The Great Pentacle

We have talked earlier about five important lessons and tests of the soul, represented by the five fingers of the hand. These lessons and tests apply not just at the level of the individual soul, but also at the level of the race itself. At the level of humanity these take on somewhat different characteristics, resulting in experiences and lessons that we call The Great Pentacle.

References to experiences of the Great Pentacle can be found scattered in the Bible and some of its associated books that are no longer part of the canon. One such is the Book of Enoch, which was considered scripture by early church fathers, and which is quoted from by the Epistle of Jude in the New Testament. This book refers to a time of cross-breeding between angels and mankind, and the resulting debauchery and evil that filled all of the earth. This temptation of humanity occurred soon after the sexual division of mankind was complete (which is symbolized by the making of Eve from Adam). The Book of Enoch covers in some detail about the temptation of the daughters of men (Eve) by the fallen angels (the serpent or devil) and then of the men (Adam). This temptation was primarily sexual in nature, which then devolved further into black magic, prohibited practices and all kinds of debauchery.

Returning to the five fingers of the hand - we discussed the lessons and tests connected with the little finger and the ring finger in our earlier discussion on the Mahabharata and the Pandava princes. In essence, these fingers represent the areas of sexuality and love respectively, and the ability to distinguish between the two. In the Great Pentacle of human experience, the little finger represents the sexual division of humanity and the subsequent Temptation. This was a period of extreme sexuality and rampant uncontrolled emotionalism, where little of love as such was experienced by the race. This phase of experience was put to an end, along with all the mutated progeny that resulted from the cross-breeding, when the pent up emotionalism in the environment was allowed to precipitate down to the earth as water (emotion per se is symbolized by water). This then was the Flood of Noah, the second of experiences of the Great Pentacle, and represented by the ring finger, in this case a failure to develop the love nature. Drowning is an experience which is deeply symbolic to the soul, often pointing out a lesson of excessive emotionalism. It is not by accident that the Bible mentions the rainbow in this context, for it is indeed the most beautiful symbol given to humanity and one that represents Christ Love manifesting in the collective. We have discussed the meaning of the rainbow in the chapter Mountain in our work, The God Principle, and the reader is referred there for a better understanding.

After the Flood, only a smattering of humanity survived to repopulate the earth. The subsequent phase was of relative unity which then had to be disrupted. This disruption had to do with two primary reasons. One, of the need to develop individuality, and secondly because the unity that resulted was counterproductive since a handful of leaders held great sway over the masses and led them along undesirable paths. Indeed it was the very lack of development of individuality that was a major causative factor of this. Therefore a phase that may be called the Time of the Nations was inaugurated, which represented a splitting up of the masses into multiple groups, separated by geographic and other boundaries so that each group could develop its own way and explore different aspects of the human experience. It is well known to biologists that isolation is one of the most productive methods for speciation (i.e. creation of new species), and something of this nature occurred in this phase. The earth went through a phase of mountain building and convulsions that formed islands, deserts, plateaus and so on, isolating groups from one another which then began to form individual tribes, societies and finally nations. This phase of experience is mentioned in the Bible in its references to the Tower of Babel.

In the Great Pentacle, the Tower of Babel and the resulting Time of the Nations is connected with the middle finger of the human hand. The middle finger is ruled by Saturn, which essentially represents the dictum “Man, know thyself!” and in that sense is the prime mover behind the development of individuality. (One of the most important avenues of self-discovery happens through the action of karma, and hence the typical association of Saturn with negative karma or misfortune). This development of individuality also brings clashes between units (or nations), as each tend to assert their individuality and encroach upon others, resulting in violence. It is not accidental that contemporary society, especially in the west where there is a much stronger sense of individuality, tends to ‘show the middle finger’ when expressing one’s own individuality against perceived encroachments. It must now be clear that humanity at this phase was not meant to be a unified whole, but develop and experiment with different modes of culture, government, belief systems, vocations and so on, fitting quite aptly with the Saturnian dictum of “Know thyself!”. The Time of Nations continue to be extant to this day, and an eventual reunion of the race is meant to be possible after sufficient individualization and exploration has occurred.

The forefinger is ruled by Jupiter, which stands for growth, expansion, abundance and so on. This represents the current phase of human development, moving from eternally conflicting nations and tribes to a more enlightened life, such as democracies, the development of science and technology, improved health and longer lifespans, better systems of justice and so on. Western civilization represents a good example of this Jupitarian movement among the nations, and its height is represented by capitalism. The negative side of the Jupiter symbolism is equally manifest, which is mainly the gross exaggeration of certain values to the point of blindness to other equally important ones, and is found in the prevailing rampant materialism, with capitalism again representing its very height. In this phase, the individualization mandated by the Time of the Nations is largely complete and there begins a knitting together of nations, cultures and peoples back into a unity that yet preserves individual identities. This is akin to the relationship between the states and the federal government of the US, and to which Europe is slowly transitioning into. This slow movement is also abetted by development of science and technology, including in the area of movies and entertainment, communications, and particularly the Internet.

Over eons of experience a large portion of mankind has now developed the capacity to individualize and to love, and to see oneself as worthy in the sight of God – a development primarily at the level of the soul. But the soul is also hampered greatly by negative emotion, such as anger, resentment and the inability to forgive, which prevents positive soul attributes from manifesting on the earth on a large scale. This brings us to the final phase of the Great Pentacle, one which is calculated to bring the above positive attributes to manifest, while weeding out the negative ones. In this process, those souls who still refuse to develop these positive attributes and are totally mired in negativity of their own creation, will have to be separated out. In the Bible are found references to the separation of the sheep from the goats, and this final phase where this happens has been called the Tribulation.

Now the thumb of the hand is ruled by Mars, the god of war. The primary lesson denoted by the thumb is the ability to forgive and to turn the other cheek, which if not heeded results in violence and war of the kind which has plagued mankind through most of its experience on the earth. Just as the negativity of an earlier time was allowed to condense into the Flood during the second pentacle experience, man’s collective karma is allowed to descend on him, resulting in such an explosion of violence and destruction that man finally sees clearly what he has made of himself, and of the gift of life and the earth that was given to him. This phase represents a drastic reflection of his lower nature manifesting all around, leading every individual to a final choice that must be made: to indulge in that quagmire of negativity, or to cleanse oneself of it and help the world be a better place. The release of collective karma, much of which has been held back from manifestation (sealed as it were), is symbolically represented in the Revelations chapter of the Bible as the opening of the seven seals. The period of trials and tribulations will be visible to all of humanity, and is meant to cleanse mankind off its negativity and to step into an enlightened way of living in unity and brotherhood.

This phase of transition into the so-called Aquarian age is expected to span some three hundred years from the present time of writing. While violence and bloodshed must descend, its extent, depth and duration will depend primarily on the free will of humanity, i.e. on the amount of change and progress that has already been made. If this were not so, prophecy per se would have little use or meaning for humanity. As of this writing, it is expected that the worst effects may primarily be restricted to those nations and areas of the world where souls who have a low vibrational level tend to manifest. Yet it will be a wrenching experience to all those who observe these groups tearing each other apart, forcing them to respond. However not every soul is in need of going through the dredges of the Tribulation and a large group will stay away from incarnation during its darkest period. This "gathering up" is referred to in Christian theology as the Rapture. Those who imagine believers flying up into the clouds may wish to consider how else the above mentioned concept could be presented to a seer in an apocalyptic vision.

The culmination of the Tribulation results in mankind having gone through the Great Pentacle of experiences and ready to graduate to a new level, one primarily founded on love and brotherhood. While the Tribulation would separate the truly unredeemable out from the rest, there still would remain among humanity a fraction that struggles with negativity. They are offered another chance to make their choices, during the so-called thousand years of the golden age, after which another period of testing is initiated before the final transformation sets in.

We should also cover the fate of those who do not move forward with the rest of humanity. After the completion of the Great Pentacle, the most base and incalcitrant of them, deemed as failed souls, must be returned to the melting pot and re-projected from the Body of God into an elementary kingdom – obliterating all of their individual identities and memories. Those who were intermediate in turning away may have a chance to continue their evolution with a different soul group elsewhere, one which is experiencing an earlier stage of the Great Pentacle.

Indeed the human soul group did adopt a fragment of another soul group into itself, one that had failed in their own version of the Tribulation many eons ago. When a soul group is adopted this way, it must also bring with it something of value to the group of which it now becomes a part. In this case, the incoming group has been given an anchor of a true faith which is meant to be a light unto humanity, but which is also filled with stark warnings, consequences and prophecies of just the type of experiences that resulted in that group’s prior failure. They also bring with them their racial memory in the areas of science and technology, and has seen the most number of Nobel prize winners for any racial group. The karma carried over by this group has been very heavy and has partly been responsible for many of their tribulations and persecutions through the centuries. They have attempted to keep genetic strains of the group pure, and have been largely sustained from disintegration while many other cultures and racial groups on the earth have risen and fallen. Many old enmities, resentments and habits nevertheless persist and the group incarnates into opposing camps that are constantly in conflict with each other. In many ways they are also meant to serve as a flashpoint for the Tribulation stage that humanity is undergoing. It is hoped that they are finally able to forgive and to turn the other cheek, which was the primary message of the Redeemer who manifested among them.

We have now spent ample space and time on a discussion of the Great Pentacle, which most readers will consider as fanciful, fiction, fantasy or whatever. The human hand having five fingers is not an accident and is partly meant to remind the soul or higher self of the major lessons and tests it has subjected itself to during the course of its evolution. The Great Pentacle was planned out well before the first breathing out of the human life stream on the planet. We now close with an excerpt from The God Principle, chapter Mountain:

“The heavens and the earth sought to mould human beings, who by choice remained pure and innocent, yet well understood the cunning and evil mind; who were pliable, but could exercise tremendous strength of will; who were gentle and peace loving, but were great warriors who knew when and how to fight; who could weep with compassion, but could not be fooled; who could behold great injustice, and still act with restraint and foresight; who could be relentless in the pursuit of goals, not for their own benefit but for the common good; and who possessed a strong individuality but were the essence of humility. Such were the kind of qualities that life sought to induce in the children of God who sojourn on this planet of light and darkness.”