Ascending The Tower – Episode XIII, Part 2 – “Gazing Into The Age Of Kali”

6 Comments

1. 

   Augustina February 8, 2016 at 11:03 pm

   I wasn’t able to listen to the whole podcast. It cut off at about 30 minutes. I tried again, and it did the same thing.

   1. 

      Hadley Bishop February 8, 2016 at 11:35 pm

      Works for me. I’d recommend trying a different browser. Let me know if that helps.

2. 

   Izak February 12, 2016 at 7:34 pm

   Finally got around to listening to this. Good episode.

   One slightly wonkish word of clarification. The Kali Yuga prophecies aren’t exactly 5,000 years old the way that we receive them. The Kali Yuga is first mentioned in writing in the Vishnu Purana, which was composed around 320 AD, earliest.

   The Guenonian traditionalists maintain that the idea dates back to Vedic period through the oral tradition, and they could be entirely right. After all, we have similar ideas from Hesiod (see his theory of the ages in Works & Days) and there’s a similar four-part theory of ages in Norse mythology, found in the Voluspa. So the theory of declining ages could be a part of proto-Indo-European mythology. But we would have to go on faith to maintain such an assertion (not that there’s anything wrong with that, of course).

   1. 

      Nick B. Steves February 12, 2016 at 8:43 pm

      Well dang. There we go giving more credit to Hindu “Civilization” than was probably due. Damn diversity. 😉

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      Mark Citadel February 16, 2016 at 9:32 am

      Just wanted to confirm this is 100% correct, and yes, I believe that Guenon and Hindu scholars are well advised, and that the oral tradition of this prophesy dates long before its official compilation in text form (it includes notably later genealogies), a little like the Old Testament, which only began to be compiled around the 1600s BC.

      I would certainly say that the prophecy may in fact predate Indian civilization. As Grey mentioned in hour 1, we find a comparable story in the dream of Daniel, it is only that it has been expressed in its clearest and most concise form in the Vedic tradition, and so is most valuable here in terms of mining useful information.

      Thanks, Izak.

   3. 

      Crow of Storms February 25, 2016 at 9:59 pm

      “the theory of declining ages could be a part of proto-Indo-European mythology. ”

      Not could; is. Greeks have Ages of Man (Golden/Silver/Bronze/Heroic/Iron); Norse Ragnarok legends; Iranians have the Saoshant — but the Aryan (Hindu) civilization has the most complete, and likely oldest records. Despite the Islamic onslaught, the Hindu tradition is the only continuity of the Indo-European tradition. Vestiges of memories exist in Europe via our pagan myths , those pagan rituals merged into Catholicism, those remnants of sagas of Iceland (Norse). Persian I-E heritage is hanging by a thread. Almost extinct. Russia is hopeful.

      Luckily, Indo-European blood and spirit is still alive across the world… well, perhaps the spirit is dying… and perhaps the birthrates are suicidally low…

      But all it takes is a spark to light a fire.

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