Trinities and their correspondences
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Trinities and their correspondences
Boreas suggested a topic on trinities. That suits me well, because I've had a trinity in mind I've been meaning to ask about. It is the triangle of the four major shaktipithas. These are goddess related sacred places in India. The most important of these are Kamarupa, Uddiyana, Jalandhara and Purnagiri. These are actual locations in India and Pakistan, they are aspects of the esoteric anatomy and they are metaphysical principles.
According to Mark S. G. Dyczkowski, these are most often arranged into an inverted triangle where Purnagiri is the left and Jalandhara to the right. Purnagiri is likely a spot with a mountain near central India. Jalandhara is a famous shakta spot with caves where gas leaks cause flaming to occur. Uddiyana or Oddiyana was the birthplace of the famed Padmasambhava, and is likely situated in what is now the Swat Valley in Pakistan. It is placed as the center of the triangle. Finally, Kamarupa is the lower point. Kamarupa is a large city in Assam, known for its Kamakhya temple and the menstruating cave.
How would you see these correspinding to SoA's model of the principles?
A curious trinity is also the one used by the Spiritualist churches in New Orleans. They have pictures of a Native American leader Black Hawk, who has become a Voodoo Saint; Saint Mkchael representing Israel; and doctor Martin Luther King representing African Americans. Denisr Alvarado writes in "Voodoo Hoodoo Spellbook" (Weiser, 2011; p 39); "This trinity represents three oppressed races and functions as a symbol of strength and victory".
This reminds me of the Vajrayana practice of projecting the highet principles to the elder masters of one's spiritual lineage. I am curious, could our three higher principles be projected into this trinity used by the Spiritualist churches of New Orleans?
According to Mark S. G. Dyczkowski, these are most often arranged into an inverted triangle where Purnagiri is the left and Jalandhara to the right. Purnagiri is likely a spot with a mountain near central India. Jalandhara is a famous shakta spot with caves where gas leaks cause flaming to occur. Uddiyana or Oddiyana was the birthplace of the famed Padmasambhava, and is likely situated in what is now the Swat Valley in Pakistan. It is placed as the center of the triangle. Finally, Kamarupa is the lower point. Kamarupa is a large city in Assam, known for its Kamakhya temple and the menstruating cave.
How would you see these correspinding to SoA's model of the principles?
A curious trinity is also the one used by the Spiritualist churches in New Orleans. They have pictures of a Native American leader Black Hawk, who has become a Voodoo Saint; Saint Mkchael representing Israel; and doctor Martin Luther King representing African Americans. Denisr Alvarado writes in "Voodoo Hoodoo Spellbook" (Weiser, 2011; p 39); "This trinity represents three oppressed races and functions as a symbol of strength and victory".
This reminds me of the Vajrayana practice of projecting the highet principles to the elder masters of one's spiritual lineage. I am curious, could our three higher principles be projected into this trinity used by the Spiritualist churches of New Orleans?
One day of Brahma has 14 Indras; his life has 54 000 Indras. One day of Vishnu is the lifetime of Brahma. The lifetime of Vishnu is one day of Shiva.
- Nefastos
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Re: Trinities and their correspondences
Concerning these kinds of things, I have a terrible memory, so I dug up the article in question, "The Inner Pilgrimage of the Tantras", from Dyzckowski's A Journey in a World of Tantras, and checked my notes in the margins. I had repeatedly marked an inverted version of the "Four Peaks of Mount meru" permutation of the Hieroglyphic Key (see Unseen Fire I p.83) to the places where this is mentioned. When that permutation is inverted in a straightforward way, it becomes the four principles of kâma (right), linga (down), and kâma manas (left), plus prâna-jiva in the middle. This inverted model is found – or remains hidden – reflected from the original in its middle triangle of the Moon (i.e. it in this "womb" or matrix of the higher aspects).
However, different aspectual changes may occur. It might be too tiresome a journey to follow those in this point of conversation, so I can come back to those at some later point.
I will attach Dyckowski's map for our readers' convenience, plus the original (not inverted) model of the "Four Peaks of Mount Meru".
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Faust: "Lo contempla. / Ei muove in tortuosa spire / e s'avvicina lento alla nostra volta. / Oh! se non erro, / orme di foco imprime al suol!"
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Re: Trinities and their correspondences
I am very thankful for your answer - this triangle is very important to me personally; I knew you had read the Dyckowski's book, too; and because this is a very esoteric topic in its depth, and I was thinking of asking you about this privately, but I thought that the spirit of the SoA is to share these things openly as much as possible.
I'd love to read you go through these aspectual changes when you have the time and energy for it. These things are, I think, the polar opposite of tiresom. They energize me like a lightening.
One day of Brahma has 14 Indras; his life has 54 000 Indras. One day of Vishnu is the lifetime of Brahma. The lifetime of Vishnu is one day of Shiva.
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Re: Trinities and their correspondences
obnoxion wrote: ↑Wed Apr 15, 2020 12:24 amI am very thankful for your answer - this triangle is very important to me personally; I knew you had read the Dyckowski's book, too; and because this is a very esoteric topic in its depth, and I was thinking of asking you about this privately, but I thought that the spirit of the SoA is to share these things openly as much as possible.
I am very glad to have this discussion as well. And, as you kindly thought, here especially. It is my conviction that this kinds of conversations should be held in public, like this, because no one is forced but everyone is allowed to read and participate. Even in the cases where the reader would not be totally interested in the subject itself, they may have the benefit of it in several tangential ways. I mostly mean the paradigms of and in the discussion instead of tangential correspondences, although the latter too are important. Intimacy, I think, is for other things; for the ritual part, for example.
Let us call that lightning, then! I will start by the first hypothesis, which should not be taken as conclusive. It goes like this (see the image attached):
Kâmarûpa, which corresponds to the head (see Dyczkowski p.170 & 173), is the uppermost point's correspondence. I.e. the triangle points "upwards" eastward (quite traditionally).
This would indicate that the Jâlandhara center corresponds to the center of Mars, and the Pûrnagiri center to Saturn. Prayâga at the center is the Moon|Sun situation. (Moon turning into Sun when the upward pointing triangle is turned downwards, thus depicting the whole of the upper to the lower, just like the Moon presented the whole of the lower to the upper.)
As you see, there is one extra permutation done in this model, because the geographical center of Kâmarûpa corresponds to Venus (the White aspect) instead of Mars (the Red aspect) that, basically, should represent the human principle of kâma rûpa in the Star of Azazel model. This is because of the change in the Star of Azazel model after the start. As one can read from the 1st edition of the Book of Paths, the original idea was such that would place the Red and thus its correspondence of kâma rûpa principle to the Kâmarûpa geographical center accordingly. (Not that I would have thought that back then, but these things do not function because the correspondences are artifically constructed, byt because the correspondences are universal.) This was changed because of the need of aspectual energetics in the brotherhood, and the White aspect assumed the role that was first tried with Red. This creates an anomaly which, however, is quite possible because of the double nature of Venus, very well capable of taking the double aspects of both linga & kâma to its substantial correspondences, depending on situation. The Red aspect that was at first established in order to create a crux for the meeting point of two kinds of polarities in principle of kâma rûpa or astral, became more saturated with emphasis of just one polarity, and from the 2nd edition of the Book of Paths onwards, it has remained as stressedly male or female, not including both. This dharma is now taken by the White, as seen in the "Four Peaks" model, where Venus is at the top instead of being at the right side, as it first was.
I will delve again into Dyczkowski's greatness & come back to this later.
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Re: Trinities and their correspondences
This is highly fascinating! As this shakta grid is my main model of interpretation (though not comprehended fully, critically internalized and under intense study), this helps me to integrate it to my understanding of our model.
It is a very central shaktipitha, where the fingers of the corpse of goddess Sati fell, and where tree sacred rivers - Ganga, Saraswati and Yamuna - meet. The old name of the city, Prayaga, apparently means "The Place of the Sacrifice".
I'm still not sure how Oddiyana relates to this model, though I think it is the most metaphysical of the four original pithas, and thus least tied down to the terrain. Are the lines from Oddiyana on your latest map suppose to indicate relationships to Puruagiri's mountain and Kamarupa's cave?
Was not Allahabad, or Prayaga, one of the cities where early Theosophical luminaries spent time?
It is a very central shaktipitha, where the fingers of the corpse of goddess Sati fell, and where tree sacred rivers - Ganga, Saraswati and Yamuna - meet. The old name of the city, Prayaga, apparently means "The Place of the Sacrifice".
I'm still not sure how Oddiyana relates to this model, though I think it is the most metaphysical of the four original pithas, and thus least tied down to the terrain. Are the lines from Oddiyana on your latest map suppose to indicate relationships to Puruagiri's mountain and Kamarupa's cave?
One day of Brahma has 14 Indras; his life has 54 000 Indras. One day of Vishnu is the lifetime of Brahma. The lifetime of Vishnu is one day of Shiva.
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Re: Trinities and their correspondences
What makes these locations sacred to the ancient Hindu? Are they somehow sacred "objectively", not just to the Hindu? Are they a part of the global grid of sacred sites?
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Re: Trinities and their correspondences
As said before, this trinity (or a triangle with a fourth point, like many othet trinities will prove to be) is not something that will be interesting to all. It is a pan-Indian phenomenon, crossing religious boundaries. Other traditions have similar models, yet I would say they are seldom as vital, as essential, as pantheistic or as centeted on a continuos and living Goddess cult. Also, these pithas are a part of the phenomenon of "tantricism", which is a difficult topic to grasp by taxonomical means. What makes it interesting for this forum is that in "tantricism" one can find both the elements of dark witchcraft, theological subtlety abd ethical excellence of which the West can only dream of. I, for one, am far more impressed by some tantric texts than I am of the moon landing.
The shaktipitas or powerplace are usually counted as fifty. Legend says that these are the places where the pieces of Shiva's first wife's, Sati's, body parts fell after Shiva walked mad with sorrow with her corpse on his back. Vishnu, to help Shiva, secretly dismembered the body with his discus-weapon. These power places, or voids, gained importance among peripathetic cemetery-ascetics, like the skull-bearers. As tantric practice evolved, these pithas were accessed internally, as "tantricism" was domesticated - a process that was refined to its perfection by the celebrated Abhinavagupta.
The four points here are quite universally understood to be the most important ones. They are actual geographical locations and bodily points, but they are also metaphysical principles. And they are all interconnected. As all tantric concepts they form intentional and intrigate double entender, which excels at communicating the metaphysical cross-currents of non-dual pantheism. It allows one to work with topics and energies that one is unable to name with any conceptual language. So already, merely in the sense that language marks the borders of one's world, this is a language which opens up a massive world, unlike anything imagianable before.
One day of Brahma has 14 Indras; his life has 54 000 Indras. One day of Vishnu is the lifetime of Brahma. The lifetime of Vishnu is one day of Shiva.
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Re: Trinities and their correspondences
obnoxion wrote: ↑Wed Apr 15, 2020 6:26 pmI'm still not sure how Oddiyana relates to this model, though I think it is the most metaphysical of the four original pithas, and thus least tied down to the terrain. Are the lines from Oddiyana on your latest map suppose to indicate relationships to Puruagiri's mountain and Kamarupa's cave?
I didn't take Uddiyana under consideration yet, although in this first hypothesis it might represent our metaphysical starting point "beyond the mystery of Azazel", in the metaphysical Star beyond the right corner, a source point of emanation perhaps.
Do you mean the larger one of the two possible triangles drawn (in black) for us by Dyczkowski? The purple lines added by me make up only the inner womb of the Moon|Sun.
obnoxion wrote: ↑Wed Apr 15, 2020 6:26 pmWas not Allahabad, or Prayaga, one of the cities where early Theosophical luminaries spent time?
It is a very central shaktipitha, where the fingers of the corpse of goddess Sati fell, and where tree sacred rivers - Ganga, Saraswati and Yamuna - meet. The old name of the city, Prayaga, apparently means "The Place of the Sacrifice".
I glanced at my Mahatma letters to A.P. Sinnett (reading group of which is here) at saw that there are nine places where this center is mentioned in the letters themselves. These mentions of Allahabad formed an interestingly tantric story, so to say. They are:
(a) An Indian disciple of the masters is told to change his soiled clothes when he's supposed to go to meet an Englishman esotericist, to honor the demands of cultural differences. The disciple answers that this would be hypocrisy. (Letter 4)
(b) The master would like to help the disciple by planting a thought into his mind "by occult osmosis" on special occasions, but in Allahabad that was made impossible because of the presence of alcohol in the disciple's system. (Letter 8)
(c) Ghosts assume the old identities of the deceased while not actually being those people. But a person who had known the deceased "in Allahabad" would not be able to tell the difference. (Letter 23B)
(d) The master noticed that the discipline is using words – when speaking to the third person, a non-disciple occultist of the RHP – that were not subtle enough, but did not interrupt, because he felt that those words still might be needed to be received at some point. (Letter 27)
(e) There is a crisis going, and it needs that the disciples would unite their moral forces without thinking who would be guilty: the master, their messenger, or someone else. (Letter 66)
(f) The master's letter should be commented and returned to Allahabad without H.P. Blavatsky being allowed to see it. (Letter 91B)
(g) The master mentions that Simla is 700 feet higher than Allahabad, and to reach it would be tremendously more difficult, spiritually as well as physically. (Letter 106)
These seven are from the master. The last two mentions are from the disciples:
(h) H.P. Blavatsky undersigns his letter "Your's in the love of Jesus". The master would like to send her to Allahabad, but she wouldn't like to go. (Letter 134)
(i) The master would like to send A.P. Sinnett to Allahabad, but he wouldn't like to go. (Letter 20B)
Faust: "Lo contempla. / Ei muove in tortuosa spire / e s'avvicina lento alla nostra volta. / Oh! se non erro, / orme di foco imprime al suol!"
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Re: Trinities and their correspondences
Yes, those black ones in the map with your purple lines. I was wondering if those black ones were included in your model somehow.
My first impression was, when I saw the center of your model in Allahabad, that this would possible become the center to our Theosophical interpretation of the four-pitha-triangle. Because I remembered some of these many mentions of Allahabad from our Master Letters reading group, and how they made me think of Allahabad as a sort of power nexus for some curious happenings. And judging by your list, I feel I wasn't wrong about this.
This is getting very exciting for me!
One day of Brahma has 14 Indras; his life has 54 000 Indras. One day of Vishnu is the lifetime of Brahma. The lifetime of Vishnu is one day of Shiva.
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Re: Trinities and their correspondences
Also, I remember Koot Hoomi taking his retreat of silence somewhere in that strange towet near Ladakh, which is quite near to Uddiyana, or the Swat Valley...
I guess I sort of visualized Uddiyana as a secret center behind Allahabad, as a sort of apex of a three-dimensional tetrahedron...
One day of Brahma has 14 Indras; his life has 54 000 Indras. One day of Vishnu is the lifetime of Brahma. The lifetime of Vishnu is one day of Shiva.