First Principles
What is Age Changeover and why does it matter?
Age Changeover is the consequence of the natural cycling of planet Earth. Cycles have changed in the past and will in the future; at this time a major cycle change is in progress. It can be (roughly) compared with the metamorphosis of an insect - stasis, apparent death, rebirth. From a cosmic perspective, a cycle change is a necessary and proper development. However, as the planet is large and humans small, the acute phase of the cycling will be experienced as cataclysmic. Many people will simply pass away; others have a more substantive part to play, perhaps riding out the storm and laying the foundations of a very different life. It is to those, that this blog is offered.
What where and when
Exactly what will happen, accurately where and precisely when, is unknown. One is reminded of the biblical injunction (2 Peter 3) that the Day of the Lord may creep up on us unseen 'as a thief in the night'. Although not a Bible student, I also appreciate the piece in Matthew 24 (38-39): 'For in those days, before the flood, people were eating, drinking, taking wives, taking husbands, right up to the moment that Noah went into the Ark, and they suspected nothing till the flood came and swept them all away'.
Can any of this be proved?
Proof is a difficult thing at the best of times; in this case we are not depending on objective proof although that is not to say there is none. It just isn't the most important factor. More fundamental is the inner life, the place where everything else comes from.
Energy
To expand on this theme for a moment, it has long since been 'proved' by science that all matter is energy. However, very few people have accepted and internalised this revelation, so for most of us, it has not been proved and is not true. Even those interested in the 'paranormal' can fall into the same trap: eg. they may tell you that with Kirlian photography, you can see the energy 'aura' around a person's hand. Not really - the hand does NOT have an aura, it would be more accurate to say the aura has a hand! Energy is primary, physical manifestation secondary. The same is true of everything - including Age Changeover.
In the next cycle, the paramount place of energy will become better understood. In that understanding and its outworking, lies the eventual hope of Mankind. A clue to this is the obvious fact that Man has no ability to create energy - only, if anything, to manipulate it into different forms. An attitude of humility is clearly indicated.
Song
Almost always, the subconscious is closer to reality than the conscious. People will respond to different cues depending on their constitution. For me, popular songs can catch a whiff, a wave, call it what you will, and put it into words:
"I feel to be a cog in something turning" Woodstock, Joni Mitchell
"There's a mighty judgement coming, though I may be wrong -
You see, I hear these funny voices, in the tower of song" Tower of Song, Leonard Cohen
Those who are 'in tune' with the idea of Age Changeover will have their own subtle perceptions/precognitions of the situation. You may have heard it said: "To those who understand, no explanation is necessary. To those who do not, no explanation is possible." This is not, or shouldn't be, a put-down to the unbelievers. Rather, it is a statement of fact.
Age Changeover has started
- Political and economic systems groaning under their own weight and showing signs of fracture. (No need to give references.)
- Global conflicts and natural disasters creating humanitarian crises ( http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2013/01/08/the-most-under-reported-humanitarian-disasters-of-2012/ )including huge refugee populations, many with nowhere to go.
- Rapid climate change producing various weather effects ( http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2013/mar/25/frozen-spring-arctic-sea-ice-loss )
- Extinctions of species increasing (http://theconversation.com/extinction-just-how-bad-is-it-and-why-should-we-care-13751 )
- Suicide on the increase especially in first-world countries. ( http://www.alternet.org/economy/whats-behind-substantial-increases-suicide-rate-middle-aged-americans-bad-economy-likely ). Suicide is the leading cause of death in Australia for men under 44 and women under 34 (Lifeline.)
- Self-sufficiency (includng 'survivalism') intentional communities and related alternative social models growing in popularity, if rather tentatively at this point.
- Spiritual perspectives and practices, going beyond the major religions, are common.
These effects are only the start, because we are talking about a MAJOR cycle change. Consider the stupendous change that happened, according to scientists, around 65 million years ago. The dinosaurs - regarded as lords of the earth - perished. What will be the fate of the current 'lords'?
The end is nearest to the beginning
Cycles are circular; they may also spiral, up or down. To get a feeling for the next cycle, let's consider past cycles. I suggest we think of a round clock face - where the 12 and the 1 are adjacent - in the hope that it will help soften our strictly linear thinking.
Make any mention of pre-history (earlier than about 5,000 years ago) and orthodox archaeology is adamant that back then, there were only primitive human cultures. After all, these people couldn't even write their names!
Our society sees lineal progression everywhere, including the need for and assumed correctness of constant economic growth. (Never mind that it defies logic.) The lineal approach is generally applied to history, with the implicit or explicit opinion that no humans have ever been as advanced as us 21st Century types. With a few discrepancies (eg. Ancient Greece and the Dark Ages) human civilisation always progresses in steady upward steps. After all, even Plato with all his wisdom couldn't fly to the moon!
Plato, in 360BC, did of course introduce us to Atlantis in his dialogues, Timaeus and Critias - but despite the fascinating specifics of Plato's description ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlantis ) surely Atlantis was only a fairy tale?
The legacy of Atlantis
The esoteric record tells us that Atlantis was THE civilisation of a recent past cycle and it exhibited very different attributes to our own. The point is, that those differences were not linear - not necessarily better or worse - but qualitative and evolutionary. To emphasise the point somewhat coarsely, it would hardly be Divine Economy to reproduce exactly the same kind of 'stuff' in different cycles - and indeed, this doesn't happen.
What is the 'esoteric record'? It includes wisdom literature that talks about the thing that matters most because it is eternal - life/consciousness. Those who wish to find out more about Atlantis (and other cycles and their catastrophic conclusions) can try The Secret Doctrine and Isis Unveiled, written in the 19th Century by Madame Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, who was also co-founder of the Theosophical Society. Blavatsky's books are most definitely a difficult read, including rambling arguments full of copious and sometimes obscure detail. To persevere, you will need to be highly motivated - but the possibility of rewards are there. (As a footnote, always expect useful esoteric information to be at least somewhat obscured. It is after all, esoteric - 'hidden, restricted' - knowledge, which has to be worked for and earned.)
Another and more approachable source of information about Atlantis is the books of Alice Bailey, who from the 1920s to 1960 channelled the teachings of Tibetan Master Djwhal Khul.
Atlantis was (or, relative to one's understanding of time, still is) a stage in the development of Mankind and of planet Earth - the first being entirely dependent on the second. This was an era of powerful psychic development, which included its downsides, to the extent that there is now a race memory giving rise to strong ambiguity - some fascination but much suspicion - towards things psychic. By psychic, one means unseen powers generated from the lower emotional level (rather than coming from mental or more refined realms).
Earlier cycles included features not seen in our era. One of the more noteworthy differences was the assistance some of our ancestors received from higher beings - the 'Gods'. Snippets of evidence of this have given rise to various 'ancient astronaut' theories. The development of such ideas, though admittedly an attempt to rise above conventional wisdom, tends to emphasise our own cycle's lack of understanding of the majesty and mystery of our planetary life.
This is not to say we don't rely totally on extraterrestrial support - where would we be without the Sun - but Man's ideas of what is possible are generally cramped and limited by the prevailing materialism. Once again, we would do better to start our investigations where everything begins - energy, subtle (high frequency) energy at that.
The pyramids of Egypt's Giza plateau are a brooding record of what can be achieved when the Gods take a hand in Mankind's affairs. Graham Hancock's book Fingerprints of the Gods includes a sane and clear-headed description of these architectural and mathematical marvels, constructed thousands of years ago - possibly much longer ago than even their 'official' construction date of around 2450BC. The pyramids are full of mystery, enigmas which Eyptologists haven't shed much light upon, with their propensity for pedestrian and unlikely explanations. The Giza pyramids probably could not be replicated today, despite all our technology. More to the point, no-one today WOULD build them, due to the absence of any obvious economic return on investment. Dare anyone suggest there are more important things than money?
Much more could be said to introduce Age Changeover, but these few thoughts are sufficient for our purpose. The current era, whatever difficulties it may present, is at least excellently resourced for anyone who wants to research wider and dig deeper.
What's to be done?
If we accept that Age Changeover is in process, with beginning signs all around and more obvious symptoms likely in the near future, is there anything we can - or even should - do? Is there, for example, a latter-day equivalent to Noah's Ark? Haven't seen one anywhere?
Perhaps we need to look in a different direction. Everything is energy, and the more subtle, the closer to the source - an unknown and unknowable source. 'Go within' is the real start. We can do it in whatever way we feel is best, to see what the process reveals.
There are few pointers as to how the next cycle will look, but even those few may help us get on the right wavelength. Once the dust has settled (and there is no knowing how long that will take) don't expect to experience the ever-upward march of science technology. Those aids will be restrained or removed in favour of an improved internal technology - think far greater extra-sensory abilities.
Two amazing differences to be expected - eventually - are the ending of war and competition within the human kingdom. These two are very closely allied, competition on a national level easily becomes war. They have been mainstays of our present cycle and now they are due to disappear. Not by exhortation or punishment, neither the carrot nor the stick, but by an evolution in consciousness. The driving force that was expressed through competition and war won't fade limply away, but be transformed into ...what? Just pondering what it could be, is a creative exercise.
Now we start to grasp the enormity and blessing of the next cycle.
The role of great cities will decline and perhaps, end completely. The urgent justification for them will not be there. Instead, look to villages and living in community, in a way we perhaps cannot imagine. Only rest assured, Divinity's imagination is sufficient.
The New Way
What kind of 'evolved' consciousness will signify the next cycle? This is not easy to answer, because to describe a state of consciousness accurately, will surely require one to be in that state. Then, there's the problem of communicating it to those who march to a different drum.
Ekhart Tolle's book, The Power of Now, a best seller that has drawn heartfelt praise and thanks from people across the globe, was described as 'mumbo jumbo' by Time magazine. I am sure this was a sincere appraisal on the part of the reviewer - to those who don't understand, no explanation is possible.
So having admitted the difficulty of the task, let's try to describe the New Way. The old way is not too hard to pin down as a point of comparison:
- Is Mankind generally humble in the face of the Majesty of the planet and its processes, together with the solar system which nutures and holds the planet in its orbit, as well as the universe that holds it all - or is she/he unaware, uncaring, dismissive, arrogant?
- Put another way - does Man recognise her/his utter dependence on the planet's array of natural processes? Is he/she grateful? Does he/she retain a capacity for wonder and delight?
- On the flip side of this, do we see ourselves as essentially separate from an uncaring universe, constantly needing to make (and break) alliances to ensure survival? Must we be ever alert to defend ourselves from the myriad dangers and uncertainties of life?
- Does Man attempt to discover the place and purpose of his/her life from the perspective of a higher Authority, knowing themselves to be part of something infinitely greater - literally 'a cog in something turning'?
We could go on, but it's probably not necessary. Every honest person will have already heard the answers in their heart.
Expect the New Way to change our understanding of 'property'. The more we accept our utter dependence on higher energies, the more our belief that we actually own anything, is going to be eroded. Everything we 'own' comes from energies beyond us. Steady jobs, bank accounts, land titles, insurance and the rest are unable to guarantee the sense of security we constantly seek. The lack of ultimate ownership even includes our very bodies and the personal attributes and abilities of which we may be so proud.
This last paragraph is not an argument for people to stop using banks, not take out insurance policies, never buy houses or become unemployed. Those are all effects and in themselves, not the essence. What really matters is whether we are in thrall to the lower, separative ego, or if we gladly recognise and respond to higher energies.
The astute reader will note that a question-mark over our idea of ownership, is not exactly new. Aboriginal peoples, for example, have been telling us for a long time that they don't own land, but rather that the land owns them. And to dip into the Bible again: 'do not be anxious for your life, as to what you shall eat, or what you shall drink, nor for your body, what you shall put on... observe how the lilies of the field grow; they do not toil nor do they spin, yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed as one of these' (6 Matthew 25,28,29).
The above text is often quoted, but how many of us are able to live by it? It is likely a majority acceptance by the human family, in day to day living - born out of a certainty right through us - will be needed to constitute and usher in the fullness of the New Way.
And finally, death. How easily we relegate it to news programs and murder mysteries. How unthinkingly we treat it otherwise as taboo, in our minds and social discourse, even though each one of us will have to face it in the end. Mostly, we leave the important questions until it's too late: How do we prepare? What support systems and information do we have? Can death actually be a valuable experience? The 'third world' Tibetans traditionally ticked those boxes much better than we 'sophisticated' westerners. Isn't that rather odd?
Things will be very different in the new cycle, as death becomes understood and not feared in the way it is now. When we know, in our heart of hearts, that life never ends, the death of the body will be seen, coped with and responded to in better perspective.
