‘…Moulding and remoulding (Mahasaraswati) labours each part till it has attained its true form, is put in its exact place in the whole and fulfils its precise purpose. In her constant and diligent arrangement and rearrangement of things her eye is on all needs at once and the way to meet them and her intuition knows what is to be chosen and what rejected and successfully determines the right instrument, the right time, the right conditions and the right process…’.
Sri Aurobindo
‘The Mother’
About this time last year I began writing what I considered would be one of the clearest example for the student of transformational operations involving the Gnostic Circle. The result of that exercise, published in the December 1992 VISHAAL (TVN 7/5), did indeed clarify the Gnostic Circle for many students to a greater degree it seems than any of my previous treatments of the subject.
A full year has passed since that first exposition involving the Horse, and two further cycles in the racing history of our filly, whom we shall give the designation F1 in this study insofar as more equine participants enter the field which will be F2, and so on. Not only has more light been cast on the operations of the Gnostic Circle through these two additional cycles of nine races each, but the unusual or rather astonishing accuracy of the power of the Gnostic Time brought into clearer focus certain perplexing questions which have haunted the mind of humanity for many thousands of years. The developments contained in and described by the Gnostic Circle brought into focus particularly significant aspects of destiny such as free will, predetermination, freedom of choice, and so forth. In all my experience of a lifetime dedicated to these matters, I have rarely encountered a better means to explain these elusive and mysterious aspects of destiny than the description of events involving the Horse in the following pages.
By way of an introduction, it may be interesting for the student to review certain aspects of the Gnostic Circle in the context of the last cycle of nine, as well as the new material. What must be held foremost in mind is the essential function of the Gnostic Circle and the different approach it provides to questions of destiny compared to traditional methods of discovery such as astrology. I have touched upon this subject earlier but with the new developments since then far more has been perceived and though the essence was known even before, the recent happenings offer now the possibility to transmit these essential truths in a manner which ought to silence speculation.
To begin, let us review the main difference between traditional astrology and the Gnostic Circle of the new cosmology. The usual tool for analysis and prediction in the former is the natal horoscope. With that as the basis of enquiry the astrologer proceeds to describe the character and destiny of the individual. The natal chart also serves as the basis for prediction throughout the lifetime of the subject in that for specific details in one’s evolution at any given time, the astrologer progresses that natal configuration of the planets on a yearly basis. Added to this are the actual planetary positions which are said to be in transit over sensitive points in the original natal horoscope.
The art of astrology has evolved over the ages to the point where sometimes a great degree of accuracy is obtained in analysis of the enquirer’s character and destiny. Indeed, the celestial wheel of twelve signs, the basis for the construction, is understood to bear relevance to or to influence a host of mundane affairs, anything ranging from parental influence and interaction with the subject, marriage, the procreative capacity of not only the enquirer but also of his or her spouse. There are segments of the chart which deal with inherent talents as well as the ability to utilise those talents in life, or the obstructions one may encounter in doing so. Thus, the career potential is seen, successes, failures in the fulfilment of ambitions, and so on. Every aspect of life is seen to be covered by the twelve signs of the zodiac and the houses of the chart which form the structure of every horoscope, being as they are the traditional divisions of the celestial wheel which constitutes our planet’s orbit of the Sun.
Earlier on, the focus of the chart must have been different, if we analyse in depth the significance of the twelve hieroglyphs which antiquity has bequeathed to us. It is clear that the symbols enshrine a process of development, of evolution of consciousness above all else. Indeed, the later development was simply a degeneration or a ‘fall’, a lapse into the lesser aspects of the art because its loftier truths had been lost sight of. A simple means to demonstrate this discrepancy regarding the deeper significance of the hieroglyphs is by studying the symbols on the basis of the higher understanding of the zodiac’s function and contrasting that with the contemporary understanding. The symbol of the fifth sign Leo, 
for example, is considered by the contemporary astrologer to represent the tail of the lion. This would seem logical insofar as it is precisely the sign of the Lion. However, it is also the sign of paternity, the Purush, the masculine principle and the creative capacity, among other things. As far as its natural house is concerned, the fifth sign/house is the segment of the chart which, among other things, refers to the birth of children for the subject. Thus, on this basis it should be evident that this is not really the lion’s tail but rather a male sperm. Similarly, the symbol for the fourth sign Cancer, preceding Leo, depicts the feminine organs of reproduction, as well as the breasts, 
. We assume that the creators of the twelve hieroglyphs did not possess microscopes and so could not have ‘seen’ the minuscule sperm; therefore we have never ‘seen’ it in the symbol – only the common lion’s tail. Similarly, we assume that the creator of the Capricorn hieroglyph could not have known the configuration of the Indian landmass and therefore it never occurred to us to ‘see’ that land delineated in the hieroglyph, a land Capricorn is said to rule.
Today there are schools which do indeed seek to understand these higher aspects of the art in their respective disciplines on the road to a transformation of consciousness. But to my knowledge none of these attempts have penetrated the fullest dimensions of the art and unravelled its deepest mysteries. This is largely because we stand at the threshold of a very great and revolutionising change in the evolution of the species. Hence everything that seemed to provide the human being with a firm footing in the soil of past ages is unable to serve in the same manner in the new future that awaits us. In our present 9th Manifestation the birth of the Child has occurred. This means the birth of a new creation, a new species, a new world. We are able to look at our surroundings, even at our circumscribing cosmic space in which the twelve heavenly hieroglyphs are etched, with new eyes, in the act of a new seeing. When truths of this nature are lost, when a degeneration sets in with the flow of time, when disorder ensues, it indicates that a renewal is demanded. Sometimes the consciousness-structure can accompany us in the passage with minor changes introduced here and there. In the case of our present passage, the changes demanded are not minor. They are total.
Thus we seem to be standing on very shaky foundations. It appears that everything we have found adequate to sustain our march into the future is now being ruthlessly attacked and often entirely torn down. This may well be true, but it is also true that the perceptive eye is able to focus on elements of the old creation which are not meant to be destroyed but rather transformed. The human species, for example. They are, as it were, eternal truths. However they too, notwithstanding the eternity of their essence, require a periodic restructuring of the outer forms which encase this essence. The method to bring about this restructuring of the form of things to better express the eternal divine Essence is the subject of the Gnostic Circle. Consequently, the Circle explains the operations of the Becoming in ways never before perceived precisely because we have entered the Age in which a harmonisation must occur between the Being and the Becoming.
Ostensibly the traditional horoscope deals with the Becoming also. Indeed, astrology of whatever school is concerned with Time, and by consequence with the Becoming which is regulated by Time. But there are fundamental differences between the new and the old ways of perceiving destiny. While the horoscope based on the wheel of twelve provides insights into our participation in the Becoming during the course of our lives, the Gnostic Circle is a diagram which though essentially a wheel of time is first and foremost a tool to help us perceive the process involved in the transformation which will permit new forms to evolve adequate to express the new consciousness which has dawned in this new Age of the Supermind.
Thus the Gnostic Circle’s main feature is a means to understand the manner in which aspects of the Becoming are utilised in this act of transformation. In this lies its revolutionising capacity. Indeed, the principal tool at our disposal in any real transformation involving consciousness and form is precisely the act of seeing. The Gnostic Circle refocuses our ‘lens’ of perception so that light from a hitherto untapped source may penetrate areas of our individual and collective consciousness until now closed to this essence due to in-built inadequacies of the perceiving eye, which in turn is conditioned by its ‘encasement’.
It is for this reason that we are unable to describe minute details of the external trappings of destiny of the events being monitored in the Gnostic Circle. Prediction as it is currently understood and practised is not possible with the Gnostic Circle. As the example I will offer in the following pages reveals, at no time were these events foreseen in the shape they took. We are able to predict by the Gnostic Circle the circumstances in which and by which our transformation may occur, and we can only appreciate by its aid the stages of the development and the control existent over that eternal play. Indeed, the Gnostic Circle provides the key to perceive the manner in which the Becoming of any event central to the operation is drawn into the arena and controlled by the central Sun of that particular cosmos in evolution so that all may serve ‘the purposes of the One’.
Process is the keyword. Not prediction. In the first part of this series I discussed an aspect of this particular example which could be applied to any other application of the Gnostic Circle. It was the question of extraction and expression of the true potential of a given subject. Therefore, the selection of horse racing seemed felicitous in that the main objective of the proper training of a racehorse is precisely the development of the equine athlete’s fullest potential. There are various obvious reasons why competitive sport is a good field of observation, and in particular the racing scene. Millions of dollars, pounds, yen, or rupees are involved in the exercise. Given this enormous investment we may assume that everything possible will be done to secure ideal conditions for the extraction of the horse’s fullest potential. On the success or failure of the development hinges the outcome of the expenditure and desired profits.
It may be argued that any athletic endeavour today would serve the same purpose in that most sports now involve as large an investment to develop the human potential as the output for the equine athlete, minus the initial investment in the purchase of the horse, which is usually the largest part of the racing investment. However, the nature of the horse in this instance is more suited to our purposes than the human being given its connection in the first instance with the vital plane and the life force which are directly connected to the play of circumstances of the Becoming. And secondly, because of its structure which permits the force of consciousness to operate in a more direct and undiluted fashion whereby not only is the operation purer, so to speak, but it is more easily perceived due to this uncontaminated condition, unlike with the human being. Indeed the present discussion will reveal just how difficult any real transformation is for the human creature, and by this example involving the horse, exactly what the limitations are that we face as a species in transition to a higher level of evolution. In particular regarding the cycles under observation in this part of the series, we will appreciate the dilemma of women, how they continue to reinforce the shackles which ostensibly they seek to become free of. Horse racing is, it seems, the only major sport where men and women as jockeys participate equally. Hence this too will be featured in our discussion with respect to the evolution of the human race to a more equitable manifestation of the sexes.
The Earth, the Third and the Horse Vahana
The field of our experience is this Earth plane, this particular planet in the third orbit from the Sun. Our location in this solar system indicates the nature of our planetary purpose within the Sun’s family of nine. Through the new cosmology we know that the third orbit in the Gnostic Circle refers to the Individual Divine in the essential trinity which the Sacred Triangle highlights: Transcendent, Cosmic and Individual. It is the planet suited to house a creation in which the soul may govern the evolution; or rather, may use the evolution for its divine Purpose. That is, the fullest expression of the Truth it contains. Therefore, the soul is as it were the vahana or carrier of the Supreme in this material universe to move through the Becoming of Itself, organising the circumstances of its play in creation to better express that Supreme Consciousness in time and space. The soul is thus similar to the horse in relation to man. It is the Supreme’s carrier or vahana just as the horse is the human’s. And insofar as the 3 falls in the section of the Circle covering the vital being, the connection between Horse Symbol and Soul in evolution is clear. In the Rigveda this connection is described accurately in the hymns to Usha, the Divine Dawn, the Earth’s first experience of the Light. Her vahana is the Horse – precisely the One of the divine Purpose: Agni.
The Veda’s prolific contribution of Gods, Goddesses, their carriers, and indeed the rich store of Myth are means to describe this journey of the Supreme in creation through the instrumentation of the Soul, a ‘ray’ of Itself. Thus, to deny the validity and reality of material creation and participation therein, exhorting the seeker to reject this cosmic manifestation by labelling it ‘illusion’, as most spirituality does, is to deny the Supreme Consciousness its medium of self-expression in the creation it gave rise to and continues to support; it is to deny our real birthright as participants in the Earth’s evolution as the third planet in the system.
The nature of the soul is not understood in its fuller dimensions, indeed in its most fascinating and awe-inspiring aspects. This is particularly the case for those who have had the misfortune – or good fortune, when we view the evolution of the species in its most comprehensive arc – to be a part of one or the other of the Earth’s civilisations during the past two thousand years or so. For it was during this period, the entire Age of Pisces, that this understanding was lost. The outer proof is to be found in the rise of religions as organised belief systems, displacing the Vedic injunction of a direct experience of God rather than mere faith; but above all that none have respected or followed the line of development from antiquity which produced Myth.
All civilisations on Earth, products of the Piscean Age, experienced a complete break with tradition in this regard. All, that is, except India. It was in fact during the Age of Pisces that India consolidated its position regarding Myth in the formulation of the divine Reality. Hence it is, truly speaking, only in India that we can find elements of the tradition intact and indeed thriving. This is simply because the Veda continues to occupy centrestage and Myth is still the cultural backdrop of Indian society in spite of invasions from Semitic cultures and the relentless efforts of conquerors to exterminate Myth; and of course, ‘idol worship’ which is its companion. Indeed, the term itself now bears a negative connotation, so powerful has been the rise of a consciousness which represents an antithesis of the ancient tradition. If India had not preserved this tradition, it is unlikely that the experience with the Horse I am describing in this series would have been possible anywhere else. That it transpires in India is an additional proof that the Sanatan Dharma, the eternal truth, is alive and well.
A central part of this age-old tradition is the knowledge of the Ten Avatars. It is interesting to note that the tenth or last in the Line is none other than Kalki, the ‘horse’ Avatar. For not only is the manifestation represented as a man astride a white horse with sword in hand, there are even more powerful depictions where the Avatar himself is the Horse, as the figure following demonstrates. Kalki in fact is an appearance of our very Age. We are in the period of Kalki whose birth sign is precisely Sagittarius, the sign of the Horse.
These revelations arise in the soul. This seeing is only offered to the human creation through that channel – hence I have often written that it is a plunge within which opens these doors of the innermost chamber of being. And there the Gods and Goddesses and their vahanas and all else – indeed, the Supreme Consciousness itself in the form of Skambha – are seen, lived, known.
Given this involvement, or involution, of the Divine Consciousness in creation in this intrinsic way, there is no reason why escape from material, cosmic manifestation is required. Indeed, it is, as stated, a denial or a perversion of our birthright, and as a spiritual experience it certainly marked the nadir of the human quest. But the human being is given a choice. Escape itself is provided as ‘a way out’. If the iron grip of Time is too hard to bear, the seeker may find relief from the pressure by exiting for a time until a solid core is forged which can withstand the contracting power without recoil or collapse. It is clear that in the middle of the last Manifestation, the 8th, some 5000 years ago, seekers encountered the same difficulty. It is expressed in the Bhagavad Gita, a product of that Manifestation, in the description of the recoil experienced when, after beseeching his Friend and Guide, Krishna, to reveal his true divine form, Arjun then pleads with Krishna to return to the image he can bear, that of his loving mentor and friend. Krishna as the Avatar, emanation of Vishnu, had appeared to him precisely in the form of the Time-Spirit in the process of creating and devouring the worlds in manifestation.
Myth and the Paradox of Compressed Time
This brings us to the main function of the soul in creation, as well as a deeper understanding of time, destiny and circumstance. For the soul is indeed the encasement of the Supreme or Absolute Consciousness. While at the same time it IS that very Consciousness which it envelops. This paradox is beautifully expressed in the ancient Vedic myth concerning the origin of Daksha, progenitor of the Gods and father of Sati, Shiva’s first consort, and his connection at the origin with Aditi, the Divine Mother of creation. For Daksha is both father and son of Aditi. In the words of the Rigveda, ‘…Daksha sprang from Aditi, and Aditi from Daksha.’
Naturally scholars who study these stories with a view to comprehending the ancient spirit and mind of the Indian people, without the soul initiation that opens the innermost chamber of higher knowledge, cannot understand anything of their deeper meaning and cosmic sense, imposing as they must perforce do the limitations of scholastic conditioning on a realm of experience and discovery quite foreign to that world.
But we need not extend our investigation into remote times since we have the new cosmology and the actual experience it describes of the Solar Line to clarify the very same paradox: the 9 of the Line is both father to his ‘daughter’ (the 3), as well as her own son (the 0/1). This is made clear only when we realise that Sri Aurobindo as the Transcendent 9 left this plane and in an unbroken line of time took birth through the Third who is his own ‘daughter’ in the Solar Line. She is ‘daughter’ by way of her FUNCTION in the scale of creation. It is the cosmic principle which we relate to our birth experience on Earth in this way, because she is the distilled essence of the 9 and the Cosmic Mother, the 6. The Daughter Principle is the bridge which the Transcendent 9 crosses in his voyage to Immanence. Through her he takes birth as the compressed SEED of himself, or the Immanent One. Then at this stage there is a ‘reversal’. The other side finds its bridge linking our time and space; the Son is not only a ‘principle’. He takes birth as a physical son as well, for the Physical and Spiritual have been joined.
This profound truth of material creation is found retold time and again in India in all of the different periods of her long and unbroken civilisation. In the Puranic period, after the Vedic, it surfaces in the tale of Shiva, Sati, Parvati, and Kartikeya, Parvati’s son who is ‘Shiva himself’. Thus this re-echoes the tale of Daksha who is son of the divine Aditi while at the same time he is her father. The coherency and consistency of the teaching over such vast movements of time is testimony to the power of the original act of seeing, to the vigour of that eternal truth-seed which is the origin of what we now call Hinduism.
As a similar but contemporary Myth, we have Sri Aurobindo’s epic poem, Savitri. It presents the same truth, perhaps clearer in that his writing has been simultaneous with the myth’s unfolding in time. Thus in Savitri we have the same four components. There is Ashwapathy, Savitri’s father, the Queen Mother, Savitri and finally Satyavan. They very accurately correspond to the 9, 6, 3, and 0-1 of the Solar Line in the new cosmology, as well as the same cosmo-geneology expressed in the tales of Shiva. The contemporary myth is so accurate that Savitri’s father is called Ashwapathy, which means Lord of the Horse.
Disciples are fully aware that Sri Aurobindo identified with Ashwapathy and that his own yoga is described in the epic as Ashwapathy’s experiences. At the same time, disciples believe that Satyavan is truly Sri Aurobindo inasmuch as he is the consort of the divine Savitri, whom they understand to be the Mother. But paradoxically, while Satyavan is the central figure in the story, he is rather obscure, his character is the least defined, he is virtually an unknown quantity and figures only as the main object in Savitri’s quest and ultimate victory over Death when she redeems his soul and brings him back to Earth. Virtually throughout the entire epic Satyavan spends his time in the sleep of death!
Sri Aurobindo, when commenting on the epic’s symbolism, referred to Satyavan as the ‘soul of the Earth’. It is the new cosmic formula that more accurately details the participation and function of each of the four elements. It also casts light on a rather ambiguous aspect of the yoga regarding the nature of the psychic being and the soul. The two are often confused and difficult to define properly. Sri Aurobindo has sought to remove the terminological confusion on a number of occasions. In his letters to disciples he has clarified that the psychic being is on the order of the soul’s personality or encasement when incarnating. The new cosmology would explain it as the Third, and indeed in this sense it is related to the Person; while the fourth, the soul, is that innermost, centremost Point, the Son, the One. In this light, it is entirely true that Satyavan as fourth is the ‘soul of the Earth’.
Returning to our analysis, by including the details of the Solar Line in this regard, the intention is to consolidate or render concrete and substantial a knowledge which is all too often elusive and therefore open to innumerable ‘interpretations’, and hence falsification. The paternity of the Third of the Solar Line lies in the law she embodies and her enactment thereof in this special 9th Manifestation. She is in this essential way the (9) Father’s ‘daughter’ because in her essential nature she cannot be anything else. At the same time, she gives birth to him as the Son (0/1) because he is as well bound to this channel of manifestation by laws which he embodies. In a word, the Avatar, and in particular the Avatars of this Age of the Supermind, simply re-enact the process of creation in its most essential, psychic features. Not because to do so helps the seeker to understand the phenomenon of which he or she is an unconscious and often blind participant, but because they are simply true to their nature or inherent DHARMA, to the law that drives their Being in this Becoming. And in this manner the Supreme descends, takes birth in time and thus etches this higher Purpose and Function on the canvas of the evolution of consciousness on Earth. But it is not all the Avatars who enact this drama of creation captured in the ancient myths. For it is only in the 9th Manifestation that the work is done. The full Four Powers incarnate and bring to a close the process described in the Puranic line of the Ten Avatars. They forge the connection between Swar, ‘heaven’ of the Veda, and this physical Earth plane.
Thus the Third is, properly speaking, the SOUL – be it individual or collective. She is the encasement of the Supreme Consciousness just as each human being is and can know him or herself to be. She holds within the seed, the Transcendent 9, compressed by the action of the Mother into that tiny Point: Skambha, the support of the worlds, or the Supreme Principle at the heart of creation.
What we call the Timeless is thus involved, the Transcendent takes birth in time through this medium which is the essence of Itself but simply compressed. The product of that great cosmic act of creation is the Golden Seed or Hiranyaretas: Agni, the cosmic principle of Fire. Science will make this discovery when it is able to step beyond the barriers death imposes which closes out our perception and observation the process of creation on the other side. It is blocked at observation, at scrutiny of the 1, the first point of space, disconnected from the origin of Itself (the 0) which lies in that dimension beyond and from where the material universe has spring. It was no ‘big bang’ as such. It was imply the birth of the One from the fulness of Itself.
The Golden Seed is thus the compressed 9, 6, 3. That is, Future, Past and Present are its essence. In other words, compressed Time. If this were not so, if this compression of the future, for example, did not exist there would be no explanation – nay, occurrence – of the phenomena known as precognition, deja vu, prophecy, prediction, and so forth. One cannot foresee what does not exist somewhere, somehow. Because the Transcendent is compressed into the substance of our individual soul, we are at times able to rend the veil and perceive aspects of our future inasmuch as the Transcendent is the ALL. It is the foundation of being. But it is the future undifferentiated. That is, it has not crossed the bridge provided by the soul, the Third, by which channel order is established. Thus the Third ‘puts order’ into things of this creation. She channels time from the present of itself – for she is indeed the present in the trinity and hence the centre. She is, or gives birth to, the ‘centre that holds’ and without which things ‘fall apart’, time reverts to chaos and not cosmos, collapses, falls back into the Fulness from where it emerged, only to repeat the creative process throughout eternity.
The Third is therefore a sort of regulating apparatus. What she regulates is movement, speed. Thus her vahana is necessarily the Horse; and in this special 9th Manifestation of the 9th sign Sagittarius, horse racing is an especially suited endeavour to demonstrate the action as well as to work out certain ‘knots’ which have arisen with the passage of time (‘knots’ precisely of time’s energy) affecting that regulated flow which threatens to drive into disorder the energies operating through the evolution of consciousness and being on Earth. This ‘working out’ is aimed at the vital centre and plane of consciousness; and indeed this is the field of operation of the Third, while for the 6th and the Cosmic Divine it was the mental plane with which the 6 has special affinity. The field of the 9, the father of the Line, is the spiritual plane, while for the 0-1 it is the Physical. The four powers thus gather into themselves all the planes of creation.
Money, the Vital and the Horse
The racing animal is thus a sublime ‘symbol’ of the process which regulates speed (of consciousness), for in the rightful experience of such a process lies the success or failure of the horse to pass the winning post before the other equine competitors.
But there is more involved in the matter, of a perhaps less elusive or esoteric nature. This is money power, plain and simple. This is easily appreciated if we reflect on a simple equation: energy is time is money. With this any businessman or entrepreneur would agree. But there is a cosmic sense to the equation whereby money becomes the outer symbol of that play of energy in its cosmic import. The ‘knots’ I have discussed above are equally the knotted condition of the Earth’s wealth, with money power in the hands of a few, depriving the many of their basic needs and just share. Yet this would not be a problem if the flow were as harmonious as the cosmic order demands. The ‘knots’ in the flow are precisely those transgressions in the vital dimension of being which hamper any real and equitable distribution of this energy/power in such a way as to ensure that it provides for all while at the same time there is no strangulation of the channels which are by destiny meant to draw that energy onto this Earth-plane and place it at the service of humanity at large.
Insofar as we are at the Third’s level in the Supramental Descent, and that to this manifestation is connected the vital and by consequence money power, the stock exchange, for example, is a perfect ‘field’ for a display of the power of the Third by its involvement with money power or the energy it represents or ties up. In ‘knots’ for the most part. Hence Sri Aurobindo wrote of the need to re-conquer this energy for the Divine since it is presently in the hands of the titans, the Asuras:
‘Money is the visible sign of a universal force, and this force in its manifestation on earth works on the vital and physical planes and is indispensable to the fullness of the outer life. In its origin and its true action it belongs to the Divine. But like other powers of the Divine it is delegated here and in the ignorance of the lower Nature can be usurped for the uses of the ego or held by Asuric influences and perverted to their purpose. This is indeed one of the three forces – power, wealth, sex – that have the strongest attraction for the human ego and the Asura and are most generally misheld and misused by those who retain them. The seekers or keepers of wealth are more often possessed rather than its possessors; few escape entirely a certain distorting influence stamped on it by its long seizure and perversion by the Asura. For this reason most spiritual disciplines insist on a complete self-control, detachment and renunciation of all bondage to wealth and of all personal and egoistic desire for its possession. Some even put a ban on money and riches and proclaim poverty and bareness of life as the only spiritual condition. But this is an error; it leaves the power in the hands of the hostile forces. To reconquer it for the Divine to whom it belongs and use it divinely for the divine life is the supramental way…’. (The Mother, 1928)
It may be interesting to note that in 1992, when the yoga of the Third reached a major turning point, when the Asura threatened to overtake precisely the source of power which was and remains her symbol-field, the Indian stock exchange went into convulsions. First it soared to unimaginable, delirious heights, then it was plunged into the darkness of ‘scams’ and the like. These are an example of the ‘knots’. That is, pockets of darkness, of twisted energy which, because of their compressed, obscure condition are able to usurp the power. That phase of the yoga accomplished successfully, it produced an inevitable ‘reversal’ in the following year. The effects were felt on our filly, completing the combined work of 1992 and 1993 of the Yoga. Also of note in view of the connection between horse, the vital plane and money power is the fact that India’s experiment with a liberalisation of the economy began when our filly started her racing career.
All the characteristics of the vital are contained in the contemporary phenomenon of the prosaic and utterly mundane stock market, to the extent that when the movement of stocks is described in newspapers, it reads more like a log of a mental patient in an asylum. For indeed ‘all life is yoga’, to borrow Sri Aurobindo’s aphorism once again. We refer to the stock market as ‘buoyant’, ‘excited’, ‘depressed’, – or even more aptly, ‘bullish’, since indeed the zodiacal sign that rules money and thus the stock market is Taurus, sign of the Bull. These are all terms reflective of the vital function in the consciousness-being of the individual and the collectivity. But a field for the play of energy allotted to the vital in the schema of evolution from involution is nowhere more suited to a working-out process than the betting arena of the race course. In this nuclear field we find all the ‘excitement’ and ‘depression’ of the ordinary stock exchange, with the difference that at the centre of the exercise stands not the human being or industry but the Horse, supreme symbol precisely of the Vital. This is therefore the best arena at our disposal to prove the new cosmology’s choicest aphorism, ‘the symbol is the thing symbolised’.
The Present is the time-energy arena of the Third. Horse racing and its betting structure fall in line with this time-boundary in that everything involved plays itself out fully and immediately in the race for which the bets are being taken. Though the stock exchange is also a field of manifestation of the vital plane, the betting arena of racing serves as a more appropriate ‘symbol’ insofar as there is no carry over. The race of the moment is the focus. Bets are placed and either won or lost with the instant outcome. There are no stocks to negotiate and re-negotiate, to hold, to sell, to buy and re-sell. No accumulation, as such. It is all decided by the race of the moment. And the fever at the time punters are placing their bets in the precincts of betting is in no way inferior to the well of the stock exchange building for a physical, visual image of the hysteria, excitement, agitation and rise in the vital temperature the exercise provokes.
But in racing with its mini-stock exchange there are the same ‘knots’ as in its macro model. The flow is disturbed by gaps, seepages, furtive drains, siphoning off energy from the system. It is indeed a perfect symbol of the condition we seek to transform in the evolution of the species so that energy now drained away, usurped, wasted, may go to the Divine, at the service of the process to effect a rise of the species to a higher level of creation on this Earth and for which much larger stores of energy have to be put at the disposal of the human being. The vehicle is the Vital, centre of the combustion of energy. The symbol is the Horse.
It is when the level of the Third is reached in the Supramental Descent that the present of time’s energy becomes the focus. Hence it is, rightfully speaking, only at this, our actual level, that the symbol can become ‘the very thing symbolised’. In the present, distance vanishes, spaces between things, between the observer and the observed. As such what the symbol stands for is the very object of the transformation. In this case, the Horse. It is not ‘up there’ any longer, in the ‘ideal plane’ where ‘symbols’ are born and remain separate from the thing symbolised. It is here, rooted in the NOW. Physical. Measurable. Irrefragable in the truth it conveys, to use the word Sri Aurobindo employed to describe the truth of the supramental Gnosis. Similarly, the Solar Line Transcendent is no longer ‘up there’. He is immanent. He is driven into the compressed Point, first principle of Matter, by the power of the 6 and the 3. Heaven descends upon Earth.
Grappling with the Shadow-Residue
We left off the analysis of F1’s racing experience with the completion of her 9th race and thus the close of the first ennead and the opening of the second – 9 to 18. It may be recalled that the filly had been turned completely sour by the dubious antics of the jockey who rode her during that first cycle. At this point, it is important to discuss the meaning of the first ennead in any process monitored in the Gnostic Circle; or for that matter, the first ennead of life. In the present example we are concerned with stages of the development signalled by a series of horse races. Whereas for the human being it is a question of time cycles of days/months/years. But the same process or development pertains to both. The essential point to bear in mind is that the first cycle of 9 sets the tone for the further development.
Thus, in the case of F1, it was clear that the negative imprinting she received during passage over the 4.5 Orbit – or between her 4th and 5th races, would constitute a formidable ‘handicap’ in the future play-out. It soon became more than clear, as had been earlier foreseen, that the next cycle – 9 to 18 – would be almost entirely focussed on an undoing of that negative imprint, if at all it could be done.
If this occurs in racing, normally the trainer will not waste his time, especially at racing centres where competition is stiff. In the case of fillies this is even more the case because, unlike colts or geldings, the filly’s career though unsatisfactory on the track can be redeemed in breeding. This is especially true when the pedigree is good or above average.
To avoid this situation, F1 was sent to a sensitive and caring woman trainer, the only female in that particular centre and perhaps in all of India. Thus, when F1 returned to the track after her 7th race which resulted in a three-month rest on the farm where she was bred, she was placed in this young trainer’s yard because it was felt that only in such an environment would the filly encounter the right atmosphere for rehabilitation, if this was at all still possible.
The sojourn on the farm, at the source, as I have explained in the first part of this series, was indeed beneficial. Her sourness disappeared instantly when she reached the farm; returned to the track, she was healthier and happier. Her first race in these new conditions – the 8th – reflected this changed state of affairs, as I have described in the last article.
Thus, the new cycle opened on this positive note. Racing was shifted to the summer venue, since the season in her base city had come to an end, making of the 9th truly a new beginning. What transpired thereafter is especially important to note in the context of F1’s particular problem, – that is, her recovery from a sour condition caused by the mixed signals she had received early in her career. In such a case and when opening a new cycle, of special significance is the need not to reinforce the imprint one wishes to dismantle. This is fundamental, otherwise the second ennead will serve only to burden the subject with more negativity. And thus it was, to a certain extent, for our filly.
Her 9th race, as reported earlier, was successful in that for the first time she seemed to be a willing participant. If she lost that race it was simply due to her heavy handicap (she was almost top weight), and the fact that the winner, carrying 9 kilos less, was clearly of a higher class brought down to Class VA, or the second to the last, which was still the classification of our filly. But from the point of view of the psychological problems of F1 – that is, the need to work out the shadow-residue left by the previous negative imprinting – the race was a definite success. It seemed that she had finally decided to accept the jockey, any jockey, and did not look upon him as an enemy working at cross-purposes with her. However, there was soon to be a set-back in this regard. The filly’s 10th race proved to be a disaster in terms of the shedding of any negative residue from the first cycle of 9.
For the 10th race F1 was allotted the same mediocre jockey as before simply for the fact that she had responded to him well, it seemed. Therefore, given her problem with jockeys it was felt that rather than change for a better jockey, more experienced and with a better track record, there should be no change which might upset her again. However, in the interim between her 9th and 10th races that jockey had raced and received a suspension of his license for one year for ‘not allowing his mount to run on its merits’; or, put more plainly, for pulling the horse, for holding him back and not allowing him to win. To further secure that he could not encourage his mount as is customary in the last stretch, he made it a point to lose his whip early on. This seemed to cast further doubt on his intentions and was duly noted by the stewards.
The jockey of course denied the charges and appealed the punishment. His suspension was to have started immediately, but given the appeal it was postponed until a particular date when the appeal would be heard. This allowed him to continue riding at that centre until then. If heard and rejected, the jockey would neither be able to ride in that centre where the transgression took place or in any other throughout the world which is connected to the international racing network.
In spite of this situation the trainer retained him for the filly’s 10th race because of the reasons given above. But this proved to be a misjudgement. Insofar as his permanent suspension was a certainty and that his appeal would be rejected, it seems he became even more reckless. As the video of the race reveals, the jockey fought a constant battle with the filly who wanted only to get in the lead and stay there till the end. He interfered shamelessly with her performance, being seen to yank her head from side to side violently in the struggle to place her in the rear, though she jumped out of the gate and had placed herself first, her preferred position.
The result of his vigorous efforts was that she passed the winning post last – the first time in her career. By the time the horses reached the last stretch and were accelerating toward the post, our filly lost heart and resigned herself to her trailing position where the jockey had succeeded in pinning her down. We were thus faced with potentially a terrible set-back, given the dedication with which all the participants in her career had sought to ease up the burden of her negative imprint. It seemed by this that she would experience a reinforcement of the very thing we strove to dissolve. On his part, the jockey then departed for a racing venue in the Middle East, outside the international network to continue his ‘career’.
The harmony of parts within the whole
At this point it is well to discuss an aspect of the experience which reflects on any situation where teamwork is required. For the purposes of our study – that is, the Gnostic Circle as a tool or guide in the transformation of consciousness – the field under observation is not restricted to sports and the racing endeavour. Though the latter does offer a splendid means for highlighting the difficulty the human being faces when he or she requires a cooperative attitude on behalf of others in order to succeed in life. Indeed, if we consider ourselves isolated and completely auto-dependent during our sojourn on this planet, we are mistaken. The human being is a social creature, for reasons quite cosmic in nature. The collectivity of which he is a part is fundamental to the fulfilment of his destiny. There is what is known as the self-made man or woman. But this is only relative. It may pertain to the development of talents in order to reach a certain self-expression; but the field within which that expression must evolve is populated by other humans without whose collaboration our self-made individual could not succeed.
Yet this ‘collaboration’ need not be positive. At times tension is required when the individual bears a certain character which demands such a ‘stimulus’ in order to achieve a desired end.
It is clear that in a sports enterprise there must be positive collaboration between all the elements involved – i.e., owner, trainer, jockey; and then the stewards and other officials of the turf’s team who are supposed to assure that the highest standards are maintained in a sport where large quantities of public and state money are involved.
By the time the filly had experienced her 10th (negative) race, an important feature of the experience was beginning to crystallise. It was the lack of cooperation between all the elements involved. It would seem obvious that for a horse to win, trainer, jockey and owner should present a united front and goal – i.e., to win. But often this is not the case. Each one is a separate entity with his or her goals, compulsions, priorities and machinations to achieve them. Moreover, even when the three are working in unison there is the rest of the set-up to contend with: the stewards, the attitude of the other competitors who may be in the game for entirely different reasons and using underhand means to achieve certain ends which are not exactly compatible with honest and fair sport. In other words, the field in which all of this transpires.
Though I was aware of the jockey’s potential to interfere with the attainment of the goal, the filly’s 10th race brought to the fore the difficulty an owner can face with his or her trainer; or vice-versa, the trainer with the owner. Indeed, many times the trainer prepares the horse for a sure win but the owner enters into a secret agreement with the jockey to see that his own horse loses, while he places his bet elsewhere.
One would expect that faced with such a perverse twist, with such a wicked undermining of one’s hard efforts, the trainer would be inclined to denounce the fraudulent practice before the stewards if the situation had reached the point of an enquiry. But in my experience this was never the case. The trainer invariably stood by the jockey regardless of his dubious, surreptitious machinations which caused the trainer to lose the race and lay waste his efforts. Moreover, as anyone knows who has followed the ‘sport’ for any length of time, jockeys often heed neither trainer nor owner but rather the shadowy injunctions of some bookmaker who has a stake in the horse’s failure to win. Though I am not proficient in this aspect of the ‘sport’ – that is, the gambling, betting part – insofar as my interest lies in the sport for sport’s sake, not to speak of the rigorous demands of the Gnostic Circle, it is clear that betting on a race is an unavoidable part of the enterprise and will not go away. Indeed, it is even an accepted and welcome part of amateur or gymkhana racing. For the purpose of our study and the connection between the Horse and the Vital Plane, and by consequence money power, betting in racing and the mini stock exchange excitement it engenders is a necessary ‘evil’. It creates an atmosphere which is conducive to the sort of experience the horse needs to serve the purpose for which he is drawn into the world of racing. From its higher perspective, it is clear.
Thus gambling on the part of most of the participants in the ‘sport’ creates conditions which would not exist if the practice were banned. And then horse racing would not serve us as it does in this nuclear experience which draws together various dimensions of human activity and planes of consciousness-being.
It needs also to be mentioned that the costs of maintaining a race horse being as high as they are, while the stake money in India is relatively low, owners often have no choice but to engage in betting just to be able to keep the horse in the sport. Without the successful gamble, usually two wins are required in order to meet costs. In addition, horses are rarely trained to race as well and as much as they could, and in which case more money could be earned without betting, given the archaic methods still practiced by almost all trainers. The advances made in training methods of human athletes over the past two decades have not percolated down to the equine athlete as yet.
The outcome of F1’s 10th race was therefore the realisation that between all the elements ostensibly engaged in the common enterprise of getting this equine athlete to perform at her best and hopefully to win, there was no essential harmony. Indeed, in the racing set-up in general there is little harmony; jockeys often demonstrate disregard for trainer or owner; owners often mistrust them both; between trainer and jockeys and stewards there is a decided we-against-them atmosphere and the latter are seen as ‘enemies’ to be either fooled, cajoled or humoured, if not feared. Indeed, the steward is not only god, he is, like the Semitic deity, a god whom all fear, though often his credentials do not qualify him for the job of either steward or ‘god’.
It does not require much depth of perception to realise that this condition is applicable to almost every aspect of life, every human endeavour. Harmony is not a feature of the human condition except in exceptional situations when it cannot be otherwise; not for harmony’s sake but for survival or other demands of self-interest. Our political systems throughout the world, democracies, for example, thrive on tension and confrontation, even within the parties themselves. The human condition seems to impose an atmosphere where the collectivity works at cross-purposes. Indeed, we shall explore the reasons for this condition in the subsequent pages.
In racing the element tainting everything is of course money. Not unlike politics throughout the world. Lust for more and more – and ‘the easy win’. What this implies is that often a horse of a particular calibre, say the highest Classes I and II, is consistently ‘pulled down’ to find itself in one of the lowest classes, VA or VB. This is done in a host of ways; by getting the horse in poor condition by restricting his diet, or arranging with the jockey to hold him back. Finally, when the desired lower class is reached, his condition is restored and he finds himself out-classing the other competitors. Bets are then placed and the ‘sure win’ in such conditions brings large dividends on the gambling front. None seem to care about the humiliation this signifies for the horse. Indeed, there are times when the animal displays far more sense and decency than humans and simply refuses to go along with the fraud, refuses to ‘cooperate’, turns off, closes up and is then labelled ‘sour’. This is more often than not the equine athlete’s only protective device when faced with insurmountable obstacles – i.e., everybody and everything against the fulfilment of its purpose: display of its maximum potential under optimum conditions in a healthy atmosphere of respect, dignity, understanding and passionate desire to excel. This spirit is found for the most part only in Classic and not handicap races, the category to which our filly was restricted because of her unknown pedigree. But in Classic races, while ‘pulling’ and the like is at a minimum, another problem is found, also connected to the Vital dimension of being. This is lust for power, a perverted desire to reach the top at all costs, by whatever means, not so much for the higher stakes involved, but for prestige.
All of this simply reflects the human condition as it truly is, with no masks. Thoroughbred racing seems to encapsulate it all and thus serves our purpose well as a nuclear field for the transformation.
Another perversion which has to be mentioned is the nasty habit of doping the animals, or else filling them with substances which ‘enhance’ their performance, similar of course to human athletes. Thus if one does not agree to the practice, rarely is one’s animal competing with horses on the basis of their true potential. This sort of violence is done to the animal almost as a regular practice and our fillies have had to face the additional ‘handicap’ of performing on their own merits and not on the basis of artificial substances. Veterinary science has come a long way in this regard. More and more sophisticated techniques have been devised to administer drugs which cannot be detected given the present means of scrutiny available to the race course. Owners and trainers can be assured of the ‘collaboration’ of the vet to fulfil illegitimate and perverse ambitions, often to the physical detriment of the horse, especially stallions and mares.
Be all this as it may and to return to our case under analysis, the 10th race brought home the fact that we found ourselves decidedly at odds with our environment – both filly and owner. The sort of ‘team spirit’ one had dreamt of was absent. Everyone seemed to be working at cross-purposes and even the honest had no courage and stamina to endure the hardships and difficulties which would perforce accompany any attempt to ‘break the system’.
Cancer and the mechanical response
The filly’s 11th race, this time with a good and reliable jockey, brought to the fore a certain aspect of this section of the Gnostic Circle – i.e., passage over the first Cardinal Point, Cancer, serves to reinforce mechanical responses. It is in this section that ruts are carved out and one thereafter slips into these grooves in the effort to secure a ‘safe niche’.
The fourth sign Cancer, traditional astrology will affirm, is the sign most expressive of a sense of insecurity. The animal symbol, the Crab is notorious for its instant recoil within its shell at the very first signs of real or imaginary approaching danger. Animals in their instinctive state will of course always react to danger by either flight or attack out of panic, but the Crab is a select symbol in that it carries on its back, as part of its very structure, that item which offers it a secure refuge: its shell. Another point to note is its devious movement in an oblique fashion, to further confound its aggressor.
But all this is simply to emphasise the fact that at this point in the passage one must come to terms with these insecurities and the consequent carving out of what appear to be secure ruts. In a word, the ego is greatly enhanced in this segment insofar as it is the human being’s device or inbuilt mechanism to protect oneself by isolation. The shell of the Crab indicates this self-containment, the element which cuts us off from our surroundings and the experience of oneness and unity with the rest of creation. A binary creature, structured around the ego-axis, cannot experience this oneness and unity with the all, – unless the individual comes upon a method to dislocate him or herself, to detach from creation and the universal manifestation by techniques available in yogas of various sorts. In creation, as an integrated part of the cosmic process and the evolution of the species, it is only a unitary creation, poised around a true centre that can live in this state of oneness.
There are any number of justifications the human being can offer to support the notion that secure ruts, buffers or shields, are the only means to survive in the hostility that surrounds us. In the case of our filly the justification came by way of her previous race in the hands of the suspended jockey, his shameless holding her back and forcing her to trail the field. Needless to say, this confirmed her distrust and fortified her hardening self-centredness.
It is this that needs to be highlighted and was clearly demonstrated in the subsequent behaviour of our filly. Up to that point, that passage over the first Cardinal Point, Cancer, there was still a certain openness which was revealed in her attitude to the jockey during her 9th race. She cooperated to some degree and was seen to enjoy the effort, though this signified an output of only a fraction of her true potential. Nonetheless it was a positive sign and seemed to be the promise of an even better performance in her next race, in spite of the heavy handicap she was obliged to carry. With relative ease she not only kept pace with the other competitors but managed to hold her own in spite of carrying many more kilos than they.
All the psychological gains of not only that race but the efforts of the new woman trainer to diminish if not eliminate entirely the filly’s former sourness were laid waste by the suspended jockey’s outright efforts to hold the filly back. The effects of this pathetic set-back were that in her next race, the 11th and her approach to the Cancer segment in the Gnostic Circle, it was clear that she was beginning to forge a protective mechanism around herself. Barriers were being erected in her consciousness to this end. She was closing herself up within her ‘shell’, constructing the edifice that would permit her to behave in a way that would thereinafter be her hallmark. She was withdrawing into her shell. Not sour. Indeed, she seemed totally at ease and appreciative of the loving care the new trainer was lavishing on her, pampering her status of ‘pet’ rather than racing machine. Her sister (F2) had returned from the farm-source with her; and this companionship also contributed to her sense of well-being and contentment. It seems as if she was able to distinguish between things and people in a highly accurate manner. On the one hand there was the trainer, syce and owner – all to her liking. On the other there was the jockey, her arch enemy. Her ire and distrust were saved for the latter. And thus the pattern began to take shape, so true to passage through the Cancer segment of the Circle, which allowed her to enjoy her environment but turn off any form of cooperation in the race.
The clear signs of this were noted in her 11th race. The newspapers favoured her. They were sure that the able jockey who had agreed to ride her would ‘succeed in raising a gallop’. For by then it was evident to all that any positive performance so far was accomplished virtually at a canter. She was again favoured in the betting arena. But at the 400 mark when the jockey began to ask for a kick off in the final stretch, she closed up and refused. The result was fourth place – on the board but not in any way ‘in the race’. This became thereafter her pattern, her rut, carved out over the Cancer point in order to provide the protection she felt she needed from the onslaught of the jockeys.
Another interesting feature of this development was that from that time onward no one cared to penetrate into the psychological recesses of the filly and discover why and what she was doing. The jockey’s comment after the race was the she ‘blew out’ due to the handicap she was carrying (56 kgs). In his opinion she should be given an allowance rider to counteract the problem. Everyone seemed to forget that just a month earlier she had breezed into second place with 58 kilos on her back, well ahead of her fellow competitors with far less.
The subsequent races proved true to the indications of the Gnostic Circle. She was in a fixed rut and there seemed to be no way to draw her out. Moreover, she was so happy with her situation that one hesitated to disturb her! Time, however, was slipping by and it was clear by her 15th race that she could go on and on in this same pattern, this same rut. Something else was needed which her environment could not provide. To explain the nature of the ‘jolt’ administered to shake her out of her rut, we must move back in time and discuss parallel developments intended to overcome the impasse brought about by unreliable jockeys, inadequate training, monitoring, controlling and the like. But first a word must be said about the difference between a binary creation, the actual human species, and a unitary creation.
Women and the Power
The Gnostic Circle indicates the method to attain a poise of unity; or how to forge that central axis and so ‘to become the Sun’, as the ancient Veda exhorts. It documents the movement of consciousness in transition to the new state of being, unknown on this planet as a collective experience. In other words, a new species destined to replace the old in the highest echelon of the animal-human kingdom. A being with a unitary axis is ever central to the unfolding of time from the innermost compressed seed lodged in the sacred precincts of the soul. In contrast, a binary creature has no central axis and therefore cannot aspire to that centremost position and the unfolding of destiny from this innermost position. He or she can only aspire to a peripheral location and consequent poise. That is, as a binary subject the only position attainable is akin to a moon of a planet. Direct circumvention of the central Sun is impossible, much less ‘to become the Sun’. There has to be an intermediary agent – in other words, a planet.
Our binary human race is, in effect, nothing more than a satellite in orbit of a planet, which in turn orbits the Sun. This is meant to indicate the poise of the species. There are numerous factors which conspire to impose this condition, not least of which is the actual physical structure of the human being. Our bodies offer just so much leeway in the question of placement within the System. To attain a different poise and position, it is clear that our vahana or carrier – that is, our physical embodiment – must undergo some form of transformation if physically we are indeed intended to accomplish this great crossing.
The role of women in this passage is crucial. Indeed, we are given the indication of this pre-eminent contribution by the status of women in different traditions. The Semitic, for example.
In the Semitic paradigm of creation based on the Old Testament, the genesis of woman demonstrates the fact that in the binary creation which Genesis describes, she is but a rib of the male. She has no individual, intrinsic truth of being. It is Adam who was fashioned first by Yahweh in his image; thereafter, when Adam lamented his solitary condition, God acceded and created the woman by taking a rib from Adam’s side.
Eve thus comes into being, ‘bone of his bones, flesh of his flesh’, – Adams’s, that is – in this once-removed fashion. In essence it means that she has no intrinsic or direct divine likeness but is merely an appendage of Adam who in turn is created in God’s image. The evolution of religions and cultures having Genesis as their foundation have simply materialised in human civilisation throughout the Age of Pisces, when they came into being, this dependent status of the female of the species.
And yet the order described in Genesis – first male, then female out of that male – is contradicted by biological studies. For in terms of the physical components which make up the human being, it is the female who takes shape first. The male evolves at a later stage in the development when a certain chromosome becomes activated to convert the foetus into a male. Without that activation, all creatures born on Earth would be female. Science therefore puts into question the Scriptural belief that Eve, first woman on Earth, was a rib or appendage of Adam.
However, this paradigm has indeed coloured our attitude toward women throughout the past Age of Pisces. An awakening is only beginning now, but just a beginning and nothing more as yet. The notion of appendage status was imported into India through Islamic and later Christian invaders and rulers during that Age and has come to colour heavily even the Indian perception of womanhood. Yet culturally India responds to a completely different perception. This is demonstrated in the Ardhanarisvar image of Shiva/Shakti. That is, the idol consisting of half Shiva, half Parvati, his consort. In other words, a total equality of being. Indeed, though Semitic religions and cultures have obfuscated this perception to a large extent, we are forced to recognise that India is virtually the only country in the world to preserve Goddess worship from antiquity in an unbroken line, and that the Feminine Principle should continue to hold a pre-eminent position in philosophies and yogic systems which inhabit its cultural and spiritual firmament. The attacks on idol worship which Hinduism has had to endure throughout the Age of Pisces were simply attacks on the predominance of the Feminine in the culture, for it is Woman that is connected to form and multiplicity, the essential meaning and purpose of the exuberant proliferation of idols in Vedic tradition.
What, it is legitimate to ask, does this have to do with the Horse, and moreover with Thoroughbred racing in this 20th Century opening up to the 21st?
The Shakti is the Divine Energy, consort in equal status of being with the male Godhead. It is she who engenders movement (of energy) and it is movement that binds forms. Speed is a crucial factor in the process of creation of form. Hence in the Rigveda we find innumerable hymns praising speed as a direct attribute and contribution of the Horse to the creative process. I have quoted some verses in the closing portion of Part 1 of this series, those praising Dadhikravan, the Vedic Horse.
…Dadhikravan who is the truth in his running,
– yea, he gallops and he flies, – brings into being
the impulsion, and the abundant force, the heavenly light.
When he runs, when he speeds in his passage,
as the wing of the Bird is a wind that blows about him
in his greed of the gallop; as the wing that beats about
the breast of the rushing Eagle, so about the breast of
Dadhikravan when he with the Force carries us beyond…
As I mentioned in the introduction, horse racing, where of course speed is everything, is the only major sport where men and women compete equally as jockeys, on equal terms with no concession granted to the female participant. In all other major sports the ‘weaker’ condition of the female is taken into consideration and she is made to compete only with and among other women. Even in tennis, the highly individualised, highly popular, highly lucrative major sport, though attempts have been made to range men against women or otherwise equalise the sport, they have only proven that the present female of the species cannot be pitted against the level of strength and stamina of male competitors.
This is not the case in horse racing. And yet anyone who has ridden a Thoroughbred racehorse realises instantly the tremendous strength required of the jockey to control the animal, as well as to encourage the horse in the last stretch to excel and pass the winning post first. Pushing, as it is sometimes called, in the last stretch requires very great physical exertion as well as stamina. Normally one would expect the female jockey to perform inferior to her male counterpart. But this has not been the case. Indeed, there is an interesting aspect to this dimension of racing: the male generally relies on his physical strength to check the animal’s speed, to control it, as well as to push when required. But the female rider operates differently. She can, if she so desires (and this is an option even for the male jockey), enter into a greater inner communion with the horse and control by virtue of centering. It is only because most, if not all, female jockeys unconsciously operate in this way that they find themselves competing equally in races with males as in no other major sport, – and successfully at that.
In this context, the Mother’s statement that her Force ‘works best through women’ is better understood. She did not elaborate but it is clear that she was referring to a particular inner mechanism or structure which was in a better position to receive the Power without disruption to the instrument and consequent deformation of the force or power of inspiration. Above all, this instrumental capacity is what softens the female’s response to certain situations. Violence, for example. The violent response usually associated with the male of the species (not the animal species) is simply reflective of a breakdown under the impact of vital energies unleashed in given situations. Women respond differently because their natural poise is closer to the centering we are describing in this series. I shall elaborate this point in the course of this analysis.
The question of Control and the illusion of Freedom
There is a misconception regarding a term used frequently when discussing the function of the Gnostic Circle. It concerns the control which is evidenced in operations monitored in the Circle. There is a need to clarify because control is most often confused with the power to determine the course of one’s life and the power to alter one’s destiny. Those on a path of yoga are especially prone to this sort of interpretation. Their understanding is that yoga confers a capacity of control which really means the power to alter what may be for the ordinary mortal a fixed pattern.
In the New Way this is not what the seeker must aspire for. I hope to demonstrate this by the example from racing I am providing. For there was never a question of altering the course of events or even of predicting what would transpire. The exercise was from the outset intended to offer the possibility of attaining a poise of consciousness which facilitates the establishment of a new principle of Gnosis as the governing power on Earth.
Control in this context means a centre that holds. And this too requires some elaboration. The famous line from W. B. Yeats’ poem, The Second Coming, ‘…Things fall apart, the centre cannot hold…’, has been quoted innumerable times, especially in moments of unknowing and global crisis. Things then do appear to be ‘falling apart’, to quote the poet. In my view Yeats was touching upon a visionary capacity in these lines akin to the ability of the ancient Vedic Rishis, inasmuch as not only was he foreseeing future conditions, he was also describing the realisation required to reverse the process.
A centre is indeed crucial in the situation he described in his apocalyptic vision. The lack of one which could provide holding power was the cause of things falling apart. In a word, what Yeats foresaw was a state of chaos in its entirely cosmic sense. What the New Way introduces by way of a ‘centre that holds’ is cosmos.
The essential factor is a knowledge whereby a cosmos comes into being. For that the centre must indeed ‘hold’. When this occurs the control is simply the harmony of all the parts. It is everything that comes within the boundary of a particular cosmos working in unison, in harmony for the fulfilment of the purpose contained in that special ‘centre’ which in turn is a compressed seed of time and hence destiny.
Thus there is no question of struggling with one’s destiny, with forestalling events, changing the apparently inevitable. There is only the attainment of a correct poise vis-à-vis the inner Divine, the centremost ‘point’ of our beings. Once this link is forged there is harmony of consciousness-being. And that is the purpose of life on Earth: an expression of the Supreme’s harmony – and freedom.
It is the latter that draws our attention in the context of this analysis. In the worldly or even yogic sense, to be ‘free’ means to be in a position both to choose, and on the basis of that ‘free choice’, to determine one’s destiny. Predetermination in the conventional perception is non-existent. In particular with the advent of quantum physics, nothing is pre-set but rather the course our lives take is entirely the outcome of that freedom to choose and hence to determine what we believe is one selection among a number of possibilities which constitute our ‘future’.
In such a scenario the human being is all-powerful by virtue of this ‘choice’. He or she determines what will be. That is, the entire process is self-contained and self-determined. In a word, it is the human will which is central to the operation.
The new cosmology and the supramental yoga it describes prove that this ‘freedom’ is an illusion. Everything is not only predetermined but a key feature of the situation is precisely the illusion of auto-determination. Our ability to choose is contained within the larger framework of predetermined destiny. But this is still a superficial or partial view. For finally what is required, or what comes into being with the practice of that yoga is a complete reversal: the problem ceases to exist. Or rather, the concept of freedom as formulated by the human mind undergoes a radical alteration. We are no longer concerned with this question of freedom and the human will because we realise that the only ‘freedom’ available to the human creation is the free choice which one confronts of service to a higher cause, or a lesser. That is, we can choose to serve the Divine or the human. Nothing more.
But this ‘choice’ already indicates a highly evolved individual. For a key feature in this matter is precisely conscious awareness. That is, what contributes to the rise in the echelon is the realisation of the limitations physical embodiment and birth impose; and that to cling to the lower poise represents a choice in favour of the illusion of freedom. On the other hand, the conscious choice produces that condition of centering where the binding mortar of being is laid within and around that Pivot and the individual’s life unfolds like a flower from a seed. The description of that seed is the Divine Will in creation, or Agni of the ancient Vedic tradition. Because of this he is rightfully perceived as the navel of the world, the axis mundi; or in the more accurate terminology of the Veda: SKAMBHA, support of the worlds. In the Vedic perception an essential feature of the operation is explained, for Skambha as support immediately implies a firm base and hence the opposite of emptiness.
The illusion of freedom which sustains the human creation is an outcome of the Cosmic Ignorance which is, in turn, the outcome of the perception of the Void. The Void can persist in our perception and fashion the outlook of an entire species simply because the human being indeed orbits a void. And this is possible only because he or she has not unveiled that Divine Son, the One – or the centremost point of being. In other words, the Void is the ‘centre’ of the binary creation.
Illusion is the prerogative of a consciousness orbiting the Void. Thus, the spiritual attainments of the old yogas which proclaimed creation to be an ‘illusion’ and divorced Maya from her divine essence, compelling her to mother the binary creation of Eve, were simply attempts to overcome the apparently inexorable fate of a creature born into this irredeemable world of chaos. Insofar as the yogis who have dealt with the problem over the past 2000 years in India were not stupid and they realised that fate and a fixed destiny are the unavoidable attendants of human birth, methods were devised to escape the iron clasp of time and destiny. Within the totality of circumstances which constitute the world we live in, the way they discovered to handle the problem was to view that circumscribing space as an illusion at whose heart stands Nothingness. In other words, they did not deal with the problem of fate, free will and/or predetermination at all. They simply dismissed the entire question as unworthy of attention, as ‘beneath’ the true spiritual attainment. They dismissed the entire field within which these strictures operate by labelling it all illusion or maya and hence intrinsically unreal. To do so required a positioning of the consciousness through yogic techniques on the extreme periphery of being, and even beyond by virtue of dissolution. They shot out like rockets into space and beyond the solar system, finally disintegrating in the farthest reaches of outer space, in the most rarefied atmosphere of what appeared to be non-Being.
Thus, all the old yogas were accommodations based on an intrinsically wrong perception. Or we can look at it this way: the perception of Illusion was unalterable given the binary alignment based on a central void.
The revolutionary significance of the new age of the Supermind is that we can now begin to ask the right questions because we are poised properly to do so. We are a centred species, unitary and no longer binary. Therefore an entirely new range of answers are available simply because the right questions are now being asked. We are now in a position to do so, as never before.
Likewise, given the fact that the Yoga of the Chamber has brought into being on a collective scale the Centre – and a key element in that process was precisely the Horse – we are witness to what were believed hitherto to be impossible attainments on the world stage. Knots in international relations are coming undone apparently on their own, or with little or no effort. Or else, the little effort employed today is contrasted with the tremendous efforts of the recent past which seemed to produce no results at all. We seem to have been thrust into an entirely new dimension of collective experience given the collapse of the polarised world of super powers.
Indeed, this is exactly true of the human individual. So willing, he or she can discover that the former boundaries of consciousness to which every human creature was subjected are being superseded, extended. Into this expanded field completely new possibilities have entered the range of our perception. But let us return to the Thoroughbred racing experience under analysis for a very accurate description of the mechanism governing the operation.
In the binary condition one is always a victim of circumstances. This can best be explained by the condition of F1. At the same time, the buffer or shell she had erected around herself made it appear as if she were ‘calling the shots’, as it were. Yet what was truly transpiring was that she had by then constructed around herself a boundary wall which cut her off or closed out elements which could allow her access to that innermost Source which could put her in touch with the ‘centre that holds’. Failing to do so left her in an entirely unfree condition. That is, the energy release, if at all it was released during the second passage over the 4.5 Orbit, went not to thrust her as a booster rocket into those innermost recesses, into that inner universe. Rather, it turned back on itself and was utilised for this fortification, this crust. Thus, the Mother in 1971 lamented that adults were ‘crusted over’ and that only children, some children, were free of those hard crusts. This is another description of the Crab’s shell. A refuge from a hostile world. In this case too the Crab does not find solace and solution in its innermost centre of being. Rather it relies on a hardened outer crust for protection, and not assimilation and oneness.
In The Magical Carousel this reliance on unsound ‘foundations’ is described precisely in the Cancer chapter. It is the area in the zodiacal passage where the ego comes to the rescue, as it were. One believes it to be ‘as solid as a rock’, only to find that, like the ground struck by an unexpected Uranian earthquake, it can crumble beneath us without the least warning. And so, the children in The Magical Carousel odyssey are carried by the Gemini bird in their descent into Cancerland over the surface of water until finally their carrier places them on…
‘…what appears to be a rock slightly protruding above the top of the water. He then takes flight once more and is quickly lost in the ink black above.
‘Only the silvery water and the shiny rock where the children are standing can be seen. Tired now after the long journey and in spite of their fear, they curl up close to each other and fall into a deep sleep, in part brought on by the blackness enveloping them. For a long while they remain like this – who knows how long really – until they are awakened from their slumber by a soft rocking motion, ever so soft.
‘”What?” cries Val, “the rock is moving! We’re moving, Pom-pom. Wake up!”
‘They shake the sleep out of their frail bodies and in no time are wide awake, with eyes enormous and shiny in the pitch darkness, trying to see where they are being taken. After a seemingly endless ride the water becomes less and less deep, more shallow until very soon the rock cautiously emerges from the water and to the amazement, horror, fright and wonder of Val and Pom-pom, they see it is a huge crab they have been sleeping on, an enormous coral-coloured Crab!’ (Aeon Books, 1979, pages 32-33.)
We must contrast this situation with Cancer’s opposite sign, Capricorn, where the same children are thrust into the innermost recesses of the Mountain and there they witness, in the figure of the Time-Spirit, the birth that fills the void and the solidity this engenders.
F1, by her ‘determination’ not to cooperate and her uncanny ability to know when to turn on and off, was simply a victim of circumstance. She was entirely poised on the periphery due to the energies of her being which had gone into the fabrication of that ‘crust’ and hence a reliance on her own determination to withhold cooperation, which in her case meant the non-fulfilment of her inner truth or dharma, – the law of her being.
This is the central point: the purpose of the Horse, and reflected especially well in Thoroughbred breeding and racing, is the attainment of speed, excelling, and the exceeding of limits. Being stuck in the rut carved out by the former negative imprinting, F1 could not express that inner truth or purpose. She could not reach the depths of her being because ‘circumstances’ had pinned her to the periphery or the outer shell she had constructed with energies which should have gone elsewhere. She was locked in that orbit and could not escape, a condition apparently willed. And yet from this analysis we realise that a ‘will’ thus forged is simply a prisoner of circumstance. She had no choice given the hostile conditions of her environment. Thus the terms used to describe her such as ‘strong-willed’, ‘head-strong’, ‘obstinate’, and so forth, were entirely off the mark. What we witness in such cases are attitudes of compromise and accommodation which reflect the inherent weakness of a creation orbiting a void, and thus a victim of the play of circumstances of the periphery. In such a condition there is no possibility at all of self-determination and ‘freedom’. There is an unassailable imprisonment in the rigid orbits we have driven ourselves into by virtue of our inability to hold and thus to draw to ourselves the conditions or elements by which we can be truly free. To understand this we must introduce the second participant in this equine sage, F2, and contrast her racing experience with F1’s. At the same time, we will analyse the means employed to provide F1 with ‘salvation’, an element external to her environment which could be used to ‘carry her beyond’ these constricting limitations.
A race in need of a Saviour
While the Gnostic Circle provides guidelines for the establishment of a gnostic creation on the planet, at the same time it reveals the shortcomings of the present human species. The Circle discloses the flaws which do not permit the human being to effect the crossing which the Aryan warrior of the Rigveda is encouraged to do by the aid of certain cosmic powers. Central to the issue, however, is the quantum of energy available, released at certain specific points in the passage. When that release has occurred and is at the disposal of the traveller through gnostic time, then certain controls must be exerted to regulate that increase so that it is utilised for the crossing and does not fall back, collapse or go to the construction of self-enclosing barriers as F1 had done.
This is usually finalised in the course of the first and second passage through the enneads. F1 failed to experience the release in optimum conditions which would have placed that energy at the service of ‘a higher cause’. Instead, her first passage over the 4.5 Orbit (her 4th and 5th races) when the release can take place, witnessed a suppression of the force and hence a turning back upon itself. She had turned ‘sour’ as a result. The second passage went to fortifying buffers or devices to cut her off from her environment. She became a self-enclosed system; not a cosmos which in a sense is self-contained. It is self-contained but ordered, with energies rightly allocated in the service of a central purpose. That purpose is the fulfilment of one’s inner truth, whatever that may be for the individual.
In the case of the racehorse it is the extraction of maximum potential and the utilisation of the force for achievement of the highest goals open to that inherent potential. This is cosmos for the racehorse. F1’s self-centredness was a reaction to an environment she found hostile to that purpose. Therefore a closing up was necessary almost as an attempt to protect that fragile inner space and a tenuous balance on this unsound foundation.
The human being invariably experiences life in this condition. There may be exceptions to the rule but even such cases do not enjoy an integral development and hence a harmony of all parts of the being, including the physical. For in the final analysis, though the higher dimensions may experience a certain harmony, the physical will ultimately impede the exceeding of limits which our Earthly vahanas demand. In the waking consciousness we cannot attain certain higher supramental states and sustain the special play of energy proper to those planes with the present structure. Realignment is required to do so. And this is the objective of the Gnostic Circle.
The critical passage is when one steps into the higher hemisphere. This would be passage above the horizon, so to speak. It takes place between Virgo and Libra in the 12-part division, and at the 4.5 Orbit in the 9-part division of the Gnostic Circle. Diagram A below indicates this special area.
F1 had experienced her 15th race, at which point it was clear that she would progress no further. Each race in that condition served to fortify the grooves into which she was trapped. Her ‘cosmos’, such as it was, consisted of a limited expanse. It would be equivalent to our solar system with its former measure of 6 planets in orbit of the Sun, rather than the full 9. In other words, this was her ‘measure’ in terms of energy release. A full one-third of the wheel, which indicates the range of energy available to the species, was closed up in her inner recesses.
When one reaches the 6 point, (detailed insert, Diagram B), it is time for a combustion which serves as fuel for the rise. This means extension of one’s boundaries of consciousness-being so that the increase can be accommodated. Insofar as this expansion does not occur in the human being, passage through Scorpio to reach the 6 point and the planet Saturn results in physical death. That increase does not encounter an adequate vessel to contain it. Therefore the species ‘opts’ for death rather than transformation; and continuity is maintained through death and rebirth, or in the fruition of one’s seed, as the Bible indicates. In terms of the spiritual experience, at this point the attitude of otherworldliness triumphs and the accommodation occurs by way of trance or samadhi; be it in death or in trance, one loses touch with the physical plane and this increase and its impact is not felt by a body which is inadequate to sustain the release.
Thus, the important feature of the 6 point is the first stirrings of a cosmic manifestation. Saturn with its notorious reputation in traditional astrology for holding back, limiting, obstructing, stands at the 6th orbit as a regulator of energy. He may be seen as in the Greek myth to ‘eat his children’ – Uranus, for one and the next in the solar system; or in more appropriate terms, to devour those energies which cannot be accommodated within the existent system or physical structure. One may give birth to such energies, but if the process is not integral, they are thrust into the cosmic waste bin and serve no purpose for the individual’s evolution of consciousness and being.
The impulsion indicated at this point in the Gnostic Circle is proper to Sagittarius, the sign following Scorpio. The speed indicated by Sagittarius is meant to carry one within, into the depths of one’s inner universe. It is the first step in the forging of a centre. The turning inward means a reliance on the inner Divine in the supramental experience. The 6 point is allocated to the Cosmic Divine in the Gnostic Circle’s Sacred Triangle. Hence it is from this point onward that a cosmos or a solar system comes into being, where orbits are defined, arranged around a central Sun. A species that has not attained this condition cannot truly live in the light of that inner Sun. It must seek help and salvation outside itself. This may also take shape as in the Vedantic schools of yoga by a stress on otherworldliness. Or else in religions it is anticipation of a saviour, someone, something from beyond, outside of oneself who comes to save the day, as it were.
In the case of F1 this ‘saviour’ appeared in the shape of a jockey (and trainer) outsider her ‘system’ – that is, the turf club of home base. After her first passage when the results of the 7th race made clear that the 6th race left no positive impact, ‘salvation’ was presented in the form of a return to the farm-source, – indeed, beyond her racing base. But this second passage saw the filly once again removed from her base and ‘sent beyond’ for help. In other words, failing to utilise a release of energy for that reversal which brings about the formation of a magnetic centre such as in the core of a sun, there was no such centre in charge of her racing destiny. That meant that she had no power to draw to herself, into her own system, what she required to ‘complete the crossing’. Successful encounter with the 6 point implies that a certain harmony comes into being and cosmos or order is the result.
The 6 point of the Gnostic Circle – the Cosmic Divine – is the great divide whereby the choice appears of opting to be a satellite in orbit of a planet, a planet itself, or else, ‘to become the Sun’. This is the beginning of the order represented by the imposing presence of Saturn at the portals of Sagittarius.
In The Magical Carousel this ‘choice’ is described in the tale by the option offered to attend the Foundation for Higher Knowledge of Heropidus Heronimus. The naughty Centaur, always running off into strange lands in pursuit of adventure, stimulus, excitement, is the classic example of a self-indulgent race, a self-centred humanity whose sole concern is self-gratification.
By an unanticipated turn of events, this Centaur is forced to attend HH’s foundation and so to learn how to make ‘the heart and mind work together’. We shall soon observe how this took shape in the careers of our racing fillies. But as a demonstration of the Gnostic Circle’s capacity to indicate the shape the transformation takes, suffice to say that the act of choosing implicit in Sagittarius brings about a special ordering of energy at one’s command. This is the first step to ‘become the Sun’. That act sets one in orbit. That is, either as a satellite such as the Moon, or a planet such as the Earth; or else the supramental realisation of becoming the Sun, the perfect centre.
F1 could not ‘become the Sun’ given the fact that the energy was used to harden the crusts rather than to propel her inward and to bring about the alignment required to unveil the centre that holds. In the latter we are not dealing with orbits. In the case of the creation of a sun, or a perfect centre, it is a question of cosmic directions: a proper balance between contraction and expansion in such a manner as to bring into being a centre. Then the poise is inner, centred. Whereas for the Moon or a planet, it is a question of orbits being arranged and one’s ‘choice’ thrusts one into that position. The magnetic centre either exists or it does not. In this realm there is no pretence possible. These are in a sense entirely mechanical operations. Regarding our fillies and analysis of their racing experiences in the Gnostic Circle, this mechanism will be more than clear – indeed, ruthlessly clear.
A satellite or a planet requires thus a ‘saviour’, a magnetic centre outside itself to hold it within the system. All organised religions have come into being on this basis; and most even await the return of that Saviour to carry followers through turbulent waters across to the other shore. Or else, there is the Guru in yogic tradition – once again an outer source. The difference between the Guru and the Saviour of religions is that the former is intended to unveil the inner Light in the disciple and cause him or her to realise the Divine according to the chosen path. Religions demand faith and point to a heaven beyond which the Saviour can ensure. The Guru demands a realisation which is itself the salvation, even if that is meant, similar to religions, to carry the disciple to a form of a better Beyond. In both cases nothing is done to transform conditions here; or better said, to place before the human being another possibility. Within the confines of the old creation one can be either a planet or a satellite, but never the Sun. This was not the case in the Vedic Age, if the Rigveda is to be believed. And the fact that its verses are incomprehensible to us today is an indication of how far we have descended from that Vedic pinnacle. The proverbial ‘fall of man’ is a definite fact of the evolution of the species; though it may mean something quite different than the upholders of the Faith believe.
The Fall and the story of Adam and Eve is the truth of the binary creation, a fact of evolution, and as such we may indeed call it divine revelation. But is that the intended or predetermined finality of the race, its highest attainment? Certainly this is the case for the binary creation but not the unitary, born from the soil of the former. For the present species the Gnostic Circle indicates an extension of boundaries from 6 to 9, the final passage through the newly-opened triad of planets encompassing the supramental planes: the human creation thus gives way to the gnostic.
Defining the character of the Old Creation
Eve is the name of the female of the species and she is certainly an appendage of her mate, Adam. Inasmuch as the Mother considered that her force could work best through women, it is not surprising that the jockey-saviour for F1 should indeed have been a woman. Certainly this was an unusual turn of events in the racing scene in India, a country which in its long history of racing has had only one or two female jockeys in contrast to America, for example, with over four hundred.
It happened that after F1’s first passage over the 4.5 Orbit, that is in February of 1992, when I realised the critical role the jockey plays in the equine athlete’s performance, it was clear even at that early and relatively inexperienced stage that success would never come our way given the lack of a trusted and talented jockey. This was difficult enough to secure with the first trainer, but it was even more difficult with the second. Being a young woman trainer with limited means, few horses and none of any great potential, she had even greater difficulty in securing the services of the better jockeys. The affluent and successful trainers retain jockeys who work exclusively for their stables; or else owners with a string of expensive horses may also retain a jockey or two. In such cases the results are invariably better than for the trainer and owner who must search high and low for a jockey at the last moment, never being entirely sure if the right jockey will be free or willing to ride.
The woman trainer had an especially hard time with this problem, often having to wait till right before the deadline to know who would be racing her horse. And the owner was left in this state of suspension, not knowing what to expect of the race. The horse would rarely find himself carrying the same jockey who had been exercising him in the morning workouts. The entire experience was coloured by this uncertainty and the results were predictable: the filly failed to produce a win.
By that time I had begun working on the problem with a very talented and impeccably honest woman rider, unusually in tune with horses and familiar enough with the nature of the transformation being attempted to serve as a proper instrument both as a conventional jockey in a conventional race, as also a jockey ‘with a higher purpose’.
The introduction of a female participant was not without its difficulties. What we were attempting would have been problematic enough with a male jockey; a woman complicated the matter even more. Indeed, the first attempt to secure her a place in the home base of the filly failed. But already at that time it was becoming clear that this new addition to the ‘cosmos’ in formation was bringing an increase in ‘knots’ to be worked out, and that these concerned the status of women – that is, woman for and within herself, as well as in society. The attempt to introduce a woman in a domain reserved until that time for the male of the species, and indeed where women compete on equal terms with their male counterparts, extended the field or laboratory of our experience in a marked way from the very outset. Moreover, this particular participant was evidently handpicked; she brought her own ‘baggage’ into the alchemy and numerous ‘knots’, all of which were representative of her genus.
The intention was to form an alliance between jockey and owner, and hopefully trainer, once resistances were broken down and the female participant was accepted. On this basis, with total trust in the jockey who in the bargain was far more able, even with the little actual racing experience she had, than many male jockeys, we were assured of a more conscious unfolding of the experience. However, as mentioned, the would-be jockey had her own ‘knots’ and these prevented her from responding directly to the force which was guiding the operation. That is, she could not enter the process directly in orbit of the central Sun. She could only do so by linking into the orbit of a male trainer in another racing establishment beyond the confines of our nuclear experiment.
The main feature in that first attempt to overcome the impasse the lack of a trusted and talented jockey produced was the realisation that direct action might not be possible. Moreover, gnostic time was ticking on and hurdles had to be surpassed to keep in tune with the rhythm, on time, as it were. We were not only attempting to introduce a female into a male domain, we had to do so in record time.
The attempt floundered initially. This was during F1’s sojourn on the farm. During that period work was done to prepare the would-be jockey for her profession. Destiny indeed set her on her way to jockeyhood, but this was in orbit of another trainer and not the woman trainer at the centre where our experience was taking place. It was clear that we were in the presence of a certain pattern which may be considered a blessing of nature or a bane. It is the actual condition of women and their mechanical response to a force which seeks to help them transcend the shackles they have constructed around themselves throughout the ages.
The same shackles were constructed around F1 by herself, as a response to a hostile environment. These are security devices and also our means of imprisonment. But the point to note is that a choice exists for the female of the species as well: she can choose to remain in the orbit of another, a satellite and nothing more, receiving a reflected light of the Sun but never becoming the Sun. Or she can choose to ‘become the Sun’ in equal measure as her male counterpart. She can be Eve or Shakti, Adam’s ‘rib’, or Shiva’s other half. Needless to say, the ‘choice’ is invariably for the status quo, largely because women are not aware of the nature of the choice offered. They cannot see their true condition except in the shallow levels of social or psychological subjugation. They cannot dig into the innards of the problem and discover the cosmic knot which lies at the basis of their incomplete status.
Juxtaposing Eve and Shakti in this analysis is not insignificant; nor is it simply ‘symbolic’. In the difference between the two lies the key to the true new world order. This cannot come to pass unless the condition of women in this entirely cosmological/evolutionary sense is transformed. Equality in the deepest sense is conveyed in the Ardhnariswar idol of the Vedic iconography. The lack of such a balance of energies within one figure or being was evident in our woman jockey who revealed herself to be symbolic of the general condition of all women, unable to stand as a body directly in orbit of the central Sun but rather in need of a planet to orbit, in this case the male trainer, a transmitter of the force rather than its direct recipient. In the circumstance, it may be appropriate to refer to her as jockey Eve; not exactly in the sense that ‘eve’ is used in sports reporting in Asia to indicate a woman’s team or female athlete, but more aptly in this wider sense of symbol of the old creation. To further eliminate confusion, we shall call the trainer she partnered, Adam.
Furthermore, it ought to be evident by now that in this nuclear experience with the Horse the equine participants have been and continue to be female. We may consider this an accident of birth on the farm-source which was furnishing the protagonists in the saga. But the truth of the matter is that these fillies are indeed proving true the Mother’s statement that her force works best through women. In racing it is known that fillies are ‘difficult’, ‘unpredictable’, ‘moody’, and generally far more high strung than the male of the species. In my view, it is what allowed them to be the subject of this transformational, representative experience of the Gnostic Circle. They were highly sensitive to the power of the Supramental Shakti which was seen to operate through them in an extremely pure form, with no distortions. And above all, without sentimentality or any recoiling such as the human being experiences when faced with this awesome impact of force. They were and remain impeccable instruments of the Divine Shakti, never failing to carry forward the process of which they were so centrally significant. To the extent that, as if in homage to the Mother, our filly scored a breakthrough in a way that would pay direct homage to the Mother whose force she was embodying so well. But let us proceed step by step.
Beyond or Within: the Act of Choosing
Even in the Rigveda the segment of the Gnostic Circle from Libra to Capricorn is known as critical (see Diagram B, above). It is the passage where the Aryan warrior must face the inertia of death and the antagonism of the hostile powers known as the ‘hoarders’ (of energy). In other words, energy becomes entrapped; but to reach the summit of Being a way must be found to secure its release from the ‘cave of the hoarders’. That one-third until now untapped energy must be released in the human consciousness-being.
This cave is Scorpio. Thus, passage over the 6 point as the diagram indicates, must find the subject with that released energy. Moreover, it must be ordered – that is, brought to serve the traveller for the rise to the summit. A cosmos must thus come into being; and Sagittarius of the 6 point provides the ‘education’ for the purpose. But in the old creation this attainment is not possible given the inadequacies of the species. The human instrument either breaks down under the impact, or the energy is placed on the periphery of consciousness where it serves to fortify isolating barriers, as in F1’s case. In such a situation salvation comes, if at all, from beyond the inner boundaries of the subject. In the case of F1, she had to be sent to another turf club where jockey Eve and trainer Adam were in a better position to understand and cope with her needs, mainly because they believed in her capacity and in their ability to solve the problem. Fundamental to its solution was this positive atmosphere, entirely lacking in her home base. We shall see later on in F2’s case how this same 6 point and Sagittarius presented the other side of the coin, as it were: a thrust within rather than beyond.
In the words of The Magical Carousel, our ‘mythic’ guide to the process, after ‘education’ the Centaur becomes the Saviour of the children, Val and Pom-pom, and carries the tiny travellers on the path of gnostic time to this innermost point:
‘They gallop off at great speed, crossing the violet and fuchsia coloured land, for the Centaur makes every effort to fulfil his mission properly and to bring the children to their destination on time. He travels so swiftly they seem to go even faster than sound and light, and at a certain moment the very space around them disappears, they are almost unaware of moving at all and seem to have entered a point right within themselves.’ (Aeon Books, page 102)
These are the two options facing the subject in the ‘choice’ provided at the 6 point and Sagittarius: beyond or within.
If the latter is the ‘choice’, then a magnetic centre becomes operative which draws to the subject the elements needed in the subsequent unfolding for the fulfilment of the inner and divine Purpose, without any need for extension beyond the boundaries of the field. Salvation in such cases is auto-engendered by a particular release and proper utilisation of energy on the basis of centering of cosmic directions. The key to the establishment of a gnostic species on Earth lies in this attainment.
F1 found herself for her 16th race (again at the 7 point of the Circle) in congenial circumstances. She was one of the best horses in trainer Adam’s yard and she was treated accordingly. But it may be remembered that at her first passage over this point and her 7th race, she was returned to the farm-source as a display of the 7 point’s meaning: contact with the Source and the truth of one’s being. This time a similar circumstance presented itself because of the presence of would-be jockey Eve who had linked up with the young and idealistic trainer as partner and who had known and ridden the filly many times precisely at the farm-source. Indeed, it was this familiarity and personal involvement and consequent appreciation of the filly’s talents, together with this indirect connection with the farm-source via the jockey that provided the correct chemistry for healing. Indeed, she had been sent ‘beyond’ precisely as therapy.
Trainer Adam scheduled two races for her, of his own selection. The first, or her 16th, was to transpire on 12.2.1993, and the second 9 days later. I observed that unwittingly the day he selected was one of 9 number-power, and the second as well. Therefore, I was curious to see what the outcome might be. In my heart I considered that this was F1’s last chance. If this new strategy did not succeed, she would have to be retired to the farm for good, without ever having fulfilled that ‘purpose’; and this non-performance would adversely affect her breeding career – not to speak of the portents for the process monitored in the Gnostic Circle of this failure. If she could not be made to overcome the obstacles brought about by the play of circumstances in a hostile atmosphere, then there seemed little likelihood that the human being subject to similar hostile conditions, as every human being is, could effect a breakthrough. The nuclear experience was directly connected to the larger process. Like F1 each individual is a ‘victim of circumstance’. This is the hallmark of our species and for which reason it is known as mortal and founded on the laws imposed by the Cosmic Ignorance. A binary creation is always a victim of circumstance because it is peripherally and not centrally poised. At the same time, we have to accomplish the crossing to a higher status in these very conditions which Earth evolution provides, if we are to be faithful to the planet’s own purpose in the cosmic harmony which is precisely to house this very process, to provide a field for the transition, and establishment of a gnostic species.
Thus, the fate of F1’s experience was pertinent to the larger development in no uncertain terms in that a means had to be provided for her to overcome the obstacles. She might not be able to draw to herself the elements for the victory because of her failure within the Gnostic Circle’s timing to forge a magnetic centre; but she still had to fulfil her own purpose in the experiment. And this was to open the pathway for others to follow, to work out certain initial ‘knots’. She had to assemble conditions in the periphery in such a way as to drain it of power to halt the operation before it had matured. Therefore, the second passage over this 7 point was crucial. Would it fail or would it succeed?
When I reached the venue for the filly’s 16th race and visited her in the stables the day before, I realised immediately that exercise in the hands of would-be jockey Eve, known to her from the farm and with whom she had a very special relationship, had produced results. The filly was eager, keen, happy and emanated a sense of power and fulfilment. The young trainer had done his job well in collaboration with the would-be jockey. There remained to be seen whether this enhanced state would help her to forget that jockey Eve would not be the one to take her in the race since she still had no licence to ride other than exercise track work. As it turned out, this presented no obstacle.
The allowance rider who raced her on that 12th of February of 9 number-power, was not capable of getting her out of the gate quickly. By consequence, she was trailing the field by about six lengths. However, this seemed to make no difference to her, and I could not help recalling her very first race as I watched her perform. The jockey carried her on the outside, she collaborated and moved up and up and up, passing with the utmost ease horse after horse of the 20 horses in the field. She was keen, she was determined to reach the post first. But unfortunately, by the time the jockey had settled her into the race after the poor jump out of the gate and the ground lost there, the distance was too short. The race was only 1000 metres, the shortest possible, and there was simply not enough time. She finished 4th but was clearly headed for first if she had had even 50 metres more of track, as the jockey declared at the end of the race.
I was elated, relieved, heartened at future prospects. I returned to the home base track for her sister’s second race the next day, the 13th of February, and announced, ‘She is cured, there is no stopping her now.’
In racing it is the win or nothing. No one considers anything less as a ‘sign’, much less for this filly who had already had 16 races, and in most of them she had also finished on the board. But I knew she was cured. The proof came in her 17th race at that same neighbouring venue.
The field this time consisted of only 8 horses; she was to carry a crippling 60 kilos handicap, and still in Class VA, second to the lowest. In the 9 days from her last race she had been well tuned by the trainer and would-be jockey Eve in the morning exercises. After a last minute change of jockey, she was handed over to the same allowance rider of her 16th race, and thus carried 2 ½ kilos less than the prescribed 60. The distance was the same 1000 metres.
This time he brought her out of the gate more confidently. She immediately moved into first place and held this position throughout in a start-to-finish race revealing for the first time something of her true potential. She moved confidently and triumphantly passed the winning post, well in advance of the other competitors carrying much less weight. She had out-classed them all. And this had transpired on the 21st of February, also a 9-power day, but more significantly, the Mother’s birthday. In this way, by this spontaneous scheduling ‘right on time’, the Mother seemed to be giving the filly and all concerned her blessings and seal and sanction for the victory of Gnostic Time.
The filly then returned to her home base having been promoted to Class IV, to experience her 18th race and the start of a new ennead. This time, true to the ‘residue-karma’ that had been worked out, she was carrying the lowest weight on promotion. The handicap and new classification reflected the new times. But unfortunately the woman trainer could not provide the same conditions for success as in the neighbouring track and she performed accordingly in the hands of a mediocre jockey, with a perverse liking for the whip. Thus, she finished 4th. However, in her 19th she found herself in the hands of the same competent and reliable jockey of her 11th race. The result was 2nd place in an exciting photo finish: she lost by a mere half a nostril.
In the meantime, F2 had begun her career proper on January 20, 1993, when she made her debut.
Release and Reversal
From the beginning it was clear that F2’s racing career would be different from her sister’s. Perhaps it was that we were now familiar with the process and the Gnostic Circle relevance and therefore everything was clearer since we knew what to look for. Or else it was the fact that F1 had done some spade work. She had opened the path and prepared the field. This seemed to be the case because certain ‘knots’ appeared loosened in F2’s early races. This pertained mainly to jockeys. While F1 had to contend with mediocre or inexperienced or downright perverse riders, F2’s first and second races brought her the good fortune of two competent and reliable foreign jockeys of considerable repute abroad. She found herself immediately in the hands of able and talented riders and she responded accordingly.
Her woman trainer was known to be slow in preparing youngsters, as the 2- and 3-year olds are called. Thus, when F2 entered her first race she was not ready or tuned for the win. Moreover, being her first she was given an easy ride and the jockey was instructed to let her run without demanding more than she felt she could give. If she went on to win, fine; but if she showed any hesitancy, then he was to respect that and not use the whip to urge her on. Thus she finished 5th in a field of 8, but showed signs of great promise, given the proper preparation. The foreign jockey was all praises for her after the race and commented that she could do anything one asked of her because she had speed and willingness. She cooperated well and in fact moved through a small gap at one point, which many youngsters are unwilling to do, to take the lead for a short time.
Unlike her sister, F2 was not racing as an Unknown Pedigree. Her birth having been duly registered, she could be entered in all races, even what are known as Classics, and not simply handicap races. She could move along with her age group in ‘terms’ of races, unlike F1 whose birth on 1st October saddled her with an immediate handicap for being months younger than any of her fellow competitors. In a word, F2 faced none of the initial problems of her sister.
To the more perceptive eye something deeper was involved than a mere accident of birth. The pathway had been opened in the dimensions of gnostic time. F2 was poised differently. She seemed to have the ability to draw to herself the conditions and elements for the fulfilment of her destiny, rather than any reaching out, stepping out of the boundaries of her chosen field. Thus, even though she was not prepared for these early races, this ability was demonstrated in the jockeys she spontaneously drew to herself of a superior calibre than what her sister had known early on. In the beginning it could be termed coincidence, the jockeys ‘happened’ to be there and available. But as the experience grew it was evident that there was something more than just coincidence at work. This was also reflected in her stabling arrangement. The woman trainer was known for her excellent stable management and the superior condition of her yard. Entering the premises felt like entering an oasis in the middle of a desert. There were plants everywhere and a canopy of creepers covering the entire area, providing protection from dust and heat. And while the woman trainer might be faulted for her slow approach, at the same time this inspired confidence that the fillies would not experience any break down due to excessive haste and demands on the horse, common to many trainers. Thus, from the beginning F2 seemed more favoured by the Gods.
F2’s second race brought her an even more renowned and talented foreign jockey, and with the experience of her first race, she finished in 2nd place, 1¾ lengths behind the winner, but an easy 3 lengths in front of the horse behind her. With this performance she was beginning to be talked of as one of the better fillies among the youngsters. The trainer had arranged for her to be entered in a number of classic and sweepstake races which would be held in the course of that racing year, 1993. One such race was scheduled for March 20th. I was very keen to have her compete, but I was also aware that she was not being prepared properly for the distance (1600 metres) and the stiff competition.
By her third race the foreign jockeys had left and we were faced with the same problem of old. The choice the trainer made for this important trial before the big race was unfortunate. Indeed, it was probably that jockey’s most miserable display. On the basis of that race it was not possible for me to instruct the trainer to withdraw her from the sweepstakes race on the basis of her poor performance because it simply reflected the jockey’s mediocrity and not the filly’s.
Thus, on 20th March, F2 entered the first important race of her career, but with another uninspiring jockey which the trainer had arranged, though she had the opportunity to use a top jockey. In this there was something of self-defeatism beginning to surface which was to be proven true later on. The result was 4th place in a field of only 6 horses. On the board but in no way demonstrating the potential which she revealed in her first two races. She was clearly slipping backward rather than moving forward in her training. And we were once again bogged down in the same mire having to accept lesser jockeys to handle a filly that clearly required more competent skills.
By the March Equinox, Eve had become a full-fledged jockey in the neighbouring track and was beginning to prove herself a talented rider. Racing for F1 and F2 ended on the 20th with the close of the winter season at their home base. I had to decide whether they would pass the next two hottest months there, waiting for the new season to start in mid May, and with hardly any training taking place for at least the next few weeks; or else bring them home to the farm to relieve them of the heat. But with the entry on the scene of jockey Eve, another possibility presented itself. My decision therefore to send them to the summer venue of Eve’s turf club where races were soon to begin in the cool of the mountains of South India, was for the fact that this competent jockey would be riding there, and also they would have no interruption in training. I was especially concerned that F2’s training should not be interrupted since she had just begun and her future schedule at the home base was very demanding. A break at this point would make it difficult to retrieve lost ground. Of special concern was the fact that she had not yet vindicated the high expectations everyone had of her capacity to win.
On a deeper level and with the knowledge of F1’s negative imprinting precisely over the first 4.5 passage, where F2 now stood, I understood that she had a far clearer course mapped out and that it was possible, given the timing of things and the conspiracy of circumstances, to kill a number of birds with one stone as it were, by sending both fillies to Adam and Eve. There they would have a cold climate, similar to the farm where they were bred; they would thus escape the heat of the plains and at a time when no racing was being held there; they would not have their training interrupted, as F1 had had hers with a three-month sojourn on the farm; and they might even produce wins in the bargain, as F1 had already done in the hands of the same trainer. But foremost was the fact that F2 demanded a positive imprinting at that first 4.5 passage. I also realised that she had to release energy if at all she was to forge a magnetic centre which F1 lacked.
All of these objectives were accomplished.
The fillies, because of their 15-day break after the winter season and with virtually no exercise, were not in the best shape when they reached the mountain venue by mid April. F1, being older and with more training and racing experience, picked up relatively quickly and was entered in a race for May 1st. She was being exercised by jockey Eve and relished every minute of it. Meanwhile, F2 was being handled slowly and with care. I was more interested in the positive imprinting I knew the jockey would provide, given their past involvement on the farm, than any race, as such.
Jockey Eve had had many rides and even some wins when the time came for her to mount F1 in the paddock for the 20th race of the filly’s career on May 1st. Her surprise when she realised it was actually Eve who had mounted and not the usual male jockey was clearly displayed for any discerning eye to appreciate. And she performed accordingly, almost as if to show her appreciation and approval. It was another start-to-finish race, though she did not exert herself excessively. She did not need to, clearly out-classing all the other horses. She passed the winning post 3½ lengths ahead of the rest in excellent timing, and both filly and rider won accolades from all. Punters who had bet on the filly, not because of her record but rather her looks, were happy since the odds were good; the trainer was pleased with the performance of both filly and jockey; and the owner was more delighted than all to see that the filly had proven her capacity to win in this higher class, and jockey Eve had demonstrated that in able hands this could be done. The race had been a successful challenge for both.
The fillies would soon have to return to their home base to start the new season there on 15th May. There was therefore barely fifteen days to accomplish whatever more could be done in that cool and beneficent atmosphere – positive in more ways than one. F1 was scheduled therefore for her 21st race on 9 May, while F2 had been entered for the 5th race of her career on May 8th. The jockey would of course be Eve.
On 8 May F2 displayed something of her true potential, even though she was, in the opinion of both jockey and trainer, only 60% fit. Not only did she win in a field of 15 three-year olds, some of more expensive breeding, she did so easily and confidently, and above all, giving that much desired kick off just when the jockey demanded it after moving through a small gap. Again the public and the newspapers were all praises for both filly and rider.
From a deeper level of observation that 5th race revealed (especially the timely kick off) that the desired release of energy had occurred, so important for passage over the 4.5 Orbit, or between her 4th and 5th races. The question now was, how to channel that energy for the rise once she was back in her home base and in different, less favourable conditions?
Moreover, there were certain signals being given by the fillies that all was not exactly as it should be. F2 had, in fact, thrown the jockey in the gate just before start of the race. A dangerous accident was only barely avoided and the jockey remounted to go on and win the race. But the next day the harmony between Jockey Eve and F1 was not as it was for their first ride (and win) together on May 1st. This time the distance was longer by 200 metres and therefore the jockey calculated that F1 should be kept behind somewhat to save her for the last stretch. The filly’s preference had always been to position herself up front. Failing to attain this position, the tone set was not to her liking. Moreover, she was boxed in at the rails (in the video replay it looks deliberate) and could not be pulled outside to overtake. She even stumbled badly, having to check her pace so as not to clip the horse in front. Finally, as she passed the post in the middle of the group, she reacted angrily by deliberately throwing the rider off! Though the jockey was again saved from a potentially dreadful accident, the result of the slight injury sustained was that she could not take F1 into her 22nd race three days later, on May 12th.
Oblivious to the fact, F1 again rode her start-to-finish race in the hands of the allowance rider of her first win, and easily led the field by several lengths past the winning post. She was then returned with her sister to the home base, having been promoted to Class III. None of the other horses from their home base who had been sent to compete had performed as well as the fillies. Almost all had in fact failed to win, though they were reputed to be superior. Indeed, it was only the fillies who held the banner of the Club high in this neighbouring centre. And yet F1 and F2 gained the reputation by their superior performances of being able to win only outside the home base, that they could not compete with the superior horses of their own centre and that in order to win they had to be sent where, supposedly, competition was less stiff. Their impressive timings and the fact that the other horses from the same centre had failed to win, could not erase this general impression. And the subsequent circumstances did not help.
The fact that F1 had had an extra unplanned race brought her tally to 22. Interestingly, this time passage over that 4 Point (22) brought the much desired release of energy which is demanded at the 4.5 Orbit in ideal conditions, unlike in her previous two passages, her 4th and 13th races. While for F2 the release took place in her 5th race. Thus both wins of the fillies cupped the 4.5 Orbit, the 4 Point win of F1, and the 5 Point win of F2. The significance of this passage is both release and dismantling, usually of an unexpected nature, similar to the shattered particles in the Asteroid Belt which is located at this point in the Gnostic Circle. Indeed, we were soon to experience such happenings. A completely new set of circumstances awaited us all at the home turf.
From a deeper perspective, the fact that jockey Eve had experienced two falls, and both from these fillies, seemed to signal that at some deeper level all was not right, in harmony, in place. Indeed, F2 was the catalyst to ‘put each thing in its rightful place’. This delicate operation began immediately on return to the home centre. It carries us into the most awesome portion of this analysis.
Defining a Centre that holds
The first problem to be met was the search for a new trainer. The woman trainer finally found the pressures and stresses of her profession too difficult to cope with. She decided to discontinue training. In a way this was a relief because something of a negative cloud seemed to hang over the experience which is engendered by a failure to take a major decision in life. Release, and relief, is usually felt as soon as a firm decision puts an end to months of uncertainty.
I was primarily concerned for the well-being of the fillies because I knew they would have difficulty finding an equally good stable management and the loving care of the woman trainer, though their training might be improved elsewhere. There was also the question of the lovely stables which would have to be vacated with her departure. But as it turned out, they stayed where they were. The new trainer was nearby and when he took over their training he left them in these same quarters.
I found the timing of these events noteworthy, especially in connection with F2’s more fluid passage through gnostic time. It seemed that her first passage over the 4.5 Orbit with its successful release of energy demanded a different field insofar as the former conditions seemed inadequate for further development and hence utilisation of that release. It was becoming clear that unlike her sister, F2 was able to draw to herself the conditions she required for the expansion which was to come, based on her inherent potential. Indeed, as a symbol of sorts of this nascent ability there was the fact that a very major shift had taken place in her career and yet she and her sister remained in the woman trainer’s superior stables, as if at the centre of a periphery which was being shaken up – true to the 4.5 Orbit – while leaving them untouched, unmoved, untroubled. The inherent potential of F2 clearly demanded different conditions in that periphery or field for its proper expression. It seemed evident that her win at the 5 Point of Jupiter and the enormous store of energy at her disposal required different conditions. The woman trainer thus seemed to have withdrawn ‘right on time’.
But there was an uneasiness prevailing and this caused a certain fatigue which was destined to increase with the unfolding of events; there was more energy at our disposal than we seemed in a position to utilise efficiently and effectively. The less elusive indication that such was the case was the fact that though the fillies had just come down from a high altitude and should have been raced immediately to benefit by this advantage in fitness and keenness, the new trainer did not oblige for various reasons of his own. It was clear that we had wasted that energy to a certain extent and a good opportunity for the fillies to score wins was missed.
In the meantime, jockey Eve had obtained a licence to ride also in the fillies’ turf club. But this fact produced a certain disturbance in the atmosphere, not just because she was the first woman to race there, but also because the season was still in progress in trainer Adam’s centre. Thus, while the problem of jockey had been solved by Eve’s entry, to ride the fillies she had to disengage herself from her commitments in Adam’s centre; this was done, but it took a certain toll.
On 6 June and her 23rd race, F1 introduced her favourite jockey to her home base audience. It was an historic ride, the first for a woman jockey at that centre: F1 was proving true to her path-opening destiny. The race was impeccable and impressive for both filly and jockey. F1 placed 2nd to a 3-year old filly who had not lost any of her previous races and was considered one of the best of the season. While she won by 2 lengths, F1 left the rest of the field behind her by 5½ lengths. This was her first race in Class III after promotion and the competition was tougher than what she had ever known.
A performance such as F1 gave should have silenced her critics who had all along claimed she was ‘no good’. These included foremost the jockeys whose egos she took special delight in demolishing by not cooperating when they had finally wanted her to win. But for some reason F1 always seemed to stir up controversy and intense likes and dislikes.
Her 24th race was again with jockey Eve. This time the field was larger; 11 horses. She placed 3rd. But the importance of this race resided in its implications for the Gnostic Circle operation. Sagittarius and the 6 Point require a harmony between rider and horse. This is explained in The Magical Carousel when the Centaur must attend the Foundation for Higher Knowledge so that ‘the mind and heart must learn to work together’. In a race at the 6 Point, the energy released over the preceding 4.5 passage has to witness this favourable coming together or harmonising, if it is to be utilised properly.
Regarding F1 her problem was precisely the fact that she refused any such collaboration. Formerly, before the advent of jockey Eve, she was seen to close herself off not only from the jockey but even the other equine competitors. There was no question of the mind (jockey) and heart (horse and the vital) working in tandem. But with Eve it was different, and in this 6 Point race we were given the proof.
As the horses were powerfully approaching the winning post and competing to pass first, all more or less in a bunch, I saw F1 respond to the jockey’s prompting by a decisive leap forward that served to put her in 3rd place, just a head in front of the horse beside her. Given her ‘problem’ and given the fact that the 6 Point requires this collaboration and response to a higher centre as it were, the filly’s jump forward at the behest of the jockey, almost imperceptible to anyone who was not looking for such a sign, was far more important than a win. It was a further indication that the therapy had worked and that the harmony of gnostic time was still prevailing.
Differences were beginning to surface with the new trainer. Foremost was the fact that he had an almost instinctive distrust of female jockeys. He seemed to be hand-picked, of the mould that considers two women equal to one man. Try as we might, he was never able to overcome this handicap no matter how well jockey Eve performed; the problem became a troublesome factor soon after, with F2’s first race at the home base. It was clear with that race that F2 was setting the tone of the entire Gnostic Circle experience. She was the instrument, the channel at the centre of the transformational process. The clarity with which this was demonstrated was both awe-inspiring and disturbing. There was a ruthlessness to her actions which was the quality of a true ‘warrior’.
Defining Chaos: energy without an axis
The matter-of-fact manner in which this analysis is being carried out may cause the reader to believe that a similar analysis can be done regarding any racing experience. This may not be the case. Nonetheless, exclusive or not, it must be noted that the elements of each race which allowed it to be located within gnostic time as we are dong, are assessed by hindsight to a large extent. At no time was it possible to interfere in the process or to arrange these elements so as to accommodate the Gnostic Circle’s specific demands. An example to prove this point is F2’s 6th race. It may be said that the only intervention permitted in such a process is exclusively one of axial alignment.
Favourable imprinting had taken place for F2 exactly when required: passage over the 4.5 Orbit. Release of energy had also occurred in her 5th race and the orbit of Jupiter, the planet known to be a supreme source of energy, hence its connection in traditional astrology with the Horse and the sign Sagittarius which it rules. The demands of the 6th race and passage through Sagittarius (see Diagram B), were of a very special order in her case, having experienced these positive developments. But difficulties had surfaced during the last two races of F1 in the hands of the new trainer. His mistrust of and refusal to accept a woman jockey were more than clear. Moreover, jockey Eve herself was having difficulty participating in the experience on the terms set out by the experience itself. Above all, her alignment in keeping with the structure of the binary creation, introduced serious disturbances in the formation of the new cosmos. And this involved very deep levels of being where no pretence exists. One is either aligned in harmony with the new, or one is not; regardless of one’s mental determination and heartfelt sentiment. The Divine is not sentimental and the creation of a cosmos is not a mental operation. It is a state of being dependent on the yoga that can introduce such deep-rooted shifts which touch one’s innermost essence.
The Horse was seen to be a favoured instrument in questions of Being. The reason is that in this third level of the Supramental Descent the symbol is the thing symbolised. And the Horse is the supreme symbol of the movement of gnostic time precisely to effect the crossing to higher states of Being. An enigmatic experience of the Mother in her early yoga and practice of occultism confirms the relevance of the Horse for both the Gnostic Circle symbolism as well as the reason for the prominence it was given in the Vedic Age.
The Mother had come out of her body and passed through numerous planes until she reached the Borderline which humans could not cross. There she met ‘the principle of human form’, to quote her own words. But strangely enough it was a horse… ‘right on the frontier between the world of form and the Formless, and it was like a stallion.’
As if this description in itself were not sufficient confirmation of the importance of the Horse as symbol, the Mother continues to say that years later when she met Sri Aurobindo, she spoke to him about ‘the secret’ she had discovered and which no one seemed to know. To which he replied. ‘It is certainly the prototype of the supramental form’. (See: The Magical Carousel ‘Commentaries’, Aeon Books, 1979, page 141)
We are interested in demonstrating in this series the precise manner in which the Horse is the ‘prototype of the supramental form’, mainly because there are peculiar ideas about the nature of the transformation, all of which have very little to do with the real experience. Clearly this does not mean that human beings crossing the ‘borderline’ are going to assume the form of a horse when supramentalised. Then what is the deeper significance?
The answer lies in the PROCESS described in these pages involving the Gnostic Circle; and when the work evolves to the point where ‘the symbol is the thing symbolised’, as it has at present, then the Horse can be directly involved in the transformation and itself ‘carry us across’ that Borderline to ‘realms beyond’. This refers to the quarter of the Circle beyond Sagittarius and the 6 Point. The borderline is the last Cardinal Point, Capricorn. It is reached in life and not through death, by speed of consciousness REDIRECTED. To achieve this ‘mind and heart must work together’. Centres of energy must collaborate, must be harmonised.
This imperative was displayed with exceptional clarity by F2 in her 6th race with jockey Eve taking her in her first Classic for fillies. Similar to F1’s 24th (6 Point) race, a harmony between mount and rider was called for, but in this case it failed to materialise as the description of the race will reveal. At the same time, the true ‘mind’ in the operation, the trainer, fell woefully below expectations. Though certainly qualified to prepare a horse for a classic, in this instance F2 was a disturbance. He had two fillies as the focus of all his attention in his stables, both of whom he was preparing from the beginning of their training with very special dedication for this very race and other classics to come. Insisting that the newcomer, F2, be prepared for the same race provoked a situation between owner and trainer which was anything but harmonious. In addition, there was Eve to contend with. He ‘agreed’ to let F2 run, but he failed to provide the proper training. Moreover, his instructions in the race, coupled with his disregard for the jockey’s protestations that if she carried out those instructions it might prove disastrous, proved to be the proverbial last straw and decided the ultimate close of the relationship. Not too long after this race the fillies were removed from his care.
F2’s 6th race provides us with all the elements of verification of the Gnostic Circle as a guide to the transformation, to the crossing of the borderline into the supramental world. The jockey was instructed to bring the filly quickly out of the gate and position her in front. Having drawn gate 10, it was clear that this might prove problematic. Both trainer and jockey knew that the keenness of the filly was such that she would do her utmost to reach the front. And so she did.
The jockey managed to keep her in a straight course until she had passed almost all the other horses, but nearing the front the filly pulled into the rails brusquely – a habit of hers which the jockey (and owner) pointed out to the trainer, but which he refused to hear. This habit which other jockeys before Eve had noted, caused the filly to crash into the horse beside her, which happened to be our trainer’s favourite. While Eve warned the rider that her filly was ‘moving in’ and he braced himself, the bump caused the jockey to check his mount somewhat, which in turn, in the tightly packed field, caused the horse behind to be check abruptly, with the result that its jockey fell off in the middle of thundering galloping hoofs at full speed. Miraculously the jockey received no injury.
But this left his mount riderless and leading the pack throughout the entire race. Our filly predictably ‘blew out’ due to the uncontrolled pace she was keeping, but not before jockey Eve had to contend with the riderless horse who was moving from side to side, blocking F2’s smooth and straight course, as well as the other competitors. At one point, the interference of the riderless horse was so bad that the jockey who finally went on to win was seen whipping the weaving filly to get her out of the way. She then positioned herself farther in front and led the entire race – riderless as she was.
Jockey Eve realised that she had been used by the trainer to set the pace for the horses, to blow out given the high speed which no horse could sustain over that distance, 1600 metres; and thereby, in the trainer’s strategy, to tire all the other horses except his own fillies, one of whom he felt certain would win. But she did not. She placed 3rd while F2, ridden badly, not held in check behind and allowed to quicken only in the final stretch, trailed the field.
This Classic was televised throughout Asia and much was made of the fact that for the first time a woman jockey was participating. Witnessing the race or seeing the video confirmed the inner impression of utter chaos. And it set the tone for chaos in the remainder of the season and well beyond. Jockey Eve was suspended for four racing days for ‘dangerous riding’; she was forbidden to ride in Classics; she was restricted to a field of only ten horses. Needless to say, apart from the suspension the other penalties were entirely arbitrary. The trainer insisted on this punishment, holding Eve responsible for his filly losing the race, but they did not conform to the usual procedure. They were ‘exceptions’, tailored for this specific case. It was also suspected that such measures might not have been imposed had the rider been a male. The trainer was convinced, and possibly convinced others, that the fault lay in Eve’s inability ‘to control’ a horse. There was certainly much truth in this, but of a different order than he could grasp. And finally, it was unfortunate that given his patently wrong instructions for ulterior motives, the trainer received no censures.
From the Gnostic Circle’s perspective, all was as it should be, given the prevailing conditions, – namely, the poise of the jockey and the demands of the 6 Point which could not be met due to those prevailing conditions. The filly had done her part by release of energy at the 4.5 Orbit. The problem was that none of it was utilised according to the demands of the 6 Point. That is, the beginning of ‘putting order’ for the forging of a magnetic centre where that energy must propel one inward, which means centering. On this basis, by this compression through ordering, the centre is forged and can thereafter hold. To achieve this ‘mind and heart’ had to be in harmony, poised around ONE AXIS, as it were – the symbol of the Sagittarian Centaur. Something of this was achieved but with considerable toll for both filly and jockey. The latter saw her professional progress greatly impeded, and the filly experienced a physical breakdown.
At the 6 Point if conditions are not met to contain the increase and channel it properly, the result is an unsustainable impact on the instrument (this is the point of death in traditional astrology). F2 suffered such an mpact because of her early training which did not provide the needed cardiovascular development to permit her to compete according to her inner potential. Sentimental concerns have no place in the training of an athlete. If one considers that it is unreasonable to race horses at a young age, then it is better to withdraw from the profession of trainer, as F2’s first trainer did. For to send them into a race having ‘spared’ them from the work demanded in order to permit them to sustain the rigours of a race, is to cause harm to the animal which one professes to love. The horse is constantly ‘surprised’, asked to do what it has not been prepared for. Breakdown is inevitably the result.
The 6 Point forces the issue. It may be recalled that over this passage F1 suffered a physical problem. She spent three months recuperating. F2 would also require the same period to regain condition. The superficial assessment would be that she was competing with horses far superior and could not withstand the strain. Time would be required to ascertain which assessment was correct, and indeed if any rectification would be possible.
As for Eve, the poise of women in the old creation was displayed in F2’s 6th race and in all the races to follow until her participation was brought dramatically to a halt. It was evident that she relied on the axis trainer Adam provided and could not sustain any pressure independent of that axis-support, or outside its orbit. Indeed, the first two races she rode in the fillies’ home base were for jockey Eve still within Adam’s orbit, insofar as she was racing his horses, in his centre in the mountains, and was sent down to the plains only to ride F1 and F2 when their races were scheduled. She was, as such, on borrowed time. That is, she was simply extended into this other field, like an asteroid intruding into the orbits of other planets, while never being fully a part of those orbits. Indeed, the result of this situation was a constant sense of uncertainty and unpredictability, similar in fact to the impression of chaos the Asteroid Belt presents (the 4.5 Orbit of the Gnostic Circle).
Indeed. F2’s classic race on 13th June transpired the day after trainer Adam’s season ended. Jockey Eve was then on her own, orbitless, as it were. Representing women of the old creation, she could not maintain her poise in such a situation and the chaos of that race was akin to a satellite spinning out of orbit, crashing into this object, throwing that other off course, herself swerving here and there due to the filly’s habit and the presence of the riderless horse.
Indeed, the riderless horse provided the key to the deepest significance of this particular 6 Point experience. This was precisely when rider and horse had to fuse, as it were, to harmonise, work together, blend into one as the figure of the Centaur suggests. F2 had no such possibility. She was indeed as riderless as the filly leading the field whose jockey she had contributed to dislodging. And thereafter the public, both present and watching the television transmission, were subjected to the display of this chaotic performance led by a horse with no rider, setting the pace, as it were, totally uncontrolled by any ‘higher centre’.
On her part F1 took due revenge. Her 25th race consisted of 15 horses, therefore jockey Eve could not ride her. This was to the liking of the then trainer; in fact, the jockey who did agree to ride was precisely the one he considered would have won the previous two races on the filly, rather than Eve. F1 was favoured and the jockey was confident. But she soon demolished his ego, as only she can do. At the 400 mark, coming into the last stretch, she simply refused to oblige when the jockey tried to open her up. His frustration was such that F1 succeeded in adding another jockey to her list of ‘enemies’. The trainer on his part promptly lost interest in the filly. She was too unpredictable. This race was at the 7 Point with its intense pressure for truth.
The fillies continued their career under another trainer. Interestingly, still in their beautiful stables, still drawing to themselves what was required without budging. They seemed to be firmly rooted in an immobile centre at the heart of it all.
Within a few weeks F2 revealed her physical ailment and was rested for a time and then slowly brought back into condition. In the meantime, racing at their turf club came to an end and the club’s next season began in mid August in a neighbouring city. For the entire period the experience was coloured by a state of uncertainty which had extremely negative effects on the fillies, especially F1 who had a specific problem with jockeys. Thus, the fact that we were never certain how many horses were to race on any given day, we could never plan ahead, confident that jockey Eve would be able to ride. The restriction to a field of ten horses proved a terrible set-back; but at the same time it was a faithful symbol of the jockey’s own state. She was never centred and hence this uncertainty was symptomatic of an inner condition.
Trainer Adam had sent four of his horses to this same venue where F1 and F2 were racing, though under another trainer’s care for the several races they were scheduled to run. He was therefore present each time that jockey Eve rode his horses, scheduled to coincide with the fillies’ races. Eve was thus still in orbit of his operation and while he was involved some form of ‘stability’ prevailed amid the uncertainty the prevailing restrictions created. But it was clear that with F2’s 6 Point race a form of ‘choosing’ had been offered: this orbit or that. The ‘choice’ decided the issue and left the system wobbling thereafter. However, F2 was to ‘put each thing in its place’ in the 7th race. This transpired on the September Equinox. But to appreciate in full the remarkable implications of what transpired then, a certain background must be provided. In addition, we must consider the nature of the world in which we live in greater depth. That is, this perplexing question of predetermination as well as control. The experience I shall relate, exactly as it transpired, will force a review of our firm convictions and ‘scientific’ deductions regarding the nature of reality.
Truth, or each thing in its place: The Anatomy of ‘Accidents’
Something of a preface is required to help the student understand the nature of the 7 point in the Gnostic Circle and its vital importance. It is in this segment that an axis comes into being or becomes established. Thereafter, everything in orbit of this central axis is ‘put in place’. This means that orbital adjustment is determined; as well, there is an action of repelling and attracting the elements which find themselves within the periphery of this particular system. F2’s 7th race makes the latter quite clear.
This is what is meant by the process – the action whereby cosmos is established and the method to achieve this harmonious condition of being. The reason why it is essential to carry out such a process consciously is for the fact that to graduate to a higher level on the ladder of evolution, conscious awareness is precisely the factor that distinguishes the new level from the old. As a result of this increased capacity of perception attained when frontiers are exceeded and new boundaries come into being (Sagittarius and the 6 point), we are able to understand aspects of the old creation which have eluded us while we have been a part of that system. We have not been able to understand key features of the reality we are a part of because our boundaries of consciousness have not permitted a wider vision. Particularly difficult, given our limited range of perception, is the question of determinism in contrast to freedom or random choice, as it were. It is almost impossible for the human being to comprehend these elusive aspects of life. And yet, if we are to move up the ladder of evolution, and the process demands conscious participation, we have to come to terms with these questions. Failing which we experience recoil at crucial moments when precisely the process demands immobility.
This is the principle upon which the world is founded: the Immobile amidst the Mobile. These words are used in the Rigveda to describe Agni, first of the Vedic Gods and foremost figure of almost all the hymns. The reason is that Agni, as the Son, the One, is the manifestation of that principle. He is the perfect centre, hence he is known as the navel of the world. One of his most renowned forms is the Horse. Let us explore the reasons why. At the same time, deeper levels of reality and life in a physical embodiment will be made somewhat clearer. All these dimensions of the question are captured in F2’s 7th race.
Skambha (‘pillar’, ‘support’) of the Veda is clearly the Supreme Principle of creation. Yet very little is understood of Skambha. Moreover, it seems no one since the Vedic Age has actually realised Skambha, though its eminence stands beyond doubt. Today we consider the Brahman as the principle of Unity and therefore the Supreme Principle, or the umbrella covering everything else. The goal of all Indian spirituality is to attain that Brahman consciousness; or to dissolve one’s small ‘self’ in that larger Self whose essence is Brahman which transcends the lesser.
Yet Skambha haunts us. The sublime verses of the Atharvaveda (see TVN 7/1, April 1992) leave little doubt that the composer of the hymn had realised Skambha intimately and confirmed it to be the foundation of creation – the ‘fulcrum’, as one researcher has called it.
The new cosmology of the supramental yoga clarifies the matter. Brahman is THAT in its transcendent form (9); Skambha is THIS in its immanent form (0-1). In between stand two powers/principles, 6 and 3. They represent the process whereby THAT becomes THIS.
In ancient times it was known, realised. But at a certain point, when the realisation had become commonplace, shall we say, transformation of THAT into THIS was superseded. The realiser leapt from unity to unity, as it were. As a result, the intermediate passage fell into obscurity and was soon considered irrelevant. The Brahman was known to permeate everything, but how had It become the all was a mystery. The Multiple therefore lost its direct and immediate touch with that Unity and the cleavage between THAT and THIS was complete.
We pick up the threads of this development today, some two thousand years later, and must reconstruct that very process, that very passage if at all we are to understand anything of reality in its true nature and divested of the falsifications brought about by the limitations of our perceptive capacity which suffers from seepage of the energy required to carry out the process. The immediate problem the human being faces in attaining that increased capacity is precisely one of concentration, accumulation of energy to serve as fuel. The transformation of the human species to a higher echelon requires knowledge of the process whereby THAT becomes THIS. Failing which essential features of the experience are not CONSCIOUS; hence no concentration and immobility accompany the action.
The common perception in spirituality today is that it is all ‘one’, all a ‘unity’. But there are different aspects to that ‘one’, that ‘unity’, which we ignore and our ignorance is therefore stamped on everything we do, everything we create, on the whole of our civilisation. A simple means to illustrate, though the connection might appear far-fetched, is cheese. We know the underlying essence of cheese is milk. This is its substance, its foundational base, its unity principle,. But milk (unity) is not cheese. Something else intervenes to alter that essential unity while ever retaining the original substance. That ‘something else’ is the process whereby milk becomes cheese.
Likewise, THAT, the Absolute or Brahman, is the overall Unity. While retaining that essentiality, something occurs to embed that principle, that essence, in creation, for which reason alone the yogi can proclaim that ‘all is one’. Yes, it is one, but THIS is different from THAT. The process is the Becoming. Hence Sri Aurobindo can rightfully state that to become is the highest truth of our existence. We are the process. Material creation is Brahman becoming Skambha, the ‘point’ of Itself. The process is the movement of THAT to transmute it to THIS. Hence the Horse and its speed is the great symbol of this act of Becoming. The Horse is indeed Agni and the first point of space, the coming into being of which requires two cosmic powers: contraction and expansion. And these are in turn the 6 of the new cosmology, who compresses That into a point, or who creates conditions for the compression; while the 3 gives it birth, or creates the bridge from plane to plane for the manifestation of That. The 6 is rightfully speaking the Mother, the Cosmic Womb. She is the great Placenta which feeds the process, whence all energies are drawn. The 3 draws from that Womb and carries out the labour, as it were. In our material creation, in this particular 9th Manifestation, it is therefore the harmony of 9 that sets the tone, similar to a human gestation.
What had been missed throughout the thousands of years of the Age of Pisces are the details of that operation, that passage. Thus in the final stage of the Supramental Descent it is necessary to live and to explain the process of this Becoming. The Third thus defines and adds precision to the process. She ‘puts each thing in its place’.
F2, at the 7th stage of the process, did just that – with a ruthlessness characteristic of the Divine Warrior. There was no sentimentality. No recoil. No hesitation. There was, however, an extraordinary control. When the process is integral – that is, covering all the stages and crossing all the planes in a conscious unbroken line, – then this control is evident.
Seeing only the permissible
Some background must be given to appreciate the control of each detail of the experience. At the same time, what I will relate draws into greater focus the question of determinism and certain perplexing aspects of prevision, in particular through dreams, or what are commonly considered to be dreams.
But first, mention must be made of the way in which the experience was rendered conscious, or at least more conscious. This happened on 17th September, five days before F2’s seventh race. By a certain yogic methodology, I delved deeply into the essence of the 7th stage and in particular its significance in this racing experience in the light of what had transpired so far, one thing stood out prominently in this probing. I ‘saw’ that the 7th would produce what I called a ‘crisis of adjustment’. That is, from the experience of the 6th it was evident that a great store of energy or elements to be integrated populated this nascent ‘cosmos’, but that indeed we had nothing but chaos. The 7 Point was to bring order into that chaos, to define – or better, to put each thing in place. Given the fact that there was a disharmony and some elements were not engaged or aligned properly for the experience, it seemed clear that the adjustment would not be without its toll. This meant that a selective action of attraction and repelling was demanded in order to form this cosmos. In other words, the 7th stage introduces an axis, the first prerequisite of a cosmic manifestation.
This ought to have begun at the 6 Point and Saturn, but we saw that the axial alignment required, symbolised in the Centaur in whose single body two ‘hemispheres’ are harmonised, did not take place. Arriving at the 7th stage beyond the ‘borderline’ in such a condition made it evident that a ‘crisis of adjustment’ might take place. The central figure was F2 with her capacity ‘to hold’, to remain ‘immobile’, both features of which are part of the creative, transformative process.
Two days after this ‘seeing’, there was another revelation regarding the 7th race/stage but which I did not understand at the time for reasons that became clear later on. On 19 September, in the early hours of the morning just before leaving for the racing venue where the filly’s 7th was to be held on the 22nd, I had the following dream:
I was with a man and a young woman. We went into a stationary car, a convertible. The top was down. The three of us sat in the back seat, – myself, the gentleman, and the young woman, in this order. I do not know who the driver was to be, he was not present; nor do I recall who these two people were. These details may have been known, but they seem to have been blotted out by the dramatic scene to follow.
When we were seated and ready to set off, a white horse (technically known as a grey) came cantering up to the car from my side, the left. He quickly reached us and instead of stopping, he leapt up into the air above the open-top car, turned on his side and came down on the three of us. I ‘felt’ the impact lightly by his head and shoulders, the portion which came down on me, while the gentleman beside me received the middle portion. But the impact was entirely muted, if I may use the word. It was as if a cloud had come down and not a 600-kilo horse. However, I said to the gentleman seated beside me when we got out of the car that surely the young woman was ‘finished’ since she had received all the impact of the largest portion, the quarters. But in the commotion that ensued, I was told that nothing had happened to her.
Needless to say, such a dream just before leaving for a race seemed ominous. At the same time, I analysed the dream and since I could not recognise any of the participants, above all the horse which was a grey, I concluded that it was ‘symbolic’ and not previsionary. The salient points seemed to be the vulnerability indicated by the open-top car, and no control by any of us; the car was to be driven by a driver though he was not present. But this surely had no bearing on the forthcoming race.
There was a third element injected into the affair. The day before leaving I received a letter from abroad. It informed me that Julie Krone, America’s top female jockey, had had an accident (30 August). Her ankle was smashed. She would be out of racing for a year. My interest in this very fine jockey was stimulated by an article sent to me a month earlier when she won the Belmont Stakes. Hence friends who knew sent me her news. They related only that her ankle was smashed, nothing more.
On 22nd September, I reached the racing venue just as the race was to begin. I met the trainer and jockey Eve, attired in my racing colours, orange and gold, in the paddock as the horses were being paraded, F2 among them. The trainer gave the jockey instructions in my presence, after which I left the paddock while the jockey was still talking to the trainer. But as I stepped out of the paddock, something made me turn around and walk back in. I went up to the jockey, still with the trainer, and said, ‘I want to see you mount’.
The other jockeys were beginning to mount for the race. Jockey Eve went up to the filly and was given a leg-up. Then the drama began right before me, the stewards and the other officials, and before the public. F2 reared slightly when Eve sat in the saddle. This was not unusual and Eve paid no attention. But the syce became nervous and yanked down on the lead he was holding. As Eve was in the saddle and starting to put her feet in the stirrups, his action caused the filly to rear once more. He yanked again, and again, and again. And with each pull downward the filly reared higher and higher, never touching the ground. But still he did not understand his mistake. The final yank caused the filly to lose balance and keel over, falling on her back. Eve was still on her, crushed beneath.
There was a moment of suspension, it seemed. No one moved, not even the filly who had her four legs in the air and the rider under her! She was clearly trying to figure out how she was going to get up without having to step on the jockey (horses will do their utmost to avoid trampling a person). No one could approach. No one could help. All was in the hands – or rather, hoofs – of F2. And divine Providence.
In such a case, in the excitement of the paddock before a large gathering and the nervous atmosphere that precedes a race, the filly herself ought to have panicked, in which case she would be seen flaying her legs about and thereby keeping all at bay and any help that might be possible. But for some reason she did not panic. She wriggled somewhat and made her move. She threw her legs to one side, Eve underneath her 600 kilos all the time, and pushed herself up. One hoof was planted right on Eve’s chest, right over her heart. The crowd gasped. Everyone thought she was finished.
At that moment I remembered my dream. I said to the trainer, ‘she’ll be all right’. It was clear: the man in my dream was the trainer, the girl was jockey Eve. The stationary car meant an accident before the race.
As soon as the filly was up, officials, doctors, trainers rushed to the jockey, all convinced her vital organs were smashed. It had to be. The filly came down on her chest. How could her ribs withstand the impact?
But no, Eve pulled herself up somewhat and pointed to her ankle. The problem was there, just like Julie Krone.
After ridding herself of Eve in this dramatic fashion, F2 was resaddled; another jockey took over and she placed 4th. This was her first run after a gap of three months and was meant to be easy to make sure her physical could withstand the rigours of a race.
As for Eve, before long it was known that her injury was minor. It was not her ankle as such that had been fractured. It was only the fibula, sometimes called the useless bone because it bears no weight. Apart from this, there was also a tiny chip on the tibia, so small that not even a screw could be inserted to secure it in place. Nothing more. Even the spot where the hoof had come down bore only the slightest trace of a bruise, almost as if to confirm that indeed a 600kg horse had pulled herself up from the ground with one hoof planted right there; because as far as Eve was concerned, she had not even lost her breath, so light was the pressure. F2 is skittish, similar to many youngsters of her breeding, very finely tuned and somewhat high strung like most Thoroughbreds. Therefore, her sudden composure left us amazed. The injury was not actually caused by the weight falling on Eve, but somehow her leg got twisted when falling, though her feet were not in the stirrups. The ankle was missed by a mere centimetre or two. Otherwise, according to the doctor, her fate would have been similar to Krone’s: many months laid up, perhaps even a year.
But nothing of this transpired. There was, I repeat, a palpable control over every detail of this ‘accident’. The impression it left was as if a very great power of harmony permeated everything. It was more like a dance than an accident. True, my dream had forewarned me that nothing serious would happen, but the problem with accidents and what causes real damage is precisely the panic pervading the atmosphere. This space does not permit a lengthy discussion of the nature of accidents. Suffice to say that if a centre holds the process together, as it were, even a potentially fatal accident such as Eve’s can be ‘harmonised’. While witnessing the scene I realised why I was driven back into the paddock to be close at hand for the event. A conscious poise of immobility is the mechanism which permits the Power of Harmony to operate, to put each thing in its place, but with only minimal damage, if at all it can be called that. Indeed, this is the point we must stress. A centre that ‘holds’ does not produce accidents – a word which is the antithesis of control. Accidents come to pass in a lesser world, within the parameters of the old creation. They do not occur in the new creation.
The difference is between cosmos and chaos. When energies are not centrally held in orbit of an axis, then in that uncontrolled play in the periphery anything is possible at any given moment. But this too has to be clarified. Anything can happen has a specific meaning: any ‘asteroid’ can enter the system and create havoc, – and then exit once more. The point I wish to make is precisely the question of forces operating outside the boundary of that particular destiny and which can find access into the destiny-system (of an individual or a collectivity) because of gaps in the structure due to a lack of integrality or sphericality.
Thus, forces operate from outside, press into, find an opening, and then do their deeds, whatever these may be, positive or negative; in any case, it is all ‘relative’. Whatever the action, it is relative and not absolute, thus even negative or positive in such a world is meaningless. Nothing is in its place because nothing holds the energy to itself. At the centre lies a void, devoid of that crucial axis which permits a centrally-based action. Unlike an asteroid (force) entering the systems of the old creation from beyond, so to speak, and creating havoc in a field characterised by chaos, in the new creation all action is centrally impelled. Thus, if an ‘asteroid’ does gain access, and in the early stages of this transitional period the world is experiencing this is still possible, that force encounters the Power of Harmony attracting and repelling; by which mechanism such forces are ‘put in place’ along with all the rest. Or else rejected, expelled from the System. Whatever the case, the most important aspect to bear in mind is that negative or positive, all serve the purposes of the One, centre of the cosmos, axis mundi in the deepest sense of the term.
To be even more specific, let us juxtapose Eve’s ‘accident’ and Julie Krone’s. But to make the comparison even more convincing, I must mention that shortly after returning to the farm-source when the details of Eve’s convalescence had been worked out, the mail awaiting me contained an article from The New York Times of 21 September, on Julie Krone’s accident. I quote the relevant portion:
Julie Krone can talk about it now, now that the danger has passed from a 1,200-pound horse hitting her directly above the heart, now that she has survived a cardiac contusion through the help of a 2-pound vest.
‘It was a breath-taking force,’ she recalled. ‘But at the time, I could feel the vest protecting me.’
The tough little jockey met the press yesterday for the first time since Aug. 30 when she tumbled off her horse at Saratoga. Dr Frank Ariosta…who put her right ankle together in two complicated operations, has assured her she will ride again…And the two of them agreed that the accident could have been worse, much worse…’
The similarity between the experiences was total. Any qualification such as ‘coincidence’ is futile and simply serves as a distraction. Both were female jockeys; both suffered accidents, and within 22 days of each other; both had right-ankle injuries; both had a horse step on their chests, right over their hearts. The difference lies in the consequences, along with the mechanisms obtaining for each jockey. The anatomy of the two explains in full why Krone is laid up for six months and more, and Eve is right now, after only six weeks, riding again and preparing to return to the track. Krone’s accident was a veritable, authentic accident; while Eve’s was an ‘accident’. That is, it formed a part of a supramental process and as such it was entirely controlled, harmonised, utilised for the purposes of the One.
Even the dream sequence prior to the race was ‘controlled’. None of the figures were recognisable. For had I been able to do so I certainly would have concentrated on the race and taken some decisions according to its portents. But recognition was purposely withheld. This brings to the fore another aspect of destiny: we cannot interfere, rightly speaking, with destiny by way of prevision unless that prevision is a part of the unfolding of that destiny. In other words, I could not have known who the characters in the dream were precisely because had I known I would have interfered. Yet, prevision of the outcome was ‘willed’ and served me well in that crucial moment in the paddock. It helped to ‘hold together’, to create the right atmosphere for the power of harmony to operate. Immobility was essential. No panic. Perfect equanimity. This condition was made possible in large part by the dream.
There is another aspect we must note. Krone’s accident was also ‘held together’, as it were. It also formed a part of a system. But this was individual, limited, contained within the boundaries of her personal destiny disconnected in its essentiality from everything else. If she was saved and did not suffer fatal injuries, the more religious might view the matter as the grace of God: God saved Julie Krone. But to be precise, God did not save Krone. She saved herself. Whereas ‘god’ did indeed ‘save’ Eve.
Within the boundaries of the old creation, with the limited perspective its horizons permit, this may appear blasphemous. We may consider that where chaos is found only the divine Grace can ‘save’. Actually this is a fallacy. Yet religions throughout the Age of Pisces have thrived because of this assumption. We are victims of fate, therefore we must implore the help of God and his intermediaries (the priests) in order to mitigate the blows an unpredictable fate (chaos) must surely offer. However, in such a condition of misalignment there is no possibility of ‘grace’ saving the day, in the sense that we understand the term. The divine Power is limited, entirely constrained by the off-centre alignment of the human instrument. Whatever the case, the individual is crucial. The instrument is the key feature of material creation, or the field wherein the Supreme Principle materialises itself. Everything converges there, on the individual. The Supramental Shakti operates within creation according to laws inherent in the creative process which she herself set in motion and supports in its eternal manifestation. To render these obsolete would mean that there is no sense to a material manifestation, no purpose. Hence, the Mother was emphatic on this point: If there were no determinism in every detail, there would be no ‘sense’ to creation. On 31 January 1970, she discussed the matter with a disciple, having reached this conclusion after years of yoga, realisation. ‘seeing’:
‘You know, my child, more and more and in an absolute way, I see – I see – yes, I see, I feel: everything has been decided.
‘And everything has its reason for existence, which eludes us because our vision is not wide enough.
‘And you understand, life, existence, indeed the world itself would have no sense if it were otherwise.
‘It is a kind of absolute conviction. And I see it. Yes, it is a thing I see.’
The disciple then asks if that Consciousness one can understand might govern the vast and the eternal, ‘but does it govern all in all the small details?’ To this the Mother replies, ‘In the microscopic.’ She continues,
‘…the individual consciousness, even when it is very wide, is not able to realise, that is to say, understand concretely, that it is possible to become conscious of all at the same time. For it is not of that kind. It has just the difficulty of understanding that the Consciousness is conscious of all at the same time, all together, in its totality and in the smallest detail…’ (The Mother’s Agenda, Volume 11, 1970)
In this analysis I wish to clarify the implications of the Mother’s rather startling disclosures, since they appear to contradict the objectives of yoga which are to make one ‘free’, ‘master of one’s fate’, rid of ‘karma’, and so forth. According to the Mother’s experience, the deeper one penetrates the clearer it is that ‘everything has been decided’, even the ‘microscopic details’. We seem to be faced here with another ‘paradox’.
Yet, as explained above, the human creature cannot expect ‘God’ to help. One can only help oneself. Thus, we have stated that the only true and real freedom lies in the freedom to choose to move up the ladder to the new, wider, and conscious condition of being, and thus to allow the Divine to use that instrument for the manifestation of cosmos. Or, we can remain in our present misaligned structure which limits the Power insofar as the instrument cannot withstand the impact, lacking as it does a centred axial structure.
It is only the centred operation that permits the Divine to control, to harmonise, to put each thing in place, to utilise the individual for the expression of the Supreme’s Freedom and Harmony and Truth. Not our own ‘truth’. The Supreme’s, the Absolute’s.
What ‘saved’ Krone were the boundaries of her own destiny and nothing more. Within that there was a ‘weak’ force operating, to borrow the term from physics, which could mitigate only within that limited boundary. There is no contradiction since within that boundary ‘everything is known, determined’ – even in the smallest detail. But only within the periphery of her destiny. Thus, knowing that parameter we could ‘predict’ Krone’s salvation. But with the wider vision we could also declare that nothing was permitted to enter that system, enclosed within itself, centreless, since there was no area of access.
Our universe is a cosmos because the First Cause was a centre, a perfect alignment. The new cosmology seeks to describe the mechanism or process both to bring a centre into being as well as to discover the method whereby each human being can ‘become the Sun’, to borrow the Vedic injunction. Indeed, in the Vedic Age this realisation, mechanism, process, anatomy of creation was known. It was also known that praying to a God outside to act as saviour was an illusion, if at all such a situation was even contemplated (some of our readers may recall that the Toltec master, don Juan, made similar declarations to his pupil, Carlos Castaneda, when he ridiculed the latter’s sentimental attachment to ‘God’, whom don Juan called simply the mould of man). For the Vedic Seer everything was founded on the realisation of Skambha. The journey was undertaken to carry the seeker into those innermost universes where Agni could be established as the purohit, or the priest officiating over the sacrifice. This Purohit was an inner reality. Each one had to become that power, realise or unveil its function; and from this centremost Point move through the corridors of creation in conquest of the Summit, victorious over each and every pani, or hostile force, met along the way.
This same ‘journey’ is now, today, being undertaken not merely by an individual or even a group of individuals. It is the Earth herself who is engaged. Thus it is that we say, a new world is being born, the Earth is giving birth, as in the Puranic myth, to the 4th, or Mars, or Agni.
Blessed are the Lesser, for they can BE
In this particular experiment animals, particularly the Horse, are used. This is because being creatures of the lower hemisphere, shall we say, they are not disturbed in their instrumentation by the proclivities of a mentally-poised species such as the human. Problems arise when we move up the ladder somewhat, when we begin to experience something of that divine light, but not the fullest Light. Then concepts such as freedom, free will and the like suffer from the limitations such a partial vision imposes. It is only when the time arrives for a progress such as the Earth is experiencing today, in this 9th Manifestation that we can begin to understand our limitations and shed the baggage accumulated over the ages of wrong perceptions based on this instrumental inadequacy.
The animal is not hampered in this way. His only limitation is due to the position he occupies on the scale of creation which places him under the human. But this describes a linear assessment and not spherical. In the latter there is no question of higher and lower. There is a total equality based on equal participation; or rather, equal instrumentation: everything is the Divine, a channel for the Divine Play in creation. Indeed, the animal is more fortunate. He does not have to grapple with Mind at all. This does not mean he is not ‘intelligent’ – for this notion, in particular regarding the horse, is meaningless. What it means is that the Power works directly through the vital and physical centres without the interference of Mind. Hence the action is as pure as we are describing in these pages regarding F2’s participation and her ‘ruthlessness’. She cast Eve off her back simply because Eve was not properly aligned to serve the purposes of that One which F2 can serve faithfully and inconspicuously, with the least damage and interference.
When it was clear that Eve could not handle the energy release, F2 would not allow her to take her in even one more race. Whereas, she peacefully, obediently allowed the second rider to mount and behaved admirably thereafter, once she had put ‘each thing in its place’. For the fact is that the second rider was not involved in the process like Eve and hence he would not interfere. He was ‘centred’ in his own human way, or like every other human being – that is, there and rooted in the action of the moment. The reason may be banal, mundane – ambition, for example – but he was there. Whereas Eve was elsewhere. She belonged to another ‘system’ and when the linchpin of that system was removed, she was thrown after it! She did not race again at that centre once Adam had stepped out. F2 saw to it that Eve would follow. Such are the actions of the Impeccable Warrior.
The final outcome of this Biblical foray, or the female/male adventure within the contours of the old creation, was loss, waste, – or at least so it would seem in terms of the racing experience. Eve is nursing her wounds, while the fillies, F1 and F2, had to suffer the humiliation of demotion: F1 back to Class IV, and F2 to Class VA. At the same time, both were saddled with top weights in the handicaps of the lower classes in which they found themselves, and the saga goes on. F2 completed the first ennead with a heavy handicap/karma; she would have to work this off somehow during the next round. We would have to make up the lost ground, and for this she would have to draw to herself those elements which might help her to recuperate and to redeem herself. Physically she was nearing a peak. The new trainer was bringing her on slowly and carefully. The results were positive. But there was more to do. A new chapter was opening just as the new ennead had also begun. The fillies were still in their pleasant stables, still rooted in the process and central to it all.
Survival and affirmation in a hostile world
Determinism in every detail was obvious in Eve’s fall and salvation. Without the presence of a centre in the paddock, the centimetre miss which ‘saved’ her ankle, the light pressure of the filly’s hoof which left her heart intact could not have taken place. It would have been a question of ‘destiny’, – i.e., chaos. Julie Krone relied totally on human aids – for example, the jockey’s vest she wore which in her opinion saved her. Entirely true. But even this is significant in terms of our analysis. We do, as humans relying on our own mental devices, require aids for protection. Without that Julie Krone would probably have died. But Eve demonstrated a new power at work.
The Mother spoke of this power toward the end of her life. She was occupied with the problem of protection for the new creation. She knew there would have to be a method to secure its survival while in infancy insofar as there is only one field in which to plant the seed, and that is the soil of the Earth. But this soil is already polluted; or shall we say, the field is occupied and there is no other, no other ‘space’ for the new to arise. Thus, it is obliged to take shape here in the midst of a hostile world, similar to the terrain the Aryan warrior of old had to cross en route to the Mountaintop. Therefore the Mother knew that concurrent with planting that Seed, a ‘power’ would have to manifest to accompany its growth and assure its protection. She located the operation in the vital, truly the energy base of the Warrior, that it was a power manifesting from or in that plane – and she connected it to the Power of Love.
In these pages I have provided details of just how that Power the Mother anticipated operates. I have centred the discussion on the Horse, supreme symbol of the Vital, of the Hero, of Agni, in a further demonstration of the symbol is the thing symbolised.
The key to a supramental creation is freedom, for which reason the present human species in transition to a higher status is so obsessed with the concept and its establishment in society. It is one’s ‘unalienable right’. But I have demonstrated in this analysis that such freedom, any freedom, is an illusion. There is only one true freedom: the Supreme’s.
The significance of the Supreme’s freedom concerns the laws by virtue of which the Divine Shakti can or cannot manifest through the material instrument, or even the vital and the mental in the other intermediate planes of existence. In the human mental creation, as I have explained earlier, there is virtually no freedom for the Consciousness to operate. And this has a specific definition. To be bound by laws means a curtailment in the expression of the Supreme’s spontaneity. The next legitimate question is, What is spontaneity?
We have the two accidents under discussion for elucidation. The order in which they occurred is one important clue. The first, Julie Krone’s, set the broad lines for the second. Krone’s conformed to the laws of the human creation, – i.e., totally bound, unfree. The ‘power’ at work to save or not save was entirely determined by the parameters of Krone’s individual destiny. Hence, a necessary reliance on human aids such as the jockey’s vest. Those aids, the prowess of the other jockeys to avoid the dislodged rider, the horses’ natural instinct to avoid trampling a person, and so forth, are all indications of the episode following the normal laws of the species, without any higher intervention. Knowing those boundaries and that there can be nothing higher introduced makes it possible to predict the outcome of such a happening, provided one has access to certain facts. In many cases the horoscope can provide this information. But only partially. There could be no ‘intervention’ to complicate a reading of that nature because, as I have explained, there was no area of access and the field was too limited. That is, there was no possibility of spontaneity.
Nonetheless, this accident set the lines for the second, 22/23 days later. It also permits us to gauge the greater conscious participation in the second. There were certain key features which would have to be respected – or rather, repeated. These were mainly the right-ankle injury and the hoof on the heart, apart from the fact that both involved female jockeys, in itself an unusual circumstance to duplicate, especially in Asia. To make this nuclear experience valid there had to be the possibility of comparison, as it were. And for this, similarities between the two had to preclude the escape route of ‘coincidence’.
Thus, Krone’s which could not accommodate spontaneity, set the tone for the second from the outset. With these givens the Supramental Shakti had to ‘organise her manifestation’, in Sri Aurobindo’s words. That is, with the existence of a centre in the field of manifestation, the Shakti could have access to the procedure in that no ‘catastrophe’ would result. This merits some clarification before we proceed further.
If the centre does not exist at the heart of the endeavour, then the Divine Consciousness can of course ‘intervene’ – but the problem is that chaos prevails due to the lack of a holding axis. Thus, intervention in such a field would simply agitate those energies even more. More chaos, in other words. Hence clash, conflict, catastrophe. To use the great Puranic myth imagery, it would be as if the churning of the primordial ocean had taken place without Mt Meru as the central axis or ‘churning stick’, around which the churning took place as order, cosmos. If Mt Meru were eliminated, then we would have chaos leading to catastrophe and destruction.
For this reason the Supramental Shakti does not intervene directly in the lower levels of creation where Mind operates as regent or highest principle. To do so would create tremendous disorder. Consequently, the evolution under such conditions is slow and laborious and at times appears to grind to a halt. This is because there are pockets of energy knotted up along the way; and sometimes those ‘knots’ cannot be undone but must be cut out of the system. We witness then great upheavals in the life of society or the individual.
On the other hand, the moment the centre and axis come into being, time is accelerated. This means that what took eight Manifestations of 6480 years each to evolve, can now bear fruit in a matter of decades, unbelievable as it may seem. Time is never superseded, blotted out, eliminated, as many spiritualists and yogis would have us aspire for. It is simply accelerated, which is what the Churning of the Ocean myth foretells. A year becomes a day in the sense that the terrain covered is condensed, the pace is speeded up, as it were.
Thus, we cannot expect interventions before that centre and axis come into being for the sake of the survival of the species. The human consciousness prefers to view this as a divine compassion; but this is simply the human interpretation. There is no question of ‘compassion’ in the sense we mortals understand the term. It is rather self-preservation – but not of the human, rather the Divine. The Supreme Consciousness preserves her creative activity by regulating the Power according to the limits or boundaries of the field of operation. At the most, what can be done is to forge a certain protective shield to keep out interfering forces which may make ‘preservation’ more complex. But to alter the destiny in any substantial way is impossible. Hence the legendary ‘resignation’ of the Hindu. It is a civilisation which has seen and hence cannot act when it knows that action is an illusion. It is a nation nurtured by the words of Sri Krishna to the warrior Arjun, ‘Slay, because your opponents are already slain!’
Science as we know it today is entirely a product of the mental human species; that much is clear. It is bound by the same laws, limited in its perceptions by the same constraints of the instrument. In that arena to declare that the universe is merely a machine and that everything in this universe, including human evolution, is mechanically impelled and hence determined, and that therein ‘consciousness’ plays no part, is entirely true. But it is a ‘relative’ truth – hence Einstein easily revolutionised the world of science with his relativity theories. But that was a world seen through the eyes of the unfree scientist. Science of tomorrow is something else.
In the Rigveda we have an example of a civilisation which made a choice: it could follow the mechanical human path with its resultant ‘progress’, or the path of the Sun, to become the Sun. Clearly the ancient Seers had access to a source of knowledge which could have produced the technological and scientific marvels of our 20th Century thousands of years ago. But the hymns they left us reveal that the Seers understood the complexities of the problem just as we are analysing them here, and the futility of imprisoning oneself in the lesser, limited range which could never describe the true workings of the Divine Consciousness and hence the correct understanding of the creation, preservation and destruction of the world. To change anything one had to ‘become the Sun’ – ergo, forge a centre/axis. Nothing more.
Achieving that through alignment of the consciousness, the Supramental Shakti was then ‘free’ to use that embodiment as her direct instrument, with no intermediaries from the intervening planes such as the vital and the mental. Rather, that centre/axis would then hold those forces of the intermediate planes to itself in an orderly fashion, similar to a cosmos. And thus the Seer ‘became the Sun’. He was a light unto himself just like the Sun, a self-replenishing source with a generative capacity similar to the operations in the core of a sun.
With this centre/axis established in our nuclear equine experience, there was a channel for the Shakti to ‘organise her manifestation’ on Earth, as Sri Aurobindo had prophesied, and in each ‘microscopic detail’, to quote the Mother. As a further clarification, this equine experience has served to elucidate exactly what Sri Aurobindo meant when he communicated to the Mother after his passing that he would ‘return in a supramental body prepared in a supramental way’.
Since 1950, this statement has engendered unending speculation among disciples. The pathetic part is that none know what to look for, hence the prevalence of spiritually immature speculation and expectations. Indeed, as the equine experience reveals, there were perhaps 1000 witnesses to Eve’s fall on that momentous September Equinox of 1993. Yet none saw. At best some understood that they had witnessed a ‘miraculous escape’. But none knew, none saw the Divine in their midst.
The Supramental Shakti does not perform miracles. She does not need to. The miracle is the manifestation of the Supreme’s freedom and spontaneity. To have direct access to such a happening is the greatest blessing for the human creature today. The very fact that we are able to describe the operation in these analytical, clinical terms, with the precision of the new science, is indication that the work is done. The new world is born.
The field where Eve’s fall took place bore a centre and an axis. Hence the Supramental Shakti could operate through that channel without breaking laws which she herself gave rise to and continues to support. That field then provided a nuclear arena where the Supreme could express spontaneity amid freedom. We witnessed this in the organisation of the episode to fit it into Krone’s accident pattern. It is not that Krone’s determined the other, or that Krone’s was determined by this one. It was simply a spontaneous play of the Supramental Shakti to demonstrate the ‘organisation in every detail’ amid the ‘control’ for which she is renown; but at the same time, to supersede the mechanical character of the former. For this reason one of the principal objectives of the Yoga is plasticity of the being. Where there is rigidity we have a field ideal for the play of Purush and Prakriti and their mechanical displays; but not the Shiva/Shakti Ardhanarisvar which requires freedom and spontaneity.
With this background it becomes clearer why prediction is impossible in the new dispensation. For who could have predicted the delightful exploits of the Shakti on that Equinox day in South India? The human being cannot aspire to know such details. He or she can only align the individual consciousness-being in such a way as to be an instrument through which the Supramental Shakti manifests her Freedom and Spontaneity. F1 could not serve in this way once ‘crusts’ had formed and self-centredness set in, the bane of all humans. F2 was the perfect channel, the impeccable divine Warrior. And we were witness to it all.
We will leave the analysis here for the time being, while our saga of Horse, Woman and Man on the road to Supermanhood continues, ever faithful to Sri Aurobindo’s dictum, ‘All life is yoga’.
PN-B
Aeon Centre of Cosmology at Skambha
Deepavali, November of 1993
