Theos-Talk Archives (April 2004 Message tt00382)

March 12 2004

Dear K: and friends:

Contrary to SCI. FI., THEOSOPHY says our evolution and progress is
restricted to our Earth and its KARMA and stage of "consciousness."

We have to set that in order before thinking of "space travel" or of
being "visited" by extra-terrestrials.

If there is no karmic bond established as an active connection with
entities living on other "worlds" 

Here are some references to consult in SECRET DOCTRINE :


Are other planets inhabited?	S D I 133 II 77, 699, 701, 706-7

All the planets, suns, nebulae, etc of our visible heavens are "4th
"Globe" matter with which we are familiar here on our Earth and
consubstantial with:   
S D I 165 & footnote, 20, 274 top, 295, 

We have as Kama-Manasic level beings no access yet to "higher planes of
consciousness"  
S D I 199-200

A higher level of "communication" is hinted at: S D I 605

Best wishes,

Dallas

PS The following is also of some interest:

--------------------------------


STARS AND NUMBERS

By H P B

 
ANCIENT civilization saw nothing absurd in the claims of astrology, no
more than many an educated and thoroughly scientific man sees in it
today. Judicial astrology, by which the fate and acts of men and nations
might be foreknown, [hardly] appeared, nor does it even now appear, any
more unphilosophical or unscientific than does natural astrology or
astronomy-by which the events of so-called brute and inanimate nature
(changes of weather, &c.), might be predicted. For it was not even
prophetic insight that was claimed by the votaries of that abstruse and
really grand science, but simply a great proficiency in that method of
procedure which allows the astrologer to foresee certain events in the
life of a man by the position of the planets at the time of his birth.

Once the probability, or even the simple possibility, of an occult
influence exercised by the stars upon the destiny of man admitted-and
why should the fact appear more improbable in the case of stars and man
than in that of the sun-spots and potatoes?-and astrology becomes no
less an exact science than astronomy. The earth, Prof. Balfour Stewart,
F.R.S., tells us-"is very seriously affected by what takes place in the
sun" . . . a connection "is strongly suspected between epidemics and the
appearance of the sun's surface. "1

And if, as that man of science tells us, "a connection of some
mysterious kind between the sun and the earth is more than suspected" .
. . and the problem is a most important one "to solve," how much more
important the solution of that other mystery-the undoubted affinity
between man and the stars-an affinity believed in for countless ages and
by the most learned among men! Surely the destiny of man deserves as
much consideration as that of a turnip or a potato 

. . . And if a disease of the latter may be scientifically foretold
whenever that vegetable crops out during a "sun-spot period," why should
not a life of disease, or health, of natural or violent death be as
scientifically prognosticated by the position and appearance of the
constellation with which man is as directly connected and which bears
the same relation to him as the sun bears to the earth?

In its days, astrology was greatly honoured, for when in able hands it
was often shown to be as precise and trustworthy in its predictions as
astronomical predictions are in our own age. Omens were studied by all
imperial Rome, as much, if not more than they are now in India. Tiberius
practised the science; and the Saracens in Spain held star-divination in
the greatest reverence, astrology passing into Western Europe through
these, our first civilizers. Alphonso, the wise king of Castile and
Leon, made himself famous in the thirteenth century by his "Astrological
Tables" (called Alphonsine); and his code of the Siata Purtidas; and the
great astronomer Kepler in the seventeenth, the discoverer of the three
great laws of planetary motions (known as Kepler's laws) believed in and
proclaimed astrology a true science. Kepler, the Emperor Rudolph's
mathematician, he to whom Newton is indebted for all his subsequent
discoveries, is the author of the "Principles of Astrology" in which he
proves the power of certain harmonious configurations of suitable
planets to control human impulses. In his official capacity of Imperial
astronomer, he is historically known to have predicted to Wallenstein,
from the position of the stars, the issue of the war in which that
unfortunate general was then engaged. No less than himself, his friend,
protector and instructor, the great astronomer Tycho de Brahe, believed
in, and expanded, the astrological system. He was forced, moreover, to
admit the influence of the constellations on terrestrial life and
actions quite against his will or wish, and merely because of the
constant verification of facts.
Closely related to astrology is the Kabala and its system of numerals.
The secret wisdom of the ancient Chaldees left by them as an inheritance
to the Jews relates primarily to the mythological science of the heavens
and contains the doctrines of the hidden or occult wisdom concerning the
cycles of time. In the ancient philosophy, the sacredness of numbers
began with the great FIRST, the ONE, and ended with the naught or Zero,
the symbol of the infinite and boundless circle, which represents the
universe. All the intervening figures, in whatever combination, or
however multiplied, represent philosophical ideas relating either to a
moral or a physical fact in nature. They are the key to the archean
views on cosmogony, in its broad sense, including man and beings, and
relate to the human race and individuals spiritually as well as
physically. "The numerals of Pythagoras," says Porphyry, "were
hieroglyphical symbols, by means whereof he explained all ideas
concerning the nature of all things" (De vitâ Pythag.). In the
symbolical kabala-the most ancient system left to us by the
Chaldeans-the modes of examining letters, words and sentences for hidden
meaning were numerical. The gemantria (one of the three modes) is purely
arithmetical and mathematical, and consists in applying to the letters
of a word the sense they bear as numbers-letters being used also for
figures in the Hebrew as in Greek. Figurative Gemantria deduces
mysterious interpretations from the shapes of letters used in occult
manuscripts and the Bible.

Thus, as shown by Cornelius Agrippa, in Numbers (X. 35), the letter Beth
means the reversal of enemies. The sacred anagrams known as Zeruph yield
their mysterious sense by the second mode named Themura, and consists in
displacing the letters and substituting them one for another and then
arranging them in rows according to their numerical value. If, of all
operations in the occult sciences there is not one that is not rooted in
astrology, arithmetic and especially geometry are a part of the first
principles of magic. The most recondite mysteries and powers in nature
are made to yield to the power of numbers. And let this not be regarded
as a fallacy. He who knows the relative and respective numbers or the
so-called correspondence between causes and effects will alone be able
to obtain of a certainty the desired result. A small mistake, a trifling
difference in an astronomical calculation and-no correct prediction of a
heavenly phenomenon becomes possible. As Severinus Boethius puts it, it
is by the proportion of certain numbers that all things were formed.
"God geometrizes" saith Plato, meaning creative nature. If there are so
many occult virtues in natural things, "what marvel if in numbers which
are pure and commixed only with ideas, there should be found virtues
greater and more occult?" asks Agrippa. Even Time must contain the
mystery number; so also does motion, or action, and so, therefore, must
all things that move, act, or are subjected to time. But "the mystery is
in the abstract power of number, in its rational and formal state, not
in the expression of it by the voice, as among people who buy and sell."
(De Occulta Phil. cap. iii. p. cii.) The Pythagoreans claimed to discern
many things in the numbers of names. And if those who having
understanding were invited to "compute the number and name of the beast"
by the author of St. John's Revelation it is because that author was a
Kabalist.

The wiseacres of our generations raise daily the cry that science and
metaphysics are irreconcilable; and facts prove as daily that it is but
one more fallacy among the many that are uttered. The reign of exact
science is proclaimed on every housetop, and Plato who is said to have
trusted to his imagination is sneered at, while Aristotle's method built
on pure reason is the one accepted by Science. Why? Because "the
philosophical method of Plato was the inverse of that of Aristotle." Its
starting-point was universals, the very existence of which is, "a matter
of faith" says Dr. Draper, and from these it descended to particulars,
or details. Aristotle, on the contrary, "rose from particulars to
universals, advancing to them by inductions" (Conflict between Religion
and Science). We humbly answer to this, that mathematics, the only exact
and infallible science in the world of sciences-proceeds from
UNIVERSALS.

It is this year especially, the year 1881, which seems to defy and
challenge sober, matter-of-fact science, and by its extraordinary events
above, as below, in heaven as upon earth, to invite criticism upon its
strange "coincidences." Its freaks in the domains of meteorology and
geology were prognosticated by the astronomers, and these every one is
bound to respect. There is a certain triangle seen this year on the
horizon formed of the most brilliant stars which was predicted by them,
but none the less left unexplained. It is a simple geometrical
combination of heavenly bodies, they say. As to that triangle, formed of
the three large planets-Venus, Jupiter and Saturn-having aught to do
with the destinies of either men or nations-why that is pure
superstition. "The mantle of the astrologers is burnt and the
predictions of some of them, whenever verified, must be attributed to
simple and blind chance."

We are not so sure of that; and, if permitted, will further on tell
why-meanwhile, we must remind the reader of the fact that Venus, the
most intensely brilliant of the three above-named planets, as was
remarked in Europe and for all we know in India also-suddenly parted
company with its two companions and slowly moving onward, stopped above
them, whence it goes on dazzling the inhabitants of the earth with an
almost preternatural brilliancy.
The conjunction of two planets happens but rarely; that of three is
still more rare; while the conjunction of four and five planets becomes
an event. The latter phenomenon took place in historical times but once,
2449 years B. C., when it was observed by the Chinese astronomers and
has not recurred since then. That extraordinary meeting of five large
planets forebode all kinds of evils to the Celestial Empire and its
peoples, and the panic then created by the predictions of the Chinese
astrologers was not in vain. During the following 500 years, a series of
internal broils, revolutions, wars, and changes of dynasty marked the
end of the golden age of national felicity in the Empire founded by the
great Fu-hi.
Another conjunction is known to have happened just before the beginning
of the Christian era. In that year, three large planets had approached
so closely together as to be mistaken by many for one single star of an
immense size. Biblical scholars were more than once inclined to identify
these "three in one" with the Trinity, and at the same [time] with the
"star of the wise men of the East." But they saw themselves thwarted in
such pious desires by their hereditary enemies-the irreverent men of
science, who proved that the astronomical conjunction took place a year
before the period claimed for the alleged birth of Jesus. Whether the
phenomenon forbode good or evil is best answered by the subsequent
history and development of Christianity, than which, no other religion
cost so many human victims, shed such torrents of blood, nor brought the
greater portion of humanity to suffer from what is now termed the
"blessings of Christianity and civilization."

A third conjunction took place in 1563 A. D. It appeared near the great
nebula in the constellation of Cancer. There were three great planets
and according to the astronomers of those days-the most nefarious: Mars,
Jupiter and Saturn. The constellation of Cancer has always had a bad
reputation; that year the mere fact of its having in its neighborhood a
triune conjunction of evil stars, caused the astrologers to predict
great and speedy disasters. These did come to pass. A terrible plague
broke out and raged in all Europe, carrying off thousands upon thousands
of victims.

And now, in 1881, we have again a visit of three other "Wanderers." What
do they forebode? Nothing good; and it would seem, as if of the great
evils they are likely to pour on the devoted heads of hapless humanity,
the fatal prelude is already being played. Let us enumerate and see how
far we are from the truth. The nearly simultaneous and certainly in some
cases unexpected deaths of great and the most remarkable men of our age.
In the region of politics, we find the Emperor of Russia, Lord
Beaconsfield, and Aga Khan; 2 in that of literature, Carlyle and George
Eliot; in the world of art, Rubinstein, the greatest musical genius. In
the domain of geology-earthquakes which have already destroyed the town
of Casamiceiola on the Island of Ischia, a village in California and the
Island of Chio which was laid entirely waste by the terrible
catastrophe-one, moreover, predicted for that very day by the astrologer
Raphael. In the domain of wars, the hitherto invincible Great Britain
was worsted at the Cape by a handful of Boers; Ireland is convulsed and
threatens; a plague now rages in Mesopotamia; another war is preparing
between Turkey and Greece; armies of Socialists and red-handed Nihilists
obscure the sun of the political horizon in Europe; and the latter
thrown into a violent perturbation is breathlessly awaiting the most
unexpected events [in the] future-defying the perspicacity of the most
acute of her political men. In the religious spheres the heavenly
triangle pointed its double horn at the monastic congregations and-a
general exodus of monks and nuns-headed by the children of Loyola,
followed in France. There is a revival of infidelity and mental
rebellion, and with it a proportionate increase of missionary labourers
(not labour), who like the hordes of Attila destroy much and build but
little. Shall we add to the list of signs of these nefasti dies, the
birth of the New Dispensation at Calcutta? The latter though having but
a small and quite a local importance, shows yet a direct bearing upon
our subject, i.e., the astrological meaning of the planetary
conjunction. Like Christianity with Jesus and his Apostles the New
Dispensation can henceforth boast of having had a forerunner in starry
heaven-the present triune conjunction of planets. It proves, moreover,
our kabalistic theory of periodical cyclic recurrences of events. As the
Roman sceptical world of 1881 years ago, we are startled by a fresh
revival of mendicant Ebionites, fasting Essenes and Apostles upon whom
descend "cloven tongues like as of fire," and of whom we cannot even say
as of the Jerusalem twelve, "that these men are full of new wine," since
their inspiration is entirely due to water, we are told.

The year 1881, then, of which we have lived but one-third, promises, as
predicted by astrologers and astronomers, a long and gloomy list of
disasters on land, as on the seas. We have shown elsewhere (Bombay
Gazette, March 30, 1881) how strange in every respect was the grouping
of the figures of our present year, adding that another such combination
will not happen in the Christian chronology before the year 11811, just
9,930 years hence, when-there will be no more a "Christian" chronology
we are afraid, but something else. We said: "Our year 1881, offers that
strange fact, that from whichever of four sides you look at its
figures-from right or left, from top or bottom, from the back, by
holding the paper up to the light-or even upside down, you will always
have before you the same mysterious and kabalistic numbers of 1881. it
is the correct number of the three figures which have most perplexed
mystics for over eighteen centuries. The year 1881, in short, is the
number of the great Beast of the Revelation, the number 666 of St.
John's Apocalypsis-that Kabalistic Book par excellence. See for
yourselves: 1+8+8 +1 make eighteen; eighteen divided thrice gives three
times six, or placed in a row, 666, "the number of man."

This number has been for centuries the puzzle of Christendom and was
interpreted in a thousand different ways. Newton himself worked for
years over the problem, but, ignorant of the secret Kabala, failed.
Before the Reformation it was generally supposed in the Church to have
reference to the coming Antichrist. Since then the Protestants began to
apply it in that spirit of Christian charity which so characterizes
Calvinism to the Latin Popish Church, which they call the "Harlot," the
"great Beast" and the "scarlet woman," and forthwith the latter returned
the compliment in the same brotherly and friendly spirit. The
supposition that it refers to the Roman nation-the Greek letters of the
word Latinus as numerals, amounting to exactly 666-is absurd.

There are beliefs and traditions among the people which spring no one
knows from whence and pass from one generation to the other, as an oral
prophecy, and an unavoidable fact to come. One of such traditions, a
correspondent of the Moscow Gazette happened to hear in 1874 from the
mountaineers of the Tyrolian Alps, and subsequently from old people in
Bohemia. "From the first day of 1876," says that tradition, "a sad,
heavy period will begin for the whole world and will last for seven
consecutive years. The most unfortunate and fatal year for all will be
1881. He who will survive it, has an iron head." 

An interesting new combination, meanwhile, of the year 1881, in
reference to the life of the murdered Czar, may be found in the
following dates, every one of which marks a more or less important
period in his life. It proves at all events what important . and
mysterious a part, the figures 1 and 8 played in his life. 1 and 8 make
18; and the Emperor was born April 17 (1+7=8) in 1818. He died in
1881-the figures of the year of his birth and death being identical, and
coinciding, moreover, with the date of his birth 17=1+7=8. The figures
of the years of the birth and death being thus the same, as four times
18 can be formed out of them, and the sum-total of each year's numerals
is 18. The arrival at Petersburg of the late Empress-the Czar's
bride-took place on September 8; their marriage April 16-(8+8=16); their
eldest daughter, the Grand Duchess Alexandra, was born August 18; the
late Czarevitch Nicolas Alexandrovitch, on September the 8, 1843;
(1+8+4+3=16, i.e., twice 8). The present Czar, Alexander III, was born
February 26, (2+6=8); the proclamation of the ascension to the throne of
the late Emperor was signed February 18; the public proclamation about
the Coronation day took place April 17 (l+7=8). His entrance into Moscow
for the coronation was on August 17 (1+7=8); the Coronation itself being
performed August 26 (2+6=8); the year of the liberation of the Serfs,
1861, whose numerals sum up 16-i.e., twice 8!

To conclude, we may mention here a far more curious discovery made in
relation, and as a supplement, to the above calculation, by a Jewish
Rabbi in Russia-a Kabalist, evidently, from the use he makes of the
Gemantria reckoning. It was just published in a St. Petersburg paper.
The Hebrew letters as stated have all their numerical value or
correspondence in arithmetical figures. The number 18 in the Hebrew
Alphabet is represented by the letters-"HETH" = 8, and "JOD" = 10, i.e.,
18. United together Heth and Jod form the word "khaï," or "Hai," which
literally translated means the imperative-live and alive. Every orthodox
Jew during his fast and holy days is bound to donate for some pious
purpose a sum of money consisting of, and containing the number 18 in
it. So, for instance, he will give 18 copecks, or 18 ten copeck bits, 18
rubles or 18 times 18 copecks or rubles-according to his means and
degree of religious fervour. Hence, the year 1818-that of the Emperor's
birth-meant, if read in Hebrew-"khaï, khaï"-or live, live-pronounced
emphatically twice; while the year 1881-that of his death read in the
same way, yields the fatal words "Khaï-tze" rendered in English, "thou
living one depart"; or in other words, "life is ended."

Of course, those sceptically inclined will remark that it is all due to
blind chance and "coincidence." Nor would we much insist upon the
contrary, were such an observation to proceed but from uncompromising
atheists, and materialists, who, denying the above, remain only logical
in their disbelief, and have as much right to their opinion as we have
to our own. But we cannot promise the same degree of indulgence whenever
attacked by orthodox religionists. For, that class of persons while
pooh-poohing speculative metaphysics, and even astrology-a system based
upon strictly mathematical calculations, pertaining as much to exact
science as biology or physiology, and open to experiment and
verification-will, at the same time, firmly believe that potatoe
disease, cholera, railway accidents, earthquakes and the like are all of
Divine origin and, proceeding directly of God, have a meaning and a
bearing on human life in its highest aspects. It is to the latter class
of theists that we say: prove to us the existence of a personal God
either outside or inside physical nature, demonstrate him to us as the
external agent, the Ruler of the Universe; show him concerned in human
affairs and destiny and exercising on them an influence, at least, as
great and reasonably probable as that exercised by the sun-spots upon
the destiny of vegetables and then-laugh at us. Until then, and so long
as no one is prepared with such a proof and solution, in the words of
Tyndall-"Let us lower our heads, and acknowledge our ignorance, priest
and philosopher, one and all."

H P B -- Theosophist, June, 1881

---------------------------------FOOTNOTES
----------------------------------
 

1 One of the best known vegetable epidemics is that of the potatoe
disease. The years 1846. 1860, and 1872 were bad years for the potatoe
disease. and those years are not very far from the years of maximum
sun-spots . . . there is a curious connection between these diseases
affecting plants and the state of the sun. . . . A disease that took
place about three centuries since, of a periodical and very violent
character, called the "sweating sickness" . . . took place about the end
of the fifteenth and the beginning of the sixteenth century . . . and
this is exactly the sun-spot period. . . . (The Sun and the Earth,
Lecture by Prof. Balfour Stewart)
 
2 H. H. Aga Khan was one of the most remarkable men of the century. Of
all the Mussulmen, Shiahs or Soonis, who rejoice in the green turban,
the Aga's claims to a direct descent from Mahomet through Ali rested on
undeniable proofs. He again represented the historical "Assassins" of
the Old Man of the Mountain. He had married a daughter of the late Shah
of Persia; but political broils forced him to leave his native land and
seek refuge with the British Government in India. In Bombay he had a
numerous religious following. He was a high-spirited, generous man and a
hero. The most noticeable feature of his life was that he was born in
1800-and died in 1881, at the age of 81. In his case too the occult
influence of the year 1881 has asserted itself. 
 
==================================

-----Original Message-----

From: krish
Sent: Saturday, April 10, 2004 3:09 PM
To: 
Subject: RE: [bn-study] Mars -- WATER ON MARS ?

Hi Teo,

Hi Dallas and Morten

I was wondering such a thing alike. Theo asked something interesting
although UFO-related chats be full of scrap...

The 7 fold formationn is for the human being. Right?

What about the other intelligences inhabitant of other material worlds?
When HPB talks about "evolution of our globe", is she refering to Earth
and all this plane of evolution in the solar system?

I don´t know if I am being understood.

The " Globe " , the " rounds " are refering to the solar system same
dimension as ours?

Krish

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


----- Original Message ----- 

From: Theo 
To: 
Sent: Saturday
Subject: RE: [bn-study] Mars -- WATER ON MARS ?


Hello Dallas and other list members,

Any other quotation on interplanetary intelligences, extraterrestrial 
life, other planets etc. from theosophical sources is most welcome!

Kind regards,

Theo