“…THE MAGICAL CAROUSEL, -for children, for adults, for all who by intuition know that history of today will be the myth of tomorrow…” A unique version of ASTROLOGY Ancient-New

It is 1985. Patrizia Norelli-Bachelet, cosmologist, author, and teacher, living in the Palani hills of South India, begins a correspondence with a new student residing in New York City. Some years prior, after 18 years as a Catholic nun, the student left the religious life. She went on to become a psychotherapist, and explored many of the ‘New Age’ spiritual teachings gaining popularity in the West. Patrizia asks the student why none of these pursuits has provided the answers she was seeking. Why has she turned to Patrizia for answers? These letters reveal an entirely New Way of approaching the desire for inner peace, the pursuit of Truth, as well as the limits of 'personal enlightenment'. Heeding her teacher’s advice that she make a big leap into the unknown, the new student begins her studies. She finds that our mental race is ‘in transition’ to a Supramental consciousness now descending to earth: a new species is being born. Her old spiritual path and psychotherapy cannot ‘fill the void’ because humankind is moving up the evolutionary ladder. It is Sri Aurobindo’s yoga that offers a way to transform human nature; Patrizia’s contribution to his new vision is The Gnostic Circle. This diagram displaces the old astrology by offering a cosmology to help the student get the correct balance. No longer will her individual development be the central focus, Patrizia informs (25 August letter); rather all three aspects of the Divine reality become synthesised in the spiritual quest: God, cosmos and her own soul. ‘Mind you, this has never been done before’, she exclaims, ‘it has always been one or the other.’

Astrology is older than any religion known today. It is more ancient than the most ancient scriptures. It will last long after these have past into oblivion, when religions, philosophies, metaphysical systems, the various spiritual disciplines will appear as myths, because it does not depend on man, though he be divinely inspired. Its scriptures are the movement of the planets. Its Truth lies in the workings of the Cosmos, in the harmonies of the Spheres, and as long as these exist, so long will astrology live.

‘…the new order is simply an UPDATING of the old. The latter is not discarded but simply brought forward almost intact. Herein lies the extraordinary quality of the ancient way: it can be proven that the Order I am discussing bore an inherent mechanism of renewal, exactly what is lacking in religions and contemporary ideologies. Because of that mechanism it is known as sanatana, eternal; and because of this special and unique quality it can be demonstrated that what we know today as Puranic Cosmogony is actually prophetic in that the new cosmology is seen to build on that structure by virtue of the fact that the very same laws and methodology which we find in the Puranic cosmology forms the warp and woof of the new.’

In ancient times the zodiac - astrology’s basic alphabet - conveyed a body of higher knowledge, hence it formed part of the sacred sciences, not only in India but in all the Mystery Schools of the ancient world... (Patrizia Norelli Bachelet, 2014) For millennia wisemen of all traditions have searched for a key of knowledge which would unlock the mysteries of the universe. The Alchemists called this universal key, ‘the Philosopher’s Stone’ and revealed that it was based upon the structure and harmonies of the Cosmos. This legendary ‘stone’ or Lapis Philosophorum was believed to be a magical object having the power to change base metals into gold, but, in a deeper sense, it symbolized the final goal of the initiation process which was the attainment of the highest wisdom. Possession of the ‘Philosopher’s Stone’ was the coveted condition resulting from the realization of ‘Gnosis’, an enlightened state in which one knows with a certainty that one knows and sees with an understanding which can be infinitely extended to all situations. Over the centuries, the system of knowledge which emerged from the alchemical tradition represented the pinnacle of enlightened thought. It was based upon the known universe which then consisted of six planets and the central Sun. But it was not until the 20th century, following the discovery of Uranus, Neptune and Pluto, that the complete key of knowledge could be revealed and man’s integral transformation fully understood. The Gnostic Circle is that key and contains the highest wisdom of our age.

‘’What exactly has been lost of the Sacred Vision in what was constructed in Auroville? The 24-metre diameter does not exist; the 15.20m measure of the Ray does not exist; the 15-step entry from below into the floor of the chamber facing north does not exist; Sri Aurobindo’s symbol in the Shalagrama does not ‘exist’; the translucent Globe does not exist; the stone Pedestal does not exist. Is there anything then of gnostic significance and value in the structure? And even if only one or two items of the Vision have survived – such as the 12 columns – the fundamental feature proper to all great sacred art is absent: its unity. In these matters it is all or nothing. Unfortunately, for disciples and devotees of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, they are left with nothing. But the Vision itself lives on; its Knowledge has been revealed and preserved. This is the focus of these Chronicles.’’ (Thea, excerpt from Chronicles of the Inner Chamber, no. 9)

‘The objective of the 9th Avatar’s descent was to reverse the direction spirituality had taken with its almost exclusive emphasis on an otherworldly realisation, leaving the Earth to her own devices; and to establish a life divine on this very planet, to bring heaven upon Earth, as the Scriptures state. How can this best be achieved, is the question the sincere seeker must ask. Yogic realisations of the old schools, even if they could be extended beyond the single realiser to many others, would still not have the power to bring about any universal transformation, the signature of the Aquarian Age. Sri Aurobindo made this clear: it is not merely the goal of his mission that is different from the old Yogas: it is the process as well… This means that the supramental Truth-Consciousness must arrange its manifestation in such a manner that in the becoming of its being, or its innermost essence, that divine life is manifested for all to see on Earth… there has to be a revelation with great precision in keeping with the character of Supermind, of exactly how the transformation can be accomplished. That revelation is the Mother’s chamber. It is the seed of all that is to follow.’ (Part 11, page 87)