This article, written in January of 2019, was based on ten years of research on the ‘Wheel of Time’ (kāla-chakra) doctrine extant throughout the medieval tantras. At the time, we were preparing for the ‘Super Moon’ eclipse seen throughout the northern hemisphere on January 20th (in the Americas).
Here, I address the pivotal role of this ‘Super Moon’ Eclipse, aligned with which was metaphorically used as a guide to awakening in the refined yoga system of the Kālottara (‘Beyond Time’) Tantra (6th century C.E.) and in the other early Shaiva scriptures that it influenced. - CT 03/16/2023
01/15/2019
Dear Friends,
We are about to enter the most sacred time for Yogic awakening.
This week, a rare confluence of overlapping time cycles merge together, culminating in the 'Super Moon' Eclipse event.
This spans some 5 hours on Sunday evening, January 20th, beginning at 9:30 EST, 6:30 PST, local time. This sacred event will be viewable through all of North American and beyond. Click here for more info on its viewing times and its astronomical significance.
This Eclipse, and the exact sequence of overlapping time cycles that surround it, was internalized in the medieval Tantras, where it formed the basis of the subtle body. Known as the ‘Wheel of Time’ (Kāla Chakra), it became a precise map for Self-realization.
This Blog and OUR Webinar (01/2019 - now archived)
‘Over the days leading up to Sunday’s eclipse, I will be posting updates here which will include never before revealed passages on this incredible event and its crucial but long forgotten role as a guide to the specific vidhi or sequence of practices which one informed the Kundalinī-based Yoga of the Tantras.
This will be followed by an exciting live webinar wherein we will engage and explore this incredible teaching together. Webinar date and details to be announced. Check out my Patreon page for details on my webinars.’
The Eclipse as a Doorway to Awakening
In the Tantric tradition, this eclipse is the doorway to awakening; the Tantras have given us a step-by-step practice sequence (vinyāsa) to achieve it. Beginning 4-5 days after the sun's transition into Capicorn, all three phases of time (year, month, and day) gradually converge and are simultaneously wiped out during the eclipse, which occurs Sunday night. In the Tantras, this event is superimposed on the subtle body.
The 'Wheel of Time' and the Flow of Breath
In the foundational Tantric texts, these confluences are mapped onto the subtle body. As many of you know from my work, the movements of the moon and sun in real time align with the flow of one round of breath.
The first ‘Wheel of Time’ (kāla chakra):
the solar year (12 sings of the zodiac) in the subtle body.
There are three major Kāla Chakras ('Wheels of time)’ mapped onto a single round breath, as taught in the Kālottara Tantra in 350 verses, Chapter 18. The first of these is the solar year, comprised of the twelve signs of the Greek zodiac, a system adopted by the Gupta dynasty around the 5th century.
The twelve signs are demarcated in the Kālottara Tantra along the vertical axis traversed by the subtle breath in the body.
The sound of OṂ and its seed mantras, when correctly engaged with the prescribed prānāyāma sequence choreographed with other yogic techniques, cause the breath to arise into the central sushumnā channel. This occurs just after the breath (i.e. the 'sun'), is released from its retention into the heart, a point equated in the subtle body with the sun's passage out of the 'Winter Solstice'. This is located at the heart center. As the breath/sun starts to arise or transition (samkrānti) into Makara ("Capricorn"), from Sagittarius, located at a point where the out-breath just begins to leave the heart center, the preceptive yogin shifts it into the sushumnā. This, we are told, occurs 4-5 "days" after the sun enters Capricorn. In subtle body time, this span of 'days' represents the first fraction of the breath's rise from the heart (see the ‘Kālachakra subtle body chart’ pdf).
At this moment, if done correctly, the yogin's third eye center, polarized with this entry of breath and sound into the central channel, blazes open, even as it is fixed at a point 12 finger-breadths above the crown of the head. All sounds in the universe converge and flow into the awareness of the yogins enraptured attention, as streams of deathless nectar pour down into his cranial doorway. This is the awakening "to" Kundalinī, a word used for the coiled or wavy 'flash of lightning" discerned by the third eye, the appearance of which resounds with the pranava OM, the sonic reverberation of God (Ishvara).
In short, we are taught, with striking detail, how to experience the rapture of perfect universal harmony superimposing the sequence real time events of this particular eclipse within the subtle body. As we see in the attached images, all of the sounds in the universe in this culminating moment come streaming towards the "heart" of Universal Awareness, - 3rd eye center, whilst simultaneously appearing in the physical heart region.
The End of Suffering: Attuning to the Universal Harmonic that Transcends Time
The Tantras universally proclaim that when this very rare confluence occurs, the yogin has the best chance for spiritual awakening, by attuning his/her awareness to the sonic overtones which pervade and the universe. The misunderstood Kundalinī-based practice innovated in the Tantras is an exact science. If followed carefully, the adept experiences the embodied state of liberation called ‘Yoga’ – defined as a complete immersion of Consciousness into the single harmonic resonance that underlies and sustains our internal and external reality.
During the internal ‘Eclipse’ (see Kālottara Tantra in 350 verses, Chapter 11 pdf.) all sounds, along with all of the 'forms' they produce, converge in sympathetic resonance ("Shiva"). The many Tantras which form the core of my work teach that this is the ‘Song’ of God (Ishvara). When heard, the bliss experienced by this consciousness-expanding resonance instantly eradicates all suffering in the mind, and eventually the body. We are told that it eliminates all of the painful effects that time-bound awareness triggers within embodied beings.
The 12 constellations of the solar year superimposed onto the subtle body.
All sounds, along with all of the 'forms' they produce, converge in sympathetic resonance ("Shiva").
January 20th, 2019 Update
Tonight at 6:30 ish EST, 9:30ish PST, the 'Blood Wolf Moon Total Eclipse' - upon which the map of the Yogic Subtle body was based - begins. This conjunction (a triple overlapping of time junctures that includes the trajectory of the day, month, and year) collapses into the moment of the full eclipse, corresponding to when the subtle breath pierces the palate 'knot,' triggering a lightning flash in the darkness of one's meditation, which appears at the third eye center. This is the internal eclipse of the moon.
Masters of Kashmir described this eclipse as the greatest moment to practice ritual yoga for awakening. The next one won’t happen for six decades or more, yet it happens with every breath inside the temple (the sacred Temple of the subtle body). For more information, and to find out when the eclipse happens and your time zone, click here.
Stay tuned for an announcement about my next webinar which will cover this material in depth, based in part on medieval Illustrated maps of the subtle body superimposed with the triple conjunction of this very special eclipse.
Namaste, Chris