The Book of Dzyan by Madam Helena Petrovna Blavatsky All Text in Blue Are HPB’S Synopsis for Each of the Stanzas

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

The Book of Dzyan by Madam Helena Petrovna Blavatsky All Text in Blue Are HPB’S Synopsis for Each of the Stanzas The Annotated Book of Dzyan by Frater Apollonius 4◦=7▫ AA COSMIC EVOLUTION In Seven Stanzas translated from the Book of Dzyan By Madam Helena Petrovna Blavatsky All text In Blue are HPB’s Synopsis for each of the stanzas. Liber Tetragrammaton is an exceptionally similar document to this book and works as a marvelous compliment. Selected verses will be included in green, below. STANZA I Stanza -1- describes the state of the ONE ALL during Pralaya, before the first flutter of reawakening Manifestation. A moment's thought shows that such a state can only be symbolized; to describe it, is impossible. Nor can it be symbolized except in negatives; for, since it is the state of Absoluteness per se, it can possess none of those specific attributes which serve us to describe objects in positive terms. Hence that state can only be suggested by the negatives of all those most abstract attributes which men feel rather than conceive, as the remotest limits attainable by their power of conception. 1. THE ETERNAL PARENT WRAPPED IN HER EVER INVISIBLE ROBES HAD SLUMBERED ONCE AGAIN FOR SEVEN ETERNITIES. 0/1 (Number Zero/First Trigram) * * * Here is Nothing under its three forms. It is not, yet informeth all things. 2. TIME WAS NOT, FOR IT LAY ASLEEP IN THE INFINITE BOSOM OF DURATION. 3. UNIVERSAL MIND WAS NOT, FOR THERE WERE NO AH-HI TO CONTAIN IT. 4. THE SEVEN WAYS TO BLISS WERE NOT. THE GREAT CAUSES OF MISERY WERE NOT, FOR THERE WAS NO ONE TO PRODUCE AND GET ENSNARED BY THEM. 5. DARKNESS ALONE FILLED THE BOUNDLESS ALL, FOR FATHER, MOTHER AND SON WERE ONCE MORE ONE, AND THE SON HAD NOT AWAKENED YET FOR THE NEW WHEEL, AND HIS PILGRIMAGE THEREON. 6. THE SEVEN SUBLIME LORDS AND THE SEVEN TRUTHS HAD CEASED TO BE, AND THE UNIVERSE, THE SON OF NECESSITY, WAS IMMERSED IN PARANISHPANNA, TO BE OUTBREATHED BY THAT WHICH IS AND YET IS NOT. NAUGHT WAS. 7. THE CAUSES OF EXISTENCE HAD BEEN DONE AWAY WITH; THE VISIBLE THAT WAS, AND THE INVISIBLE THAT IS, RESTED IN ETERNAL NON-BEING -- THE ONE BEING. 8. ALONE THE ONE FORM OF EXISTENCE STRETCHED BOUNDLESS, INFINITE, CAUSELESS, IN DREAMLESS SLEEP; AND LIFE PULSATED UNCONSCIOUS IN UNIVERSAL SPACE, THROUGHOUT THAT ALL- PRESENCE WHICH IS SENSED BY THE OPENED EYE OF THE DANGMA. 9. BUT WHERE WAS THE DANGMA WHEN THE ALAYA OF THE UNIVERSE WAS IN PARAMARTHA AND THE GREAT WHEEL WAS ANUPADAKA? STANZA II Stanza -2- describes a stage which, to a Western mind, is so nearly identical with that mentioned in Stanza I., that to express the idea of its difference would require a treatise in itself Hence it must be left to the intuition and the higher faculties of the reader to grasp, as far as he can,the meaning of the allegorical phrases used. Indeed, it must be remembered that all these Stanzas appeal to the inner faculties rather than to the ordinary comprehension of the physical brain. 1. WHERE WERE THE BUILDERS, THE LUMINOUS SONS OF MANVANTARIC DAWN? . IN THE UNKNOWN DARKNESS IN THEIR AH-HI PARANISHPANNA. THE PRODUCERS OF FORM FROM NO-FORM -- THE ROOT OF THE WORLD -- THE DEVAMATRI AND SVABHAVAT, RESTED IN THE BLISS OF NON-BEING. 2. WHERE WAS SILENCE? WHERE THE EARS TO SENSE IT? NO, THERE WAS NEITHER SILENCE NOR SOUND; NAUGHT SAVE CEASELESS ETERNAL BREATH, WHICH KNOWS ITSELF NOT. 3. THE HOUR HAD NOT YET STRUCK; THE RAY HAD NOT YET FLASHED INTO THE GERM; THE MATRIPADMA HAD NOT YET SWOLLEN. 4. HER HEART HAD NOT YET OPENED FOR THE ONE RAY TO ENTER, THENCE TO FALL, AS THREE INTO FOUR, INTO THE LAP OF MAYA. 5. THE SEVEN SONS WERE NOT YET BORN FROM THE WEB OF LIGHT. DARKNESS ALONE WAS FATHER-MOTHER, SVABHAVAT; AND SVABHAVAT WAS IN DARKNESS. 6. THESE TWO ARE THE GERM, AND THE GERM IS ONE. THE UNIVERSE WAS STILL CONCEALED IN THE DIVINE THOUGHT AND THE DIVINE BOSOM. 1H/2 * * — Now cometh the glory of the Single One, as an imperfection and stain. STANZA III Stanza -3- describes the Reawakening of the Universe to life after Pralaya. It depicts the emergence of the Monads from their state of absorption within the One,the earliest and highest stage in the formation of Worlds - the term Monad being one which may apply equally to the vastest Solar System or the tiniest atom. 1. THE LAST VIBRATION OF THE SEVENTH ETERNITY THRILLS THROUGH INFINITUDE. THE MOTHER SWELLS, EXPANDING FROM WITHIN WITHOUT, LIKE THE BUD OF THE LOTUS. 2. THE VIBRATION SWEEPS ALONG, TOUCHING WITH ITS SWIFT WING THE WHOLE UNIVERSE AND THE GERM THAT DWELLETH IN DARKNESS: THE DARKNESS THAT BREATHES OVER THE SLUMBERING WATERS OF LIFE. 3. DARKNESS RADIATES LIGHT, AND LIGHT DROPS ONE SOLITARY RAY INTO THE MOTHER-DEEP. THE RAY SHOOTS THROUGH THE VIRGIN EGG, THE RAY CAUSES THE ETERNAL EGG TO THRILL, AND DROP THE NON-ETERNAL GERM, WHICH CONDENSES INTO THE WORLD-EGG. 2A/3 * * - - But by the Weak One the Mother was it equilibrated. 4. THEN THE THREE FALL INTO THE FOUR. THE RADIANT ESSENCE BECOMES SEVEN INSIDE, SEVEN OUTSIDE. THE LUMINOUS EGG, WHICH IN ITSELF IS THREE, CURDLES AND SPREADS IN MILK-WHITE CURDS THROUGHOUT THE DEPTHS OF MOTHER, THE ROOT THAT GROWS IN THE DEPTHS OF THE OCEAN OF LIFE. 5. THE ROOT REMAINS, THE LIGHT REMAINS, THE CURDS REMAIN, AND STILL OEAOHOO IS ONE. The obvious allusion is to IAO, the name of God for the ancient Gnostics. In her comment to Verse 7, Blavatsky writes: "Bright Space, Son of Dark Space," corresponds to the Ray dropped at the first thrill of the new Dawn into the great Cosmic depths, from which it re-emerges differentiated as "Oeaohoo, the Younger" (the "new LIFE"), to become to the end of the LIfe-Cycle the Germ of all things. He is "the Incorporeal Man who contains in himself the Divine Idea," the generator of Light and Life, to use an expression of Philo Judaeus. He is called the "Blazing Dragon of Wisdom," because, first, he is that which the Greek philosophers called the Logos, the Verum of the Thought Divine; and secondly, because in Esoteric Philosophy this first manifestation, begin the synthesis or the aggregate of Universal Wisdom, Oeaohoo, the "Son of the Sun," contains in himself the Seven Creative Hosts (The Sephiroth), and is thus the essence of manifested Wisdom. "He who bathes in the light of Oeaohoo will never be deceived by the veil of Maya." Combining these thoughts with the N.O.X. ideas I've presented in my other post this morning, there's something profound in Blavatsky's commentary to Verse 7: The higher gods of antiquity are all "Sons of the Mother" before they become "Sons of the Father." The Logoi, like Jupiter or Zeus, son of Kronos-Saturn, "Infinite Time" (Kala), in the origin were represented as male-female. Zeus is said to be the "beautiful Virgin," and Venus is made bearded. Apollo was originally bi-sexual, so is Brahma-Vach in Manu and the Puranas. Osiris in interchangeable with Isis, and Horus is of both sexes. Finally in St. John's vision in Revelation, the Logos, who is now connected with Jesus, is hermaphrodite, for he is described as having female breasts. So also is Tetragrammaton=Jehovah. But there are to Avalokiteshvaras in Esotericism: the First and the Second Logos. In Crowley's commentary to AL:I.7 ("Behold! it is revealed by Aiwass the minister of Hoor-paar-kraat.") we find a reference to the Devil Atu per my other post in N.O.X.: Aiwass is the name given by Ouarda the Seer as that of the Intelligence Communicating. See note to Title. Hoor-paar-Kraat or Harpocrates, the "Babe in the Egg of Blue", is not merely the God of Silence in a conventional sense. He represents the Higher Self, the Holy Guardian Angel. The connection is with the symbolism of the Dwarf in Mythology. He contains everything in Himself, but is unmanifested. See II:8. He is the First Letter of the Alphabet, Aleph, whose number is One, and his card in the Tarot is The Fool, numbered Zero. Aleph is attributed to the "Element" (in the old classification of things) of Air. Now as "One" or Aleph he represents the Male Principle, the First Cause, and the free breath of Life, the sound of the vowel A being made with the open throat and mouth. As Zero he represents the female Principle, the fertile Mother. (An old name for the card is Mat, from the Italian 'Matto', fool, but earlier also from Maut, the Egyptian Vulture-Mother-Goddess). Fertile, for the 'Egg of Blue' is the Uterus, and in the Macrocosm the Body of Nuith, and it contains the Unborn Babe, helpless yet protected and nourished against the crocodiles and tigers shown on the card, just as the womb is sealed during gestation. He sits on a lotus, the yoni. which floats on the 'Nile', the amniotic fluid. In his absolute innocence and ignorance he is "The Fool"; he is the 'Saviour', being the Son who shall trample on the crocodiles and tigers, and avenge his father Osiris. Thus we see him as the "Great Fool" of Celtic legend, the "Pure Fool" of Act I of "Parsifal", and, generally speaking, the insane person whose words have always been taken f or oracles. But to be 'Saviour' he must be born and grow to manhood; thus Parsifal acquires the Sacred Lance, emblem of virility. He usually wears the 'Coat of many colours' like Joseph the 'dreamer'; so he is also now the Green Man of spring festivals.
Recommended publications
  • The Theosophical Seal by Arthur M. Coon the Theosophical Seal a Study for the Student and Non-Student
    The Theosophical Seal by Arthur M. Coon The Theosophical Seal A Study for the Student and Non-Student by Arthur M. Coon This book is dedicated to all searchers for wisdom Published in the 1800's Page 1 The Theosophical Seal by Arthur M. Coon INTRODUCTION PREFACE BOOK -1- A DIVINE LANGUAGE ALPHA AND OMEGA UNITY BECOMES DUALITY THREE: THE SACRED NUMBER THE SQUARE AND THE NUMBER FOUR THE CROSS BOOK 2-THE TAU THE PHILOSOPHIC CROSS THE MYSTIC CROSS VICTORY THE PATH BOOK -3- THE SWASTIKA ANTIQUITY THE WHIRLING CROSS CREATIVE FIRE BOOK -4- THE SERPENT MYTH AND SACRED SCRIPTURE SYMBOL OF EVIL SATAN, LUCIFER AND THE DEVIL SYMBOL OF THE DIVINE HEALER SYMBOL OF WISDOM THE SERPENT SWALLOWING ITS TAIL BOOK 5 - THE INTERLACED TRIANGLES THE PATTERN THE NUMBER THREE THE MYSTERY OF THE TRIANGLE THE HINDU TRIMURTI Page 2 The Theosophical Seal by Arthur M. Coon THE THREEFOLD UNIVERSE THE HOLY TRINITY THE WORK OF THE TRINITY THE DIVINE IMAGE " AS ABOVE, SO BELOW " KING SOLOMON'S SEAL SIXES AND SEVENS BOOK 6 - THE SACRED WORD THE SACRED WORD ACKNOWLEDGEMENT Page 3 The Theosophical Seal by Arthur M. Coon INTRODUCTION I am happy to introduce this present volume, the contents of which originally appeared as a series of articles in The American Theosophist magazine. Mr. Arthur Coon's careful analysis of the Theosophical Seal is highly recommend to the many readers who will find here a rich store of information concerning the meaning of the various components of the seal Symbology is one of the ancient keys unlocking the mysteries of man and Nature.
    [Show full text]
  • The Texts of Alice A. Bailey: an Inquiry Into the Role of Esotericism in Transforming Consciousness
    THE TEXTS OF ALICE A. BAILEY: AN INQUIRY INTO THE ROLE OF ESOTERICISM IN TRANSFORMING CONSCIOUSNESS I Wightman Doctor of Philosophy 2006 University of Western Sydney. IN APPRECIATION This thesis would not have been possible without the care, support, enthusiasm and intellectual guidance of my supervisor, Dr Lesley Kuhn, who has followed my research journey with dedicated interest throughout. I also acknowledge the loving kindness of Viveen at Sydney Goodwill, who has continuously praised and encouraged my work, and provided me with background material on the kind of activities that the worldwide community of Alice A. Bailey students are involved in. I sincerely appreciate the role my husband, Greg, played, as my cosmic co-traveller. Without him this thesis would never have materialized, his tireless engagement throughout these years has bolstered my drive to proceed to the very end. Finally, I acknowledge my children, Victoria and Elizabeth, for tolerating my reclusive behaviour, and giving me the space I have needed to write. Philosophy, in one of its functions, is the critic of cosmologies. It is its function to harmonise, refashion, and justify divergent intuitions as to the nature of things. It has to insist on the scrutiny of ultimate ideas, and on the retention of the whole of the evidence in shaping our cosmological scheme. Its business is to render explicit, and –so far as may be – efficient, a process which otherwise is unconsciously performed without rational tests (Alfred North Whitehead 1938:7). TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Letter Code for the Bailey Texts v Abstract vi Chapter 1 Researching the work of Alice A.
    [Show full text]
  • Imagining Macrohistory? Madame Blavatsky from Isis Unveiled (1877) to the Secret Doctrine (1888) Garry W
    Imagining Macrohistory? Madame Blavatsky from Isis Unveiled (1877) to The Secret Doctrine (1888) Garry W. Trompf In Memoriam: Alfred John Cooper1 Introduction The term „macrohistory‟ denotes the envisaging and representation of the human past as a vast panorama, great movements of human activity held „in the mind‟s eye‟ or in a unitary vision. When such broad encompassments also incorporate the pre-human past and even the possible future of everything, then one may refer to cosmological macrohistory (or „cosmo-history‟), or, if the atmosphere of a mythos is strong, to a mythological macrohistory. Many will suspect that mental acts of encapsulation entailed in „doing macrohistory‟ are inevitably unreliable and methodologically inadmissible because the myriad facts to be embraced, both known and unknown, could never be accounted for in any one synoptic view. Certainly the macrohistorical visionary will have to resort to a picturing or imaging through some kind of model, paradigm or diagrammatic procedure, and in almost all cases, a species of meta-history (of a conceptual „framing‟ superimposed on data) will result. In the Judaeo- Christian-Islamic-Marxist trajectory of thought, four primary „idea-frames‟ of macrohistory have stood out. These are, first, progress, or the idea that past events show an overall improvement of things; second and contrarily, regress, the outlook that affairs have steadily worsened; third, recurrence, the apprehension that everything is basically repetitive (if not cyclical); and lastly, the view that nothing can be fully understood without a sense of an utterly final consummation, an eschaton (end) or apokatastasis (restoration of all things) or millennial „showdown‟, as against some limited telos.
    [Show full text]
  • Secret Doctrine Extracts Vol 1
    THE SECRET DOCTRINE Extracts from Volume 1 Key selections from the first volume of the Secret Doctrine by H. P. Blavatsky, co-founder of the Theosophical Society The extracts are photographic facsimiles from the 1888 First Edition Published by Theosophy Company Limited Robert Crosbie House, 62 Queen’s Gardens, London, W2 3AH, United Kingdom in association with Theosophy Company, New York, USA 2017 ISBN 978-0-9957358-1-1 Printed by Pureprint Group, East Sussex, United Kingdom Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, PO Box 1866, Mountain View, CA 94042, USA. All images and text in this book are in the Public Domain or have been created by the licensor. Under this “Attribution” license for Free Cultural Works you are free to share, copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format, adapt, remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially. The licensor, Theosophy Company Limited, cannot revoke these freedoms as long as you follow the license terms for ‘Attribution’: you must give appropriate credit, provide the above link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use. You may not add any additional restrictions. You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits.
    [Show full text]
  • HP BLAVATSKY and THEOSOPHICAL ORIENTALISM Christopher Partridge the Premise Of
    LOST HORIZON: H.P. BLAVATSKY AND THEOSOPHICAL ORIENTALISM Christopher Partridge The premise of “Orientalism” is that there is an essential polarity between East and West. The taken-for-granted, often naïve acceptance of this opposition within particularly the arts, the media, and popular culture has not only shaped Western understandings of the “other,” but has fos- tered an attitude of difference and the exotic. This, in turn, has often led to and is supported by the construction of caricatures and unsophisticated, homogenous understandings of Oriental religions, cultures, and societies: Images of meditating Buddhist monks in saffron robes filtered through a gentle mist of incense, news reports of enraged Muslims burning American flags, advertisements for “Turkish Delight” confectionary depicting images of tented Bedouin royalty, a majestic camel train making its way across rolling dunes, the eroticism of the East described in the writings of the British Orientalist Richard Burton (1821–1890) and depicted in paintings such as John Fredrick Lewis’ The Harem (c. 1850), John Auguste Dominique Ingres’ Le Bain Turc (1862) and Sir Frank Dicksee’s Leila (1892), and the mysticism of gravity-defying martial artists in recent films such as House of Flying Daggers (2004), Hero (2002) and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000). All these narratives and images are common in the modern West and, again, all trade in stereotypes, fostering a perception of the exotic and the essential otherness of the Orient. Perhaps the starkest statement of this relationship is Rudyard Kipling’s “Ballad of East and West”: “Oh, East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet, Till Earth and Sky stand presently at God’s great Judgment Seat…” It is this ideologi- cal division of East and West, the historic Western curiosity with the Eastern “other,” and, often, the concomitant Western hubris it engenders, accompanied by misunderstanding and a sense of duty to convert, civi- lize, and modernize, that is referred to in contemporary discussions of Orientalism.
    [Show full text]
  • Reading the Book of Knowledge
    Reading the Book of Knowledge by William Doss McDavid The Introductory section of The Secret Doctrine contains a description of an “old book” in which the origin of the universe is recorded in the ancient language of Senzar. The Book of Dzyan (lit. The Book of Knowledge), which forms the basis of The Secret Doctrine, is said to have been derived from this “old book” as were also the accounts of creation contained in scriptures as diverse as the Sepher Yetzirah and the Puranas (1). For 125 years, Theosophists and other students of Blavatsky’s writings have searched the world for any trace of the “old book” and the mysterious Stanzas of Dzyan that are said to have been compiled from it. They have consulted the libraries of the world and have interviewed lamas, pundits, kabalists, and sufi teachers---all to no avail. They have searched for the Mystery Language known as Senzar or Zend-zar, debating whether it is an actual written or spoken language or an elaborate hieroglyphic system of pictorial symbology. To date, we still have no documentary evidence for its existence and both the “old book” and the Stanzas of Dzyan remain as elusive as ever. Understandably, perhaps, serious scholars have more or less written it off and relegated H.P.B. to the ranks of visionaries and psychic “channelers”. In an article published in the Quest, the magazine of the Theosophical Society in America, the present writer hypothesized that the “old book” may be a symbolical reference to a meditational process based on the numerical system called isopsephia and gematria by the Greeks and the Hebrews respectively (2).
    [Show full text]
  • David:Nancy Reigle Ozark Camp Flyer Summer 2013 FINAL 4:16:13
    Ozark Theosophical Camp and Education Center Sulphur Springs, AR June 14-16, 2013 Featuring David and Nancy Reigle - Book of Dzyan David and Nancy Reigle have been students of Theosophy since 1973. They started studying Sanskrit in 1977. A three-month-long trip to India in 1978-1979 provided key research on Senzar, the alleged pre-cursor of Sanskrit, and the alleged language of the mysterious “Book of Dzyan.” This resulted in David’s article, “Quest for the Lost Language of the Initiates.” The Book of Dzyan, from which stanzas were translated in The Secret Doctrine, is said to be one of the secret “Books of Kiu-te.” The public books of Kiu-te were identified in 1981, and this was written up in David’s book published in 1983, The Books of Kiu-te, or the Tibetan Buddhist Tantras. Papers on the Book of Dzyan and the Books of Kiu-te were presented at three Secret Doctrine conferences in 1984, 1988, and 1998. Four “Book of Dzyan Research Reports” were issued 1995-1997. Fourteen papers were assembled and published in 1999 in their book, Blavatsky’s Secret Books: Twenty Years’ Research. Subsequent research, including seven articles and papers listed under the topic heading, “Studies in the Wisdom Tradition,” has been posted on their Eastern Tradition Research Institute website, www.easterntradition.org. An internet discussion on “The Stanzas of Dzyan” in which David participated from the fall of 2010 until early 2012 may be found at the Theosophical Network website (theosophy.net). Then a blog dedicated solely to the Book of Dzyan and the quest for it was started in Feb.
    [Show full text]
  • Theosophy in Tibet: the Teachings of the Jonangpa School
    Book of Dzyan Research Report Theosophy in Tibet: The Teachings of the Jonangpa School Some seven centuries ago there arose in Tibet a school of teachings which has many parallels to Theosophy. This is the Jonangpa school. Like Theosophy which attempted to restore teachings from “the universally diffused religion of the ancient and prehistoric world,”1 it attempted to restore teachings of the earlier Golden Age. Like Theosophy which teaches as its first fundamental proposition “an omnipresent, eternal, boundless, and immutable principle on which all speculation is impossible, since it transcends the power of human conception,”2 it teaches a principle which is permanent, stable, quiescent, and eternal, which is devoid of anything but itself, or “empty of other” (gzhan stong), and which therefore transcends even the most subtle conceptualization. And like Theosophy, it was persecuted by the orthodoxy. A Secret Doctrine Although the Jonangpa school was not founded until 1294, by Kunpang Tukje Tsondru (kun spangs thugs rje brtson ’grus), its teachings in Tibet go back to Yumo Mikyo Dorje (yu mo mi bskyod rdo rje), an 11th-century yogi. He received the Kålacakra teaching from a disciple of Somanåtha, the Sanskrit pañ∂it who co-translated the Kålacakra texts into Tibetan. Yumo is said to have received what became the Jonangpa teachings while prac- ticing the Kålacakra six-limbed yoga in the Mt. Kailasa area of Tibet. The Jonangpa teachings include primarily the Kålacakra transmission and the “empty of other” or shen-tong (gzhan stong) doctrine. Yumo expounded these as a “secret doctrine” (lkog pa’i chos).3 He did not, however, put these teachings into writing; so we do not have from him a work called The Secret Doctrine, like we do from H.
    [Show full text]
  • An Intuitive Approach to the Seven Stanzas of Dzyan
    AN INTUITIVE APPROACH TO THE SEVEN STANZAS OF DZYAN SECOND EDITION A STUDY COURSE BY BEVERLEY B. NOIA DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION THE THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY IN AMERICA Copyright © 1986, 2007 by the Theosophical Society in America All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without written permission except for quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. For additional information, contact: Department of Information The Theosophical Society in America P. O. Box 270 Wheaton, IL 60189-0270 E-mail: [email protected] Web : www.theosophical.org Indeed it must be remembered that all these Stanzas appeal to the inner faculties rather than to the ordinary comprehension of the physical brain. From the Proem of The Secret Doctrine TABLE OF CONTENTS Foreword . i Preface . ii Acknowledgements . iii Lesson I Introductory . 1 Lesson II Overview: Stanzas 1–7 . 3 Lesson III Stanza 1 . 8 Lesson IV Stanza 2 . 10 Lesson V Stanza 3 . 13 Lesson VI Stanzas 4–6 . 17 Lesson VII Stanza 7 . 21 Lesson VIII Summing Up . 25 Appendix A Stanzas of Dzyan (original version) . 29 Appendix B Stanzas of Dzyan (popularized version) . 37 Appendix C Further Resources . 44 Foreword The original edition of Beverley Noia’s fine study guide, An Intuitive Approach to the Seven Stanzas of Dzyan, was published in 1986. It had gone out of print a few years ago and I felt that this was too valuable a resource not to bring it back into circulation. Some minor editing has been done in order to correct miscellaneous errata and bring the language into accord with contemporary usage.
    [Show full text]
  • The Quest for Gnosis: G. R. S. Mead's Conception of Theosophy
    The Quest for Gnosis G. R. S. Mead’s Conception of Theosophy Paulina Gruffman Department of Ethnology, History of Religions, and Gender Studies Master’s Degree 30 HE credits History of Religions Master’s Program 120 HE credits Fall term 2020 Supervisor: Dr. Egil Asprem The Quest for Gnosis G. R. S. Mead’s Conception of Theosophy Paulina Gruffman Abstract G. R. S. Mead is an important but neglected historical personality of the British fin-de-siècle occult, Theosophical, and post-Theosophical milieu. While previous scholars of Theosophy have portrayed the Theosophical movement as quite cohesive in nature, I argue that it might have been a lot more pluralistic, with ostensibly key Theosophical concepts being open for debate. By a careful study of Mead’s editorial activity, his debates with other Theosophists in leading occultist journal over the period 1890s through 1910s, I illustrate that Mead held alternative views of key Theosophical concepts. This gives us a clue as to how the movement of Theosophy can be characterized differently. I suggest that we speak of many different “Theosophies” rather than one singular “Theosophy” to better capture the seemingly diverse makeup of the Theosophical movement. I look at three areas wherein Mead’s views differed from those of other important Theosophists: the concept of “the Masters” as spiritual authority, which sources to turn to and how to interpret them, and the question of whether occultism should be understood primarily in theoretical or in practical terms. I propose that by seeing Theosophy as a debating ground where many different Theosophists competed over the definition of their particular kind of Theosophy, we might also better account for why so many post-Theosophical currents emerged.
    [Show full text]
  • Educational Resources 2017 Introductory Note
    The Theosophical Society in Australia Educational Resources 2017 Introductory Note In her book The Key to Theosophy, Madame Blavatsky, one of the Principal Co-Founders of the Theosophical Society, stated that the TS was ‘formed to assist in showing to (people) that such a thing as Theosophy exists, and to help them to ascend towards it by studying and assimilating its eternal verities’. Since its foundation in 1875, in New York, the Society has produced a very impressive body of literature which explores many aspects of the Wisdom Teachings referred to as Theosophy – Divine Wisdom – and regarded as the spiritual heritage of humanity as a whole. Loyal to its original intent, the TS has maintained that ‘there is no doctrine, no opinion, by whomsoever taught or held, that is in any way binding on any member of the Society, none which any member is not free to accept or reject. Approval of its three Objects is the sole condition of membership’. (Resolution on Freedom of Thought) The many resources which are included in this portfolio are presented in the same spirit: as material for study, reflection, understanding and dialogue. They include introductory, intermediate and deeper presentations; they also contain a great deal which is relevant to our daily lives, to the understanding of how our minds work, and to that deeper and necessary enquiry that leads to the realization of our deepest potential: Self-Knowledge. If there are any questions or comments about this portfolio, or orders for material, I will be glad to receive them. Pedro Oliveira Education Coordinator The Theosophical Society in Australia Level 2, 162 Goulburn Street Surry Hills NSW 2010 Telephone: (02) 9264 7056 [email protected] www.austheos.org.au 2 STUDY COURSES 1 Basic Course A clear and accessible presentation of basic principles.
    [Show full text]
  • Theosophy an Introduction by HPB.Pdf
    Theosophy An Introduction by H.P. Blavatsky Compiled & edited by Daniel H. Caldwell Blavatsky Study Center http://hpb.cc 2012 ii Table of Contents H.P. Blavatsky and Theosophy: An Introduction. 1 Who Is Helena Petrovna Blavatsky?: A Sketch of Her Life and Work. 5 H.P.B. Speaks . 17 Theosophy Defined by W.Q. Judge. 27 An Epitome of Theosophy by W.Q. Judge. 35 From Long-Sealed Ancient Fountains: The Origin of Modern Theosophy. 59 Great Adepts and Trained Seers: Knowledge of Spiritual Facts by Personal Experience and from Actual Observation. 65 “Isis Unveiled:” Adepts and The Secret Doctrine. 71 “Isis Unveiled:” Spiritual Identity. 79 “Isis Unveiled:” Evolution of the Soul. 91 “Isis Unveiled:” Pre-Existence, Metempsychosis, 105 Reincarnation. “Isis Unveiled:” Magic and Magical Powers. 109 “Isis Unveiled:” Adeptship & Mediumship. 119 “Isis Unveiled:” Spiritualism. 131 “Isis Unveiled:” Spirits of Various Kinds. 139 “Isis Unveiled:” Magical Phenomena – Modern & Ancient. 149 “The Secret Doctrine:” Preface. 165 “The Secret Doctrine:” Three Fundamental Propositions. 169 “The Secret Doctrine:” The Stanzas of Dzyan. 177 Cosmic Evolution in Seven Stanzas. 183 “The Secret Doctrine:” Summing Up. 195 iii “The Secret Doctrine:” The Evolution of Mankind and the Four Pre-Historic Continents . 205 Anthropogenesis in the Secret Volume: Stanzas from the Book of Dzyan. 209 Plutarch on the Fate of the Three-fold Human Being after Physical Death. 219 The Sevenfold Constitution of a Human Being. 223 Dreams. .. 231 Psychic versus Initiate Visions & Knowledge. 251 At the Solemn Moment of Death: Dying & Soon After. 269 Reincarnation and Karma. 275 On the Kama-Loka and Devachan.
    [Show full text]