And now we are living in the dark times of the Kali Yuga, when goodness and virtue has all but disappeared from the world. But when did the Kali Yuga begin? And when does it end? In spite of the elaborate theological framework which describes the characteristics of this age, the start and end dates of the Kali Yuga remain shrouded in mystery. The popularly accepted date for the beginning of the Kali Yuga is 3102 BC, thirty-five years after the conclusion of the great battle of the Mahabharata. This is remarkably close to the proposed beginning of the current “Great Cycle” of the Mayan Long Count Calendar in 3114 BC. It is of interest to note that in both of these cases the beginning dates of the respective cycles were calculated retrospectively. The Mayans had recomputed their ancient calendars sometime between 400 BC to 50 CE, at the ceremonial center of Izapa in Mexico, and fixed the starting date of the current Great Cycle of their Long Count Calendar. And in India, sometime around 500 CE, a major review of the Indian calendric systems had taken place. It was during this time that the renowned astronomer Aryabhatta had identified the beginning date of the Kali Yuga as 3102 BC. Why was it suddenly necessary for two ancient civilizations to re-calculate dates that should have been an integral part of their calendric systems? How did such important time-markers slip out of their collective memory?
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Recent updates:
December 17th, 2015‘Metaphysics of War’ by Julius Evola added to Virtual Library
May 1st, 2014Gyula Tóth Video Lecture: “The Trap of False History 10 Years On” (with English subtitles) added
November 7th, 2013‘The end of the Kali Yuga in 2025: Unraveling the mysteries of the Yuga Cycle’ by Bibhu Dev Misra added
October 23rd, 2011The following titles added to Virtual Library:
By Julius Evola
‘The Yoga of Power’, ‘Introduction to Magic’ (with the UR Group), ‘The Hermetic Tradition’, ‘Ride the Tiger’, ‘Meditation on the Peaks’;
by Martin Lings
Collected Poems, ‘What Is Sufism?’
The noble man is one who dominates himself; the holy man is one who transcends himself. Nobility and holiness are the human imperatives of the human state.
- Frithjof Schuon
From the archives
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Metahistory
Gyula Tóth Video Lecture: The Trap of False History 10 Years On (with English subtitles)
The original article titled “The Trap of False History” that was published on this site was the work of Gyula Tóth translated to English from the original Hungarian, and concerned Heribert Illig’s and Uwe Topper’s Phantom Time hypothesis in connection to the accuracy of the Hungarian chronicles. This very recently recorded lecture’s title is “The Sack of Rome, and – The Dark Ages?” and starts off by explaining the problem of the different calendars used in the world before, during [...]
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Traditional Metaphysics
The Force of Visualization
It is by now well known in most spiritual circles that the quest for the Holy Grail, which Percival undertook in the powerful Grail epic, is not an outer journey but a metaphor for an inner journey; a path to self-realization. The claim, however, that the vessel(s) used in hermetism corresponds to earth, the human body and therefore the symbol of the actual Grail and the stone – Lapidem – being what often is referred to as ‘the spiritual heart’ [...]
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Metapolitics
The Illusion Of Democracy
Most people think of democracy as being “good”. It represents everything which most people consider valuable and precious. The modern mass media uses democracy as a label for ideas, values and principles they consider “right”. Often one sees and hears people say things like “it is my democratic right”, or “it is everyone’s democratic duty” – to vote, for example. “Sound democratic values” is another cryptic expression often used by everyone from world leaders and influencial businessmen to journalists [...]
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Traditional Metaphysics
Metaphysics and the Perennial Philosophy
This is a transcript from a lecture given by Martin Lings at the Temenos Academy. “Ladies and gentlemen, I’ll just begin my talk by mentioning – and this refers to the talk is actually called: Metaphysics and the Perennial Philosophy, metaphysics coming first, that is, but that’s not an important detail, but it explains why I begin by mentioning – that René Guénon only once – as far as I know – entered into the academic world, which he did by [...]
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Sacred Art • Traditional Metaphysics
Knowledge of the Symbol by Pietro Negri
According to Dante (Convivium, II, 1), ” texts can be understood and expounded according to four senses”: the literal sense; the allegorical sense, which Dante says, “is a truth concealed behind a beautiful lie’; the moral sense; and the anagogical sense. The anagogical sense occurs when “reading in a spiritual way a scriptural passage, which in its literal meaning and in the things being signified points toward the things of eternal glory”; in other words, it is the innermost meaning [...]
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Metahistory
South American Natives Speak Ancient European Language? Part 1
“Juan (János) Moricz, our compatriot, met in Ecuador, Peru and the Amazonas such Indian tribes the members of which he could speak Hungarian with. In their legends they keep the awareness and knowledge of their many thousands of years’ old past and their kinship and connections with other peoples alive. Nobody has been able to refute Moricz’ discoveries, on the contrary, the Spanish for political and economical reasons have levelled heavy attacks against Moricz.”
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