Comments About The Wheel

By Michelle Godfrey

in late May 1998

Michelle <mdgodfre@ix.netcom.com>

PART 1.

The wheel.

If one focuses on the extreme edge, one sees that all 24 "humps" merge, forming a continuous, symmetrical sine wave, which is about as mathematically pure a symbol for the linear action of matter and energy in motion in universe as can be conceived anywhere, anytime, though it takes a fairly sophisticated understanding of physics to truly appreciate its universality as a pure symbol. The bottom 12 humps are composed artistically of curved lines which give a decisively wave-like appearance to the entire outer ring, and these "wavelets" are composed of exactly, count them, four lines, making sure that we do not wish this universal statement. As theorists will tell you, the necessary and sufficient points to define any particular wave at all in the universe are exactly four, no more no less.

As any student of energy will tell you, a wave defined by four points will describe exactly two halves, one the peak and the other the valley of a wave, each the mirror opposite of the other.

From The Cosmic Wisdom Beyond Astrology by Adrian Gilbert:

The wave grows (phase 1) from the origin O, reaches a peak P and then declines (phase 2). It then passes below the origin, becomes negative and continues to decline until it reaches a negative trough T which is the mirror image of the positive peak. Finally it begins to ascend again (phase 4) back towards the origin and the start of a new cycle. This fourfold cycle is what is called Simple Harmonic Motion (SHM). It is the underlying process behind many natural phenomena such as the vibrations produced in guitar strings or organ pipes, light waves, the rotation of a body about a fixed point, the pitch and roll of a ship or the bouncing of a rubber ball. It is therefore not surprising that the orbital cycles of the planets, the Sun and the Moon are all typical SHM’s and can be represented diagrammatically as sine waves.

…We should in fact plot not just one graph (the sine wave of light) but rather a double graph which shows symbolically the shifting balance of the two alternative curves of light and dark as they weave their way through the year. [which looks like the interweaving spirals of the carduceus]

Michael, I am convinced that your Karma Wheel is a representation of the Zodiac. The zodiac is a perfect wheel of "12" within "24"… the 12 signs, of course, and the 24 created with the plotting of the double sine wave function, x 2 (neters) which balance the light and dark functions of each zodiacal sign. Any (good) astrologer understands the signs as energy POTENTIALITIES… neutral in themselves and only characteristically "good" (light) or "bad" (dark) when consciousness moves within them according to will. And even that’s not a good description, because good and bad can occur within either light or dark. But anyway, the point is, the dual energy function that is implied in astrology gives rise to the concept of 12 within 24. In fact, it could be said that one masters one’s horoscope when the 12 are illumined to 24… when all light and dark aspects of the soul are recognized, realized and synchronized in balance. Then we move to the CENTER point of our horoscopes and no longer look outside ourselves for our psychic reference points, but UP and OUT along a new axis of awareness. Think of this three dimensionally. Stretch out your arms and turn around… you draw a circle around your body which is your horoscope graph. The signs are plotted along this graph. That is where most people live, playing out the light-dark dynamics of each sign or many signs throughout their lives (which tests appear as people, situations, and other things ‘out there’). This is related to karma, for as long as we continue to play these light-dark dynamics, we require repeated lifetimes of experience to get the balance right. But there is a better way, as your pendant illuminates!

Our lives are not on the horoscope grid, not in the zodiac. The horoscope is simply our "atmosphere", our earthly environment. Look up! That is our origin. We were seeded into this "garden" of the zodiac… we grow UP, the phoenix flies! And as we raise our vision, the zodiac is no longer our reference… it is no longer relevant!

PART 2.

The neters.

Anthropomorphizing the two principles defines them as divine, not as empty, random patterns, such as the waves which run across the earth's ocean. Regardless of which way the circle rolls, one neter is looking forward in time, another is looking backwards in time.

Also, one neter looks to the Eastern horizon (Aries), one to the Western (Libra), the points of birth and death, spring and autumn equinoxes (respectively) - the karmic cycle. The horizon is the reference point of astrological calculation. It is how we come to observe, over time, the precession of the equinoxes, the larger cosmic year by which we transcend the solar-year-spectrum. Regardless of how the circle rolls, one neter looks to the star rising point, another to the setting point. But these are only our navigating points. They point us to the midheaven (UP), and to our divine selves. By looking out there, we can calculate where we stand in space and time, even though the reference points appear to be in flux (due to precession). But it’s the COMBINATION of points that gives the cosmic constant… life and death, light and dark balanced in the sine wave function to produce an energy harmonic, the null point where the waves cross… yes even a musical tone and light color, that cancels out negative energy vibrations and respatializes us to participate in a new energy spectrum! Moving from the red-orange spectrum (solar red-shift), into the blue spectrum of the stars! This is what the King’s chamber does! Sound the tone, and the energy formula is set in motion! Colors are seen! The Phoenix rises!

The polarity neters hold and balance the basket, Khepri.

Our launching pad into the multiverse is contingent upon our understanding of horizon phenomenon, which points to the stars. We move from the Earth-Sun sine wave astrology wheel into the cosmic astrology constant revealed in the stars.

PART 3.

The scarab

Hence, the scarab is exactly the symbol of the annual cycle of life's renewal. Thus we have the name of the cycle of this wheel, The Year.

But the wings are contained within the cycle of the year, in fact, its wings are but an expression of the substance of the cycle (the silver substrate) and are firmly welded to arise out of the annual cycle (the inner edge of the outer band). The scarab's basket is not going somewhere else.

I postulate that the basket is representing the time-space continuum… the cradle of life. It is the alembic in which we are born and out of which we spring forth into divinity. We become so closely identified with it, we think it is our nature… but we are divine elements, the chemical equation. We are in a biochemical testing zone! We are elemental lead, transmuting our souls into Golden Spirits.

Thus the scarab finds transcendence as the expression of the cycle which repeats itself endlessly, never by becoming something other than the cycle. This is not just a cycle, it is the ever-repeating cycle of eternity. Thus we see that this piece is not just a piece of fashion jewelry, it is the Egyptian Wheel of Karma.

The connection to the sun in this instance is perfect, for the scarab is the symbol of the annual cycle of renewal, hence its basket is the annual cycle of the earth around the sun.

Yeah! And Earth-Sun relativity is the science around which astrology revolves, the cycle of seasons. (Astrology is supposedly a planetary/constellation science, and it may have started out that way in Egypt, but it lost that a long time ago. As it is practiced today, it is a totally Earth-based science, which is fine, but people confuse this to have some cosmological significance. Anyway, back to the point.) In essence, the scarab’s transcendence represents our transcendence of space and time.

"The High God went through a series of changing forms as he developed from the first life to come from the waters. He can be a sheperd herding his flock, a king on a throne, the idol in its shrine, as well as his past forms as lotus flower, Divine Child, hawk, serpent, ram, and so on…"

This is so cool that you quoted this! Look at where the wings point on the wheel, and where the tuft points. Astrological, the wings are pointing to Pisces (left), Scorpio (right) and the tuft points to Capricorn (midheaven). Pisces is the sign of the lamb, the sign of the Christ, the sign of the Messiah and of the spiritual flock. Scorpio is the sign of the Hawk-Serpent (yes, it is BOTH simultaneously)… the serpent representing the potential for transformation, and the hawk being the Spirit that is released from serpent-consciousness. Capricorn is the sign of Kingship… ruled by Saturn, the Lord of Time, the wise adept who has been tested in all things, and risen to the top of mountain. Represented by a goat because the goat always seeks the highest ground, can seemingly eat anything and be unharmed (can be IN the world, yet not be OF it), and are typically loners, indicating the solitary nature of the King’s path.

The wings rather closely define one third of the annual circle, forming a base for a triangle which is parallel to one of the triangles of cosmic order defined by the coral beads. The triangle which Khepri's wings suggest is a downward pointing one, signifying "that which is defined from the cosmic order above". Note that Khepri's scarab color is blue, a color of the substance of cold solid materiality while the descending cosmic triangle (as above) its wings point to is the opposite polarity, orange, a color of the light.

This triangle you’re talking about is bounded by three astrological points on the wheel which is known as the water triplicity – the signs of Pisces, Scorpio and Cancer. This may be one reason the colors are blue… representing our birth from the cosmic waters, the cosmic Nile, the Milky Way. It is cold and feminine, material and fluid, the negative energy function of the sine wave. It points downward, as if to describe the fall of Eve, the descent of the feminine aspect of God into materiality.

The other upward triangle, which completes the Star of David, is the earth triplicity – the signs of Taurus (Orion), Virgo (Isis-Virgin) and Capricorn (Horus-King). It describes the redemption of our earth plane or relativity. It is also feminine, but the positive energy function.

There are two other triplicities – fire and air. These triplicities are anchored on the East and West horizons. Fire = Aries (East), Leo, Sagittarius; Air = Libra (West), Aquarius, Gemini. Air and Fire are the masculine triplicities, air being negative and fire being positive.

So, what? Well, I think the earth-water triplicites describe the earth-oriented spiritual humanity. The souls-spirits participating in this dimension. The air-fire triplicites describe our Spirit counterparts, the angelic hosts and creator gods which work with us… they are the "bridegroom" and we, on earth, are the "bride", preparing to be married as we ascend and they descend when the Phoenix takes flight!

This larger wheel of liberation is the cycle of the Phoenix, symbolized as the Ibis, an aloof, but benign bird which migrates with the seasons (cosmic cycles) rather than living and dying like the scarab within one cycle of seasons. To transcend the identity of Khepri, to become reborn (as above) one must become "as the Phoenix", a being of transcendent migration, never contained, who flies beyond the repeating finite cycles of carnal existence.

Also from Gilbert’s book:

"When the Ancient Greek and Egyptian astrologers put together our current system of astrology some two and a half thousand years ago, the movement of the Sun through the signs of the zodiac was taken as the basis of the psycho philosophical system they wished to expound. This system concerns the vegetative cycle of the Earth and not the processes going on in deepest space. … Unfortunately [due to precession of the equinoxes] it means that Astrology is now a science which is out of sync with itself. In relation to the solar cycle, a person born during the first thirty days of spring is still said to be an Aries but the Sun is no longer to be found in the constellation of Aries at this time but rather in the sign of Pisces! … what we are really saying when we call a person an Aries is that they are born within the period of the first twelfth of the year. We are concerned with the ever changing Earth-Sun cycle and not with the background stars that make up the clockface"

And it’s my belief that when we redefine our cosmology-astrology to be again relevant to the "background" stars (our origins), that we will understand how to transcend time. I believe also that the Egyptians knew this science, which may have been in part responsible for their communing with the gods on Earth and in the stars… they knew the math for the time gates! (both within and without) They had a true astrology of the stars. All we have is an astrology of death and reincarnation. We don’t have to reincarnate!

PART 4.

The tuft.

But notice how the tufting lines (five) harmonize stylistically with the lines of the wave flows of the cosmic ocean on the outer ring. And observe if you will that the "heart" above the tuft looks rather similar to the Atef Crown, worn by transcendent beings, especially by Atum, the creator god which was the final focal point and the one God behind everything in Egyptian metaphysics.

Yes, I see this. And I understand it to represent that our transformation is contingent upon our 7th-chakra (crown) link-up with the divine wisdom, Sophia, Holy Spirit, which pours into us as the Waters of Life when we become initiated or anointed. The mysteries of creation are revealed through the effulgent LOVE ("heart" motif) of humanity and God’s work.

The innocuous symbol of the tuft is more than it seems and has nothing to do with beetle anatomy. It is after all, a part of the cup (the Khepri nature) which holds the beetle, it is not the beetle.

Cup = chalice = Spirit… so much is here! Also, you mention the five lines drawn in the tuft… again representative of the Holy Mother.

Gilbert again: "The pentagram is a symbol derived from nature and the laws of growth. …in the five petals of the wild dog-rose and in the five decades of the catholic rosary…closely associated with the veneration of the virgin [Virgo, in the earth triplicity that is to be lifted up]. In church mysticism the number 5 is also allied with Easter… five wounds, five nails. Pentacles are associated with sacrifice and therefore the need for charity."

Note also that Mary is associated with the color blue. It seems to me there’s a strong testimony in this pendant of the work of the Holy Feminine, Spirit of Wisdom… She is the essential element of this transformation. Eve = E V A = A V E = Ave Maria.

Also, from the Keys of Enoch (and I think also kabbalah), five is associated with Merkabah, which is the vehicle of the Holy Spirit, imparting wisdom to seekers. Merkabah brings the capstone of wisdom. (Of course, very different from the Drunvalo perspective.)

This symbol, never understood even as a crown symbol, is the Phoenix Crown, completely unrecognized in the current annals of egyptololgy. By crowning the scarab, who is correctly balanced and aligned in the Wheel of Karma, with the Phoenix Crown, below the divine energy (orange) descending from the Atef Crown, the philosophic intelligence behind this humble piece of jewelry has pointed us directly to the possibility of liberation from the wheel of causality by realization of our nature as flowing from the divine and has enjoined us to take up the Dharma quest to realize this connection with the divine, to realize it by becoming one with it and thus get off the Wheel of Karma.

Yes yes yes! Amen! Here’s another quote from Gilbert I thought you’d appreciate:

"Where science ends art must begin, for it is the duty of the artist to represent as accurately as he can the intangible qualities of feeling that lie beyond the range of scientific instruments. Indeed one measures the value of a civilization by the quality of its art. Today we tend to think of the artist as something of a Bohemian, one who is able to cock a snook at convention and either paint or sculpt as the mood takes him. This type of art may well be valid but often it becomes so personal that only the artist himself can grasp the meaning of his work. Having invented a language of his own to suit his own tastes, he is unable to communicate his ideas to a wide audience, though many may pretend to understand. Indeed so abstracted has much of modern art become that often the artist himself is totally mystified by his own work and cannot give a coherent account of what he was trying to achieve."

Thanks for your time and patience in reviewing my comments, Michael.

I feel your enthusiasm, and your profound experience through this pendant!

Selah! Allelujah!

Love and Blessings,

Michelle