Theos-Talk Archives (January 2004 Message tt00038)

JANUARY 4 2004


The Theosophical NEW YEAR



THOUGHTS PAST AND PRESENT


"The question is always naturally asked "What is the Path?" or "What is
the Philosophy?" which is the same thing, for of course the following of
any path whatever will depend upon the particular philosophy or
doctrines believed in. The path we had in view is held by us to be the
same one which in all ages had been sought by Heathen, Jew and Christian
alike. By some called the path to Heaven, by others the path to Jesus,
the path to Nirvana, and by the Theosophists the path to Truth. Jesus
has defined it as a narrow, difficult and straight path. By the ancient
Brahmins it has been called, "the small old path leading far away on
which those sages walk who reach salvation"; and Buddha thought it was a
noble fourfold path by which alone the miseries of existence can be
truly surmounted.

But of course mental diversities inevitably cause diversity in the
understanding of any proposition. Thus it happens that Theosophists have
many different views of how the path should be followed, but none of
them disagree with the statement that there must be one Truth, and that
no religion can be called higher that Truth. We therefore have pursued,
as far as possible, a course which is the result of the belief that the
prevalence of similar doctrines in the writings and traditions of all
peoples point to the fact that the true religion is that one which will
find the basic ideas common to all philosophies and religions.

We turned most readily and frequently to the simple declarations found
in the ancient books of India, esteeming most highly that wonderful epic
poem - the Bhagavad-Gita. And in that is found a verse that seems to
truly express in powerful words what philosophers have been blindly
grasping after in many directions.

"It is even a portion of myself (the Supreme) that in this material
world is the universal spirit of all things. It draweth together the
five organs and the mind, which is the sixth, in order that it may
obtain a body, and that it may leave it again; and that portion of
myself (Ishwar) having taken them under his charge, accompanieth them
from his own abode as the breeze the fragrance from the flower."(1)

To catch the light which gleams through this verse, is not for mortal
minds an easy task, and thus it becomes necessary to present as many
views from all minds as can be obtained. But is seems plain that in
every religion is found the belief that that part of man which is
immortal must be a part of the Supreme Being, for there cannot be two
immortalities at once, since that would give to each a ginning, and
therefore the immortal portion of man must be derived from the true and
only immortality.

This immortal spark has manifested itself in many different classes of
men, giving rise to all the varied religions, many of which have forever
disappeared from view. Not any one of them could have been the whole
Truth, but each must have presented one of the facettes of the great
gem, and thus through the whole surely run ideas shared by all. These
common ideas point to truth. 

They grow out of man's inner nature and are not the result of revealed
books. But some one people or another must have paid more attention to
the deep things of life that another. The "Christian" nations have
dazzled themselves with the baneful glitter of material progress. They
are not the peoples who will furnish the clearest clues to the Path. A
few short years and they will have abandoned the systems now held so
dear, because their mad rush to the perfection of their civilization
will give them control over now undreamed of forces. Then will come the
moment when they must choose which of two kinds of fruit they will take.
In the meantime it is well to try and show a relation between their
present system and the old, or at least to pick out what grains of truth
are in the mass. 

In the year just passing [written in 1877] we have been cheered by much
encouragement from without and within. Theosophy has grown not only in
ten years, but during the year past. A new fate is not far away. The
huge, unwieldy flower of the 19th century civilization, has almost fully
bloomed, and preparation must be made for the wonderful new flower which
is to rise from the old. 

We have not pinned our faith on Vedas nor Christian scriptures, nor
desired any others to do so. All our devotion to Aryan literature and
philosophy arises from a belief that the millions of minds who have
trodden weary steps before ours, left a path which might be followed
with profit, yet with discrimination. For we implicitly believe that in
this curve of the cycle, the final authority is the man himself. 

In former times the disclosed Vedas, and later, the teachings of the
great Buddha, were the right authority, in whose authoritative teachings
and enjoined practices were found the necessary steps to raise Man to an
upright position. 

But the grand clock of the Universe points to another hour, and now Man
must seize the key in his hands and himself - as a whole - open the
gate. Hitherto he has depended upon the great souls whose hands have
stayed impending doom. Let us then together enter upon another year,
fearing nothing, assured of strength in the Union of Brotherhood. For
how can we fear death, or life, or any horror or evil, at any place or
time, when we well know that even death itself is part of the dream
which we are weaving before our eyes.

Our belief may be summed up in the motto of the Theosophical Society,
"There is no religion higher than Truth," and our practice consists in a
disregard of any authority in matters of religion and philosophy except
such propositions as from their innate quality we feel to be true.
[extracts from W Q Judge A YEAR ON THE PATH]

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THE UNIVERSAL SCOPE OF EVOLUTION -- HPB



"Thus far, for individual, human, sentient, animal and vegetable life,
each the microcosm of its higher macrocosm. 

The same for the Universe, which manifests periodically, for purposes of
the collective progress of the countless lives, the outbreaking of the
One *Life*; in order that through the *Ever-Becoming*, every cosmic atom
in this infinite Universe, passing from the formless and the intangible,
through the mixed natures of the semi-terrestrial, down to matter in
full generation, and then back again, reascending at each new period
higher and nearer the final goal; that each atom, we say, *may reach
through individual merits and efforts that plane where it re-becomes the
one unconditioned ALL. 

But between the Alpha and the Omega there is the weary "Road" hedged in
by thorns, that "goes down first, then -- 

"Winds up hill all the way...

Yes, to the very end..." 
	
(SecretDoctrine Vol I page 268.)

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THE YEAR IS DEAD, LONG LIVE THE YEAR!

[Extracts from an Article by H. P. Blavatsky - 1889]


" ******* " sends the best compliments of the season to his friends and
...wishes them a happy New Year and many returns of the same. 

In the January issue ... " ******* " said: 

"Let no one imagine that it is a mere fancy, the attaching of importance
to the birth of the year. The astral life of the earth is young and
strong between Christmas and Easter. Those who form their wishes now,
will have added strength to fulfill them consistently." 

He now ... adds: 

"Let no one mistake the importance and potency of numbers--as symbols.
Everything in the Universe was framed according to the eternal
proportions and combinations of numbers. "God geometrizes," and numbers
and numerals are the fundamental basis of all systems of mysticism,
philosophy, and religion. The respective festivals of the year and their
dates were all fixed according to the Sun--the "father of all calendars"
and of the Zodiac, or the Sun-god and the twelve great, but still minor
gods; and they became subsequently sacred in the cycle of national and
tribal religions."...
 
But it may be wiser to forbear looking into Futurity; still better to
pray to the now ruling Hosts of Numbers on high, asking them to be
lenient to us, poor terrene ciphers. Which shall we choose? With the
Jews and the Christian Kabalists, the number of their deity--the God of
Abraham and Jacob--is 10, the number of perfection, the ONE in space, or
the Sun, astronomically, and the ten Sephiroth, Kabalistically. 

But the Gods are many; and every December, according to the Japanese, is
the month of the arrival, or descent of the Gods; therefore there must
be a considerable number of deities lurking around us mortals in astral
space. 

The 3rd of January, a day which was, before the time of Clovis,
consecrated to the worship of Isis--the goddess-patroness of Paris who
has now changed her name and become St. Geneviève, "she who generates
life"--was also set apart as the day on which the deities of Olympus
visited their worshippers. 

The third day of every month was sacred to Pallas Athene, the goddess of
Wisdom; and January the 4th is the day of Mercury (Hermes, Budha), who
is credited with adding brains to the heads of those who are civil to
him.

December and January are the two months most connected with gods and
numbers. Which shall we choose?--we ask again. "This is the question." 
We are in the Winter Solstice, the period at which the Sun entering the
sign of Capricornus has already, since December 21st, ceased to advance
in the Southern Hemisphere, and, cancer or crab-like, begins to move
back. It is at this particular time that, every year, he is born, and
December 25th was the day of the birth of the Sun for those who
inhabited the Northern Hemisphere. 

It is also on December the 25th, Christmas, the day with the Christians
on which the "Saviour of the World" was born, that were born, ages
before him, the Persian Mithra, the Egyptian Osiris, the Greek Bacchus,
the Phœnician Adonis, the Phrygian Athis. And, while at Memphis the
people were shown the image of the god Day, taken out of his cradle, the
Romans marked December 25th in their calendar as the day natalis solis
invicti. Sad derision of human destiny. So many Saviours of the world
born unto it, so much and so often propitiated, and yet the world is as
miserable--nay, far more wretched now than ever before as though none of
these had ever been born! 

January--the Januarius dedicated to Janus the God of Time, the ever
revolving cycle, the double-faced God--has one face turned to the East,
the other to the West; the Past and the Future! Shall we propitiate and
pray to him? Why not? His statue had 12 altars at its feet, symbolizing
the twelve signs of the Zodiac, the twelve great gods, the twelve months
of the solar year and--the twelve Apostles of the Sun-Christ. 

Dominus was the title given to the Sun by the ancients; whence dies
domini, dies solis, the "Sun-days."... The statue of Janus-January
carried engraved on his right hand the number 300, and on his left, 65,
the number of the days in the Solar year; in one hand a sceptre, in the
other a key, whence his name Janitor, the door-keeper of the Heavens,
who opened the gates of the year at its beginning. Old Roman coins
represent Janus bifrons on one side, and a ship on the other...
 
In Occultism the potency and significance of Numbers and Numerals lie in
their right application and permutation. If we have to propitiate any
mysterious number at all, we have most decidedly to address Janus-Peter,
in his relation to the ONE--the Sun... We would suggest a supplication.
"Let us ask, Brethren, the Lord on High, the One and the SOLE (or Sol),
that he should save us from the impudent distortion of our theosophical
teachings... Though false coin is the best proof of the existence of
genuine gold, yet, the false deceives the unwary..."

If we would draw on us the attention of Sol on High, we must repeat that
which the ancients did and which was the origin of the R.C. Angelus. 

The first stroke of the bell announced the coming of Day; the appearance
of Gabriel, the morning messenger with the early Christians, of Lucifer,
the morning star, with their predecessors. 

The second bell, at noon, saluted the glory and exalted position of the
Sun, King of Heavens; and 

The third bell announced the approach of Night, the Mother of Day the
Virgin, Isis-Mary, or the Moon. 

Having accomplished the prescribed duty, we pour our complaint and say:
...

"TO DARE, TO WILL, TO ACHIEVE AND KEEP SILENT -- is the motto of the
true Occultist, from the first adept of our fifth Race down to the last
Rosecroix. True Occultism, i.e., genuine Raj-Yoga powers, are not
pompously boasted of, and advertised..."Woe unto them that are wise in
their own eyes; for the wise man feareth and keeps silent, but the fool
layeth open his folly." 

"...true occult knowledge can never be bought. He who has anything to
teach, unless like Peter to Simon he says to him who offers him money
for his knowledge--"Thy money perish with thee, because thou hast
thought that the gift of (our inner) God may be purchased with money"--
is either a black magician or an IMPOSTOR. Such is the first lesson ...
[for the year.]

HPB
 
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DTB

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