Theos-Talk Archives (October 2003 Message tt00221)

Oct 20 2003

Dear Eldon:

I don't think the free for all about Sai Baba has much if anything to do
with Theosophy.

Claims settle nothing but convey a certain anger and annoyance which
disturbs philosophical considerations? Or am I wrong?

Also (to me) it is rather annoying for those who desire to sturdy
Theosophical ideas, ramifications and their sources.

I believe it is one of the original rules of the THEOSOPHICAL MOVEMENT
that nothing be said antagonistic to some other religion, sect or system
of belief.
I feel this is a violation, but, I may be wrong.

Best wishes,

Dallas

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

-----Original Message-----
From: Eldon B tucker [mailto:listmail@theosophist.org] 
Sent: Monday, October 20, 2003 10:29 AM
To: theos-talk@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Theos-World the future evolution of the theosophical seal

I looked again at the theosophical seals that I just referred to, and
notice

that I've given examples of two different kinds of seals in the previous
discussion.

 

The watermark seal on the 

 

http://theos-talk.com/archives/index.html

 

is a copy of the original seal, as scanned from an early theosophical

magazine. (I'd have to look to double check, but I think it was THE

THEOSOPHIST from HPB's days.) The color used in the watermark is pink
for

the seal and a transparent background, chosen to not be too intrusive as
a

watermark on the webpages. (Obviously, the original color would have
been

black ink on a white page, when it first appeared in the 1800's; I don't

think they were able to print in color at the time.)

 

The example of the other type of seal is a proposed evolution of the
seal,

where the swastika is replaced by the Mandelbrot set. A enlarged version
of

that seal can be seen at:

 

http://www.theos-world.com/images/newseal1.gif

 

and with the Mandelbrot set highlighted:

 

http://www.theos-world.com/images/newseal2.gif

 

For an enlarged view of the Mandelbrot set, see:

 

http://www.theos-world.com/images/newseal3.gif

 

Should the seal change? Each theosophical organization makes its own

decisions. The same is true of independent groups and projects. Although
the

original Wisdom Tradition remains timeless, the outward forms are
subject to

innovation, change, and evolution. The basic teaching of karma, for

instance, represents an eternal truth. But how we talk about and teach
it in

1870 to a crowd of spiritualists might differ from how we'd explain the
same

truth to a typical crown of inquirers in modern-day Los Angeles. 

 

Over the years, we've had many discussions of the seal on several
mailing

lists. Some comments from a July 17, 2001 posting to the
young-theosophists

list:

 

>I've been wondering about the T.S. seal too. The swastika

>is seen by many people as an evil of Nazi Germany. Its

>original meaning of timelessness, eternity, spirit in motion

>has been forgotten.

>

>About one to two years ago, I was thinking about the

>mandelbrot set. This is something from modern mathematics

>that would not have been known about by the ancients,

>except as an intuition. It requires the right mathematics

>to generate, and a computer printer or screen to display it.

>

>The mandelbrot set could be considered as a graphical

>representation of the dynamics of creation. It maps out

>what can exist as opposed to what is unstable and will

>quickly fall out of existence. (Each point is a complex

>number that when subject to indefinite feedback into itself

>either blows up to infinity or becomes cyclic in nature,

>staying finite in nature. Each point also represents a

>julia set that has that behavior.)

>

>I redrew the theosophical seal using the mandelbrot set

>instead of the swastika, and used it on a few web pages,

>including my main page for Theosophy World Magazine,

>

> http://theosophy.net/tw.html

 

(note that this link has changed)

 

>

>I also had it printed on the cover of a limited set of

>theosophical audio cdroms.

>

>I thought I might evoke some comments from people, some

>liking and some disapproving what I had done. No one

>said anything, though. Apparently my change wasn't

>enough to attract any attention?

 

 

 

 



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