The Topology of Time Part II: The Alchemy of Time; Understanding the Great Year and The Cycles of Existence by Jay Weidner

At the very core of all the great spiritual traditions to be found across the planet from the ancient Egyptian to the Inkan and Mayan, Indo-Tibetan, Alchemical Europe and even the Hebrew Kabbalah lies the knowledge of the secret of the alchemy of time. Unencumbered by the excessive demands, stresses and speed of the modern age, our ancestors spent lifetimes in contemplation of the essential mysteries of our world. One of the great mysteries they discovered was that time is not stagnant or linear but flows in great transformative cycles. In fact it is only recently that modern historians have begun arguing that time travels in a straight line. Within the limited period of historical examination these modern historians are viewing a snap shot of history and believe that this snapshot represents the entire picture. But does it?

The alchemists of Egypt and Medieval Europe knew that time moved in great elongated cycles, and that each part of the cycle had a ‘quality’. This quality shaped and reformed the world. Just as sunrise has a different quality from midnight so too does each aspect of the great cycle possess a quality that distinguishes it from other parts of the cycle. When the cycle of time changes, so too do events change here on Earth.

These sacred scientists and alchemists of our past used various devices and practices to mark the changes in the quality of time. Astrology, divination and prophecy are some of the more obvious processes that our ancestors used to understand the mysterious process of time.

At the heart of the secrets traditions of the Egyptian and Greek mystery schools they knew that a process, which they called the precession of the equinoxes measured the Great Cycle or the Great Year. What they understood was that the stars in the night sky are not fixed. Through their long observation and meditation upon the heavens they came to realize that the stars and the constellations were slowly changing their place in the sky above us. Creating the zodiac to assist them in these huge measurements of time they used the twelve signs to act as a giant time clock. Through this they began to understand the Great Cycle. They realized that it took 2,160 years to move through each sign of the zodiac and that it took 25,920 years for the equinoxes to move through all 12 signs. The creation of the Great Year of nearly 26,000 years gave them a clock that allowed them to measure time.

They then came to understand that each of the signs, or places on the clock appeared to bring forth changes in the quality of life here on earth. So they came to realize that every 2,160 years the quality of time changed. They also began to understand that the four quadrants of this great chronological clock appeared to bring forth even sharper changes in the quality of time. The four signs associated with these four quadrants are the signs of Aquarius, Taurus, Leo and Scorpio. There does seem to be some historical linkage between this idea that passing through the edges of these four signs brings great changes here on earth. About 6,500 years ago we passed through the sign of Taurus. Coincidentally the human race began domesticating cattle, building walled cities, developing agriculture, fighting wars and beginning the city-states that would evolve into governments and monarchies. Thirteen thousand years ago, as we passed through the Age of Leo great changes occurred including a dramatic climate shift as the ice ages began to end. The extinction of many animals including the Woolly Mammoth, the Saber Tooth Tiger, the Giant Tree Sloth and many other species happened at about this time. Interestingly, according to anthropologists, the emergence of Cro-Magnon Man, appears to have occurred about 26,000 years ago, the last time we passed through Aquarius.

The Great Cross at Hendaye is a 350-year-old alchemical monument to the end of time. It sits in a churchyard in Hendaye France. The Great Cross at Hendaye appears to be a symbolical construct that explains this science of the cycles of time. The Cross at Hendaye describes the extraordinary changes that are about to occur our present era. It speaks of the end of our current Age of Iron and the creation of a coming Golden Age.

The great cosmic time clock in the sky is changing. We are now entering the quadrant of Aquarius. From what the alchemical Cross at Hendaye is saying this change is sure to have a dramatic effect on our species and on our planet.

What these changes are, or will be, is anybody’s guess. But they are sure to be spectacular and remarkable. The end of time, the end of this age and the great transformation of humanity is at hand. This change in the quality of time will govern and dictate the changes here on our fragile planet. The changes in the quality of time cannot be forestalled. The fundamentalist revival taking place all over the world reveals more about the quality of time from which we are emerging than it does reveal anything about the quality of time for that which is coming.

The Peruvian shamans living high up in the Andes Mountains have come down to tell us that a new species of human being is about to appear. They call this being ‘Homo Luminous’. They tell us that forerunners of Homo Luminous are already among us right now. Like Cro-Magnon Man of 26,000 years ago, the last time that we passed through the cusp of Aquarius, so too now a new human is emerging. This new human will possess entirely new qualities that we do not have. The great Avatars, Jesus Christ, Krishna and many others may have early arrivals for this newly emerging species. Aquarius is the only one of the four quadrent signs that is symbolically represented by a human, and this human carries a container of water. This symbology is interesting as DNA can only be activated in water. So even the symbolic nature of the sign of Aquarius seems to suggest a change in the genetic structure of the human race.

Our spiritual existence is really a unique combination of free will and predestination. While we possess the ability to act freely within the moment, there is little we can do about the larger cycles of time and the qualities that emerge at the cusp of each of the four great signs. So as the hand on the great cosmic time clock passes into Aquarius one can expect massive changes to occur. While the ancient art of alchemy is concerned with many aspects of our existence including the extraction of light from plants and minerals, the transformation of the dark lead of our physical being into the pure gold of enlightenment and much more, alchemy also is a symbolic ontology concerned with the observation in the changes of the “quality” of time through the 25, 920 years-long duration of the Great Year.

The world is changing. The past will disappear and history will become legend and finally myth. Our destination is unknown. The only thing we know for sure is that it will change.

Copyright 2004, Jay Weidner

Jay Weidner is an author, filmmaker and hermetic scholar. He is the co-author of The Mysteries of the Great Cross of Hendaye; Alchemy and the End of Time (Destiny Books) and A Monument to the End of Time (Aethyrea Books). Mr. Weidner has produced and directed many fascinating documentaries and instructional DVDs including Healing the Luminous Body; The Way of the Shaman with Dr. Alberto Villoldo, Artmind; The Healing Power of Sacred Art with Alex Grey, Healing Sounds with Jonathan Goldman, The Path of the Priestess with Sharron Rose, Nada Yoga; The Healing Power of Sacred Sound with Shanti Shivani and Secrets of Alchemy; The Great Cross and The End of Time based upon his many years of research into alchemy. For more information on his work, go to www.sacredmysteries.com.