As the time of the Kalachakra initiation draws near, more mysteries concerning the circle are being made clear to me....
The circle, or sphere, is the basis of all manifestations. In the small, it is the atom. In the large, it is our galaxy. In between, there are stars, solar systems and planets. The number pi, the diameter of the circle, is an infinite number. There is a reason for this.
Kabbalism, based from the Tree of Life, sees creation in terms of descending sephera, or wheels. One wheel generates another, until the material plane is reached.
And it could be no other way. Movement is life, and the circle spins. So perhaps the image of the wheel serves us well as a device to understand its mystery.
The center of a wheel does not move, yet the farther one is from that center, the faster it's spin. It is that center which first concerns me here. The term 'finding ones center' means to exist in the here and now, and in the state of no-mind, called 'rigpa' or 'blue sky mind' by Buddhists.
The apparently still center is in actuality a tunnel or pathway, which can be followed backwards to its creation, or forward into the future. It is the means of our communication with the space beings.
Moving backwards into the circle's creation is to move backwards into ALL creation, the formless vastness of unbound life force from which all creation arises. This is the stuff we are made of, the experience of which gives rise to the understanding both of our 'illusionary' existence here, and the Buddhist realization called 'dependant arising' which emphasizes the link of every one thing to every other thing.
When one moves forward within the circle's tunnel, one becomes aware of the huge stellar events that are about to take place (as well as smaller ones currently in progress). One can see the constant struggles of the light and dark stars, their dance and their effects on Earth's microcosm. One is also contacted by the guardians, or space beings, who are concerned with our planets welfare. Perhaps this is the origin of Crowley's belief in the Secret Chiefs. Perhaps not. I don't know.
The space beings, or people in-between, are the names given to these guardians by the Tibetan Buddhists, who have been in contact with them since Buddhism's inception. Although they are mentioned only in extremely rare situations, they could possibly be a hidden reason for their emphasis on Rigpa.
The earth has been 'anthropomorphized' or seen as sentient, by many religions around the world. 'She' is an aggregate of which we are but a small (though dangerous) part. Her 'desire body' manifests on our plane as gravity. Thus, as we ourselves call our desires to us, often at our own expense, so does the Earth hold the objects dear to Her.
The space beings using the medium of the stars, access through the stars Centers, and send forth pranic life force into our planet. These are picked up by the astral antennae of the Buddhists, called Stupas or Chortons, which they continue to build all over the earth.
A slight digression--
I spend a lot of time alone with one of our area Stupas. I am a gardener, and I weed the path that circles it, which is a continual affair. In the daytime, Stupas put out an energetic healing darshan, which promotes inner peace. It is considered the literal body of the Buddha, and circumambulating it clockwise while chanting is said to greatly multiply its effects. I weed clockwise, therefore. This summer, this VERY HOT summer, I had left some of my weeding tools on the other side of the path and decided to fetch them by walking anti- clockwise (widdershins) around the circle. On my way, something invisible bit me, HARD, on the arm. I extended my senses and found that there were hundreds of small elemental beings all running clockwise, around and around the Stupa. It occurred to me that these nature spirits were bent upon increasing their own awareness just as we humans were.
-back to the paper
The Kalachakra initiation is described on the outer, as simply a ritual to free one from the confines of space/time. Before the initiation, discussion in not upon what one is going to MEET out there, yet it is openly admitted that the Kalachakra includes a pledge to reincarnate for a future war between ourselves, helped by the space people, and the destructive stellar forces. This is said to occur in the year 2424, or 2425.
The circle permeates everything. We are all familiar with the sensation of time slowing down. This usually occurs either during focused periods of extreme activity, or none at all. If time is seen as a wheel, it could be supposed that whatever brings us closer to the center, with its slower rate of movement, in actuality DOES slow down time for us. I have also noticed geographical areas of slowed time--this may be a result of being in a personal power site.
When we were children, time seemed so much slower. Perhaps as we grew, accumulating our own aggregates of desires and expectations, we have slowly moved away from the center, our own center; hence the speed-up phenomena.
There is one last circle I wish to discuss here. That is the circle of our awareness.
As Magickans, we constantly seek to enlarge our boundaries of awareness. The known world of our mind is like a drop in the ocean of the unknown. The place where the known and the unknown meet is what we refer to as mystery. We know enough to know its out there, because some part of it touches our known world. Therefore, mystery becomes our boundary around the circle of our knowledge.
The Magickan moves out into this mystery and claims it as his own; the Mystic moves deep into the center and passes into the infinite. Both are the complimentary paths to our ultimate spiritual growth as individual AND collective entities.
Mishlen Linden