Cycle Diagrams part 2
The 'suspended moment in time', which I call the 'Neutral Point', relates to the 'unconscious'.
I say this because there is evidence to suggest that our own consciousness oscillates - is cycling at a rapid rate and that we are unconscious so many times a second. We do not notice this "blip" of momentary unconsciousness because these oscillations are 'nano-seconds' in duration. In effect, our consciousness is blinking on and off. However, there are two 'ON' phases and one 'OFF' phase.
The two 'ON' phases are 'conscious' (objective-outer) and 'subconscious' (subjective-inner) which relate to the two halves of the cycle - i.e., positive (peak) and negative (dip) respectively - hence the symbolic use of the sun and moon in mysticism and alchemy - the correspondence with the male and female opposites and also the two sides of the brain. This means that our consciousness is alternating every instant between our focus on the external world and our focus on the internal world (our thought-feeling processes). So then attention is being brought to that point which is neither inner or outer - i.e., the 'neutral point' where time is "momentarily suspended".
This is the 'OFF' phase which happens twice during the cycle - i.e., where peak-positive crosses into dip negative and vice versa, and this brief 'transliminal phase' would relate to the Unconscious and indeed where we become momentarily unconscious in the cycle. The sequence regarding this cyclical process of our own consciousness goes something like this:
Conscious . . . UNCONSCIOUS . . . Subconscious . . . UNCONSCIOUS . . . Conscious . . . UNCONSCIOUS . . . Subconscious . . . UNCONSCIOUS . . . Conscious - and so on, ad-infinitum.
In the daily cycle these three phases would be 1) 'day', 2) 'night' and 3) the sun on the two horizons - which again represents that neutral point in the cycle where day (positive) crosses into night (negative) and night crosses into day.
In the annual cycle these neutral point moments would be represented by the Spring and Autumnal equinoxes where summer (positive) crosses into winter (negative) and where winter crosses into summer - hence the crucifixion which takes place at Easter - being the first full moon after the Spring Equinox. "I am the Alpha and the Omega saith the Lord".
Indeed this third phase or neutral point, which is crossed over twice, is the alpha-omega, because it comes at the halfway point of the cycle and also the end-beginning point in the cycle. Furthermore, these three phases also relate with the three phases of the moon which was believed to be related to the female menstrual and ovulation cycle - hence the 'egg' at easter.
In the waking-sleeping cycle these two neutral points would be the hypnagogic and hypnopompic states (shamanic trance state) where waking activity crosses into sleeping consciousness (hypnagogic) and where sleeping crosses into waking again (hypnopompic). We can also see why the eclipse of the sun and the moon, which is said to have also taken place during the crucifixion, would also represent this point in consciousness 'where' and 'when' the opposites are cancelled out and time is suspended ('time out of time') . . . 'where' and 'when' the "gateway" opens up to the unconscious.
Christ is on the Cross of opposites and from here he is able to enter heaven - the 'other world'.
Again, we are usually unconscious at these points in the cycle, but the shaman sought to become conscious at this point, and he would use the slower 'waking-sleeping cycle' to capture it. This again is the shamanic trance state - being the hypnagogic -and accessing this point 'consciously' was believed to open up a portal to the 'other world'.
This is the first time these conceptions based on the cycle, has been explained in this way.
Figure 6: Consciousness: A Cyclical Process
This diagram applies the four psychoanalytical states
(conscious, subconscious, unconscious and superconscious) to the cycle.
Our consciousness is also a wave-like cycle, and in every instant we fluctuate momentarily between conscious and subconscious, with the unconscious (‘zero-node’) crossed twice every cycle. If we become conscious at these points, as in the hypnagogic state, then everything collapses into the centre or superconscious. (Compare with the slower ‘waking-sleeping cycle’ illustrated in Figure 5.)
Figure 7: Gurdjieff's Law of Three and the Four Psychoanalytical States
Figure 8: Life-Death Cycle
Like the ‘Waking-Sleeping Cycle’ one is often Unconscious at the point of death, and if so, then the cycle will repeat, with one having no knowledge of any previous lives, or indeed that one is creating one’s reality and is trapped in cycles. However, becoming conscious at the point of death as one would in the hypnagogic state in the waking-sleeping cycle, one is aware, with full knowledge of one's condition, and so one becomes the Akh, a Shining One, sentient, superconscious. Everything collapses into the NOW and one can choose to come off the cycle, or choose to go back on it - but with full knowledge of one's condition and so one creates consciously and is able to awaken others - well that was/is the belief
Figure 9: Tetragrammaton as Cycle
Encoded within the Hidden name of God is the knowledge of the cyclical process
by which we create the reality around us. We are being told that we are the 'God of creation',
however, we are unconscious of and at the crucial point in this process and so we
create unconsciously. If one can become consciously aware of this process then ultimately, one
escape the cycles, and one becomes the God, the Shining One that we really all are.
Note how the Hebrew symbol for ‘He’ (actually meaning “gateway) resembles the trilithon portals of Stonehenge
Figure 10: Cycles Combined
Shamanic Trance State
