Sacred Geometry in the Solar System
II
Sun, Moon, and Eclipses.
͞Fire is the head of his body, his eyes the Sun and the Moon; his ears the celestial expansions and the sacred Vedas
are his words. His breath is the wind that blows, and this whole universe is his heart. This very earth is at his feet.
Another example of this golden
signature of ɸ is fou d i the Moo ’s
wanderings around the Earth. This would be
expected as the Moon is in charge of
modulating the gestation periods of all animal
life forms, but especially that of humans. The
Moo ’s e lipse cycles is based on a delicate
relationship of the Moo ’s or it in relation to
that of Earth around the Sun. This other triune
relationship of astronomical cycles between
Earth, Moon and Sun also reveals how the
mystery of the Golden Proportion relates very
closely to our sublunar reality in a fascinating
way.
The Moo ’s ourse arou d the Earth is
tilted with respect to the path of the Sun by
about 5°, so the Moo ’s or ital course does not
run around the Earth in the same plane as the
Sun does. Eclipses between Sun and Moon
occur when both their bodies cross each other
He is the Self that is in all things.͟
Mundaka Upanishad 2.1.4
through the Lunar Nodes: the points of
intersection or crossings of the Moo ’s a d the
“u ’s own paths:
If the Moo ’s ourse ould ot ha e
this 5° inclination, there would be a solar and
lunar eclipse every single month, and we would
never know what a Full Moon looks like! But
because of these 5° of tilt for the lunar course in
relation to that of the Sun, eclipses only occur
on months when the Sun is near a Lunar Node.
As the Sun crosses each Zodiac Sign, the Moon
crosses the Zodiac much faster and catches up
or laps the “u ’s positio o e er Ne Moo .
When the Sun reaches the place of the lunar
node, it places itself right on the path of the
Moon and so the Moon eclipses the Sun.
This happens every 173.3 days, in a
period known as the Eclipse Season. Every year
has eclipses, but because of this 5° inclination,
they reoccur in accordance to the matching of
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the “u ’s positio ith a lu ar ode. After the
Sun catches a lunar node, it takes another 173.3
days for it to catch the next node. However, the
time it takes for the sun to catch the same lunar
node is twice as long and it is known as a
Draconic Cycle or Eclipse Year. This period of
346.6 days is the time taken for the Sun to
catch the same lunar node.
Eclipses can only occur when the Sun is
passing through a lunar node. Otherwise there
will simply be a New Moon and a Full Moon.
Now, the Lunar Nodes are ascending
(ALN) and descending (DLN) and they shift their
position by some 18° every year, and this is why
it takes 173.3 days and not half a year of 182.25
days for the Sun to make its way to the
following lunar node. The nodes turn in the
opposite dire tio of the “u ’s earl ourse
through the zodiac in the same way that the
Solar Cross does because of precession. This
means that eclipses will occur in different Signs
of the Zodiac in turn. The easiest way of
predicting the celestial position of an impending
eclipse between the Sun and Moon is by
dividing the 360° circle of the Ecliptic into 20
fractions of 18° and over imposing the Zodiac.
We will notice how the Aztec and
Mayan calendars used a 20-fold division of the
cycle which matches this geometry. The Maya
were very interested in recording eclipse cycles,
and one of their surviving books, the Dresden
Codex is a great example of this. The famous
Aztec Calendar Stone also shows the 20-fold
division of the circle containing the 20 glyphs of
the To alpohualli: the Ma a Tzolk’i .
The beauty and mystery of the Luni-
Solar cycles is that they can be calculated very
easily using the Golden Number. For example,
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in days, the Draconic Cycle may be calculated by
simply squaring 18+1/ɸ or 18.618. This is
18.618 x 18.618… On the other hand, the Solar
Year itself can be calculated by multiplying
18.618 x 19.618. The revolution of the Lunar
Nodes around the Zodiac can be calculated as
18.618 Solar Years, that is, 18.618 x 18.618 x
19.618 days. This period thus equals the
Draconic Cycle times 19.618 … This is pre isely
230 Lunations.
That these astronomical periods are all
using the golden number and in such a simple
a is i possi le to e plai as ha e .
This arithmetic and astronomical reality
allows us to recognize that biological life on
Earth (in the sublunar world) exhibits the
Golden Proportion because of a mystery we
cannot explain through the secular mind.
The Golden Proportion is present not in
material form per se, but rather as a guide for
material manifestation or arrangement in
space-time. The Golden Proportion ɸ is a
golden mean running through space-time and it
shows that there is more to the universe than
meets the eye.
Many ancient cultures sought to
coordinate the Lunar and Solar calendars, and
this inevitably lead to the study of eclipse cycles
and the mathematics involved. It is one of the
first problems any culture in hope of developing
calendars comes to face as it is the astronomy
concerned with the most brilliant of celestial
objects: Sun and Moon. To coordinate or
synchronize the movements of the Sun and
Moon, many cultures would sometimes add a
13th month known as an intercalary month.
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Examples of this are found among the Chinese,
Inca, Maya, and Hebrews, the latter having
inherited their calendar from Babylonian
culture.
The problem of synchronizing the Solar
and Lunar calendars lays in the issue that 12
Lunations fall about 10.875 days short of the
Solar Year. Having the Lunation at 29.53059
days, 12 Lunations is 354.367 days long, while it
takes 365.242 sunrises to make a Tropical or
Solar Year. This mismatch between Lunations
a d the “u ’s jour e is the o e hich is usually
amended with the intercalary or 13th month,
just as the Julian or Gregorian calendars will add
an extra day every 4 years to compensate for
the 0.25 of a day left unaccounted for in a 365
day civil calendar.
A Month or Lunation is truly counted
from one Full Moon or New Moon to the next.
13 Full or New Moons is simply calculated once
again with the golden number: 18.618 x 20.618
days, another golden mean formula which
results in 384 days for the year which has 13
Lunations.1 This 13 Month-year, being 384 days
long is precisely 18.618 days over the Solar
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18.34/55 x 20.5/8 = 384.
Year… Moreover, the 12 Full Moon cycle or
Lunar Year is 18ɸ x 19 days long.
Even the parallel geometries to this
question of bonding the Soli-Lunar periods is
related to the golden proportion in simple and
unique ways. For example, the pentagram
inscribed in a circle and a 5:12:13 triangle which
is a Pythagorean triplet both reveal very close
approximations to the amount of Lunations in a
solar year, which is 12.368.
Now, that all these Soli-Lunar cycles
reveal the Golden Number cannot be taken as
an accident or as something irrelevant. The
arithmetics and geometries involved in this vital
astronomical reality clearly show that ɸ is
predominant function in the celestial spheres
and dimensions insomuch as it is for Life on
Earth. If all this were accidental or meaningless,
then what can we say of the Earth developing a
species capable of recognizing this through a
superior intellect?
The relationship of 18:19 that is present
between the eclipse cycle and the solar year
and its affinity with ɸ can be appreciated in the
relationships of the pentagon. These
relationships are a testament to the sacred
design of the solar system and life on Earth, and
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design is er differe t fro a ide t or
ha e e ause it has a purpose a d a
intelligence guiding its development.