Sunday, November 4, 2012

The darkness before dawn?


2012 theories and the revelations of Siva Sakthi Ammaiyar ...

"We live in interesting times," as the enigmatic Chinese saying goes. Extreme weather conditions, economic meltdown and an elite oligarchy who do not even bother to hide the fact that they are robbing the coffers blind ... A population so stupefied they don't know or don't care as long as they get the latest iPhone and their hit of reality TV ... Add to this mixture the magic numerology of 2012, a few apocalyptic messengers and the promise of ET disclosure - and you have a potent bitches' brew of End Time eschatology!

In Tiruvannamalai, the deluge of Cyclone Neelam has just drenched the streets. Local sage Siva Sakthi Ammaiyar has published numerous predictions on her website for the seismic changes now upon us:

At the end of 2012, there will be lots of chances for having ‘natural calamities’: earthquakes, heavy rain, etc… all over the world. In Tamil Nadu, it will be less. In Western countries it will be a lot more. There are a lot of saints and siddhas who have meditated in Tamil Nadu. That’s why the impact of ‘natural calamities’ will be less here.

Siva Sakthi explains that in 2012 the Earth is going to rotate faster and then slow down again - because of the weight of humanity's karma. Our planet is not able to tolerate adharma, the path against nature or the 'truthless path'. So this is causing the atma jyothi - the light of atma or light of the spirit - to come to the centre with a 'jerk' (perhaps a major vibrational change or axis shift?) In March 2011, she gave her one of her most detailed predictions of the troubles to come:

There are more 'natural calamities' waiting to happen throughout the world by way of water, earthquakes and tornados. Natural calamities will happen in India. There will be loss of lives. Tamil Nadu will also be affected: wind and heavy rains; extreme heat. There will be a small, but felt, earthquake in Tamil Nadu. Rameswaram and Kanyakumari will get heavy rain and wind, which will cause the wave surge on the beaches in Rameswaram to get higher. People living on the coastline need to be very alert and careful. Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka will get heavier winds and rains and more destruction ...

Siva Sakthi then advises that these 'natural calamities' can be mitigated through sadhana and bhakti. If we close our eyes and meditate, she counsels, focusing on the Diamond Light (manickam) inside for ten minutes each time, this light will then travel upwards and clear our personal karmic blockages in the head. (Basically if you're pure enough, you will survive these troubled times!)

Siva Sakthi's 2012 predictions take the form of an End Time scenario involving morality and environmental disaster. The indigenous wisdom of particularly North and South America and the Dogon peoples of West Africa foretells major Earth changes and contact by "star beings" (i.e. extraterrestrials) who they say, have always been in contact with their ancestors, elders and shamans. The predictions of Chippewa medicine woman No Eyes, recorded from the early 1970s by Mary Summer Rain, point to the earthquakes, nuclear accidents, extraterrestrial visitors, and economic meltdown to come. Perhaps most famously she says that when the Phoenix Days come - the time of the world's regeneration - there will be a greenish hue in the sky. Robert Morning Sky's Terra Papers give an elaborate galactic history, revealed by an ET named Bek' Ti to his (alleged) Native American grandfather. The Hopi Prophecies have also long spoken about the emergence of the Fifth World making reference to World War III and the time when Saquasohuh - the Blue Star Kachina - will dance in the plaza (presumably an alien landing of some sort or the arrival of a star or comet).

Non-human races are a huge feature of Endtime predictions both old and new. Some commentators think that Nostradamus predicted how the existence of ETs will be revealed. In Century 4-28, he says that with the event of Venus covering the Sun, a previously "hidden form" will come into view. Broadly interpreted, the quatrain possibly hints that world leaders will take an aggressive, warlike stance at this discovery. Additionally, as early as 1448 we have the detailed Mother Shipton Prophecy. These few lines are particularly striking:

And before the race is built anew, a silver serpent comes to view
And spews out men of like unknown, to mingle with the earth now grown.
Cold from its heat and these men can, enlighten the minds of future man.
To intermingle and show them how, to live and love and thus endow
The children with the second sight. A natural thing so that they might
Grow graceful, humble and when they do, the Golden Age will start anew.

Some think the "silver serpent" Mother Shipton mentions is an alien ship - and in the minds of many, these older and more ancient references make the existence of extraterrestrials an indisputable fact. As a result these narratives have been linked to the end of the Mayan calendar and also modern spiritual teachings of ascension, which state that under extraterrestrial guidance, mankind is currently moving to a higher dimensional (or fully inter-dimensional) reality. Thus today we have multiple websites sporting the channelled messages of Ashtar Command, the Galactic Federation of Light (as channelled by Sheldan Nidle, Mike Quinsey, Greg Giles, Wes Annac, Steve Beckow etc), the Andromeda Council and many more. All speak of a battle between the forces of light and dark, the better of which are fighting for control of the planet and the coming of mankind's Golden Age.

David Icke who has visited Tiru as a guest of Jacqueline Marie Longstaff has long championed claims that an offworld race is controlling Earth via an organisation known as the Babylonian Brotherhood (the Illuminati, Bilderbergers, the IMF, the UN, etc etc). His infamous theory is that a reptilian intelligence called the Anunnaki from the Draco constellation is drinking our blood and has imprisoned us in a low vibration holographic reality, having seeded itself in an elite bloodline including that of the Rockefellers and Rothschilds, the Bush family and the British monarchy. These days the mockery has truly worn off since many of his outlandish predictions have come true (e.g. the Gulf of Mexico/New Orleans hurricanes; the attack on New York in 2001; the corporate Orwellian nightmare scenario and the New World Order; an engineered economic crash in 2008; and the paedophilia of Jimmy Savile linked to the British government and Prince Charles).

The progenitor of Icke's vision is Pleiadean channeller Barbara Marciniak (she encouraged him to discuss reptilian bloodlines). In her cult classic Bringers of the Dawn, she explains how - 300,000 years ago - Earth was wrested from the hands of the Original Planners of the Family of Light and taken over by "space beings" who were part reptilian and part human. "The Lizzies" as she affectionately calls them, temporarily inserted themselves on Earth via a portal in the Middle East and proceeded to biologically engineer forms of life. Critically they downgraded human DNA from twelve strands to two in order to control mankind - and continue to this day, to feed on human emotions such as fear and violence as their source of nourishment. Further, these "Creator Gods" are set to return. It is therefore the spiritual task of humanity to throw off its reptilian shackles and activate the Living Library of Earth: to restore Earth and humanity to the forefront of creation. Apparently, at this time in history the Lizzies are losing control of the planet and our DNA helix is retooling. Additionally, just like the Pleiadeans, we are Game Masters who have the capacity to orchestrate reality in order to learn the value of life. By using our sexuality as a bridge to higher consciousness and restoring the feminine principle within each and every one of us, we can reclaim our cosmic birthright ...

The master narrative on which these modern contemporaries draw is the work of Zecharia Sitchin. He translated the ancient Sumerian clay tablets which in the Babylonian creation myth, the Enûma Eliš, speak of a non-human race called the Anunnaki. Sitchin said their name means "those who from heaven to earth came" and identified the Anunnaki with the Biblical Nephilim (the "Watchers" of the Book of Enoch). Then he sensationally declared that 450,000 years ago these aliens had come to Earth from the Planet Nibiru to mine for gold and minerals. However, they also mutinied in protest at their working conditions (sounds a bit like our so-called free market!) and as a result, head honcho Enki decided to outsource labour to improve production. With his half-sister Ninhursag, he genetically engineered a hybrid slave worker: a crossbreed of Anunnaki genes with homo erectus. The Anunnaki 'Gods' then departed after some seriously fratricidal in-fighting but left a genetically pumped up hybrid - a blue blood/reptilian elite - in charge to mind the shop (hence that famous nonsense the Divine Right of Kings!)

Meanwhile an important alternative cosmology comes from the little known Welsh psychic surgeon, Chris Thomas, who claims to be hardwired into the Akashic records. On his two recent Youtubes, he reveals that the reptilian influence came from a group called the 14th Faction who have systematically attempted to eradicate free will in our universe. His idée fixe involves something called the Human Plan where the population of the planet must complete their "soul reintegration" by the end of 2012. In the last 300 years however, an alien race called the Velon (with their 6 subtribes including the Hathor and the Anunnaki) have attempted to sabotage the Human Plan via their acolytes, the Illuminati, and claim Earth for themselves. He therefore suggests that the work of Marciniak and Sitchin plus all channelled material is a product of the Velon agenda: a reality insert meant to confuse mankind and make them think the Velon are their saviours and creators (i.e. the Gods incarnate). In a similar vein, Peggy Kane exposes the dark underbelly of both angelic consciousnesses and media depictions of blood, horror and war. Through her use of extensive reverse speech analysis, she maintains that these are simply reptilian strategies for feeding on human emotions. But she goes even further. She says that these entities are energetically raping us while we sleep. They are torturing humans and literally consuming their flesh in hanging pens on Orion and Mars (like a particularly grisly meatlocker scene from the TV series "V"!)

Where does all this leave us? Perhaps with a lot less than we might imagine ...

Take Barbara Marciniak. On closer inspection, she goes little further than The Seth Material by Jane Roberts, which inspired her. This series of channellings, which began in the early 1960s, focuses on creative manifestation, which via the work of Shakti Gawain, Esther Hicks, and Rhonda Byrne's The Secret (and many more) has become the callsign of the New Ager and their comrade-in-arms, the modern therapist. The message here is that you can shape your life. By the use of focused thought, visualisation, and positive affirmations you can transform the world. This is what we in the Chi-Ting office like to call the moral fascism of Louise L. Hay. That is: if you are not having the happy, problem-free life that you want, it's your own fault! Or put another way: if you have problems, you created them and there's something wrong with you!

This is nothing more than a tale of purity and spiritual betterment. 

The built-in assumption here is that the world (and oneself) is bad, wrong, flawed or somehow deviant and must become something else. Further, this transformation will naturally be desired by someone who is spiritually and morally 'correct'. Basically it's a rightwing consumerist guilt trip built on the legacy of original sin, flaunting a consummate belief in free will: the power to choose (or not) and control your own reality. David Icke spins the same line: we can make this world the way we want it: YOU can do it. Here we have a massive dose of personal autonomy - someone with the intrinsic power to achieve something - injected into the architecture of Christian dualism while climbing the Stairway to Heaven. It's good versus evil time again folks and only the elect and pure of heart will be saved!

All these jaded cosmologies offer us is a composite domination myth across a polarised battlefield of light versus dark. Nothing much has changed since the time of Zoroaster! What's especially worthy of note is that the Bible sounds very similar to the Sumerian cuneiform record ... and 2012 theories tend to mirror both. So perhaps the religions we see today originate in and mirror the mechanism of power and control, which existed in the Anunnaki times: set up across the hierarchy of Creator God, spiritual intermediary, and human subjects. Meanwhile within the new alien cosmologies we see today, across a modern-day hierarchy of spiritual power, we see aliens replace (or consort with) angels; nature (the original indigenous peoples of Earth) has once again been destroyed by culture (the technologically advanced, extraterrestrial Creator Gods); and the "higher" must for the billionth time, subsume or overcome the "lower". And as for the aliens coming to save us ... errr isn't that the Second Coming?! This is nothing more than an "I"-centric attempt to redeploy the divisive forces of Judaeo-Christianity in the name of "freedom" and "spirituality"!

It is easy to see, then, where the notions of the "higher self" come from which pepper New Age literature and 2012 theories. In both the Sumerian cuneiform record and the Bible, we have an authoritarian male Creator God from, or in, the heavens who is perfect and must be obeyed by the lesser mortals on the earth. Meanwhile these lesser mortals exist only to serve God yet rather curiously, perpetually go off-program. These themes have been translated into the higher and lower nature of man - the spiritual nature versus the animal nature - the latter of which must bow down to the former. Judaeo-Christian salvation lies in overcoming the animal nature, which inspired by the Devil (Satan) constantly conspires to tempt us.

It's equally unmistakable what these ascension parables really are. In Christian theology those who are good and obey will go up to Heaven, while those who don't will get left behind and descend into the fiery realms of Hell. Look at the hugely popular Ra material - The Law of One - which originates in the Orion Group and rather creepily mentions a "harvest" of ripe souls around 2012. Watched over by angelic consciousnesses, the Confederation and the Guardians, apparently those operating according to the "violet ray emanation" will undergo a transition from the third to the fourth density. David Wilcock who now speaks and writes prolifically on "soul growth, ascension and the evolution of consciousness" - and had the No.1 video on Youtube, The 2012 Enigma - started off with the Law of One. Then there is David Wolfe the self-proclaimed raw foods guru - and the newly re-invigorated Breatharian movement. In both cases, via our food choices (or lack of them), we can steer ourselves to a higher spiritual level and fall in with the agenda of good ETs who are battling bad ETs in a bid to save the planet. Interestingly David Wolfe and David Wilcock are friends: they have appeared together on Youtube talking about "Earth changes", a "transformation of the human spirit to a higher evolution" and welcoming in "visitors" while this shift comes into being. Wolfe is also deeply involved with the modern-day Essene movement. Meanwhile Breatharianism draws on the 90s' channellings of Charmaine Harley (made famous by faux Australian avatar Jasmuheen) and the Ascension Handbook by Tony Stubbs. The principle ethos here is that we must move away from the poison of cooked food to the purity of raw food, liquids and even just saliva, prana, ch'i or light. In so doing we gain access to a higher dimension; get lighter and less dense; and become more spiritual rather than material.

Suspiciously many of these endeavours end in the attempt to become 'superhuman' or even the gods themselves. But surely this is just the Anunnaki's semi-divine intermediaries - the genetically enhanced slaveworkers they left behind - and the very Creator Gods themselves all over again!. Now we must defeat the old gods, replacing them with ourselves, the new gods. Or even better, we must return ourselves to the state of those from whom the planet was stolen by the Annunaki. Fascinatingly, Sitchin's translation indicates that when they engineered their gold mining slave workers (i.e. US!), the Anunnaki or "Elder Gods" also spliced their own DNA with the prior, indigenous race of Earth (the "Ancient Ones") whom they had defeated:

Man is born of sadness, for he is of the Blood of the Ancient Ones, but has the Spirit of the Elder Gods breathed into him. And his heart goes to the Ancient Ones, but his mind is turned towards the Elder Gods, and this is the war which shall be always fought, unto the last generation of man; for the world is unnatural.

Here the battle is between the natural ancient/indigenous and the unnatural Elder Gods/reptilian influence. This is a war between blood and spirit, also heart and mind. And once again, we must restore ourselves to an original pristine state, which has always been a part of us, but has been masked by an interfering, alien "other".

This type of spiritual reinvention is common at critical junctures in history when there is endemic fear, confusion and doubt. For example, at the time of the sack of the Jerusalem Temple in AD70, the centre of the Jewish world disappeared, its community scattered and the position of the followers of Jesus became highly polarised in relation to other Jews. An eschatology of angels and demons could explain these catastrophic events, which the Jews and the virtue of their religion had been powerless to prevent. A newly transformed concept of "satan" (which was originally a superhuman agent of God sent to protect humans from harm) allowed New Testament writers to account for the misfortune of the Jews as the forces of "evil" acting through certain people. In a similar vein we see the Essenes - identifying themselves with "Israel" - calling themselves the "Sons of Light" in contrast with the remainder of the Jews who they refer to as the "Sons of Darkness." Their sacred texts invoke secrets of angelology allowing for the identification of themselves from evil 'others' within the Jewish faith. This is a veritable tale of the dispossessed: a way for the disenfranchised to put themselves back on the top of the pile!

In just the same way, today we have never been so unsure. Our economic system seems to be collapsing, it appears that certain powerful elites are squeezing off our food supply and in the mind of conspiracy theorists, there may even be a deliberate attempt to substantially reduce the global population. From this we can see it would be unwise to consider 2012 cosmologies and predictions apart from the politico-economic context in which they arise. These must in part be a counternarrative to the unfairness and inequality of the prevailing culture: an act of resistance by the socially disaffected. They are the cry in the wilderness of the victims of society: the lame, the holt and the blind. The God Kings of the market have failed and the roof is about to fall in!

This also reveals the nature of prophesy and psychic messages. Regardless of whether they are accurate (which is nearly always impossible to tell), such predictions play the all-important role of staiving off fear and providing temporary relief from hardship, pain, and not knowing. These elaborate doomsday stories are merely attempts to manage uncertainty and their future prognostications are only ever projections, rather than truth. Nevertheless they give space for an injection of hope and the possibility of a brighter future. A brighter future that in fact, may never come ...

You may think from all of this, that we at Chi-Ting are against ETs, don't believe in an alternative history of Earth, or think that there are no natural disasters to come. Not so. We don't doubt that there are extraterrestrials and that there is far more to the story of this planet than has been officially recognised. Additionally our species is constantly evolving and adapting to its environment. We know that man only uses a fraction of his brain capacity and that the field of DNA and human consciousness has barely begun to be explored. As Aurobindo said: "Man is a transitional being. He is not final. The step from man to superman is the next approaching achievement in the Earth evolution." But we do suggest that these alternative cosmologies may not be all that they seem ... and that they can be hijacked for other, less than pristine agendas ...

Firstly, the thirst for an alternative account can lead innocents into the lair of wolves. Look at the cocaine-adled lunacy of the likes of Benjamin Fulford and his chums the White Dragon Society, the Gnostic Illuminati and the rightwing gun lobbyist Drake. All of these characters take some version of the Illuminati tale for granted and their conspiracy theories linked to everyday global politics have swollen to epidemic, fantasy proportions. (Apparently the new Messiah is none other than Vladmir Putin and the Pope was supposed to resign back in April!) Many of the "truther" websites inculcate far more fear and negativity than the original scenarios they are reporting on. Further, literally millions of internet readers were waiting and waiting this year for the infamous "green light". This was when the long anticipated mass arrests of the Global Cabal/Illuminati were supposed to occur alongside extraterrestrial intervention, prior to actual alien disclosure (commonly referred to as The Event). Of course nothing happened and it was all postponed to some imaginary date in the future with a host of 'good reasons' given. This is just another playground for psychosis. Cast adrift in a mental projection which has little crossover with everyday life, this world is just as illusory as the one beamed out by state-run/corporate media!

Secondly, there are other accounts apart from the Sitchin-inspired version which remain somewhat overshadowed and marginal. These also need to be considered especially as Sitchin - alongside his peers von Däniken and Velikovsky who pioneered Ancient Astronaut Theory - have been much criticised for their literalism, sloppy research and/or wide translations. The work of R.A. Boulay for example, may present a more coherent account of the reptilian/saurian saga, while the Nag Hammadi Codices are particularly important for presenting a more female-centred story. In Origin of the World 116, the Gnostics talk about the Archons (extraterrestrials uncannily similar to what today we call the greys and the reptilians) who they say were sexually attracted to Eve, wife of Adam. The text describes Eve as a "luminous woman": the Archons planned to rape her in order to obscure her inner light but she was aware of their plan and easily outwitted them. In this case alien intrusion into the affairs of Planet Earth was unsuccessful; Eve was smarter than the aliens; and the human race was never genetically corrupted by ET forces.

Thirdly, if Sitchin's interpretation has been questioned, what about the Sumerian clay tablets he was translating - or for that matter the Nag Hammadi Codices? Religious texts are always highly political and these would have been written by elite scribes to present a certain view. Here truth and fiction hardly come into it. What was the purpose of these texts and what did their authors intend us to think or believe as a result of reading them? Further, if there really are extraterrestrials, these texts may be the trance writings or direct channellings of these non-human intelligences. What would be the intent behind giving such information and would that information necessarily be true? As John de Ruiter once remarked, channellings are 'lower beings talking about higher things' ... Would a higher being engage in the mutually parasitic activity of channelling in the first place? What is the status then, of the messages received in recent times, which so often suggest the superiority of alien beings, a certain unsubstantiated worldview, and even a preferred American presidential candidate? These are questions which must be asked but seldom are ... Cui bono?

All of this information potentially leaves us floundering in the dark. Symptomatic of an "I"-centred state of mental agitation, we are left with more questions than answers. Is this really the darkness before dawn as the likes of Barbara Marciniak promise or a prelude to a fall into the abyss?

Perhaps Advaita can help to answer this question ... We started this post with Siva Sakthi and her revelations of natural disasters. Advaita tells us that all of this Endtime drama is shadow-boxing with ghosts of our own making: a wholesale projection of the terror engendered by the death of the ego. Further, because the world is both real and unreal, while debating which version of Earth's history is "true" is completely valid, for Advaitins, there is more to this than meets the eye. According to Advaita there is no time. History is only an 'apparent' happening. Nothing truly ever exists or occurs. On the one hand then, because these environmental disasters and the corruption and murderous intentions of the elite are definitely real, Advaita urges us to take these happenings very seriously. But on the other, because it also says that these events are equally unreal, Advaita reminds us that there is an additional dimension to economic meltdown and the impact of extreme weather conditions such as Hurricane Sandy and Cyclone Neelam. Essentially life is not quite what it seems: anything that happens is undeniable yet an empty, transient drama of unknown quantity. Advaita therefore fully acknowledges what is going on in the world today in all its profundity, while at the same time underlining its ephemeral nature.

This makes Siva Sakthi's predictions all the more fascinating and engaging. We seem to be in the midst of the Earth changes she speaks of and yet, this remains the maya of existence. Here perhaps we have the clothing for the skeleton of Advaitic philosophy. What can often be a very dry, abstruse form of Indian intellectuality springs to life when applied to what amounts to a new history of the planet; a galactic shift in human consciousness; and the possibility of other types of being. Is perhaps the attainment of the Self found in Advaita, the self-same "ascension" described in 2012 theories? Where do they cross over, if at all? After all, many of the modern-day writers and theorists we have mentioned in this post speak of Oneness and the end of separation. Is this the same as "enlightenment" described so often in the Eastern religions?

There are obvious correspondences but there are also substantial differences ... And, to get too drawn into this line of enquiry, overlooks the fact that Advaita has at least two serious problems:

1) Advaita is simply another calcified religious belief system. It seeks to dominate the human individual and place their spirituality at the feet of a divine being or the promise of a future realised Self. We already know for example, that the power structure of Christianity may build on the Anunnaki setup remarked upon within the Sumerian cuneiform record. The theme here seems to be "as above, so below". In ancient India, were there also gods descending into or interacting with their divinely appointed intermediaries on Earth: the priest-kings and their religious teachers? Does Advaita also originate in a hierarchy of power and control based on a long forgotten episode buried in the ancient past?

2) Advaita has not yet got to grips with the issue of personal autonomy. While talking about the Earth changes to come, Siva Sakthi pays homage to the god Siva and displays the predominant Advaitic fixation on purity. She operates within the moral framework of karma and advises turning inward to fix on the light of the Atma. Strangely, this makes Advaita appear not so different from Christianity since apparently, the Advaitin also has the power to choose to better themselves spiritually. But this is not actually the case when we look at Advaitic philosophy. Whereas personal autonomy is the lynchpin of Judaeo-Christian theology, Advaita purportedly questions this inbuilt assumption and instead, analyses its status. In Advaita, no single entity or thing has any absolute existence or non-existence. An "I" is therefore impossible (and so is the intrinsic essence of any object). So there is always free will but rather than it being "real" (as in a concrete, permanent entity), it is both real and unreal (as in a temporary appearance). Put another way, it is not that there is "no" free will. Rather, it is that there is no "one" to have it.

However virtually all of Advaita's proponents are caught up in the inane argument of whether there is or isn't free will. Just like Christianity, they too are stuck in the belief that there is (or isn't) the personal autonomy to do something. So when Siva Sakthi advises us to focus on the Diamond Light, there is a huge problem. There is no one truly there to do this and this means that whether it happens or not cannot be controlled. The Advaitic gurus who instruct their devotees to engage in spiritual practice are simply reinforcing the belief in an absolutely existent "I" WHICH HAS NEVER, EVER EXISTED! Here they are reinventing the notion of an all-powerful self with the ability to achieve something (the Judaeo-Christian Creator God again in a personal form!) This is the Gordian Knot explored in the recently republished Spiritual Humanism vs Neo Advaita. Convoluted verbal gymnasts Alan Stoltz and Möller de la Rouvière engage in a tortuous discussion with a slightly bemused Tony Parsons about self-enquiry - and who there is to do it. After a while it becomes a trilateral exercise in banality. Each of them argues ad nauseam and only succeeds in eating their own tail! Where is the wit, vigour and aliveness in all this verbiage? This is the graveyard shift locked in an endless loop of déjà vu!

Advaita - just like the New Age agenda and 2012 theories - is a promise to nowhere. All it has to offer is a perpetual cycle of extreme spiritual disappointment. And it's exactly the same fixation on purity and spiritual betterment we've been hearing about for eons! Meanwhile the rest of us are no better off. We are left with rising food bills and the struggle to afford petrol and heating: in other words full throttle existential meltdown. Perhaps this is the biggest apocalypse of all ...