Helena Blavatsky and René Guénon on the Kali-Yuga

This to cap off my eleven-post series on the occult and politics started in September, for now. There are still three or four relevant issues that I plan to write about over the next year, dealing with political aspects of theosophy in relation to Buddhism, exceptionalism, and alternative archaeology.

The doctrine of cycles in theosophical literature is fairly complex and elaborate as it is a fundamental aspect of their theory of spiritual evolution, and normally I would wait to do more formal research before posting on the topic. Unfortunately, the notion of cyclical history tends to get closely associated with the work of Oswarld Spengler and linked to fascist politics. But since, it has become a question quite relevant to the current political climate, I thought it would be useful to attempt a simple comparison between Blavatsky and Guénon on the topic of the Kali Yuga.

Blavatsky discusses the notion of the Hindu yugas, (ages), from the get-go, Chapter 1, Volume 1 of Isis Unveiled, 1877. She accepts the standard traditional Hindu figures (see the Surya Siddhanta)  as being close to the esoteric system and discusses them regularly throughout her life, with considerable astrological and comparative considerations, consistently adhering to the figures as first presented :

‘’The Neroses, the Vrihaspati, or the periods called yugas or kalpas, are life-problems to solve. The Satya-yug and Buddhistic cycles of chronology would make a mathematician stand aghast at the array of ciphers. The Maha-kalpa embraces an untold number of periods far back in the antediluvian ages. Their system comprises a kalpa or grand period of 4,320,000,000 years, which they divide into four lesser yugas, running as follows:
1st. — Satya yug — 1,728,000 years.
2d. — Tretya yug — 1,296,000 years.
3d. — Dvapa yug —— 864,000 years.
4th. — Kali yug —— 432,000 years.
Total ————– 4,320,000 years.
which make one divine age or Maha-yug; seventy-one Maha-yugs make 306,720,000 years, to which is added a sandhi (or the time when day and night border on each other, morning and evening twilight), equal to a Satya-yug, 1,728,000, make a manwantara of 308,448,000 years;* fourteen manwantaras make 4,318,272,000 years; to which must be added a sandhi to begin the kalpa, 1,728,000 years, making the kalpa or grand period of 4,320,000,000 of years. As we are now only in the Kali-yug of the twenty-eighth age of the seventh manwantara of 308,448,000 years, we have yet sufficient time before us to wait before we reach even half of the time allotted to the world.’’ (32)

She noted the problem of Apocalypticism from the get-go, considering the problem to be exoteric distortions of esoteric doctrines.

'This method of calculating by the neroses, without allowing any consideration for the secrecy in which the ancient philosophers, who were exclusively of the sacerdotal order, held their knowledge, gave rise to the greatest errors. (…) It has given rise to the formation of different religious sects, which, like the Adventists of our century, are always living in the expectation of the approaching destruction of the world.'(34)

In the Secret Doctrine (Volume 1, Part 3, chapter 17, The Zodiac and its antiquity. 655-667) she engages in some of her most elaborate mathematical discussions to defend the correctness of the traditional Hindu dates, being derived from observation, especially the beginning date of the Kali-Yuga (3102 BCE), referencing various academic studies. Recently a defence of the antiquity and independence of Hindu astrology has gained more academic support. For example, Richard L.Thompson using a modern ephemeris program (SkyGlobe), states: 'In that entire period of time, there are no alignments of planets that come even close to being exact. But there are many approximate alignments, and one of the closest in this entire period occurs exactly on the Kali-yuga starting date' (Mysteries of the Sacred Universe, Govardhan Hill Publishing, 2000, pp. 215-6).

Concerning the question of avatars, she correlates various exoteric religious messianic apocalypse accounts with the Hindu accounts and dating :

Kalki Avatar (Sk.). The “White Horse Avatar”, which will be the last manvantaric incarnation of Vishnu, according to the Brahmins; of Maitreya Buddha, agreeably to Northern Buddhists; of Sosiosh, the last hero and Saviour of the Zoroastrians, as claimed by Parsis ; and of the “Faithful and True” on the white Horse (Rev. xix.,2 ). In his future epiphany or tenth avatar, the heavens will open and Vishnu will appear “seated on a milk-white steed, with a drawn sword blazing like a comet, for the final destruction of the wicked, the renovation of ‘creation’ and the ‘restoration of purity’”. (Compare Revelation.) This will take place at the end of the Kaliyuga 427,000 years hence. The latter end of every Yuga is called “the destruction of the world”, as then the earth changes each time its outward form, submerging one set of continents and upheaving another set. (Theosophical Glossary)

Her major text on the question of avatars can be found in volume three of the Secret Doctrine. It is quite abstract, mystical, and philosophical and does not really give any straightforward historical information (The Doctrine of Avataras (370-385). 

Like Blavatsky, René Guénon relies on the Hindu doctrine of Yugas, and the idea of the Kali Yuga and goes on to develop a sustained critique of the modern world. Blavatsky, although very of critical of many aspects of western culture, was not quite so stentorian, rather seeking a sort of middle ground between traditional knowledge and modern progress. Like most modern western academics of the period, Guénon does not accept the traditional Hindu dates. Like Blavatsky, he engages in comparisons of various ancient cyclical dating concepts, from which he derives his own dating interpretation. 

In The Crisis of the Modern World, 1927, he states his two essential points:

 ‘We are presently in the fourth age, the Kali-Yuga or ‘dark age’, and we have been, it is said, for more than six thousand years. (La Crise du monde moderne, 10)

 ‘according to all the indications furnished by the traditional doctrines, we have really entered into the final phase of the Kali-Yuga, in the darkest period of this ‘dark age’, in that state of dissolution from which it is no longer possible to escape other than by a cataclysm, because it is no longer a simple restoration that is then needed, but a total renovation. (17)

Moreover, in  a 1927 statement from his book, The King of the World, he hints that the end of the Kali-Yuga is coming soon :

‘We need to be prepared for an immense event in the divine order, towards which we are heading towards at an accelerated speed that will affect every witness. Daunting oracles are already announcing that the times have arrived’. (Le Roi du Monde, 44) 

Guénon proposed a Yuga Cycle of 64,800 years in a 1937 article, which was later published in the book Traditional Forms & Cosmic Cycles (2001).

Satya or Krita-Yuga (Golden-Age) : 64,800 x 4/10 = 25,920 years

Treta-Yuga (Silver-Age) : 64,800 x 3/10 = 19,440 years

Dvapara-Yuga (Bronze-Age) : 64,800 x 2/10 = 12,960 years

Kali-Yuga (Iron-Age) : 64,800 x 1/10 = 6,480 years

He echoes Blavatsky’s statements that cyclical calculations are potentially hazardous, very secret and only revealed sparingly and like Blavatsky, he equates a description of the Vishnu Purana (Secret Doctrine I, 377) to contemporary times.

‘We know, that for all the traditional data, we have been in the Kali-Yuga for a long time already; we can say, without any fear of mistake, that we are even in an advanced phase of it,  a phase, that all the descriptions in the Puranas happen to match, by the way, the characteristics of the current era in the most striking way; but would it not be imprudent to wish to go into more detail, and, by doing so, would that not inevitably lead to the kinds of predictions which the traditional doctrine has, not without serious reasons, opposed so many obstacles to?’ (Quelques remarques sur la doctrine des cycles cosmiques. Formes traditionnelles et cycles cosmiques, 1970, 11).

If one equates Guénon’s dating with his previously referenced approximate start date ‘more than six thousand years ago’, this could place the end Kali Yuga, a few centuries away, or closer.

In 1945, after the second World War, he releases The Reign of Quantity and the Signs of the Times, where he goes into more detail about what he terms are the 'end times'. Like Blavatsky, he equates the final Avatar (Kalki),  with other Apocalyptic traditions, focusing more on the Abrahamic religions:

'That is before the ‘restoration’ that can only be operated by the intervention of the tenth Avatâra; but precisely if he is designated as the Antichrist, it is because he will parody in his own way the very role of this final Avatâra, that is represented as the ‘second coming of Christ’ in the Christian tradition.’  (Le Règne de la Quantité et les Signes des Temps, 284)

'Be that as it may, we have now arrived at the final term of the anti-traditional action that must bring this world to its end; after this passing reign of the ‘counter-tradition’, there can only be, in order to arrive at the final moment of the current cycle, the ‘restoration’ that, suddenly putting all things back to their normal place at the very point where the subversion seemed complete, that will immediately prepare the ‘golden age’ of the future cycle.' (287)

Looking at these extracts, he seems fairly consistent and restrained with his information, up until his 1945 book. Guénon was critical of the epic neo-theosophical Krishnamurti millenialism meltdown. Ironically,  it becomes apparent that he himself succumbed to the temptation of going down the apocalyptic rabbit-hole. The period of the two world wars were crazy times for everyone. His statements are fairly vague and sparse, and not at the sensationalist level that one can find in various religious or new age cases, but one could conceivably call his case an example of an intellectual form of Apocalypticism, and thus be included in a study of such cases that emerged during the period of the two world wars.

Postscript: Just to briefly touch upon one complication, Blavatsky points to a specific important date, at the end of 1897/ beginning 1898, which marks the 5,000th year of the Kali-Yuga (again adhering to the standard traditional Hindu start-date dating), the end of an important phase of the Yuga. Moreover, there is an overlap with the beginning of the age of Aquarius, which begins close to that period, around 1900. Blavatsky briefly noted the beginning of the age of Aquarius in a short footnote, following Egyptologist Gerald Massey,  (The Historical Jesus and the Mythical Christ, 1887, pp. 9-10)  she did not elaborate on the subject however, but it has garnered much attention over time, although wrong dates attributed to her abound in astrological articles (as is the case with the Kali Yuga dates). All the copious commentary came from later writers. There are discussions of contemporary historical events related to esoteric interpretations and cyclical history, mainly astrological cycles and sacred mathematics (numerology), throughout her writings and the subject would make for a substantial study. (Admittedly, this one cryptic footnote complexifies the millennialism question considerably, but I leave it aside for another day).

“There are several remarkable cycles that come to a close at the end of this century. First, the 5,000 years of the Kaliyug cycle; again the Messianic cycle of the Samaritan (also Kabalistic) Jews of the man connected with Pisces (Ichthys or “Fish-man” Dag). It is a cycle, historic and not very long, but very occult, lasting about 2,155 solar years, but having a true significance only when computed by lunar months. It occurred 2410 and 255 B.C., or when the equinox entered into the sign of the Ram, and again into that of Pisces. When it enters, in a few years, the sign of Aquarius, psychologists will have some extra work to do, and the psychic idiosyncrasies of humanity will enter on a great change.” (The Esoteric Character of the Gospels.  CW 8, 174 November, 1887) 

Among Alice Bailey groups, 2025 is given as a date for various optimistic events, and, to quote: 'Prophecy even suggests the emergence, at some undefined time, of a Christ-like figure' (not to be outdone, Adyar theosophists have compiled an ambitious concatenation of neo-theosophy predictions for 2025 as well). There are also various beliefs in the return of the C. W. Leadbeater- introduced figure of Maitreya-Christ. Traditionalist Gaston Georgel, gives the date 2030 as the end of the Kali-Yuga. Moreover, there have been a dizzying array of learned speculative ingenuity regarding various cycles since Blavatsky's time, for example, Bibhu Dev Misra on the Kali Yuga, who gives a 2025 end-date. David Frawley follows the Yogananda belief that the Kali Yuga ended around 1900 (I assume that a big motivation for these speculations is that a lot of people find that a 432,000 years Kali Yuga seems too long by modern Western dating, and such a prospect is too dreary to accept for many).  I wish them all the best in their expectations and hope that they don't get disappointed.

See also Joscelyn Godwin's When Does the Kali Yuga End? New Dawn 138 (May-June 2013)

PS. Back in the day, as with many contemporary questions, Blavatsky already hashed out the millennialism problem with a French occultist of the Guénon type. See

Notes on Abbé Roca’s ‘Esotericism of Christian Dogma’

[Le Lotus, Paris, Vol. II, No. 9, December, 1887, pp. 160-173] Collected Writings, Vol. 8, pp. 372-391

One of the more extensive debates which Blavatsky engaged in, with someone from the French Christian occultism movement of the day, of the type of Fabre d’Olivet and Éliphas Lévi, dealing mainly with ever-recurring questions of millennialism. One of her most candid and detailed expositions on Christian theosophy.

http://www.katinkahesselink.net/blavatsky/articles/v8/y1887_048.htm

Reply to Mistaken Conceptions of the Abbé Roca

[Le Lotus, Paris, Vol. II, No. 13, April, 1888, pp. 3-19] Collected Writings, Vol. 9, pp. 216-237

http://www.katinkahesselink.net/blavatsky/articles/v9/y1888_033.htm