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History and Celestial Time
By Walter Cruttenden, Author ‘Lost Star of Myth and Time’
This will be one of the topics of conversation at the upcoming
‘Conference on Precession and Ancient Knowledge’ to be
held this October 6-7, at the University of California, San Diego.
Speakers include Graham Hancock, Walter Cruttenden, Robert Bauval,
Robert Schoch, John Anthony West, Laird Scranton, Marie D. Jones,
John Burke, John Dering and Richard Leviton. www.CPAKonline.com
Discoveries like the ancient Greek Antikythera computer (1500 years
before the invention of precision geared devices) the Baghdad batteries
(2000 years before Volta ‘invented’ the battery) or dental
and brain surgery artifacts found in ancient Pakistan (8000 years
out of historical sequence) appear ‘anomalous’ within
our current paradigm of history. However, they are not unexpected
according to the ancient cyclical view.
Giorgio de Santillana, the former professor of the history of science
at MIT, tells us that most ancient cultures believed consciousness
and history were not linear but cyclical, meaning they would rise
and fall over long periods of times. In his landmark work, Hamlet’s
Mill, Giorgio and co-author Hertha von Dechend, showed that the myth
and folklore of over 30 ancient cultures around the world spoke of
a vast cycle of time with alternating Dark and Golden Ages that move
with the precession of the equinox. Plato called this the Great Year.
Although the idea of a great cycle timed by the slow precession of
the equinox was common to multiple cultures before the Christian era
most of us were taught this is just a fairytale; there was no Golden
Age. However, an increasing body of new astronomical and archaeological
evidence suggests the cycle may have a basis in fact. More importantly,
understanding the cycle might provide insight into where society is
headed at this time and why consciousness may be expanding at an exponential
rate. Understanding the cause of precession is key to understanding
the cycle.
The standard theory of precession says it is principally the Moon’s
gravity acting upon the oblate Earth that must be the cause of the
Earth’s changing orientation to inertial space, a.k.a. the ‘precession
of the equinox’. However, ancient sources say the observable
of an equinox slowly moving or ‘precessing’ through the
twelve constellations of the zodiac is simply due to the motion of
the solar system through space (changing our viewpoint from Earth).
Here at the Binary Research Institute, we have modeled a moving solar
system and found it does indeed better produce the precession observable
and resolves a number of solar system anomalies such as the uneven
distribution of angular momentum within the solar system and the variable
rate of precession. Beyond the technical considerations, a moving
solar system might provide a logical reason why we have a Great Year
with alternating Dark and Golden Ages. That is, if the solar system
carrying the Earth actually moves in a huge orbit, subjecting the
Earth to the electromagnetic (EM) spectrum of another star or EM source
along the way, we could expect this would affect our magnetosphere,
ionosphere and indirectly all life in a pattern commensurate with
that orbit. Just as the Earth’s smaller diurnal and annual motion’s
produce the cycles of day and night and the seasons (both due to the
Earth’s changing position in relation to the EM spectrum of
the Sun), so might the larger celestial motion be expected to produce
a cycle that affects life and consciousness on a grand scale.
The hypothesis for how consciousness would be affected in such a celestial
cycle builds on the work of Dr. Valerie Hunt, the former professor
of physiology at UCLA. In a number of studies she has found that changes
in the ambient EM field (that surrounds us all the time) can dramatically
affect human cognition and performance. In short, consciousness is
affected by immersion in EM fields. Consequently, the concept behind
the Great Year or cyclical model of history, consistent with myth
and folklore, is based on the Sun’s motion through space, subjecting
the Earth to waxing and waning stellar fields (all stars are huge
generators of EM spectrum), resulting in the legendary rise and fall
of the ages over great epochs of time.
In Lost Star of Myth and Time, we looked at some of the ancient myths
about rising and falling ages tied to the precession cycle, explored
current precession anomalies, outlined a dynamic solar system model
that better explains the precession observable, and suggested a hypothesis
for how a change in proximity to stellar-generated electro-magnetic
fields might be the mechanism that induces cyclical changes on Earth.
Here we would like to use this model as a guide to better understand
where we have been in terms of consciousness and ancient civilizations
in the past, and more importantly, where we are going in the future.
As Graham Hancock stated, this ‘new - or very old - approach
to the greatest problems of human history’ could be the ‘key
to the mystery of the ages’.
Historical Perspective
Current theories of history generally ignore myth and folklore and
do not consider any macro external influences on consciousness. For
the most part, modern history theory teaches us that consciousness
or history moves in a linear pattern from primitive to modern with
few exceptions.
Some of its tenets include:
Mankind evolved out of Africa,
People were hunter-gatherers until about 5000 years ago,
Tribes first banded together for protection from other warring parties,
Written communication must precede any large engineered structures
or populous civilizations.
The problem with this widely accepted paradigm is that it is not consistent
with the evolving interpretation of recently discovered ancient cultures
and anomalous artifacts. In the last hundred years major discoveries
have been made in Mesopotamia, the Indus Valley, the Asian plains,
South America and many other regions that break the rules of history
theory and push back the time of advanced human development. Specifically,
they show ancient man was far more proficient and civilized nearly
5000 years ago than he was during the more recent Dark Ages of just
a thousand years ago. In Caral, an ancient complex on the west coast
of Peru, we find six pyramids that are carbon dated to be 4700 years
old, a date contemporaneous with Egyptian pyramids and rivaling the
time of the first major structures found in the so called ‘Cradle
of Civilization’ in Mesopotamia. However, Caral is an ocean
away from the ‘cradle’, and we find no evidence of any
writing or weaponry, two of the so-called necessities of civilization.
At the same time we do find beautiful musical instruments, astronomically
aligned structures and evidence of commerce with distant lands. Clearly,
such sites defy the standard historical paradigm. But what is stranger
still is that so many of these civilizations seemed to decline en
mass.
In ancient Mesopotamia, Pakistan, Jiroft, Iran and adjacent lands
we see knowledge of astronomy, geometry, advanced building techniques,
sophisticated plumbing and water systems, incredible art, dyes and
fabrics, surgery, medicine and many other refinements of a civilized
culture that seemed to arise from nowhere yet were completely lost
over the next few thousand years. By the time of the worldwide Dark
Ages every one of these civilizations had turned to dust or nomadic
ways of life. Near the depths of the downturn there were ruins and
little else to be found. And in some areas where larger populations
still remained, such as throughout parts of Europe, poverty and disease
were often rampant and the ability to read, write or duplicate any
of the earlier engineering or scientific feats had essentially disappeared.
What happened?
While records of this period are still very spotty the archeological
evidence indicates consciousness, reflected as human ingenuity and
capability, was greatly diminished. We just seemed to have lost the
ability to do the things we used to do. Ironically, this is just what
many ancient cultures predicted. The world’s foremost Assyrianologist,
Stefan Maul, shed light on this phenomenon in his Stanford Presidential
Lecture when he tells us that the Akkadians knew they lived in a declining
era; they revered the past and tried to hang on to it but at the same
time lamented and predicted the Dark Ages that would follow. His etymological
studies of cuneiform tablets show the ancient words for ‘past’
have now become our words for ‘future’, whereas their
words for the ‘future’ have now become our words for the
‘past’. It is almost as if mankind orients his motion
through time depending on whether he is in an ascending or descending
age.
We find this principal of waxing and waning periods of time depicted
in numerous bas-reliefs found in ancient Mithraic temples. The famed
Tauroctany or bull slaying scene, is often surrounded by two boys,
Cautes and Cautopetes. One holds a torch up on one side of the zodiac,
indicating it is a time of light, the other holds a torch down on
the other side of the zodiac, indicating it is a time of darkness.
As the accompanying chart will show, these time periods correspond
with the Vedic description of when the Earth goes through periods
of rising and falling consciousness.
Jarred Diamond, the well-known historian anthropologist and author
of Guns, Germs and Steel makes a good case that it is primarily local
geographic and environmental advantages on the planet Earth that determine
which group of humans succeeds or fails versus another. Those that
have the steel, guns and bad germs win. While this helps explain many
regional differences of the last few thousand years it does not address
the macro trends that seemed to have affected all cultures (including
China and the Americas) as they slipped into the last worldwide Dark
Age. The cyclical or Great Year model overlays and augments Jarred
Diamond’s observations giving a reason for the widespread downturn.
It suggests that it is not just the geography and environment of man
on Earth that determines his relative success but it is also the geography
and environment of the Earth in space that affects mankind on a vast
scale. Just as small celestial motions affect life over the short
term so do large celestial motions affect us over the long term.
Understanding that consciousness may indeed rise and fall with the
motions of the heavens gives meaning to ancient myth and folklore
and puts anomalous artifacts such as the Antikythera device into an
historical context that makes sense. It speaks to why so many ancient
cultures might have been fascinated with the stars and it provides
us with a workable paradigm in which to understand history. It could
also help us identify the forces that propelled the renaissance and
that may be accelerating consciousness in the current era. Myth and
folklore, the scientific language of yore, provide a colorful look
at consciousness throughout the different ages.
Character of the Ages
The Greek historian Hesiod tells us of the wonderful nature of the
last Golden Age when ‘peace and plenty’ abounded. Hopi
myths tell us of cities on the bottom of the sea. Typically ancient
peoples broke the great cycle into an ascending and descending phase,
each with four periods. For example, the Vedic or Hindu culture tells
us that when the Autumnal Equinox moves from Virgo to Aires we go
through the ascending Kali, Dwapara, Treta and Satya Yugas (the golden
era) before slowly declining in reverse order as the equinox completes
its journey. The Greeks and other early Mediterranean civilizations
used like periods and labeled them the Iron, Bronze, Silver and Golden
Ages. More distant cultures such as the Maya or Hopi used still other
names such as ‘worlds’ or ‘Suns’, and labeled
them ‘fourth or fifth’, to identify the recent epochs.
A relatively modern proponent of the cyclical system was the Sanskrit
Sage, Swami Sri Yukteswar, author of The Holy Science. He taught that
the position of our solar system relative to another star now indicates
we are in recent transition from the lowest material age, the Kali
Yuga, into the electrical or atomic age, the Dwapara Yuga. In this
period, it is said we begin to see the world as more transparent as
we move from an awareness of self as a physical body in a strictly
physical universe, to an awareness that we are something more, living
in a universe filled with subtle forces and energies. The technological
discoveries of the laws of gravity, electricity and magnetism just
in the last few hundred years give this idea credence ñ and
the trend is accelerating. In the last century it has even been discovered
that physical matter is not really solid at all. We have found it
is made of molecules and these in turn are made of atoms, which are
themselves constituted of 99.9% empty space. The little bit of matter
that does exist in the heart of the proton and neutron, is now thought
to be principally vibrating energy, at least according to the latest
String Theory. Indeed, reality is looking more and more ethereal just
as the hoary Vedas predict.
Ages beyond the present are difficult to grasp because a lesser consciousness
cannot behold a greater consciousness anymore than a cup of water
cannot hold the ocean. So we tend to extrapolate the past material
view of things when envisioning the future i.e. more gadgets and technology.
But the Oriental teachings about cycles indicate this is just a passing
phase. They say the real trend is towards a god-like state where the
physical is but a manifestation of something from the netherworld.
And so it seems when we read Greek mythology or pages of Vedic scripture.
The Silver Age or Treta Yuga, the third age (from the bottom) is the
Greek ‘age of the demigods’, or to the yogis of India,
the age of divine magnetism and the mind. While this is a difficult
concept to grasp consider the story of Babel.
Supposedly before Babel (pre 3100BC in the last descending Treta Yuga)
humanity spoke with one tongue and communed freely with nature. The
Old Testament tells us mankind began to build ‘towers’
and then languages were ‘confused’ and people could no
longer understand one another (Genisis 11:1-9). In the standard theory
of history this story makes no sense but in the cyclical model it
has great meaning. It would have occurred around the time of the first
tower buildings in ancient Mesopotamia, probably between 3000BC and
3500BC. This is precisely around the time (3100BC) when according
to Sri Yukteswar the world declined from the descending Treta yuga
into the descending Dwapara yuga, a time when clairvoyance and telepathy
were lost (see Chart). We learn from Paramahansa Yogananda, another
proponent of the yuga cycle and the famed author of Autobiography
of a Yogi, that this time will come again in the year 4100AD when
we pass from the ascending Dwapara into the ascending Treta yuga.
He tells us at this time there will once again be a ‘common
knowledge of telepathy and clairvoyance’. Perhaps then we will
better understand the meaning of the ancient myths.
The Treta Yuga is said to be the age of levitation, telepathy, a time
of shaman and wizards of old, when tremendous physic and mental abilities
were common, truly an ‘age of the demigods’. We have all
heard stories about mythical powers of saints and sages who have these
gifts. Now seen as rare, the majority of people don’t take these
reports seriously or realize that we too might have this same latent
ability in a higher state of consciousness. Yet, this is exactly what
the ancients told us. In fact, Christ was quoting the far more ancient
scriptures of the Old Testament when in the depths of the last Dark
Age he said; ‘Is it not written that ye are gods,’ and
he himself embodied this consciousness when he said, ‘These
things that I do ye shall do also.’
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| Chart by Laurie Pratt, published in East
West Magazine in 1932. The zenith of the Golden Age last took
place in 11,502BC. The pit of the last Dark Age was in 498AD. |
The final stage in the cycle of time is the Golden Age or Satya Yuga.
It is considered the highest time on Earth. If the Treta or Silver
age is inconceivable to us today, then the Golden Age must sound like
a myth or a dream. The Greeks called it the ‘age of the gods’
and the myth and folklore of the Vedas and ancient Egypt hint that
this was a time when gods literally walked the Earth and most of mankind
lived in perfect harmony with nature and the heavens. While there
now remains very little physical evidence of this long ago period,
we do find that virtually every ancient megalithic construction prior
to the year 1500BC seems to be oriented towards some astronomical
or cardinal point. Going back further there are signs multiple structures
may have been aligned to mirror constellations or the larger heavens.
The Golden Age is said to be a time when we could perceive and communicate
with astral or causal realms and directly know God without the intermediacy
of any religion. Again, this sounds like little more than a fairy
tale given our current state of consciousness, but it is a theme common
to ancient peoples who spoke and wrote of the long lost higher ages.
Predictive Value
Admittedly, the higher ages sound incredible but we hope to show evidence
at the next CPAK and through future papers, books and film that the
cycle has a basis in fact, driven by the solar system’s motion
through space. Just as the seasons of the year, caused by the Earth’s
orbit around the Sun, can be forecast in time (through calendars and
various astronomical means) so can the seasons of the Great Year be
calculated by the slow precession of the equinox.
The cyclical model is not only precisely measurable (by monitoring
the annual change in the precession rate, now about 50.29 arc seconds
per year) but I believe it has predictive value. I am presently working
on a new book showing changes we can expect over the next few decades
to few thousand years as we progress through the Great Year. It is
based on cross interpretations of myth and folklore, extrapolation
of trends and interviews with futurists. During the current transition
from the Kali age (of gross material consciousness) to the early Dwapara
era (of an awareness of energy and finer forces) we are manifesting
our heightened awareness and increasing ingenuity through an endless
array of technology that allows us to annihilate the barriers of time
and space. We can now fly just about anywhere on the globe within
the time it takes the planet to make one spin on its axis. Likewise,
we can instantly communicate with someone on the other side of the
Earth and send them a picture or video of almost any event, real time.
All these things were not only impossible but also unthinkable just
a hundred years ago.
Underlying this trend there is actually a greater concern for nature.
We will see, more and more, a return to living in tune with Mother
Earth and it will be facilitated by greater understanding and thinner
technology. As technology becomes something hidden in the background,
we can expect some amazing changes. For example, while we currently
still need antennas to transmit communications (and soon power) or
silicon to compute or store information even these may be outmoded
in the future. Physicist John Dering (a CPAK regular) has speculated
that given the trend of compute power sometime in the not too distant
future we will develop interface devices that allow us to pick up
the wave forms captured by trees or the antennae of bugs, and we may
be able to tap into and decipher all the information (waveforms) that
have ever passed by a rock or any inanimate object in the landscape.
Could it be that our ancient ancestors better understood the subtle
qualities of stone? Another CPAK author, John Burke, has already shown
that ancient cultures had a tremendous knowledge of electromagnetism
as evidenced by the outer stones at Avebury where he has demonstrated
all of the standing stones magnetic poles are identically aligned.
He has also shown that some Indian Shaman in the American West can
find areas of high electrostatic charge or geophysical discontinuities
just by feel. They use these areas for healing purposes. Contemplating
these ideas gives new meaning to the stories of our ancient ancestors.
Understanding their wisdom may be key to understanding our future.
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