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Tolkien at the End of Time;
Alchemical Secrets of The Lord of the Rings
By Jay Weidner and Sharron Rose
In the recently published book Mysteries
of the Great Cross at Hendaye; Alchemy and the End of Time,
by Jay Weidner and Vincent Bridges, a mysterious cross in
the town of Hendaye, in the south of France is deciphered.
Built three hundred fifty years ago by an alchemist, the Cross
of Hendaye encodes detailed knowledge of the Alchemical Revelation
of the Four Ages.
While the exact details are to be found in that book, it
can be generally stated that the Cross of Hendaye reveals
that the center of the galaxy's alignment is a giant cosmological
clock that marks the quality of time, the precession of the
equinoxes and the Four Great Ages. A close reading of Tolkien's
books reveals his obsession with these Ages and in particular
the transition from the Third Age to the Fourth Age, the Age
of Men, Machines and Power. 2
On the Winter Solstice of 2012, the center of the galaxy
will helically rise with the morning sun.
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According to scholar John Major
Jenkins, this moment marks the end of the Mayan calendar.
3 Strangely enough, the Cross of Hendaye, also appears
to be indicating this same general time frame. Both of
these ancient chronological systems appear to find great
importance in the helical rising of the center of the
galaxy in 2012. The enigmatic French alchemist Fulcanelli,
in his classic Le Mystère Des Cathédrales
unquestionably tells the reader that the Cross of Hendaye
is marking the end of the Iron Age, the last of the Four
Great Ages. 4 According to ancient lore the
Iron Age is an Age where the world turns to steel, black
magic becomes religion and Men lust for control and dominion
over both human beings and the very earth itself. The
earth, the air and the water become polluted. Wars, famines,
and plagues envelop the human race. Time itself speeds
up until exhausted, the world and the Age come to an end
and a new cycle begins. These are many of the events that
also occur at the end of each of the Second and Third
Ages of The Lord of the Rings for each is in essence
a microcosm of the entire cycle. Tolkien uses this concept
of the upheaval that occurs at the end of each Age as
his backdrop to the story of Frodo and the Ring.
These Four Ages according to Fulcanelli, the Cross
of Hendaye and many ancient texts, are mapped by the
twelve signs of the zodiac. Like the numbers on a clock
the Golden Age begins when the hand passes the twelve.
The next age, or Silver Age occurs when the hand passes
three, the Bronze Age, or Third Age, begins when the
hand passes six and the Iron Age, or last Age begins
when the hand passes nine. Each of these four quadrants
is marked by one of the main signs of the zodiac, Scorpio,
Taurus, Leo and Aquarius.
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Perhaps this fact is not well known to all of you but
the twelve signs of the zodiac are actually marking
the process called the precession of the equinox. The
earth is tilted in space at 23 degrees. It wobbles slowly
on its central axis like a spinning top. This backward
wobble is so slow that it takes 72 years for it to pass
through one degree of the circumference of the wobble.
In other words, if a certain star such as Sirius was
rising over a certain point, say a nearby mountain peak
on the day you were born, it would take 72 years for
the rising of Sirius to move one degree away from that
same point on that same day of the year.
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The fact that the stars were not fixed in the
heaven but were slowly moving backwards is not only central
to understanding the alchemical thesis but was perhaps the
greatest single secret being taught in the mystery schools
of Egypt, Greece and India. The common exoteric knowledge
was that the sky was fixed and unchanging. But the adepts
and esoteric masters knew that even the heavens were in motion.
Since the movement of the stars was so slow the only possible
way to map the precession of the equinoxes was through many
generations, each successive generation continued this extensive
and valuable work. Slowly, over many centuries, the exact
map of the precession of the equinoxes was drawn. These clever
priests/scientists/initiates had come to realize that it took
an enormous amount of time, approximately 26,000 years, to
go through one complete precession. So they divided up the
nearly 26,000 yearlong cycle into twelve segments affixing
a zodiacal 'month' to every 2,160 years in each of the signs.
Therefore, if you begin your precession count at Aquarius
it will take twelve times 2,160 or 25,920 years for Aquarius
to return to its original position again.
The members of these ancient Mystery Schools also began noticing
that a change in the quality of time, i.e. which sign or zodiacal
'month' you were in, also caused a change on the surface of
the earth and in behavior patterns of humans, plants and animals.
Being part of an initiatic organization such as the priesthood
or sacred society, whose wisdom was handed down through a
direct chain of transmission from master to student, their
rituals, studies and training allowed them to be privy to
an extraordinary body of knowledge. This knowledge enabled
them to commune with the forces of nature and the more subtle
beings of their reality. What we refer to today as extra-sensory
or paranormal abilities such as clairvoyance, telekinesis,
telepathy, and the capacity to journey in dreams and visions
across the planet, to the stars, into other dimensions and
even through the veils of time itself were as commonplace
to them as surfing the internet is to people of our modern
world. 5
Using a combination of observation, meditation, contemplation
and discussion, the initiates of these Mystery Schools chronicled
human behavior patterns, plant cycles, animal behavior, and
a sundry of other physical, emotional and mental occurrences,
signs and portents that allowed them to recognize the unique
nature, quality and characteristics of each of the twelve
signs. From their observations they became aware that each
place on the giant zodiacal clock brought forth its own traits
and manifestations just as high noon is different than sunrise.
They also noticed that at the cusp of the four great signs
these changes in behavior, growth, etc. were more clearly
pronounced. Indeed, it appeared to them that each of the four
aspects of this great cycle actually brought forth different
types of beings, different types of behavior. They also observed
and chronicled the changing relationship of humanity to the
physical and spiritual dimensions of reality noticing that
as the Ages unfolded, the world and its beings were actuality
densifying. As a result of this densification, with each successive
Age, humanity began to focus to a greater and greater extent
on the material world and lose touch with the more subtle
realms of spirit. The knowledge accrued from these observations
eventually became known as the Sacred Science of Alchemy.
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Alchemical
Drawing of the metals identified with the planets
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To describe the unique qualities and attributes of each of
these Ages, these Sacred Scientists used the symbolic language
of metals - gold, silver, bronze and iron. Interestingly,
these four metals gain molecular density as they move from
gold to iron. So it would seem, according to this paradigm
that as the Four Ages unfold, gravity is increased and the
packing of molecules becomes denser. And now, if the Cross
of Hendaye, the writings of Fulcanelli and the work of John
Major Jenkins, as well as our own research into Alchemy and
Tantra is correct, we are at the end of the Fourth Age, the
Age of Iron. But what does this really mean? Is it the literal
'end of the world' as chronicled in mystical texts from the
Book of Revelations, to the Corpus Hermeticum of
the alchemists, to the Tantras of India, and the teachings
of Shamanic cultures throughout the world? Or does it indicate
a time of great change and renewal? If, the ultimate alchemical
goal is the transformation of lead into gold, then the end
of the Iron Age can only herald the dawn of the Golden Age.
This is the Age when the fulfillment of humanities true purpose
on earth and the full flowering of the primary vision of the
Creator becomes manifest. For as any alchemist will tell you,
out of the depths of darkness comes the greatest light.
Upon reading The Lord of the Rings, The Silmarillion,
and other works of J.R.R. Tolkien, it is clear that these
questions gave him much fuel for contemplation. There are
so many parallels between Tolkien's work and alchemical knowledge
that one cannot help but surmise that he must have been aware
of this ancient view of the Ages with its unique perspective
on creation, history and the pre-history of humanity and deftly
wove it into the very fabric of his tales.
His epic tale The Silmarillion presents Tolkien's
cosmology from the beginning of Creation to the Third Age
of Middle-Earth. The Lord of the Rings trilogy is really
a documentation of the transition from the Third Age to the
Fourth. According to the alchemical lore, the period that
we consider 'history' equates with the beginning of the Fourth
Age, or 6,500 years ago. Myths and legends that concern the
events and experiences that happened prior to this time period
are said to have taken pace in 'pre-history'. Tolkien states
that imaginatively his 'history' is supposed to take place
in a period of the actual Old World of this planet. 6
Interestingly, this is nearly the same time that Tolkien
dates the events that unfold in The Lord of the Rings.
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