Practice of the Month: “Calculate Your Personal Time Code”
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Welcome Members, once again, to the May Edition of SGM. I’m Kevin Schoeninger.
In the second week of each month, we review a specific book/product/or tradition for the practices that it offers. The key to our personal transformation is to apply our insights by practicing them daily. This month’s material is drawn from Gregg Braden’s latest book, “Fractal Time: The Secret of 2012 and a New World Age.” (FT)
In our first Weekly Message, we talked about how the conditions for events in the history of the cosmos, our planet, human culture, and our personal lives repeat in time cycles. We discussed the convergence of many different time cycles in the year 2012. We realized that the transitions of 2012 are an ongoing process that we are involved in right here and now.
Finally, I suggested that we can use the 2012 date to inspire us with a sense of urgency. It can motivate us to do what we need to do individually and collectively to evolve smoothly into a new world age.
In this Week’s Message, we’ll explore Braden’s Time Code Calculator. The Time Code Calculator can be used to assess and predict important “choice points” in large and small time cycles. Using the Time Code Calculator, we can use past experiences to predict what conditions will present themselves in the future.
With that awareness, we can better choose our responses to the conditions in our lives. As Braden says, “If we can understand the codes, then we can understand how things work and how to make changes when we need to. . .it’s all about recognizing the way cycles of patterns play out in our lives.” (p.79-80 FT) “If we know when to expect the conditions, we also know how to change the circumstances.” (p.83 FT)
The Time Code Calculator is based on two key insights. Braden says that, “The first key is the principle of fractals. These are the patterns that nature uses to fill the space of the universe.” (p.83 FT) We discussed the idea of fractals in last Week’s Message. Basically fractal design is the structure of how patterns repeat in nature. Fractal repetition generates physical structure and temporal structure, it gives spatial form and the repetition of conditions in time.
The second insight gives numerical value to the repetitive cycles in space and time. It is a specific ratio that defines how and when things repeat.
As Braden says, “The second key is the golden ratio. This is the number that determines how frequently nature repeats the fractals that fill space.” (p.83 FT) The Golden Ratio was known to the ancient Egyptians who used it to construct their pyramids. It has been known and used by many of the great minds and artists in history from the ancient Greeks to Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci.
The Golden Ratio is named “phi.” Phi has two numerical forms: 1.618 (represented by Phi with a capital P) and .618 (represented by phi with a lower case p). For the Time Code Calculator Braden uses .618.
The numerical sequence that gives us the Golden Ratio was discovered for the modern age by Leonardo Fibonacci, an Italian mathematician in the early 14th century. He discovered what is now called the Fibonacci sequence. This sequence goes like this: 1;1;2;3;5;8;13;21;34;55;89. . .and so on.
Each number in the Fibonacci sequence is the result of adding the two numbers before it together. Furthermore, if you divide any number in the sequence by the one that immediately precedes it, the result is close to the golden ratio. As you go up higher in the series the number arrived at dances closer and closer to the golden ratio, alternately being just above or just below it.
Besides being a cool mathematical formula, what does the Golden Ratio mean for us? Well, it turns out that many patterns in nature approximate this ratio. For instance, the orbits of many planets approximate this ratio, the spirals of the Milky Way and a hurricane are patterned after this ratio, the spiral patterns of seashells and seeds that grow in the heads of flowers follow this ratio, the paths of quantum particles in a laboratory bubble chamber are governed by this ratio. The Golden Ratio seems to be everywhere.
Most importantly for our purposes, events in time also follow patterns defined by the Golden Ratio. We can use this knowledge to prepare ourselves for events to come. As Braden says, “Our knowledge of repeating cycles allows us to pinpoint times in the future when we can expect to see the repeating conditions of the past.” (p.125 FT)
Braden offers two stunning examples of repeating time cycles in U.S. history. The first is for an event keyed by the words “surprise” and “attack.” Braden applies the Time Code Formula to show that the conditions for the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor were repeated again in 1984 when a planned nuclear strike on the U.S. was averted, in 2001 with the attacks of September 11th, and again in 2007 when planned attacks against U.S. interests were foiled in Germany and Saudi Arabia. With this example, we see again the principle that conditions repeat, but what happens is determined by how people respond to the conditions.
Another example Braden cites relates to the cyclic conditions in the U.S. economy. He begins this cycle with the stock market crash of 1929. He calculates how these conditions were repeated in 1979 with the surge in oil prices and the economic contraction at that time, were repeated again in 1999 with the surge in oil prices and 6 percent drop in the New York Stock exchange at that time, and in the past year when unsustainable debt set the stage for the market collapse that we just witnessed.
Braden cites many examples of large historical cycles and small personal cycles to show the Time Code Calculator in action. The Time Code applies to larger collective patterns and to the personal patterns in our lives. As he says, “The Time Code Calculator can pinpoint personal cycles of love and hurt, as well as global cycles of war and peace.” (p.140 FT)
So what is the formula for The Time Code Calculator and how can we apply it to our personal lives?
The Time Code Calculator begins with a seed event. The seed event is an emotionally significant experience that leaves a strong imprint in your psyche. This imprint sets in motion a cyclic repetition of those same conditions that can follow us through our lives. Until the conditions of this seed event are fully recognized and dealt with in a new way, those conditions will repeat again and again.
The key, then, is to identify the seed event and understand the conditions, so that we can respond in the most conscious, positive, and constructive way. This gives us the best possible results in our lives. It also gives us the possibility of overcoming a negative pattern by transforming it into something new.
The Time Code Calculator works like this
(from P.141 FT):
Step One: Identify your age at the time of a seed event. (SEA1)
Step Two: Calculate the phi ratio interval of your age during the seed event. (Iphi)
Step Three: Add the phi ratio interval back to your age during the seed event to determine your age when the conditions will repeat. (SEA1 + Iphi =_____)
If that sounded complicated, it’s really quite simple in practice. Try this with an event in your own life. First identify an emotionally significant seed event. Identify your age at the time of that event. Multiply your age by .618. Add that result to your age at the time of the seed event to identify times when similar conditions are likely to repeat.
As you do this for different emotionally significant events in your life, you may start to track some repeating patterns and recurring themes. Braden points out that these calculations don’t necessarily show us exact dates or precise conditions but patterns and time frames within the ongoing process of life. These patterns will likely repeat within certain time-frame cycles until they are recognized and replaced with new patterns of clear communication, discernment, and positive action.
The key insight is that the more aware we are of the conditions within and around us the more consciously we can respond to those conditions in a constructive way. The points where certain conditions repeat themselves become ideal “choice points” that offer opportunities to choose how to relate to the pattern being repeated. We’ll talk more about “choice points” in next Week’s Message.
Our cyclic repetitions can be positive events as well as negative ones. If a positive pattern is repeating, we can be alert to enjoy it and maximize it. If the conditions tend toward a negative experience, we can choose how to relate to that experience differently.
The reason for emphasizing recurring negative experiences is that these are the ones that we want to step into and shift. When we are on the lookout for these recurring negative experiences, we can be alert to make new positive choices at those points in time.
My suggestion for you this week is to use the Time Code Calculator to identify some significant patterns in your own life. See if you can discover recurring joys and pains and gain some insight into their seed events. With that information, you can build on the your joy and transform your suffering.
In next Week’s Message, we’ll look at what conditions The Time Code Calculator reveals for the year 2012. We’ll also explore how we can best respond is to these conditions. The more we understand about this important cycle of time, the better we can choose the thoughts, feelings, and actions that will smoothly usher in a bright new world age. 2012 may be an unprecedented opportunity in human history to do just that.
Until next time,
Happy practicing,
Kevin