Theosophy Northwest View

The Newsletter of the Northwest Branch of the Theosophical Society
June 2006 -- Vol. 9 Issue 4

Interfaith Fair a Success

Branch members spent an enjoyable day at the Interfaith Fair at Bellevue Community College. It featured informative and colorful displays from a wide variety of religious, spiritual, and interfaith groups.

In the friendly, relaxed atmosphere, people took advantage of the spacious area set aside for discussion.

I am riding on the Earth
Now floating quietly among the familiar stars,
Summer Wind holds my face in its hand
As the Earth begins to descend,
Refreshing itself in the thick
Dark coolness.
There is great age around us.
The Stars
These old ones who,
After making the same preparations
Century upon century,
Take their places
In the customary constellations
Stand patiently, observant.
Only distant, yet among them,
A smaller star flies,
Returning my smile with even
Greater joy
And feeling the same Wind
Running through its Soul. - Jane Friedman

Monthly Discussion Group

"Our Kinship with the Stars" is our subject. We will be discussing such questions as: How are we like the stars? How did the universe, galaxies, stars, and people originate? In what ways is cosmology a science, myth, philosophy, or religion? How do the ideas of microcosm and macrocosm help us understand ourselves and the world around us? If a mountain has buddha-consciousness, do stars and galaxies have it too? Does the same divinity that fuels the stars fuel us, just displayed in a different way? Are planets and stars living beings? Does the alignment of the cosmos at the moment of birth affect us? How is all in the universe interconnected? Come and share your ideas!

Open to the public, unsectarian, non-political, no charge

Upcoming Topics for 2006

These subjects are currently being considered for the Monthly Discussion group for the rest of the year. As always, those who have a particular topic they would like to have featured are encouraged to contact us.

July 13: The Continuum of Life
August: How Does Karma Work?
September: Earth - A Living Being
October: Our Spiritual Origin
November: Suffering and Sacrifice
December: Religion and Theosophy

Anniversary Potluck in Late July

We are planning to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Northwest Branch with a potluck in the meeting room at Newport Way Library on July 29, from 12:30 to 2:30 p.m. You and your friends and family are welcome to join us. Newport Way Library is located at 14250 SE Newport Way, Bellevue (see www.kcls.org/npw/direct.cfm for directions).

Theosophical Views

Children of the Stars

By Marilyn O'Day
I believe a leaf of grass is no less than the journey-work of the stars. - Walt Whitman

We are made of star stuff, and are the children of the stars. What a wonderful parentage! The stars are the parent-source of both our physical and spiritual core components. When some stars die, they explode in a super-nova and blast out proto-elements which drift throughout space. Some of these are pulled into the gravitational field of our earth and ultimately go to make up the very atoms and elements of our physical body. The stars are also the origin of the most divine part of us, as we each receive our divine spark from our own parent star.

This concept of celestial parentage presupposes that the stars are more than just huge balls of glowing gas. To better understand our celestial lineage, we must first examine the hierarchical nature of the universe. Our universe is filled with beings, all at different levels of spiritual growth and development. The most highly developed that we are aware of, such as the suns and planets, are divine cosmic entities, virtually gods. These highly spiritual, intelligent, and conscious beings act as the creators and mentors of those beings below them in spiritual development, who inhabit their realms and make up their various inner and outer bodies. For example, the star hierarch or "highest being" is the central point of unity or ruler of its solar system; the planetary hierarch rules those who live on its planetary sphere, and so forth. We humans are even hierarchs, the acme or rulers of our own little kingdom of cells and atoms. Thus, hierarchs serve as the focus of the divine spark or ray of spiritual energies which originates in the one unknowable ALL, directing those energies to beings below them on the evolutionary scale. We all have this divine spark as part of our immortal constitution.

There is one such celestial hierarch or star who is our "parent star" or "spiritual star." This parent star has many children, but we have only one parent star, and our destinies are closely tied to its destiny. In his Dialogues, G. de Purucker states that the connection with our parent star "is the most intimate possible. It is your parent; and furthermore, it is you yourself. You are a spark of that starry flame in your inmost being. You never get such direct connection, because you always are it, always have been it, and always will be it. You and that star are linked for eternity, backwards and forwards."

G. de Purucker goes on to say that we also have a very close spiritual connection to our own sun as the heart and life-source of our solar system. But the sun may or may not be the same as our parent star: "A star, any star, anywhere in the galaxy, emanates or scatters its seeds of life, its children, emanating or flowing forth from itself, throws them with lavish hand over the galactic fields of life. Some fall in one solar system drawn together by karmic affinity, a closer affinity than others who group themselves by karmic affinity in some other system; yet all originally emanate from one star, and therefore all claim that one star as their parent and highest parent-self."

As reincarnating beings, we are subjected to additional celestial influences, in that in each life we are born under a given astrological star. But the astrological star is not the same as our parent or spiritual star. Our astrological star is the one prevalent at a given time just before our birth, and provides us with divine influences and personal characteristics depending on the nature of that star. As H. P. Blavatsky says, the astrological star effects our personality, while the spiritual star effects our individuality (The Secret Doctrine 1:572-3).

The divine spark within us is immortal, and when we die that spark frees itself from the mortal parts of us - the physical, astral, and emotional - and returns to our parent star. Later, when the life-forces quicken and we prepare for rebirth on the physical plane, that spiritual spark returns from our divine parent and once again inspirits our mortal elements during another lifetime on earth. During our current phase of development, we are barely aware of the full glory and force of the divinity given to us by our parent star. But the more spiritual and intellectual we are, the more we are able to get in touch even a little with the divine spark, and the more we are influenced by it.

When I look at the night sky, with its profusion of planets, galaxies, and colorful stars, it fills me with wonder. But even beyond that, when I think that somewhere out there is a star that is my spiritual parent, and that I have a strong, eternal connection with it, I truly feel like a child of the stars.

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