Theos-Talk Archives (May 2001 Message tt00182)

Wednesday, May 23, 2001


Dear Tony:

This is most interesting.

Let me put some notes in the body of your letter below -- so I
can respond there to the points you make.

Let me also say (repeating ideas exposed before) : the
Theosophical Movement is moral, ethical, spiritual, universal,
invisible save in effect, and continuous.

It is to be found in all times and all nations.

Wherever thought has struggled to be free, wherever spiritual
ideas, as opposed to forms and dogmas, have been promulgated,
there the great movement is to be discerned.

The real unity and prevalence and the real internationalism do
not consist in having a single organization. They are found in
the similarity of aim, of aspiration, of purpose, of teaching, of
ethics. That "basis" is a community of aspiration, aim and work
and is in unity with all true Theosophists.

A statement that ought to be pondered over reads: All true
attempts to preserve and promulgate Theosophy do not change the
work of H.P.B., they enlarge it.

Any person who is a Theosophist at heart ought to be admitted to
any Lodge, Society, Association or group that calls itself
"Theosophical."

Anyway,. See below:

Dal

=============================

-----Original Message-----
From: Tony [mailto:alpha@dircon.co.uk]
Sent: Wednesday, May 23, 2001 5:14 AM
To: theos-talk@yahoogroups.com
Subject: RE: Theos-World: SD original versus Boris de Zirkoff
edition of THE SECRET DOCTRINE


Thanks very much for the parallel comparison and for Swabhavat
Dallas...

When we come to the subject of spellings, different spellings of
the same
word, etc., it has proved very difficult to discuss it on the
Internet.
Every letter has meaning, colour, number, smell, sound (unless we
are deaf
we know that), and so on. But it is not set in concrete,
because the
colour and number will alter with the word the letter is in. We
know (if
we are not deaf) that "a" in "path", sounds different to "a" in
"way". Way
sounds like weigh (the scales/karma). We know something about
the power of
sound, and also of Mantras. When it comes to letters and
number, things
start to get far more complicated and open to debate. Colour
even more so.
The hints are there in various ways in the Theosophical Writings.


DTB	H.P.B. DOES NOT GIVE US MUCH IN THE WAY OF INTERPRETING the
mysteries of sound and color although she does say that they are
the mans for communicating with ELEMENTALS (as I understand it,
those are entities existing in the invisible planes of life in
the Universe)

I have accumulated a large fund of statements (scattered here and
there in the literature -- would you like to see them? I can
copy them to Internet if you are interested.
But, as I have said before those are not sure steppingstones to
greater wisdom, they are only valuable to each student if they
are sought out individually and applied to the environment in
which they are found.

I find that H.P.B. conceals by revealing. She apparently
switches subjects many times, but the switch is a continuation in
an analogous field of the subject under discussion. Sometime
apparently random insertions are valuable instructors.

It seems that esotericism and Occultism have their own ways of
preserving "secrecy" If one takes altruism and virtue as the
only possible methods of securing true WISDOM (which included all
aspects of "knowledge," and the "encyclopedic definitions" of
various academic disciplines in our world, etc...

====================================


There has been a discussion about the T.S. and the election of
the President
of the Adyar T.S. The body/organisation of the Theosophical
Society was
already a soulless corpse by 1885 or around there. But its spirit
will
always live on.

DTB THE MASTERS HAVE SAID ITS SPIRIT WILL SURVIVE EVEN IF THE
PHYSICAL ORGANIZATION FAILS IN MAINTAINING THE 1-ST OBJECT.
See the Letter from the Great Master.]

THEY HAVE NOT SAID THAT THEOSOPHY WILL DEPEND ON THE T.S.

I any case it is the individuals who are members who will show by
their perception, energy, attention and acuity exactly what the
worth of the present TS is. The T.S. will depict before humanity
the quality of the "mass" of the members.

All students and members are essentially INDEPENDENT. If they
give adherence to a "FORM" I presume they see that it has great
antecedents and a high ideal as a beginning. Are they working
today to sustain and maintain this beginning as an ideal, or are
they now individually supine ?

===================================


What does T.S. mean? At one level it means the
Theosophical Society. Because of the breaking up of the
Theosophical
Society into different groups it then becomes the Theosophical
Movement,
which is not the same at all.


DTB	CORRECT, in my view. The existing Theosophical Movement in
the world does not depend on the "party-line" of the current T.S.
That is, if the said "party-line" has diverged in practice from
the ideals prevalent so long as the three original founders
(H.P.B., Col. Olcott and W Q. Judge) were alive and working in
harmony and unison. Historically, it did not take long after
H.P.B.'s death for the unity to shatter. Not everyone in the
"membership" knows the documentary trail that still exists in
this regard. That alone decides who was using "right judgment"
or the reverse. [ There were 17 original "founders" but all
except those 3 dropped out of the T.S. See vol I. of BCW ]

=======================================

The beauty and poetry and life and sacrifice
are in the letters T and S. These make up the lower symbol on
the upper
covers of the Secret Doctrine, and are also in the upper emblem.
(These
symbols sadly lacking from the covers of the de Zirkoff S.D.).
What does
T.S. mean? Tau and Serpent.

These symbols on the covers can help greatly
in ferreting out the meaning when we are studying the S.D., by
referring to
them. Indeed, some say, it is not until we understand the S.D.
will we be
able to understand the symbols/emblem on the covers, and vice
versa. In
the S.D. the initiates are referred to as Serpents. Clearly
symbolized by a
Serpent or S on the cover. The Tau, which appears in the symbols
on pages 4
and 5, include its oldest form, the glyph T, up until the
separation of the
sexes, in the third race. To what extent are the "sexes"
separate in the
mind of the initiate? To what extent is he separate, compared to
non-initiates? The T, the Tau, the couch on which the initiate
was
symbolically tied...This is all explained in the S.D.:


DTB	THAT IS ALSO THE EXPLANATION OF THE MONAD -- of Atma /
Buddhi (as Primordial Matter) ever intertwined. Both emanate
periodically (cycles of Karma) from the ONE SOURCE --
ABSOLUTENESS. All Monads mirror these great truths.

The Theosophical SYMBOL (used on the front of the S.D. Cover --
top left hand side -- if correctly understood contains the whole
of the philosophy.

==============================

"So it is, but the spirit of it has been ever misunderstood. "To
crucify
before (not against) the sun" is a phrase used of initiation. It
comes from
Egypt, and primarily from India. The enigma can be unbridled only
by
searching for its key in the Mysteries of Initiation. The
initiated adept,
who had successfully passed through all the trials, was attached,
not
nailed, but simply tied on a couch in the form of a tau
[[diagram]] (in
Egypt) of a Svastika without the four additional prolongations
(thus:
[[diagram]], not [[diagram]]) plunged in a deep sleep (the "Sleep
of Siloam"
it is called to this day among the Initiates in Asia Minor, in
Syria, and
even higher Egypt). He was allowed to remain in this state for
three days
and three nights, during which time his Spiritual Ego was said to
confabulate with the "gods," descend into Hades, Amenti, or
Patala,
(according to the country), and do works of charity to the
invisible beings,
whether souls of men or Elemental Spirits; his body remaining all
the time
in a temple crypt or subterranean cave. In Egypt it was placed in
the
Sarcophagus in the King's Chamber of the Pyramid of Cheops, and
carried
during the night of the approaching third day to the entrance of
a gallery,
where at a certain hour the beams of the rising Sun struck full
on the face
of the entranced candidate, who awoke to be initiated by Osiris,
and Thoth
the God of Wisdom."


DTB	I have taken note of that which in effect describes a rite
whereby the purified personality (mainly the Kama-manas residing
in the 4 lower principles) is put to the final test -- also
described and hinted at in the VOICE OF THE SILENCE. Some hints
are also to be found in the MAHATMA LETTERS but they have to be
really looked for.

====================================


The latter perhaps referring to the emblem on the upper portion
of the front
cover. We are now in the Kali Yuga, symbolised by the pentagram
reversed.
What are we to do? Turn? Turn the pentagram, and start the
journey home,
bringing the symbols to life, coming anew to the middle symbol on
page 5,
"T", the Tau, to that state of before the sexes separated (and
the "advent"
of mind), but now, rather than being mindless, in full
consciousness.

DTB	Apparently different part of the world are the recipients of
the effects of the various Yugas. Kali Yuga is now affecting the
("5th Race ) the Aryan -- Races.

Individually we may be in different personal cycles which then
take us to places and conditions for which we made karmic choices
in the past (this life or earlier ones). While we can see the
gross effects of the K Y Cycle around us, we need not let those
affect us. It is indeed sad to see the welter of psychism that
has overwhelmed so many and especially the young and vulnerable.

Perhaps that is why the Theos. Symbol shows the lighter outlined
triangle pointing up and the heavy material one pointing down.
The symbol can also be applied to each one of us. Our choices
cause the movements you suggest.

The Tau as I see it represents the IDEAL NATURE, while the
"serpent" represents the many forms of matter that try to
encircle and beguile "Spirit." In incarnation. Alone the MIND
(represented by the central MAN figure (Tau) represents the path
to the HIGHER SELF symbolized by the ever revolving SWASTIKA at
the top enclosed in an outlined circle. -- and this interrupts
the "material serpent." -- probably symbolizing the "Golden
Gates" to the UNIVERSAL PERCEPTION of the ONE SPIRIT as embodied
in and through all beings but, at this stage, particularly in
Man -- who is at the dividing line. These are just my guesses.
I found that Mr. Judge wrote 2 articles on this subject. They
towards the end of the 1st Volume of his ARTICLES published by
Theosophy Company (U.L.T. ) in LA -- Do you have a copy ? I
think Peter has as I sent them to him.


"The Mind is the great Slayer of the Real.

Let the Disciple slay the Slayer."

DTB	THE LOWER MIND -- Kama-Manas. It has to transmute itself
into the HIGHER MIND -- the path is altruism and brotherhood.
As I see it.


"Thy Mind and Soul like twins upon a line, The Star that is thy
Goal, burns overhead."


===============================

Tony


DTB	AGAIN MANY THANKS TONY.




-----Original Message-----
From: dalval14@earthlink.net [mailto:dalval14@earthlink.net]
Sent: 22 May 2001 2:13 am
To: theos-talk@yahoogroups.com
Subject: RE: Theos-World: SD original versus Boris de Zirkoff
edition of
THE SECRET DOCTRINE


May 21

Thanks Tony:

Which goes to show that people (all of us) see what we are
prejudiced to "see" m-- hence after study is it not worthwhile
saying to ourselves: Did I really understand ?

And that's why I want to see originals.