Wesak is an Eastern Tradition

Years ago our local Buddhist Abbey contacted us about the fact that we were using the wrong date to celebrate Wesak. They reminded me that Buddha was born a Hindu, under the Vedic (or Sidereal or Eastern) Astrological system. I checked online and virtually all the Buddhist countries celebrated Wesak at a different time than we were.

So I contacted a Vedic astrologer who cast the Wesak dates back to the time of Christ and found that Wesak was ALWAYS on the full moon of MAY which, in the Vedic system is Taurus. It seemed westerners had again taken an eastern tradition and made it conform to our specifics by using the Tropical (Western) Astrological system.

The only full moon in May this year is 21/22 May— the date is marked on religious calendars as Wesak.

I looked into this very carefully and came to the conclusion that Alice Bailey made a typical western centric mistake — normal for her time and culture — and assumed Wesak was a western creation, under a western zodiac, the one with which she was familiar. She was told to celebrate on the Taurus Moon (and we all know it's really the Scorpio moon, Taurus sun.) I believe she went with what she knew — the western sun sign of Taurus running from April 21 to May 21.

Many of the descriptions given by various western spiritualists — including I am told Bailey herself — say that the festivals of the three moons are EASTERN in origin. The Buddha full moon is a Vedic tradition — an eastern tradition. (Remember DK is the Tibetan.) The down pouring of the Wesak blessing has always been tied in with Buddha's birth/death/enlightenment, according to Dr. Stone. Wesak is the date of this birth, death and enlightenment. This is celebrated by Buddhist countries as the first full moon in May — this year May 21/22. The Vedic system shows Taurus at varying times — because it actually calculated when the constellations are directly overhead — but roughly mid May to mid June.

Sun in Taurus, full moon in sun sign Taurus, occurs twice in a year — once in the Tropical and once in the Vedic systems. In Tropical it is April this year. In the eastern system it is the Vedic Astrological system that determines the date of Wesak and this year that date is May 21/22. We decided to use the Vedic system as it seems to be more in keeping with Buddha's heritage and traditions.

Where two or more are gathered the Ascended ones will attend, no matter what the dates may be. It is only we on this plane who are constricted by such measurements. We are fully in touch with Wesak's spiritual energies. Our participants fully receive the outpouring being offered by the Ascended Masters. While doing that they also receive information to allow them to incorporate that energy into their lives.