June 22, 2004

• Solstices and the Great Clock

  I attended an Oasis class on the Summer Solstice on the day of the summer stolstice. It was a mixed bag for me, a subject that interested me taught by an astrology apologist who was dismally ignorant and not very bright:

  • She was unable to explain precession of the equinoxes as the wobble typical of the earth as a gyroscope with very low friction;
  • She couldn't explain what an equinox was apart from being the date half-way between two solstices;
  • She had no idea what kind of material the Greeks wrote on;
  • She kept insisting the Greeks spoke Latin;
  • She kept confusing the solstices and the spring equinox as being the pointer for determining which age of the Zodiac the sun currently points to.

  Plenty of new information was presented, though, including a summary of the Osiris legend cycle that clearly brought out its similarity to the Hamlet / Norse Amlodi legend cycle for explaining the nearly universal messiah legend. The conclusion that the Age of Aquarius should begin following the end of the year 2012 was presented on the basis of a series of coincidences, with no evidence to support it. The last time I checked, over a decade ago, it appeared that the Age of Aquarius was hundreds of years away. I'll have to get out an astronomy program and have another look.

  We were given a break after nearly an hour of lecture. Over half of the class left at that time, either unable to understand the subject matter as presented (lots of technical astronomy was thrown out, much of it incorrect) or simply disgusted at the presentation. I stayed until the bitter end, gleaning a few more nuggets from an increasing pile of trash as the subject matter wandered into the area of chakras and meditation.

  I was reminded of that old saw about the danger of a little bit of knowledge. The speaker clearly demonstrated her lack of education in history and technology during the discussion. Despite her apparent failings, the audience who remained had good things to say about the lecture (I kept my mouth shut, having benefitted despite my misgivings).

  New material included evidence from the pyramids that in the First Age, beginning about 12,800 years ago, the pyramid builders left markers showing their awareness of the changing elevation of the constellation Orion, which ancient Egyptians held in particular regard. 13,000 years is about half of the Great Year of the Zodiac, and the peaking elevation of Orion placed the Great Year at its equivalent of the summer solstice, just as we are now approaching the Great Winter Solstice, supposed to be a time of great technological advance and the lowest ebb of spirituality.

  The ancient Egyptians also saw the Milky Way as an extension of the river Nile, it seeming to rise from the point where the Nile seemed to originate. They painted the heavens as a reflection of their Middle Earth, the Milky Way as Nile, and placed their three Great Pyramids at the point that most seemed to reflect the three major stars that form the belt of Orion. The rift in the Milky Way was considered to be a symbol of the Mother Goddess, a fertility object, and the sun's passage through that area of the sky was considered particularly significant, the sun representing the Father God.

  The Great Year, the time it takes for one wobble in the precession of the equinoxes, is just under 26,000 years. The First Age, the Age of Leo, started nearly half a wobble ago. We are in the Fifth Age, the Age of Pisces, where we've been for slightly over 2,000 years. We are now on the verge of the Age of Aquarius. This lecturer says we are about eight and a half years from that new age; other sources say we have centuries to go.

  Either way, it's just a tick of a clock.

  We make the world we're going to live in.

  • 17:26
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