By Sharron Rose.

The Time of Transition

Form is destructible, but Life is not; it knows nothing of death. It destroys the mortal mercilessly, and decomposes the destructible. But the indestructible remains. Being immortal, it carries within it the means of regeneration even as the means of destruction.

-Ischa Schwaller de Lubicz, The Opening of the Way

Cum luce salutem; with light, salvation. First source of all sources . . . perfect my body . . . [so] that I may participate again in the immortal beginning . . . that I may be reborn in thought . . . and that the Holy Spirit may breathe in me.

-From the Paris Papyrus

For those who are firmly attached to their earthly material existence, who can only see within the limits of their own lives, let alone their own cycles, this chaotic time does appear to be the literal end of the world. The signs of the end, as documented in sacred texts from the Revelations of the Bible to the Corpus Hermeticum and the Tantras, can be seen throughout the modern world. For the people who cannot see beyond the veil we are in the metaphoric "winter of our discontent," the season of death and the deepest darkness. But as all these sacred teachings reveal, from the depths of darkness comes the greatest light. And so for others this is the heralded time of the great alchemical transmutation of humanity. It is the time in which the metaphorical black coal, or prima materia, of our being has the greatest possibility of being transmuted into the pure crystalline diamond. When this happens an extraordinary shift occurs, as we are filled once again with the pure light of Divinity and become the spiritual seeds for a new Golden Age.

These sacred teachings of East and West have their parallel in those recently brought forward by medical anthropologist Dr. Alberto Villoldo who has spent many years studying and transmitting the sacred teachings of the Inkan shamans of Peru. These shamans have told him that humanity has reached what they refer to as the pachacuti or period of renewal that occurs at the end of time. During this transitional time of upheaval when the world will be "turned right side up again", there will be a "tear in the fabric of time itself, a window into the future through which a new human species will emerge. They call this new species, Homo luminous. ³⁶

According to the Brahmakumaris, a spiritual group from the north of India that is steeped in the ancient ways of the feminine and the values of nurturing, communion, and grace, humanity has now moved beyond the Kali Yuga into a new transitional age, which they refer to as the Diamond Age or Age of Confluence. This is an age of consciousness that is not manifested in the physical, when those who have the eyes to see and ears to hear become aware of the great call to the light.

At the heart of all the mystic traditions lies the knowledge of this teaching of the call to the light.³⁷ It arises within us as a longing for truth and clarity; as an overwhelming desire to be free of our sorrow, pain, and suffering; as a deep hunger for beauty, simplicity, rest, and inner peace. Once our ears are opened to this call our eyes turn inward toward the divine light of spirit, the light of the Great Mother Goddess.

As we open ourselves to drink from her fountain of radiance that ceaselessly flows from the supreme primordial source of creation, it kindles our awareness and provides us with the energy to fight the darkness within. Our subtle consciousness awakens and the shadowy veils that have covered our minds begin to lift. Our senses expand to perceive the shining realms of the spirit, the subtle pathways of the psychic-energetic landscape and the beauty of our essential luminosity. It is no wonder that in these transformative times interest in and knowledge of the Great Goddess is being rekindled throughout the world. For it is she, the divine Shakti/Shekhina as the great warrior of truth and integrity, as the nurturing mother and primal energy of Divinity, who provides us with the strength and fortitude to battle our inner and outer demons.

We sit at the juncture of one of the most critical times of this planet. With each and every passing moment, we have a conscious choice to continue on this path of destruction and alienation or have the courage to stand up and face our demons. The greatest spiritual traditions of our world teach that the best way to combat these demons, whether they be in material form or in the depths of one’s own mind, is not through mimicking their dark methods but through love and compassion. Only when our actions spring from an honest and open heart can we begin to create a world free of the demons of fear, greed, and deception. Only when we have the courage to clearly see ourselves and freely admit how deeply we are entrenched in the darkness–how far we have allowed ourselves to fall from the pure light of truth and integrity–can we begin to dream a new world and give birth to a new shining age of spirit. For out of the ashes of the Kali Yuga the Golden Age is born. Out of the depths of darkness, light is born.

Endnotes

1. For a better understanding of the symbolic representations of the ages according to the Western tradition see Fulcanelli, Le Mysteres des Cathedrales, 169. Fulcanelli states, "In Medieval times, these four phases of the great cyclic period, whose continuous rotation was expressed in antiquity by means of a circle divided by perpendicular diameters, were generally represented by the four evangelists, or by their symbolic letter, which was the Greek alpha, or more often still, by the four evangelical beasts surrounding Christ, the living human representation of the cross." He equates this symbolism with images from the great Gothic cathedrals of France, the visionary writings of Saint John and Ezekiel, and the ancient Hindu teachings. For the alchemical perspective see Fulcanelli, The Dwellings of the Philosophers (Boulder: Archive Press, 1999), 520—522.

2. In Arthur Avalon’s introduction to his translation of The Tantra of the Great Liberation (New York: Dover Books, 1972), xivi—l, he describes from the ancient Hindu Tantric perspective the yugic cycle and the resulting consequences to humanity’s longevity, spiritual strength, and stature. He also describes the primary scriptures and teachings of each age and the places of pilgrimage and the avatars.

3. For further information on the end times of the current cosmic cycle and the time of transition from the Kali Yuga to the Golden Age, see Jay Weidner and Vincent Bridges, A Monument to the End of Time: Alchemy, Fulcanelli and the Great Cross; John Major Jenkins, Maya Cosmogenesis 2012 (New Mexico: Bear and Co., 1998); Dr. Alberto Villoldo, Shaman, Healer, Sage, and the teachings of the Brahma Kumaris, a spiritual group in the Hindu Vedanta tradition.

4. Fulcanelli, Le Mysteres des Cathedrales, 170—171.

5. For a description of manifestation from the ancient Tibetan Bon perspective see Norbu, Namkhai, The Crystal and the Way of Light, 59. For the ancient Hindu perspective see Manley P. Hall, Lectures on Ancient Philosophy (Los Angeles: The Philosophical Research Society, 1984), 228—229.

6. From a personal conversation between the author and a member of the Brahma Kumaris about Brahma Kumaris spiritual knowledge, Zaca Lake Retreat, Los Olivos California, August, 2001.

7. Guenon, Rene, The Reign of Quantity and the Signs of the Times, (New Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal Publishers, Private Ltd., 2000), 10—12.

8.Ibid, 175—76. The alchemical tradition contains references to this view. In his introduction to Fulcanelli’s book Les Mysteres de Cathedrales, Walter Lang writes, "One of the most arcane of human traditions suggests that the humanity of our Adam was not the earth’s first human race. Some very advanced alchemists have hinted at a range of previous humanities in excess of thirty."

9. Avalon, xivi—xivii.

10. Heinrich Zimmer, Artistic Form in Yoga in the Sacred Images of India (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1984), 24—25. Zimmer presents the cosmic vision of the unfolding of creation from the Hindu Tantric perspective.

12. Johanna Lambert, ed., Wise Women of the Dreamtime: Aboriginal Tales of the Ancestral Powers (Rochester, Vt.: Inner Traditions International, 1993), 7. For an analysis and comparison the Aboriginal view with that of the Tantric see also Robert Lawlor, Voices of the First Day: Awakening in the Aboriginal Dreamtime (Rochester, Vt.: Inner Traditions International, 1991), 68—77.

13. Norbu, The Crystal and the Way of Light, 130. It is interesting to turn to the Tibetan Buddhist description of the Sambhogakaya realms–or realms of light inhabited by the realized beings such as spiritual masters, dakas, and dakinis–for a their perspective on who we once were.

14. Lawlor, Voices of the First Day: Awakening in the Aboriginal Dreamtime, 106.

15.Ibid, 104

16.For a better understanding of the inner fire practice that has been handed down through the Tibetan Tantric lineage see Geshe Kelsang Gyatso, Clear Light of Bliss (London: Wisdom Publications, 1982), chapter 2.

17. From a teaching given to Ms. Rose at Zaca Lake Retreat prior to the sacred ceremony of the Bear Dance in July of 2001. In many of the traditional cultures such as the Zulu of South Africa and Native American tribes, it is a woman who is considered the spiritual leader and elder of the tribe, and she chooses the chief or worldly leader.

18. For an in-depth view of women during the hunter-gatherer epoch see Marija Gimbutas, The Language of the Goddess (San Francisco: Harper and Row, 1989) and Rianne Eisler, The Chalice and the Blade: Our History, Our Future (San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1988).

19. Nancy Qualls-Corbett, The Sacred Prostitute (Toronto: Inner City Books, 1988), 30—20. Teachings of the Brahmakumaris.

21. For a more complete picture of the results of this shift in perspective see William Irwin Thompson, The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1981), 118—159.

22. Teachings of the Brahmakumaris.

23. R. A. Schwaller de Lubicz, The Temple of Man This two-volume set describes the sacred teaches of ancient Egypt as evidenced in the architecture of the Temple of Luxor. 24. In The Dance of India, Enakshi Bhavani states, "Art was meant for all and through it Hindu religious thought and philosophy were conveyed to all classes of society. To make these abstract theological teachings understood by the average person, symbols were created which clarified the inner meaning of the highly philosophical precepts of the Vedas, etc. A great culture developed where the highly abstruse, ethical philosophies were put into concrete, explicit form."

25. For more on the origins of the Natya Shastra see Tara Michael, The Symbolic Gestures of the Hands (Paris: Editions Semaphore, 1985), vii—ix.

26. Vatsyayana, Kama Sutra, (New York: Castle Books, 1963), 13—15.

27. For information on the priestesses in the temples of the ancient Middle Eastern, Greek, Roman, and Celtic traditions see Goodrich, Norma Lorre, Priestesses, (New York: Harper Perennial, 1989) In this extensive book on priestesses, Goodrich explores the lives of the priestesses

28. For a compelling view of the moment in the Middle Ages when the sacred view of sound shifted in the European mind-set, see Jeremy Naydler, The Temple of the Cosmos 139—140.

29. See Robert Lawlor’s introduction to R. A. Schwaller de Lubicz, Symbol and Symbolique (Rochester, Vt.: Inner Traditions International, 1978), 10—11.

30. For an extensive exposition on the affect of the written word on humanity, with emphasis on its impact on women, see Leonard Shlain, The Alphabet Versus the Goddess (New York: Penguin Putnam, Inc., 1998).

31. Guenon, The Reign of Quantity and the Signs of the Times, 66—77.

32. Elaine Paigels, Adam, Eve and the Serpent (New York: Vintage Books, 1988), 133.

33. There have even been tales of women who were found guilty merely because their male inquisitors became sexually aroused during torture.

34. Guenon, The Reign of Quantity and the Signs of the Times, 65—67.

35. In a conversation with a swami of the Hare Krishnas, at Zaca Lake Retreat, I learned that they believe that the Kali Yuga began 5,000 years ago and that we still have 432,000 years left before the end of the cycle and the beginning of the new Golden Age.

36. Villoldo, Shaman, Healer, Sage, 233-234.

37. Ischa Schwaller de Lubicz, The Opening of the Way (Rochester, Vt.: Inner Traditions International, 1981), 11. Writes de Lubicz, "Behind all religions there is only one ‘Truth," and the revelation of this truth through their different myths and symbols brings harmony instead of discord. Every sincere seeker has in his heart this ‘will toward the Light’ and if he listens to it, he will not seek in vain."

38. See John Reynolds, trans., Self-Liberation Through Seeing with Naked Awareness (Barrytown, N.Y.: Station Hill Press, 1989), 38

39. Namkhai Norbu and Adriano Clemente, The Supreme Source (Ithaca, N.Y.: Snow Lion Publications, 1999), 22. In this tantra, the location of these worlds and the nature of the beings that dwell in them are described.