12/12/12

Well, here we are in the fabled December 2012, which those us in the 'futures market' have been looking forward to time for at least a decade.

12/12/12, 12:12pm. London.

Here's what I wrote at the start of the year:

'According to the reckoning of the Mayans (ancient Aztec/ Mesoamerican civilization), who were adept astrologers, 2012 is the date our present cycle of time finishes. The so-called Mayan Long Count, a period of 5125 years, began at a mythological point which most authorities agree was August 11, 3114 BC. The exact moment the new era arrives is December 21st, 2012 A.D, at precisely 11:11 am GMT! This comes at the close conjunction of the Winter Solstice Sun with the crossing point of the Galactic Equator (equator of the Milky Way) and the Ecliptic (path of the Sun).

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So far, so familiar. This Galactic Alignment happens every year, it's just another name for the Winter Solstice. And for all the talk about the End of Time, it is far more interesting to speculate what happens in the next Long Count. As far as I know, the qualities of the future period are not revealed by the Maya Prophecies. There is not even a general quality set out, like the equivalent of a Piscean or Aquarian Age.

This is where the Vedic prophecies regarding a New Age are more interesting. Here again is what I wrote at the start of 2012.

And there is a further correspondence between the 2012 prophecy and the Vedic civilization’s concept of Kali Yuga. Yugas are vast ages of time, of which Kali Yuga is our present era of materialism and spiritual decadence. This is said to have begun in the year 3102BCE, making a difference of only 12 years between two wholly independent world traditions. Kali Yuga is hundreds of thousands of years long in entirety, but the Vedic scripture Brahma Vaivata Purana Sutra depicts a mini-Golden age – Sat Yuga– lasting 10,000 years, within the larger extent of Kali Yuga. So, we are heading for an oasis of spirituality in the wider context of a materialistic eon. The testimonies are stacking up in favour of a Major Change'.

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Krishna said to Ganga (Gangamata, the Ganges personified as a goddess). "Five thousand years from this date, within the span of Kali Yuga, there will be respite from this terrible age. There will be a golden age of 10,000 years."

The time in between ages is called Pralaya, and the Samavartaka Fire brings a solar cleansing of the earth. Certainly, the transition may be accompanied by natural cataclysms, rather like water bubbling before it turns into steam. We might expect to see this reflected in the astrology, but such vast periods of time exceed the scope of our usual planetary model. 

This period of transition could be accounted for by the series of Uranus-Pluto squares, which continue until 2015. Pluto in earthy Capricorn resisting the fiery energy of Uranus in Aries is pretty volcanic, and also describes the power struggle between old and new. The entrenched attitudes and vested interests; banks, church, press, politicians, won't let go easily and there will be a struggle before a more perfect world can arrive.

Yet while Uranus-Pluto squares are generational, they are not epoch-defining. The last such configuration was in the 1930s, during the Great Depression and the rise of Hitler. What must people living in Eastern Europe at that time have thought? The end must surely have seemed nigh.

There is always a tendency to invest our own time period with historic significance. Whether all this is valid, or whether the verse in the Puranas is an interpolation, we can see and feel big changes in the world. The upsurge in the practice of yoga (who isn't training to be a yoga teacher these days?) is a sign of a colossal lifestyle shift. The emphasis is moving away from material resources and wealth creation to spiritual unfoldment.