prepared to claim the promised land.

“The most striking biblical parallel to the myth of Shambhala is, however, the prophecy of the Messiah. The prophets of the Old Testament, Isaiah in particular, speak of the anointed one who will deliver Israel from bondage and establish the kingdom of God throughout the world. The New Testament identifies this Messiah with Christ, who will return to defeat the forces of evil at Armageddon and bring to pass “a new heaven and a new earth.”...

In the Revelation of John, we see a vision of a divine King, like Kalki and the King of Shambhala, riding forth on a white horse to lead a heavenly host into battle against the forces of evil... Islam has a similar prophecy about a redeemer called the Mahdi, who will also come to deliver the world from evil and establish a golden age. According to some accounts, he will slay al-Dajjal, the Deceiver, or else assist Christ in slaying him” 16 One source behind the idea of a saviour, who must restore the world at the decadent end of time, is the ancient Egyptian myth of Osiris and Set. Set, the jealous brother of the Egyptian Pharaoh Osiris, desired the throne for himself. His plots led to the murder of his brother.

The wife of Osiris, Isis, found his corpse and with the help of Horus, Thoth and Anubis, raised him from the dead.

“But he preferred to depart from this earth and retire to the ‘Elysian Fields’ where he warmly welcomed the souls of the just and reigned over the dead.” 17 Before Osiris had risen from the dead, Isis magically united in spirit with him, and immaculately conceived Horus, ‘the son of god’.

Osiris in the old pyramid texts was known as ‘Horus the Elder’. His son, ‘Horus the Younger’, was frequently called ‘the infant Horus’.

Horus, seeking to avenge his father, went to war with Set and eventually reclaimed his father’s throne.

Besides, obvious connections with Christianity, this myth is echoed in the Babylonian legend of Marduk. At the winter solstice, (around December 25th) when the sun is at its weakest point, Marduk went to battle against the power of darkness and chaos.

Hints of this also appear in the Gilgamesh epich. After thirteen days of illness, brought on by the moon goddess Ishatar, Gilgamesh’s 44

friend Enkindu passes. There are thirteen lunar cycles in one year, meaning that Enkindu’s illness could represent the course of one solar year. His death which compelled Gilgamesh’s journey, would thus be analogous with the annual death of the sun king.

2.8 The Selfish Pharaoh In ancient Egypt a remarkable development occurred that cast the first light to the monotheistic creeds that were to follow. Amun, with his main temple in Thebes, was considered ‘king of the Gods’. As Amun-Re he also became the national God of ancient Egypt.

The son and successor of the Pharaoh Amenhotep, whose name means ‘Amen is satisfied’ after four years of assuming the crown, changed his name to Akhenaten which means ‘The glory of Aten’.

Under the pretext of re-establishing the old tradition, this pharaoh, apparently jealous and threatened by the powerful temple orders, banished all other gods. He made Aten the only national god. (The sun displaces the stars.)

“The Pharaoh was his only priest, and his cult was celebrated in a temple resembling the ancient temples of the Old Kingdom... All men, they proclaimed were equally the children of Aten... As long as the king lived, there was no other official god in Egypt but Aten. The other gods were proscribed and a bitter war declared against them, especially against Amun and his trinity. Their temples were despoiled and their riches given to the solar disk.

Their statues were broken and the bas-reliefs on which they appeared were mutilated, while Amun’s name was harried from the most inaccessible places.

It was even removed from the royal tablets of Amenhotep III, the Pharaoh’s own father.” 18 Shortly after the death of Akhenaten, his son denied his father’s name and restored the cult of Amun. He took the name, ‘Tut-ankhAmun’, which means ‘the Living image of Amun’. Whether or not the brief and zealous movement of Akhenaten spread into latter day Persia, is hard to say. But it is in Persia that the doctrine of monotheism took root under the form of Zoroastrianism.

In his book ‘Zend-Avesta’, Zoroaster borrowed from both the ancient Babylonian and the Vedic traditions of India. So it is probable that he was also influenced by Egypt and the renegade Pharaoh Akhenaten. It is in the Zoroastrian religion that the myth of a redeemer in its present form is solidified.

“According to that religion, which had a strong influence on later religions, a 45

descendent of the prophet Zoroaster named Shaoshyans will come at the end of history to fight on the side of Ahura Mazda, the god of light, against Ahriman, the embodiment of darkness. After finally defeating the forces of Ahriman once and for all, Shaoshyans will transform the world into a paradise of peace and truth.� 19 It is interesting to note that these religions prophetically predicted the eventual conflict that would ensue as a result of their own dogma. The myth of Paradise has since the beginning of time been the legacy of man. We now live in its shadow and only through facing the reality of our divergence and the hardships of re-aligning the human world with nature, do we have a chance of regaining what we once lost.

The delusions of the life we have come to accept as normal are not all powerful. They are also not the sole property of an evil devil or malicious scapegoat. The battle is within, where the blood runs warm. The place where we have arrived is the destruction that was foretold. The messiah Kalki is a whole generation, a collective embodiment, whose courageous role is to change the course of the world.

As we journey deeper into the mandala of self, we come to a place where we must relinquish the babble and societal conditioning that has convinced us to cling to falsehood. We are nothing but the pleasure of God cloaked in the decadence of ignorance. At this very moment billions of conceptions, indeed billions of worlds fill our body with different experiences. The thin veil, to which we are accustomed, is the Deceiver. The mind talk and rationalization, excuses for being less than we are, are tricks that keep us locked in the doldrums of living death.

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Chapter 3 The Sri Mandala

In Development 85%

3.0 The Sri Yantra What is the Sri Mandala/Yantra

In Development 65%

3.1 Morphic Genesis Fields of Non-energetic Influence

In Development 65%

3.2 Morphic Resonance A Key to the Workings of Magic

In Development 75%

3.3 The Sri Enters the Scene How the Sri Yantra Found its Place

In Development 70%

In Development 65%

3.4 Numerical Sri Significant Numbers and their Meaning

3.5 Sri Origins In Development 75%

Where did the Sri come from

3.6 The Three Teachings In Development 75%

In Development 90%

In Development 75%

The Three Forms of the Kalacakra

3.7 The Lotus Circle The Lotus in the Sri and Shambhala

3.8 Sacred Topography Secret Analogies Revealed

3.9 Paradise Hidden Where in the World is Paradise

3.0 The Sri Yantra In the beginning no-thing moveth, consciousness remained an immense and calm sea, an ‘original unity’.

Intelligence, the seed of creation formed and like a dream, germinated in the soil of mind.

Heated by the desire for difference, rhythm set in and the embryo of self solidified.

Time unfolded and divided space.

Aided by intelligence, mind evolved out of pure consciousness and became like a mirror, reflecting the ‘totality’ from which it arose.

Embedded within the simple elegance of the Sri (Figure 2) is the original ‘design’ of knowledge. Its varied angles, diamonds, and tri-angles are multi-dimensional islands, the Creator’s thoughts stretched out across the vibrational sea of frequency. In its stunning pattern, so eloquently expressed, lay hidden the epic ‘Happening of Creation’.

The Sri is both a yantra, a technical design and a mandala, a secret seal and will be referred to interchangeably throughout the text. The Sri Yantra, the radiant, diamond-like centre of the “Temple of Paradise”, is where the primordial word becomes the song of the world. It is the omni-dimensional ‘Ideal’, where the concordance of reality is etched in an unchanging frame of dynamic consistency.

The Sri Yantra’s symbolic ‘signature’ is a universal language, a paradigm, a law and an epic. In its sanctuary resides the golden legacy of all created things. It is the great morphogenetic sea.

The intelligence that is ‘in’-formation within it, encompasses the possibility and expression of each and every form of life.

3.1 Morphic Genesis Lofty words indeed, but how can a simple arrangement of triangles, lines and points of conjunction represent so much? This is not as far fetched as one may presume. The fairly recent advances in molecular biology, and the development of information theories, provide a basis to understand how the Sri Yantra can move the world.

We have seen that a computer is a yantra that is powered by electrical energy. A compass is a yantra that is powered by magnetic 48

energy. The Sri-NJ Mag. is a yantra powered by a metaphysical form of energy, that has come to be known in biology as Morphic Genesis.

In Greek, ‘Morphe’ translates as ‘form’ and ‘Genesis’ as ‘coming into being’.

‘Morphic Genesis’ can thus be defined as coming into form. The term further— “suggest(s) that self-organizing systems at all levels of complexity, including molecules, crystals, cells, tissues, organisms and societies of organisms are organized by fields called ‘morphic fields’.” 1

Figure 7 The Nava Yoni Chakra is composed of nine lines that form nine traingles

These fields could be compared to the design used to, say, make a laser or anything else for that matter — the design is singular but its materialization is manifold.

Even though the morphogenetic fields have been widely adopted within developmental biology — “the nature of these fields has remained obscure. Some biologists think of them as useful turns of phrase, but in reality as consisting of physio-chemical interactions not yet fully understood’. Others think of these fields as governed by morphogenetic field equations which exist in a Platonic realm of eternal mathematical forms... These mathematical truths are beyond time; they cannot evolve, and are not effected by anything that actually happens in the physical world. They are like the ideal designs for all possible organisms.” 2

3.2 Morphic Resonance I first became acquainted with the Sri during an intiation in Bali.

A couple of friends and I drew the Nava Yoni Chakra (Figure 7) (a variation of the Sri Yantra) in chalk on a large river bolder. I focused on the design and intoned sacred sounds, from the Maha Nirvana Tantra. The image opened like a cone and pulled me in.

Even through it was a fairly simple drawing, its appearance shifted and changed, myriads of times.

Eventually the Nava Yoni Yantra totally transformed into the Sri Yantra. The visual shifts continued, but as stylistic variations of the Sri itself. In retrospect, I realize that my vision, was of the ages, dimensions and cultures that have known and revered the Sri. Each variation of its appearance was ripe with the living memory of

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those who communed with its legacy through time. It was as if my eyes became windows, through which an endless score of sages, looked.

As the culmination of the vision neared, the Sri Yantra turned into a sort of cosmic vortex, with waves of energy whisking through and around it like comets. I inverted my senses with a deep inhalation.

Well into the bliss of this breathless state, I sensed a presence and brought my eyes back into focus. Peering back at me was a large, reared-back cobra.

I came to regard this as an experience of ‘Morphic Resonance’.

If a morphic field is the template of existence, but transcendental and unaffected by it, then Rupert Sheldrake’s ‘Morphic Resonance’ would be an existence-moulding, causative copy of it.

Morphic resonance is “the influence of like upon like through space and time...

(It) does not fall off with distance. It does not involve a transfer of energy, but of information.” 3 The morphic field of ‘language’ and its counterpart ‘intelligence’ form the Tao or whole from which all other morphic fields must originate. The Sri-NJ Mag. is the definitive imprint of this universal ‘morphic’ field.

3.3 The Sri Arrives My journey with the Sri had thus begun. However, even after several years of writing, its relation to the “Temple of Paradise” remained but an intuitive murmur, implicit yet hidden. A sort of morphicresonant-inclination finally led to the Sri’s pre-eminent place in this work.

While visiting my place in Bali, I spoke to Robert Lawlor, the author of “Sacred Geometry”, about my ceremonial journeys into the Sri. He had completed a geometric analysis of it, during his stay at Aurobindo’s ashram in the early sixties, and agreed to send his notes.

The information he sent led to my discovery of the correlation between the Mahesvara Sutra’s ‘Nine Vowel Sounds’ and the Sri Mandala’s ‘Nine Triangles’. The Mahesvara Sutra is the phonetic formula that was used to develop the Sanskrit language. The Sri turned out to be the visual and geometric equivalent of this great code of primal sound.

In the second book of the “Temple of Paradise Trilogy”, “The Code

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of Creation”, this association is further elaborated and described in great detail. In the following sections we will focus on the manner in which the Sri appears in and through the sacred works, traditions and religions of the world.

In the following paragraphs, keep your eye on the numbers themselves. According to Plato, the highest form of numeric philosophy is a contemplation of numbers, not as forms or arithmetic but as innate qualities.

The way that Robert Lawlor had instructed me to draw the Sri was to first divide a circle’s diameter into forty eight equal sections (Figure 8). With the assistance of I Nyoman Juliastra, one of the artists on my team, I discovered a more geometrically pure manner to construct the Sri. We found that it can actually be drawn with only a straight edge and compass. In the second volume, “The Code of Creation” I will reveal this Figure 8 The circles diameter divided method for the first time ever. Until by forty eight equal divisions acts as then and because of its symbolic a foundation for the construction of richness we will stick to the method the Sri Mandala that Lawlor suggested and that I initially used.

Forty eight is divisible by twelve; its integers four and eight add up to twelve and being that four is half of eight it expresses the relation of one to two (1:2). Excluding the Four Ages, forty eight is the number of symbols in the “Oracle of Revelation”, the third Book in the “Temple of Paradise Trilogy”.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47

3.4 Numerical Sri When constructing the Sri, Kala Chakra Mandala or any other concentric figure, a dot is created at its center, where the point of the compass has rested.

“It is good practice in geometry, where several lines have to be drawn through the centre of a figure, to withdraw the pencil just before the dot is reached, leaving it clearly defined and creating a small circular space around it. In sacred geometry either the central dot or the circle is taken to represent the

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5

5

4

3

3

pole of the universe,... The pole of the universe is the inner symbol of the canon... It provides the yardstick by which the sacred diagram is measured, and since 12 is the number which measures the New Jerusalem, the radius of the central dot is taken as 12 units in length.” 4

The Sri and NJ Mag. are both built on factors of twelve. The digits of twelve, the ‘one’ and ‘two’ are significant and in short, represent the one unity and its inherent duality. Many numerical themes are held in common by both symbols. In fact all the numerical measures exhibited in the NJ Mag. Mandala can all be reduced to a nine or twelve.

The Sri’s fifty two triangles5 perfectly concur with fifty two symbols found in the “Oracle of Revelation”. The Sri’s first triangle exhibits the approximate proportions of 3:4:5 (Figure 9). The 3:4:5 triangle is also fundamental to the NJ. Mag., the great Pyramid of Giza, the pentagram and resonates as the musical fifth.

The sum of the numbers, 3 + 4 + 5, is 12; their product, 3 x 4 x 5, is 60 or [5 x 12]. 60 when reduced to a single number becomes 6 or half of 12.

Figure 9 The base triangle of the Sri exhibits the Proportions of 3-4-5

“The numbers 12 and 60 are at the root of the numerical code... Added together 12 and 60 make 72, and multiplied together they give 720.” 6 12 taken from 60 leaves 48!

Besides its intimate relation to the number 12, the 3:4:5 triangle, known as the Pythagorean triangle, illustrates the Golden Mean Proportion.

“The Pythagoreans say that the triangle is the absolute principle of generation of begotten things.” 7 Among the myriad of places that it is exhibited in nature is in the growth pattern of plants. (Figure 10).

The triangle represents the plane of creation and its three-fold expression in birth, life and death. Plutarch, commenting on the triangle of forms held within the circle of eternity, states that:

Figure 10 The 3-4-5 Triangle is displayed in the growth pattern of plants

“The area within this triangle is the common hearth of them all and is named “the Plain of Truth” (or the plain truth) in which the Reason, the forms and patterns of all things that have been, and shall be, are

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stored up not to be disturbed: and Eternity dwells round them, from whence time, like a stream from a fountain, flows down upon the worlds.” 8 The triangular matrix, the Sri, with its inherent factor of ‘Nine’, builds upon this symbolism. Nine is the threefold expression of three. It represents the nine ways that the three qualities converge.

After nine the numerical symbols repeat themselves and in this way nine represents completion and wholeness.

It is an odd fact that any whole number divisible by nine, when reduced to a single digit, again produces nine. For example: 9 x 8 = 72, [7 + 2 = 9], 72 + 9 = 81, [8 + 1 = 9] and so on. The significance of nine is suggested by the solar system’s nine planets, the nine orifices of the human body, the nine months of pregnancy, the sacred Ennead of ancient Egypt and the eight directions of space that encircle a central ninth.

3.5 Sri Origins It was around 3700 years ago that the authors of the “Atharva Veda” described a yantra-like figure composed of nine geometric permutations—a reference that could easily apply to the Sri Yantra. The Sri is mentioned in several subsequent works like the “Upanishads”, “Puranas” and the “Tantras”. Today, with few exceptions, the Sri Mandala is an integral part of the Shakti or Goddess traditions of the East.

“The Sri Chakra that is generally worshipped in temples of Devi and monastic institutions (Mutts), is the one prescribed in the Vamakesvara Tantra with Figure 11

With five ascending triangles the Samhara-krama Sri represents destruction, the masculine principle and Fire

With five descending triangles the Srsti-krama Sri represents creation, the feminine principle and water

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five triangles pointing downwards and four triangles upwards. It is also known as Srstikrama Chakra representing the creation of this Universe by the Ultimate Reality. (When) placed upside down, it is known as Samhara Krama Chakra which symbolizes the dissolution of this Universe.” 9 In the construction of the Sri, the direction of the first triangle determines its nature; if upright the Samhara Krama results; when inverted the Srsti krama results (Figure 11). Obviously, no matter what orientation it assumes, the Sri Yantra’s proportional basis remains the same.

Besides the Samhara and Srsti krama, there are three other forms of the Sri Mandala that are three dimensional. Each of these variations has its own unique name and character. The ‘Bhoo Parisht’ Sri is constructed on a plate with slightly raised lines. The ‘Ooram Parisht’ Sri, is raised at its center and the ‘Meru Parisht’ Sri, is in the shape of a mountain.

3.6 The Three Teachings Now that we have briefly touched on the Sri Yantra, and its primary three fold triangular constitution, let us return to further the analogies between it, the Kala Chakra and Shambhala. There are many astounding touch-stones still to uncover. Lets begin simply, with the number three, which is a prominent feature of both systems.

At the center of the Kala Chakra mandala is the three tiered palace of Mount Meru. The three squares that enclose each of its cental circuits, graphically represent this jeweled palace. (Figure 5) The three levels of reality are also alluded to by the three main branches of the Kala Chakra teaching. There is an outer, an inner and a secret teaching associated with the Kala Chakra practice. The outer Kala Chakra is personified in the guidebooks to Shambhala.

Encompassing its physical topography, the outer teaching deals with the external world, mathematics, astrology and “the cyclical patterns of the forces that regulate our existence... Unlike the outer Kala Chakra, which Tibetan teachers will openly discuss, the other two parts are generally kept secret. ” 10 The inner Kala Chakra, as its name suggests, is associated with the Shambhala that resides within us, in the stratas of our mind and levels of awareness.

It “ deals with the body and mind and how to use them in meditation. It also 54

“relates to the various senses and kinds of consciousness.” 11 The other Kala Chakra as it is called, is associated with the center of Shambhala, its king and the Kala Chakra deity. (Figure 12) “Shambhala conceals in its center the jewels of the innermost mind, gleaming with the diamond like clarity of the deepest awareness of all — the awareness of the absolute nature of reality itself.” 12 In the “Temple of Paradise” the Sri Mandala represents the inner teaching and the metamorphosis of mind. The Figure 12 A rare 15th century NJ Mag. Mandala represents the outer image of the Kalacakra diety teaching — the twelve fold division of with his shakti Vishvamata the cosmos and the proportions, that as space, resonate in time. The symbolic images found in the “Oracle of Revelation” weave together the outer and inner through the practitioner’s life. Their sacred point of union is at the center of the Sri-NJ Mag. It is here that the ‘other’ or secret teaching is revealed as the seed of consciousness — the absolute reality.

3.7 The Lotus Circle In traditional representations of the Sri Yantra, its nine interlaced triangles are normally encircled by two concentric rings of eight and sixteen lotus petals.

(Figure 13) This is one reason that the Sri Yantra is alternatively known as the ‘Lotus Circle’ (Padma Chakra).

Its two lotus rings are representative of the directions of space and the physio-emotional experience of the world. They are the blossoms of illusion, that opening to the light of life, decorate and color the clear mind within.

Growing out of turbid water the lotus

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Figure 13 This 17th century image of the Sri Yantra exhibits two circuits of lotus petals. Unlike more contemporary representations its rows respectively show sixteen and thrity two petals.

reaches for the clear light of the sun. Its green stalk, surrounded by floating leaves, transfigures into the glor ious hue of it s blossom. Once the petals have fallen, new seeds germinate in their place. It is by way of these traits that the lotus has come to symbolize the transfiguration of the lower self and the ascension of the spirit. (Refer to the Golden Lotus in the “Oracle of Revelation”) Shambhala shares a unique affiliation with the lotus. Around Figure 14 Shambhala’s topography resemits center are eight regions that bles an eight petaled lotus flowering around give the country the appearance the city center. of an eight petalled lotus. (Figure 14) The number nine also becomes apparent given that there are nine regions in all.

3.8 Sacred Topography The earliest descriptions of Shambhala appear in the “Kangyur” and “Tengyurn”, the most important ‘holy books’ in the Tibetan collection. In these works Shambhala is described as hidden “Inside a ring of snow mountains, around the center of the kingdom, runs another ring of even higher snow mountains.

Rivers and smaller mountain ranges divide the area between the two rings into eight regions shaped like eight petals arranged around a center of a flower...

Each of the petal-like regions contains in turn twelve principalities, making ninety six princes or minor kings who owe allegiance to the King of Shambhala.” 13 The closer that one examines this imagery the more clearly evident it becomes that the description of Shambhala could just as well apply to the Sri-NJ Mag. Graphically representing mountains by triangles is a widely accepted convention of both modern cartography and ancient 56

symbolism. The triangle at the center of the Sri corresponds to the central mountain and the throne of the Kala Chakra deity.

This triangle is surrounded by a ring of eight smaller triangles that suggest the eight inner regions of Shambhala. Moving outward from its center we find two ‘snowcapped mountain ranges’ or rings of ten triangles.

(Figure 15) The Sri’s outer, diamondlike range of fourteen triangles corresponds to the ring of fire that, as ea rlier mentioned, e nc i r c le s S h a m bh a l a a nd p r o t e c t s i t f r o m ne g a t ive influences. Indicating its place in the world and congruent with the symbolism of the one and four, these fourteen triangles sug ge st t he ‘one rea l it y ’ standing in the world of ‘four’ directions.

The key that unlocks even more strik ing cor relations is derived from the number t welve. A s ment ioned i n the previous quote, each of Shambhala’s eight regions is divided into twelve minor principalities, giving a total of ninety six regions (forty eight times two). Oddly enough there are ninety six distinct places demarcated by the NJ Mag. Mandala (Figure 16) Twelve is also a predominate factor of ‘Magnesia’, Plato’s paradise, his ‘idealic’ city that is alluded to throughout “The Republic”.

Figure 15 The eight inner regions around the central throne are represented by the blue triangles. The two mountain ranges of ten triangles coorespond to the green triangles and the outer ring of fire is represented by the fourteen red triangles

Figure 16 The NJ.Mag Mandala, with eight rows of twelve exhibits ninety six regions.

These fit perfectly with the ninty six minor principalities described in the Shambhala text.

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As the descr iption of Shambhala continues the text explains that within the inner most ring of Shambhala’s mountainous — “peaks, at the very center of the kingdom, lies Kalapa, the capital of Shambhala.

To the east and west of the city are two lovely lakes shaped like a half crescent moon filled with jewels...

Figure 17 With a compass the two crescent lakes can easily be plotted upon the face of the Sri Mandala. A diamond shape is formed in the midst of the two crescents.

In the center of the Palace is the golden throne of the King supported by eight carved lions and encrusted with the rarest gems...

As long as the King remains on this seat of wisdom and power, a magic jewel given him by the serpent deities who guard hidden treasures enables him to satisfy all his wishes.” 14

To the literally minded this description could easily be cast aside as a simply fantasy. However, beneath its innocent disguise is a sophisticated code, written in geometric allegory.

With a compass placed on the east and west equatorial points of the Sri Mandala, a semi arc can be drawn through the meeting place of its first and second triangles. The “two lovely crescent shaped lakes” mentioned above, are thus formed, and if you look closely, they indeed hold a diamond shaped jewel. (Figure 17) The eight carved lions of the inner kingdom are reminiscent of the eight lotus petals and are suggested by the eight smaller triangles that surround the Sri’s center. (Figure 15) Within this inner most circuit, stands the three walled palace (triangle). The central point, the invisible bindu, then becomes equated with the king’s magical jewel from which anything can be manifested.

The extraordinary parallels between Shambhala, the Kala Chakra and the Sri-NJ Mag. implies a common origin, or at the very least, a close association that existed in the distant past.

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3.9 Paradise Hidden Beneath our buildings, roads, and labyrinthine cities, beneath our riddled perception of the world and beneath our skin, in the depths of our mind lays a united world, a garden of pleasure and wonder, a place where the most treasured virtues like Generosity, Kindness, Compassion and Tolerance grow freely and wild. In this place, our existence is the very beauty and harmony of the world. At its center sits the jewel of creation, the collective embodiment of humanity, as a ‘god’ess on the throne of nature.

The “Temple of Paradise” stands in man and the nearer we get to its inner sanctum, the closer paradise is to the world. The “Oracle of Revelation” guides us through the obstacles and enchantments of daily life, through the dimensions of the mind and leads to the experience of paradise within.

According to the sages, philosophers and nearly all the religions of the world, paradise ‘is’, ‘was’ and ‘will be’ an earthly reality. As the text describes, Shambhala could very well be, or have bee,n a hidden valley or a lost land.

It is perhaps populated by an unknown tribe who skillfully evades our technological probing, or a place hidden in the overlapping dimensions of time. During eras like the present, when other cycles dominate, Paradise remains as an inner reality and there is good reason to believe that it appears from time to time in different places and ways, isolated from the rest of the world. The one thing that we know, it is that presently, it is not accessible to the greater portion of humanity. Its culture and ways are alien to our modern world.

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Chapter 4 Measure of Miracles

In Development 60%

4.0 The Spiral of Time Introduction to Mythic Time

In Development 65%

4.1 The Golden Mean An Exploration of the Golden Proportion

In Development 70%

4.2 Proportional Continuity A Model of Coherent Succession

In Development 45%

4.3 The Secret of Reincarnation Genetic Identity and Continuity

In Development 40%

In Development 80%

4.4 The Golden Spiral of Time Infinite Expansion and Contraction

4.5 Fibonacci Series The One who Educated Europe

4.0 The Spiral of Time Mythic time or dream time corresponds to fixed-relations; in other words, to values or periods of duration that cyclically recur. In the present sense the days of the week are defined by mundane activities and routines, but they have a routine all to themselves.

Monday’s relation to Wednesday remains the same regardless of our personal schedule. The minutes, hours and days of the week interplay with the heavenly cycles that incarnate in the biological rhythms of our bodies. The days, named after Roman gods, have an identity and qualities all of their own.(Add figure planitary rulers) Like the days of the week, the integral ‘digits’ of duration simultaneously arise from and return to themselves. Time rather than moving one way, down a historic line from past, to present, to future, moves like the conical beams of solar light and the galaxy itself, which spirals through space.

Why then does our line of life begin with birth and end with death?

An answer to this, although vast in itself, is clearly summarized in the geometric language of form, by the Golden Mean Proportion.

This proportion is at once a spiral and a simple line, with two ends that can be taken as birth and death. Its internal division can then be defined as an individual life.

Before elaborating on the meaning of the above passage, lets take a brief divergence from our main topic, to explore the Golden Mean and the geometric philosophy that sits at the core of the ancient sciences.

This section requires careful study and if you’re not ready to wrap your mind around it, I suggest you skip it, and return to it when you are. However, if you take the time, you will discover some unusual treasures of realization.

4.1 The Golden Mean The ancient sages, the Pythagoreans and initiates of sacred geometry, studied the language of creation as it lay hidden in the pure forms underlying the obvious appearance of things. They discovered in the Golden Mean, a standard that not only sets the cycle of life and death in motion and presides over its unfoldment, but also charts the continuous evolution of consciousness itself.

The Golden Mean Proportion is the philosophical seat or basis of all other proportions. It gives rise to the musical scale and also

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“governs the laws involved with the Universal Individual B Microcosm C multiple reflections of light through A Macrocosm mirrors, as well as the rhythmic laws Single Unity of gains and losses in the radiation of energy... and the ratio of males to Figure 18 In this example [B:C]’s relation to [A: B] is the same as, [A:B]’s relation to the whole females in honey bee hives.” 1 line. The line is symbolic of unity and is represented by the number [1]. In other words [A:B] is greater than [B:C] by the same ratio as [1] unity is greater than [A:B]. Philosophically, this suggests that the microcosm’s relation to the macrocosm is the same as the macrocosm’s relation to Unity.

The Golden Mean, like all proportions, is formed by ratios.

A ratio is a comparison between two different things. If a hundred women and fifty men were on the dance f loor, the women would outnumber men by a ratio of (2:1).

“A ratio constitutes a measure of difference. A proportion, however, represents a level of intelligence more subtle and more profound than the direct response to a simple difference which is a ratio.

A proportion is more complex, for it is a relationship of equivalency between two ratios, that is to say, one element is to a second element as a third element is to a forth; a is to b as c is to d” 2 Returning to our dancers, we could say that the hundred female dancers [A], is to the fifty male dancers [B], as a hundred and fifty apples [C] is to seventy five oranges [D]; [A] is to [B] as [C] is to [D].

While this example involves four discontinuous terms (A), (B), (C) and (D) the Golden Mean can be expressed in as little as three continuous terms and because of this it is considered to be the closest to A unity.

In figure 18, the three terms of the Golden Mean (two ends and their golden point of division) are shown as the elements of a single line or unity. The Golden Mean proportion is B the geometric equivalent to the holy trinity.

The five pointed star or pentagon has long been an emblem of magical C workings. Its construction perfectly Figure 19 The Golden Mean illustrates the ‘Golden Mean’. (Figure Proportion is the basis of the 19) The pentagon was so important to Pentagram

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the Pythagoreans that it was used as a sign of their brotherhood.

The Golden Mean is represented by the character (Ø), or alternatively, by the 21st Greek letter, phi. Its assoication with the term phi is likely derived from the name Phidias. Phidias, lived in the 5th century BCE and was considered the greatest of Greek sculptors.

He proported to have used the Golden Mean as a proportional basis for many of his works.

The Divine proportion, as it was sometimes called, appears in myriads of places, in the arts and monuments, as well as across the phenomenal span of nature, from the great pyramid of Giza to the spiraling shape of galaxies. Ø is numerically approximated as (1.618...) In other words the line segment, [B:C or Ø] in figure 18, is equal to .618... while line segment [A:B] is equal to 1, [1:Ø :: Ø:Ø2].

4.2 Proportional Continuity The relationship between the dancers and fruits in the previous section, demonstrate a discontinuous proportion. The Golden Mean, however, is a continuous proportion. In it, the relationship described by its first two terms, is continued by and through, each additional term ad infinitum.

If we modify the analogy by saying that there are (A), five male dancers and (B), eight female dancers then the total number of dancers would be (C), thirteen. The relationship between the number five and eight is the same as the relationship between number eight and thirteen, (A to B) is then the same as (B to C) and (A) + (B) = (C). If (D), twenty one professional dancers joined the fray there would be a total of (E), thirty four dancers.

When we put it all together these groups form one continuous line of proportional relations, (A to B) is the same as (B to C) and (B to C) is the same as (C to D) and (C to D) is the same as (D to E) and so on. It is also true that [(A)5 + (B)8 = (C)13] exhibits the same proportions as [(C)13 + (D)21 = (E)34]. In algebraic notation this is written as [(A + B = C)::(C + D = E)].

4.3 The Secret of Reincarnation The terms(A], [B] and [C] in Figure 18 are non specific signifiers.

The relationship they describe applies not to one set of phenomena but to all natural and philosophical variations that exhibit three elements. They can hence be taken to represent the relationship of 64

(A)-birth to (B)-life and (B)A:B/Life + B:C/Death = 1/Existence life to (C)-death as outlined 1= Unity in Figure 20.

Life Death Our present conception A B C of time is not expressive Death Life of the Golden Mean but of Birth simple ratios or at best a A:B = Life B:C = Death discontinuous proportion.

1 1 Unity Unity Today the past is often divorced from the present, Figure 20 The three elements of the Golden Mean in the same way that our actually form two sections, [(A) to (B) or life is equal traditions no longer appear to Phi over 1 unity] and [(B) to (C) or death is equal to to be the accrued wisdom Phi squared over 1 unity]. These in turn constitute the one united continuum of existence. In other words [B: a nd exper ience of ou r C/death] is greater than [A:B/life] by the same degree ancestors, but have become that [1unity/exsistence], is greater than [B:C/death]. religions that quite often dogmatically manipulate belief and entrap our minds.

One’s offspring was once considered the same as one’s self. The child was seen as continuation of one’s life. This continuity has become distorted and children today are much too often treated and act like strangers, disjointed individuals. Surnames like Baker, Smith and Fisher were not originally superficial but denoted the family’s interest, craft or social position. For example, in times gone by, Adam Smith, the son of John Smith, was raised and prepared from his day of birth to carry on the family tradition of blacksmithing.

Like genetic identity one’s talent developed through many generations. While science has until recently denied the link between heritage and ability, the reality of the situation begs to differ. It has been my experience that a third generation carver usually has a much greater propensity for carving than a first generation carver.

As to be expected there are exceptions but these must not be allowed to override the rule.

Today’s individual, with few exceptions, is largely disassociated from their genetic past. The continuity and meaning of existence has become disrupted if not lost in the delirious whirl of individual desires and market driven fantasies. Continuity is the basis of harmony and society today is far from harmonious.

In such a view our time line is no longer divided at the magical point of the Golden Mean, but is instead divided into three separate parts whose integers add up to the sum total of one life. [A] Birth and [B]-Life are merely tallied up with [C]-Death. The tally in 65

United Continuum of Existence Life

A Birth

B Life

Death

C Death

Rebirth A+B=Life B+C=Death

Figure 21 Existence is a continous proportion that does not begin and end with one life.

The ‘Golden Mean’ demonstrates how each life is in reality a proportional representative of existence as a united whole.

exceptional cases involves a forth element [D] History; [A] Birth + [B] Life = [C] Death and [A] + [B] + [C] = [D] History.

This situation is the source of much individual insecurity and many social ills. Dishonoring the family name no longer seems to matter. Perhaps the tear in the fabric of the immediate family is in some cases beyond mending but the extended family, the collective body of humanity awaits with open arms to embrace the lone individual. We are all apart of the great continuum of existence.

The Golden Mean provides a model that goes beyond individualism. It not only expresses the internal dimensions of an individual life-line as illustrated in Figure 20, but also defines its ‘collective’ extension, which is greater than one life itself. (Figure 21) It defines the continuation of a single life through the path of conscious evolution into a greater whole.

The Golden division is the only continuous proportion that yields a progression in which the terms representing the external universe (Ø2 , Ø3) are an exact reflection of the progression of internal order (1/Ø2 , 1/Ø3 )—the creative dream of God.3 The square, as in Ø2, represents the plane, the surface of the Creator’s canvas, while the cube, as in Ø3 represents volume and the containment of matter according to the Creator’s ‘ideal’ forms.

4.4 The Golden Spiral of Time The previous material apparently suggests that time does indeed move in a linear fashion, even if to the beat of the Golden Mean Proportion. This is just partly true; besides the Pentagon and the Pythagorean 3-4-5 triangle, the line example that we have been exploring actually forms a Golden Rectangle. There are two such rectangles that exhibit the Golden Mean Proportion.

The Golden Rectangle (Figure 22) has provided a basis for aesthetic works of art and architecture for eons. Although the 66

D

Ø = .618

1

a ncient Greek s a re most often accredited 1 1 w i t h i t s d i s c ove r y 2 2 evidence holds that it was the Egyptians who firstincorporated it into art and structure.

B o t h t h e 1√2 and 3√5 rectangles illustrate the Golden Proportion and through a c ategor ic a l spin, chart the Golden Mean 1.618 progression upon an Figure 22 The sides and internal dimensions of the 1√2 endless spiral.

Rectangle clearly demonstrate the Golden Proportion. The While linear time large square with the dashed line running across its diagonal moves in one direction is the root of the main rectangle. the Golden time standard as we have seen moves both inward and outward. All stages of existence are simultaneously present, all things actually do ‘happen’ in the present tense. The qualities of the past as well as the future preside in the immortal characters that populate legend and myth.

The Golden P ropor tion is exemplified in the divisions of a line, the three sides of a triangle, the four sides of a rectangle and the spinning curves of an infinite spiral. Its leap from defining surface to volume is similar to the plant, whose green stem bursts forth into the blossom of colorful flower.

The Golden Mean spiral (figure 23) is an example of gnomonic projection. The term gnomon applies to any form that when added to another replicates the proportions of the original form. Figure 23 The Golden Rectangle projects It is in some ways similar to outwards from its internal structure to trace an unending spiral. No matter how many levels of the line, in that its two ends magnitude it shifts the original proportions of hurl themselves in opposite the Golden Rectangle remain unchanged.

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Figure 25 The cross section of this fossilized shell illustrates the spiral and Gnomonic growth. Most of the shell has turned to crystal and within its chambers small quartz shards have formed.

Figure 24 The cross section of a Nautilous shell provides a perfect example of the Golden Proportion Spiral

directions towards infinity, one ever diminishing and the other ever expanding.

The gnomonic spiral has such a profound influence upon the world of phenomena that it came to be called the Miraculous Spiral.

By way of exhibiting the accumulative form of growth that is most apparent in nature, in which the old form is contained within the new, it charts the mysteries of reincarnation.

Gnomonic expansion is a form of growth that implies a different perception of time. It is the spiral of existence, the helix of being, the DNA. Scientists say that the universe is continually expanding but what they have failed to realise is that it is also continually contracting.

Education partakes of a gnomonic nature. In education elementary stages of learning become the basis of higher knowledge. Gnomonic evolution is clearly evident in the calcareous makeup of seashells.

(Figure 24 and 25) As the simple organism adds chambers to its shell the residues of previous stages of growth remain clearly indicated.

The earlier stages provide the foundation for its subsequent growth.

(Figure 25) The conch shell, held in Hindu iconography by Siva, the Lord of both Creation and Destruction, also forms a perfect Golden Mean 68

spiral. From the conch shell the seed sound OM emerges and with it creation unfolds.

The conch is likewise a symbol of the aquatic king Neptune.

Through its open end it suggests the mother goddess while its conical point suggests the father god; the gifts that it holds are the fruit of their union.

Human and most other embryonic development forms around a spiral/fetal posture. Of particular interest, our navel divides our body into the Golden Proportion.

“Taking the full height as 1, the body from feet to naval, in Egyptian, Greek and Japanese canons, is equal to 1/Ø, with the portion from navel to the top of the head equal to 1/Ø2. The body is divided exactly in half by the sex organs. This denotes the relationship of sexuality with the dualizing function, the division into two. At birth however it is the naval that divides the child in half, and in the course of maturation the naval moves to the point of Ø division.”4 The bones in our hands, arms and legs are all also held in a Golden Mean relation.

4.5 Fibonacci Series While in Egypt, Fibonacci, an Italian mathematician of the thirteenth century, came across a riddle which he called the “rabbit problem”.

If starting with one pair of rabbits enclosed within a wall and every month they produce a pair of offspring, and each new pair of offspring in turn produces another pair each subsequent month, how many rabbits would you have in one year’s time?5 The answer to this problem is known as the Fibonacci series, (11-2)-(3-5-8)-(13-21-34)-(55-89-144)..., Numerically it expresses the Golden Proportion and the characteristic of gnomonic growth. As we saw earlier in the line example, the sum of the first two parts becomes the value of the third part or [A] + [B] = [C] :: [C] + [D]= (E) and so on.

Each term when divided by the previous in an alternating pattern closes in on the Ø proportion of 1.61803... Starting with 5, we divide it by 3 and get 1.6666666667 and then follow with— (8÷5=1.60) : (13÷8=1.625) : (21÷13=1.615) : (34 ÷21=1.619) : (55÷34=1.617) : (89÷55=1.6181) : 144÷89=1.6179).

This additive series is continuous and thus a perfect expression of the Golden Mean proportion and gnomonic progression. Today this mystical series is used by traders to predict the market. No matter

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where it is found the Golden Mean relentlessly brings rhythmic order to that which appears chaotic.

In the Golden Mean, ‘Time Spiral’ of conception and experience, we saw that the meaning of events is shaped around and by an infinite standard that not only sets the cycle of life and death in motion and presides over their alternation, but also charts the continuous evolution of consciousness itself.

Could add the Golden Section and the Sri

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Chapter 5 Language of Legend

In Development 90%

5.0 Symbolic Dimension The Power of Symbols

In Development 95%

5.1 Symbolic Distortion At the Root of Disharmony

In Development 95%

5.2 Coherent Synthesis The Arrangement of Meaning

In Development 85%

5.3 Magical Metaphor The Medium of Understanding

In Development 85%

In Development 75%

5.4 Secular Gods The Profane Tradition

5.5 Kinetic Correspondence In Development 75%

Channels of Influence

5.6 Sensational Convergence Overlapping of Sensation

5.0 Symbolic Dimension In the ego driven materialistic pragmatism of modern times, the mythical language of symbols is glossed over by naive application and empty slogans. If it doesn’t swell the bank account or bring some form of immediate gratification, it may as well be useless.

Whether by way of dreams, religious mythology or scientific theories we are all deeply touched by the symbolic dimension, so much so, that without symbols we wouldn’t be able to utter a word or think a thought. All language is facilitated by way of symbols.

This may be true, yet today the symbolic world is engulfed by a thick veil of profane obscurity.

Whether sacred symbols have power and bear influence in our lives has itself become a question. Yet the fact remains that underneath our fabricated social world is a foundation composed by symbolic stones held together by the mortar of correlation.

Throughout the world’s ancient chronicles, the prehistoric times—its cultures, prophecies, legends and rituals—are strung together in a global web of myth, with little or no regard for linear chronology. It didn’t matter when something occurred or whether it was commercially feasible; what did matter was its symbolic integrity and innate truth. All of the emphasis that we today devote to, say, techno-weaponry and commercial interest was at one time, not so terribly long ago, devoted to the preservation and perfection of man’s place in nature. Myth is like a morphic field that defines its own dimension.

5.1 Symbolic Distortion The symbolic dimension has become largely distorted by a limited and utilitarian perspective. I’m not suggesting that we walk around with our heads in the clouds and forget about everything that is pragmatic and material. Yet it could be said that in many ways this is exactly what we are doing.

The economy is a prime example. Even though it is based on supply, demand, productivity and other actual fundamentals, these are often overwhelmed by opinion. Mercedes show better than expected profit and what happens? Its market value decreases.

Internet companies that show no profit and have few assets are valued into the billions, on par with established blue chip companies.

America, ‘the home of the free’, has more people in prison, per capita, than any other country in the world. The examples are 72

seemingly endless. Our global culture is so intent on believing what it wants that the actual nature of things is denied if not completely lost.

Underlying the material realm is an organization of intelligent principles or symbols. Molecular biology, genetics and the field of artificial intelligence have shown that we are, more than anything else, bodies of information.

Our genes are composed of DNA and the information in the DNA is converted into proteins. We could even think of DNA as information that transfers data into matter through proteins. The information that we are made of interfaces with bio-electrical pulse and chemical reaction. Genes, formed of DNA produce proteins. The proteins are the alchemist which oversees the chemical reactions that form the material of our bodies and perception. The way that our genes are organized is extremely important; with a slightly different arrangement of genes one could look more like a martian than a human.

The same order that appears so vital to the make up of our bodies is present in a slightly different manner in the arrangement of symbols. The order of the symbolic dimension is between the symbol and what it connotes or what it means. A picture of a child crying would not be an appropriate symbol of happiness.

If an ancient sage, a wise man, walked into a Cathedral and saw Christ on the crucifix he would conclude that Christianity is a religion of death and torture and not of love and life. He would also have no idea that Christianity prohibits the ‘worship of the graven image’. The saintly statues decorating the cathedral would imply polytheism rather than monotheism.

To represent a tradition of life and love this sage would use a newly risen sun and erotic images of men and women. To the sage, the image of Mary would remind him of Isis, a mature mother. A woman with a babe in her arms is a poor symbol of virginity which is normally associated with adolescence.

Symbols are not completely divorced from the world of nature.

Symbolism employs the forms and relations found in nature so that we can better understand the ideas upon which nature stands and our place in its scheme.

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5.2 Coherent Synthesis Myth and symbology challenge our rational hold and ideas of self.

The symbolic realm dissolves the importance of the personal view in the wake of a pervasive and universal meaning. To the sage symbology is integral and inclusive. It unites the world in one great coherent synthesis. Such a synthesis is absent in our fragmented global society yet our hunger for it is painfully present.

Just as illness and disease arise from biological disorder, confusion, falsity and social injustice result from the corruption of symbols. One can only find power in speech by communicating words that have a common meaning. To use the word ‘bad’ to suggest something that is ‘good’ is utterly confusing, except to the few who also reverse its meaning.

There is a pragmatic and personal side to symbols but in the greatest sense symbols point to a level of reality that is truly universal. Mythology is written in the script of symbology. The truth that they convey is not limited to literal interpretation but at the same time literal interpretation plays a part in the picture.

In myth and symbols all aspects converge; this is to say that the general, specific, scientific, the associative and the innate nature of a particular object are all present in both myth and symbol.

Concealed by the temporal and obvious, legends, ‘ideals’ and archetypical forms, from behind the scenes, play out their roles, shaping the course of our lives and destiny. Borrowing the words of the anthropologist, Levi-Strauss; “I therefore claim to show, not how men think in myths, but how myths operate in men’s minds without their being aware of the fact.”1

5.3 Magical Metaphor Some things are just too great or profound to be directly understood.

They, like the irrational proportions in geometry, defy definition and can only be approximated or pointed to. In the same way that pi () is not exact but still represents the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter, metaphors are not exact but still represent a conceptual basis that indicates subtle truths and engenders understanding.

The contemplation of a question can be more valuable than finding an answer. Thinking is to the mind what exercise is to the body. Pondering the imponderable is the ground from which creativity, invention and the experience of truth blossoms.

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Metaphor describes things that are difficult to grasp. For instance, if I described a creature I saw in the woods, as strange, you would have little idea what it was that I actually saw. If instead, I described the creature as a bit like a dog, but with a monkey’s tail and a set of horns that were similar to a bull, you would at least have some idea of what it was. Through metaphoric comparison unfamiliar things are made familiar.

Metaphor is derived from the Indo-European root ‘bher’ which means to carry. It carries meaning in much the same way that magic carries intent. Metaphors are used so often that we often don’t realize that we are using them. They are vital to science, linguistics and to the understanding of our place in the world.

5.4 Secularized Gods The psychological theory of archetypes is really a metaphoric pantheon and an age old conception. It closely resembles the divine principles of ancient Egypt, the ‘Neters’; the ‘Devas’ and ‘Assuras’ of the Hindu Pantheon; the ‘Buddhas’, ‘Bodhisattvas’ and ‘Yidyam deities’ of Buddhism and the pure ‘Ideals’ of Plato’s changeless realm.

The Archetypes are a secular version of the ancient gods. They, like their divine predecessors, possess a flexible identity that stretches through all the stratas of existence. From galaxies and stars to the sub atomic realm, their presence is concealed in ratios, proportions and mysterious correlations. They are like the roots of a tree, which although mostly hidden, are the foundation upon which it stands.

Metaphoric principles and their ‘enlivened’ powers, archetypes give shape and substance to the universal mythos. What counts in mythology are the inherent principles and not the legends with which they are enshrouded.

“It is of no importance that these legions are legion, differing from one region to another, from one visionary poet to another. We should not lose sight of the fact that myths or legends are only there to make abstract ideas and universal realities more comprehensible.

The wicked fairy remains the wicked fairy even if we invent new fairy tales.

Heroes are attributed with certain acts which surpass reality, but which are designed to emphasize their virtues and the teachings they personify. To attribute Jesus of Nazareth the miracles and legends of Dionysus or Krishna

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does not detract from his message, but serves to make his divine nature more easily understood.� 2 The basis of myth and legends remain constant yet our interpretation of them changes. Archetypical metaphors are defined and recognized by the role and posture, by the form and characteristics and by the place they assume in the overall plot. The inconsistencies of myth are the variants of its epic theme, dancing through a world of time and social convention. “The theme is not identically expressed in every variant or version: it constantly changes its outer dress in accord with the national customs or local features of the place where it is found. It may become obscure or disguised; only a trace of it may be left...

(One) must often look beneath the outer covering to find the theme. He must also realize that mythical thinking is illogical by our standards: in this too it resembles dream thinking. Contraries, contradictions, inconsistencies may and do stand side by side in a single mind and a single narrative... He who studies myth must try to understand mythical ways of thinking.� 3 The mythic realm is where contradiction and ambiguity establish their own sense of meaning as well as illogical precision. The rational approach which excludes and isolates is a poor medium with which to evaluate myth, which is inclusive and associative. The tenets of myth are beyond the religious divisions of the world and to assess their value from only one tradition or view, is to see but one facet of a multifaceted jewel.

5.5 Kinetic Correspondence While the sun conveys its light, heat and intensity through its rays, the mind uses the spectrum of its senses.

All correspondence, whether magical or mundane, must in some way make some kind of sense. Color makes sense to the eyes whereas sound makes sense to the ears. Each dimension of sensation has a range of vibratory phenomena with which it is receptible and innately attuned. The senses are part of the organization that reflects the unfoldment of creation. Each sense relm is a channel that expresses the divine nature of creation in a slightly different but still interchangeable manner. For each sense there exists a corresponding code or language. The language of the mouth is taste,

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and of the skin, touch.

While this may be obvious the cor respondence that applies to my tholog y and magic is not so readily apparent. However, it is based on rather sensible premise. This is illustrated by the concept behind notorious voodoo doll. The link between the doll and the person it represents may not be rational but it is still a medium of correspondence.

In the same way that computer Figure 26 This extraordinary image shows languages can be translated and the Sri Mandala created on a vibratory accessed by other systems, one field field of electricity. It is the result of Ronald of phenomena can be reciprocated Nameths experiment of translating sound into vision upon another. (Figure 26) The ‘languages’ of sensation are actively interchanged daily. When we talk on the phone our voice is translated into electrical pulses; when we watch the television the picture is broadcast by waves. The spectogram makes it possible to actually see our voice. What this illustrates is that experience, perception and thought are but variable aspects of one great field of consciousness, of creation.

By focusing on the picture of an ill person a healer creates a kinetic link of correspondence. He translates his intention by way of the picture to bring about a cure of the person’s illness. Photography at one time was also unimaginable, as was much of what we now take for granted. In light of this it seems strange that we can no longer imagine or accept the plausibility of what was once common knowledge.

5.6 Sensational Convergence The Sri-NJ Mag, the domain of metaphor, is the jewelled matrix at the center of all correspondence. The mythic theatre comes alive through its flowering form. The correlative relations concealed in its depths inspire a fusion of the senses, which in turn, takes them beyond their normal limits and thereby reveals ‘other’ dimensions of consciousness. When we describe any kind of convergence we must combine at least two or more aspects or factors. The convergence of the sensual fields is known as synesthesia.

I first experienced this phenomena on a journey through a bandit77

ridden, enchanted jungle in Mexico. Our driver, unable to cross a flooded section of road, dropped my girlfriend, Gigi and I off, in the middle of no where.

The dark and cloudy sky was drizzling. The light of the full-moon couldn’t penetrate its veil. The jungle was pitch black and we were without umbrella or flash light. We were also exhausted and making matters worse had no idea which direction to take to get back to where we were staying. Soon we were soaking wet and as we walked along the dirt track it often forked off in several directions, compounding our predicament. I made a conscious effort to tune into our destination and followed my inner voice. Nevertheless it wasn’t the only voice that had a say in the matter.

After an hour or two of walking I became hyper-sensitive, so much so, that my hair stood on end, tingling with energy. My body became an organ of lucid sensation. I was acutely aware of everything around us, even the slightest and most distant sounds prompted vivid images. As the leaves rustled a small frog appeared on the screen of my mind. I didn’t have time to ponder what it might have been as the sound and image happened nearly simultaneously. The jungle seemed as if it were no longer outside but as if it were a part of my body. This feeling stayed with me until we finally made it back to Rio-Caliente.

This experience left me with a greater impression of what being alive means. Our senses, like shutters normally lock us into a dense, mechanized conception. Only a very limited range of experience is officially sanctioned and anything else is considered at best immoral or at worst illegal. Our complex lives and livelihoods have numbed the perceptive qualities of the inner mind.

The full, thriving force of life is a supra- sensual experience. The inner universe and its external reflections are in a constant state of interpenetration. This is where the “Oracle of Revelation” comes in.

It illuminates the place where the inner and outer conjoin and leads to an experiential realization of the cosmos in man.

Where does the inner world stop and the outer world begin? Is the water that you drink any different from a stream pouring over stones? Our environment exists as much inside of us as we are inside of it. Imagine the elements that constitute who you are, from the alternating force that drives your heart, to the tiniest stellium of cells that form the living tissue of your body; from your breath to the sky you are truly a universal being. On this level of ‘ awareness’ it is possible to step beyond the gross limits of the senses and logic itself.

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“The Sri Yantra represents all ‘parts’ of the whole: everything that has name and form as well as super-empirical completeness ­— in other words, everything given to experience as well as transcendent infinite fullness”4 Logic only takes us to the brink of realization. To illuminate the transcendent levels of consciousness, we must relinquish logic’s hold and surrender to the experience of sacred wisdom.

How and when did the universe begin? When, can never be proven. It wasn’t witnessed in a historic sense and will remain a question that can not be answered. In Golden Mean time however, it could be said to have happened before, and before is a part of the eternal present.

How the universe began, according to current opinion, is by accident, the whim of nothingness. Thought reneges when it has no form to latch on to. Everything is thought to have come from somewhere or something. When that somewhere is no-where and that something is no-thing, the mind cannot grasp its meaning, let alone prove it. Through metaphor we can however witness its truth, and re-collect or re-member its reality.

After the mystery, logic does indeed step forward to suggests that the ‘somewhere’ must proceed the ‘something’, as the place that a thing occupies must pre-exist its occupation. Before a child can be born there must be a place for it to be born into. This is where our journey begins. Standing under the canopy of metaphor we will experience the unfoldment of creation through the flower of the illustrious Sri-NJ Mag Mandala

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Chapter 6 The Universal Mandala

6.1 Unknown Origins In Development 85%

The Mystery of the NJ Mag

6.2 Isle of Avalon In Development 85% In Development 85%

The Glastonbury Experience

6.3 A Vision of Revelation The New Jerusalem

In Development 85%

6.4 A New Paradise An Initiation into the Mysteries

In Development 85%

6.5 Union of Heavan and Earth The Squaring of the Circle

In Development 85%

6.6 The Golden Womb The Mother of Form

In Development 85%

6.7 The Geologic Pyramid The Hidden Key

In Development 85%

6.8 Pearly Gates The Twelve Jewels of Revelation

In Development 85%

6.9 The Cosmic Order The Divine Plan

6.1 Unknown Origins If the Sri Yantra is the inner shrine, the palpate of existence, then the New Jerusalem Magnesia mandala, (NJ Mag) is the temple enclosure of the shrine.

The New Jerusalem Magnesia (Figure 27) came into the twenty first century largely through the work of John Michell as exemplified by his “City of Revelation” and the more recent “Dimensions of Paradise”.

The awesome implications of the New Jerusalem Magnesia are profound to fathom. What John describes is no less than the cosmic plan, numbers that map the actual interstellar proportions and measurements that we observe as fudamental to time and space.

The NJ Mag is the child of legend, a time long before history was recorded. When it crossed the threshold of great antiquity, of ‘prehistory’, its origin was lost to certainty. We could guess how and

Figure 27 This is the New Jersulam Magnesia Mandala (NJ Mag) combined with the Sri Yantra. Together they form the pinnacle of symbolic wisdom.

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when it was derived but then again conjecture is often misleading in the mythic realm and tends to stifle the imagination with the blinding glare of presumption.

The NJ Mag has never been only of this world. It has acted more as a doorway and opening between worlds. It is the holy grail of Arthurian legend and the Ark of the Covenant, it is the plan of the New Temple of Jerusalem, of Plato’s ideal city state, Magnesia, of Stonehenge and of the first Christian church. It also provides an answer to the riddle of the Great Pyramid of Giza and is the blueprint of the cosmos (the All).

Even though it is unlikely that we will ever know when or where the NJ Mag entered into the chronicles of mankind, we can enrich our understanding through a contemplation of its unique properties and the monumental places in which it appears throughout the historic world.

6.2 Isle of Avalon The NJ Mag has arisen out of the of mists of the mystic isle, like the resplendent morning sun. In the late sixties, Keith Critchlow, an extraordinary architect, author and geometer, came across the illuminated work of Frederick Bligh Bond a respected English historian and archeologist.

Bligh Bond, who lived around the turn of the last century, was appointed in 1907 by the church of England as the Director of Excavations of the Glastonbury Abbey. An Abbey which the Church ironically had once helped to ruin.

Bligh Bond had the uncanny ability to know precisely where to dig and uncovered hither to unknown parts of the old abbey. One would think that the Church would have been pleased and they probably were, that is, until he published the “Gate of Remembrance”—where he revealed that his success was actually derived from automatic writing, tablets scribed from the ‘other world’.

Glastonbury, the magical Isle of Avalon, is an enchanted place of mystery, rich with revelation, legend and history. Since the remote ages of Old Europe and through the period of Celtic Druidism Glastonbury has been a center of learning, spirituality and mysticism. At the dawning of the Christian era Glastonbury mantained its sacred character and took on the vestments of the church.

“The most dramatic of the Glastonbury legends tells how it became the site of the first Christian church anywhere in the world. Shortly after the crucifixion, 83

St. Joseph of Arimathea in a group of twelve Christian holy men journeyed to Britain and arrived at Glastonbury...

On a site below the hill he decided to build a church and settle his community. He obtained a grant of land consisting of twelve hides or 1440 acres (a hide being equal to 120 acres) and there the Christians founded their church, dedicated to the Virgin Mary.” 101

79.20ft

Figure 28 The plan of the Glastonbury Abbey houses some astounding proportions that directly relate to the NJ Mag. The blue circle held within the square has a diameter of 79.20 ft. The perimeter of the square is then 79.20 ft. x 4-sides = 316.8 ft. 316.8 ft. is also the circumference of the outer circle. A sacred marriage of the circle and square has thus been consecrated in the Chapel.

The twelve hides of Glaston held a special status, they were exempt from ta xes and the Abbot, like the king, was the sovereign ruler.

”In the days of their greatest glory, when the Abbey with its famous library and other treasures was the largest and richest in Britain, Glastonbury monks preserved and venerated the site of the original church of St. Mary, built by St. Joseph and his followers.” 102

Eventually a fire destroyed the original wattle church yet its dimensions were preserved in the chapel that was erected in its place. Glastonbury endured as a center of great learning and sanctity until the Reformation, that is— “When the power of the state prevailed over the interests of Church and people, the last Abott of Glastonbury Richard Whiting, was hanged on a gibbet erected on top of the Tor.” 103 The death of the Abott spelled an end to a remarkable period but even as the chapel lay in ruin the secret treasure of Glastonbury abbey remained hidden not only in another dimension but behind the facade of form, within its proportions and measure.

Keith Critchlow travelled to Glastonbury specifically to check the accuracy of Bligh Bonds inspired findings and measurements. He was not to be disappointed. Keith was able to confirm that indeed 84

the layout of the Abbey held a hidden Masonic scheme (figure 28).

“When this scheme is fully developed, it reveals the form of a treasure, one which the ancient founders of Glastonbury would have reckoned more valuable than anything that could have been dug out of the soil—the geometers’ image of ideal cosmology...

Its modern reappearance is so timely, and its potential as an agent of change in ways of thought and perception is so great, that a new era under its restored influence seems unlikely to be long delayed.” 104 The treasure of the Abbey is hidden in the measure that underlies its form. As earlier stated the twelve hides of Glastonbury make up an area of 1440 acres. The area of the Abbey square, with sides of 79.20 ft. is 0.144 acres or one hundredth of the Glastonbury square. The mean diameter of the Earth is 7920 miles— “And 7920 thousand feet, or 12,000 furlongs, is the length of the side of New Jerusalem as given in Revelation, xxi.” 105

6.3 The Vision of Revelation The NJ Mag is not a product of Christian innovation but its connection to early Christianity was not limited to St. Marys Chapel and the twelve hides of Glastonbury. It was also described and measured by St. John in his New Testament “Book of Revelation”.

This puts the NJ Mag right at the heart of the Christian movement.

In the study of ancient scripture there are several points that must be kept in mind. The first being the historical setting, what characterized the time in which it appeared, secondly, the people and community to which the scripture was directed and thirdly how it fits into the conventions of universal symbolism.

While no one can really be certain that St. John actually had this vision, his description is both visionary and initiated. In Revelations John not only describes his vision and addresses the seven churches but in chapter ten he also speaks of an angelic book of knowledge.

“And the voice which I heard from heaven spake unto me again, and said, Go and take the little book which is open in the hand of the angel which standeth upon the sea and upon the earth.

And I went unto the angel, and said unto him, Give me the little book. And he said unto me, Take it, and eat it up; and it shall make thy belly bitter, but

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it shall be in thy mouth sweet as honey.

And I took the little book out of the angels hand, and ate it up...” 106 The bitter taste of truth once digested nurishes wisdom and eloquance. This passage implies that at least part of what St. John revealed was traditonal knowledge.

Any true spiritual path has on the one hand an initiation into theory or knowledge and on the other, the visionary or experiential realization of that knowledge. No one learns to drive from the manual alone. The manual or instruction only prepares one for the actual experience.

The prophecy and vision of St. John stands at the center of the original, inner teaching of the first Christians. Yet due to the passage of time, the heavy use of gematria and Cabalistic metaphor, Revelations remains one of the least understood Books in the Bible.

St. John’s extraordinary testimony is an example of the revolutionary spirit that guided the early Christian Gnostic orders. Tongues, prophesy, the miracles of Pentecost, the Eucharist, turning water to wine and many other attributes suggest that the birth of Christ was one of the many rebirths of Dionysus and the ancient tradition of wisdom with which he is associated. The early Christians took part in a renewal of the cosmic drama. Under various aliases and at critical moments in the cycles of time, the themes of the primeval age are recast and reborn.

St. John’s vision brought him face to face with brutal scenes of terrifying horror, disaster and destruction. With perseverance he pierced the veil of karmic corrosion that obscures the golden vein of truth. He became the ultimate witness and watched the rebirth of— “a new heaven and a new earth.”

That St. John was carried to the hiegths by the hand of God indicates an altered state of consciousness. It also suggests the commencement of a shamanic journey. A Native American undertaking a vision quest would also be taken to the hiegths by the hand of the payotee god.

The lucid meaning of St. John’s vision is buried beneath layers of time and cryptic analogy.

“And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God...

Having the glory of God: and her light was like unto a stone most precious, 86

even like a jasper jewel, clear as crystal.” 107 The meaning of this paragraph becomes more vivid and significantly richer by breaking it down line by line.

“And he carried me away in the spirit—” is a reference to the dream or subtle body.

“The high mountain—” is where Heaven meets Earth. The mountain is the legendary home of the gods, the abode of divine principals and powers.

“The holy city—” embodies the scales, standards and proportions of the cosmos. As we will descover the holy city is the NJ Mag. “Having the glory of god—” Glory is associated with the power of god, the potent omniscience accompanying all acts of ecstatic communion. Undoubtedly glory refers to the illuminated state of mind and the lucidity of St. John’s trance. In symbolic art the “Glory of God” is represented by a halo.

Each of these phrases also possess a deeper level of meaning, one that can only be gleaned by the conventions of Gematria. The “Book of Revelations”, like the Bible, the Torah and most ancient works are written in codes of number, gematria.

Gematria is at the base of language. It offers an alternative way to read the classical languages whose letters act interchangeably with numbers. In languages like Hebrew, Sanskrit, Aramaic, classical Greek and Latin, letters were not only used to represent phonetic sounds but also numbers. The Latin letter “V” for example, is also the symbol for the number five.

Gematria translates the letters and the names that they compose, into numerical values.

“The code is numerical because number is capable of expressing the underlying relationships between and within all different classes of phenomena.” 108 There was little difference between the measurable, and the words used to describe what was measured. Hence— on one side language was used overtly as a verbal means of expression and on the other, covertly to indicate a higher level of meaning, geometric standards and natural principles.

The meaning was found somehwere between the actual word and its corresponding number. Gematria is fascinating and we will come across it intermittently but a full expose into its workings is beyond the scope of this work.

Even without fully entering the sanctum of Gematria number will

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help us get a clearer picture of what St. John is talking about. But before we immerse ourself in the realm of numeric association lets briefly return to the archatypical points of St. John’s ascent.

St. John’s vision is really an initiatic quest. It took him to the axis between dimensions, to where the worlds meet and time reveals its omniscient secrets. The aspirant must climb the mountain before viewing its vista. The climb is the trial, the journey, the intiation and the vista is the fruit of realisation.

There are numerous parallels between St. John’s initiation and other traditions like Tantra, Saivanism indgenous shamanism and the Cabbalistic traditions of the west.

In most if not all traditions the aspirant must first be ritually purified on the three levels of being, in mind, body and soul. During purification repressed thoughts, feelings and desires rise to the surface before finally being dispelled. The aspirant must renounce or suspend his worldly idenity and call forth the divine element within.

This entails a surrender, a test of faith, an over coming of challenges and doubt. As the veils are ripped from his eyes the aspirant is confronted with the illusions he has mistaken for truth.

The death of the false self, the person we think we are rather than who we really are, makes way for the ascension of the divine self.

St. John experienced this on a macro or transpersonal level. The destruction of his ego, his false self was intermixed with the mass destruction, war and chaos of the apocalypse.

After the destruction of falsity and self deception the divine element of the self becomes fully conscious. The aspirant is no longer simply a man but likened unto a god.

“Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out: and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God: and I will write upon him my new name.” 109 A pillar in the temple of God is an anology for one who understands the signifcants of the temple and carries it throughout life.

The one who overcometh is ready to receive the transmission of knowledge. He is ready to be introduced to the sacred image, the yantra, the scheme of the temple.

The master who guides him has already made the journey and is, in the highest sense of the word, a Guru. St. Johns gurus take the form of Angels, elders and Christ himself. As the master constructs

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the yantra he intones sacred sound syllables and invites the powers that it represents to abide in it. This brings the symbol to life and supersedes itself by becoming what it symbolises.

6.4 A New Paradise Interspersed with the fire and brimstone, beasts and whores are glimpses of the Holy city, the New Jerusalem. As early as chapter eleven St. John is given an instrument to measure the Temple.

“And there was given me a reed like unto a rod: and the angel stood, saying, Rise, and measure the temple of God, and the altar, and them that worship therein.” 110 A dream is the closest that most of us will come to having a vision. Can you image measuring something in a dream. The part of our mind that is visionary, is intuitive and uncomfortable with rational measure. That St. John is told to measure the city would again support our theory, that what is actually occurring is a transmission of knowledge, an initiation into the mysteries.

It isn’t until much later, after the release of the seven poisons from the seven vials by the seven angels, that St. John actually beholds the full glory of what he has been charged to measure.

“And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away... And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.” 111 As chapter 21 continues we return to the verse that opened the previous section.

“And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and shewed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God.” 112 The New Jerusalem was illuminated like a translucent gem.

It has all the markings of a castle in the clouds. Indeed visions of mysterious edifices, floating palaces and whole cities that appear upon the horison are fairly common and well documented throughout history. But again no one has ever been told to measure such an edifice.

St. John goes on to describe the city in some detail. He tells us that it— “ had a wall great and high, and had twelve gates, and at the twelve gates 89

twelve angels, and names written thereon, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel...

On the east three gates; on the north three gates; on the south three gates; and on the west three gates...

And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and in them the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.� 113 Several numbers including the four, the seven and the twelve114 have already been emphasized before St. John actually begins his survey. These numbers are more than simple sums they are symbols and clues that tie into the underlying plot, the plan of the heavenly city.

The importance of the number twelve is repeatedly stressed. If you take another look at figure 27 on Pg ?, you will see that St. Johns references to twelve are represented through and through by the NJ Mag Mandala. Twelve is the one (1) unity/monad manifest through the medium of the two (2) duality/duad.

The number twelve and the six, its half value, are integral to the measure of time, planetary dimensions and spacial relations. There

12 x 12 x 12 x 1.2 yields the number 24,8832. This is a significant number as it yields the mean circumference of the earth which is 24, 883.2 miles.

12 x 660 yields 7920 and this number is the mean diameter of the earth in miles. There are 7920 inches in a furlong and 7290 feet in a league. As you may recall each side of St. Marys Abbey were 79.20 feet long and each of the the sides of the 12 hydes (furlongs) of Glaston were 7920 feet forming a square of 1440 acres.

12 x 12 x 6000 yields 864,000. This is also significant for there are 864,000 miles across the face of the sun and 86,400 seconds in the course of a twenty four hour day 6 x 6 x 60 yields the number 2160. There are 2160 miles across the face of the moon.

66,600 miles per hour is how fast the earth travels around the sun.

The distance between the earth and moon varies between its perigee and apogee or between 221,000 and 253,000 mi. Its average distance is thus 237,000 mi 6 x 6 x 660 miles or 60 x the earth radious.116

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are twelve principal constants in the Sanskrit language and twelve musical half tones, “After the seven sounds, there appear, in the series of fifths, five new sounds... completing the 12 sounds which divide the octave chromatically into 12 half tones.” 115 Besides the 12 hour division between night and day the most well known expression of twelve is probably the celestial zodiac. See box.

These numbers and the English system of measurement itself are clearly part of a canon, a grand scheme that unites the different fields and orders of being. This divine code establishes a core of innate correspondence that links the multitude to the whole, the individual to the universal.

The phrase that St. John used “a reed like a rod” in chapter 21 is referred to as “a golden rod”.

“And he that talked with me had a golden rod to measure the city, and the gates thereof.” 117 Gold is the incorruptible, the untarnishable peak of metallurgical evolution. A measuring rod made of gold would imply an incorruptible unit of measure. In fact, according to the conventions of Gematria, the phrase, “a reed like a rod”, adds up to 1729.

In gematria 1729 can be taken as 1728 or 1730 because of a built in plus and minus factor of one. This factor is partially derived from the dual scale of netto and brutto. Netto being the internal dimensions of a container and brutto being the external dimensions of a container, the Roman foot was 23 units to the Greek 24.

The enigma of St. John’s book of Revelations is only able to be unravelled by the clear lens of certainty that number and gematria provide. The intricate process of building a temple, whether in Europe, India or China, was part of a highly advanced science/art.

Feng Shui and its contemporaneous forms are but simple extractions from this science.

The ancient guild of temple builders had its own nomeclature and technical astuteness in the same way that the field of artificial intelligence has its own terminology and structure today. Give a programing manual to someone who has never seen a computer and they would likely be lost from the first paragraph onwards.

Undoubtably to most of us that is what a lot of this material must seem like.

As the chapter continues St. John commences with his survey

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and the NJ Mag. begins to emerge in its full glory, richness and splendor.

“And the city lieth foursquare, and the length is as large as the breadth: and he measured the city with the reed, twelve thousand furlongs (1 furlong = 660 ft.118).The length and the breadth and the heigth of it are equal.

And he measured the wall thereof, an hundred and forty and four cubits, according to the measure of a man, that is of the angel.” 119 St. John tells us that the city is foursquare, that “the length is as large as the breadth” indicating a perfect cube. A wall is then described that is 144 cubits. It is unclear if this refers to the length or width of the wall or if the wall is a sort of cubed membrane.

It can be ascertained that the two measurements of 12,000 furlongs and 144 cubits are indicative of different scales. If taken literally we would end up with a cube with sides 7,920,000 feet long— each of its six faces would cover an area of 144,000,000 royal cubits or 62,726,400,000,000,000,000 ft. If we enclose this massive cube by a wall that is 144 cubits or 249 ft. high, the wall would be but a hair in comparison.

Besides the apparently irreconcilable difference in scale between the wall and cube, we also need to contend with the cubit and foot.

What cubit is being refered to and what foot is used in the 600 feet of the furlong.

As John Mitchel points out— the problem of reconciling the two standards is compounded by a corrupt translation of the original text. One such example even goes so far as to replace the sacred units of measure with the profane meter.

“Reference to the meter in this context are particularly crass, for it is a unit of recent, secular contrivance, designed in the spirit of ‘scientific atheism’ to bear no relation to any human measure or standard.” 120 If this code were of Christian origin then Roman units of length would apply. However, the NJ Mag is much older than Christianity and the units that compose its measure are Sumerian and Egyptian.

The Sumerian foot— “ has been accurately defined from the graduated tablet known as Gudea’s Rule, now in the Louvre; Berriman in Historical Meterology gives the value of the Sumerian foot as 13.2 inches or 1.1 English feet. The stadion is therefore 600 Sumerian Feet or 660 English Feet, which is equal to a furlong.” 121 The cubit of New Jerusalem is not the common cubit of 1.5 ft but the Egyptian royal cubit which has a length of 1.728 feet (1.2 x 92

1.2 x 1.2=1.728) 122 This unit of measure, the Egyptian royal cubit, is directly implied by the text because as we have seen, 1728 is the gematric sum of the phrase “a reed like a rod”.

The cube structure described by St. John is not that unusual. A Temple builder in India would at once be familiar with the scheme.

The most ancient sanctuaries in Asia, the dolmen, are large stone slabs enclosing a square room at the center of a walled boundary.

Even today in India the inner room (garba griha), of a temple is a cube upon which the rest of the temple is based.

“Above and all around the garba griha (sanctuary) is built the shikhara (mountain), a tower with curving walls, square at the base and circular at its peak. The curves of the shikhara are the result of learned calculations based on the various formulas for squaring the circle.” 123 The inner cube (garba griha) and the periferial wall are expressive of a dual scale. In St. Mary’s Abbey of Glaston we came across two scales— the one applied to the 12 hides or 14,400sq. acres of Glaston and the other to the Abbey itself, which enclosed a proportionally smaller area of 1.44 acres.

In St. Johns account we also come across two scales but here they have become confounded. The smaller scale of 144 cubits refers to the microcosm, the temple of man and the other of 12,000 furlongs125 refers to the macrocosm, the cosmic temple, figure 29. Each of its six faces cover an area of 144,000,0002 furlong.

“The difference in scale between the 12,000 furlongs and the 144 cubits of the New Jerusalem indicates that it represents both the order of the heavens and the constitution of human nature.” 124 It is a curious fact that 248.832, the number of feet in 144 royal cubits, is also the sum of 7920, (the number of feet in a furlong) multiplied by pie (when the value of pie is taken at the more precise value of 864/275), (7920 x 864/275 = 24,883.2). It is no less extrordinary to note that a square of 12 furlongs contains a circle with the diameter of 7920ft. and circumfrance of 24,883.2ft or 14,400 royal cubits.

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Figure 29 The two scales are proportionally identical. The inner cube of 144 (122) cubits represents the smaller scale of the microcosmic indivudal while the larger cube with sides of 12,000 furlongs represents the macrocosm, the universal, the cosmic temple.

14,400 cubit s = 14,400 x 1.728ft (123) = 24,883.2 ft (124 x 1.2) 12 furlongs = 12 x 660 = 7920 ft 12 furlongs

12

fu rlo ng s

When the foundation of St John’s New Jersulem is taken as a cube of twelve furlongs t he scheme is per fect ly resolved. The six sides of this cube, each measuring 12 x 12 furlongs would cover an area of 144sq furlongs giving it a total surface area of 864sq furlongs. Besides both the number 12 and the number 144, 864 is another Figure 30 A cube of twelve furlongs = 7920ft.. highly significant number that or 880 rods (a rod is 9ft) has six faces that is associated with time and each cover an area of 144sq. furlongs. The infused with solar attributes. total surface area of the New Jerusalem cube is One 24 hour day contains 864sq. furlongs. The sphere that fits perfectly in this cube has the diameter of 7920ft and a 1440 minutes or 86,400 circumference of 24,883.2ft. The four sides of seconds. T he 2 4 elder s the square result in a periphery of 7920ft x 4 gathered before the throne equals 31,680ft which is exactly 6 miles. of the almighty could be a reference to the 24 hours of a day which are divided into 4 periods of 6 hours— sunrise, noon, sunset and midnight.

“The Square foot contains 144 inches. Therefore, the square foot equals in inches 1/10 of the numerical value of one solar day...(And)... 1/24 part of one square foot equals one hour, and 144 ÷ 24 = 6 square inches...” 126 The New Jersulam cube of 12 furlongs contains a sphere with a radious of 6 furlongs and a circumfrance of 14,400 royal cubits, figure 30.

“The nucleus of St. John’s New Jerusalem can thus be identified as a cube containing a sphere which infact is a model of the Earth on the scale of 1 foot:1 mile, for the diameter of the sphere is 7920 feet and the Earths mean diameter is 7920 miles.” 127 With the New Jerusalem cube established St. John goes on to describe its twelve fold fondation and twelve jeweled gates.

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“And the building of the wall of it was of jasper: and the city pure gold, like unto glass.

And the foundations of the wall of the city were garnished with all manner of precious stones. The first foundation was of jasper, the second, sapphire; the third, chalcedony; the fourth, an emerald; the fifth, sardonyx; the sixth, sardiius; the seventh, chrysoprasus; the eleventh, a jacinth; the twelfth. an amethyst.

And the twelve gates were twelve pearls: every several gate was of one pearl.

And the street of the city was pure gold as it were transparent glass.128 Jasper is composed of superfine quarts granules and iron oxide.

This makes it a very hard stone. Since Paleolithic times jasper has been used to ward off illness and protect against sorcery and deception. The ancient Egyptian warriors wore amulets of jasper to prevail in battle and against adversity. A wall made of Jasper would thus represent the ultimate form of protection.

The rest of the passage is somewhat of a riddle. How can a city of pure gold be unto glass? There have been other references to this transparent gold. Whenever gold is suggested we know that it represents that which is pure and that which endures. When it comes to transparent gold the golden section is what comes to mind. Perhaps transparent gold is a reference to the proportional basis of the New Jerusalem. The scales and harmony that it expresses are indeed golden, being of pure nature and unchanging determinates.

The question that remains, is— how does the number twelve (twelve foundations, twelve gates etc.) relate to the cubed scheme of New Jerusalem. According to the annals of sacred geometry the twelve sided dodecahedron Figure 31 The 12 sided dorepresents the perfect mediation between the decahedron is the perfect sphere and cube. intermediary between the The reasoning behind this is that a square curvaceous arks of the irrais the geometric expression that embodies tional circle and the straight the nature of the number four and the lines and staunch symmetry of the square. The 360° of a circle, the geometric expression of the circle when divided by twelve, three in one. The relation of the diameter of bears twelve sections of 30° the circle to its circumference is aprox 1:3. degrees and this is the cosmic The 360° degrees of circle can be evenly scheme embodied by the divided into whole numbers by multiples twelve signs of the zodiac.

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Figure 32 At a square’s center, the vertical and horizontal elements cross and divide the one square into four smaller ones or quarters.

Further division by this method leads to graphs which chart the positions and measures of space.

It is from this crisscrossing alternation of opposite poles that all phenomena finds birth; birth adds to the species and hence we arrive at the plus sign [+], which when placed diagonally becomes the sign of multiplication [x]. In fact the Diagonal Section of a square does indeed engender a magnification of the root square.

of three, 360/3 = 120°, 360/6 = 60° etc..

These divisions are circuits of form that arise out of the possibilities contained within the circle/sphere. Of course when we multiply the four and three (3 x 4=12) we end up with twelve, or in the language of form the dodecahedron—the perfect mediator between the circle and square, figure 31.

The circle is actually a flattened sphere and the square a flattened cube. A circle is the first geometric form to arise out of the ‘point mysterium’. Through the clock like movement of the creator’s compass, the central point of origin is projected upon a circle’s circumference. The original mystery in turn becomes Pi, the circle’s transcendental proportion. The circle remains “the simplest and most self-sufficient of spaceenclosing shapes, and the matrix of all others, it is the natural symbol of that unique living creature, the cosmos.” 129

The circle is a symbol of the heavens and the irrational nature of the omniscient principle. While the circle is extraterrestrial, the square is very solidly terrestrial.

Being symbolic of the created sphere, the squa re w ithin the circle (figure 32), represents the solidification of the original unity in the four directions of space. The square becomes the root of cellular division and provides the fondation for manifestation.

At a square’s center, its progeny appear in tessellating patterns; the vertical and horizontal elements cross and divide the one square into four smaller ones or quarters. A further division by this method leads to graphs which chart the positions and measures of space.

It is from this crisscrossing alternation of opposite poles that all phenomena finds birth; birth adds to the species and hence we arrive at the plus sign [+], which when placed diagonally becomes the sign of multiplication [x]. In fact the Diagonal Section of a square does indeed engender a magnification of the root square, figure 32.

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In ancient Egyptian art a square was depicted upon the throne of the pharaoh and of other divine figures. Without plunging into the quite extensive depths of this regal position and to put it quite simply, the square here represents the stability of the Pharaoh’s character, the fairness of his rule and the four corners of his kingdom. The square is the foundation of wholeness and is further characterized by the qualities of stability, firmness and definition.

A square, formed by four equal lines joined at right angles, is an expression of perfect symmetry. This innate sense of order pervades the natural realm— the square of elements, of earth, water, air, and fire find correspondence with the four seasons and with innumerable other orders of four’ness that appear at the base of the natural sphere.

The purpose of religion, being to unite the Earth bound and temporal human reality with the celestial and eternal principles of the divine, is synonymous with the squaring of the circle.

“The cosmic temple was an equilibrator, whose function was to reconcile all the diverse and contradictory aspects of nature.” 130

6.5 The Union of Heavan and Earth In the multiplistic complexity of our current world view, the simple meaning of things has become difficult to grasp. Even though the entire universe rests upon a few simple and basic principles, its nature is not easily understood. Ancient priest, skilled geometers, discovered that number and the forms that express them, were of a nature that described cosmic functions and hence natural laws.

The universe be it material or ideal is built upon form. Inherent within the structure of every form is a natural distinction and symbolic meaning. This is to say that each form exhibits particular characteristics and tendencies. The roundness of a circle, in stark contrast to the fixed stability of a Square, lends itself toward mobility and movement.

However in some ways the square like the circle partakes of an irrational quality. In that the diagonal of a square is arrived at by mulitiplying its side by the sq root of 2, an irational number that is figured at 1.41421356... (see figure 32) Contrary to the reliance on strict definitions that deal in fixed quanities the sacred technology of the ancients used close approximations to symbolise the true nature of things. The very fact that there are irrational numbers means that the universe in which we live cannot be confined to a simply rational chararater. As John 97

Mitchell so aptly states: “The geometer’s aim, therefore, is to imitate the universe symbolically, depicting its central paradox by bringing together shapes of different geometric orders, uniting them as simply and accurately as possible and thus creating a cosmic image which, as Plato claimed for his Magnesia plan, ‘most nearly resembles the original’ and is ‘second only to the ideal’. Dimensions Pg 65 (newly added) The squaring of a circle by the traditional tools of the geometer, by a straight edge and campus alone,131 has been proven to be impossible. Eighty years after it was found to be an irrational number and towards the end of the nineteeth century, Lindemann finally proved that the problem cannot be precisely solved. Because Pi, the figure that expresses the relationship of the diameter of a circle to its circumfrance, is a tracendetal number that cannot be expressed as a true ratio, only an approximate one.

It was for this reason that the relation of a circles diameter to its circumfrance is unable to be expressed numerically. The relationship is irrational because it does not conform to the rational dimension.

It takes part of a different kind of order, a trancendatal order that is beyond the purely physical.

The problem of squaring the circle was also known as the quadrature and while it cannot be solved numerically132 it can be closely approximated geometrically in the manner in which Plato would agree.

While the squaring of the circle is often considered to be a Greek problem the first literary referance to it happens to not only not be Greek but is also one of the earliest writings on mathmatics.

The Rhind paprus was purchased by a Scottish lawyer, turned Egyptologist, Henry Rhind. The papyrus was found at Thebes and purchased by Rhind at Luxor in 1858.

It was scribed around 1650 BCE by an Egyptian named Ahmes who himself copied it from a document from the Twelth Dynasty making it a couple of hundred years older. However some believe that the papyrus is based on a work going back to around 3400 BCE In problem 50 of the Rhind papyrus Ahmes describes that by simply cutting off 1/9 off the circle’s diameter a square can be constructed of area nearly equal to that of a circle. (Illustrate this) This is quite a good approximation that produces a value for pi of 3.1605, rather than 3.14159. (Soft Quote (The History of Mathmatics

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pg 34 and 54) The squaring of a circle suggests the union between Heaven and Earth, between spirit and matter. The square represents the earthly throne upon which the highest spirit incarnates.

“The medium by which all knowledge of the past has been transmitted into the present is the language of symbolism, and the particular cipher that represents and contains the secrets of the canon is the f igure of the square in conjunction with the circle.” (Revelation, J. Michell Pg 51-3)

Figure 33 A squares relation to the circle is four fold.

The relationship between the circle and the square thus finds representation in St. John’s New Jerusalem, Plato’s Magnesia, the great pyramid of Giza as well as in Hindu Temples and Buddhist Stupas and in a sweeping array of other stunning edifices. In most of these examples the circle and square are conjoined with equal parameters (figure 36) which is only one of the four ways in which the circle and Figure 34 The square that square dynamically interrelate, figure 33. fit s within a circle has The first two relations (figure 34 and 35), a diagonal equal to the are very simply derived by placing a square in circles diameter a circle and inversly a circle within a square.

The first relation between a square and circle is exhibited by a square that fits perfectly within a circle, figure 34 In this example the diagonal of the square is equal to the circle’s diameter. It is clearly evedent that the area of the circle is greater than that of the square.

This represents the individuals place in the cosmos.

The second relationship is exhibited by a circle that fits perfectly within a square, figure 35. In this example the diameter of the Figure 35 The circle that circle is equal to the side of the square. This fits within a square has a suggests that the body’s organic frame houses diameter equal to the side the inner jewel of divine spirit; that the whole to the square. cosmos incarnates individually in and through all created things. It represents the journey into the depths of one’s 99

being and the spiritual center finding perfect expression in manifestation.

The construction of the third relation, wherein the perimeter of the square is equal to the circle’s circumference (figure 36) is not as readily achieved. The equanimity enjoyed between the circle and square represents the sacred marriage, the union Figure 36 The square with a of heaven and earth. It is this relation that periphery equal to a circles establishes the foundation for the Sri NJ Mag circumference represent the and is considered as a manifestation of the union of heaven and earth. It is this glymph that lays at the squaring of a circle.

The fourth relation wherein both the base of most temples circle and square contain equal areas, figure 37, was considered one of the three great problems of antiquity. Being of a highly complicated nature and largely outside the dictates of classical geometry, it is rarely found in the architecture of temple complexes.

However it has been closely approximated by the ruler and compass method in a paper published by Ramanujan in the Journal of the Indian Mathematical Society in 1913.

Figure 37 The square and There is also some indication that the circle with equal areas is a conical peaks of Hindu temples are architecvery complex drawing and turally based on a spiral that embodies this rarely found in temple archiform of squaring the circle. tecture.

Leon Cooper in an extensive online article on Egyptian Pyramid Design shows how the four main pyramids of Egypt incorporate in very close approximation the squaring of the circle. He shows that on the one hand this is accomplished in terms of area and on the other in terms of circumfrance. (L. Cooper (rc@sover.net).

The primary realtions between the circle and square that appear in the Sri NJ Mag Figure 38 The three main re- are exhibited by the square held within a lations between the circle and circle (figure 34), the circle held within the square that appear in the Sri NJ square (figure 35) and the intermediary Mag are here combined. circle that has a circumfrence equal to the 100

squares peremeter (figure 36).

6.6 The Golden Womb To continue our exploration into the relationship between the square and circle we must discover how it is that a perfect square and circle can be constructed in the first place. A circle can be simply drawn by simply tieing a string to a center pole and marking its outer limit and it is this principle that undoubtably led to the development of the compass. The easiest way to construct a perfect square is by way of four circles, a double vesica piscis, Figure 39 By way of four circles, or a figure 39. double vesica piscis three squares can Each circle is the same size and be drawn without the use of measure, drawn so that the edge of one circle intersects the center point of the other. When two circle are drawn in such manner this forms an almond shaped cavity between them that is known as the vesica piscis, figure 40. Infact the golden section that we explored in chapter (?) and all other forms are given birth by way of the vesica.

The Vesica Piscis is indeed the seed of all geometry, the geometric Holy Grail, from which all polygons emerge. It is as well the symbol of convergence between the permanent realm of the ideal and the temporal realm of the actual or in other words between spirit and matter. The vesica is a opening between worlds.

To quote from John Michell’s, “City of Revelation” the Vesica Piscis is: “...the simplest and most informative geometric symbol, being the orifice formed of two interpenetrating circles, the centre of each lying on the circumference of the other: this is the womb from which are generated all the numbers and ratios of the Cosmos.” (City of Revelation Pg 72) Given its fer ta l qua lities

√2 √5

Figure 40 The intersection of 2 equal circles produces the vesica piscis. As shown here it produces the 1√2 golden rectangle. The diagonal of the rectangle adds a tail to its almond shape giving it a fish like appearance.

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and the fact that the Vesica resembles a fish, whose tail and eye becomes apparent with the construction of a Golden Mean rectangle (figure 40) it corresponds with the biological theory which generally concludes that organic life was originally conceived in the waters.

The Vesica was a symbol in common use in ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome where it represented the womb of the Goddess, the Pythagorean ‘measure of fish’ and the astrological constellation and age of Pisces.

An odd correlation with our subject of the circle and square is brought to lite when we consider that a northern district of ancient Egypt, mysteriously left out of the network of its nomes (townships), was represented hieroglyphically by an rectangle: ”which is either empty or filled with water or fish...” This Hieroglyph also denotes “the Square of Pegasus... There are in the sky four stars which are at a distance of about 15° from each other and mark a square with sides that run according to celestial meridians or parallels;... The Square of Pegasus (which is in the sign of Pisces) was considered the starting point in the mapping of the sky.” P. Tompkins “Great Pyramid” PG 297 The vesica piscis was adopted by the early Christians who often portrayed the Infant Christ within it representing the womb of his mother. The vesica piscis is also known by the Italian term mandorla, meaning almond shaped. It was this shape that found its way into medeaval sacred art as an aureole of light surrounding divine figures.

One cannot help but notice that the Vesica resembles the shape of an eye. The eyes have long been thought of as ‘the windows of the soul’. Upon their visionary path the mind reaches out and recreates the world within.

The eye and its power of sight share an affinity with time’s legion of Sun gods. Light is what colors the world with life and gifts the eye with the ability to see. The eye(s) are predominately a symbol of illuminating awareness and intelligence To the ancient Egyptians, the Sun was the right eye of Re ‘the supreme principle of light’ with the moon being his left. The lunar phases represent various stages of nightly initiation and like story line frames, they depict the struggle between the Sun god Horus and Seth. In ancient Egypt the Vesica was indeed a symbol of Re, the illuminating and fertal force that gives birth to the world.

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6.7 The Geologic Pyramid The venerable vesica also provides one of the simplest geometric ways to achieve a close approximation of the highly symbolic ‘squaring of the circle’.

Two vesicas crossing each other on the horizontal and vertical axis generate an intermediar y space wherein the convergence of a square and circle naturally occurs (figure 41).

It is clear that the first poligon to enclose space and establish a plane is the triangle. It is also clear that the Figure 41 The circumference of triangle represents the number three and the circle and the perimeter of the square naturally generated in the the square the number four. The triangle eye of the double vesica piscus are was a symbol of the divine trinity and in functionally commensurate. hierolglyphics represented a woman. It was known as the “holy Door” and acts as a prime intermediary between the circle and square.

The equalateral traingle and its compound rhombus are implicit to the vesica. However it is by way of a right angle triangle with the dimensions of the great Pyramid of Giza that the vesica is able to generate an even more perfect model of ‘squaring the circle’ (figure 42).

The great py ra mid was constructed with an actual angle of 58.17 degrees. However this was mathmatically over extended to give a base perspective or apparent angle of 51.51 degrees. This is practically Figure 42 A simple vesica is constructed first.

Both circles composing it are contained in a larger vesica. A triangle can then be constructed with its base running through the lower point of the small vesica and spanning the breadth of the larger one. Its apex extends to the top of the smaller vesica. A circle can then be added with a diameter equal to the base of the triangle. This circle is then enclosed by a square. Another circle is added with a radius extending to the tip of the triangle. The outer circle and square exhibit virtually the same peremeters.

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the same angle of the triangle that we have constructed figure 42 and 43. In this composition we have seen how a pyramid trine, born from the vesica, presides over the sacred marriage of a square and circle of equal perimeters.

The dimesions of the pyramid correspond with the scales established in St. Johns revelation and with the actual measures of the earth. When expressed by these dimesion the pyramid has a height of 5040 and a base with sides of 7920. In this manner each of its four faces exhibits an area of 19,958,400 giving it a total area of 79,833,600.

The total area of the pyramid is exactly the same as the area of the outer circle (79,833,600) which has a radius equal to the pyramids height. The square base of the pyramid has sides of 7920, a perimeter of 31,680 and an area of 78,833,600. The outer circle that it squares has a diameter of 10,080, a circumference of 31,680 and an area of 79,833,600. This shows that indeed the square and

5040

10080 7920

Figure 43 The triangle formed by our vesica exhibits an angle that is within minutes of the 51.51 angle of the great pyramid. If we take each side of the square base of the pyramid as 7,920 its height would be 5,040 and its perimeter 31,680. The circle held within this square would exhibit a diameter of 7,920 and if pi is taken as 864/275 it would have a circumference of 24,883.2. The outer circle squared would thus have a diameter of 10,080 and if pi is taken as the more common value of 22/7 it would exhibit a circumference of 31,680.

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circle are of equal perimeters of 31,680.

The number 79,833,600, the area of both the pyramid and outer circle embodies the first eleven numbers. 79,833,600 is precisely 2 x 11! or two times the result of 1 x 2 x 3 x 4 x 5 x 6 x 7 x 8 x 9 x 10 x 11 (2 x 39,916,800).

We have come across many of these numbers before in St. Johns New Jerusalem cube. They are of great import to the cosmic order and hold a preeminent place in sacred science and life itself. We will continue to touch upon and examine their significants throughout this chapter.

I have not designated a unit of measure to the above numbers.

However, they are veritable units of proportional scale to the basic dimensions of the great pyramid.

Because of its missing capstone and dilapidated state the exact dimmesions of the pyramid are difficult to pin down. However this has not always been the case. Although shrouded in mystery the pyramid has been studied, researched and written about for over two and a half thousand years.

Peter Thomkins, in his book “Secrets of the Great Pyramid� has compiled this data into a very clear and conscise compendiun.

Based on his research and with the help of Dr. Stecchini, who has dedicated his life to the study of ancient number and measure, Thompkins has been able to resolve many of the pyramids ambiguities.

A scientific survey cunducted in the early twenith century by an engeneer named Cole is presumed to be within millimeters of the pyramids true size. Relying on Coles survey and geodetic measure Dr. Stecchini was able to conclude that each face of the pyramid was designed to vary slightly so to express several geometric orders.

Stecchini shows that this slight deviation in relation of its base and hiegth allowed the builders of the pyramid to incorporate both the pi and phi proportion into its structure.

The following outline of the pyramids dimesions, as determined

by Coles survey, proves that the pyramids mesures do indeed numerically correspond, by an approximate ratio of 7/11, to the units we have used.

In whole numbers each side of the pyramid is actually 756ft. in length or appoximately 440 shorter cubits of 1.71818 ft. The peremeter of the the pyramids base is 1760 cubits or 36,288 inches.

The hieght of the pyramid, to within a fraction, can be taken as 481 ft.

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The pyramid is situated to within seconds of true north with its four sides orientated to the four cardinal directions. It has also been built to functionaly incorporate the two most important irrational proportions (Phi and Pi) to a scale that expresses the actuall dimensions of the earth and moon and cosmos.

This suggests that the ancient Egyptians possessed an extraordinary understanding of cosmic engineering that goes far beyond what egyptologist are giving them credit for. The Pyramid is infinintely more rich in symbolism than can here be elaborated.

While its study is indeed fasinating whats important for us is not really the precise and extensive codises built into the pyramids make up but its realtionship to St, Johns vision, the Nj Mag. and the sacred science to which they belong.

6.8 Pearly Gates With fondations of the temple outlined by only a ruler and straight edge. Let us witness first hand how this fondation appears cosmically and blossoms into the full mandala of the Sri NJ Mag After describing the twelve fold fondation of the New Jersulam. St John continues in Revelation 21:21 and tells us that its twelve gates “were twelve pearls”. His reference to pearls as gates could be little other than symbolic metaphor.

In annals of symbolism pearls represent the moon. They are imbued with its characteristics by shape, lustre and shade. Pearls, once thought of as ‘heavenly dew’, draws the power of the moon down to the terrestrial sphere. The moon is also considered to be the gateway of the soul.

Pearls reflect lunar cycles in their stratified steps of manifestation—like a particle of sand slowly being transfigured by layer upon layer of precious nacre, until it finally becomes a lustrous pearl; the new moon seed grows in layers of light until the full moon pearl casts its illuminating curtain across the night sky.

The moon is a tiny orb in space; with a diameter of 2,160 miles (3,476K), it is just 27 percent of the earth’s size. However, given the perfection of its relative positioning, the moon can entirely cover the 864,000 mile diameter of the solar orb. These numbers—innocent measures, are not meaningless figures, as we are discovering they they are portents of great depth, indicative of the mysterious ways in which space and time interweave.

Given the diameter of 2,160 miles the moon has a radius of 1,080 miles. 1,080 is also half the length of the 2,160 years which

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compose one ‘Great’ month in the ‘Platonic Year’ of 25,920 solar years. Jumping a couple levels of magnitude 108,000 years is one quarter of 432,000 years, the duration of the Kali Yuga, the Hindu age of conflict. 10,800 is the number of seconds in three hours of time and 1,080 minutes make up three quartes of a day or 18 hours.

The Pearl born within the shell, which itself is of the waters, is the jewel of femininity, the true treasure of Aphrodite and a symbol of the moon’s gift to humanity. It not only carries the lustre of love and the beauty of purity, but also represents the perfection of wisdom.

The process undertaken by the pearl forming mollusc is nature’s way of saying hardships, obstruction and agitation are merely meant to be transformed into the vivid realization of Lifes treasures.

Figure 44 The full moon is like the great pearl of the night sky. It has a diameter of 2,160 miles giving it a radius of 1080 miles.

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6.9 The Cosmic Order In returning to our diagram notice that the difference between the diameter of the inner and outer circles in figure 43 and 45 is 2160.

Therefore the space between the outer and inner circles is 1080 unites. This is a remarkable fact! As noted in the previous section 1080 miles is the actual radius of the moon, which has a mean diameter of 2160 miles.

Using the appex of the pyramid as the center point and the distance between the two circles as the radius we are able to add a circle that is in perfect proportion with the moon. In this manner the first pearl gate of the New Jersulam is established, figure 45.

If we enclose the moon circle within a square with sides equal to its diameter and draw a line to the corner of the square containing the earth. A pythagorean triangle with sides relative to 3-4-5 is formed. This is same triangle at the heart of the great pyramid. and defines its cross section.

As you can see the triangles hiegth of (3) is defined as 2160 by the side of the moon square. 3 goes into 2160, 720 times. Its base line of (4) multiplied by 720 results in 2880 and it diagonal (5)

2160 3 Moon

5 4

1080

7920

1080

Earth

Figure 45 With the opening of the first pearl gate a perfect 3-4-5 triangle is also defined. The appeax of great pyramid not only engenders the squaring ot the circle but also lands right in the middle of the moon when its orb is tangent to the earth.

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multiplied by 720 results in 3600 units of length. The numbers 3-4 and 5 add up to 12 and when multiplied together give a product of 60. Like these numbers 720 (72 x 10) is another principle key in the sacred order of the cosmos.

1 x 2 x 3 x 4 x 5 x 6 = 720 8 x 9 x 10 = 720 720 x 7 = 5040, the radius of the circle 720 x 11 = 7920, the side of the square 5040 x 7920 = 11!, 39,916,800 or half the area of the circle While we have established the fondation and the first gate of the holy city we know that there are eleven more to follow. St John provides a hint in the following passage.

21:13—On the east three gates; on the north three gates; on the south three gates; and on the west three gates.

When we place three more moon gates at the cardinal points corresponding to the north, south, east and west of the compass dial a mystical cross is given shape, figure 46.

The cross has come to represent Christianity. However like the Nj Mag itself the cross is a symbol that appeared long before the advent of Christianity. It has been found in pre-Columbian America, where it denoted the god Tlaloc and Quetzacoalt.

To t he N a t ive A mer ic a n Blackfoot tribe it represented the ‘old man that rules the winds’. The north wind is the cold intellect; the south wind is the fire of passion; the east wind is the is the giver of life and love and the west wind is mystery and the unknown.

Each of the four winds also Figure 46 The earth with four lunar positions at correspond to one of the four the cardinal points gives form to a cross. Using corners of the square and the inter section points principles elements. between the cross and the periphery of the square Images of a cross have the circle can be divided into 12 equal segments.

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been found across the ancient world at sites linked to the Assyrians, Hindus, Greeks, Persians, Celtic Gauls and the Egyptians.

Similar to the union of the circle and square the cross represents a coming together of opposites. Its vertical pillar is the celestial, male and its horizontal pillar is the earthly female.

The cross is the key that opens the twelve fold nature of the New Jersulam plan.

Once the cross is added it is Figure 47 From the twelve fold division that the possible to divide the circle cross engenders the remaining eight pearly gates can be added to the plan. The base of each sphere into twelve equal sections, rest on the inner circle with its side flush with one figure 46 and 47. of the twelve line of division. In this position the At the center of the cross moon pearls take on an added identity as the an inner sphere representing twelve fruits bore from the tree of life. the center of the earth is givin form. Like Christ in the center of twelve apostles or a seed in the midst of the heavenly garden.

The cross a symbol of the cosmic axis is also identified with the cosmic tree or tree of life. This becomes significant when considered next to the following passage from St. Johns book of Revelations.

22:2 In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.�

From this passage it becomes obvious that the twelve lunar gates can also be taken as fruits of the tree of life. If you recall the number 2160 is not only a measure of space, the diameter of the moon, but also a measure of time.

A Platonic month of 2160 years is determined by the time it takes the sun to move through one sign of the zodiac. Twelve of these combine to form a Pythagorean great year of 25,920 solar years.

25,920 divided by 432 results in 60. The number that divides the circle into three equal parts and upon which the entire calcualtion of time rests.

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One “great year is the fifth part of the Chinese Great Year or Yuen, equal to 25,920 x 5 = 129,600, itself the double of the Hindu manvantara, 25,920 x 2.5 = 64,800, which, according to Eastern doctrine, always brings humanity back to its starting point.�16 The twilight and dawn of each Platonic month, Great Year and other major cycles of time, are extremely potent periods when psychic and spiritual activity increase, omens predominate and huge shifts alter the very poise of nature. It is during these periods of revelation and intensity, that the NJ Mag. appears to reinvigorate humanity.

The building of Stonehenge, another example of the NJ Mag, took place as the Platonic month of Taurus was turning to Aries, and the Christian era began with Aries turning to Pisces. The current age of Aquarius by most indications has already dawned. Aquarius is ruled by Uranus who is patron of mass communication, lightning, computers and revolution.

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Chapter 7 Platos Magnesia

7.1 ????

In Development 85%

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7.2 ????

In Development 85%

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