Theosophy Northwest ViewTheosophy Northwest ViewThe Newsletter of the Northwest Branch of the Theosophical Society
February 2001 Vol. 3 Issue 12
Every one of us is a child of the sun: from it we issued forth in the far distant aeons of the past, and to it we shall return in the far distant aeons of the future, but will do so as gods. Through initiation, if a man pass successfully the tests, his spirit will wind its way from earth through moon and planets to the portals of the sun, penetrate to its heart, then deeper still into the invisible realms and regions, and return finally to his entranced body, waiting for him, and kept alive by the sublime magic of the hierarchy of wisdom and com-passion. For a short time thereafter his face will shine with light, his body with splendor; and this is the meaning of the archaic saying that after the three days' trance the "man's face shone with glory," and he appeared as if he were "clothed with the sun."
Yet in order to pass the portals of the sun we must first learn to pass through the portals of our inner god, our inner spiritual sun. For verily there is a portion of our constitution which is composed of solar substance. How could the spirit-soul of man pass the portals of the sublimest entity of our solar system – pass them self-consciously and with safety – unless that spirit-soul itself were of the same essence and being as that of the sun? Anything inferior to the sun, when approaching it closely, would be annihilated. None can enter the sun who is not already a full-grown child of the sun: of the same essence, of the same quality or substance, and there-fore possessing potentially the same titanic energy. We sprang from it, and we shall return to it before our pilgrimage in the solar system is fully complete. Back to it we shall go, and then we shall surrender the solar part of us to the sun from which we received it. In each one of the seven sacred planets, as we wing our way sunwards, we shall leave what we took from it: dust to dust, Moon to Moon, Venus to Venus, Mercury to Mercury, Mars to Mars, Jupiter to Jupiter, Saturn to Saturn, Sun to Sun – and then each one will return to his parent star, a "parent star" only because that star is himself. – G. de Purucker
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When there are lowering clouds around, dark deeds being perpetrated, we need not cling to thoughts of gloom born in our own brain. In so doing we'll miss not only the sunrise, but much of beauty and kindness and trust all about. Nor would we know the joy of accomplishment in being strong enough to meet our difficulties head-on. If we take inventory of our consciousness from day to day, we find that when we do something wrong, first we regret it, then we try to visualize doing better next time. Nothing stands permanently still: reconstruction follows destruction, and armistice follows war; worn-out mental outlooks give way to fresh new ones; rehabilitation and a widening spiritual outlook lessen our fears.
Yet being human, we are, at times, discouraged trying to sift our intuitions from our hopes and imaginations, in the ungodly mess we too often carry around in our mental and emotional luggage. How utterly wonderful it would be if for ten minutes, at odd intervals, our higher selves could sit down opposite us so that we could engage in a straight-from-the-shoulder dialogue. Yet, it follows that only if we turn to and finish the job of being fully human – which includes developing understanding and empathy for all the inhabitants of this world – will it be possible for us to advance into the next sphere, which will then be as visible and audible to us as our present, nostalgically familiar ground is to us now.
Under the waves of altercations and atrocities on the surface, there is a constant push from deep within to move to higher ground in our thinking and feeling: a pressure that makes us wonder why we take such an interminable time, suffering untold heartaches, before we attempt to scale the upward way of the spirit. So when we hear the drumming of our better selves, no matter how faint and distant, isn't it wiser to follow its lead than to grope around in the dark? – Alysann Bendroth
"What Makes Us Human?" is our subject. We will discuss such questions as: What is it that makes us human beings? How did human consciousness arise? As a species, what role do – and should – we play on our planet? What can we learn from the various divisions of our being, such as the fourfold Qabbalistic and fivefold Hindu divisions; the sevenfold theosophical division; or the Christian body, soul, and spirit? How are we related to the other kingdoms of nature, and does nature include beings more evolved than we? How can we understand ourselves better and live more fully human lives? Come and share your ideas!
Open to the public, unsectarian, non-political, no charge.
The topics for the monthly discussion group for the next few months are:
Man never was not. If not on this globe, then on some others, he ever was, and will ever be in existence somewhere in the cosmos. Ever perfecting and reaching up to the image of the Heavenly Man, he is always becoming. But as the human mind cannot go back to any beginning, we shall start with this globe. Upon this earth and upon the whole chain of globes of which it is a part, seven races of men appeared simultaneously, coming over to it from other globes of an older chain. And in respect to this earth – the fourth of this chain – these seven races came simultaneously from another globe of this chain. This appearance of seven races together happens in the first and in part of the second round of the globes. In the second round the seven masses of beings are amalgamated, and their destiny after that is to slowly differentiate during the succeeding rounds until at the seventh round the seven first great races will be once more distinct, as perfect types of the human race as this period of evolution will allow. At the present time the seven races are mixed together, and representatives of all are in the many so-called races of men as classified by our present science. The object of this amalgamation and subsequent differentiation is to give to every race the benefit of the progress and power of the whole derived from prior progress in other planets and systems. For nature never does her work in a hasty or undue fashion, but, by the sure method of mixture, precipitation, and separation, brings about the greatest perfection.
As man came to this globe from another planet, though of course then a being of very great power before being completely enmeshed in matter, so the lower kingdoms came likewise in germ and type from other planets, and carry on their evolution step by step upward by the aid of man, who is, in all periods of manifestation, at the front of the wave of life. The egos in these lower kingdoms could not finish their evolution in the preceding globe-chain before its dissolution, and coming to this they go forward age after age, gradually approaching nearer the human stage. One day they too will become human and act as the advance guard and guide for other lower kingdoms of this or other globes. And in the coming from the former planet there are always brought with the first and highest class of beings some forms of animal life, some fruits and other products, as models or types for use here. But the general forms of the various kingdoms being so brought over, we have next to consider how the differentiation of animal and other lower species began and was carried on.
This is the point where intelligent aid and interference from a mind or mass of minds is absolutely necessary. Such aid and interference was and is the fact, for nature unaided cannot do the work right. But I do not mean that God or angel interferes and aids. It is man who does this. Not the man of the day, weak and ignorant as he is, but great souls, high and holy men of immense power, knowledge, and wisdom. Various names have been given to these beings now removed from our plane. They are the dhyanis, the creators, the guides, the great spirits, and so on by many titles.
By methods known to themselves and to the Great Lodge they work on the forms so brought over, and by adding here, taking away there, and often altering, they gradually transform by such alteration and addition the kingdoms of nature as well as the gradually forming gross body of man. This process is carried on chiefly in the purely astral period preceding the gross physical stage, as the impulses thus given will surely carry themselves forward through the succeeding times.
A vast period of time, about 300,000,000 years, was passed by earth and man and all the kingdoms of nature in an astral stage. Then there was no gross matter such as we now know. At the end of that stretch of years the process of hardening began, the form of man being the first to become solid, and then some of the astral prototypes of the preceding rounds were involved in the solidification, though really belonging to a former period when everything was astral.
The object of all this differentiation, amalgamation, and separation is well stated by another of the Masters, thus:
Nature consciously prefers that matter should be indestructible in organic rather than inorganic forms, and works slowly but incessantly towards the realization of this object – the evolution of conscious life out of inert material.