Theos-Talk Archives (May 2001 Message tt00176)

Thanks very much for the parallel comparison and for Swabhavat Dallas...

When we come to the subject of spellings, different spellings of the same
word, etc., it has proved very difficult to discuss it on the Internet.
Every letter has meaning, colour, number, smell, sound (unless we are deaf
we know that), and so on. But it is not set in concrete, because the
colour and number will alter with the word the letter is in. We know (if
we are not deaf) that "a" in "path", sounds different to "a" in "way". Way
sounds like weigh (the scales/karma). We know something about the power of
sound, and also of Mantras. When it comes to letters and number, things
start to get far more complicated and open to debate. Colour even more so.
The hints are there in various ways in the Theosophical Writings.

There has been a discussion about the T.S. and the election of the President
of the Adyar T.S. The body/organisation of the Theosophical Society was
already a soulless corpse by 1885 or around there. But its spirit will
always live on. What does T.S. mean? At one level it means the
Theosophical Society. Because of the breaking up of the Theosophical
Society into different groups it then becomes the Theosophical Movement,
which is not the same at all. The beauty and poetry and life and sacrifice
are in the letters T and S. These make up the lower symbol on the upper
covers of the Secret Doctrine, and are also in the upper emblem. (These
symbols sadly lacking from the covers of the de Zirkoff S.D.). What does
T.S. mean? Tau and Serpent. These symbols on the covers can help greatly
in ferreting out the meaning when we are studying the S.D., by referring to
them. Indeed, some say, it is not until we understand the S.D. will we be
able to understand the symbols/emblem on the covers, and vice versa. In
the S.D. the initiates are referred to as Serpents. Clearly symbolized by a
Serpent or S on the cover. The Tau, which appears in the symbols on pages 4
and 5, include its oldest form, the glyph T, up until the separation of the
sexes, in the third race. To what extent are the "sexes" separate in the
mind of the initiate? To what extent is he separate, compared to
non-initiates? The T, the Tau, the couch on which the initiate was
symbolically tied...This is all explained in the S.D.:

"So it is, but the spirit of it has been ever misunderstood. "To crucify
before (not against) the sun" is a phrase used of initiation. It comes from
Egypt, and primarily from India. The enigma can be unbridled only by
searching for its key in the Mysteries of Initiation. The initiated adept,
who had successfully passed through all the trials, was attached, not
nailed, but simply tied on a couch in the form of a tau [[diagram]] (in
Egypt) of a Svastika without the four additional prolongations (thus:
[[diagram]], not [[diagram]]) plunged in a deep sleep (the "Sleep of Siloam"
it is called to this day among the Initiates in Asia Minor, in Syria, and
even higher Egypt). He was allowed to remain in this state for three days
and three nights, during which time his Spiritual Ego was said to
confabulate with the "gods," descend into Hades, Amenti, or Patala,
(according to the country), and do works of charity to the invisible beings,
whether souls of men or Elemental Spirits; his body remaining all the time
in a temple crypt or subterranean cave. In Egypt it was placed in the
Sarcophagus in the King's Chamber of the Pyramid of Cheops, and carried
during the night of the approaching third day to the entrance of a gallery,
where at a certain hour the beams of the rising Sun struck full on the face
of the entranced candidate, who awoke to be initiated by Osiris, and Thoth
the God of Wisdom."

The latter perhaps referring to the emblem on the upper portion of the front
cover. We are now in the Kali Yuga, symbolised by the pentagram reversed.
What are we to do? Turn? Turn the pentagram, and start the journey home,
bringing the symbols to life, coming anew to the middle symbol on page 5,
"T", the Tau, to that state of before the sexes separated (and the "advent"
of mind), but now, rather than being mindless, in full consciousness.

"The Mind is the great Slayer of the Real.

Let the Disciple slay the Slayer."

Tony


-----Original Message-----
From: dalval14@earthlink.net [mailto:dalval14@earthlink.net]
Sent: 22 May 2001 2:13 am
To: theos-talk@yahoogroups.com
Subject: RE: Theos-World: SD original versus Boris de Zirkoff edition of
THE SECRET DOCTRINE


May 21

Thanks Tony:

Which goes to show that people (all of us) see what we are
prejudiced to "see" m-- hence after study is it not worthwhile
saying to ourselves: Did I really understand ?

And that's why I want to see originals.

Here's another sample from elsewhere

=================== I COPY	================

Dear Rama:

I do not have my copy of THE LAWS OF MANU as I put them into the
Library at the Lodge -- downtown some 34 miles away, and will not
be able to refer to them till Sunday. In any case the copy I use
is the translation in THE SACRED BOOKS OF THE EAST EDITED by Max
Mueller,

However if you can look up H.P.B.'s article TRANSMIGRATION OF
LIFE ATOMS, ULT edition Vol. II, p 253-5 you will find that the
question of the transmigration of the samskaras from man's
vehicles to those of animals is indicated.
---SNIP---