A New Cosmology

In 1982, Patrizia Norelli-Bachelet wrote a synopsis of her cosmology and yogic research up to that point in time entitled, 'The New Cosmology'. The synopsis is reproduced below on PCU blog, so readers can consider how the CONCEPTUALISM of the Puranic Age has been brought forward into our times and updated by Ms. Norelli-Bachelet through the knowledge conveyed in her books, The New Way, Volumes 1&2 and The Gnostic Circle. The 3rd Volume of The New Way was written in 1983 after the realisation came of 'centering' and thereby 'filling the Void'. This realisation, though described and preserved in the Rig Veda, has been lost to India for thousands of years. Notwithstanding the apparent loss, the Veda are still the bedrock of the Hindu civilisation.

A NEW COSMOLOGY
Synopsis of the Present Research of Patrizia Norelli-Bachelet
MAY 1982

In 1981 I published my most important work, two volumes in one book entitled The New Way, a study in the rise and the establishment of a Gnostic society. It is the fruit of research of many years, a work that is still in progress, the result of which will form the third volume of The New Way, and ultimately the fourth.

For the creation of The New Way I took the cosmology and the synthesis of various philosophic, mystic, and yogic disciplines that I had evolved in an earlier book, The Gnostic Circle, as a basis for the formulation of a revolutionary new means of communication. The Gnostic Circle served as the alphabet, let us say, which I then used in The New Way as a fully evolved language. The purpose of this last book is to present a discussion of the foundations of a new world order, of which India is the centrepiece, – the inspirer and the realiser. On the basis of this newly evolved cosmology, a micro-cosmos is constructed in the book, in which India stands as the central Sun. She is a luminary, an emitter of a new light. Or, to use the ancient Greek terminology, India serves as the ‘navel of the world’. Once this confined experiment is mature, the central Sun then sends off sparks of itself until a new world order, having first taken birth in India, is extended to encompass the whole Earth.

The method I have employed to convey this experience is one often used in antiquity, though it has not been utilised in our times to my knowledge. I have taken the ancient concept of ‘the city’ and used it somewhat in the way philosophers such as Plato have done, or St. John in his Revelation. Other examples of similar usage can be found in the Puranas regarding Bharat herself, her geographical divisions, etc, – all of which were means for conveying the cosmogony that epitomised harmony, order and centrality. Thus in The New Way I literally ‘construct’ the City; and this is a cosmos with India standing at the centre of the galaxy.

The cohesive element in the structure of this City is Time. In this respect The New Way is indeed revolutionary because Time is rendered concrete in the text and serves as the City’s structural framework. Moreover, through this web of Time that is detailed in the book as the basic structural support of the City, India is connected to the entire Earth and makes it one cohesive whole, because time, being a universal element, is the active and dynamic substance in this process. On the basis of a new method for working with Time, it is possible to render the experience of global oneness and unity very real and actual. Time is shown in the book to be the element of cohesion in the collective awareness and perception. As such this City, whose structural component is Time itself, becomes, as it were, a new consciousness. It is this new ‘City-Consciousness’, its rise, its establishment, that is the essence of The New Way and that forms the basis for a more enlightened world order.

My system evolves along lines similar to those laid down by Pythagoras and the earlier Pythagoreans. The Power of Number is the kernel of my cosmology, – as it is in the Pythagorean system. However, while for Pythagoras it was largely a ‘geometry of number’ (or an arithmogeometry of points in space forming gnomons within the Square, or else the triangular Tegtraktys), progressing from 1 to 10 in the scale of number, my work has produced what I call ‘the Geometry of Time’. And this evolves on the basis of the scale, 0 to 9. In addition, this scale has planetary orbital values. It is the incorporation of the Zero that is fundamental in this new cosmology. The entire system is explained in my book The Gnostic Circle.

Basing my system on a scale that incorporates in its most fundamental part the Zero, it can be readily understood why India has come to be so central a piece in this new cosmo-terrestrial order of our age. However, this is clear only when the full nature of the Zero is understood. With this comprehension the true magnitude of the significance of its discovery by the early Indians is brought home. It was a discovery that may have been appreciated fully by mathematicians, but which, in my view, has not received enough attention from philosophers, metaphysicians, and cosmologists. The nature of the Zero and its relevance to Indian spirituality, science and culture are an essential part of my work.

By using concrete elements very much allied in our thinking with matter and material creation (as separate from or different from spirituality), The New Way brings the vision of unity and oneness far more firmly into our real world, on this Earth, at this point in evolution. Indeed, a fundamental aspect of the work is the ultimate fusion of the two poles – spirit and matter – until finally there is no distinction between the two. It is this consciousness of unity that replaces the old order and permits a new society to evolve.

The Contents of Volumes 1 & 2 of The New Way, published in August of 1981, may be examined so that a clearer idea may emerge of the development of this unusual process in the text. I wish therefore to draw attention to the book’s structure, because this will then lead us to an understanding of my present topic of research, which is largely a continuation of what has been accomplished in Volumes 1 & 2.

It may be observed that in the Table of Contents (and a perusal of the book itself) that in the first volume I have given broad outlines, starting from rather a transcendent vision of the whole, based on an analysis of present-day conditions, both positive and negative. I describe our world as it is seen in the ordinary vision, with its pain as well as its felicitous achievements. But the reason for this is only to then reveal that in the midst of this distress the new order is already rising, that it is not a utopia to be reached tomorrow; rather it is a new world already born though yet in an infant stage. In The New Way I locate this ‘child’ in India, on the basis of the new cosmology; and thus begins the ‘constructing process’ of the City-Consciousness. A fundamental element in this cosmology, as stated, is the Zero, which I have connected to OM. This sacred syllable, standing at the heart of all Indian thought, is also the fundamental core of the City-Consciousness. As India in terms of nations is the central sun of the Earth’s terreo-cosmology, so Om is revealed to be the light and central fire of the City.

Again responding to the call to make the experience one of our world, in matter, the Pranava also takes on a concrete form in The New Way. It becomes the ‘Temple’ at the heart of the City. And this is the theme of the second volume, the entirety of which is dedicated to the ‘construction’ of the soul and centre of the City-Consciousness, which in this work is given the form of a Temple.

Thus, The New Way evolves into a rather unique treatise on sacred architecture. But here we begin touching remote history, when sacred architecture was the result of a superior knowledge and corresponded to laws ignored by us today. These ‘Laws of Correspondence and Concordance’ I have detailed at length in The New Way, but they are brought dramatically into our own times. Thus The New Way brings forth an extremely new and sophisticated concept of sacred architecture in India, of our times, not at all belonging to ancient history. All of this serves to concretize India as the centre of a new tomorrow.

The precise formulas which serve to render ‘the Temple’ a unique piece of sacred architecture are given with extreme detail in the second volume of The New Way, revealing what I have called ‘the geometry of Time’. This is the means by which time is woven into space, into a particular measurement of space, which, because of this unique relation with Time, comes to be considered ‘the Golden Rod’ of Western tradition, or the Divine Maya of Vedic times, – using ‘maya’ in its ancient Vedic sense of ‘measure’. Thus we have revealed before us the Divine Measure in the Temple. With this Measure cosmic cycles come alive in the structure by means of the Laws of Correspondence. Consequently The New Way is a valuable contribution to the new scientific discipline called Archaeoastronomy. This discipline seeks to understand the astronomic content of certain extant pieces of sacred architecture dating from ancient times and found in various parts of the world. On the basis of a thorough analysis of this present-day ‘Temple’ of India, the method by which astronomical import is contained in temple or pyramidal architecture is fully explained, as is also its purpose. This study, however, focuses on India’s contribution to the field today, a model of which is given in the book through numerous diagrams and architectural plans.

Yet India’s past is not ignored in The New Way. A look at the contents of the second volume will reveal that while I ‘construct’ the Temple-Soul-Sun of the City, I use this very process as a means to trace the nations’ great heritage through the ages, revealing her unique fitness to occupy the Centre today. Starting from present times I look back (always while ‘constructing’ in the present) into India’s deep past, moving through the Puranic period and the Upanishadic, until finally the Source is reached in Vedic and pre-Vedic times. All along a connection is firmly maintained with the present. Thus the reader is never lost in an abstract discussion which he can only with great difficulty relate to his present life and the world in which he lives. Even while reaching to the most ancient source, The New Way maintains a firm hold on the present. India’s ancient heritage is thus re-vitalised in an exciting and invigorating manner. A sound and realistic new order is built, but one that rests firmly on ancient principles.

The thought of Sri Aurobindo is woven throughout the text (as it is in all my works). He stands as the supreme inspirer. But his philosophy in my work does not serve to render the movement of consciousness in any way static or removed from earthly life and evolution. It is, if I may say, applied philosophy. Therefore the aspect of his work that most harmonises with mine is his concentration on a life divine for the Earth, and his vision of human unity and a new world order.

Brief description of planned future work

The first volume of The New Way is an overall vision, similar to a transcendent survey. The second volume is the new from a cosmic dimension, drawing that transcendent vision into the cosmos or material creation by means of a detailed cosmological structure, a ‘new model of the universe’.

In the third volume, I propose to draw this vision even more closely into life on this planet. Indeed, the third volume is the vision drawn into the individual dimension. I propose to detail the citizens’ participation in the new society, and the means by which a new collective consciousness is formed of individual elements. While the scope is global, India will continue to occupy the central, inspiring position. For example, topics such as the ancient caste system will be discussed at length and in great detail. I propose to show its unifying nature while at the same time outlining the causes for its decline and degeneration into a source of antagonism and discord, which is the opposite of its original intent. By utilising certain diagrams taken from The New Way cosmogony, I propose to show the cosmic foundation of the caste system, which is thoroughly non-sectarian and in its essential nature unrelated to religions; but, above all, to bring this division of society into modern times and show the method by which India can now evolve a superior structure based on an enhanced vision of our solar system as reflective of a new planetary society.

In the third volume I propose to make the nature of the new society even more clearly cosmic and planetary than in Volumes 1 & 2. The individual in such a society is revealed as a planet orbiting a central Sun, and the whole is the experience of a divine and superb Harmony. I propose to emphasise the need for such a society of individuals, if at all the Earth is to support the continued evolution of the human race to a superior poise and emerge from the present impasse, – collective and individual.

Culture will be a prominent aspect of the new society, as treated in the third volume of The New Way. It will take its place in the ‘constructing process’ of the City as the vital breath running through the arteries of the City-Consciousness. This will be shown to serve as a life-giving element in the society, as a constant source of re-newal of energy, always throwing up new forms of itself in all the myriad branches of culture, while being ever based on truth and knowledge. Likewise, economics will come into focus, as will many other aspects of life in the community; all these will be shown to find their true place and poise in the planetary Society and City.

By completion of the third, the set of three volumes will express the three fundamental principles of reality – transcendent, cosmic, and individual, or God, Nature, and Man – in the form of a City.

I envision thereafter a fourth volume, which will centre largely on the physical structure than can house a new society and which will be reflective of that society’s consciousness of unity. This completed work I hope will offer a sound body of knowledge serving as an inspiration and a practical guide for the establishment of a new world order and a consciousness of international unity. A new India, with its ancient heritage, would be the first model-experiment in this work, which then must extend to the four corners of the Earth.

Patrizia Norelli-Bachelet

Puranic Cosmology Updated 2

27 February 2010

More than their cosmological content the Puranas are known to be repositories of the countless myths of the subcontinent. Tradition has kept these tales alive for several millennia; without them what we know today as Puranic Cosmology would have neither sense nor purpose. Mythology and cosmology go hand in hand. One without the other is inconceivable to those who have been initiated into this timeless wisdom. But precisely because Myth, the language of the Soul, forms the core of the cosmology, not only is the system everlasting, it is also renewable. Herein lies its value as a constant.

In this series we shall examine in depth the reason why cosmology of the ancient school carries within a mechanism of renewal and just how this operates with a precision that has come to be ascribed only to the scientific endeavour. Mythology and cosmology have been deprived of that precision due to the separation that occurred in the beginning of the Age of Pisces between the sacred and the profane. However, when such a splintering occurs, bringing in its wake the consequences we note in the field of cosmology itself – science not ‘myth’ – the signal is given that the moment of renewal is upon us.

In the subcontinent this great Divide, let us call it, developed gradually; but by the 18^th century a hardening of the boundary between the two began at an ever increasing pace. What was only a vague influence became firm and seemingly irrevocable. The three closing centuries of the last millennium brought a culmination in this process. Interestingly, it was accompanied by British colonial rule over the subcontinent. Colonialism served to consolidate the Divide as nothing before it had. Finally occidental thought came to be considered rational, empirically verifiable, ‘scientific’, in contrast to the orient which continued to cling to the Tradition but subjected to the demeaning position beneath that of ‘real science’. It then became known as superstition. The truth be told, unless a real and not imaginary updating of the ancient way occurs, the tag of superstition must inevitably gain credence. Puranic Cosmology will live on, but only as a quaint relic of times gone by which required the redeeming grace of Science.

Attempts are periodically made by those who seek to inform the world that Puranic Cosmology does contain real science. An example would be Dr Subash Kak’s recent article in Journal of Cosmology, 2009, Vol 3 ‘The Universe, Quantum Physics and Consciousness’, under the section ‘A Scientific Coincidence’. Kak highlights the remarkable ‘coincidence’ regarding the early value of the speed of light in the ancient texts. This and similar evidence does prove that the scientific aspect of cosmology was not ignored by the ancients; however, it played only a minor role regardless of the profuse evidence available. The primary function of ancient cosmology, even as it remains so in today’s updating, is to provide the sense and purpose of the human being’s sojourn on this planet. That was the primary emphasis in the study of cosmic harmonies. And it needs to be pointed out that Harmony is the vital breath coursing through the veins of the ancient way, even as it is the essence of the current updating.

The observer was the human being on the third planet from the Sun. The principal feature of this particular location in the System is the Soul; and this is the mechanism, if it may be so called, by which that sense and purpose can be extracted from the cosmic surround. Moreover, it is not only the eternal Constant proper to this planetary location that allows for renewal, but, in addition, by its very nature it is universal. In proving this point another aspect of the Puranic Cosmology will emerge: its prophetic quality in that it was able to describe the evolution of the civilisation on the subcontinent as it was then and the exact position it would occupy in a future age by the same original methodology. But again, only after the exercise of updating has been undertaken can this be verified. It is our best proof that we are dealing with a ‘seed’ planted in the Vedic Age; it passed through the Puranic to reach us today in its full scope and glory.

Myth is the language of the soul across the globe and across the ages. But nowhere has it survived to the degree that we find in the subcontinent. Myth is alive and well in India – much to the chagrin of the secular scientist; and it is precisely myth that provides the method for updating Puranic Cosmology. This cosmology allows myth to be applicable; or better, cosmology is the application of myth. Consequently, if we wish to engage in any renewal or re-establishment of the Tradition, the methodology would have to be the same: myth taken from the cosmic harmony via the soul which each of us carries within as the birthright of all human beings on the third planet.

Thus the number 3 will occupy an important place in this discussion, and all variations thereupon. To be observed is that the Trinity or the triune balance is also a universal component of all traditions, ancient and new. Indeed, in the updated cosmology the triune powers are precisely the key required to unlock the door beyond which Puranic Cosmology stands and awaits renewal.

It may be contended that so far there have been certain assumptions made and upon which the method of renewal is being attempted. It may be held that these assumptions cannot provide a foolproof methodology. However, we must accept the facts as they stand today: myth exists and is universal and applicable in cosmology. We need no further proof than cosmology itself by virtue of the fact that it has been updated purely on the basis of the eternal language of the soul. I propose to discuss just how this has been done. It stands as it own proof, its own validation.

Apropos of which, a certain clarification or establishment of the ‘rules of the game’ are required. This cosmology is its own science. It does not require an imprimatur of the contemporary product that bears this name. Rather, to be a meaningful and definitive exposition all attempts to confine the ancient and new way into the narrow parameters of a discipline devoid of their main distinguishing features – sense and purpose – is futile.

PATRIZIA NORELLI-BACHELET

Puranic Cosmology Updated 1

20 February 2010

For a number of years I have been concentrating on reconnecting contemporary India to her Vedic roots. I believe that the exercise has been largely successful. Foremost has been the link I was able to establish between Vishnu’s Dasavataras and the Rig Veda via the hymns in praise of Vishnu in the collection, which, to my knowledge, had never been done. With the publication of Secrets of the Earth (Aeon Books, 2009) that phase of the endeavour was largely completed. There can be no doubt that the Line of Ten stretches back to the Vedic Age and does rightfully merit the description ‘backbone’ of Vedic civilisation, as I have sustained. This discovery came through a series of gnostic keys which have appeared in a number of my published works from 1974 to date.

In addition to the above, in Secrets the meaning of Vishnu’s three strides to ‘measure the universe’ has been finally deciphered, once again based on the same praises from the Rig Veda to this important Godhead. There can no longer be any doubt but that those hymns contain the true meaning of his measuring act in three strides and that they refer unequivocally to the Line of Vishnu’s Ten Avatars. The knowledge is consistent, coherent and connected. The connection or the thread running through the system has finally been revealed. It is not through a repetition of rituals, as inspiring as they may be, or by the chanting of mantras that the connection with the Veda is maintained; rather, only the thread of Knowledge can be the direct link between India today and of the Vedic Age, precisely as the word implies – veda, knowledge. That this potent word lies at the root of the civilisation surely indicates a unique destiny.

One important aspect of the Knowledge has resulted from this exercise: it is the need to return to the Vedic system of computation for the calendar of temple observances and horoscopy. This is the first step along the way to re-forging a dynamic link with the Vedic Age. Presently, because of this deviation there is only an imaginary connection. It is neither factual nor applicable today.

While emphasis was entirely on the Veda over the past several years, it is now time to carry out the same exercise regarding the Puranas – more specifically Puranic Cosmology. In this context, the situation in India and in the world prompts me to discuss ORDER – a new Order. From time immemorial civilisation on the subcontinent evolved on the backdrop of a unique pattern which made sense of many aspects of collective and individual life in India. In fact, it was unthinkable that a society could successfully evolve without such a pattern. And indeed it still exists. Its persistence lies at the heart of what is known as the Sanatana Dharma – the eternal Way, the eternal Truth.

At the outset we must be clear about a fundamental aspect of the Dharma. It is not a religion; very far from it. Rather, it can best be described as the cosmic foundation of a way of life, a culture. The fact that this Order has served as the backdrop for everything that is true and real in India is what disqualifies the civilisation from being categorised as religious according to contemporary interpretations. Something very different lies at the root of the civilisational underpinnings I propose to discuss in this series; and herein lies India’s blessing – and her bane: contemporary Indian society has carried that Order, that Sanatan Dharma into the present. But the world today is a very different place than what it was in the millennia when that superior Order had evolved and guided the people of the subcontinent. Contemporary society is largely governed by values that came through exclusivist religions. Consequently, India finds herself obliged to accommodate these factors into the ancient Order, or to find a way to carry the Dharma forward into a new phase of expression without succumbing to the limitations that affect the world today and which, in the main, are incompatible with India of the Vedic Age. Therefore a method must be found to re-establish the Order in the present conditions of our global society in spite of this incompatibility. A method has indeed been found which will be the subject of this discussion.

In the course of this series I will highlight several factors. One is precisely the question of universalism which perforce must be the underlying breath running through the new Order – indeed, the very element that distinguishes it from the old way and which gives it its vibrating, pulsating life. Next is the need to illustrate just how the pattern, ancient and new, escapes the constraints religion imposes.

And then there is the structure or pattern itself which we will dissect. In so doing it will be appreciated that the new order is simply an UPDATING of the old. The latter is not discarded but simply brought forward almost intact. Herein lies the extraordinary quality of the ancient way: it can be proven that the Order I am discussing bore an inherent mechanism of renewal, exactly what is lacking in religions and contemporary ideologies. Because of that mechanism it is known as sanatana, eternal; and because of this special and unique quality it can be demonstrated that what we know today as Puranic Cosmogony is actually prophetic in that the new cosmology is seen to build on that structure by virtue of the fact that the very same laws and methodology which we find in the Puranic cosmology forms the warp and woof of the new.

That is the issue: What is the core embedded in the system which is indestructible and is carried over across the aeons? When this is known the eternal essence is revealed on which basis the new evolves. To put it succinctly, there is a stable constant as upholder of both the old and the new. In the human being we know that constant as the Soul. The same must be said of cosmology of this special type. That unchanging quotient is the eternal support of the system, on which basis a civilisation can enjoy a blissful state of eternal Being within the Becoming. The evolutionary process provides the becoming of the being which is the stable support of the system everlastingly. But without the harmonised expression of the two there is neither sanatana nor dharma. There is just growth and decay, life followed by death.

The only civilisation this Earth has produced to escape from a morbid fossilisation of this nature is the Vedic. But we cannot expect to carry the old Puranic order into our times just as it was known millennia ago. If this were allowed we would be denying legitimacy to half the equation – the Becoming. And it is precisely the evolutionary process that eliminates the disease of fossilisation. Armed with the Core as our stable constant, we embark in this study on the discovery of exactly what must be carried over from the ancient way – but updated, failing which the civilisation that was based on the old cosmology must surely perish.

PATRIZIA NORELLI-BACHELET