What Year Is It Anyway?

Though the majority of Filianic calendars developed by different branches of our growing community holds the thirteen-month, five-season year in common (whatever we name them!), the year date is quite often very different from one method to another.

Most other calendars in common use today mark a significant date that we choose to count forward from. Our secular calendar puts us in 2021, which starts in the year early calendar makers thought was the year Jesus was born. The Jewish calendar counts from the sixth day of creation, when Adam and Eve were made, and the current year is 5781. The Islamic calendar starts with the Hijra, or migration, of the Prophet to Medina; the current year is 1442.

Each of these calendars began with important events: the birth of an important religious figure, the start of humanity, or a defining moment in that religion's history. The early Madrian communities took a different view:

 "Among traditional Madrian communities, there has never been any common system of numbering the years, for each year is a reflection of the archetypal Year, and as such, it is not a year, but the year...In our own communities when a particular year had to be identified, some local index, such as the reign of a priestess or a householder was taken ("It was Lady Theia's third year as mistress").  ...
"Furthermore, being the primordial religion, the Madrian Faith has no "beginning" in earthly history from which to count; for it is older than the human race itself."
[The Coming Age, Volume 11]

But, as the magazine noted, there was still a need for a less localised method of dating once they began printing. Initially, two important historical moments were chosen as possible dates to count from:

• The founding of the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus, and
  
  
• The apparitions of Our Lady of Lourdes (A.D. 1858)
  

The abbreviation for the Temple of Artemis date is T.A. or A.E. (After Ephesus); the Lourdes date is marked as a.L. (e.g., "in the year 130 a.L. ..."), meaning "après Lourdes" (literally: "after Lourdes").

In the Coming Age, a Madrian magazine published in the 1970s, the second volume (1977) shows both dates:

"THE COMING AGE: A Madrian review of religion, life and culture. Issued under the hand of the Goddess by the Daughters of Artemis and Lux Madriana at 3, Hill View Rd., Oxford, in the month of Moura, in the year 3709 after the foundation of the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus and the year 118 after the appearance of our Lady at Lourdes."

You may find the full PDF of this issue HERE, and see additional issues of the magazine HERE.

(I am, however, a little confused by how large the first number is, as by any calculation I do the founding of the Temple at Ephesus is only around 2,600 years ago, if you use the commonly-given date of 550 B.C. Pages about the site mention an earlier founding date in the Bronze Age, dating to 1100 B.C., which still comes up short at 3120 years ago. The Madrian date seems to use a founding date of 1732 B.C. -- but perhaps I am making some basic error! )

Both dates continue to be used until the sixth volume of the Coming Age, where the Ephesus date is dropped in preference for the a.L. date. Then in volume 11 the magazine begins using a different date. Though it says Iron Age, it doesn't mean the age where we as humans developed iron tools. Rather, it refers to the Hindu concept of Yugas (Eras); four time periods that each last thousands, even millions, of years, each cycle devolving into a worse and worse state before it begins all over again in a new Golden Age. Of the four Yugas, the fourth and worst is the Iron or Kali Yuga -- it is said to last for 432,000 years.

[box on right side reads:]
"THE COMING AGE: the Magazine of the Religion of the Goddess; No. 11.
Issued in the month of Rosea in year 5081 of the Iron Age. Written material copyright of Lux Madriana. Permission to reprint usually freely granted on application."

This old calendar for the year 5083 is using this dating system (click on the image to open the PDF of the entire illustrated calendar -- it is quite beautiful!). Hindu philosophers date the beginning of our current Kali Yuga to 3102 B.C., which appears to be the same date the Madrians used; the volume of the Coming Age shown above would have been published in 1979, which is exactly 5081 years since 3102 B.C. This dating method was abbreviated "I.A." for Iron Age (as seen in vol 14).

Later on, after the magazine had stopped circulating and the Madrian community had undergone serious changes, a new year date appeared in Aristasian (later, Chelouranyan) circles. This is the one that I use, the current year being 3340 (until March 2021). While there is basically nothing online about why the number itself was chosen, the event that begins the calendar is a mythical battle wherein a legendary figure, Sai Rayanna, defeated demons and founded the Caeran Empire. There is no abbreviation/label for this dating method that I am aware of. It would be nice to include Rayanna somehow, or the Chelouranyans themselves (or some of the unique words they used) in the abbreviation for the calendar date they designed.

An Update: I believe this year date may be referred to as the Imperial Era, as seen on this page on the Mother God website. ["In the Motherland, Sai Herthe, the supreme myth of the present Aeon is that of Sai Rayanna who defeated the demons and established the current Imperial Era."] Imperial Year may also be used, i.e.: "in the 3340th Imperial Year..."

 In summary, until March 20 of the current year (2021), the year could be written as:

• 3340 I.E.
  
  
• 162 a.L.
  
  
• 5123 I.A.
  
  
• 3753 T.A. (continuing on from the Madrian date; 3120 if based on the Bronze Age date in 1100 B.C.)
  

Which year date you use is really just a matter of preference. I initially struggled with the idea that we could just 'make up' a date and have a legendary battle and a legendary empire, especially as I was never a part of Chelouranya. But as time goes by, I prefer it more and more to the others that try to mark a concrete event that actually happened in history as a starting point. It goes hand in hand with our Mythos not depicting a specific time period or locale, as by doing so it truly feels timeless, directing our attention not to a literal place or event on earth but to the Divine. At least, that's how it feels to me!

And as mentioned above, the year number itself is not really important; focusing too much on it can actually detract from an important spiritual perspective that is uniquely ours. This is The Year, an infinite reflection of the original Drama of the Mother and Daughter, a holy drama that literally molded time into its shape. It was fantastic fun for me to go through what I have and put it all together at last, but at the end of the day, it's not really about what year it is -- but what we do with that Year.