Reading Circle (Blavatsky: The Secret Doctrine, Book I - Part I)

Discussion on literature other than by the Star of Azazel.
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Re: Reading Circle (Blavatsky: The Secret Doctrine)

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Smaragd wrote: Thu Oct 06, 2022 10:51 pmThere's been preparations made to take this reading group to its end

It would be great to see the Secret Doctrine circle accomplished! If not the whole long opus, some part of it.

Parts 1:1 and 2:1 are presentations and commentaries on two different subjects in the mythic Book of Dzyan, creation of the world and the creation of humankind respectively. Parts 1:2, 2:2 and posthumously published part 3 are very much like earlier Isis Unveiled, meaning stray thoughts on various subjects of theology, symbolism and criticism of cotemporary science and metaphysics. I consider the parts about the Book of Dzyan the most important, the original second parts a bit like a huge appendices or bonus chapters, and the third volume like a collector's edition bonus, not important to the original whole, and partially even confusing to the whole. (It was edited and published posthumously by Annie Besant, who in my opinion should not be fully trusted.)

Smaragd wrote: Thu Oct 06, 2022 10:51 pmI happened to find the text also in Finnish from my bookshelf, bought from a city library surplus sale about 7 years ago. But I have managed to dodge it all these years because Gita hasn't yet reached the top of my reading list. :roll: Bought it only because I had heard Subba Row's name come up in some Theosophy related sources.

Subba Row is an excellent author, I heartily recommend his "Esoteric Writings" book. (From this larger book have been translated some parts to form two little Finnish books, Esoteerisia kirjoituksia and Bhagavad-Gitan filosofiaa.) Blavatsky kept him in high regard, and parts of The Secret Doctrine actually come from Subba Row's pen. Unluckily, his downfall was his deep contempt towards us "white barbarians", the people of the occident. He was disgusted when his master told him to give even tiny fragments of the occult philosophy to the Western world via the theosophical society. Subba Row reminds me of those traditionalists of the 20th century who had deep knowledge on occultism paired with unloving and culturally self-centered heart.
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: Reading Circle (Blavatsky: The Secret Doctrine)

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Smaragd wrote: Thu Oct 06, 2022 10:51 pm on the upcoming New Moon.
I meant Full Moon.
Nefastos wrote: Fri Oct 07, 2022 11:30 am and parts of The Secret Doctrine actually come from Subba Row's pen.
Yep, I noticed how the commentary on Stanza VI is almost the same as the said article, only bend to work as a commentary to the poem, and also adding some interesting notions about the gender polarities present in the poetry describing the principles.
Nefastos wrote: Fri Oct 07, 2022 11:30 am I heartily recommend his "Esoteric Writings" book.
Thank you for the recommendation, I will surely look in to it.
Nefastos wrote: Fri Oct 07, 2022 11:30 am If not the whole long opus, some part of it.
I'm pretty sure we are only going through the 1:1, although it would be interesting to also look in to the 2:1 where the human creation is looked upon. I have read about these things from so many other sources that largely base on Theosophy that it would be really nice seeing what Blavatsky wrote. But it might be less cumbersome to do that outside of reading circles. Blavatsky's writing isn't usually reading circle friendly.
"Would to God that all the Lord's people were Prophets”, Numbers 11:29 as echoed by William Blake
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Re: Reading Circle (Blavatsky: The Secret Doctrine)

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Smaragd wrote: Fri Oct 07, 2022 12:31 pmBlavatsky's writing isn't usually reading circle friendly.

Blavatsky's writings (except her articles, Esoteric Instructions letters, and Key to Theosophy) are written and edited in a way that they can't be "studied" in a way that people usually study things. It is usually hard to make summaries of them and so on, because they work in a different way. But a reading group can also work in a different way. People can read the texts by themselves and speak/write about some details that grasp their attention – for good or for bad. Since we are not in a university but in an occult school that works in quite a different way, I would personally encourage taking the latter stance, when the attendants are already intellectually invested. Only for those more astral by nature (and who therefore are in need of rational clarification) I would suggest trying to take the text in an underlinedly consistent and more linear way.

People who face a particularly deep occult book and have a feeling that "I don't understand this" should take that feeling as a reason of awe, positive wonder. To understand fully what an actual occult text says (I do not mean astral texts that only pretend to be deep and mystical to the point of confusion) would indicate that one is already a full adept. Such a book should baffle, it is part of its "manasic" modus operandi. (Profane books work via kâma manas, occult books work also via buddhi-manas.) I keep repeating this, because it is so important part of everyone's occult study.

Salome blog: How to read occultism
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: Reading Circle (Blavatsky: The Secret Doctrine)

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Starting from todays Full Moon, we will revisit Stanza VI, 1. to cut through confusions and continue forth with the rest of the Stanzas after the upcoming week. We may take longer than one week on each of the slokas, especially those which have longer commentaries in order to keep the amount of reading manageable.

The first part of the poem and its commentary focuses on the the idea of the divine voice and the feminine aspects of it. It’s treefold nature of being: the Mother, Wife and Daughter of the masculine side of Logos seems to speak of the metaphysical procession of the divine voice and the feminine role in it*.

Blavatsky draws an important definition to the magic power (feminine emphasis) of voice in the following sitation (emphasis mine):
Secret Doctrine wrote:If Kwan-Yin is the “melodious Voice,” so is Vâch ; “the melodious cow who milked forth sustenance and water” (the female principle) […]. She is male and female ad libitum, as Eve is with Adam. And she is a form of Aditi—the principle higher than Ether—in Akâsa, the synthesis of all the forces in Nature; thus Vâch and Kwan-Yin are both the magic potency of Occult sound in Nature and Ether—which “Voice” calls forth Sien-Tchan, the illusive form of the Universe out of Chaos and the Seven Elements.
”Magic potency” is a pair of words which ties this hermaphrodite idea together. Magic means the substance, and potency means the germ of an idea. The Occult sound significe both of these, the idea impregnating the chaotic, abstract matter. Below I have attached a diagram which I compiled according to the T. Subba Row’s clarificating article of which we spoke earlier and to which the book itself pointed to in a footnote. This diagram could be seen breaking these things apart, while the idea of the occult sound on the contrary attempts to picture them all as one.

Regarding the italized part of the quote: on one occasion in Blavatsky’s Collected Writings the following definition of Akasa is given, which seems to go hand in hand how she uses it in the above quoted part of the Secret Doctrine:
Blavatsky's Collected Writings wrote:Ether. Students are but too apt to confuse this with Akasa and with Astral Light. It is neither, in the sense in which ether is described by physical Science. Ether is a material agent, though hitherto undetected by any physical apparatus; whereas Akasa is a distinctly spiritual agent, identical, in one sense, with the Anima Mundi, while the Astral Light is only the seventh and highest principle of the terrestrial atmosphere, as undetectable as Akasa and real Ether, because it is something quite on another plane.
Comparing this to my diagram, I think it is quite safe to say Akasa goes to the category marked by Mulaprakriti. It’s definition as spiritual agent, although it is the base of all materia, is important. This comes back to the Mother’s purity – the venerated immaculate nature of it –. which points to how it is impregnated only by the purest of archetypal ideas. Black metal fans can surely identify this idea from the sense of pure fire and the majesty and power hidden in chaos, to which the music can sometimes point towards in a poetic fashion. Well, at least my own teenage moments with Emperor included such moments of awe and occult fascination towards the "controlled", or as I'd say it now: impregnated chaos and the abstract power hidden there. Again, this comes down to the concept of Occult sound.

So as the androgyne Logos is the word or potential of all manifestation then its feminine aspect seems to me as the voice or sound or speech – the expression of the word. The feminine logos is all the attributes and powers as potentialities, while the masculine represents the hidden totality of ’idea’ and the intelligences and geometry of spirits. When reflected from the idea of Anima Mundi, the Mother aspect of the feminine Logos is the primordial fountain matrix hiding the formulas by which everything fits together in the spiritual realm. This is where all the sustenance = Truth and vitality, the silent guiding voice of the whole comes from. It is the secret wisdom of how things click together in a meaningful way. The oneness of the Mother and the Wife – the source of the common Oedipal theme in cosmogonies – seems to come back to the idea of space (the mother) and the sound of the space – the reverberation if you will (the daughter) within which the Son-Logos is the seed idea.
Secret Doctrine wrote:thus Vâch and Kwan-Yin are both the magic potency of Occult sound in Nature and Ether—which “Voice” calls forth Sien-Tchan, the illusive form of the Universe out of Chaos and the Seven Elements.
The Seven Elements are the germs (geometric, archetypal, intelligences) of the Seven sons imprinted (by Fohat) on the primordial materia (Mulaprakriti).

* The procession is described with the four Vâchs in the following way:

1. The Para form of the Goddess seems to be that of the Mother, who is, according to Subba Row, Parabrahmam manifested and Parabrahmam as seen by Logos. It is the abstract base of matter. In the diagram below this is Mulaprakriti, the reflection of which is seen through the Logos and in correspondence by the imagined dashed line.

2. The Pasyanti form that of the Wife of the Logos (the female aspect of the androgyne being which the Logos is) who could be seen giving birth to the Seven Sons.

3. Madhyama form as the Light of the Logos, the daugther of the Logos. This is Fohat who brings the ”image” in the Mind of the Logo to the chaos – the primordial matter of Mulaprakriti – and starts to give structure and order to it. (The images in the mind of Fohat are the Seven Sons, according to the archetypal forms of the seven ages and races of man take place.)

4. Vaikhari-Vâch as the objective reality: limited by time with altering emphases of the Seven in multiple different layers.
kaavio Subba Rown esitykseen.jpg
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"Would to God that all the Lord's people were Prophets”, Numbers 11:29 as echoed by William Blake
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Re: Reading Circle (Blavatsky: The Secret Doctrine)

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Smaragd wrote: Sun Oct 09, 2022 9:43 pmRegarding the italized part of the quote: on one occasion in Blavatsky’s Collected Writings the following definition of Akasa is given, which seems to go hand in hand how she uses it in the above quoted part of the Secret Doctrine:
Blavatsky's Collected Writings wrote:Ether. Students are but too apt to confuse this with Akasa and with Astral Light. It is neither, in the sense in which ether is described by physical Science. Ether is a material agent, though hitherto undetected by any physical apparatus; whereas Akasa is a distinctly spiritual agent, identical, in one sense, with the Anima Mundi, while the Astral Light is only the seventh and highest principle of the terrestrial atmosphere, as undetectable as Akasa and real Ether, because it is something quite on another plane.

These are practically the same as the SoA's three kinds or depths of astral essence:

Ether (aether) ~ White astral
Astral light ~ Red astral
Akasha ~ Black astral

The universal proto-matter or energy that is almost like pure divine thought first condenses in the process of emanation to form a mythic plane of collective being in or as akasha. When diverse beings emanate from and through this and start to separate, their (our) differentiated beings start to mingle with its thought-essence and create the partly back-reflected loops of light, and the result becomes the Red astral light. (Which continues this back-looping continuously, because of which it also becomes a dreadful storage of collective mistakes and vicious circles when the ages pass, even though the powers that be do their best to release and cultivate this astral energy into gradually better shapes.) And at the base of physical creation there is that protoplasmic state of physical matter, – the 3½ sub-principles of physical state, the higher octaves of the crystallized, liquid, gaseous and igneous states of matter.
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: Reading Circle (Blavatsky: The Secret Doctrine)

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Book of Dzyan wrote:2. The Swift and Radiant One produces the Seven Laya Centres, against which none will prevail to the great day “ Be-with-Us,”
These Seven Laya Centres creates the cosmic foundations, and consequently limits to the life cycle of the solar system, which on one hand allows the creation, or manvantaric life, or the illusory plane in the first place, and sets the steps by which initiations are taken as we descend and ascend above the dualism of the created world by the help of the granted dynamism of creation and division.

Laya center is sometimes described as the point which is everywhere, a kind of Shivalinga if you will, but here are described seven laya points. The plurality comes back to the oneness of all as well as the seven - their (our) archetypal root nature. Blavatsky points this oneness and septenary division present also in Fohat, which is all of life – the light of Logos. Metaphysically we are aware of the doctrine of seven sons of the Son which could be seen as germs of their own within Logos, out of which Fohat shines on to Mulaprakriti and starts to give it form and structure. If we’d like to look at the oneness and septenary division from the perspective of the Metatron’s Cube, we could see each of the faces of the Cube as a mode of being which the mind is able to assume, and through the archetypal quality of which the sum whole, or the center of the universe, can be located by. In the Book of Dzyan the mind is that of Logos, and the assumption of the faces is further creating the world. It's gaze through these faces commands Fohat to manifest the ideas within for the concrete plane of substance.
Book of Dzyan wrote:2. (The Swift and Radiant One produces...) and seats the Universe on these Eternal Foundations surrounding Tsien-Tchan with the Elementary Germs.
A sense of space comes here as the Laya point is now seven points and this foundation surrounds Tsien-Tchan (our universe). Although it might be more accurate to imagine the seven germs concentric within Logos, after the ”images” or geometry of the seven have attached to Fohat, and Fohat has transferred the image to the abstract matter of Mulaprakriti, the sense of space may be seen coming in to play. This creates the lower hierarchies of spirits. They can be seen as spirits of the astral i.e. pertaining to the stars and the astrological machine of the Demiurge (this is my personal view where I’ve come to a conclusion where the Demiurge is the subverted, or perhaps polar swapped subject of the created universe: the Satanic observer between Logos and Atma in the diagram on my previous message). An obvious example of the spatial and formal spread out is our planets in the spatial world of our solar system within the womb of which the illusive forms of the spirits appear. Planets in the manifested world of our solar system are no more concentric, but have their own centerpoint whilst revolving around mutual star. The seven sons are also reflected in the seven manvantaras, the seven races or initiatory stages of Man etc. forming all of creation there is ever to be known in the current great cycle. ”Which none will prevail to the great day “Be-with-Us”.

Thus we can not become greater than these archetypes are together until the end of our current great cycle. The structures formed by these archetypes challenge us and present themselves as steps for the human to rise above themselves, but it takes every single one of the cosmic days and the human endeavour to reach there. It is an interesting question to ask oneself how one is to wield the occult powers of each of the ages and how they are present in everyday life, as they are. Like Maurice Fedal quoting Paracelsus (emphasis mine): “By knowing man we may know the universe. In him lie the germs of all the powers in the world and it is within his power to develope these in himself. But in order to comprehend the universe in its reality man "must be able to turn the exterior into the interior, but this is an art which he can only acquire by experience and by the light of Nature, which is shining before the eyes of every man, but which is seen by few."” 

The manifestation of the spiritual evolution has to happen, but it is up to the human endeavour to reach there. Fohat is in central place here, and in the footnote of the first part of this stanza we read the following regarding the Fohat: 
“Says the lecturer on p. 306: “ Evolution is commenced by the intellectual energy of the Logos, not merely on account of the potentialities locked up in Mulaprakriti. This light of the Logos is the link . . . between objective matter and the subjective thought of Eswara (or Logos). It is called in several Buddhist books Fohat. It is the one instrument with which the Logos works.””

The occult aspirants reach beyond their current capabilities to connect to the Seven Sons - the collective powers of the Master -, and learn to wield Fohat. Fohat is the vital, alive (creative~ethical) power of all creation, but one must become an adept to wield that power completely. Lacking understanding of the powers themselves is the lack of understanding of its laws which makes wielding the powers impossible in its full glory. And to the extent a human being in ones freedom uses these powers with ignorance to the laws, the results are more catastrophic to the individual and the sphere they have power over.

Fohat seems a rather large “category” or a host entity, spanning from the unmanifested state to the manifested potential in concrete atoms. Fohat has its direct connection to the Seven Sons in the archetypal plane of ideation (unmanifest source of all occult teaching), and to all the 7 steps or laws of manifestation (or perhaps 6 + the 1 already observed as the unmanifested completeness) that run from there ending to the fine material aetheric element which in turn can be also divided into seven parts. Thus Fohat is not only there where I placed it in my diagram, but could be seen as the flash of lightning moving between the points, Logos onwards.

The importance given to Fohat in this book seems to be hinted at here. It is through the recognition of Fohat and its being as a bridge between the manifested and the occult Masters that is important to the student here. To truly know Fohat is to have direct connection to the Masters, and to have the ability to read all of manifestation like an open book.
"Would to God that all the Lord's people were Prophets”, Numbers 11:29 as echoed by William Blake
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Re: Reading Circle (Blavatsky: The Secret Doctrine)

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Stanza VI.3.
The gist of the commentary seems to be the following. The progression of the elemental germs through the seven cycles influence the appearance of each sequential step. So when we come to the concrete coarse physical appearance of elemental powers water (the elemental germs are not the same as the four elements, but this will do as an example) in its concrete form is now between the fourth and the fifth step really concrete substance. We can imagine water as a more subtle element, and more completely an inner thing in previous evolutionary stages, the properties of which still remain, only we are glamoured by its physical appearance and need symbolical interpretation to understand how they are one and the same, although appearing through different instruments. The outer we see with our outer senses and the inner we see with our inner senses, and these senses are the very instruments of the elements. With our body of water, we know the inner waters, and through it we are familiar with its laws, behaviour and place in the human composition and so on.
Secret Doctrine wrote:Now that the conditions and laws ruling our solar system are fully developed; and that the atmosphere of our earth, as of every other globe, has become, so to say, a crucible of its own, Occult Science teaches that there is a perpetual exchange taking place in space of molecules, or of atoms rather, correlating, and thus changing their combining equivalents on every planet.
Because of what I wrote above, I’m prone to read the planets in the text, and their physical spheres again as an inner thing firstly, although Blavatsky speaks mostly of physical compositions etc. Perhaps the different gavitational environments etc. may affect how atoms hold their molecular structures together, but perhaps behind this nomenclature, chosen to mislead (those unready), lure, provocate or open the physical side of our evolutionary stage to the scientifically dominated West, can be seen glimmering the idea of the original germs of the Seven sons creating their respective evolutionary steps one at a time, and the following stages or ”planets” creating upon those who came before. Thus we have the seven sons layered on each of the steps/instruments in a different form or coarseness. This creates the philosophically sound basis for the idea of correspondences, for the same entities inform with their presence the different stages of manifestation.
Secret Doctrine wrote:However it may be, “The Breath of the Father-Mother issues cold and radiant and gets hot and corrupt, to cool once more, and be purified in the eternal bosom of inner Space,” says the Commentary. Man absorbs cold pure air on the mountain-top, and throws it out impure, hot and transformed. Thus—the higher atmosphere being the mouth, and the lower one the lungs of every globe—the man of our planet breathes only the refuse of “Mother;” therefore, “he is doomed to die on it.”
Here the inner and outer meanings of our bodies are given emphasis. Dying whilst remaining from properly discovering and consciously applying our inner instruments/bodies we have lived and died without proper focus on the inner world and thus our focus may be seen staying on less lofty spheres after death. In other words the meaning points to the elixir of life mentioned earlier in the text: one is a living dead as long as they fail to find and connect the outer and lower world to the inner and lofty one, paving way towards the full potential hidden within the composition of man.
"Would to God that all the Lord's people were Prophets”, Numbers 11:29 as echoed by William Blake
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Re: Reading Circle (Blavatsky: The Secret Doctrine)

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For those following along silently or planning on discussing interesting parts of the text, we are going with the following schedule reading the Stanza VI. 4. + the extended clarifications the latter of which taking quite alot of pages:

30th-5th of November: Stanza VI. 4.
6th-12th of November: Theosophical Misconceptions (p. 154-170)
13th-19th of November: Explanations concerning the Globes and the Monads (p. 170-191)
20th-26th of November Stanza VI. 5.
And so on...

Edit: Fixed Stanza IV to VI. I had confused these also on earlier posts. Apologies.
"Would to God that all the Lord's people were Prophets”, Numbers 11:29 as echoed by William Blake
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Re: Reading Circle (Blavatsky: The Secret Doctrine)

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Struggling with personal things and time restrictions, I will briefly present the central ideas that were very important and surprisingly fresh take on things. In addition I will present some questions that rised from the text, to which people may seek their own answers to as the study these deep concepts the Book of Dzyan and Blavatsky with her affiliates try to point here.

On this weeks commentary on the Sloka VI. 4. there are, woven amidst the critique of science’s blind hypotheses, wonderful perspectives on Laya point holding the seed and Fohat awaking the latent powers in the Laya point to manifest the phenomenal side of the atom. There are also the noumenal side to each atom according to Blavatsky, which I’m not quite sure if it is a seed in the Mulaprakriti or deeper still in the Logos of Parabrahmam if these three could even be made so different from each other. But atleast it is the zero state of Laya point (perhaps the same to which the word Monad refers?) and it is pointed being a state of nirvana. From this we can draw conclusions that either nirvana is also present in Mulaprakriti or either noumena is always a reach to Parabrahmam. It seemed like Blavatsky referred to two different states with her use of the term ”relatively noumenal” as we see in the quote below. It might be she meant only the objective world a priori, without wordly subjective observations as the quoted adjectives described Universe, which to me sounds like a cosmic concept rather than noumenal although if there is no subjective cosmic observer are we really talking about phenomenal world where the observer sort of gives the form by their own perspective? It might be the observer in the relative noumenal objectivity of the Universe is the Demiurge which I would place again in the diagram of the earlier post on the right point of the middle triangle, between Logos and Atma). Anyway, talking about nirvana and two possible areas or depths to it, one is reminded of Theosophists speaking about nirvana and paranirvana. But take a handful of salt with this suggestion as it is mere speculation that is ment only to grow hunger for finding answers by presenting questions rather than giving answers. If the state of nirvana reaches within the Mulaprakriti, it is nirvana from the point of view of Logos, because Mulaprakriti is Parabrahmam from the perspective, or plane from which Logos ”sees” things.
Secret Doctrine on the "relatively noumenal" wrote:The reader must bear in mind that, according to our teaching which regards this phenomenal Universe as a great Illusion, the nearer a body is to the Unknown Substance, the more it approaches reality, as being removed the farther from this world of Maya. Therefore, though the molecular constitution of their bodies is not deducible from their manifestations on this plane of consciousness, they nevertheless (from the standpoint of the adept Occultist) possess a distinctive objective if not material structure, in the relatively noumenal—as opposed to the phenomenal—Universe.
The continuation of evolutive development of the same Monad(?) after its outer form has been destroyed is said to happen equally on a planet as with a worm. This is the basis of reincarnation seen from the perspective of Laya point.

Force is in my understanding used as a synonym for Fohat, whose seven brothers can be seen aspects of the force between the objective noumena and the phenomena of the universe. But the Mother - the Mulaprakriti, ”Undifferentiated Cosmic Substance” may be as well seen an integral part of this Force coming from the noumena and awaken through Fohat to the phenomenal side. This point rings well with the (Eastern) idea of feminine principle seen as the powers of matter. Powers ≈ force, the latter perhaps having also the masculine influence in through Fohat). By the way, I now noticed Blavatsky considers the noumenal undifferentiated substance also as ”Cosmic”, which might offer keys to what I wrote above about noumena, universe and nirvana. This also makes questionable my interpretation in the diagram that cosmic would mean phenomenal, when it may include noumenal areas also, as is obvious in the idea of human as a microcosm having phenomenal and noumenal sides in oneself.

The atom’s basis in the noumena and how it appears in to the phenomenal world through Fohat is central point in the commentary. This forms the basis of Blavatsky’s critique towards science which remains blind towards the bigger picture of the philosophists as the former remain stuppornly within the phenomenal world and speculative hypotheses. The student of the occult may heed the advice here and familiarize oneself with the philoshophy thorougly in order to see through one’s own misconceptions, assumptions, lies and other blindfolds in order to make great leaps forward and progress with the rapidity occultism provides at its best.

Phew, now there was alot of sticky differentiation to be made here. Hoping it wasn't too confusing.
"Would to God that all the Lord's people were Prophets”, Numbers 11:29 as echoed by William Blake
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Re: Reading Circle (Blavatsky: The Secret Doctrine)

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ADDITIONAL FACTS AND EXPLANATIONS CONCERNING THE GLOBES AND THE MONADS

This chapter refers multiple times to the ’Planetary Chain’ chapter from A.P. Sinnett’s Esoteric Buddhism to which some of the information given is presented as complementary, and fixing some misunderstandings it had raised. We even had a reading circle of its own on that book, originally to complement and aid this one. I highly encourage everyone interested of these things to read that chapter. You can jump back to the first chapter later on when you have time to read that book more thoroughly. Although the information given in that book is quite nicely ordered to increase the students understanding of the concepts presented in the sequential steps of the chapters, it isn’t a big jump. At least I got hooked to the book this way although it is very hard for me to understand Sinnett’s way of writing as he uses peculiar, hard to follow English expressions, at least to ears of a foreign. The text does not flow at all, yet the information is too interesting to be ignored.

I got to hand it to the Theosophists, whose input to the occult knowledge and its depth in the West is quite a rare and unusual one. This comes out clearly here in the clarification of rounds and planetary chains, where there are no mere arbitrary symbolical structures proclaimed, but how the metaphysics concretely works in our solar system. This gives perspective to vast timespans appropriate for the thoughts of occultists and aspirants who need to see beyond the contemporary currents of the moment in order to answer the contemporary challenges of each moment.

Additionally the mythical and spiritual meanings connect to these notions seamlessly and with great depth when Blavatsky dives in to the most gothic peace of literary work I have seen from her as she expounds on the role of the Moon in relation to Earth. The roles of satellites/moons of other planets are also pointed briefly in a way that challenges the reader to find answers to the mysteries left without explanation. The more surficial, Lilithian aspects of the Moon is recognized where the poisonous death emanations influence destruction, and how Earth is seen her offspring vampirising all her powers. But the truly occult side of the Moon is left undiscussed for the better of the uninitiated. First, I think the Tantric side of Blavatsky’s connections to Buddhism might be behind this veil, meaning that West was not, as it still isn’t, ready to take it in. Back then the unreadiness was probably in part of the false sophistication of social order in the Victorian era, not able to hold the Left-Hand Path side of things in view without a scandal. Today the deeper problem behind it remains, where the surface poison intoxicates, not in condemning manner, but blindly accepting manner. Drinking the poison and not having seriously prepared for its dangers kills the parts that needed to remain intact, while not drinking the poison stagnates the spiritual strive in other ways. Both are equally foolish.

Anyway, after this astral trial has been walked through, what are the truly occult roles of the Moon to an adept? A fascinating question to ponder!
Secret Doctrine wrote:Moreover, as every adept in cis-Himalayan or trans-Himalayan India, of the Patanjali, the Aryasanga or the Mahayana schools, has to become a Raja Yogi, he must, therefore, accept the Taraka Raja classification in principle and theory whatever classification he resorts to for practical and occult purposes.
Why is the Taraka Raja classification so important? It divides the human composition in to three padhis, or ”bases” + Atma. Karanopadhi (basis of causality) holds that which we call buddhi. Sukshmopadhi (”subtle base”) holds the mind with its intellectual capacities and feelings (manas, kama manas & kama rupa). And lastly sthulopadhi (”gross base” of normal waking consciousness) holds the vital powers and substance base from prana and linga sharira to the coarse sthula sharira.

While the sevenfold system in SoA is designed around the idea of the Hieroglyphic Key in order to form a basis of balance for an individual to proceed with occultism (rather than be stuck on a pendulum movement of imbalances), the Taraka Raja classification seems to focus more to the occult Atma-Buddhi line (and the vaster meaning of the latter by the term Karanopadhi) with less specific divisions of the lower instruments. The idea of the basis of causality tied in with buddhi gives the latter very practical meaning: everything is connected by their karmic ties to the first cause, and thus Love can be seen, not just an abstact inherent oneness of all, but connected to action and practical side of real ties and real meaning in each particular moment. In the West there has been a disease of passive understanding regarding Love, at least for a hundred years now which is often used to justify ignorance and not searching for the deeds that would actualize soulful connections by realizing the challenge of the moment and catching on to the responsibility at hand. I do not know what was the reason for the Eastern schools to require the Taraka Raja classification from its followers and minds of that time, perhaps it is in part close to finding practical relation to buddhi and understand how it relates to the causal world in order to rise above it.

The quotes which I assume coming from Koot Hoomi or Morya, were sobering and simple in their wisdom to the extent that it could be nice to go back to the Mahatma Letters. Perhaps I am personally a bit more mature to be able to sink in to that world than on the first attempt. I felt transported and moved by the calm power behind the words.
"Would to God that all the Lord's people were Prophets”, Numbers 11:29 as echoed by William Blake
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