Do We Really Orbit Alcyone ?

This paper examines the proposition that our solar system orbits Alcyone as indicated in the esoteric teachings and concludes that Alcyone is a 'blind' or 'stand in' for the galactic centre.

First let me begin with a quote from Esoteric Astrology.


Briefly it might be said that the following cosmic and systemic causes are responsible for the present world crisis and the present difficult world situation:

1. A welling up of magnetic force on Sirius, which produces effects upon our solar system and particularly upon our Earth, via the Hierarchy.

2. A shift in the Earth's polarity, due to the pull of a great cosmic centre. This powerfully affects the Earth's orientation and is responsible for the present earthquakes, and for the volcanic eruptions and the many earthquakes during the past one hundred and fifty years.

3. The great sweep of the sun around the greater zodiac (a period of 250,000 years, or a complete round) came to an end when the sun entered Pisces over two thousand years ago. This process of passing out of, or entering into, a particular sign and cyclic influence covers a period of five thousand years where this greater round or cycle is concerned. This period of five thousand years covers the complete cycle of transition until complete freedom to function under the inspiration of the new sign is completed. We are, therefore, not yet free from incidental turmoil.

4. The passing of our Sun out of the sign Pisces into the sign Aquarius is another of the conditions bringing about the present confusion. This confusion of forces in the solar system is notably affecting our planet. In the process of passing from sign to sign, as for instance [Page 410] transitting out of Pisces into Aquarius as is now the case, the period covered is approximately five hundred years.

These are points which astrologers would do well to consider. I would remind students again that when speaking of signs I am referring to the influences of the constellations as they are represented by the signs, calling to your attention that in the great evolutionary process and owing to certain shifts and astronomical-astrological discrepancies, the Sun is not in the constellation to which a particular sign refers at any given moment. This I called to your attention in an earlier part of this treatise.

5. Another factor little known is that the Moon today is disintegrating with increasing rapidity and this necessarily affects the Earth and produces terrestrial results.

Students would find it of interest to make the following applications of these great cyclic events to their own "appearance" and functioning processes in time and space:

1. The succession of the greater rounds of the zodiac or a period of cycles of approximately 250,000 years has a correspondence to the life cycle of the Monad.

2. The progress of the Sun as it passes through the signs in the zodiac during one of these 25,000 year cycles finds its analogy in the life cycle of the ego or soul.

3. The lesser zodiac covered—from the angle of extreme illusion—in the course of one year, corresponds to the life of the personality. EA 410

Many believe - and this belief comes directly from the Teachings that our solar system makes a 250,000 year orbit of Alcyone which means that it spends 25,000 years in each zodiacal sign . I have since 'done the math' and also dialogued with astronomers and physicists. As a result I think it is very clear that no such orbit around Alcyone exists - at least upon the physical plane.

Here are the arguments against:

1. Alcyone and the Pleiades cluster are stars no more than 100 million years old ( 1/40 of the Age of earth ) - much younger than our solar system. Alcyone would not have even been there when our sun began such an orbit. This is itself is a pretty persuasive argument although we could propose a previous incarnation of Alcyone.

2. The orbital movement of the sun around the galactic centre is well documented ( within a statistical error of 6 percent in a study done in 1999 http://www.chron.com/content/interactive/space/astronomy/news/1999/ds/990602.html) and the details of it are:
Distance from centre 26,000 light years
Orbital speed 135 miles per sec : (220 km s ) 486,000 mph ( 780,000 km s )
Orbital period ( one revolution ): 226, 000,000 years
This orbital movement is clearly measureable ( by our off world telescopes ) over a relatively short period of time.
The earth rotates at 1,100 mph
Earth orbits sun at 67,000 mph
Solar system orbits galactic centre at 486,000 mph

On the face of it there would appear to be a possibility of an intermediate orbit around another system such as Alcyone. There are two problems however.
(a) Our movement has been measured against the background stars on numerous occasions and scientists have found no trace of such an orbit.
(b) The maths doesn't work. Alcyone is 400 light years from earth or 125 par secs
2 pi r gives us the radius of such an orbit = 785 par secs or 2500 light years. If the sun was orbiting Alcyone in 250,000 years it would have to have an orbital speed of 3,142 km/s which is 14 times faster than the sun orbits the galactic centre. This would be readily apparent if it were so. Another way of expressing this is that if the sun Was orbiting Alcyone at the same speed as it goes around the galactic centre ( and if there was such a lesser orbit it would probably be much slower ) then it would either take 3.5 million years ( instead of 250,000 ) or Alcyone would have to be only 28 light years from earth and not 400.

So, Occam's razor has to be wielded here - against it stands the 'word of the Master' which is enough for many to discount all scientific knowledge but then again the 'holding to sacred texts' in spite of hard evidence is not new in the relationship between religion and science - as Galileo amongst many others no doubt was made painfully aware.

A more balanced view might be a way of synthesising both. What did DK mean - he must have mean't something. And how do we take on board the best of science? Afterall astrology and astronomy both agree on the precessional cycle of the equinoxes.

Astrology is inherently part of the great illusion - in part because it is ruled by psychological truth - the thoughtforms of the signs built up over long periods of time. Psychological truth and mythology hold seeds of still greater truths but psychological truth is not always physical truth. Our relationship with the Pleiades has had millenia to develop and as such it has developed into a powerful thoughtform . Up until the mid twentieth century it had long been believed that our system orbited the Pleiades - the mormons for example believed that Alcyone was the 'throne of God the Father' to name just one group. In many idigenous cultures ( for example the Maori in NZ who called the Pleiades Matariki ) the rising of this star during the annual cycle was pivotal to survival and to the planting of crops - thus it could be said that the whole culture pivoted around this event.

Part of fusing soul and personality however is the full realisation of what is the self and what is the not self - what belongs to the realms of the triad and what belongs to the realms of the three worlds.

The revolution in astronomy in the early twentieth century meant for the first time we were able to see 'outside' our galaxy and thus comprehend that what once we thought of as the whole univers was now just a microcosmic part of it. Even Alice Bailey was aware of this revolution and I believe it was this that prompted her to make the following remark in 'Consciousness of the Atom " p 152 published in the 1960's

If we study astronomical books, and seek to ascertain whether astronomers say that this is so, we shall meet with a vast amount of contradictory opinion; we shall find that some astronomers say that within the Pleiades is a central point around which our solar system revolves; others say that in the constellation of Hercules is the point of magnetic attraction for our solar system .



I would personally suggest here that that aspect of truth will be found, not along physical lines of interpretation, but along the lines of consciousness

This after the clear statement of a physical orbit in EA and several unequivocal references in the Secret Doctine ( DK through HPB )

Ponder on this and remember also that our Sun is travelling through space (carrying our solar system along in its sphere of influence) around our own central and conditioning star which it has been rightly presumed exists in the constellation Taurus, the Bull, being found in the Pleiades. EA 112

If AAB questioned the physical orbit and was prepared to grow her own understanding in light of modern scientific study then perhaps we might be similarly capable some sixty years on...

So what then was DK referring to?

An interesting parallel exists concerning the earth's magnetic field. Curiously enough the magnetic poles of the earth seem to reverse once every 250,000 years ( about to occur again which correlates with the quote at the beginning ) . This magnetic shift does not seem to have upset life on earth too much by the fossil record but would allow, during the transition, cosmic rays to penetrate to the earth's surface and cause mutation s that might not show up for some time and could conceivable influence the direction of evolution. It was once believed by many ( and see Secret Doctrine ) that the physical poles of the earth regularly 'flipped' - which would have a catastrophic effect upon life on earth. As the consciousness of humanity develops its understanding of the physical world then we are able to make finer distinctions. Our consciousness is not so preoccupied with 'earth changes' and therefore physical upheavals but upheavals in consciousness.

This increase in the 'knowledge' of humanity make s the application of the 'wisdom' of the Hierarchy more powerful. Knowledge is not wisdom as we well know but also wisdom is not knowledge. The Masters of the Wisdom do not 'know' everything in the knowledge sense although they can find out. Humanity is a divine centre and as such has a part of play in the threefold development of Shamballa , Hierarchy and Humanity. Does it seem so strange that the whole system is evolving and that includes the interface between knowledge and wisdom? If this were not so then everything would already be known and evolution would serve no 'creative' purpose only an educational one. The twentieth century has taught us much about evolution and this includes the soul - the soul evolves not only through contact with the monad but also with the personality and the three worlds. Is it inconceivable that the Hierarchy ( the soul of humanity ) grows in the power to express its inherent wisdom as a result of the developments in knowledge by Humanity itself as a centre?

One need not even take such a radical evolutionary view as the above to understand that DK might have been giving a blind. It is hard to explain water to a fish and difficult to speak of a galaxy when the consciousness one is addressing is locked inside one. The 250,000 yr orbit of Alcyone could well have been a logical blind for the galactic centre. By working with the psychological relationship which already exists and using a logical extension of analogy from the orbit of our earth around the sun the mention of this greater orbit served to expand our minds in the direction of a greater whole. Indeed the orbit of our solar system around its true centre - the black hole in Sagittarius A has a similar numerical relationship - add three zeros and 250 million years is close to what we have discovered through scientific observation. We then have

Orbit of personality ( earth ) around soul ( Sol, Sun, Son ) = 1 year
Sun's apparent orbit of zodiac ( from earth or personality perspective ) = 25,000 years - precessional cyle not an orbital one.
Soul ( Sun ) orbit around the Monad ( black hole ) = 250,000,000 years

None of this takes away from the very real psychological relationship between the earth , our solar system and the Pleiades - but perhaps this too is subject to evolution and change. Psychologists and esoteric psychologists both will tell you that there comes a time when the son ( the sun, the soul ) must be cut free from its orbit in consciousness around the Mother ( Pleiades, third aspect, first system ) and go to the Father. At first the Mother is assumed to be the Father - witness Saturn as the cosmic moon and Jehovah. The seat of the Father was assumed to be Alcyone ( by the way also the name taken by Krishnamurti ) . In a similar way the integrated personality is firstly confused with the soul.

If the true Father , which the son orbits around ( and has always done so ) is outpictured by the galactic centre then we might look a psychological effect in the consciousness of humanity during the passage of Plutos transit through the latter part of Sagittarius in 2007/8 ( the galactic centre is in the direction of 27 or so degrees sag ) . Pluto 'cuts the thread which binds the two opposing lives together' thus allowing for the full separation of soul and personality ( son and Mother ) before Venus joins then back together again but this time without the 'cord'.

Science and esoteric science must be carefully teased apart and their respective territories of exploration untangled before a later fusion can occur. When that fusion takes place then we will have true occultism - and it WILL win the day.

Bruce Lyon