2012 The Lunar Year of the Water Dragon
I know how birds can fly, fishes swim, and animals run.
The runner may be snared, the swimmer hooked, and the flyer shot by the arrow.
But there is the dragon:
I cannot tell how he mounts on the wind through the clouds, and rises to heaven.
Today I have seen Lao-tzu, and can only compare him to the dragon.
Confucius
We have had nearly a month to acclimatise to the energies of the much-anticipated year of 2012; now an early Chinese New Year - of the Water Dragon - is opening the doorway into a deeper understanding of this year. The dragon, the mythical beast seen as leader of the Chinese zodiac, was used in Chinese culture to symbolise imperial power or authority; this was held to be conferred by the sky gods with whom the dragon was closely associated. It was therefore seen as the luckiest of the zodiac animals, and said to bring the Four Benedictions of the East: wealth, virtue, harmony, and long life. Due to their connection with the heavens, dragons were also said by the ancient Chinese to rule the weather, and to have a particularly close relationship with moving bodies of water. These magical creatures were supposed to manifest in water-related phenomena like waterfalls and waterspouts or typhoons.
But the secret powers of the dragon - and the inner spiritual teachings of this Dragon year - run much deeper than these mundane associations. They are explored most fully in Taoism, where the dragon is associated with the mysterious Tao itself. This invisible path of intrinsic spiritual harmony can only be discovered by the wise after they have understood the interconnectedness of all life (the Tao) and the underlying unity of apparent opposites (yin-yang), and have also cultivated a humble conduct or way of being (wu-wei) that is not motivated by ego. Consequently the Taoist sage was compared to a dragon, since through these insights and practices he or she harnessed the vitalising powers of the Tao. This Taoist teaching on the dragon seems to hint at the core spiritual message of 2012 - a year in which the wise should avoid the excesses of worldly dragon power, and practice the balance, restraint and humility cultivated by the ancient sages.
Astrologically speaking, the first part of this year seems likely to be reasonably calm after the stormy energies of 2011, blessed perhaps by the beneficent nature of the dragon energies. This may evoke a deceptive impression of order restored. But beware of the dragon in hiding! Humanity would be wise to proceed carefully now. After all, unmistakeable signs of a significant shift in planetary and human affairs - associated with a turning point in the great cycle of the stars - have only just been delivered to us, in great profusion, by the first decade of the twenty-first century.
The last decade was momentous not just because it marked the start of a new millennium and a new century, but above all because it coincided with an extraordinary cosmic event: the exceptional, once in 13,000 years, alignment of the Solstice Suns with the central axis of our Galaxy. The two peaks - or towers - of this epochal alignment (lasting approximately from 1980 to 2016) were two total eclipses, commented upon even by NASA because of their great rarity, occurring on the Solstices. These eclipses occurred in 2001 and 2010, at the Summer and Winter Solstices respectively.
In each case, huge storm waves were released from these eclipses, which manifested in dramatic mundane events in late 2001 and the first half of 2011. But throughout the whole decade of 2001 to 2010 there were numerous signals of a major change of cosmic gear for humanity, and of an impending change in consciousness. The most important of these were: firstly, the gradual recognition and acceptance of the huge implications of man-made climate change for our world and its interdependent web of life; secondly, the refusal to accept the corrupt exercise of power - made most evident by recent events in the Arab world; and finally, the increasing awareness that the economic agenda powered by global capitalism was not simply unjust but amoral, unsustainable and dangerously destructive in its impact on our world. Is Homo sapiens finally becoming a little wise?
The Chinese traditionally anticipate increased prosperity in a Dragon year, but they also acknowledge the unpredictability of this strange mythical creature, originally seen as an emissary of heaven. At the level of worldly events, mild planetary aspects in the first part of the year suggest there may indeed be more stability in its early months - a temporary calm secured, perhaps, by dominant or dragon-like behaviour on the part of key world leaders. Yet there may well be a temptation or threat lurking in these initially calm waters! Taoist teaching certainly implies that the imperial Chinese appropriation of the dragon, as a symbol of worldly power and prosperity, also cynically exploited the material aspects of dragon power. And Western dragon lore teaches us that if we try to exploit the material riches that are guarded by dragons too greedily or selfishly, sooner or later we come to regret our impudence. This is the year, after all, in which the long-awaited film of Tolkien’s The Hobbit will appear, which repeats this basic lesson of dragon wisdom. It is said that dragon power gathers in early summer, and so by the middle of this year, the deeper messages - and possible warnings - of the Water Dragon will begin to manifest.
Dragon years are frequently associated with great storms on earth or in the heavens: recent dragon years have seen events like the Battle of the Somme, the Easter Uprising in Ireland, the Blitz and Battle of Britain, and inevitably some dramatic natural events, including exceptional weather events and earthquakes. A striking number of world leaders have been born in dragon years, along with several uniquely inspiring spiritual beings, including the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, Paramahamsa Yogananda, and Emperor Haile Selassie. So for those seeking spiritual insights and higher consciousness, the Water Dragon year of 2012 may well prove to be a watershed on their spiritual paths, opening the pathway to the compassionate wisdom of the sage as a fully enlightened being. Yet with the first (of 7!) intense Uranus-Pluto square occurring this midsummer, followed by the second in November, it also seems likely that this Dragon year will be one of intense emotions and passions, as archaic energies and forgotten possibilities rise from the depths of our collective memory. Some will be able to surf this powerful water energy in a way that guides them to higher levels of realisation; others, however, may get caught in its undertow, and be swept helplessly along by the collective storm.
Specific aspects of the year
The hinge of this powerful dragon year is June. The month will be marked by an unusual concentration of powerful planetary aspects, as Venus’ rare occultation of the Sun on June 6th is followed later in the month by the first exact square between Uranus and Pluto, along with a virtually simultaneous square between Jupiter and Neptune. At the same time, the new Moon just before the Summer Solstice is on the degree of the total lunar eclipse of December 21, 2010. That event will seemingly reintroduce some of the key themes from that eclipse - the extreme turbulence in both our physical world and in many societies that played out so dramatically across the world in 2011.
The illustrations below show the current placement of Uranus and Pluto in the sky. In spite of the assertion of tropical astrologers that these planets are now in Aries and Capricorn, their sidereal or true sky positions are worthy of reflection at this time. On the mundane level, the challenging aspects of these two planets will always bring great political and economic turbulence, but on this occasion their stand off in the heavens also seems to carry a highly distinctive spiritual message for us.
Uranus is moving toward the midpoint of Pisces, between its two fishes, who are tied together by a central knot. They are said to represent worldly concerns on the one hand (the fish swimming horizontally along the ecliptic) and spiritual aspiration on the other (the fish swimming upwards). This sign is therefore said to be an allegory of the soul, entangled in the world but aspiring to spiritual release. After several years of transiting the material fish (years in which our economic securities have been seriously destabilised), revolutionary and transformative Uranus will soon be passing beneath the spiritual fish. It seems clear that this period is set to stimulate a new wave of spiritual development in the West above all, probably involving a radical change or rejection of existing spiritual values, since Western culture is very closely connected with the sign of Pisces through its association with Christianity.
At the same time, Pluto has spent the last few years crossing over the deadly bow of Sagittarius the centaur, and is now approaching his head and body. This alien creature appears to have been introduced into Western astrology as an emblem of the ‘barbarians’ from the East, who swept down from the steppes in prehistory mounted on horseback and armed with bows and arrows. Pluto’s transit of the early part of Sagittarius found the Western world in violent confrontation with a ferocious Eastern enemy from this part of the world. Now, it seems, part of the global challenge of Pluto approaching the head of the centaur, combined with the volcanic Uranus-Pluto aspect, will involve us coming to terms with the powerful beliefs that inspired that confrontation; for like yet also unlike the Piscean fish, the Sagittarian centaur is the representative of a deeply felt spirituality, and was seen by some ancient astrologers as the priestly guardian of important spiritual truths.
This challenge to appreciate the equal merits of West and East, and allow our consciousness to be receptive once again to the wisdom of the East, is an overlooked dimension of the Uranus-Pluto square that will dominate the next four years. After the turbulent events of 2011, we can already see how the square is likely to play out in the economic and political arena. But the extent to which the square has a central spiritual message is also strongly indicated by the involvement of the two spiritual planets, Jupiter and Neptune, rulers of Sagittarius and Pisces, in the first Uranus-Pluto square. As that first square forms, so too does a square between these visionary planets - a confirmation, if any were needed, of the heightened but still rather nebulous spiritual aspirations of many at this time.
As the year comes to a close, the Winter Solstice Sun of 2012 will once again be in alignment with the centre of the Galaxy. At the same time, a distinctive Yod or Finger of God formation will be created, an elongated triangle with Jupiter at its apex, Venus opposite that point, and Saturn and Pluto on each side of the triangle base. This indicates that those who are seeking spiritual growth at this time will be challenged to relate their quest directly and effectively to a suffering world out of balance. A further implication is that key individuals, or ‘dragons’ are about to step on to the world stage, whose heroic attempts to find effective yet healing solutions to the great crises of our era will also need to be guided by the highest ideals, and by great generosity of spirit. Let us hope that the pure vibrations of an enlightened ‘dragon’ consciousness will be widely felt as this powerful Water Dragon year approaches its finale.
Philippa Glasson & Nicholas Mann
Glastonbury, January 23rd 2012
The Great Year or Year of Brahma
In this diagram, imagine a inner dial of the annual seasons slowly turning within the 26,000 year cycle of the Great Year. The Midwinter Sun is currently aligned to the era described in the coloured ring as the ‘Kali Yuga’, and to the key marker of the heavens: the crossing point of the ecliptic and galaxy upon the centre of the Milky Way.
Various writers have offered differing versions of the Great Year. In this version we take the generally agreed upon precessional cycle as the basis for the Great Year and give it a duration of 26,000 years. We then map the Great Year onto the model of the Vedic yugas, or great ages of man. This step was first proposed in the late nineteenth century by Swami Sri Yukteswar Giri in his book The Holy Science. Sri Yukteswar was an accomplished astrologer as well as a great yogi, and he observed that later Vedic texts had corrupted what appears to be one of the earliest accounts of the Yugas, found in the Laws of Manu. According to the Laws of Manu, an entire cycle of yugas has two arcs, or halves of 12,000 years, each comprising 4800 years + 3600 years + 2400 years + 1200 years. This makes a total of 24,000 years to complete the cycle. However, confusion seems to have entered into later texts about the yugas, where the time periods of the yugas are defined as years of the gods or devatas and each multiplied by the solar number of 360. For example, in the Srimad Bhagavatam it is written:
The duration of the Satya millennium equals 4,800 years of the years of the demigods; the duration of the Dvapara millennium equals 2,400 years; and that of the Kali millennium is 1,200 years of the demigods... As aforementioned, one year of the demigods is equal to 360 years of the human beings. The duration of the Satya-yuga is therefore 4,800 x 360, or 1,728,000 years. The duration of the Treta-yuga is 3,600 x 360, or 1,296,000 years. The duration of the Dvapara-yuga is 2,400 x 360, or 864,000 years. And the last, the Kali-yuga, is 1,200 x 360, or 432,000 years in total. (Srimad Bhagavatam 3.11.19)
Sri Yukteswar recognised that the original ancient formula of the yugas referred to a great cosmic cycle (it was later described as the time of the demigods or devatas), and saw how closely its total of 24,000 years corresponded to the precessional cycle of the Sun through the entire zodiac. This vast cycle can be mapped in relation to a fixed point in earth time and the annual solar cycle (i.e. an equinox or solstice). He therefore made an insightful intervention into the thorny debate about the length of the cycles of Yugas, by pointing out that the figures given for the yugas clearly refer to this cosmic cycle.
Sri Yukteswar explained that just as the cycle of day and night is caused by a celestial motion (the earth spinning on its axis in relation to the sun), and just as the cycle of the seasons are caused by a celestial motion (the Earth with tilted axis orbiting the Sun), so too is the yuga cycle caused by celestial motion. He explained this celestial motion as the movement of the whole solar system around another star. As our sun moves through this orbit, it takes the solar system (and Earth) closer to and then further from a point in space known as a great cosmic centre, and called by Vedic astrologers Vishnu nabhi, the navel of Vishnu. This is seen the seat of the cosmic creative power, Brahma, which regulates the mental virtue of man’s internal world. The Swami implied that it is the proximity of the Earth and Sun to this grand centre that determines which season or yuga we are occupying in any world historical era.
In the terms of modern astronomy, we believe the Vishnu nabhi is the galactic anticentre, the location of Mrigashira nakshatra in sidereal Gemini. This is a portion of the sky closely associated with Brahma in ancient Vedic astrology and venerated in other ancient star-gazing cultures, including Egyptian and Maya civilisations, as a place of creation. The galactic centre has recently been proposed as the Vishnu nabhi by some new age commentators. This interpretation overlooks the fact that this portion of the sky in Sagittarius, associated with Mula nakshatra, is seen as ‘demonic’ in Vedic astrology, and is ruled by the goddess of death, Nirriti. The navel of Vishnu is therefore not to be understood as the heart of our galaxy, but rather seen as a cosmic centre of the entire universe.
In The Holy Science, Sri Yukteswar wrote:
The sun, with its planets and their moons, takes some star for its dual [twin] and revolves round it in about 24,000 years of our earth… When the sun in its revolution round its dual comes to the place nearest to this grand center, the seat of Brahma… mental virtue becomes so much developed that man can easily comprehend all, even the mysteries of Spirit.
Correspondingly, when the Sun reaches the place in its precessional orbit which is farthest from Brahma, the grand centre, the mental virtue comes to such a reduced state that man cannot grasp anything beyond the gross material creation.
We have adopted and adapted the model proposed by Sri Yukteswar, with two vital adjustments. Firstly, although he gives the length of the cycle as only 24,000 years, it is actually some 2000 years longer. Previous commentators were uncertain about the duration of the precessional cycle. Although this varies with each cycle, the current cycle is moving at a rate that will complete in just under 26,000 years. Secondly, Sri Yukteswar employs the equinoxes as his marker in order to calculate the start of the precessional year, while we employ the solstices. Although the two systems agree we are at the nadir of the cycle, as you will see, the first, crucial adjustment shows that we are currently in a different era or yuga from that originally calculated by Sri Yukteswar.
The precessional cycle is caused by the slow gyration of the Earth about its axis—like that of a spinning top. This is thought to be caused by the gravitational pull of the Moon, although Sri Yukteswar attributes it to his star. The end result is the same, in that the seasons of the Sun appear to move slowly around the backdrop of the fixed stars. Every two thousand years or so the Sun will have advanced around the Zodiac, rising a month later from sign to sign. The spring equinox Sun, for example, now rising in Pisces, will soon rise in Aquarius and then, over two thousand years later, in Capricorn. As it is so convenient for calculation, the precessional cycle is now known as the Precession of the Equinoxes, but we propose that in the sidereal world of ancient and traditional astronomers, the equinoxes do not form so convenient and obvious a marker. In this light, it is odd that Sri Yukteswar eschewed the sidereal system long known to Vedic astronomers in favour of the western tropical system based upon the equinoxes.
We have found through our study of ancient astronomy that the two places in the sky where the path of the Sun, Moon and planets (that is the ecliptic, marked by the stars of the Zodiac,) intersects the galaxy, the Milky Way, were considered of paramount importance. As the Earth rotates daily, the Sun, Moon and planets appear to cross the Milky Way in two places. For those of us in the northern hemisphere, they ascend through the region of the celestial sphere marked by the Milky Way against the constellation of Sagittarius, and descend through the Milky Way in the constellation of Gemini. The Sun, Moon and planets on the ecliptic have always done this, and this is what makes these two crossing points so important in ancient and traditional astronomy—these are two constant, fixed points in the heavens. According to the 26,000 year cycle of precession, the time and season of year when the Sun passes over the two crossing points in the Milky Way will gradually change. We believe ancient and traditional astronomers, working in real, sidereal time and space, used these two crossing points of the largest bodies in the celestial sphere to track precessional change.
The Sun is currently crossing the Milky Way at the solstices, traversing the Sagittarius portion of the galaxy at the winter solstice and the Gemini portion at the summer solstice. 13,000 years ago these positions were reversed. In our era (from around 1980 to 2016) the midwinter Sun rises on the crossroads of the ecliptic and the galaxy in Sagittarius for the first time in 26,000 years. This, we believe, is the kind of fiduciary marker—a 0º or 180º point in the Great Year—that ancient star-watchers would have found far more significant than the abstract, and only mathematically calculable, equinoxes.
The winter solstice is, of course, a moment in the solar year of death and rebirth; the time when the annual calendar comes to an end and the new year begins; the summer solstice is the time of abundance, but also descent into the waning year. The question is: what is the significance of this arrival of the solstitial Sun at the key markers of the Great Year?
We now come to an area that ancient astronomers could not have known but perhaps intuited. The two crossing points of the Zodiac and galaxy, traversed by the Sun, Moon and planets, not only are upon the Milky Way but are aligned so that they point towards and away from the centre of our galaxy. The so-called galactic anticentre lies in Gemini (pointing away from our galaxy into the universe), while the Sagittarius point is the location of the galactic centre, whose light would be brilliant were it not obscured by dust particles. There is no law of physics that states it has to be like this, but the solar system and the galaxy are obviously in a relationship, and the Sun, employing key moments in its year, is its marker.
We could say, for example, that when the Sun was upon the crossing points at the equinoxes (as it last was in 4500 BCE and will be again in 8500 CE), this was conceivably another auspicious moment in the Great Year. We could say that when the rising Sun was crossing the heart of the galaxy in midsummer and the setting Sun was over the galactic anticentre at midwinter (as it was in 11,000 BCE and will be again in 15,000 CE), this moment can be interpreted as the starting point in the current cycle of the ages. We believe, however, that a critical midpoint in the Great Year occurs when the Sun at midwinter is ascending over the centre of the Milky Way and the Sun at midsummer is setting over the galactic anticentre as it is today. The current era therefore could be seen as the fiducial moment when the Great Year ends, and begins again.
The ancient Maya seem to have grasped the cosmic importance of the midwinter Sun of this era; but in other respects it is hard to tie their Long Count calendar system to the precessional cycle. It just seems to be a time when one ‘long count’ comes to an end and another begins. When we turn to Vedic tradition, however, reinterpreted in the spirit of the insights of Sri Yukteswar (but with a necessary adjustment to the length of the precessional cycle), we can see from the coloured areas of the diagram that this era is the deepest, darkest point in the cycle of the Great Year. It is also arguably its turning point, the beginning of humanity’s slow emergence from great ignorance and excessive materialism. As Sri Yukteswar used a shorter precessional cycle, his suggested timing of the Kali Yuga differs from that which is suggested by our precessionally corrected model. He concluded that the dreaded Kali Yuga had already ended and a new cycle begun; our model suggests humanity now begins to climb out of this benighted state of mind, but will do so only slowly, over a period of the next thousand years.
Where our system, based upon a more accurate length of precession, ancient astronomy and galactic knowledge, agrees with Sri Yukteswar and Vedic tradition, (and indeed, with the meaning attributed to the two crossing points by the classical tradition where they are seen as portals for the entrance (in Gemini) and exit (in Sagittarius) of souls) is that it shows we are now at some kind of critical turning point in the cycle of the Great Year.
If we were to envisage an axis running from the centre of our galaxy through the Earth to the galactic anticentre, the Sun is now exactly upon it at Midwinter sunrise and Midsummer sunset. It will remain in these general regions of the sky for a few more decades until departing, not returning for another 13,000 years when these positions will be reversed. We have called this axis, the Brahma Axis, following Vedic tradition.
The moment when this alignment was astronomically exact is disputed, but it appears to centre upon the current decades from 1980 to 2020. Our research has been strongly influenced by knowledge from ancient (megalithic and Neolithic) astronomy that is particularly interested in visual soli-lunar alignments. We believe that this ancient system would have regarded the winter solstice of 2010, when a lunar eclipse revealed a precise alignment of galactic anticentre, Moon, Earth, Sun and galactic core, as a ceremonial and symbolic indicator of this turning point in the Great Year.
The Holy Science, [1894] Swami Sri Yukteswar, Self-Realization Fellowship, 1990.
