Updating the Vedic Altar –10

Patrizia Norelli-Bachelet
Director, Aeon Centre of Cosmology
October 28, 2011

[Link to Part I, Part II, Part III, Part IV, Part V, Part VI,
Part VII, Part VIII, Part IX, Part IX, cont., Part XI, Part XII or Epilogue]

The Cow is the Ray is the Year, or the Ray is 15m20 is 365 days – and by the aphorism a year for a day, those 365 days are 365 years. Without the preparation the Vedic Journey offers, it is difficult for the layperson to appreciate the equivalency. And yet, the New Way, the third way beyond science and spirituality is founded on these laws of equivalency, the discovery of the Rishis. This should be the foundation of every astrologer even today, since the art is based on the ability to perceive equivalencies. If this were truly the case, astrologers would be able to defend their craft before the constant onslaughts from scientists and rationalists – both of whom claim that this Mother of all Sciences is simply superstition. They claim that there is no proof of any measurable ‘influence’ emanating from the planets affecting individuals on Earth. But the ‘influence’ is not of particles and/or waves; it is simply the operational laws of equivalency. Science has a long road to travel before it can grasp these laws, but perhaps with the end of Relativity a better understanding will emerge.
The Rishis understood the process thoroughly. It is for this very reason that the Rig Veda itself is not understood. Contemporary astrology in India is far removed from the Vedic source, but with this series it is hoped that a connection can be re-established and the art can be restored to the elevated position it enjoyed in former times.
We face phenomenal resistance in this endeavour. The Nirayana astrologers – those who use the sidereal circle for astrological computations – are the most vociferous. But even those who profess a desire to return astrology to its Vedic roots, such as Avtar Krishen Kaul (AKK) and his followers, are unable to do so, try as they might, because they are ignorant of the zodiacal foundation that the Rishi enjoyed – accompanied by the laws of equivalency. They hold that the tropical zodiac as it is used in the West was unknown in India in the Vedic Age. And with this denial their efforts to replace the current Nirayana system with the Sayana (based on the solar ecliptic circle) are doomed to failure; that is, if the intention is to re-connect to the Veda the honourable art of astrology. The issue merits serious attention because all temple rituals and horoscopic calculations are done on the basis of the prevailing Nirayana system; that is, all measurement is done in the sidereal circle of the constellations rather than in the tropical zodiac of the ecliptic. While professing to return to the ancient Vedic roots, the point is missed because they invariably swing to and fro between tropical zodiac and constellations – as if they were one and the same. These latter-day pundits continue to make the same mistake astronomers have made by confusing the two.
I will provide just a few examples from a letter Avtar Krishen Kaul wrote to me. It was dated sometime in 2004 (I cannot find the exact date of his 66-page letter!). After mocking my ‘yogic credentials’ or ‘tapasya’ on page after page, he then reveals how little he understands of the zodiacal hieroglyphs; and without that knowledge hardly anything of the Rig Veda’s secrets can be revealed:

‘The other fundamental error here is that the hieroglyphs that you have used are for the names “Aries”, “Taurus” etc. instead of their Sanskrit equivalents like Mesha, Vrisha etc. In India, if a rashi [zodiacal sign] like Scorpio has to be represented symbolically, it will be as a “Vrischika” that is as a scorpion really and not as the Greek letter “m” which in itself can never be of Indian origin… (Page 4).'

This is an amazing statement from a person who holds himself up as a scholarly authority on the Veda and on astrology. The ‘m’ he refers to is indeed the hieroglyph for Scorpio, but, as I will illustrate, it is not an M as he imagines, and therefore having no bearing to India and the Vedas. Admittedly, these hieroglyphs were set aside in India millennia ago; but the knowledge they contain is thoroughly Vedic. For the fact is, only through Indian tradition can we come to understand the true meaning of the Scorpio glyph. It is the released energy – sometimes called Kundalini – primarily in sexual activity. In Hindu iconography this M is portrayed as a 3-coiled serpent just as the hieroglyph depicts. There are two related hieroglyphs in the zodiac: Virgo of the 6^th stage/sign and Scorpio the 8^th.


As can be noted, in the 6^th, Virgo, the ‘tail’ turns back on itself; the sexual energy is not released – hence the Virgin. In the 8^th the ‘tail’ juts out indicating release; and Scorpio is the sign relating to sex. The hieroglyphs cannot be understood within the context of the Vedic Journey unless they are seen together, and with Libra (Tula) in between. In fact, I must go further to state that the success of the entire initiatic Journey hinges on the passage through these very signs which in the myth is the realm of Vala, where the stolen ‘cows’ are hoarded and must be released. The 8^th is, furthermore, the sign of Death. In the Veda this ‘hoarding’ is Inertia – i.e., death, or the movement arrested before the solar world of the Immortal Ones is reached. When the transformation occurs through processes recorded in the cosmic script itself, the Scorpion becomes the Eagle – the higher aspect of the sign; that is, the initiate has not succumbed to the sleep that is Death.¹
This is one example of the ignorance prevailing with regard to the zodiacal content of the Rig Veda. Its myth makes the position clear, but few can relate that to the zodiac even though the Rishi himself declares that these are ‘worlds’ which are opened to Earth beings by the months, one world leading into another. Similarly, one hieroglyph leads to another in a connected sequence. For example, in the next sign, Sagittarius, we see the ‘stinger’ of the Scorpion cut and soaring upward as in the flight of an Eagle. One would have to be blind not to see these correspondences and their relation to the process described throughout the Rig Veda.
Ignorance is further revealed in perhaps the most important dimension of the Rig Veda when AKK mocks the fact that I equate Makar with Capricorn, which for him must be solely related to the Constellations and not the rasi (zodiacal sign), his point always being that they are an adjunct of Astronomy and cannot be found in the Veda which predates the emergence of the science. Like the above, the tradition itself proves my point. He states

“India” (Capricorn) - A crocodile or a Goat?
You say that India has Capricorn as the ruling sign. Perhaps what you mean to say is that India is astrologically governed by Makara Rashi since Capricorn is actually the name of Capricornus constellation and as you say that constellations have nothing to do with Rashis, obviously, you cannot be referring to the constellations again! Even if we take it that it is Capricorn rashi really, I am glad to observe that by dint of your "forty years’ tapasya" you have actually proved what you are trying to disprove! The glyph of "Capricorn" that you have used as the governing sign of "Akhand Bharat" (which is no longer Akhand!) is in fact, as just shown, a Greco-Chaldean/Latin glyph---which means that it is this glyph that you find somehow to work wonderfully accurately about predictive astrology. There can never be such Indian “hieroglyph” for Makara, I wholeheartedly believe in your being a genuine Tapasvi. And obviously your Tapasya also has confirmed that it is only Greek glyphs that are more appropriate to predictive astrology -- again confirming the point that Rashis were imported into India! Or do you mean to say that Capricorn is of Indian origin but somehow it went to Greek astrologers who "appended" to it an appropriate glyph and then was "outsourced" to India!

This is precisely my point: a cosmic script of Indian origin, lost in the land of its origin millennia ago – along with the understanding of the Veda – but brought back to India in its original form, known only to Initiates who no longer exist since the yogic practice described in the hymns has long since been set aside in favour of the more modern Yogas. This is what needs to be re-established because this sort of nationalist fervour is what allowed Indologists, using the Rig Veda as ‘proof’, to consider the subcontinent devoid of civilisation until invading primitive hoards from Central Asia occupied this sacred land, implanting their unsophisticated nature worship (the Aryan Invasion Theory); whereas, it seems evident that the Veda, when understood fully, reveal a knowledge beyond anything known in Greece or Egypt or Mesopotamia at the time of the purported creation of the script.



The hieroglyph referred to as Babylonian is the symbol of Capricorn (above), indeed India’s ruler. Admittedly, the synchronicity of landmass and hieroglyph is enough to tax any human mind; but that the synchronicity exists cannot be doubted. It can be ridiculed, as the Sanskritist has done, we can refuse to accept that the symbol originated in India in a distant past, but the fact remains that the Capricorn hieroglyph, a sign that tradition holds universally to be India’s ruler, delineates the landmass commonly known as Akhand Bharat, or Greater India. In light of the above, it is clear that our task of re-establishing the hidden knowledge of the Veda is an onerous one. Nonetheless, I will present just one more example of AKK’s critique, which simply goes to prove the point: an initiatic experience is required for these mysteries to be understood. Regarding Capricorn, he writes:

‘Surprisingly you have juxtaposed everywhere Makar with Capricorn (which you say is the governing sign of India) forgetting that “A Goat is a Goat” and “A crocodile is a crocodile”. They have nothing in common, one being carnivorous and the other herbivorous and so on. Whatever lengthy articles you may write on her “astrological destiny”, it is not clear from your delineations whether you want to present India as a “Goat” or as a “Crocodile” Or do you mean to say that India is both – a “Goat” and also a “Crocodile”. Greek nomenclature cannot be Vedic: In all your works I find that you have not used any Sanskrit names like Mesha etc. for any of the Rashis nor Surya etc. for planets! Writing lengthy discourses on the Vedic zodiac is alright but then we would have to teach our Vedic Rishis the Greek language or as an alternative Sanskrit language to the Greeks!'

The above amply reveals that the origin of the zodiac is persistently believed to have been in Babylon. Any mention of a Vedic origin is lambasted, as in the above. I have only quoted a small portion of the 66-page letter, but the reader may rest assured that on every page there is a similar tirade. My point in this series is to highlight the Mother’s Vedic credentials and to demonstrate that she continues the line of initiatic knowledge found in the Rig Veda because, as her symbol reveals, the core of the Knowledge – ancient and contemporary – remains the sacred universal script of 12. To this end I will use the above statement to demonstrate how little is truly understood of the Veda by those who claim to be Sanskrit scholars in a position to lead others.
Since AKK and his followers believe that the zodiac was unknown to the Rishis, his argument is that the symbols and pictographs are found only in astronomy relating to the constellations, and are therefore of a much later date than is assumed for the Veda. But there is an even more important failing in the Sanskritist’s assertions – and this brings us to the point I have already made throughout: without the initiation of the Vedic Journey, the cosmic energies of the Vedic and Puranic Gods and Goddesses cannot be recognised in the equivalency I am discussing. His dismissal is a case in point. AKK makes a stark divide between Capricorn of the tropical zodiac and Makar of Hindu tradition, whereas they are one and the same. The correspondence is obvious to anyone who has realised the essence of the Capricorn Godhead/cosmic energy.
In the tradition – Vedic or Greek, does it really matter? – the pictograph of the tenth sign is the Goat with a tail of a Fish. Thus, the symbolism is clear: the meaning of the tenth sign/month is the heights and the depths, the apex and the abyss – i.e., the mountain and the sea. The Crocodile (Makar) fulfils part of the sign’s meaning because it is of the sea and amphibious. However, left out is the half supplied by the Goat – the mountain apex. The God who embodies the power for the initiatory experience at this stage of the Journey is Varuna. He is the embodiment of the realisation the Initiate must seek; and it must also be borne in mind that the tenth month/stage is hailed as the month of victory where the portal to Immortality is reached, the culmination of the process. Therefore it is crucial to understand this level in the fullest Vedic sense if the aim is to establish the Dharma by re-connecting it to its ancient roots. This cannot be done by constant denial, unsubstantiated by anything other than denial. Here are a few lines explaining the nature of Varuna from Sri Aurobindo’s The Secret of the Veda:

‘…So Varuna of the Veda is at once King – not of the heavens as such…but of the highest covering ether and all the oceans…
‘Great Varuna is the continent and the nodus of the world’s uplifted puissances no less than of its arising thoughts. The unconquered workings that fall not from the Truth are established in him as upon a mountain…’

As per the Veda, Varuna stands in the mountain heights and from there measures the vastnesses over which he is sovereign. He is king of both the heights and the depths, mountains and oceans; and thus he embodies perfectly the Goat/Fish pictograph of the zodiac. The Rishis did not spell out the correspondence for the benefit of those who cannot grasp these correspondences by intuition since the cosmic script was so widely known and accepted that, as I have written, it is the thread running through the entire Rig Veda. It is its secret language – universal because anyone in any continent and in any era can experience the same Journey by realising Varuna of one’s own inner being – indeed, as within, so without, which is the true cosmic consciousness.
I have by no means dealt here with the full meaning of Varuna (for more on Varuna, see The New Way, Volume 2, ‘Return to the Source’). In this series my intention is simply to reveal the prominence of the same zodiac in the Vedic Age and how it can serve us well in understanding the Mother’s updated vedi. In fact, nothing of what I write on her Vedic Altar could be validated without first laying a foundation in the common language used by both the Rishi and the Mother. From time immemorial the Earth has hosted Mystery Schools. Invariably the key of higher knowledge that formed the basis of the teaching was the zodiac, just as we know it today with its hieroglyphs and pictographs. As I have shown in this series, the zodiac contains the perennial knowledge. It was the basis of the knowledge conveyed in the Rig Veda, as well as in the Mother’s updated vedi – without which their content remains a sealed book. This has been factually proven yet we have to contend with denials from those who are completely closed to this initiatic knowledge. They skim the surface. They remain trapped in words and symbols which for them are devoid of significance and applicability. Indeed, as Sri Aurobindo wrote in the beginning of the last century, the ‘soul of knowledge has fled from its coverings.’ And yet they hold themselves up as authorities and they even pretend to guide others into a world they have never accessed, much less explored. Lamentably, they have not used the key of higher knowledge the Rig Veda itself provides to unlock those doors of the months of the zodiacal calendar year; but provided the cosmic clock is re-set to allow entry. With a Makar Sankranti 23 days late, there is simply no lock to turn.
Unfortunately Hindus are satisfied with this ‘guidance in a vacuum’. Therefore they are saddled with an astronomical model for temple timings and horoscopy that has absolutely no Vedic basis. They are saddled with an astrology that imposes a 23-day late Makar Sankranti without a protest. Hindus simply follow a lead that goes from darkness into deeper darkness in calendrical matters, without ever questioning, without ever demanding an answer from astronomers as to why they insist on sidereal computations in lieu of the correct system based on the infallible pillars of the Equinoxes and Solstices. This cosmic void affects over 80% of India’s population – for that is the result when the great Measurer that is Varuna is ignored, when he is not appreciated as the Godhead who embodies Capricorn – Goat and Fish, Mountain and Sea, heights and depths. But this equivalence was known in the Puranic Age because the tradition records that Varuna’s vahana is precisely the Crocodile, clearly connecting him to Makar/ Capricorn. In Vedic tradition, whatever is lacking in the vahana is fulfilled by the God himself, bringing the experience more intimately within the seeker’s grasp. The important aspect is the significance and inner meaning of each stage/sign which the symbol clothes. It is for the traveller on the Path to remove the outer coverings and discover that deepest sense on his or her journey.


With these correspondences unveiled, can Varuna’s connection with the tenth zodiacal sign be made any clearer?

None of the Pundits can explain how it is that the Capricorn hieroglyph delineates the landmass of Akhand Bharat, or more importantly why. If they were familiar with astrology they would know that Capricorn is universally considered the astrological ruler of India; therefore, the correspondence, strange as it may be, is logical, coherent and valuable as a confirmation of the rulership. Furthermore, being the sign of Victory for the Rishis, the correspondence becomes even more significant. What is not clear though is the origin of the hieroglyph. We know only that it is likely to have originated before our historic period – but so has the Rig Veda. The hymns may have been recorded in writing several millennia ago, but we know that they were handed down orally for thousands of years, long before the need arose to preserve the text with the help of the written word. Thankfully the Rishis had the foresight to do so, thereby rendering the Veda accessible now to the entire world. But Sanskrit is not the issue; the hieroglyphs themselves are the important feature because they form a universal language that cuts across time and space and any other barrier that may grip the consciousness of those who refuse to see.
This is the lesson India needs to learn at the earliest because time presses. I address this concern to those who so staunchly cling to prejudices of race and class and even gender – not to speak of national boundaries that in this space age of Aquarius are fast losing all meaning. From outer space the Earth is borderless. This brand of nationalism goes counter to everything held most sacred in the Veda. Above all, it is a denial of the role India is destined to play on the world stage precisely because of her Vedic heritage. But astrology informs us that we are in the Aquarian Age, known for its quality of universalism. Yet these pundits prefer to remain trapped in Relativity and closed to this sacred heritage by a zealousness that has no place in the India of today, centre of a global society in the making. It is the (true) Vedic Astrology that reveals this sacred universal destiny.

(To be continued)

________________

¹ See ‘A Tale of Two M’s’, Explorations into the Leonardo Mysteries, Aeon Books.

Updating the Vedic Altar – 9 (cont’d)

Patrizia Norelli-Bachelet
Director, Aeon Centre of Cosmology
October 16, 2011

[Link to Part I, Part II, Part III, Part IV, Part V, Part VI,
Part VII, Part VIII, Part IX, Part X, Part XI, Part XII or Epilogue]

I am discussing the properties of the horizontal in greater depth in this section, but in the next we must add the vertical to complete the Knowledge. However, in both cases it is always the Year that is the backdrop or that is the One Circle of our measuring. This, as illustrated in the first part of this section, can be the annual measure or the Precessional. The distinction is identified in the Vishnu praises quoted in full earlier:

‘(Vishnu) who has measured out the earthly worlds
and that seat of our self-accomplishing…’

The ‘seat of our self-accomplishing’ is the Journey during which period in the annual progression self-perfection can be attained. In the above case, it is the annual measure of 12 months and pertains to the individual initiate, or the Aryan warrior, on the path of ‘self-accomplishment’. Further, as noted in the verses quoted in the first part of this section 9, (‘Certain eternal worlds are these…’), Sri Aurobindo has translated the Sanskrit as worlds which are the 12 stages of the zodiac. They are penetrated in the course of the initiatic journey of self-perfecting through the portal that Time offers, and there the aspirant encounters different aspects of the individual and evolutionary constitutions that present both obstacles and/or opportunities in the course of that ‘self-accomplishing’.
To be borne in mind is that the process is the same for both, only the quantum of time changes. For the individual it is the year of 12 months; for the evolution it is the 12 Manifestations of 77,760 Earth years. This is an example of Equivalency, so essential for the Rishis’ consciousness of unity to flower in the individual practitioner, to see him- or herself as engaged in a single grand design for inhabitants of Earth. Clearly the ancients of the Vedic Age had no difficulty with this equivalency. The human being was never a single, isolated entity but a part of a greater whole, yet not for that was his importance diminished. Thus was the harmony known on Earth and the planet was honoured and praised time and again in the hymns for providing the base whereupon this unified operation could unfold. It goes without saying that this consciousness of unity and oneness was slowly eroded and then conclusively lost during the Piscean Age, to reach the point now where the Earth is constantly abused – nay, raped time and again, I would add – in the vilest of manners. With a vision of Oneness these unholy acts become impossible. The Rishi makes the equivalency of small and larger clear:

‘…In his three wide movements
All the worlds find their dwelling place…’

The Vishnu praises have been taken in the abstract by all translators except a few. Whereas, they are practical, applicable, and can serve as a guide in the Journey, individually and collectively, provided the 12-month zodiac is recognised as those ‘worlds’ for both. Further,

‘…he who being One has measured all this
long and far-reaching seat of our self-accomplishing
by only three of his strides.’

It is important to note that the Rishi mentions only three strides, because indeed he is referring only to the three stages of descent of his Avatars, the 7^th, 8^th and 9^th.
How marvellously alive these praises become for us when supported by the Mother’s symbol set in motion, based as it is on the Veda which establishes all of its features (Part 8). Again, the Rishi sings of Vishnu, the measurer in three strides:

‘…he being One holds the triple principle
And earth and heaven also, even all the worlds.’

These lines delineate the parameters of Vishnu’s act of measuring, his three strides along the ecliptic tropical zodiac that is extended from the 12 months of the year to the 12 Manifestations – which together contain ‘all the worlds’, or those 12 stages of the Journey. And from the highest step of the friend Mitra, as the Sanskrit name suggests, the initiate who has expanded his consciousness of Oneness to embrace the micro and macro of this universe, can view the entire unfolding and appreciate the stages already traversed of the Journey ‘…where the many-horned herds of Light go travelling…’, as well as the ultimate goal of the path, or the Being and the Becoming of our manifest existence.
Indeed, this is the boon we have received from the Cosmic Divine – the keys of the supramental Gnosis which allow us to appreciate why Vishnu’s steps are only three – specifically covering the 7^th, 8^th and 9^th Manifestation, respectively of Sri Ram, Sri Krishna, and Sri Aurobindo in our Age of Mitra the Friend – Aquarius, the Water Carrier. He dispenses over the Earth and her inhabitants the ‘rapture’, the ‘ecstasy’ from his kumbha, which contains Mitra’s ‘font of sweetness’. These are the ‘waters’ he pours which are transforming life on Earth before our very eyes.

(To be continued)

Updating the Vedic Altar – 9

Patrizia Norelli-Bachelet
Director, Aeon Centre of Cosmology
October 14, 2011

[Link to Part I, Part II, Part III, Part IV, Part V, Part VI,
Part VII, Part VIII, Part IX, cont., Part X, Part XI, Part XII or Epilogue]

An anecdote regarding the Mother’s first meeting with Sri Aurobindo was often told in the Ashram. I was captivated by this story because of my specialised field: symbols. It involved the way the Mother confirmed that Sri Aurobindo was the master she had been seeking. When she met Sri Aurobindo in India in 1914, just before the First World War broke out, she showed him a geometric symbol and asked him to explain it to her, to decipher its meaning. When he did, the profundity of his reply convinced the Mother that he was the one. It was confirmed for her simply by his knowledge of the symbol – which, inter alia, became his own as we know it today: the two interlaced triangles, one descending, the other ascending. In Hindu symbology it is the symbol belonging to Kartikeya, Shiva’s divine Son, while the Swastika belongs to his other Son, Ganesh.
A somewhat similar story was often told by the renowned teacher I. Gurdjieff of the last century. His favourite symbol was the enneagram (below), a circle divided into 9 parts with the dividing lines arranged according to a fraction of the seven-tone scale, the musical octave (0.142857) and which he used as a teaching tool. Gurdieff held the enneagram to be the most sacred and meaningful of all such symbols, containing the profoundest esoteric knowledge. He related that if two people unknown to each other were to meet in a desert, they would know the degree of their spiritual attainments simply by what each one could explain of the enneagram’s contents.


In a sense we are doing the same with the Mother’s symbol. The knowledge it contains had never been explained in depth as I am doing in this series; nor had I done so in my earlier treatments. The focus of the present series is the Veda – more particularly the vedi. Therefore her symbol can be explained in this context in greater depth than otherwise because it is so entirely VEDIC. Likewise, any offshoot of her symbol – like the updated vedi – would also be properly understood by reference to the Veda. This correspondence allows us to reveal dimensions of the Mother’s expertise in the field of occult symbols more thoroughly than before.
Much has transpired since the Mother first designed the symbol and adopted it as her own; foremost was the Supramental Manifestation of February 29, 1956. As I explained in Part 8, it is the flowering of Supermind in our midst that permits all things ‘to be made new’, to borrow a phrase from The Revelation of St John (‘Behold, I make all things new.’ Chapter XXI). In the time of the great transformation, it is not the things in themselves that change but rather that the eye of the beholder will see as never before.
In The Revelation there is another phrase that merits attention not only because of its profound meaning but also because the same phrase occurs in the Rig Veda: A new Heaven and a new Earth (‘And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away…’ Ibid). This was to characterise the Second Coming. When we read this oft-repeated phrase, most of us can imagine a new Earth easily enough, simply because we see right before us what needs to be changed to be ‘made new’. But what of ‘a new Heaven’? And yet this is the most important part of the description: without that new model of the universe, nothing can possibly change here below; for it is the heavenly vision, made new, that allows us to make all things new here and then to realise that the Earth too by extension is made new to our seeing Eye. The new understanding of the cosmos is ‘the new heaven’ of the Veda as well. The Mother’s symbol gives us this precious opportunity to ‘make all things new’, just as the Rishis had foreseen.

I will now carry the analysis of the Mother’s symbol to deeper levels. To do so we need to set it in motion. This necessary ingredient, dynamism, is added by the 3 in the Formula; and regarding her symbol itself, the Mother gave the key that would turn the lock and release its dynamism in torrents, similar to the gushing descent of the heavenly Ganga. This key was the name the Mother gave me in 1971, precisely so that her symbol could reveal its deepest secrets. The name consists of three Greek letters Θ ε α (Th-e-a) which are also the numbers 9-5-1. When applied to the Mother’s symbol of 12, they are the triad of Fire of the zodiac.
Tradition holds that the zodiac comprises four basic elements – Fire, Earth, Air, and Water. Each element has three signs of the 12. Thus, the Fire element consists of Aries (1), Leo (5), and Sagittarius (9). The dynamic factor applied to the symbol reveals when the Vishnu Avatars will take birth on Earth. Logically, this can only happen in the astrological ages that ‘belong’ to Vishnu – that is, the signs of Preservation, for indeed he is the all-pervasive great Preserver. This qualification is defined in the zodiac by the trinity Creation, Preservation and Destruction which is repeated four times in the wheel of 12. They are known in astrology as Qualities – Cardinal, Fixed and Mutable. When seen in their gunaic extension, they are Rajas/Sattva/Tamas, in this order; and on this basis the Mother’s symbol moves. This is the dynamism of the Divine Shakti. All things are contained in her, all things move within her being, on and on eternally into infinity, propelled by her gunas. This is the secret knowledge contained in the Mother’s symbol, and rightfully so since she is the 6 in the triadic descent of 9, 6, and 3, the embodiment of the Cosmic Mother.
To summarise, the symbol consists of those 12 ‘spokes’ of the Rig Veda, and these 12 are then divided in such a way as to make the symbol operational on Earth – that is, a division of 4 within which are 3 signs. All of this can be easily seen in the Mother’s symbol: 4 inner petals, 3 concentric circles, 12 outer ‘spokes’. Moreover, this is an example of ‘the new heaven’ because we take that cosmic vision and we apply it to Earth in such a way as to ‘make all things new’ in an eternally renewing process to become the basis for a Dharma to be Sanatana: A new Heaven and a new Earth. There can be no other factual way: the cosmic surround, the harmony that is engrained in our very cells must be seen anew. Then life on Earth can be fashioned according to that superior vision.
The Mother has granted this boon to the Earth by her own symbol and the Name. Let us now discover not only what the symbol and name reveal of the Vishnu appearances, but also why it is this very geometric design that has become the new Vedic Altar.

To apply the knowledge of the updated Vedi we may quote the Rig Veda once again for an indication of what to look for or how to read the Mother’s symbol that forms the foundation (floor plan) of the vedi. With these verses we realise that both months and years are contained in the 12. With the key to dynamism through the Name, the symbol starts to spin as the Earth does on her axis:

Certain eternal worlds…are these which have come into being,
their doors are shut to you (or opened) by the months and the years;
without effort one (world) moves in the other, and it is these that
Brahmanaspati makes manifest to knowledge. (RV, II.24.5.)

Note that the Rishi sings only of Months and Years. Certainly this small, apparently insignificant detail has been overlooked when seeking to understand the verse’s content; but, as I will point out, the answer as to whether or not the ancients knew of the Precession of the Equinoxes, lies in these very lines. Moreover, it is clear from this stanza that months and years were the means to enter the 12 ‘worlds’ described in the verse. I have discussed this in great detail elsewhere and need not repeat the explanation in this series; the Rishi, in fact, instructs the aspirant to find the correct key, the harmony of gnostic time by which he or she can enter those worlds – so intimate a part of Earth life insofar as they ‘open’ before Earth’s inhabitants each month in the planet’s annual rotation of the Sun. These worlds, our Earth’s months, constitute the stages within the Vedic Journey that must be traversed and which are within the grasp of every human being on this planet, without any distinction, any limitation of culture or national boundary. Time is all-pervasive, neutral. For the Rishi, Time was virtually a field which each of us can explore in search of Truth.
Each stage (month/year) encourages a certain attainment on the part of the initiate embarked on the Journey, which is explained by the zodiac’s hieroglyphs combined with the pictographic symbols pertinent to each sign. Since this zodiacal knowledge has, in its deepest Vedic sense, been largely lost, Sanskrit scholars and pundits claim that there is no evidence of it in the hymns; they believe it was brought to India by the Greeks. And yet it is the thread running through the entire Rig Veda.
More importantly, the Rishi who composed the above stanza, goes so far as to lay emphasis on a key aspect of the zodiac by stating ‘…without effort one (world) moves into the other’. In this simple manner he highlights precisely what is lacking in astrology throughout the world, even beyond India where the tropical zodiac is the accepted basis of the art. This is its undeniable unity – one sign moves into the other in a meaningful, connected sequence. Moreover, the very fact that this Vedic experience is called the ‘journey’ drives home the point that one ‘world moves into the next’, mapped out sequentially in the zodiac, and which is directly related to the year.
In March of 1970, using the zodiac and astrological tradition as a backdrop, or map, I wrote a tale of a similar ‘journey’ through the zodiac’s sign/months, a contemporary myth, as it were.¹ It also describes an initiatic progression identical to the Rig Veda, though at the time I had no knowledge of Hinduism or the Veda. It was written in Rome, thousands of kilometers away from India, but stands as proof of the eternal quality of the Dharma that knows no boundaries, no constraints of colour or creed, true to the Vedic chant Vasudhaiva kutumbakam’.
We are familiar enough with the Mother’s symbol and the Rishi’s verses in terms of months. But we need to see its application regarding years, as the verses indicate. I reproduce here the dynamic form of the Mother’s symbol wherein each ‘hub’ or concentric circle becomes a spiral when activated or set in motion. This ‘map’ relies on the Precession of the Equinoxes for application. The Precession is the motor of the Map; the Mother’s symbol and the Vedic verses provide the signposts along the way, the details of the Map in the act of defining that is so much a part of our present Age. This, when applied as indicated, becomes the evolutionary map of the Ages. As noted in the description of the timeline below the graphic, the symbol’s three spirals comprise 77,760 years. More importantly, the Mother’s symbol adds a decisive feature: the fourfold division (4 inner petals) of the basic circle – that ‘one wheel (circle)’ established by the Rishi in the verses quoted in Part 8. It has been long overlooked in India that the Rishi establishes the circle as one only, within which all the divisions occur, as in the Mother’s symbol. Without this fourfoldness the Map cannot possibly be read properly, as I will explain.
Further, the cross section dividing the circle into quarters, or the Cardinal Points, when extended to the larger value of years and astrological ages, offers the most significant and important time frame, which I have called Manifestations – 12 in each round of 77,760 Earth years. Each Manifestation consists of 3 signs. Ours is the 9^th, it is important to note, because in this Manifestation the last round of 25,920 years begins. These discoveries took place based on the Name of 9-5-1, being the Fire Trinity in the Map.
The Vishnu Avatars’ time of appearance, as well as their respective tasks, is explained in the Mother’s symbol in terms of years (Manifestation) as the Vedic verses indicate, for we do calculate the extension of the annual rotation of the Sun from months to years when applying the Precession. For the individual it is the passage of the 12 months that is relevant; for the evolution it is years as indicated in the Precession of the Equinoxes, the years being equivalent to months of the annual rotation. However, though the Rishi insists that ‘the circle is one’, its time application varies according to context. The zodiac serves both the individual and the evolution with this One Circle – a point that has been overlooked in Hindu astrology – wrongly called Vedic – due to the interference of scientists who have established that the evolutionary application must be used for individuals and temple timings. I repeat, an aberration known only in India, though the astrology in use is falsely labelled ‘Vedic’.

From: The Gnostic Circle
and The New Way,
Aeon Books

The Evolutionary Avatars take birth during the astrological ages proper to Vishnu’s essence of Preservation. In the Map above these periods are marked off by the arrows pointing to his signs of Preservation, Taurus, Leo, Scorpio/Eagle, and Aquarius. The latter is our present Age which began in 1926. These four signs of Vishnu (within the trinity Brahma/Vishnu/Shiva – or the astrological qualities Cardinal, Fixed and Mutable) are the famous four figures of the classical Sphinx of ancient symbology – the most renowned of which still stands today in Giza, Egypt. However, the ancient Egyptian Sphinx consists of only two of the four – Lion (Leo) and Man (Aquarius, the Water Carrier) because it was constructed for the purpose of revealing the two astrological ages that form the axis of evolution involving a certain process destined to culminate in our times. As such, the ‘mystery of the Sphinx is no secret at all when the initiation of the Vedic Journey has been completed successfully. In Hindu tradition this period Lion-Man is registered in the culture by the 7^th appearance of Vishnu, Sri Ram in the Age of Leo, and the 9^th in our Aquarian Age, as well as in the praises to, precisely, Vishnu in the Rig Veda. In between Leo and Aquarius of the Sphinx we have the Age of Taurus, as the arrow indicates in the Map, and the appearance of Sri Krishna, indeed renowned for precisely his affinity with the bovine creation (Taurus, the Bull). The equivalency and correspondences are exact, provided we follow the Vedic injunction: One circle, within which all measuring is done, all defining.
To conclude, I must present the Vishnu praises from the Rig Veda, his famed Three Strides (to measure the universe), which conclusively prove that the Rishis were conversant with zodiac symbology as it is known throughout the world till today. In fact, it is my contention that this branch of higher knowledge arose in India itself millennia ago and was exported from India farther west. They are the only verses to Vishnu in the entire collection and were certainly included as a guide for future ages when the key to discover the identity of his Evolutionary Avatar would need to be restored after passage through a dark age had erased memory of these cosmic harmonies. And it must be borne in mind that Vishnu is described as ‘measuring the universe’ – the physical universe, and not the subtle planes/lokas as is believed.
Not only do we recognise the symbols pertaining to his zodiacal signs of Preservation – Lion (Leo), Bull (Taurus), and Man (Friend-Aquarius) – but these verses establish once again that the Precession of the Equinoxes was known in the Vedic Age because the progression is backward through the wheel in the manner of the Precession. I have highlighted the zodiacal signs indicated as one of his three steps, which have eluded all translators prior to Sri Aurobindo. He did indeed emphasise the zodiacal connection by capitalising the signs that I have highlighted. In Sanskrit there are no capitalisations for the translator to follow; it requires the insight provided by the initiation of the Vedic Journey to understand the symbology, a ‘journey’ few have undertaken in contemporary society. Further to be noted is the last ‘step’ of Vishnu, the ‘highest’ which is indeed in the higher hemisphere and the last of the sequence. In astrological tradition it is Aquarius, also known as the sign of the friend, Mitra of the Veda.

Of Vishnu now I declare the mighty works, who has measured out
the earthly worlds and that seat of our self-accomplishing he supports,
he the wide-moving, in the threefold steps of his universal movement.

That Vishnu affirms on high by his mightiness and he is like a terrible LION
that ranges in the difficult places, yea, his lair is on the mountain-tops,
he in whose three wide movements all the worlds find their dwelling-place.

Let our strength and our thought go forward to Vishnu the all-pervading,
the wide-moving BULL whose dwelling-place is on the mountain,
he who being One has measured all this long and far-extending seat
of our self-accomplishing by only three of his strides.

He whose three steps are full of the honey-wine and they perish not
but have ecstasy by the self-harmony of their nature; yea, he being One
holds the triple principle and earth and heaven also, even all the worlds.

May I attain to and enjoy that goal of his movements, the Delight,
where souls that seek the godhead have the rapture; for there in that highest step
of the wide-moving Vishnu is that FRIEND of men who is the fount of the sweetness.

Those are the dwelling-places of ye twain which we desire as
the goal of our journey, where the many-horned herds of Light go travelling;
the highest step of wide-moving Vishnu shines down on us here
in its manifold vastness.

(RV, I, 154, Sri Aurobindo’s translation)

[Part IX, continued]

_____________

¹ The Magical Carousel, Aeon Books, 1972, 2nd edition, 1979.

Updating the Vedic Altar – 8

Patrizia Norelli-Bachelet
Director, Aeon Centre of Cosmology
October 13, 2011

[Link to Part I, Part II, Part III, Part IV, Part V, Part VI,
Part VII, Part IX, Part IX, cont., Part X, Part XI, Part XII or Epilogue]

It is well at this point to establish the Mother’s Vedic credentials. That she was a direct link to the Rishis and the school of higher knowledge that was widespread in the Vedic Age becomes obvious when we examine her yogic legacy of the 95 years of her life span. But it is interesting to note that these credentials surfaced even before she took up definitive residence in India by Sri Aurobindo’s side. To prove the point, on 26 November – a date that would surface significantly many years later – in 1915 from Paris, the Mother sent the following description of an experience she had to Sri Aurobindo in Pondicherry. Perhaps more than any other realisation she was to have, this seems to have been her investiture as the Cosmic Divine, the 6 in the work that lay ahead for her with Sri Aurobindo as the Transcendent 9:

‘The entire consciousness immersed in divine contemplation, the whole being enjoyed a supreme and vast felicity.
‘Then was the physical body seized, first in its lower members and next the whole of it, by a sacred trembling which made little by little even in the most material sensation all personal limits fall away. The being progressively, methodically, grew in greatness, breaking down every barrier, shattering every obstacle, that it might contain and manifest a power which increased ceaselessly in immensity and intensity. It was as if a progressive dilation of the cells until there was a complete identification with the earth: the body of the awakened consciousness was the terrestrial globe moving harmoniously in ethereal space. And the consciousness knew that its global body was thus moving in the arms of the universal Personality, and gave itself, it abandoned itself to Her in an ecstasy of peaceful bliss. Then it felt that its body was absorbed in the body of the universe and one with it; the consciousness became the consciousness of the universe, in its totality immobile, in its internal complexity moving infinitely. The consciousness of the universe sprang towards the Divine in an ardent aspiration, a perfect surrender, and it saw in the splendour of the immaculate Light the radiant Being standing on a many-headed serpent whose body coiled infinitely around the universe. The Being in an eternal gesture of triumph mastered and created at one and the same time the serpent and the universe that issued from it, erect on the serpent he dominated it with all his victorious might, and the same gesture that crushed the hydra, enveloping the universe, gave it eternal birth. Then the consciousness became this Being and perceived that its form was changing more and more; it was absorbed into something which was no longer a form and yet contained all forms, something which, immutable, sees – the Eye, the Witness. And what It sees, is. Then this last vestige of form disappeared and the consciousness was absorbed into the Unutterable, the Ineffable.
‘The return towards the consciousness of the individual body took place very slowly in a constant and invariable splendour of Light and Power and Felicity and Adoration, by successive gradations, but directly, without passing again through the universal and terrestrial forms. And it was as if the modest corporeal form had become the direct and immediate vesture, without any intermediary, of the supreme and eternal Witness.’

Sri Aurobindo’s reply, by letter dated 31.12.1915, confirms that the experience was Vedic, and of an order that would not be recognised by today’s yogis, it is important to note.

‘The experience you have described is Vedic in the real sense, though not one which would easily be recognised by the modern systems of Yoga which call themselves Vedic. It is the union of the “Earth” of the Veda and Purana with the divine Principle, an earth which is said to be above our earth, that is to say, the physical being and consciousness of which the world and the body are only images. But modern Yogas hardly recognise the possibility of a material union with the Divine.’

Thus, the above attests to the fact that the Mother was following a line of knowledge that according to Sri Aurobindo was now unknown in India. Later he wrote in The Secret of the Veda that

‘…The Upanishads, mighty as they are, only aspire to bring out, arrange philosophically in the language of later thinking and crown with the supreme name of Brahman the eternal knowledge enshrined in the Vedas. Yet for some two thousand years at least no Indian has really understood the Vedas.' - Sri Aurobindo, India's Rebirth

It would take the descent of Vishnu’s 9^th Avatar and his helpers to re-establish the long-lost knowledge that was the hallmark of the ancient tradition. Portions of it remain in evidence in certain extant monuments across the globe; but, like the Rig Veda itself, they are largely incomprehensible. However, with the coming of the Mother and Sri Aurobindo, what was lost has been resurrected in an even greater glory given the advancements in the evolutionary process itself. Nothing is to be ignored if the full extent of the truth-conscious Supramental Manifestation is to be appreciated; but without their contribution darkness must prevail. The grace of the Guru is acknowledged in India even today to be the supreme blessing an individual can receive in any given lifetime; but the Mother explained in a letter to a disciple how much greater is that blessing when the Supreme Consciousness itself takes birth and becomes the Guru.
I stated earlier that four birthdates would join to provide the elementary numerical keys of knowledge for the retrieval of the Knowledge and the establishment of Supermind as the highest governing principle of the human evolving species. If we take just Sri Aurobindo’s birth date in conjunction with the Mother’s, it becomes clear that a carefully constructed plan had been set in motion perhaps from the beginning of Time itself – or at least from the beginning of our present evolutionary cycle – with the goal of bringing the Line of Ten Avatars to a culmination in our very times. Thus, Sri Aurobindo’s birthday was 15.8.1872; the Mother’s was 21.2.1878. Note the harmony of 6 between days, months and years:

Between 15 and 21 there are 6 days
Between 8 and 2 there are 6 months
Between 1872 and 1878 there are 6 years

This phenomenon of 6 is remarkable enough, but something even more remarkable occurred involving the days of their passings – the 18 days (3x6) between 17 November (the Mother’s) and 5 December (Sri Aurobindo’s). To compound matters, if this were not enough, there were 6 hours between their passings: the Mother’s occurred at 19:26 hours, and Sri Aurobindo’s at 1:26 AM. Furthermore, the date of the Mother’s important Vedic letter to Sri Aurobindo was 26 November – or the exact halfway date between the two passings. This date – named Immortality Day by the Mother and Sri Aurobindo in 1926 – would reveal itself through the measurements of the Chamber to be fundamental in the passage from the 9^th to the 10^th Avatar of Lord Vishnu, which will be discussed further on in conjunction with details regarding the chamber’s Core.
There is an interesting anecdote regarding the time of the Mother’s passing as officially circulated by the Ashram authorities. It is given as 19:25, not 19:26 as I have stated above. From the first moment I learned of the Ashram timing it seemed obvious to me that the time keeper had erred by one minute. That is, if there had been such a perfect harmony of 6 between their birth dates, it was logical to assume that coming so close to an even 6 hours in their passings, there had to have been a mistake. Perhaps the person entrusted with recording the time of the Mother’s passing had rounded it off to an even number, instead of respecting the passing to the minute. Or perhaps his watch was incorrect by one minute. Whatever had been the case, I was not convinced by the official timing. Three years later I was to receive confirmation of my assessment.
At Sri Aurobindo’s passing the clock in his room stopped at exactly 1:26 AM. It has been preserved with this reading ever since and left on display in his room for visitors to see. But it seemed that no such phenomenon occurred at the time of the Mother’s passing. Nonetheless, I still maintained that the correct time should be taken as 19:26, respecting Mahakala’s clear intention.
Three years later I happened to find myself in the reading room of the Ashram School where an imposing grandfather clock stands. It was not functioning because, I was told, it had stopped exactly when the Mother breathed her last, similar to the clock in Sri Aurobindo’s room. I was gratified to note that its hands pointed to 7:26 – and not 7:25. Of course it had to be so since this sort of precision has been a hallmark of the Supermind, unknown prior to its advent. Or rather, though the harmonies have been ever-present, they could not be ‘read’ or ‘seen’ without the enlightenment, coherency and precision Supermind provides. Sri Aurobindo makes this aspect of Supermind clear in a letter he wrote in February of 1923: ‘…The first condition of the Supermind is exactness, clearness and order both in the total and the details and their relations. Therefore it is a great advantage if there are these elements in the data upon which I have to work and a great disadvantage if they are absent.’ The incorrect recording of the Mother’s passing is a case in point.
There are a number of such harmonies between the births of the complete line of four which constitute the 9^th Avataric appearance along with his helpers. They are not random but are an intertwined phenomenon intended to present specific points that need to be rectified in order to re-establish the Sanatana Dharma on its correct foundations. To illustrate, the four Cardinal Points are firm pillars of the Vedic cosmology, but given the fact that astronomers persist in applying the wrong circle for astrological prescriptions and temple timings, their importance has been lost over the centuries. But true to my contention that by their very births the Vishnu emanations rectify or at least locate what is required to re-instate the Vedic tradition, the position of the Sun in each of the four natal horoscopes is situated in one of the four Cardinal corners of their charts; that is, emphasising the equinoxes and solstices. These births stretch across a century – 91 years, 1872-1963 to be precise. But this fourfold harmony was set in place for a very specific purpose: to highlight the need to respect the role the Cardinal Points and the equinoxes and solstices play in the Vedic Cosmology. It needs to be borne in mind that in order for this synchronisation between the four to take place, the exact birth times are the key – not the day or the month or the year, but four separate birth timings. We need to reflect on the question of control, which I have highlighted in the new cosmology, when presented with a configuration of this nature that stands well beyond the comprehension of today’s scientists from any discipline.
There is another such synchronisation, even more remarkable; in this case for the purpose of confirming the importance of the Cosmic Year, as it is sometimes called. This ‘year’ consists of 25,920 Earth years – or one round of the zodiac where passage through each sign requires 2160 years. This celestial movement is produced by the Precession of the Equinoxes. It takes place in a backward movement through the signs due to the Earth’s slow wobble like a gyroscope, whereby her equinoctial plane traces a circle in retrograde motion determining which astrological age of 2160 years the Earth is passing through. We emerged from the Age of Pisces in 1926 to enter our present Aquarian Age at that time.
The Precession of the Equinoxes is immensely important for astrological forecasting when dealing with cosmological periods covering centuries and millennia. This circle traced by the equatorial plane does not hold for individuals but only for vast evolutionary movements. It is through this method that the coming of Vishnu’s Avatars can be known and exactly when since each appearance is separated by approximately 6000 years; more importantly, we learn the task set out for each one to complete. The Precession was known to the ancients across the globe, and also in India, contrary to what scholars believe. This is proven with unparalleled accuracy by the Vishnu praises in the Rig Veda (RV 1, 154). But unfortunately, when the Vedic cosmology and zodiacal script were set aside at the insistence of astronomers, those verses could not be understood properly and the Precessional key they contain to indicate when the Avatar would appear was lost. Even more significantly, horoscopes for individuals are now done based on this vast movement of the Earth’s equatorial plane, in the belief that the circle thus traced on the backdrop of the constellations should be used for all astrological purposes, including ritual and temple timings. This practice should be halted and corrected at the earliest if astrology is to regain its former respected position as a true Vedic science. To each his own, is the motto: the individual’s place is within the tropical zodiac; the passage of the astrological ages is read according to a movement also produced by the Earth but involving not one year as in the Earth’s annual rotation around the Sun but thousands determined by the Precession of the Equinoxes. The error committed by Nirayana astrologers is to apply – incorrectly, in any case – the vast to the small. It is an aberration known only in India, birth place of the Veda!
The Precession of the Equinoxes, coupled with the Vishnu verses from the Rig Veda, are the keys required to read the cosmic credentials of the Avatars; and it is now precisely the Avataric descent in this Aquarian Age that can re-instate the cosmology by their own birthdates according to the Formula established for this purpose. Thus, to highlight the important role the Precession of the Equinoxes plays in the cosmology, the total count of the four dates in question correspond to one of the digits of the Precessional round in years – 25,920. Strung together, each birth date, by reduction to a ‘seed digit’ according to the Vedic method, forms the total year count of one Precessional round: 21.2.1878=2; 15.8.1872=5; 5.1.1938=9; 26.11.1963=2 – or 2/5/9/2 - 0. The Zero describes the supramental process involving Transcendence and Immanence, or the ‘birth of the One that fills the Void’. This will be explained further on. By this presentation, once again we are faced with Mahakala’s unparalleled control that makes a mockery of any ‘before’ or ‘after’, or of any limitation set by the assumed singularities of physics.

The Mother’s Vedic credentials are unmistakably discovered in perhaps the most important area of her competence: the symbol she designed for herself to reflect the most profound aspects of her mission. In fact, it is this symbol that formed the basis for the chamber design, which then brought it into direct connection with the vedi of the Rishis, as I will demonstrate conclusively.
Before all else, an explanation is required of just what her symbol and Sri Aurobindo’s are. They are not logos created by a graphic designer. Symbols of this superior order are based on gnosis; in the Mother’s case they reflect her supramental capacity. Therefore, we are blessed to have them to work with, as I have done. The supramental gnostic quality they possess surfaces when we realise that they hold a content that is applicable. I have discussed Sri Aurobindo’s (Part 3) with particular reference to its central square and the arrangement of petals that provided the sacred key to the descent of Vishnu’s 9^th Avatar; not only the Avatar himself, but also his helpers – the 6 and the 3.
Regarding the square, in 1958 the Mother explained its significance: ‘The junction of both (triangles) – the central square – is the perfect manifestation having at its centre the Avatar of the Supreme, the lotus.’

It is important to note her words carefully because some sustain – for example, Peter Heehs in his recent biography The Lives of Sri Aurobindo – that he was never referred to as the Avatar. Therefore, Heehs dismisses any such claims by his disciples or devotees as simple hagiography. This cavalier dismissal reveals the shallowness of his research. There are abundant references to his avatarhood in the files of the Ashram Archives Department where he worked – particularly available there are my extensive publications on this very subject. More pointedly, though having resided in India for several decades and having immersed himself in Sri Aurobindo’s writing on Indian culture, it appears Heehs failed to appreciate the role of the Vishnu Line of Ten and its singular place in Vedic civilisation.
The Mother answered many questions from disciples on symbols and their significance, as we find in her collected works. It was my direct experience that she withheld the gnostic significance based on the acolyte’s development, respecting the tradition of exoteric and esoteric levels. To provide an example, in reply to my query regarding the meaning of the number 9, since I was not satisfied with what had been explained to disciples, her explanation to me was one of the most important keys I received from her before she left this plane: she simply replied: The 9 is creation in matter. With this explanation, unrecorded elsewhere and which at the time seemed somewhat incomplete, when combined with the 0 provided the key to rest (0) and motion (9) of incomparable value in applying the Formula of Supermind. (See, The Tenth Day of Victory, Chapter 30.)
While identifying all the players involved in the appearance of the Avatar, this arrangement of 9/6/3 is applicable and made possible because of the number system and calendar, both of which are now universally adopted in this Aquarian Age. Its main attribute is precisely universalism, as in the Vedic call vasudhaiva kutumbakam = Earth is like a family. Similarly, the Mother’s symbol is applicable but with respect to the scale of 12 (the zodiac) and therefore to the months of the year. This application is carried over to sacred geometry and architecture via the chamber plan, consisting as it does of 12 walls among other elements, all of which are derived from her symbol. The Mother has confirmed this application in her discussion on the original plan by briefly stating that each wall is a month of the year; this is the Vedic methodology of correspondences.
The Mother’s symbol is placed centrally in the chamber. It lies horizontally in the centre, upholding the chamber’s Core, occupying 3 meters of the total 24m diameter. Given these profound applications I refer to the symbols as gnostic. They do come from a plane that until now has been tapped only sporadically but never in the impeccable manner of the Mother’s usage. However, there is far more contained in the Mother’s symbol to discover. This is achieved with the help of the following verses from the Rig Veda:

Twelve spokes, one wheel, navels three.
Who can comprehend this?
On it are placed together
Three hundred and sixty like pegs.
They shake not in the least.
(Rig Veda 1.154.48)

Here is the Mother’s own gnostic symbol. Every item enumerated by the Rishi finds its correspondence in her symbol, thereby establishing conclusively her Vedic credentials.


There are 12 ‘spokes’ and ‘navels three’ – by far the most significant element in the hymn because one does not easily understand how there can be ‘one wheel’ with three hubs or navels. In the Mother’s symbol above, this is made clear. Indeed, the three hubs/navels play an immensely important role in deciphering the coming of Vishnu’s Avatars, as I will explain in the following section of this series. The 360 ‘pegs’ are understood by the circle itself consisting of 360 degrees, as all circles do. Finally, the Rishi makes the most important declaration of all: They shake not in the least. This is completely contrary to the current Nirayana system of astrology, employed throughout India for temple timings and horoscopy, which does indeed SHAKE. Whereas, the Vedic system based on the tropical zodiac never ‘shakes’, resting as it does on the four unchanging pillars of equinoxes and solstices.
The Mother’s symbol presents the static, unmoving image of the Rishi’s verses. In the next section I will add the dynamism required to allow us to locate the appearances in time. This is the addition the third in the Line brings to the descent. I will use the several items presented in this section for the purpose of setting the Mother’s symbol in motion – that is, the Precessional Year of 25,920 Earth years, and the four Cardinal corners of the fourfold division of the circle of 12, based on the equinoxes and solstices. These combine on the backdrop of the Rig Veda verses quoted above to provide details of the Dasavataras, in a concise example of what Sri Aurobindo stated were the necessary conditions to recognise the Supramental Gnosis: ‘…The first condition of the Supermind is exactness, clearness and order both in the total and the details and their relations’. In the course of this study we have seen how nothing could have made sense of the revelations I am presenting without the explicit correspondences involving that total vision; or the seeing of the whole expressed diagrammatically as the circle; and then the ‘details’ which form the points on the circle’s periphery; and most important of all, the relations between all these elements, converging on a central point. We see this in the symbol of the Sun which Sri Aurobindo held to be the symbol of Supermind:. Mind alone cannot fathom a seeing of this nature. It is only possible with the advent of the truth-conscious Supermind.

[Link to Part IX]