Tibet, India and the Chinese and the Calendars that Join them

[Originally published in The Chakra, 21 February 2011]

‘…What is to emerge? In what way will the soul of Tibet manifest? What will be the new religious-spiritual experience after the ordeal of the “labour pains” is over? Of this we cannot as yet be certain. But it is sure that the soul of Tibet awaits a higher manifestation, a field wherein it can express the higher triad of planets and the quarter of Unity [last quarter] of the zodiac. It could no longer survive under the yoke of Scorpio, imprisoned in the area of the Asteroid belt, so to speak – thrust to and fro between Mars and Jupiter, carrying one over to the other and trying to impose this on today’s birth; menaced on the other hand by violence and aggression and on the other limited by dogmas of a religion and philosophy which must now give way to a new experience of the soul, a true awakening of the Spirit in accordance with the times.
‘And when that time arrives there is nothing that can hold the process back; just as there was no power that could hold the Chinese back, for even with the highest Tantric knowledge and understanding of the manifestation of occult forces that the Lamas of Tibet possess, there was no stopping the fall of the nation into the hands of the enemy, nor was there any assistance received from outside…’ (The Gnostic Circle, Chapter 14, page 179, Aeon Books, 1975).

These paragraphs bring to a close the chapter, ‘Tibet: its destiny in the Gnostic Circle’ of my book, The Gnostic Circle. I wrote pointedly ‘…. for even with the highest Tantric knowledge of occult forces that the Lamas of Tibet possess, there was no stopping the fall of the nation into the hands of the enemy, nor was there any assistance received from outside…’

When I wrote these lines I was unaware of the real root of Tibet’s inability to protect herself from the Chinese invasion and occupation. For the fact is that the practice of Tantric occultism and other ancient practices of the same order require – nay, demand – the allegiance of Mahakala, the Great God of Time. In Tibet’s case, as well as in India’s, this allegiance was frittered away over the centuries. Such having been the case, both civilisations have suffered the humiliation of foreign rule. Both have witnessed their land overtaken by forces of the opposite end of the spectrum – spirit/matter.

The signal that Time’s allegiance was lost in Tibet and India goes back to the 12^th Century when a disarrangement of the calendars in both nations began. Over the centuries this mismanagement of calendrical matters has assumed alarming proportions. Unfortunately Tibet for the most part follows India’s lead in these matters, having opened its arms many centuries ago to embrace Buddhism, born on Indian soil in approximately 500 BCE. From there Buddhism dug deep roots into Tibet as well as farther east. This adoption of a spiritual path that emphasises the unreality of material existence in favour of the Nirvanic experience of the Void was an underminer of all things rooted in time and space. It was entirely predictable that before long the correct computation of Time for rituals and horoscopy would move away from the true temporal system and that essential connection would be lost.
The results in both cases have been devastating. Tibet lost the power to protect herself, as did India. Given the isolation of Tibet, the effect of the loss was more definitive. There were no attenuating influences which do exist in India’s case, given her traditional openness. Therefore, the signs of the loss in India’s case lie primarily in Kashmir: Partition brought Pakistan Occupied Kashmir and Aksai Chin into existence – glaring wounds in the Mother’s Body to remind us constantly that all is not well in the subcontinent. There is much work to be done as yet for the true experience of unity and integration.
In India there was the sobering influence of Science which, while being responsible for the decimation of the Hindu Calendar by imposing the Nirayana system rooted in the constellations rather than reposing on the four Cardinal Poles with their Equinoxes and Solstices – i.e., the solar calendar of the Tropical Zodiac. Thus, on the one hand science meddled in matters beyond its purview to create a complete disconnect with Mahakala, on the other it obliged rationalists of the day to adopt the universal calendar for official purposes which is indeed rooted in the Tropical Zodiac.
India continues to carry the burden of this split between matters material and those of the spirit. While this split continues the Mother’s Body will remain as it is with the many arms of the Goddess severed from her torso, leaving her at the mercy of forces that have no such conflict of interests. China is a prime example.
On the other hand, Tibet was totally insulated from outside influences, trapped in the medieval structure of her temporal-spiritual life without being open to outside influences that could have weakened the hold of those retrograde forces that had disrupted her allegiance with Time. Indeed, similar to what I have written in my latest piece Caste, Calendar and Cosmos, Time was in fact used against itself. One of the calendars Tibetans used is called the Kalachakra – the Wheel of Time. Surely Tibet adopted its time prescriptions from India when she imported Buddhism with its legendary disregard for all things caught in the web of time and space. In both nations the adoption of the ‘more scientific’ Nirayana method was the death knell of their occultism. Time in disarray meant that its power – most essential in all occult practices of worth – was not only withheld but actually used against the very thing it was meant to further. Tibet’s isolation, while saving her from the split in her energy fabric such as we find in India, facilitated the Chinese conquest because there was no attenuating power to contend with. It was simple, predictable – and devastating. It is also predictable that as long as both nations are subject to this calamitous calendrical disease, so long will the energies required to cast out the invaders be suffocated (Tibet) and remain hopelessly divided (India) and inoperative.
And yet the solution is so simple; but perhaps it is this very simplicity that has made it so impossible to see.

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