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Chapter 5 -The Path of the Priestess:  History and the Feminine Mysteries:  Reflections on the Cycle of the Great Yuga
By Sharron Rose


If one does not understand how the fire came to be, he will burn in it, because he does not know his root. If one does not first understand the water, he does not know anything . . . If one does not understand how the wind that blows came to be, he will run with it. If one does not understand how the body that he wears came to be, he will perish with it . . . Whoever does not understand how he came will not understand how he will go.

-Dialogue of the Savior" from the Nag Hammadi Library

Myth is the history of the soul; the memory of our greater Being; ritual and sacrament are the reminders. In the continuing Fall the part breaks away from the Whole; to make something sacred, one must reconnect the part to the universal Whole.

-William Irwin Thompson, The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light

 

From the time I was first introduced to the teachings on the yugas or cyclic ages of humanity by my Guruji Sitara Devi, I was fascinated by this ancient view of history in which the goddess plays such a dominant role. Over the ensuing years, as I continued my quest to uncover both the sacred mysteries of the goddess and the feminine experience, I began to discover that there were teachings comparable to these in the mystic traditions of many of the world’s great religions. These teachings bring to light a very different view of history than the one we have been presented with in our schools and universities. It is this alternative view of history that I present to you in this chapter, which I offer as a conclusion to Part I of The Path of the Priestess. Based upon my years of research and experience in these sacred traditions, it is designed to provoke contemplation about who we really are by opening your eyes to an extraordinary metaphysical perspective on history, spirituality, and the power of the feminine principle that has been handed down to us through the ages.

As you become acquainted with this traditional perspective on the perpetual stream of human events please keep in mind that they unfold over vast expanses of time, and that from our current location in this unfolding the veils between the spiritual and the material worlds have become so thick that unless we have had the great fortune to be initiated into the mystic teachings, we can only speculate on what has transpired. Clearly these teachings counter our modern-day view of the evolution of humanity.

Prior to the art of writing the history of humanity was passed down through oral tradition from mother to daughter, father to son, elders to community members. Today the only remnants we have of these early events are the myths and legends that have survived through time. The imparting and recording of events is and has always been a relative activity based on the social imprinting and unique perspective of the person witnessing the events. Every culture has its own special view and agenda. When we look back into what we know as documented history, we can n see that stories were often written and rewritten, tales were told, altered or repressed according to the worldview of the dominant civilization. Many believe that beneath the linear history of our material world lies another story: the story of the sacred mysteries, the hidden history of the human race. Our ancient ancestors from civilizations the world over postulated that all life flows in great transformative cycles, from the seasons of nature to the phases of the moon and the birth, growth, maturation, and death of all living creatures. They explained that just as we individuals experience the ebb and flow of these smaller cycles, humanity as a whole experiences the rise and fall of a larger cycle. In the Indo-Tibetan, Bon, Zoroastrian, Greek, and alchemical traditions, this great cycle was said to be composed of four yugas, or ages of humanity.1

According to the ancient texts the cycle of the ages begins with a Golden Age of beauty, harmony, and grace, an age in which both female and male are fundamentally connected with their own divinity and living lives of truth, fully aligned with the universal spirit.2 But as the ages progress metaphorically from gold to silver, bronze, and iron, humanity draws farther away from the radiant light of spirit. We move toward an age of total materialization and concretization, a time of ignorance and delusion, a time in which the bright light of spirit is all but extinguished. The ancients called this age the Kali Yuga, the Age of Iron.

This is the age in which we now reside, and in keeping with the teachings of a number of current spiritual groups, it is the age from which we are now emerging.3 It is the age in which the Tantric texts foretold that the great dark goddess Kali would rise up and perform her powerful dance of destruction and transformation. Through this transformative dance she will draw all the dark and destructive energy of this yuga into the secret core of her being. Then from the depths of her heart, the source of infinite wisdom and compassion, she will absorb and transmute this energy, cleansing and purifying earth and mankind alike. Through this primordial dance, the veils that have blinded us to our own radiance will be lifted. Humanity will then awaken to its immortality and enter a new Golden Age of divine insight and luminosity.

The texts tell us that as each of the four ages arises and ripens faith, integrity, and allegiance to spiritual values are decreased by one-fourth. A symbolic image that is often given to illustrate the increasing loss of spirit and its resulting acceleration of weakness and infirmity in humanity is that of a cow who in the first age, or Satya Yuga is standing boldly and resolutely upon its four legs. With the passing of each of the yugas the noble cow forfeits the use of one of its legs, as one-fourth of human virtue is lost. Therefore, in the Silver Age, or Treta Yuga, the cow stands on three legs. With the arrival of the Bronze Age, or Dvapara Yuga, the troubled cow stands on only two legs, as virtue and spiritual essence are now depleted by half. By the appearance of the Kali Yuga, or Age of Iron, the barren, tormented cow has only one leg left to stand on. Humanity, shrouded in the increasing darkness of depravity and corruption, retains only one-fourth of the original light of spirit.4

The cow is a symbol that can be found in cultures throughout the world. Feminine in form, she stands for fertility, nourishment, support, and preservation. She represents the mother, our first teacher, and our eternal patroness of righteousness and integrity. She is the strong and solid foundation upon which the spiritual sustenance of humanity rests. Isn’t it fascinating that a feminine symbol should be used to transmit these teachings of the cyclic destruction of humankind? Could this mean that, contrary to our contemporary Western indoctrination of the spiritual power of women, it is women who hold the primary responsibility for maintaining spiritual and moral alignment? Could this also mean that as the light of spirit diminishes and as women increasingly turn away from their true spiritual natures and primary roles as teachers and nurturers, all of us–both female and male--degenerate?

As the ages unfold, not only do we lose our spiritual luminosity but also we become densified, more material and corporeal. We are born fresh, pure, and newly formed, projected from the formless heart of Divinity. In the beginning, at the instant of creation, the moment that the divine androgyne reflects on itself and divides into essence and energy, when Shiva sends out his Shakti and the Lord God sends out his Shekhina, we emerge from the heart of emptiness in an exquisite display of vibration, sound, and light.5 Radiating with the pure light of spirit, filled with endless vitality, we are in tune with every subtle nuance of universal expression. But according to this view, in this cyclic dance of creation the time of harmony must end. From the exquisite radiance of the first moment of creation the process of entropy ensues.

Entropy is the second law of thermodynamics, and it states that everything in the universe is slowly disintegrating. While it is true that matter cannot be destroyed, as time passes it does move into a more ineffectual state. In our reality all systems are prone to eventual breakdown, death, or transformation to another mode of being. This is true of the human body, the trees and plants, and the stars and planets. For example, even though the matter that makes up a log is not destroyed by a fire, it is reduced to ashes, which are a disintegrated form of the wood. The key word here is disintegration–the movement away from the integrated or unified state. As this happens there is an incremental increase in the number of souls born; a decrease in strength and longevity; and a proliferation of disease, suffering, and madness.6

Through this entropic process of descent from the primordial unity into separation and densification, spiritual authority is traded for secular domination, quality is exchanged for quantity, and the sacred vanishes into the profane. In fact, the end of a cycle appears to be the inversion of the beginning, and the world’s values are turned upside down.7 As a parallel to the fast-paced times in which we live, it is also interesting to note that during the progression of the cycle time literally speeds up, with life passing by at an increasing velocity until time itself ends and the present manifestation is dissolved and a new Mahayuga, or great cycle, begins.8

How does this view of the development of the ages–with its emphasis on the increasing loss of spiritual union, intimacy, beauty, and truth–apply to our quest for understanding of the feminine experience? Recently many scholars have postulated that there was a time in which our current male and female roles were reversed, a time in which women held dominion. However, when one looks back in time from the perspective of the continuous cycles of the ages, or yugas, new insights into the relationship between woman and man and humanity and Divinity begin to emerge.

Introduction

The Golden Age: The Age of Divinity

The Silver Age: The Age of Ritual

The Bronze Age: The Age of Doubt

The Iron Age: The Age of Chaos

The Time of Transition