May 2002 planetary alignment may well have been a celestial event auspicious and significant enough to warrant the inception of a NEW WORLD CALENDAR.
Since the early 1990’s when myself and a very few other researchers noted the so-called ‘Galactic Alignment’ (see the chapter on the Turning of the Ages in The Shamanic Astrology Handbook), many other voices have emerged heralding the ‘ending’ of world calendars. There is the now well known end of the Mayan calendar around the December solstice of 2012. Last year Moira Timms popularized a timeline from the Great Pyramid with a last date of Sept. 17, 2001 (see her book Beyond Prophecies and Predictions). Since the time when myself and astrologer Raymond Mardycks were like voices calling in the wilderness, now there is much greater awareness of the galactic alignments and their implications for world calendrics.
A galactic alignment occurs only 4 times every 25,820 years, which is the length of one precessional cycle, the cycle caused by the combined effects of the earths tilt and wobble. In Shamanic Astrology we assert that this precessional cycle is the longest natural cycle that can be perceived by the senses from one lifetime to the next. In fact, one criterion for determining whether we are in a Dark Age is if humanity loses its awareness of the precessional cycle.
Many if not most of the known world calendars were sourced 5000-6000 years ago at a time when the equinoxes were in alignment with the intersection of the galactic plane and the plane of the solar system. Even today, one of the few things that astronomers and astrologers agree on is to start their coordinate systems at the Spring Equinox (that is to say, at 0Aries. At the time that these calendars began (As the Age of Gemini shifted to the Age Taurus) the spring equinox was not only at a galactic alignment but also inside the Sacred Hoop, a very special area of the sky which we will have much more to say about soon.
13,000 years ago (half way back in the precessional cycle) the winter solstice was located in this same region of the sky. In the Egyptian mythos, as developed by West, Bauval, and Hancock, this was understood as the ‘first times’. The great sphinx can be seen as a calendric device, a lion like being facing due east, which would have observed the constellation of the Lion rising in the East at Spring Equinox.
Today, the sky is a mirror image of then. Now the Water Bearer (the constellation of Aquarius) rises at Spring Equinox. And most importantly, now the Summer Solstice is located exactly at a galactic intersection, the intersection where the galactic plane meets the zodiacal constellations, in between the Bull and the Twins (the constellations of Taurus and Gemini), inside the Sacred Hoop.
Meanwhile the Winter Solstice is located at the other galactic intersection with the zodiac, in between the Scorpion and the Archer (the constellations of Scorpius and Sagittarius). Again to re-iterate; these alignments are only possible 4 times within a 25,820 year precessional cycle, about every 6000-6500 years. And they are happening now. When and how long is ‘now’?
Since the precession moves 1degree every 72 years, then a good general answer could be that a calendric shift occurs within a span of 72 years (close to an average human lifespan).The exact center point of the 72 years can be calculated exactly. The astronomer Jean Meuss (in Astronomical Morsels) calculated the date when the winter solstice colura precisely intersected with where the exact center of the plane of the galaxy crosses the exact center of the plane of the solar system and came up with May 1998. The Mayan calendrics indicate the zone from 1987-2012 as the final phase of their calendar. From this, my sense is that 2002 was near the middle of the end and the beginning. But how did the May 2002 planetary alignment fit in? So far we are just setting the stage.
The Sacred Hoop
There exists a configuration of stars visible in the winter and spring evening sky that current age astronomers sometimes call the ‘winter hexagon’. Starting at what is currently at positioned at the top of the Hoop moving clockwise, the stars comprising the Hoop are: Pollux, Castor, Capella, the Pleiades, the Hyades, Rigel, Sirius, and Procyon. The Ecliptic (plane of the solar system) and the Milky Way (plane of the galaxy) cross through and intersect near the middle of this configuration, actually forming a cross within a circle.
The place of the intersection is between the feet of the Twins and the horns of the Bull. At this current time the exact placement of the summer solstice (0 degree Cancer) falls on this intersection. Also to be noted is that the location of the galactic anti-center (looking out into deep space from our vantage point as an outlier solar system in the Milky Way galaxy) lies very close to this grand intersection just slightly off the ecliptic.
The Lakota Sioux andother Plains Indian Tribes called this region THE SACRED HOOP. It was considered to be extremely auspicious when the Moon and Planets moved through the Hoop. In May of 2002 five visible planets were aligned inside the Sacred Hoop. From May 13-16, 2002 the Moon also passed these planets.
Numerous myths and oral histories from Native American to Egyptian to Northern-European to Babylonian have referred to this intersection of the Milky way with the Zodiac as the place where souls enter into incarnation. This was sometimes known as the “gate of Cancer’. (Note that the opposite point of the sky, between the Scorpion and the Archer in the direction of the galactic center, known as the ‘gate of Capricorn’ was seen as an exit point, where souls leave upon death.) The soul was seen to be flowing down the Milky Way and then entering between the Bull and Twins in these tellings.
Inside the Hoop we also have the constellation most popularly known in the western world as Orion. The Mayans perceived the sword of Orion as a sacred fire of creation inside a fire pit. Amazingly, modern astronomers have discovered that this region of space is actually churning out new stars! As a last example, an Alaskan shamanic tradition perceived the great equilateral triangle in the Hoop formed by Sirius, Procyon, and Betelgeuse, as a ‘heavens gate’, another version of an entry point or entrance into incarnation.
The point of all this is to demonstrate how this region of the sky relates to beginnings and origins. Remember that the equinox based calendars all began whilst the Spring Equinox was located inside the Sacred Hoop. And the Egyptian “first time’ mythos was connected to these configurations inside the Hoop, when the Winter Solstice was located there. And now, 13,000 years later, the Summer Solstice is precisely there.
Five Visible Planets Inside the Hoop
At this time in the Precessional cycle, the degrees of the sign-based zodiac that crosses through the Hoop, extends from about 29 degrees of Taurus at the Pleiades to about 23 degrees of Cancer at the fixed star Pollux. Jupiter and Mars exited the Hoop on July 4th, 2002. Mercury remained in the Hoop until July 18th. Venus left the Hoop around June 10th. Saturn left the Hoop in May 2005, crossing over the grand intersection (where the Summer Solstice is aligned with the intersection point inside the Hoop) in June of 2003.
Shamanic Astrology recognizes the visible configurations of the naked eye planets to be near the top of the list of celestial significators. Only eclipses and great comets can be of a greater import. We know the Chinese calendar is an example of one ancient calendar sourced via a great conjunction of the visible planets. This occurred when the all the visible planets gathered in the morning sky between the Fish and the Ram.
The beginning of the 2002 planetary alignment occurred when Mercury entered the Hoop on April 29,2002. This indicated the timing for the inauguration of a NEW WORLD CALENDAR maybe taking place now between April 29-June 10, 2002.
The following data gives some possibilities for exactly when this might have occurred:
May 12-May 15 Beginning with the New Moon, passing into the hoop and then over the next few nights aligned with Mercury, Saturn, Venus, Mars, and then Jupiter on the evening of May 15th. The Moon-Venus conjunction on May 14 was a third Chakra initiation when Inanna or Venus representing the sacred feminine principle passed through the third gate out of the underworld and recovered a healthy relationship with her personal power.
May 26 Full Moon and Lunar Eclipse; was also the day of the culmination of the Saturn-Pluto opposition.
June 5th Saturn was conjunct the North node at 17 Gemini 52
June 10th NEW MOON SOLAR ECLIPSE was 19 Gemini 54, followed by the Moon-Venus 4th Chakra heart initiation as Venus is exiting the Hoop on June 12th.
My personal leaning for the exact date of the New Calendar is towards May 13, 2002 (the very closest planetary grouping with the Moon present) or June 10, 2002 highlighted by the Solar Eclipse conjunct with Saturn.