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by Chard Currie
New Dawn
Special Issue 10
February 2010
from
NewDawnMagazine Website
Italian
version
Looking
down
from the watchtower of their hidden glory,
the Nine
Unknowns watched civilization
being born,
destroyed and born again,
tolerant rather
than indifferent
– and ready to
come to the rescue -
but always
observing that rule of silence
which is the
mark of human greatness.
Louis
Pauwels and Jacques Bergier 1
We live in the most exciting time in the history of humankind.
Technology is developing
in leaps and bounds, not only in the form of computers and mass
communication, but also toward helping us understand the secrets of
the human brain.
In the West, our traditions, institutions and power structures are
challenged and crumbling. The rest of the world is also undergoing
transformation in all these areas.
Has something brought us to this point? Could a group of enlightened
people have guided humanity since time immemorial?
This idea has drifted through history for eons, and manifested in
different forms. A prime example is the legend of
the Nine Unknown Men, the keepers
of sacred and celestial knowledge, sharing out as much in whimsy, as
they are with will.
The best-known story about the origins of the Nine Unknown Men comes
from India. The group's formation is connected to the Indian Emperor
Ashoka the Great, who reigned
from 304 BCE to 232 BCE.
Ashoka the Great, Emperor of India's Maurya Dynasty, sought
to propel his grandfather's dreams of unification across the
continent.
Being the grandson of
Chandragupta, the first known
'Emperor' of India, may well have left Ashoka with large shoes to
fill, but fill them he did, and the lines he drew on the map of
India are largely in place to this day. At the height of Maurya
power, the borders of India stretched from Afghanistan to Pakistan,
Iran to Bangladesh.
However, like most of human history, big changes are achieved with
high costs, and the final war of Ashoka's push for unity left the
biggest impact on the fabled emperor.
Kalinga (modern day
Orissa) is a region on the east
coast of India, and was one of the last strongholds against Maurya
power. The people of Kalinga had successfully repelled Ashoka's
father, but this fact did little to help them withstand the might of
Ashoka's army.
A huge battle lead to the death of 100,000 Kalinga, men, women and
children, as well as 10,000 of Ashoka's forces. The Daya River ran
red with blood.
Upon seeing this massive
wave of death and destruction committed in his name, Ashoka vowed to
take the path of non-violence and embraced Buddhism.
Ashoka also vowed to
place specific knowledge in the hands of a council of nine men
who would not only guard but also dispense the knowledge at
appropriate times along the course of human history.
Many interpretations and adaptations have been added to the legend
of the Nine Unknown Men.
One theory has the legend
extending back
to Atlantis, where the Nine
supposedly ruled with their higher knowledge and consciousness.
Nine Sacred
Books
For the sake of this article, let us stick to the Ashoka version,
which also tells of the nine books of knowledge, each entrusted to
individual members of the council.
The nine books contain knowledge deemed too powerful to be unleashed
on the human psyche, except for when the time is right. The Nine
literally teach humanity, seeding the information and watching it
grow as the human species moves along its evolutionary road.
The secrets of,
-
psychology
-
sociology
-
physiology
-
microbiology
-
biotechnology
-
alchemy
-
communication on
all levels
-
the cosmology of
the universe
-
mastery of
gravity and light,
...are espoused on the
pages of the nine sacred books.
Ancient, yet new developments, in all nine aspects covered by the
books are drip-fed to the species over the course of time, leading
to its eventual enlightenment and departure from this planet.
So called 'leaks' of
information are claimed to have occurred at various points along
human history. In these cases, humans attained too much knowledge,
too much power, way too soon.
The martial arts 'Touch of Death' technique, in which a practitioner
can kill a human with one touch, is said to have been leaked from
the sacred book centering on physiology.
While still unknown to
the vast majority of people, this lethal technique that stops energy
and blood flow supposedly exists.
One can look upon the Touch of Death from two points of view:
-
the first being
purely scientific.
It is possible to
interfere with the timing of a person's beating heart, such
as striking it hard enough or applying a heart massage
technique such as CPR to someone whose heart is beating.
Both of these
techniques can interrupt the heart's natural rhythm, sending
it into cardiac arrest that can lead to death.
-
the second is the
mysterious Chinese martial arts practice known as
Dim Mak.
The system of
Dim Mak relies on pressure points and chi energy
centers, which ones to attack and in what order to be most
effective.
By successfully
shutting down a chi passage in the human body, the build up
of chi is said to stagnate which supposedly leads to death.
However, this is
notoriously hard to verify, as practitioners of Dim Mak are
nigh on possible to come by, let alone contact and learn from, apart
from the occasional one that popped up in the 70's and 80's to
demonstrate the Touch of Death, and almost immediately debunked as
frauds.
While it is easy to postulate on examples of information that may
have 'leaked' from these books, it is important to remember that no
one on this planet, maybe not even on this plane of existence, knows
the plan of the Nine Unknown Men, except the Nine Unknown Men
themselves.
Leaks can be perceived as
no more than the Nine's plan unfolding perfectly, even if humanity
clearly suffers.
The Nine and Hitler
This group of
Ashoka's nine esoteric ones still continues because there are
many conditions which help it continue.
One is, it never
comes directly in contact with the masses itself. It has still
other groups in between. It always remains unknown, hidden, you
can never know its whereabouts.
And any person who is
initiated in the group, the very moment he is initiated he
disappears from your world - completely disappears.
Osho
(1931-1990)
The Indian mystic and
spiritual teacher Osho (Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh) claimed that
the Nine orchestrated the rise and fall of Adolf Hitler and
the Nazis.
Perhaps they exposed
Hitler to esoteric ideas and devices of power.
"Hitler was just a
vehicle for other forces… He was just a means, he was used.
Someone else was behind him, some other forces were working,"
explains Osho in
I Am The Gate.
Witnesses claim to have
seen Hitler almost possessed at the height of his powers.
He was able to make vast
audiences eat from the palm of his hand, and make implausible yet
brilliant military maneuvers while his generals scoffed at the
ideas.
But then the power driving Hitler started failing. Again, witnesses
say he became a different man. His armies in retreat, battles being
lost on all fronts, while Hitler shrank, sweated, mumbled and
shuffled towards his doom.
In his 1925 work
Mein Kampf, Hitler explained
how he chose
the swastika that was to become the
infamous symbol of Nazism:
I myself, meanwhile,
after innumerable attempts, had laid down a final form; a flag
with a red background, a white disk, and a black swastika in the
middle.
Significantly, the Nazis
reversed this ancient and powerful symbol that is widely used
throughout Asia. Osho says,
"…the swastika was
chosen and used in reverse. It had never existed in this way
before, but due to this, events took altogether a new shape."
2
Why the Nine Unknown Men,
supposedly benevolent and desiring to take the best course of action
to enlighten the human race, chose to send the species through one
of its darkest periods, is a mystery...
Perhaps it was just
another in the long line of 'Dark Nights of the Soul' for humanity.
Maybe these stages are
necessary to speed up our development - wiping the slate clean so to
speak - and bring about new conditions conducive to the hidden plans
of the Nine.
Where are the
Nine Unknown Men?
Legends abound as to where the Nine could reside or exist.
Talk to
David Icke and he will tell you
they are deep underground, living in partnership with shape-shifting
lizard people. Nicholas Roerich or G.I. Gurdjieff may
have said they reside in the mythical kingdom of
Shambhala, somewhere in Central
Asia.
The idea of a hidden city, secret paradise or
Invisible College has entranced
humans for hundreds of years, and especially occult experts in the
West, once the East truly opened up to exploration.
The Greek-Armenian mystic and spiritual teacher George Gurdjieff
reported that he contacted secret masters while journeying through
Central Asia.
It is said he was given
access to secret knowledge and then sent back to 'civilization' with
it. He never revealed the identity of these men, the school they may
or may not have belonged to, and of course, he did not disclose
their secret location.
Many people postulate
that Gurdjieff visited the kingdom of Shambhala, hidden somewhere in
Inner Asia.
The Russian painter, philosopher, and writer Nicholas Roerich
also explored the area in the 1920s and 30s, making many expeditions
to Central Asia, but primarily focusing on the Himalayas.
Nicholas and his wife
Helena acted as conduits for a 'Wise Man of the East', known as
Mahatma Morya.
El Morya, as he was called,
directed the founding of the Agni Yoga Society and dictated
the Agni Yoga book series through Helena. El Morya gives
hints in his work about Shambhala, and ended up becoming quite
literal regarding the mythical paradise, even describing some of the
trials one must go through to gain access to the hidden kingdom.
Andrew Tomas
writes:
At a certain spot not
to be mentioned to outsiders, there is a chasm spanned by a
frail bridge of woven grasses and with a raging torrent
underneath.
The bravest member of
your Alpine clubs would scarcely dare to venture the passage,
for it hangs like a spider's web and seems to be rotten and
impassable.
Yet it is not: and he
who dares the trial and succeeds - as he will if he is right
that he should be permitted - comes into a gorge of surpassing
beauty of scenery, to one of our places and to some of our
people, of which and whom there is no note or minute among
European geographers.3
Thus, access to Shambhala
is gained by permission of the Nine, but more importantly, the
worthy aspirant can only penetrate the veil.
The Christian idea of 'Heaven', we are lead to believe, is an
actual place where our souls go if we have been 'good' in life.
Clouds, harps, Angels,
the Palace of God - this sounds very similar to the paradise known
as Shambhala. A place of spiritual comfort and bliss, where time
stops because time has no meaning to the enlightened.
One of the best descriptions on gaining access to Shambhala is found
in Andrew Tomas' book,
Shambhala - Oasis of Light:
They have renounced
all, yet they possess the world… The disciple's heart is aflame
with compassion for mankind. His mind is illuminated by an
unseen light from cosmic depths.
A cold mind, a warm
heart and a fiery will - these are the passwords to Shambhala…4
The Number 9
The number 9 has a long history, so it should not come as much of a
surprise that it still pops up in places where you least expect it.
There are Nine Unknown
Men, controlling sacred information, and letting it loose upon the
world at appropriate times in order to facilitate the evolution of
humankind.
Why 9? 9 is the number with the highest numerical value within the
Base Ten numerical system we currently follow, therefore symbolizing
perfection and completeness. It is at an almost instinctual level
and can affect us as such.
The number 9 is revered in Hinduism and considered a complete,
perfected and divine number because it represents the end of a cycle
in the decimal system, which originated from the Indian subcontinent
as early as 3000 BCE.
In the
Bahá'í Faith, a 9-pointed star is
used to symbolize the religion.
Nine is important in
Islam also. The holiest month, that of Ramadan, is the ninth month
on the Islamic calendar. The Qur'an was revealed to Mohammad in the
ninth month of the year. In observance with Mohammad's own fasting,
fervent prayer and eventual contact with Allah, all Muslims are
expected to do the same.
It is not only an important number in religion, but also in popular
culture.
John Lennon,
arguably one of the most gifted songwriters of last century,
incorporated the number into one of the Beatles more esoteric
tracks, 'Revolution 9', on the immortal 'White' album, produced in
1968.
The primary vocals
throughout the song are the repeating phrase, 'number nine'.
Given that Lennon wrote
this song after spiritual activities in India, using sounds like a
mashed up remix of a radio being tuned, it is more than likely that
he came to understand the significance of nine as the number of
completion/perfection, incorporating it not only in this song, but
also a solo recording he completed named '#9 Dream'.
Numbers do have vibrational power, they are 'something' that can be
relied on in this world, they spell out certain secrets of reality
and existence, but we must also be careful of the meanings we thrust
upon them.
The Power of
Conspiracy
People like to think they are not in control of their lives.
-
Ask any one of
the 1.9 billion Christians, or the 1.1 billion Muslims on
this planet, whom they think is running everything, and they
will say 'God' or 'Allah'...
-
Ask a banker who
they think is in charge, and they may reply, 'the market'; a
politician might say that the prime minister or president is
in charge, but really mean the banker...
Yes, people love to shift
the blame around.
We love to run from
responsibility, just as much as we love to run senselessly into
situations when these blame-centers are called to account.
Many conspiracy theories lead up to an 'End of the World' scenario.
Western society was run on the idea of
M.A.D.
(Mutually Assured Destruction) since the nuclear bombing of Japan in
1945 up until the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991.
Unlike almost every other
doomsday, with M.A.D. we see how our world can end by our own hands.
The power this held over populations was unlike anything ever
experienced before, and its spectre still hangs over humanity to
this day with the invention of new and more efficient weapons.
Have we grown numb to the idea?
That it has not happened
yet only adds to our confusion, explains Sufi-anarchist Hakim Bey
in
T.A.Z.: The Temporary Autonomous Zone,
Ontological Anarchy, Poetic Terrorism:
What does it mean
that we have invented a way to destroy all life on earth?
Nothing much. We have
dreamed this as an escape from the contemplation of our own
individual deaths. We have made an emblem to serve as the mirror
image of a discarded immorality.
Like demented
dictators we swoon at the thought of taking it all down with us
into the Abyss. 5
Seeing that finally we
are more than capable of taking out not only our own species, but
all life on the planet, has clearly done something to our collective
psyche.
For the last 70 years we
have ridden this wave of reckless self-destruction, trying to get as
much as we can before we die, or we all die.
Running a race where the
winners have not only already finished, but are making bets on who
else is going to make it over the finish line. Or scampering, hoping
to get clear of the blast zone.
These ideas have driven
Western society over the last century, but again, Bey helps us clear
things up:
The A.O.A.
(Association for Ontological Anarchy), declares itself bored
with the End of the World.
The canonical version
has been used since 1945 to keep us cowering in fear of
Mutual Assured Destruction and in sniveling servitude to our
superhero politicians…
We suggest that the
End of the World be declared a fiat accompli; the exact date is
unimportant.
The ranters in 1650
knew that the millennium comes now into each soul that wakes to
itself, to its own certainty and divinity.
'Rejoice, fellow
creature', was their greeting. 'All is ours!' 6
Something new must be
born.
Not new in the sense that
is just a copy of an old idea, clad in a new guise of
'hope-it-works-this-time'. Beware those espousing the importance of
freedom. Beware of the groups saying they have the answers, and that
you must believe them.
The youth of today, like all youth, are in revolt against society,
and that is a good thing in itself, but revolt is a reaction and
that reaction sets up its own pattern and you get caught in that
pattern. You think it is something new. It is not; it is the old in
a different mold.
Any social or political
revolt will inevitably revert to the good old bourgeois mentality.7
In the early years of the 20th century, Jiddu
Krishnamurti was groomed for messianic purposes by the
Theosophical Society. Brought up within the Society, he was to
usher in a new religion to a world lost on the faded ideals of
bygone traditions.
In a surprise turn of
events, he turned his back on his master's plans and followed his
own path, which perhaps is the simplest way to find the new.
So, dear reader, do not spend too much time thinking about the
Nine Unknown Men, who they are, where they could be, and what
they may or may not be doing to make your life better or worse.
Simply step back, take
stock, some deep breaths, and know that life is truly what you make
it.
Victoria LePage, author of the highly regarded book
Shambhala - The Fascinating Truth Behind the
Myth of Shangri-La, concludes:
So who are the Nine,
really?
A dense veil falls
over these mysterious Beings the more we seek to penetrate it.
Many of the current myths about them can be discounted.
The truth is that we
know almost nothing about these shadowy Guides of humanity.
They remain a
mystery, an X factor in the story of human evolution, an elusive
presence that Sufis call the Hidden Directorate, but about whose
hierarchy - or even existence - we can only speculate. 8
Footnotes
1. Louis Pauwels and
Jacques Bergier,
The Morning of the Magicians, Stein & Day, 1960
2. Osho,
I Am The Gate, Rebel Publishing
House, 1990
3. Andrew Tomas, Shambhala: Oasis of Light, Sphere, 1977, 36
4. Ibid., 38
5. Hakim Bey,
T.A.Z.: The Temporary Autonomous Zone,
Ontological Anarchy, Poetic Terrorism, Autonomedia,
1991, 34
6. Ibid., 35
7. Jiddu Krishnamurti, Freedom from The Known, Harper & Row,
1969, 68
8. 'Sufism
and The Nine Unknowns' by Victoria LePage
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