Today, we follow a calendar that is based on our movement around the sun, giving priority to the sun as our timekeeper. But what about the twelve exact lunar periods that occur within this solar cycle? How are they important? We do not focus on the months and their relationship to the moon. There are two important cycles that need to be distinguished, one is the cycle of earth moving around the sun in 365 days, which produces two solstices and two equinoxes. The second cycle is that of the moon moving around the earth, representing the monthly periods of time. Originally, in Vedic India, these two cycles were integrated and referred to as the soli-lunar cycle. The soli-lunar cycle provided for accurate timings of spiritual events and the new year, and this integrated calendar helped their ancient civilization to thrive in harmony and balance for thousands of years, a long time before the Egyptian, Greek, and Roman civilizations. Over the last two millenniums, as a result of the development of European political power, many practices extracted from India and Asian cultures have been changed. Vedic wisdom has been misinterpreted for political and religious reasons related to the spread of Christianity. The calendar that the world now follows only recognizes the earth’s cycle around the sun. This leaves us with a fundamental problem for the balance and evolution of humanity.

The sun represents the soul and how we search for truth and the moon represents our inner feelings, emotions, and our mind. Following a soli-lunar calendar is an important step in harmonizing our relationship with nature and promoting a global spiritual movement which prioritizes the regular cycles of the moon’s phases in relationship to the solar year. Below are some benefits of aligning with a soli-lunar calendar. Our ascension into the higher ages depends on integrating the correct calendar approach that embraces both the sun and moon cycles, thus recognizing the important balance between these two aspects in every living being.

Integration of the soli-lunar cycles will:

• prompt us to perceive how the celestial movements of the two most influential planets are synchronized with life on earth.

• call for adjusting our health routines according to the proper seasonal regimens.

• promote a cruelty-free approach to our human diet.

• synchronize the earth with the moon because every soli-lunar month ends on a New Moon (amanta).

• conceive the great metaphor of emptiness of the mind since each New Moon is when the moon is aligned between the sun and earth. This is symbolic of attaining a state of consciousness beyond the limitations of the mind and the disturbances of thoughts.

• increase greater acuity of consciousness and development of intuition.

• for those who have not begun Vedantic practices, they will easily feel more connected to nature and their own physical body, thus improving all aspects of lifestyle scientifically referred to as circadian1 rhythm.

• discover enhanced periods of inner silence for meditators.

• encourage humans to adapt to nature and her changing cycles as passive shift towards learning the yogic art of surrender to those forces that sustain our ecology.

Since the world began following the Gregorian calendar, our societies have been alienated from the earth, ecology, seasonal change, animals, and the natural world. In addition to resulting in an overall lack of compassion for all living species on earth, disregarding the moon’s cycles within the calendar has resulted in our living with greater dependency on scientific and logical constructs of communication, lifestyle, diet, and religion. The Indic culture has always recognized the purposes of using a calendar that embraces the primary planetary trinity between the sun-moon and earth. However, the soli-lunar calendar that is still being used in India today is limited to Vedic-Hindu spiritual practices and is not embraced on a civil level as the world has adapted to using the Gregorian calendar for the sake of convenience.

Another cycle that often confuses people with regards to their birthday and profound aspects of their personality is that of the zodiac.2 The zodiac demonstrates the Western world’s disconnection from the moon’s importance. For example, when a person in the west is asked what their astrology sign is, they will likely answer based on the sun’s position in relation to one of the twelve signs of the zodiac on the day of their birth. If they understand the tropical zodiac, they may interpret their personality and life events using the sun’s placement; however, few understand the deeper implications of what this actually defines. The sun, generally speaking, is the most masculine planet of the seven major ones and represents

the father, ego, and how the world views us from a superficial or external perspective. Although, on the positive side, the sun also represents the soul and how we search for truth, and it is probably for this reason that the ancients of all major civilizations have always worshipped the sun.

Originally, in Hindu or Vedic astrology, importance has always been given to the moon because it reflects the inner aspect of who we are, and often reveals many things people do not know about themselves. The moon is compassion, nurturing, devotional feminine energy. In India and in most Asian countries, a person is identified with their moon sign. It is the moon’s placement in our birth chart that matters when it comes to understanding our inner feelings, emotions, and how we will get along with others. For this reason, the moons placement in the birth chart of a potential husband and/or wife are analyzed by the family astrologer to see if they are a good match for marriage. The moon is of major importance in our lives and our relationship with it, how we understand its placement in the birth chart and its influence by transit, determines how we will behave on the earth.

Before I continue expanding on this point, I want to explain what I believe are some important points that should be recognized regarding the calendar and its influence on the world we are currently witnessing.

We need to be reminded of this basic point: the outer structure of one’s life and how one lives on the planet reflects of the quality of one’s consciousness.

As we can see, we live at a time when humanity is truly distracted from the positive influences of the sun, our soul’s search for truth, and most have fallen toward its negative egoist side of being overexposed to the light of the external world. This can explain why humans live out of accordance with nature and out of touch with the feminine aspect of life and the Divine. It is blatantly obvious that a feminine representation of Divinity is largely absent from Western spiritual movements and even much of Asia. Although the few remnants of God as Mother are mostly seen in India, a culture that has worshipped the feminine Divine for millenniums, demonstrating India’s cultural connection to the moon.

In order to understand the importance of following a soli-lunar cycle, as opposed to a purely solar calendar cycle as we are currently following, we need to explore some basic astronomical calculations and examine history. This will allow us to understand the impact that a solar-dominated calendar has had on global evolution over the last two millenniums.

The scale of our concept of time is based on a measurement of the earth’s orbit around the sun, which determines the length of a year in human life. Humanity plans their lives on this yearly cycle. Whether you are an accountant, or farmer, or in the family stage of life, this cycle serves us. The 24-hour day is a measure of the earth’s revolution on its axis, and the 28 to 31-day month is measured roughly by the moon’s orbit around the earth. These three cycles or movements (sun, moon, and earth) are what allows us to calculate the concept of time and the distinct feeling each seasonal shift brings each year. It is apparent that humanity has struggled with understanding these basic cycles as our world has become very alienated from nature, treating it more like a commodity than as something sacred or Divine. The modern Julian and Gregorian calendars are riddled with errors of the dark ages (Kali-Yuga) and have been mostly influenced by religion and politics.

Over the last two thousand years, the Julian and Gregorian calendars have prevailed and overlapped with the two Kali yuga cycles (ascending and descending) which began approximately 700 B.C.3 The current

Gregorian4 calendar, which most of our world now follows, is based on the solar cycle which tracks time using tropical years, the time between the two vernal equinoxes, which explains why a year on earth is 365.25 days in length. The earlier calendar (Julian) was initiated by Julius Caesar in 45 B.C. and was in place prior to the Gregorian calendar. Julius Caesar wanted a solar calendar that consisted of twelve months, and when first adopted, the Julian calendar shifted the beginning of the year from March 1st to January 1st.

The lunar year is measured by calculating the time of 12 moons, one for each month, and measures to an approximate 354 days. A solar year is 365, an eleven-day difference, and this difference, over a 33-year period, creates a deficiency of one entire year. To make up for this difference we currently have leap years, so those using a solar calendar add a leap day in February every four years. Those following a lunar calendar add a 13th month every three years. The basic point to understand with all this astronomy is that the solar and lunar cycles are different, and do not provide a fixed pattern, unless they are integrated.

Therefore, to keep some consistency in the world, the calendars are supplemented with the additional day or month.

The question I have been asking for a long time is, Why have the solar and lunar cycles been separated in the calendar year? As mentioned, the spiritual traditions of India still follow an integrated approach.

Additionally, most ancient Eastern cultures like the Chinese, Islamic, and Judaic traditions recognize the lunar cycles, and some still continue to follow the lunar calendar today. From the Western commercial and technological point of view, it is obvious that most of our global societies have advanced substantially, and we live with greater efficiency, everything is a button or a voice command away; but does this equate to real evolution? Politically, just because countries and leaders are getting along, does not mean we have evolved from the perspective of yoga and ayurveda. Special interest groups and political action committees (PACs) continue to support the destruction of nature and slaughter billions of animals every year. From the agricultural side, our ecology is being controlled by corporations that support the use of genetically modified organisms that are destroying the soil and ruining the lives of generations of farming families, not to mention the effect GMO’s have on the health of both humans and animals. Where has all this calendar chaos left us?

I believe that implementation of a soli-lunar calendar is a vital step for the evolution of the world community and healing Mother Earth. The integration will provide greater efficiency in our lifestyle, and will create a balanced relationship between the head, hand and heart, aspects of integral yoga expanded upon further in future chapters of this book. For example, in our yoga practice, the earthly year is represented by one entire breath in yoga (inhalation and exhalation) through the spinal energy centers or chakras and represents the connection each human being has with the cosmos. Each human body is a miniature cosmic body. Also explored in future chapters are traditions that honor lunar cycles and display how valuable it is to have an integrated sun-moon calendar. For example, each year India celebrates Navaratri, a festival for honoring Mother Divine, through meditation, prayer, and service towards others.

Navaratri (nine nights) is a Hindu festival calculated by measuring the duration of lunar days overlayed with time of sunrise. One worships the Divine Mother in her three aspects, Durga (protective), Lakshmi (abundance) and Saraswati (wisdom).