Theos-Talk Archives (July 2004 Message tt00452)

July 31 2004

Dear Friends:

Several interesting developments will be found considered at blavatsky.net on the subject of Atlantis, ancient monuments and statues, and pre-historicrecords of ancient Theosophy.

Here is one article of interest:

CITIES UNDER CITIES

The theory that the remains of ancient cities exist under those of the present is not a new one. 

Dr. Schliemann held it, and working upon the clues found in Homer unearthedthe buried Troy. Some have held it in respect to London, asserting that St. Paul's stands over the ruins of an old Pagan temple, and Roman ruins havebeen excavated in different parts of England. 

In India there is a mass of traditions telling of many modern cities said to stand over ancient ones that lie buried intact many feet below the present level. 
Lucifer for September noticed the "find" of an Amorite fortress sixty feet below the surface, with walls twenty-eight feet thick. 

It is well known to those who enjoyed intimate conversations with H. P. Blavatsky that she frequently gave more detailed and precise statements about great cities being built on the exact spots where others had stood long ages ago, and also about those over which only villages stand now. 

And as the constant explorations of the present day - reaching almost to the North Pole - give promise that perhaps soon the prophecies about revelations from mother Earth made by her will be fulfilled, I am emboldened to give the old theory, very likely known to many other students, to account for this building and rebuilding of cities over each other after such intervalsthat there can be no suspicion of communication between present and past inhabitants.

As man's civilization has traveled around the globe many times, filling nowone country and now another with populous places, creating an enormous metropolis here and another there, his influence has been left on nearly everyspot upon the earth, and that as well upon lands now beneath the seas as on those above them. 

If we can imagine the first coming of a population to a place never before inhabited, the old theory asks us to believe that certain classes of elementals - called devas generically by the Hindus - are gathered over the placeand present pictures of houses, of occupations of busy life on every hand,and, as it were, beckon to the men to stay and build. These "fairies," as the Irish call them, at last prevail, and habitations are erected until a city springs up. 

During its occupation the pictures in the astral light are increased and deepened until the day of desertion arrives, when the genii, demons, elementals, or fairies have the store of naturally impressed pictures in the ether to add to their own. These remain during the abandonment of the place, and when man comes that way again the process is repeated. 

The pictures of buildings and human activity act telepathically upon the new brains, and the first settlers think they have been independent thinkers in selecting a place to remain. So they build again and again. Nature's processes of distributing earth and accumulating it hide from view the traces of old habitations, giving the spot a virgin appearance to the new coming people. And thus are not only cities built in advantageous positions, but also in places less convenient.

Evidence is accessible and plentiful in every country to show that the winds, the trees, birds, and beasts can in time cover over completely, while leaving them intact, the remains of roads and buildings once used and occupied by men. 
In Central America there are vast masses of ruins among which trees of considerable girth are now growing. In other districts the remains of well-maderoads are sometimes found creeping out from tangled underbrush and disappearing under a covering of earth. 

At Elephanta near Bombay, and in other places in India, the earth has been blown gradually under pillars and gateways, rendering entrance impossible. 
On the Pacific Coast, in one of the Mexican States, there is old and new San Blas, the one on the hill, deserted and almost covered with trees and debris of all sorts which is surely constructing a covering that will ere longbe some feet in thickness. 

So without regard to volcanic eruptions or landslides, which of course suddenly and forcibly overlay a city, it is quite possible for Nature through her slower processes to add to thickness of earthy covering at any place abandoned by man, and the very best illustration of this is in the coral islands which rise out of the ocean to be soon covered with earth and trees.

But, our ancient theory says, no process of a mechanical or physical kind has any power over the pictures impressed in the retentive ether, nor over those classes of elementals which find their natural work in presenting pictures of cities and buildings to the receptive brain of man. if he is materialistic he will recognize these pictures only subconsciously. 

But the subconscious impressions will translate themselves into acts just as hypnotized subjects respond to a suggestion they have no memory of. When,however, these elementals encounter a race of men who are psychically developed enough to see not only the pictures but also those entities which present them, it will then result that a conscious choice will be made, leading to a deliberate selection of one place for building on and the rejection of another.
I present this interesting old theory without proof except such as can be obtained by those few persons who are themselves able to see the devas at work on their own plane.

BRYAN KINNAVAN	Path, November, 1892
 


Best wishes,

Dallas

PS The following may also be found interesting – as a study in symbology and explains some of the earliest events of the far past, and some of the present that relate to them.
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The SPHINX: Its Riddle  	


Legend tells that Oedipus was stopped on his way to Thebes at a mountain pass which was bordered on one side by unclimable cliffs and on the other by a precipice that fell away into the churning wind-swept sea. Here the living Sphinx took up its abode and as the few pilgrims that came that way arrived it stopped and asked them its riddle.

“What is it that in the morning walks on four feet, at noon on two,and in the evening on three ?”

Few if any are reputed to have answered correctly and had their lives spared.

Studying theosophical literature we find that H P B hints that the riddle can only be solved if one relates the statement to Initiation and the “principles” in Man and Nature that are active.  

The riddle she says relates to the inner life -- the life of moral and motive -- of the student. We also find that she correlates such legends with others found in different ancient countries, such as those relating the Vishnu -- the preservative “god.” For instance we read in The Secret Doctrine, Vol 1., p. 113 fn, some comments concerning Maha Vishnu / Krishna, who, as an “avatar” manifested in far early ages inthe form of a dwarf (a limited ‘form’ – the VamanaAvatar) and yet was said to have traversed the entire Universe in three strides. She says there: 

“The three strides relate metaphysically to the descent of Spirit into matter, of the Logos falling as a Ray into the Spirit, then into the Soul, and finally into the physical form of man, in which it becomes LIFE [Fohat - electricity].”

Also in S D I 570-575 we find that in the Universe there are said to be 7great divisions, 7 streams of monads each stream differing in its emphasis, and yet each has all the potentials of the rest. This is the basis for the 7 “principles” in man and Nature. [Spirit, Wisdom, Mind, Emotion, Life Force, Astral Body and Physical Body.] – S DI 157-8; II 596.

They are each of them 7-fold as they also include and reflect aspects of the others within their specialty. But, each is found to be united in the highest, the synthesis, the FIRST, the SUPREME -- and all are a part of the ABSOLUTENESS -- which is the eternal, all-enveloping Source of all. In this Theosophy says, we are “brothers with all that lives.”  

Since this is not apparent, we try to understand matters relating to the plane of original CAUSES, and if we are not “Initiated,” we have a tendency to relate symbology and allegory to our superficial, material field of waking perception in our physical world alone. 

As the “riddle” is understood one suggests we may see that :

1.	We, as imperishable and eternal Pilgrims, emerge from the ONE ABSOLUTENESS as ATMA- BUDDHI-MANAS -- this is [ 1 + 3 = 4] .

FOUR - 4 - the sacred TETRAKTYS. This marks in the Kosmos, at the beginningof manifestation, the re-differentiation of the Monads as individual Potencies without “forms.” The ONE SPIRIT pervades every part of triune SPACE. It then proceeds by means of this differentiation to workin, and through the various planes as they gradually condense from spiritual and ethereal substance into gross “matter,” or, our present situation. [see T. Glos. p. 240]

2.	In earth life, “Deity is one in many,” [S D I 112] theSpirit acting through Manas, perceives, lives and acts in matter in a dualaspect. This is because Manas serves as the intermediate link between Kama (desires and passions – emotions) and Buddhi (the wisdom of experience). 

We, as Manasic beings are learning to resolve the isolation of our personalselfishness by entering the “brotherhood” of the Universe.If we can say that “Kama” represents the principle of “isolation ,” which thereby creates the separation of “evil,” then, from “Buddhi,” or accumulated experience -- “Spiritual Knowledge -- springs the generosity of “the all-compassionate, all “good.”  

It is DUALITY, and, of necessity, Manas, to be active has to divide itself into two parts:  

1) is seen (as Kama-Manas) entering into the process of altering “ignorance” into 

2) SPIRITUAL WISDOM -- Buddhi-Manas. In this process “Matter” (as the “Monads of lesser experience” and “Skandhas”) is elevated to a higher individualized intelligence.  

As it becomes universalized it perceives the unity and impersonality of Universal Law and Laws.

3.	At the close of a Manvantara, the imperishable individual: ATMA-BUDDHI and HIGHER MANAS (the THREE IN ONE ) retire into the ABSOLUTENESS plus allthe experience acquired, and having worked in and with “matter” this TRINITY has helped to raise the “monads” involved in it upward towards their own intelligent individuality. Of this, theirfuture Personalities are formed.

Another allegory (Egyptian) observes that the Sun has THREE revealed positions: rising, noon, and setting -- and one concealed: the “mid-night Sun,” symbolizing this uninterrupted and periodical cyclic returnto the ABSOLUTE.

[ “…the Egyptian Sphinx, is called by them Harimukh, or Har-M-Kho (the Sun in his resting place -- the horizon) [and there also is] the lofty Himalayan peak, called Harimukh (the mouth of the Sun) in the rangeto the north of Cashmere…” - H P B THEOSOPHIST I 162 col. 2, bot. ]

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It may also be found of interest to read what H P B wrote in a footnote [THEOSOPHIST, Vol. 4 p. 38 fn ]. This relates also to Initiation.

“Let him who would fathom the mystery off the allegory of both Sphinx and Cross, study the modes of initiation of the Egyptians, Chaldeans, ancient Jews, Hindus, etc. And then he will find what the word “Atonement”…meant, also the “Baptism of Blood.” …

…after the initiation, Aba the Father, becomes the Son, and the sonsucceeds the Father and becomes Father and Son at the same time, inspired by Sophia-Achamoth (secret wisdom) transformed later on into the Holy Ghost….

…To this day, the initiation beyond the Himalayas is followed by temporary death (from three to six months) of the disciple, often that of theInitiator; but the Buddhists do not spill blood, for they have a horror of it, knowing that blood attracts “evil powers” [elementals].
	
In the THEOSOPHICAL GLOSSARY we find the following

HARMACHUS (Gr.) The Egyptian Sphinx, called Har-em-chu or “Horus (the Sun) in the Horizon,” a form of Ra the sun-god; esoterically therisen god. 

An inscription on a tablet reads “0 blessed Ra Harmachus Thou careerest by him in triumph. 0 shine, Amoun-Ra Harmachus, self-generated ‘. 

The temple of the Sphinx was discovered by Mariette Bey close to the Sphinx, near the great Pyramid of Gizeh. All the Egyptologists agree in pronouncing the Sphinx and her temple the “oldest religious monument of theworld ”—at any rate of Egypt.

“The principal chamber,” writes the late Mr. Fergusson “in the form of a cross, is supported by piers, simple prisms of Syenite granite without base or capital … no sculptures or inscriptions of any sort are found on the walls of this temple, no ornament or symbol nor any image in the sanctuary.” This proves the enormous antiquity of both the Sphinx and the temple. “The great bearded Sphinx of the Pyramids of Gizeh is the symbol of Harmachus, the same as each Egyptian Pharaoh who bore, in the inscriptions, the name of “living form of theSolar Sphinx upon the Earth,” writes Brugsh Bey. And Renan recallsthat “at one time the Egyptians were said to have temples without sculptured images” (Bonwick). Not only the Egyptians, but every nation of the earth began with temples devoid of idols and even of symbols. 

It is only when the remembrance of the great abstract truths and of the primordial Wisdom taught to humanity by the dynasties of the divine kings diedout that men had to resort to mementos and symbology. 

In the story of Horus in some tablets of Edfou, Rouge found an inscription showing that the god had once assumed “the shape of a human-headed lion to gain advantage over his enemy Typhon.” Certainly Horus was so adored in Leontopolis. He is the real Sphinx. That accounts, too, for the lion figure being sometimes seen on each side of Isis. . . It was her child.” (Bonwick.) And yet the story of Harmachus, or Har-em-chu, is still left untold to the world, nor is it likely to he divulged to this generation. (See “Sphinx”.) -- T. GLOSSARY 135-6
 
In an article titled The SCIENCE OF LIFE H P B turns translator and gives us her version of Count Leo Tolstoy’s lecture. Towards the end sheadds: “… a few words may be said of the eternal riddle propounded to mortals by the Sphinx. To fail to solve the problem contained in it, was to be doomed to sure death, as the Sphinx of life devoured the un-intuitional, who would live only in their "animal." [form] He who lives for self, and only for [Lower Self ] will surely die, as the higher "I" tells the lower "animal" in the Lecture. 

The riddle has seven keys to it, and the Count [Tolstoy] opens the mystery with one of the highest. For, as the author on "Hermetic Philosophy" beautifully expressed it: "The real mystery most familiar and, at the same time, most unfamiliar to every man, into which he must be initiated or perish as an atheist, is himself. For him is the elixir of life, to quaff which, before the discovery of the philosopher's stone, is to drink the beverage of death, while it confers on the adept and the "epopt," the true immortality. He may know truth as it really is--Aletheia, the breath of God, or Life, theconscious mind in man." H P B Articles II, p. 216  

As said earlier there are a number of interesting synonyms and correspondences to be found in studying the Theogonies of ancient religions. Here are a few examples that have a relation to the riddle of the Sphinx:

Ancient Hinduism: 

AVALOKITESWARA (Sk.) “The on-looking Lord.” In the exotericinterpretation, he is Padmapâni (the lotus bearer and the lotus-born)in Tibet, the first divine ancestor of the Tibetans, the complete incarnation or Avatar of Avalokiteswara; but in esoteric philosophy Avaloki, the “on-looker,” is the Higher Self, while Padmapâni is the Higher Ego or Manas. 

The mystic formula “Om Mani Padme Hum” is specially used toinvoke their joint help. While popular fancy claims for Avalokiteswara many incarnations on earth, and sees in him, not very wrongly, the spiritual guide of every believer, the esoteric interpretation sees in him the Logos, both celestial and human. Therefore, when the Yogâchârya School has declared Avalokiteswara as Padmâpani “to be the DhyâniBodhisattva of Amitâbha Buddha,” it is indeed, because the former is the spiritual reflex in the world of forms of the latter, both being one—one in heaven, the other on earth."	T GLOSSARY 44


VISHNU (Sk.). The second person of the Hindu Trimûrti (trinity), composed of Brahmâ, Vishnu and Siva. From the root 'vish,' (to pervade.)

In the Rig -Veda, Vishnu is no high god, but simply a manifestation of the solar energy, described as “striding through the seven regions of the Universe in three steps and enveloping all things with the dust (of his beams.”) 

Whatever may be the six other occult significances of the statement, this is related to the same class of types as the seven and ten Sephiroth, as theseven and three orifices of the perfect Adam Kadmon, as the seven “principles” and the higher triad in man, etc., etc. Later on this mystic type becomes a great god, the preserver and the renovator, he “of a thousand names—Sahasranâma."   
T. Glos 366


VISHWAKARMAN (Sk.). The “Omnificent.” A Vedic god, a personification of the creative Force, described as the One “all-seeing god, . . . the generator, disposer, who . . . is beyond the comprehension of(uninitiated) mortals.” In the two hymns of the Rig -Veda specially devoted to him, he is said “to sacrifice himself to himself,” The names of his mother, “the lovely and virtuous Yoga-Siddha” (Purânas) and of his daughter Sanjnâ (spiritual consciousness), show his mystic character. (See Secret Doctrine I 9-10fn, 207-8,268, 470 ; II 101fn, 269fn, 559, 607, 615, ) As the artificer of the gods and maker of their weapons, he is called Karu, “workman,”Takshaka “carpenter,” or “wood-cutter,” etc., T Glos 366-7

VISVAKARMAN, the “all-seeing Father-God…ends as son…of the holy Spirit, by sacrificing himself to himself, to save the worlds [as Kshetrajna -- the mystic name used by the Hindus], or “embodied Spirit”…the Manasa-Putras, or incarnating EGOS have taken upon themselves voluntarily and knowingly, the burden 0f all the future sins of their future personalities….” Trans. 68

 
HORUS (Eg.). The last in the line of divine Sovereigns in Egypt, said to he the son of Osiris and Isis. He is the great god “loved of Heaven,” the “beloved of the Sun, the offspring of the gods, the subjugator of the world.” At the time of the Winter Solstice (our Christmas), his image, in the form of a small newly-born infant, was brought out from the sanctuary for the adoration of the worshipping crowds. 

As he is the type of the vault of heaven, he is said to have come from the Maem Misi, the sacred birth-place (the womb of the World), and is, therefore, the “mystic Child of the Ark,” or the argha, the symbol of the matrix. Cosmically, he is the Winter Sun. A tablet describes him as the “substance of his father,” Osiris, of whom he is an incarnation and also identical with him. 

Horus is a chaste deity, and “like Apollo has no amours. His part in the lower world is associated with the judgment. He introduces souls to his father, the judge” (Bonwick). An ancient hymn says of him, “By him the world is judged in that which it contains. Heaven and earth are under his immediate presence. He rules all human beings. The sun goesround according to his purpose. He brings forth abundance and dispenses itto all the earth. Everyone adores his beauty. Sweet is his love in us.”	Glos 146

OSIRIS. (Eg.). The greatest God of Egypt, the Son of Seb (Saturn), celestial fire, and of Neith, primordial matter and infinite space. 

This shows him as the self-existent and self-created god, the first manifesting deity (our third Logos), identical with Ahura Mazda and other “ First Causes.” For as Ahura Mazda is one with, or the synthesisof, the Amshaspends, so Osiris, the collective unit, when differentiated and personified, becomes Typhon, his brother, Isis and Nephtys his sisters, Horus his son and his other aspects. ..

The four chief aspects of Osiris were—Osiris-Phtah (Light), the spiritual aspect; Osiris-Horus (Mind), the intellectual manasic aspect; Osiris-Lunus, the “ Lunar” or psychic, astral aspect; Osiris-Typhon, Daїmonic, or physical, material, therefore passional turbulent aspect. 

In these four aspects he symbolizes the dual Ego— the divine and the human, the cosmico-spiritual and the terrestrial. 

Of the many supreme gods, this Egyptian conception is the most suggestive and the grandest, as it embraces the whole range of physical and metaphysical thought. 

As a solar deity he had twelve minor gods under him—the twelve signs of the Zodiac. Though his name is the “Ineffable,” his forty-two attributes bore each one of his names, and his seven dual aspects completed the forty-nine, or 7 x 7; the former symbolized by the fourteen members of his body, or twice seven. 

Thus the god is blended in man, and the man is deified into a god. 

He was addressed as Osiris-Eloh…as the author of the Egyptian Belief has it . . . “One of the Saviours or Deliverers of Humanity . . .As such he is born in the world. He came as a benefactor, to relieve man of trouble . . . In his efforts to do good he encounters evil . . . and he is temporarily overcome. 

He is killed ... Osiris is buried… But he did not rest in his grave. At the end of three days, or forty, he rose again and ascended to "Heaven." This is the story of his "Humanity” (Egypt. Belief). And Mariette Bey, speaking of the Sixth Dynasty, tells us that “the name of Osiris .. . commences to be more used. The formula of Justified is met with” and adds, that “it proves that this name (of the Justified or Makheru) was not given to the dead only.” 

But it also proves that the legend of Christ was found ready in almost all its details thousands of years before the Christian era, and that the Church fathers had no greater difficulty than to simply apply it to a new personage. 


DTB