3. SEPTENARY IN THE AGES AND EPOCHS OF MANKIND
Astronomical Ages
Cosmic Christianity demands knowledge of the evolutionary ages and epochs of mankind which in Christian tradition is reflected in the APOCALYPSE OF ST. JOHN. First, we must distinguish between ages and epochs.
An astronomical age is determined by the vernal point of the sun in the plane of the sidereal zodiac. What the ancients called the "great Platonic year" is now called the precession of the equinoxes caused by the wobble of the earth's axis due to the gravitational pull of the sun and moon. The length of this solar sidereal year was also determined by the ancients and even today is determined to be 25,920 years. While there is an apparent eastward movement of the sun thru the plane of the houses of the zodiac over the course of a tropical solar year, there is also a reverse, precessional motion of the sun thru the sidereal zodiac over the course of 25,920 years. The vernal point is the location of the sun in the sidereal zodiac on the day of the spring equinox. Our present tropical calender and zodiac places this as 1 degree Aries, when in fact, due to the precession, every 72 years it is 1 degree backwards in the zodiac. As of February 10, 1983, the longitude of the vernal point was exactly 5 1/2 degrees Pisces in the sidereal zodiac. For this reason, we live in theASTRONOMICAL AGE of Pisces.
Now, an astrological age is different from the above astronomical age. The modern calender sets the vernal equinox to begin on March 21 concordant with the astrological month of Aries. How did we get into this mess where the astronomical vernal equinox on March 21st is actually 5 1/2 degrees Pisces, but when you look at your calender or have your horoscope cast, the first day of spring is 1 degree Aries? Historically, there were two important changes made to our calender which then was in more confusion than the tongues of Babel.
Every culture had their own personal system to begin the new year and all nations, except for the Essenes, used a lunar calender consisting of 13 months and between 354 and 364 days. Enter Julius Caesar. With the help of an initiate named Sosigenes, the first calender reformed occurred. Taking the year 47 BC, at which time our January 1st would have fallen on October 13, he inserted two new months of 33 and 34 days between November and December. Then, he added an intercalary period of 23 days near February for a total length of 445 days. Macrobius called this long year, the last year of confusion. Beginning the next year, he started a new year of 365 days with a leap year every fourth year of 366 days. Had he asked, or maybe Sosigenes told him, but he could not wait, the Ancient Wisdom would have told him to begin the new year at a new moon on an equinox or solstice.
Julius did get one-half of it right. In 45 BC, the new moon occurred 7 days after the December 24th solstice, so he made December to have 30 days, and began the new year 7 days later on what he called the calends of January. Of course, it would have been better to have waited until a new moon coincided with the winter solstice, but that is how the new year begins on January 1st. Caesar harmonized the seasons with the calender, so that winter was again under the signs of Capricorn and Aquarius, except for the precession which no one then would have noticed.
Now the Julian year had 12 months, to which he assigned 30 days to even months and 31 days to odd months, with the exception of February, which had 29 days. Not to be outdone by his father, for whom the month of July was named, Augustus later renamed August and stole one day from February to give himself a 31 day immortal honor. Since the Julian calendar is 11 minutes and 14 seconds longer than the tropical year of the seasons, by 1583 the year was about 10 days behind the seasons (one day in 128 years). Pope Gregory XIII introduced a reform to delete a leap year every century mark except the fourth.
The second change occurred at that famous Council of Nicea held in 325 AD by Constantine the Great. Then the good church fathers decreed that the months be forever fixed, so that on whatever day the vernal equinox occurred, it would arbitrarily be called March 21st and the remainder of the year to adjust accordingly. Since then, instead of the equinoctial point moving steadily thru one month to another to reflect the precession, the first day of spring and Aries is fixed and the months move slowly away backwards.
With the calender now adjusted for a fixed tropical year, we can look at the remainder of the great cycle upon which all occult time is reckoned. The actual rate of precession is equal to 1 degree every 72 years or according to Newcomb in 1925, 50.2610" per year. Therefore, at this precessional rate, the sun travels westward thru an entire sidereal zodiac house (30 degrees X 72) every 2,160 years.
The total precessional cycle of the great solar sidereal year is fixed at 25,920 years. However, the inferior cycles of 2,160 years are uneven and unequal in duration and length. For example, the actual length of the stars from one end of the constellation to the other in Pisces is 34 degrees and its duration will be 2,592 years. For the constellation of Aquarius, the length is 26 degrees, and the duration is 1,872 years. In addition, because of Kepler's laws of planetary motion, the actual rate of motion also varies, so at the present time, the precessional rate is closer to 71 1/2 years. For these reasons, occultists use an average rate of 1 degree for 72 years and an average length of 30 degrees per zodical house. Thus, an average astronomical age is set at 2,160 years, even though the individual length and rate varies considerably.
To determine when the age of Pisces will precess into the age of Aquarius, simply multiply 5 1/2 degrees by 72 years and add (396) to the last determined year of 1983. Thus, the "Dawning of the age of Aquarius" begins about year 2379, further in the future than many new age morons predict. Likewise, subtracting 2,160 years from the end year, we arrive at the beginning of the age of Pisces at year 219 AD. By extrapolation, we can determine the astronomical ages for the five sub-races of the Fifth Aryan root race as follows (taken from Robert Powell):
| Cancer | 8426 to 6266 BC |
| Gemini | 6266 to 4106 BC |
| Taurus | 4106 tp 1946 BC |
| Aries | 1946 BC to 215 AD |
| Pisces | 215 AD to 2379 AD |
| Aquarius | 2379 to 4535 AD |
Likewise, we can also extrapolate the astronomical ages for the seven sub-races of the Fourth Atlantean Root Race as follows:
| Aquarius | 23,546 to 21,386 BC |
| Capricorn | 21,386 to 19,226 BC |
| Sagittarius | 19,226 to 17,066 BC |
| Scorpio | 17,066 to 14,906 BC |
| Libra | 14,906 to 12,746 BC |
| Virgo | 12,476 to 10,586 BC |
| Leo | 10,586 to 8,426 BC |
CULTURAL EPOCHS
The Ancient wisdom referred to these inferior precessional cycles as the "Religious Ages of Mankind" knowing the hermetic axiom that "as above, so below" reflected a succession of cosmic evolution unfolding in cycles upon historical evolution. However, although the astronomical ages ran parallel to the religious ages, they do not run coincident in time with them. This lack of synchronicity has always been a problem to occultists who decipher the symbols of a particular age, but can not place the age in historical astronomical time.
For me, I always had the problem when, for example, Dr. Steiner places the age of Pisces beginning at year 1413 AD, when I know the astronomical age actually began around year 215. It is so remarkable that even our legacy of tropical astrologists can not determine the dates of the astronomical ages, by simple calculation. It seems every tropical astrologist has his own date for the age of Aquarius. One problem stems from the fact that to get the determination of the February 10, 1983 Ephemeris, it is necessary to have a perfect alignment of the earth, sun and a fixed star on the ecliptic, which does not often occur.
Ptolemy in his ALMAGEST, recognized the year 747 BC as the historical date of recorded astronomical and chronological time (from King Nabonasser of Babylon). This year coincides with the historical founding date of the city of Rome, whence began the reign of the 7 kings. It is also recognized occultly as the beginning of the religious age of Aries. However, the astronomical age of Aries actually begins at year 1946 BC - a difference of 1199 years.
The Ancient Wisdom recognized that a change from one precessional cycle to another reflected a change of consciousness from one level to another. The creative hierarchies located in each of the constellations pour forth spiritual impulses to guide humanity and to commence such a new age, give birth to an avatar, manu, messiah or Naros. The solution to this problem of the time lag between astronomical ages and CULTURAL EPOCHS (n/f religious ages) was exoterically revealed by Robert Powell in his book HERMETIC ASTROLOGY VOL I (1987) where he says:
"The period of rotation of the Venus Pentagram around the sidereal zodiac is 1199 years. Like the motion of the vernal point, the rotation of the Venus Pentagram is backwards, it regresses through the sidereal zodiac. In the length of time it takes for a complete cycle of the precession of the equinoxes through the sidereal zodiac (25,920 years), the Venus Pentagram makes some 21 1/2 rotations (21.5 X 1199 = 25,778.5 years). The ratio of the cycle of the Venus Pentagram (1199) to that of the precession of the equinoxes (25,920) is a little less than the ratio of one to twenty-four, which is the ratio of one hour to one day. If the complete precession cycle is likened to a "world day", then the rotation of the Venus pentagram is like the passage of a "world Hour." When a new astrological age starts, signified by the entrance of the vernal point into a new sign of the zodiac, a world hour still elapses before the new zodiacal impulse begins to register as a cultural phenomenon, and this lapse of time is measured by the rotation of the Venus Pentagram. A new impulse starts to work on a spiritual levle as soon as the vernal point enters a new zodical sign, but it has to filter through from cosmic realms...The Venus Pentagram acts as a kind of cosmic transformer, stepping down the cosmic impulse, which operates on a very high level, a religious level, to become a social impulse, which works on a more human level."
That being very well expressed, Dr. Steiner has given us numerous lectures on the exact dates of the cultural epochs for the five Post-Atlantean civilizations as follows:
| 1. Cancer | 7227 BC | Hindu/Indian |
| 2. Gemini | 5067 BC | Persian |
| 3. Taurus | 2907 BC | Egyptian/Chaldean |
| 4. Aries | 747 BC | Greek/Roman |
| 5. Pisces | 1414 AD | European |
Going backwards in time to the Atlantean age, an issue arises over whether or not a pralaya occurs between each successive root race. It would seem logical to me that each successive root race age would contain 7 active and 5 inactive (rest) inferior cycles of 2,160 years to balance out a great solar sidereal year of 25,920 years. In this way each Root Race would be complemented by a complete turn of the earth's axis around the polar star. Also, we will learn from the Law of Twelve that the 7 (manifest) and 5 (hidden) completes a complete cycle between two adjoining cosmos.
However, Dr. Steiner in his lectures entitled ANCIENT MYTHS (1918), draws a parallel between the seventh sub-race of Lemuria and the present fifth sub-race (our own) of the Aryan root race. He says that twelve cultural epochs ago, the sun was also in Pisces. To get back there from here, he drew a continuous line of successive cultural epochs, beginning with four from our age, seven from the Atlantean age and one from Lemuria, twelve in all. Thus, from his spiritual investigation of the Akashic record, he found no discontinuity or pralaya between the ages.
In fact Spiritual Science teaches that a long pralaya occurs after a manvantara, the seven days and five nights of Brahma, and a short pralaya occurs after each successive globe or (Christian) kingdom. thus, globes, ages and epochs draw no pralaya. During our fourth manvantara of earth evolution, the 7 globes pass thru 7 Root Race ages thru 7 cultural epochs for a total of 343 Conditions of Form, all without interruption of pralaya.
This being diagnosed, we can extrapolate the exact dates for the cultural epochs of the Fourth Atlantean Root Race as follows:
| 1. Rmoahals | 22,347 BC | Aquarius |
| 2. Tlavathis | 20187 BC | Capricorn |
| 3. Toltecs | 18027 BC | Sagittarius |
| 4. Turanians | 15876 BC | Scorpio |
| 5. Semites | 13707 BC | Libra |
| 6. Accadians | 11547 BC | Virgo |
| 7. Mongolians | 9387 BC | Leo |
The Biblical Flood
In addition, we can extrapolate the Lemurian third root race as beginning about 37,467 BC and ending about 22,347 BC with the fire of tectonic plate subduction that is now raising the Himalayan mountains. Mankind as we can see from these figures is a lot younger than we moderns can conceive.
I admittedly even have a problem reconciling occult principles such as the Lemurian sacrifice of Christ (humanoid standing) and the extrusion of the moon from the Pacific ocean, both of which occurred during the Lemurian age with the realistic geologic evidence of planetary evolution. Our traditional methods of radio-active carbon and other isotope dating of fossils and minerals will continue to be sacrosanct until scientists understand that all matter enters a state of radiation, not just uranium and several others. In fact, during the pralaya of the seven vials of wrath, mentioned in the APOCALYPSE, all matter will radiate so that the physical earth will dissolve and heavenly Jerusalem can descend from the astral world.
Looking towards the future, we can extrapolate the dates of the next two cultural epochs as follows:
| 6.Aquarius | 3574 AD to 5734 | Russian/Slavic |
| 7. Capricorn | 5734 to 7894 | American |
Thus, ends the Fifth root race in what Dr. Steiner calls the "Great war of all against all."
Now, all of these ages and epochs have their Christian occult symbolism ciphered in the revelations of the APOCALYPSE. In fact, the mysteries of cosmic Christianity can be summarized in the following sentence: The Cosmic Christ administers His Divine Plan thru His angels. The first mystery is that of Christ as the Solar Logos. The second mystery is that of the Divine Plan as reflected in the evolution of the manvantaras, rounds, globes, ages and epochs. The third mystery is that of the ministration of this Plan and the Spiritual Guidance of humanity thru the nine hierarchies of angels, as Christianised by the teachings of Dionysius the Aeropagite, St. Thomas Aquinas and Dr. Steiner.
In each of the 7 letters to the 7 churches, St. John speaks to each successive cultural epoch of this Fifth Root Race. Thus, the first five epochs are addressed: Ephesus as Hindu; Smyrna as Persian; Pergamos as Egyptian/Chaldean; Thyatira as Greek/Roman and Sardis as the European. Reserved for the future sixth and seventh cultural epochs are Philadelphia and Laodicea. As was the history of Lemuria and Atlantis, each great age of the Root Races ends in catastrophe, respectively, the fires and flooding of tectonic plate subduction. Our great Aryan age will end in a huge battle of good against evil, such as seen in the "Star Wars" movie trilogy.
Following the chronology of the Divine plan, there will be two more Root Races following our Aryan root race. The Sixth will commence in year 7894 and adding to this 7 epochs of 2,160 years each (15,120), will end in the year 23,014. This sixth age is symbolized by St. John as the book sealed with 7 seals, each seal being a sub-race cultural epoch of the sixth root race. This evolution will be a resurrection of the Atlanten root race but at a higher level.
The Seventh will commence in year 23,014 and adding to this seven cultural epochs of 2,160 years each (15,120), will end in the year 38,134. This Seventh age is symbolized by St. John as the sounding of the 7 trumpets, each trumpet being a sub-race, which also will be a resurrection of the Lemurian root race.
After these great ages, the book of the APOCALYPSE ends with the series of the 7 vials of wrath, the Last Judgment and the New Jerusalem. In every sense of these Christian words, the end of the seventh root race, at the sounding of the seventh trumpet, is the end of our planet earth. Having completed a globe of 7 X 7 Conditions of Form, there will be a short pralaya described by St. John as the pouring of the 7 Vials of Wrath, which is described with thunders, lightnings, earthquakes and fallen nations. This is the radiation of all matter (described above), when the mineral world dissolves. During this transition stage all mankind will be separated into two camps, those of the white robes in whom the Christ impulse resides and those who appear in the form of the beast with seven heads and ten horns, in whom the serpent still resides. During the Last Judgment, an angel comes down from heaven and chains the great serpent and casts him into the abyss of the bottomless pit, together, of course, with his legion of human serpents.
The descent of the Heavenly Jerusalem represents the completed goal of physical evolution of this manvantara. The sixth epoch of the seven seals is the descended astral world and the seventh epoch of the seven trumpets is the descended Heavenly (lower Devachan) world. Of course, we should remember that both the astral and Devachanic worlds consist of what we as humans put into them (ye reap, what you sow). Everything physical will radiate and dissolve and pass over into an astral cosmic globe. After a long pralaya, the Fifth manvantara of the future Jupiter planetary evolution begins with our white robed followers of Christ in seed form.
The abyss is a symbol for the sub-earthly astral state located in nine divisions within the earth's interior (Dante's Inferno). This is opposite to the above earth astral state that extends from the earth sphere to the sphere of the sun. The lower astral world consists of evil elementary Ahrimanic spirits and also human souls that have not evolved past the animal form of the beast. As slaves to their passions, desires and instincts, they have separated out from those humans who have purified their astral bodies and also bear the Christ impulse within. To the above earth astral world will ascend the successful souls waiting in the Heavenly Jerusalem for their incarnation into the next Jupiter manvantara. To the sub-earth astral world and possibly the Eight Sphere will descend those failed evil souls where they will wait as elementary spirits, the Final Judgment at the end of the Vulcan manvantara and the final separation of good and evil.
It was not our purpose here to discuss all the symbols of the APOCALYPSE, but to only provide a skeleton form in which to display the chronology of the ages and epochs of mankind which serves as a foundation for these meditations.
| 6. 7,894 to 23,014 | Sixth root race | 7 epochs of 7 seals |
| 7. 23,014 to 38,134 | Seventh root race | 7 epochs of 7 trumpets |
The end of time; Short Pralaya - age of the 7 vials of Wrath;
The Last Judgment;
The descent of the Heavenly Jerusalem;
Long Pralaya;
Beginning of the Jupiter manvantara.
THE SATURN CYCLE
There is another confirmation of the lengths of the ages and epochs of mankind as outlined above. Robert Powell in his new book THE CHRONICLE OF THE LIVING CHRIST (1996) discloses his discovery of the "Saturn Period." As is common knowledge, the orbit of the planet Saturn around the sun is approximately 29 1/2 years. Now, if one orbit is compared to one day in the ministry of Christ, a secret cycle unfolds. According to his calculations, taken from the visions of Sister Anne Catherine Emmerich (hereinafter, Sister Christian), the ministry lasted exactly 1,290 days, beginning with the baptism in the Jordan on September 23, 29 AD to the Resurrection on April 5, 33 AD. This 1,290 days is also a secret cycle mentioned in the book of Daniel and translated into 3 1/2 years, is also mentioned several times in the APOCALYPSE.
Powell calls the ministry of Christ His "embryonic period" because the Baptism by St. John actually marked the beginning of the life of Jesus as bearer of the spiritual being of the Christ as Solar Logos. Prior to the Baptism, the Nathan Jesus was human in every sense of the word, granted, the greatest human who ever lived, but still human.
This raises an old debate about the divine nature of the Jesus person. We know that the ancient teaching of the Nestorians preserved a deep secret of Esoteric Christianity, that the incarnation of the Christ being as solar logos occurred during the Baptism when the Father said "This is my beloved Son, today I have begotten Him." Nestorius (b.381 AD) was an Aristotelian Christian who provoked the great ecumenical debate against the monophysites. Following Cyril of Alexandria and the Platonic Christians, they believed in the unification of the two natures, man and God, of Jesus into an undifferentiated Divine form. Part and parcel with this belief, was that Mary, the mother of Jesus, was also liken to a god, for giving birth to a God.
Nestorius, being learned in the great Aristotelian tradition written down in DE ANIMA, knew that the spirit (nous) descended into the body (soma) and is a nature completely separate from the body. The (Holy) spirit would enter (thyrathen) the body from the outside, both for Mary at the Annunciation and for Jesus at the Baptism .This Duophysite (two natures) doctrine of Nestorius, was declared heretic at the 3rd Ecumenical Council of Ephesus in 431 AD. This act of the church fathers, of course, laid the mind set for the later 8th Ecumenical Council held in 869 Ad in Constantine wherein the trichotomy of body-soul-spirit was also declared heretic. We will see the Nestorian doctrine resurrected as the "Active intelligence-Holy Spirit of the moon sphere" in the 11th century metaphysics of Avicenna and Averroes, which was later debated by another Aristotelian, St. Thomas Aquinas.
Following the Nestorian esoterism, we will start the Embryonic period of the life of Christ at the Baptism. Whereas the life of a single person unfolds in successive 7 year intervals, so that of the Christ unfolds historically over the entire life of humanity. Each day of His ministry is imprinted into the cosmic heavens of our solar system, which extends to the planetary limits of Saturn. The Greek name for Saturn was Chronos, the ruler of time. Indeed, Dr. Steiner says that Saturn is the " guardian of cosmic memory" who records all that occurs in planetary life.
If we correspond one day in the ministry of Christ with one orbit of Saturn, we find a secret cycle of (1290 days X 29.4578 years) 38,000 years. Adding to this the 33 years in the entire life of Christ, the result is within one hundred years of our year 38,134 AD which we calculated above as the end of historical time for humanity as ciphered in the APOCALYPSE (the end of the Age of the 7 trumpets).
Thus, we have first, the Saturn Period as a confirmation of historical time as described in the APOCALYPSE. Second, we can conclude with Powell that the ministry of Christ "contains in seed-form the future evolution of the Christ impulse as it unfolds through historical evolution."
This conclusion can be reached about no other religious teacher, avatar, manu, buddha or messiah. With Christ being the fulcrum of historical evolution, THE LIFE OF CHRIST EQUALS THE LIFE OF HUMANITY. His life serves as an archetype of the future evolution of humanity. Thus, the great events in His life, such as the Baptism, the Temptation, the healings and miracles, the Transfiguration, the entrance into Jerusalem, the Last Supper , the Passion ,the night in Gethsemane, the Crucifixion, the Deposition and Resurrection, all these events in His life will have their corresponding reflection on the physical plane during the entire life of humanity over the next 36,000 years. We are presently still in the age of the Temptation in the Desert which lasted for Christ, 40 days and will last for humanity (40 X 29.5 years) 1,180 years.
Do the time equations for yourselves, follow the development of the macrocosmic ego of the Christ over the corresponding microcosmic evolution of humanity. Here is wisdom.
