The Mythical Constant of the Universe – 137

The most mystical and mythical number in the universe, both within science and esotericism.

Esoterically it defines God and man as we are created in the picture of God. It shows God as one, as three in the Trinity or body, soul and spirit, and the seven Elohim or seven human spiritual bodies.

For physicists, it describes the universe. It’s called the fine-structure constant and is one of the key physical constants of the universe.

“This immutable number determines how stars burn, how chemistry happens, and even whether atoms exist at all,” as Michael Brooks explained in a New Scientist article.

If this value was changed just a little the universe would end in chaos that would not have been habitable, where life, as we know it, couldn’t have evolved.

From Wikipedia:

Since the early 1900s, physicists have postulated that the number could lie at the heart of a grand unified theory, relating theories of electromagnetism, quantum mechanics and, especially, gravity.

The fine-structure constant, a dimensionless physical constant, is approximately 1/137.

Lederman expounded on the significance of the number in his book The God Particle: If the Universe Is the Answer, What Is the Question?, noting that not only was it the inverse of the fine-structure constant, but was also related to the probability that an electron will emit or absorb a photon—i.e., Feynman’s conjecture.

He added that it also “contains the crux of electromagnetism (the electron), relativity (the velocity of light), and quantum theory (Planck’s constant).

It would be less unsettling if the relationship between all these important concepts turned out to be one or three or maybe a multiple of pi. But 137?

The number 137, according to Lederman, “shows up naked all over the place”, meaning that scientists on any planet in the universe using whatever units they have for charge or speed, and whatever their version of Planck’s constant may be, will all come up with 137, because it is a pure number.

Lederman recalled that Richard Feynman had even suggested that all physicists put a sign in their offices with the number 137 to remind them of just how much they do not know.

At the range of 10−15 m (1 femtometer), the strong force is approximately 137 times as strong as electromagnetism.

Feynman on 137

“Immediately you would like to know where this number for a coupling comes from: is it related to p or perhaps to the base of natural logarithms?

Nobody knows. It’s one of the greatest damn mysteries of physics: a magic number that comes to us with no understanding by man. You might say the “hand of God” wrote that number, and “we don’t know how He pushed his pencil”.

We know what kind of a dance to do experimentally to measure this number very accurately, but we don’t know what kind of dance to do on the computer to make this number come out, without putting it in secretly!” ~ R. P. Feynman, QED: The Strange Theory of Light and Matter

In Religion

The Bible says that Ishmael, Levi and Amram all lived to be 137 years old. The three appearances make it the most common lifespan of individuals in the Bible.

Kabbalah

The Hebrew word קבלה (Kabbalah) has a Gematria (numerical value) of 137.

Kabbalah is generally taken to mean “the received tradition”, which conveys the continuity of a tradition that has been passed down from generation to generation. Nevertheless, the earlier nuance of meaning is seen in the first appearances of its root in the Torah (Exodus 26:5 and 36:12), where it means “parallel” or “corresponding” rather than “receiving”.

It is used to describe the “corresponding loops”, which, when clasped together, enjoined the two sections of the Tabernacle’s ceiling. These loops were suspended directly over the veil that divided the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies.

Symbolically, this is the threshold between the physical dimension and the utterly spiritual dimension. In other words, at the boundary line of the physical world, the number 137 emerges. The wisdom of Kabbalah is to find correspondences between the mundane and spiritual levels of reality.

See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/137_(number)?wprov=sfti1

and https://science.howstuffworks.com/dictionary/physics-terms/why-is-137-most-magical-number.htm

The Three Logoi in the Theosophical tradition

The Three Logoi as defined in Theosophy

This follows the definition of Helena Blavatsky as it’s described in blavatskytheosophy.com, a serious Theosophical site.

THE FIRST LOGOS is always referred to as the Unmanifested Logos. It is symbolised as the point in the centre of the circle, the circle representing the boundless infinite Absoluteness of Parabrahm and the point marking the very beginning – or rather the re-beginning – of differentiated existence after the Great Night of the Universe (Maha-Pralaya) in which there was nothing – “neither sound nor silence” – but the undifferentiated, unconditioned, infinite, absolute Parabrahm Itself.

The First, Unmanifested, Logos is also called the highest Logos. It is said that it is out of space and time and is “latent potentiality” only. The First Logos is the “potentiality” of the Universe, whilst the Second Logos is the “potency” of the Universe. The Second emanates from the First. Being only latent, potential, and unmanifested, the First Logos is very close to the Absolute and indeed is Its direct radiation. It is not really possible to say any more about it than this. But in the teachings of Theosophy we notice that Atman, the highest Principle of the human constitution, is sometimes spoken of as corresponding to the Unmanifested Logos, whilst most of the time it is equated with the Absolute. This is not a contradiction, as may appear on the surface, but is actually a clear indication of something.

THE SECOND LOGOS is the Manifested Logos. In and of itself it is actually only “the semi-manifested” for it manifests through and as the Third Logos. In “Transactions,” HPB speaks of it as “the Universal and Intelligent Soul, Divine Ideation, combining the ideal plans and prototypes of all things in the manifested objective as well as subjective world.”

Whilst the First Logos is described as “latent potentiality,” the Second is described as “differentiated consciousness.” We are told that space and time commences with the emanation of the Second Logos from the First Logos. The Unmanifested is the potentiality; the Manifested is the potency.

It is this Logos which is the Universal Mind, spoken of in Hinduism as Mahat, which literally means “The Great.” And as the Hindu allegories show, the Divine Mind produces “seven mind-born sons” which go on to play major and important roles throughout the Universe. The synthesis of these seven – which are actually seven rays, seven powers, or seven forces – is what Theosophy calls the Third Logos.

THE THIRD LOGOS is referred to variously as the Seven Rays, the Seven Creative Powers, or the Seven Logoi. The Second Logos contains in itself the Third Logos and manifests through and as this Third Logos, as was mentioned a moment ago. If we call the First Logos latent potentiality and the Second differentiated consciousness, we can refer to the Third as the ultimate differentiation of the Second, in the form of individualised cosmic forces. From them “will proceed the innumerable series of Hierarchies.”

These “Seven” are really the seven occult forces of the Universe and which result, amongst other things, in the actualisation and objective manifestation of that which lies latent, subjective, and archetypal within the Universal Mind. In other words, they see to the fulfillment of the Plan for the construction and building of the Universe.
…
“Many different names used in many different spiritual traditions may end up becoming confusing unless we keep in mind that they are almost always merely illustrative names applied to this same Logos. Just as it is Brahmā which comes forth as the Logos from the Absolute Brahman in the philosophy of the Upanishads, so it is Adam Kadmon (“Heavenly Man”) which comes forth as the Logos from Ein-Soph in the Kabbalah, and Avalokiteshvara which comes forth from Adi-Buddhi in the esotericism of Tibetan Buddhism. Some Hindus will speak of the Absolute and its Logos as Shiva and Shakti, while others will prefer to use the term Vishnu, Narayana, or Ishvara for the Logos. Others may speak of it as the Universal Kundalini or Mother of the Universe, while a true Christian Gnostic may be inclined to call it the Divine Sophia.
…
In Theosophy, the Unmanifested Logos is often referred to as Narayana. Narayana is another name for Vishnu in Hinduism and it can be translated as “the Spirit of Divine Ideation moving on the waters.” Do you remember in the opening of the Book of Genesis in the Bible where it talks about the “Spirit of God” moving over “the waters of the deep” before the world came into being? In the far older Hindu scriptures, we read that Narayana began to move over the infinite waters of abstract Space and that this was “the first flutter of manifestation” which resulted in the cyclic reappearance of the Universe after the Maha-Pralaya.

HPB sometimes spoke of the First Logos as Brahmā, however, and often applied the name Brahmā to the Second Logos also. So we would do well to follow her example in not attaching too much importance to names but focussing instead on the idea and concept which lies behind those names and terms.

The Seven Rays which are referred to as the Third Logos are the Seven Kumaras in Hinduism – which are the seven “mind-born Sons of Brahmā” or Sons of the Universal Mind – whilst in Buddhism they are the Seven Dhyani Buddhas, in Christianity the Seven Archangels, in Judaism the Seven Elohim, and the seven lower Sephiroth of the Kabbalah. All different names for one and the same “thing.” As the most ancient scripture known to man (the Rig Veda of Hinduism) says, “Truth is ONE, though the sages call it by many names.”

The main difference between Steiner and Blavatsky is that Steiner see these descriptions as describing actual beings and hierarchies where Blavatsky saw them as abstractions. Krishna is an example of the Second Logos, Shiva an example of the Third Logos and Brahma an example of the First Logos. Here it’s interesting to see that Brahma, First Logos, is both connected to the lowest world and the highest world, and that he really isn’t very active in the development of Earth. Krishna, who are the same as Vishnu, are the ‘I’ of the Earth, the center of the Seven Rays, the Heart Chakra of man, he is the main consciousness in the Earth development.

From The Causal Body and the Ego by Arthur E. Powell:

Taking first the manifestation of consciousness, the site of the universe having been marked out [see diagram II] :

1. the Logos Himself appears as a point within the sphere;
2. the Logos goes forth from that point in three directions to the circumference of that sphere or circle of matter;
3 the consciousness, of the Logos returns on Itself, manifesting at each point of contact with the circle one of the three fundamental aspects of consciousness, known as Will, Wisdom and Activity, as well as by other terms.

The joining of the three aspects, or phases of manifestation, at their outer points of contact with the circle, gives the basic triangle of contact with matter. This triangle, together with the three triangles formed by the lines traced by the point, yields the”divine tetractys”, sometimes called the Kosmic Quaternary.


Diagram III

Taking now the changes set up in Universal matter, corresponding to the manifestations of consciousness, we have, in the sphere of primordial substance, the virgin matter of space [see Diagram III ] :
the Logos

1. appearing as a point irradiating the sphere of matter;
2. the point vibrating between centre and circumference, thus making the line which marks the drawing apart from spirit and matter;
3. the point, with the line revolving with it, vibrating at right angles to the former vibration, and forming the primordial Cross within the Circle.

The Cross is thus said to “proceed” from the Father [the point] and the Son [the diameter] and represents the third Logos, the creative mind,the Divine activity ready to manifest as Creator.

I have used a drawing of Steiner to show the Three Logoi in the hierarchies and in man. It’s an old diagram of European esoteric origin called the Alchemist Mountain. It’s a versatile diagram that can be used to show many aspects of man, the gods and the universe. They are the Seven Rays mentioned by Blavatsky.

The Three Logoi as defined in Anthroposophy

This is a definition by Rudolf Steiner on the three creative principles in the universe, also called the Logoi’s:

Here we have three definitions of Beings who bring about, who underlie a planetary chain. They are called the three Logoi.

1. The Third Logos produces by means of combining.
2. When out of one substance something else having new life comes into being, this is brought forth by the Second Logos.
3. Everywhere, however, where we have to do with a coming forth out of nothing, we have the First Logos.

This is why the First Logos is also often called the One who is immanent in things, the Second Logos the One who in the quiescent substance in things creates life out of the living, the Third Logos the One who combines everything existing, who puts the world together out of things.    

These three Logoi always manifest in the world in and through one another.

See much more on this here: The Logos Walks the Earth

Steiner uses these symbols for the Three Logoi. He uses a tripartition for the third Logos where Theosophy uses a cross or a four partitioning.

First Logos gives the idea, Second Logos gives life and Third Logos gives the resulting form.

The combinations of the three letters a, b and c comes from:

I don’t know the author of the original drawing.

Appendix on Fohat

The Second Logos is also called Fohat, here a page from the Secret Doctrine:

The Logos Walks the Earth

“The greatest untold story is the evolution of God.”
― G.I. Gurdjieff

I have here a text by Rudolf Steiner where he describe the three Logoi. I have added other quotes by Steiner and my own comments and diagrams.

All text by Steiner is italicized, except in pictures.

The Three Logoi

There are three godly creative powers in the universe, the three Logoi: In Kabbalah they are called the Father, Mother and Son and in Christianity they are called Father, Son and Holy Spirit. It’s different terminology, but the underlying reality is the same.

The Father, Mother and Son symbology describes the creative type in relation to the creation and higher Logoi. The Mother is of course the Creator of humankind. The Father gives the idea, the Mother gives life and the Son gives form.  The Trinity defines their role in the creation. See more on this aspect in Sophia – Creator of Humankind.

The First Logos creates out of nothing, creates Consciousness. The Second Logos creates new Life out of the existing and guides the living. The Third Logos combines the created, the building blocks, the clockwork of the microcosmos.

Rudolf Steiner has written this text on the three Logoi, but I must admit I didn’t understand the text before I had worked it out for myself. Its very short and he doesn’t give any details or examples, but I think it’s one of the deepest secrets he has hidden here for us to find. I think it’s about time it becomes known.

From Steiner’s Foundations of Esotericism, lecture 27:

Here we have three definitions of Beings who bring about, who underlie a planetary chain. They are called the three Logoi.

• The Third Logos produces by means of combining.
• When out of one substance something else having new life comes into being, this is brought forth by the Second Logos.
• Everywhere, however, where we have to do with a coming forth out of nothing, we have the First Logos.

This is why the First Logos is also often called the One who is immanent in things, the Second Logos the One who in the quiescent substance in things creates life out of the living, the Third Logos the One who combines everything existing, who puts the world together out of things.

These three Logoi always manifest in the world in and through one another.
…
In contemplating the world one continually sees the interaction of the three Logoi.

When a new creation starts, a new Æon, the First Logos sacrifices himself by falling down to a lower level. An archangel becomes an angel by adding an etheric body as a lower body.

The first logos is related to the second, as when, standing in front of the mirror image, we undertake to give our own life to the mirror image. The surrender of life is the original sacrifice in free action. That is the act of the first logo.

The second logos is exactly the same as the first logos, except that it was given its existence by a sacrifice. If one now studies the effect of the second logos, one finds that the essence of the second logos is that it radiates the essence of the first logos back to the first logos.

Thus, the second logos is a reflection of the first logos from which he received his own life, the life that emanated from the first logos.

The lecture series Foundations of Esotericism contains gold nuggets not found elsewhere. Not all versions of this text are good or contain all the pictures. This I think contains everything.

When Christ as First Logos sacrificed himself in the Saturn Æon when he took an astral body as the lowest body he became an archangel. On the old Sun he created Lucifer as a mirror image of himself, the Second Logos, and Lucifer became the first true being of the archangelic hierarchy.

The First Logos encircles the creation, the Second Logos enters the reality. It splits in two, a female part like Sophia or Eve and a masculine part like Anthropos or Adam, and like a potter the one hand forms the pot from outside and the other from within.

Now we have a binary in the Second Logos. The life and content of the Second Logos are twofold. The content is the same as the First Logos, but life is different than the First Logos.

The dash in the middle of the second circle means that in the Second Logos life and content are twofold, that they are divided. When it comes to content, image and mirror image are the same for both, but life is twofold. ~Steiner.

​The Third Logos is even more complex to understand. The Third Logos is the physical reality we live in, it’s the physical Earth we see and the reality behind it, the Grail or the Holy Spirit.

First, the First Logos is reflected once again, secondly, the reflection is reflected. This then gives the Third Logos as the reflection of the other two logoi. So it contains the Third logos:

• the mirror image of the First Logos
• the mirror image of what the First Logos in the Second Logos did, namely his life
• The mirror image of what the Second Logos reflects back to the First Logos. 

Let us now imagine: The First Logos is mirrored in a. If the First Logos is the creative activity that strives outward, then its reflection in the Third Logos is just the reverse activity of the First Logos. In the First Logos, a is the highest spiritual world light: in the Third Logos, a is the ultimate spiritual darkness.

ln the Second Logos, b is the life that the Second Logos received from the First Logos. It is not the life that sacrifices itself, but the one that has been accepted. The life that sacrifices itself in the First Logos is love. The opposite of this in the Third Logos is the absolute desire, longing, striving for logos, b is therefore the absolute desire in the Third Logos.

In the Second Logos c is the mirror image of the First Logos, which reflects the Second Logos.

In our own reflection we distinguish:

• The emitted image coming back, from the darkness.
• What we have surrendered comes back as desire.
• The image itself, which we ourselves are.

 

This corresponds in the Third Logos to the three parts:

a spiritual darkness= Tamas
b the absolute desire = Rajas
c the simple reflection of the first logo = sattva

 

Tamas, Rajas, Sattva are the three gunas, the three parts of the Third Logos. ~Steiner

First, a, b and c are present.

• If a alone exists, it is Tamas.
• When a – the spiritual darkness or Tamas – combines with b – rajas, the absolute desire – darkness combines with desire, and it is a striving for the first logos.
• When a and c – Tamas and Sattva – are combined, we have created the image of the first logo out of the darkness.
• Likewise, we can combine b with c. It can each occur individually and be combined with one of the others.
• All three combined are what the first logo itself is.

We have seven possible combinations of the three gunas:

​So these are the seven different combinations of Gunas. Imagine these seven possible combinations as the next world-creative principle that can emerge from the three Gunas. These seven entities really exist. They are the so-called seven creative spirits before the Throne of God, according to the three Logoi the seven nearest creative powers:

~Steiner.

Seven creative spirits, which Jacob Boehme calls the seven spring spirits in his aurora, spring from the third logos, for all three activities of the third logos can work together, or in pairs two or each: there are seven combinations that appear essential, and of which the one that encompasses all three activities is the third logo itself. Thus, the next level is reached world-creative beings. ~Steiner.

I have used a drawing of Steiner to show this information, the Alchemist Mountain. It’s a versatile diagram that can be used to show many aspects of man, gods and the universe. It corresponds to the seven lowest sephira in the Kabbalah Tree of Life. Here put together with the Seven Creative Spirits and the Æon’s:

These  seven world-creative principles correspond to the seven planets but also to the Planetary development cycles, Æons, the incarnations our Earth goes through, but also the shorter development periods follow this sequence. See more later.

In the old Saturn æon the seed of the physical body and Atma was created. This is the Father. In the old Sun æon the seed of the etheric body and Buddhi was added. This is the Son. On the old Moon the seed of the astral body and Manas was added. This is the Holy Spirit.

The astral is the most flexible layer, most conscious, and therefore easier to transform. The etheric layers consciousness is not as flexible so it’s less easy to transform. And the physical layer is the least flexible and therefore most difficult to transform.

Atma need all three layers (abc) to develop before it can be developed, and the consciousness soul is the channel developed.

Development of the spiritual bodies:

ab • The soul is the result of the work between the physical (a) and etheric body (b).
ac • The Spirit Self or Manas is the result of the experiences of the physical body (a) transforming the karma of the astral (c).

bc • Life Spirit or Buddhi is our wisdom, the result of the transformation of our etheric body (b) our opinions by the speculative thinking of the astral body (c).
abc • Spirit Body or Atma is the result of the transformation of the physical (a) by the work of the Etheric (b) and the astral (c).

 

Through the work in the physical and the etheric we create the soul. Through the work in the physical and astral we create Manas, develop the higher I. Through the work in the Etheric and Astral we create Buddhi, wisdom. Through the work in a, b and c we create Atma, the resurrection body.

They are the foundation behind all creation. We know them most visibly through Osiris, Isis and Horus, but usually the Logoi are hidden under a veil of mystery.

In every creation a being is selected to become the coming Logos for that creation, being the archetype for the rest of the creation. Already from old Saturn was the creating Word of humanity selected and prepared for the role.

This creating downwards is shown in Kabbalah where the Sephirots, the Logoi, are created downward. When the creation develops and raises, the Logos follows its siblings up. The Logos is like a sun in the creation, in the hierarchy.

The Tree of Life

In Christianity the archangel names are titles for the Logos at a given hierarchy. Steiner compares the great archangels to the other members of the angelic hierarchy as the sun to a planet.

The Messenger of God, Archangel Gabriel, is the Logos of the Angels. The Face of God, Archangel Michael, is the Logos of the archangelic hierarchy. The archangelic hierarchy should not be confused with the great archangels.

The Gods walk the Earth

This describes the Logoi in the Earth development, and less the actual details, I have another text describing more detailed here: Esoteric Earth History.

The Three Logoi is known through many symbols, here we have a number of such:

Steiner mentions that Zarathustra is the Second Logos, one of the three main teachers of mankind. These high spiritual powers work on Earth:

High spiritual beings whom we call masters stream down to us.
We should realize that it’s mainly they who guide us and are near to us in meditation.
We should also know that they walk on earth incarnated in a physical body. 
The Symbology and Meaning of AUM

Adam and Eve – Anthropos and Sophia

In Genesis we have Adam as the first creation by Sophia, the physical world. Eve is the second creation, in who Sophia emanates into. Adam is the First Logos and Eve is the Second Logos, and Cain is her masculine side entering the physical universe as Yaldabaoth where Eve takes care of the spiritual side.

Cain is the Son of God, the Second Logos, who are the archetype of humankind, who develop life on Earth from the smallest cells to the human body, and the spiritual bodies, walking the path just before we walk it.

Abel is the Son of Man, the Third Logos we know as Jesus, he is a reflection of Adam and Eve, the Second Logos.

At the start of  Earth Sophia  was the etheric planet where all life was connected through tubes where prana feed all beings.

She took on the physical as outer body, that became more and more solid until she once became fully coated by physical materia.

The Second Logos developed all the physical life on Earth from one celled life until human life. The Second Logos was in form of the archetypal pair the only one incarnating around the end of Lemuria and the start of Atlantis.

The Earth and its life was fully covered in the physical stuff at the end of Dream Time, when Krishna died from mankind’s view, when the Dark Time, Kali Yuga, started. Sophia left the physical and raised to angel, Theosophia.

The First Logos was Zarathustra, Odin, Zeus, Noah, Elisha, and many more through whom Sophia worked.

Krishna teaches Arjuna, the Second Logos, to lead humanity on after the Dark Night, Kali Yuga, falls over the Earth. Krishna puts on paper the knowledge that people could see in the spiritual world, so it survived into the coming Dark Age. See Krishna and the Holy Spirit.

Arjuna learns that Krishna will not interact directly any longer in the human affairs, Krishna will in the future work through Arjuna. But even if Arjuna is one against all Krishna will make sure that he wins, through the wheel of fate, the Zodiac.

Krishna with the Wheel of Fate.

Christ Jesus

The First Logos is also known as the personality of Zarathustra, with the prime objective to develop the I, and preparing mankind to live in a purely physical world.

​Jesus of Nazareth is a very highly developed individuality. In the thirtieth year of his life he gives up his own life to the descending Christ, the descending Logos. All this the Magi foresaw. The great sacrifice made by Jesus of Nazareth is that he gave up his ‘ I ’ to make way for the Second Logos. ~Steiner

With Jesus incarnated the Third Logos, the Son of Man, Abel, the one who stayed back. In the Son of Man is the creation descended a level deeper into the physical, by him the astral body is the fourth principle, where the I will be developed, where we had the I in the soul, in the intellectual soul, a purification of the etheric soul.

Steiner mentions that he as child he spoke a language only his mother spoke, who represents Sophia. It was dream language they spoke, the language spoken between the astral body and the higher I.

The following text also points to the Jesus being as the Holy Spirit, awaiting the time to incarnate:

The spirit that prevailed in the common origin of both souls and bodies is the father spirit; that is the “Father”.

The spirit that prevailed down below in the physical realm, whilst the spiritual went its separate ways up above, is the son spirit; that is the “Son”.

And the spirit that prevailed up above in the soul sphere until it was able to descend into the physical realm, that is the “Holy Spirit”.

From the notes of the lecture “The promised spirit of truth”, Cologne, 8 March 1907

The body of Jesus became one with the Earth, he didn’t leave the grave again, the Third Logos entered the earth.

When Christ left the Sun he left the highest member Atma behind so the highest body was the Buddhi, and attained the elemental body of type I as the lowest. He is the Archetype of the new humanity that will go through the human development on New Jupiter, also called New Jerusalem.

Here he receives the Buddhi:

And:

The soul of the First Logos entered Jesu Soul at thirteen and before the Baptism it leaves the soul again.

John the Baptist represented the old Adam Kadmon, he pointed on to the next. John was beheaded, separating body and head, splitting the upper and lower principles of the old Adam. After this he hovers above the disciples, as the spirit of the First Logos.

The incarnating Third Logos:

The Running Youth

When the running youth left Jesus, it was the First Logos who left. Jesus died and entered the death world, the astral world, as the Third Logos.

We see it again at the grave.

Zarathustra and Lazarus

The Zarathustra soul Steiner mentions is the First Logos and Lazarus the Second Logos:

Here give Christ over to Lazarus John, the Second Logos, mentioning the relationship between Zarathustra and Lazarus.

The Second Logos is represented by John the Evangelist who leaves the cave, Earth, to become the teacher and leader of humankind, the Temple Builder, replacing the John the Baptist.

It’s interesting that the Second Logos, Lazarus, ascends from the grave and the Third Logos disappears into the grave, becomes one with the Earth.​

The Second Logos takes over, and he becomes the author of the Gospel of John and the Apocalypse of John:

The Gospel should therefore be read as follows:

“Under the Cross stood the mother of Jesus, Sophia.”

To this mother Jesus says:

“Woman, behold thy son.”

He himself had transferred the Sophia that lived within him to the Disciple John; he transformed him into a son of Sophia and said:

     “Behold, thy mother.”

“Henceforth you should recognise the divine wisdom as

your mother and dedicate yourself to her alone.”

John had recorded this divine wisdom; Sophia is embodied in the Gospel of St. John.

Jesus had given him this wisdom, and he was authorized by Christ to transmit it to the world. ~Steiner

 

In 1879 Anthroposophia raised from Angel to Archangel, and as she was the Logos of the Angels, the Second Logos, she took the vacant seat of Michael.

A deeper view on the creative process of the Three Logoi can be found in Why are there so much pain on Earth?.

The Three Logoi

 The history of the current Second Logos is a very long and interesting story, and I am working on it.

The key to Alchemy – The Trinities

When I were younger I started on Alchemy a few times, but always stopped again by reason of their weird vocabulary, but It’s a question about finding the key.

When studying a new religion, philosophy, or esoteric tradition, always look for the trinities, the three Logoi or their principles, and when you have found them, the rest opens up.

This trinity represents the earthly powers Lucifer, Ahriman, and Christ, but also as the Father, the Mother, and the Son;  masculine, feminine, and love;  Yang, Yin, and Tao;  Brahma, Shiva, and Vishnu;  Rajas, Tamas, and Sattva;  Pingala, Ida, and Sushumna;  Sun, Moon, and Earth;  Chaos, Order, and Life;  Energy, Substance, and Consciousness;  right, left, and center cross at Golgotha;  right, left, and center pillar of Kabbalah; and  the three soul elements: sentient soul (Orektikon, nephesch), mind and heart soul (Kinetikon, ruach), and consciousness or spirit soul (Dianoetikon, n’schamah).

See, among other, Serpents of the Kundalini Fire

Paracelsus in “The life of Philippus Theophrastus Bombast of Hohenheim…” by Franz Hartmann

The Bible tells us that Man is made out of nothing; that is to say, his spirit, the real man, is from God, who is not a thing, but the eternal reality; but he is made into three somethings or substances, and these three constitute the whole of Man: they are himself, and he is they, and from them he receives all that is good or evil for him. Every state in which man can possibly enter is determined by number, measure, and weight. The “Three Substances” are the three forms or modes of action in which the universal primordial Will is manifesting itself throughout Nature, for all things are a Trinity in a Unity. The “Salt” represents the principle of corporification, the astringent or contractive and solidifying quality, or, in other words, the body; the “Sulphur” represents the expansive power — the centrifugal force, in contradistinction to the centripetal motion of the first quality — it is that which “burns,” i.e., the soul or light in all things; and the “Mercury” is the Life, i.e. that principle or form of will which manifests itself as life, or consciousness and sensation. Each of these forms of will is an individual power; nevertheless they are substantial, for “matter” and “force” are one, and originate from the same cause. The three substances, held together in harmonious proportions, constitute health; their disharmony constitutes disease, and their disruption death.

Salt is of course Yin, the solidifying, the calcifying, Gravity, and Sulphur is Yang, light or warms, negative Gravity, and Mercury is the equilibrium between these two, a liquid metal.

The trinity in Alchemy, based on Jacop Boehme and Paracelsus, are Sulphur, Salt, and Mercury, but in Anthroposophic medicine both Sulphur and Phosphorus are used interchangeable together with Salt and Mercury, with the same general description, except that Phosphorus connects to the Ego and Sulphur connects to the Astral body.

In Spiritual Science and Medicine (VI) by Rudolf Steiner (GA 112)

We should recognise that all that we divide and separate on earth, both in our thoughts and in our actions, in nature is actually united in some way or another. In our thoughts we separate what is subject to gravity, and therefore tends to salt formation, from that which bears the light and is therefore akin to the workings of light; and we separate both these categories from what is contained in the state of equilibrium between the two.But in nature there are no such absolute divisions. All these ways of working are connected one with another, adjusted to one another, so that they form highly intricate constructions, and one of these intricate structural systems is shown in the lustre of the metal gold; for it is through gold that the spiritual realm looks, as it were, right into the external world….

Thus it is most important to notice how in old writings all these primary principles, salt, mercury and phosphorus, were seen to be in every substance in different combinations, and to note the diligence with which it was sought to liberate and extract these three principles from a given substance.

In Spiritual Science and Medicine (V)

Ancient atavistic knowledge was indeed not without justification in calling phosphorus the Light-bearer. Men saw that phosphorus does carry and contain that imponderable light. What salt repels and holds at bay, phosphorus carries within it. Thus the substances at the opposite pole from salt, are those that appropriate, so to speak, the imponderable entities — principally light, but also others, for instance, warmth —and interiorise them, making them their inner properties….

Here then you have, in external nature, two states which are polar to one another; that which acts in a saline manner and that which acts in a phosphoric manner. And between them, there is a third group: that which acts Mercurially. Just as man is a threefold being, a creature with nerves and senses, with a circulatory system, and with metabolism; and as circulation is the bridge linking nerves and senses to the metabolic functions: so also there is a mediatory function in external nature. It comprises everything that possesses, to a great degree, neither the saline character nor the character of interiorising the imponderables, but — so to speak — holds the equipoise between these two, by manifesting in the form of drops. …. You will find accordingly, that these mercurial substances are mainly linked up with all that is calculated to bring about a  the activities for which phosphorous and saline substances are best qualified.

In Spiritual Science and Medicine (IV)

This should be an elementary piece of knowledge familiar to all; everything on our earth that is globular in form, whether within or external to the human frame, is the result of the interplay of two forces, one urging towards life, the other drawing life away….

…But the salt-process belongs to the region that I am now outlining, just as the sulphur process belongs to the region previously described.

Man has an inherent tendency to mineralisation [Salt]; just as the forces fundamental to the development of our internal flora and fauna can get “out of hand [Sulphur],” so also can the mineralising tendency.

In Anthroposophical Spiritual Science and Medical Therapy (II) by Rudolf Steiner (GA 313)

Small doses of phosphorus and sulfur have the effect of throwing out the astral body, which has stablished itself too strongly in the physical and etheric bodies. Sulfur works more on the astral body, phosphorus more on the ego. The ego, however, because it organizes the astral body throughout, actually acts in concert with it.

In Salt, Mercury, Sulphur by Rudolf Steiner (GA 220)

In olden times men did not use the abstract word think to express something that arose in the mind as a picture. When a real knower spoke about ‘thinking’ he spoke of the salt-process just described. Nor did he speak in an abstract way of the ‘will’ but of the astral forces laying hold of the airy element in man, of the sulphur-process from which the will is born. Willing was a process of concrete reality and it was said that the adjustment between the two — for they are opposite processes — was brought about by the mercury-process, by that which is fluid and yet has form, which swings to and fro from the etheric nature to the astral nature, from the fluidic to the aeriform.

Kamalas Garden

Litterature

Alchemy: The Evolution of the Mysteries by Rudolf Steiner.

More on alchemy
My album on Alchemy

Creation of the Sun System and the Zodiac

The World Egg is the most universal symbol we have, and the Zodiac is the most developed form of it, but we find it  everywhere in all cultures, we just don’t recognize it as representing the world egg.

The Orphic Egg

See also this album: The World Egg and the Zodiac

We can find the history of the zodiac in the four heavenly beasts, Eagle, Lion, Ox and Man; they were the first members of the Zodiac, first later came the Cardinal signs, and later again the mutable, they came when man began developing these qualities, just as the outher planets first became visible when they became influential.

Amma created the egg, what became our sun system, not the whole universe. Within his egg, Amma began spinning around, forming the po seed. The po is the smallest invisible seed at the center.

Amma then placed seven ‘words’ [Planets] in the po, which began to vibrate strongly within the seed. The spiraling vibrations caused four clavicles to grow forth from the po.

These were the four heavenly beasts, the fixed star signs. These four powers were the main factors in developing the sentient soul, Eros of Plato, or Tamas of Hinduism.

These four Androgyne beings split into four male and four female, so we now had the cardinal and fixed star signs. The cardinal powers were necessary for developing the intellectual soul, or Logos of Plato, or Rajas of Hinduism.

The Dogon call these beings the Nommo Anagonno, ‘The Word (Nommo) that Became Fish-Man’ (Anagonno). The male and females got a son, and the mutable star signs was created. The mutable signs were necessary for developing the conscious soul, Thumos of Plato, or Sattva of Hinduism.

The Nommo entered the world through the place on the sky where Sirius is placed. They were the teachers of mankind, the Angels. They are also associated with the moon.

This Zodiac are fields going from the circumference around the sun system into the system, not just radiation, and not from the large universe, this is called the Tropical Zodiac.

Tropical Zodiac

The Egg, the Zodiac are spiraling through the universe so it’s changing position in relation to the stars, but the fields are constant in relation to the Sun system, to the vernal equinox:

Sun-system passing through the universe

It can also be seen in this fashion:

Sun system through the universe

Man is created in the likeness of God, here in embryonic form, folding itself out from the circular form:

Man Embryonic form

We are not a copy of the whole universe, we are a copy of our own sun system, not including far sun systems.

Auric form of man:

The Auric Egg

Lucifer gives visions. One has to break through them, otherwise one doesn’t break through the shell that’s around every man and covers the real spiritual world. Visions and voices are around us like the shell around a chick. One might see an angel in a vision and when one presses through the vision the angel will change into a snake, Lucifer’s symbol, for at the Temptation he appeared as a snake. Or one might see the colour blue in one’s meditation — if one breaks through it the blue can become red, and then it turns out that we saw our own passions. As a result of his temptation by Lucifer man doesn’t have everything that the Gods have; he received knowledge, but not life. Thereby everything that we know and perceive is permeated by Lucifer and Ahriman. … An ordinary man is like the chick that would consider its shell to be the real world. If the chick could see, it would see the egg’s contents as if it were the whole world. Likewise we see our eggshell or aura spread out around us as the blue dome of the heavens. If we break through our shell the sun and moon become darkened, the stars fall down onto the earth and the spiritual world spreads out in its place.

A man lives in his eggshell — his aura. The Elohim gave us our aura, and through the fall into sin it has become like a shell around us, and we’re in it like a chick in an egg. The stars in the heavens are our boundary and we must break through it with our soul force, just as a chick must break out of its shell through its own power. Then we get into a new world, just as a chick has a new world before it when it has crept out of the egg. And since men all have the same eggshell around them an astronomy could arise that lets the heavenly bodies move along the celestial dome. The egg shell is the Ex Deo nascimur. To break through it and to bring something with us into the spiritual world we must bring what penetrates the shell from the outer spiritual world and that’s common to all; and that’s the Christ. That’s why we say: In Christo morimur and hope that when we’ve broken through the shell we will be awakened again: Per Spiritum Sanctum reviviscimus. Esoteric Lessons Part III

Formed as the world egg:

Mithras

Wael Al-Mahdi have made an analysis of the fight between Mittras and the bull, which have it’s like in the Gilgamesh epic. Today we have our mental focus in the Ego, the Intellectual soul or left brain hemisphere, but then our mental focus was in what we today call our subconsciousness, the Sentient soul or Limbic brain. This fight describes the change of focus from the sentient soul to our current ego, but it’s an ongoing fight between our ego and the subconsciousness, or rather it’s a fight between our superconsciousness and subconscioussness and the battleground is the ego. Wael Al-Mahdi writes that Mithras is the devine ego, but I see him as the ego, the lower I, where I see his father, the mighty Sol Invictus, as the higher I.

Let us now take a look at the symbolism of the Mithraic mysteries and try to make some sense of them. Mithras himself, in the manner of all epoch-making developments of the unconscious, appears suddenly and unexpectedly, from a rock. Here Mithras takes on the role of the divine ego – the ego of the average man transfigured and lifted up by energy from the unconscious harnessed through myth and ritual. In this Mithras is strong, solid, rocklike. The divine ego and the everyday ego (the one that worries about food, shelter, money etc) are not identical; the divine ego, despite its disctinctness but in keeping with unconscious manifestations, is foreign, in this instance, of exotic Persian origin. To symbolize freedom from the unconscious as enemy, and also the actual emancipation of freedman Mithraists, Mithras dons a Phrygian cap, the so-called liberty cap. With the rise of Mithras, miracles are performed, as he strikes a solid rock with the thunder of consciousness and live-giving water spouts from the rock. Here the dead and inanimate can produce life, just as a psychological impasse can give rise to a new lease on life; the Qur’an states of God, “He brings the living out of the dead, and the dead of the living.”

The central and most striking image of Mithraism is the tauroctony – the slaying of the bull. This supreme act of defiance, even hybris, is depicted on subterranean murals in Mithraea from Britain to Rome to Syria. The bull in his power and animal intransigence is the unconscious as enemy. He is the personification, or rather theriomorphization, of all the alien powers that ailed the forward looking man of action. He is the heaviness of the heart at dawn, he is the tightness of the chest before a dangerous act. He gives rise to the autonomous moods of self-doubt and self-loathing. He is boredom, lack of meaning, existential ennui. He represents every social disappointment, lack of control, failure to follow custom, and most dangerously, lack of adaptation. The evil father, father as a depressant, is in the bull – as is the evil friend, the devil, who both attacks the ego and forces to do evil. Every worthless feeling of the ego is projected onto him – and he is indeed a fitting target of projection. In short, he is the great No to life. He is the enemy within that must be vanquished if the conscious ego is to grow.

In contrast to conciliation myths, in which the ego tries to make peace with the unconscious, here the ego strikes with its readiest weapon – its will. After a long chase and a difficult haul to the womb-cave where a transformation can occur, Mithras’ right hand performs the unspeakable act of stabbing the bull’s neck. The cave serves a dual purpose are both regenerative womb and the unconscious cosmos which parallels the real cosmos. But there is respect in Mithras – out of respect, he pulls the animal back by the nostrils, never by the horn. Mithras’ face is serene, almost sublime – divinely devoid of emotion, Zen in his imperturbability – looking up towards his father, the mighty Sol Invictus, the Invincible Sun, as if saying, “Behold my most brazen act, father. Soon we are to become equals” Mithras is steadfast, unflinching – he takes full responsibility for his act, he never hesitates or backs down. As a result of Mithras’ challenging of the evil-animal father archetype, Father Sun emerges in a more human guise but with his divinity still intact.

In some reliefs the sacred bull bleeds wheat or grapes, symbolizing the paradox of the ability of the unconscious, even at is most evil, to heal after it harms. The killing of the bull is not a real-world death but an unconscious event that breathes life into a new psychological energy and outlook. But Mithras, this self-overcoming hero, is not alone in his daring act. Like all good heroes he has his sidekicks, the torchbearers, Cautes with his torch pointing up and Cautopates with his torch pointing down. They are his awareness of opposites, his ability to make distinctions, to discern opposites, and in their astral aspect symbolize his heavenly outlook. There is his dog too, lapping up the bull’s blood – his discipline, self-control, honed intellect, and the vital ability of self-obedience. On the scene is a serpent of wisdom and shrewdness, also drinking the life giving blood, for no quantum is wasted here. A sneaky scorpion sucks the ‘vim’ out of the bull’s genitals, literally ‘breaking his balls’ – energy that can be better utilized by the conscious hero Mithras. Mithraism and the Unconscious as Enemy

More on the Tropical vs. Sidereal Zodiac(Bruce Scofield):

We all know that this astrological system (Vedic) uses one or another version of the sidereal zodiac, the slight differences between them being measured by what is called the ayanamsha, the gap between the tropical and sidereal zodiac.

The twelve sidereal-based zodiacal signs (rasis) used in this system are not particularly important overall, and they serve more as a background reference plane for planets than as a matrix for personality distinctions.

The houses are important, however, but house boundaries between planets will remain roughly constant in a timed birth chart no matter which zodiac is employed. After reading a number of texts on the subject it became apparent to me that Hindu astrology was a tradition that was not concerned with extracting psychological insights from birth charts, it was more event-oriented.

and

In my opinion, Rudhyar remains the most important astrologer of the 20th century. He had something intelligent to say on just about every issue in astrology, including the sidereal-tropical problem.

Rudhyar wrote that the sidereal zodiac, the zodiac of constellations, was a product of the myth-making faculty of the human psyche. These constellations, groupings of stars, are a remnant of an earlier age that saw the rise of agriculture, but they are not relevant to modern life.

He felt it was unfortunate that both zodiacs use the same names for their 12-fold division of the yearly circle, and he regarded the tropical zodiac as being the proper framework on which to assess the evolution of mankind.

Tropical Zodiac

Or

The Sun orbiting the Earth equator defining signs of the Zodiac. 

Distance to the Stars of the Signs

The star signs are purely symbolic, giving name to the star signs because they were at the particular part of the zodiac when the twelve 30° degrees parts of the ecliptic was named.

The stars in the signs are nowhere near each other, they may even not exist anymore, they are placed long from each other in the far past of the universe.

Distances to the Stars of Gemini

History of Tropical Zodiac

The classical zodiac was introduced in the neo-Babylonian period (ca. 7th to 6th century BC). At the time, the precession of the equinoxes had not been discovered. Classical Hellenistic astrology consequently developed without consideration of the effects of precession.

The discovery of the precession of the equinoxes is attributed to Hipparchus, a Greek astronomer active in the later Hellenistic period (ca. 130 BCE).

Ptolemy, writing some 250 years after Hipparchus, was thus aware of the effects of precession. He opted for a definition of the zodiac based on the point of vernal equinox, i.e. the tropical system.

While Ptolemy noted that Ophiuchus is in contact with the ecliptic, he was aware that the twelve signs were just conventional names for 30 degrees segments (especially since the Aries sign had ceased to be in contact with the Aries constellation already in his time). Wikipedia

He connected the thirty degree segments to the time of year, with the traditional names given.

Ophiuchus or Scorpio by Christian Borup

The Zodiac with the old rulers:

.

It is as a round table with twelve seats, with the King and Queen sitting together as Leo and Cancer for Sun and Moon, with the ten other seats taken by the knights.  From The Sons of Jacob and the Zodiac.

Comments

Po Tolo (Sirius B) the oldest of stars, it’s name means ‘deep beginning’. The Dogon consider Po Tolo the reservoir and source of all things in this realm, and the germ of creation for our Solar System. It ejected it’s essence out into creation, and the particles of it’s essence was ‘infinitely small’.

References

Reconciliation of the Tropical and Sidereal Zodiacs. Part III.

Chakana – The Incan Cross

Chakana, the Incan Cross, are equivalent to the Yin-Yang symbol and the Zodiac. Through a central axis a shaman journeyed in trance to the lower plane or Underworld and the higher levels inhabited by the superior gods. The snake, puma, and condor are totemic representatives of the three levels. (Axis Mundi)

From Wikipedia:

The stepped cross is made up of an equal-armed cross indicating the cardinal points of the compass and a superimposed square.

The square represents the other two levels of existence. The three levels of existence are Hana Pacha (the upper world inhabited by the superior gods), Kay Pacha, (the world of our everyday existence) and Ucu or Urin Pacha (the underworld inhabited by spirits of the dead, the ancestors, their overlords and various deities having close contact to the Earth plane). The hole through the center of the cross is the Axis by means of which the shaman transits the cosmic vault to the other levels.

The cross has 12 points and legend has it that these points represent the following sayings, affirmations and life points: I live, I work, I love, The underworld, The current world, The upper world, The cougar, The Eagle, The snake, Don’t Lie, Don’t Cheat, Don’t Steal.

The four flat sides represent the elements Water Air Earth Fire

North is air, south is water, east is fire and west is earth. The top arm is held in the East with the fire. The centre is the 5th element, the force of love emanating from the void.

The three rectangles could represent the physical world, the ether world, and the astral world, with each side representing one of the four elements in each world.

The three worlds are known all over the world:

• with Uku Pacha as the lower Chthonic underworld, with the snake as symbol, the Fixed modality of astrology, Tamas of the Gunas,
• the middle world, Kay Pacha, in which we live, have the puma as symbol, the Mutable modality of astrology, Sattva of the Gunas,
• and the higher world Hanan Pacha with the condor as symbol, the Cardinal modality of astrology, Rajas of the Gunas.

These three animals Snake, Puma and Condor are equivalent to Ox, Lion and Eagle as we know from the European and Asian continent.

I have written more about these relations in Serpents of the Kundalini Fire, especially in connection to the Gunas, the Chakras, and the Kaballah Tree of Life.

From Oder of Incari:

The top section is the Hanag Pacha which is the upper world (super conscious) and the animal symbol for the upper world is the condor. It holds, within the steps, the principles of the tradition. They are Yachay, Llankay and Munay.

Yachay means knowledge in its basic expression, but its higher expression is wisdom. It is knowledge, which has been integrated through experience and is externalized as wisdom. We must live what we know and master it in our daily lives. Llankay (pronounced ylang kai) Llankay relates to work, labour and productivity. It is to work in an honest way and to be honest in your work. It is to work for the betterment and greater good of yourself and your family, your community and humanity (your greater family). Munay is a word that simply means love and is the principle present in all others. It is not simply the love between a man and a woman, a mother and a child, although these interactions can contain the infinite expressions of Munay. It is the expression of unconditional love. It contains a deep- seated compassion for all livings things and their suffering.

From A Dictionary of Symbols By Juan Eduardo Cirlot

Chthonian Demons
Various beings mentioned in mythologies come under this heading, such as the Greek harpies and Erinyes, the Hindu Rakshasas, the Arabic djinns, the Germanic elves and Valkyries, etc.

Chthonian Snake Goddess

In Aztec mythology, Cihuacoatl  (”snake woman”; also Cihuacóatl, Chihucoatl, Ciucoatl) was a motherhood and fertility goddess, haunting crossroads at night to take children. She also helped Quetzalcoatl create humanity by grinding the bones of our ancestors and mixing the result with Quetzalcoatl’s blood to form the clay from which humanity were molded. Here the soul (Quetzalcoatl’s blood) is born into the physical (the bones), giving the body of man (the clay) with the Ego.

Cihuacoatl – Snake Woman

The Naga Kanya (Cobra Women) are a race of fairy-like demigods born of the Nāga, which are water deities. They have the form of beautiful maidens, but usually maidens only from the waist up, while from the waist down they are serpents.

Nāga kanya – Hindu Snake Woman

The Japanese have Nure-onna (“wet woman”), here in an illustration from the Edo Period, by Sawaki Suushi.

Nure-onna – Snake Woman

The snake loa (spirit) are known in Benin and Haiti, she is the companion of the most popular god, Damballah-Wedo, also a serpent:

Aida Wedo – Haiti

From Pink Tentacle:

“Nure-onna is typically seen at the water’s edge, washing her long, flowing hair. In some stories, she carries a small child, which she uses to attract potential victims. When a well-intentioned person offers to hold the baby for Nure-onna, the child attached itself to the victim’s hands and grows heavy, making it nearly impossible to flee. In some stories, Nure-onna uses her long, powerful tongue to suck all the blood from her victim’s body.”

In Ancient Myth Steiner writes about the Greek Mysteries:

The Greeks revered in the Mysteries other Gods as well as the celestial Gods, namely, the Chthonic Gods. And of one who was initiated in the Mysteries one could say with truth: he learns to know the upper and the lower Gods, the Upper and the Lower Gods. The upper Gods were those of the Zeus-circle; but they only have rulership over what is spread out before the senses, and what the intellect can understand. The human being is more than this. Man is rooted with his being in the kingdom of the lower Gods, in the kingdom of the Chthonic Gods.

This Chthonic world consists of twelve elemental groups of beings, which are the real foundation of the visible physical world, and all kinds of magical systems around the Earth try to influence the physical world through these beings. Don Juan talk about the flyers, inorganic beings, in Castanedas books, the Gnostics talk about the Archons, alien predators, the wise Greek healer Daskalos talks bout the Elementals, and Jung talks about the Shadow.

See “Gnostic Parallels in the Writings of Carlos Castaneda” which are good and the best contribution on that web-address. I have collected some texts on Elementals building on the Christian view of Daskalos here.

Steiner writes in “The East in the Light of the West” about the cosmogony of Pherecydes:

In most remarkable words, Pherecydes spoke of the holy primordial triad, of Zeus, Kronos and Chthon, principles fundamental to the earth, having come over from pre-terrestrial ages; he also speaks of a further evolution. But in ancient times men did not clothe matters of this kind in such dry, crude concepts as they do today, they drew vivid pictures of what they saw and recognised in spiritual realms. Pherecydes said: ‘Chthon becomes Gea (today called earth), because of the gift of Zeus whereby she came to be covered as with a garment.’ This is a wonderful description of that evolution which I have just outlined in a few short words. The earth was alone; outside it were the sun and the moon, the spiritual kingdoms of Zeus and of Kronos. The sun from without began to work upon the earth and to fructify it in its then chaotic state; or, in the language of the old Greek sage, Zeus fructified Chthon. The beneficent influences of the kingdom of Zeus were sent down to the physical earth in the warmth and light of the sun. This was the gift made by Zeus to the earth. The earth covered herself with the garment of plant and animal forms, and with the forms of physical men. Chthon becomes Gea; therefore, because of the gift of Zeus the earth covers herself with a garment.

In Relation to Astrology

In  “Astrology, Psychology, and The Four Elements” writes Stephen Arroyo  about Zodiacal Signs as Energy Patterns:

The four elements of astrology (fire, earth, air, and water) are the basic building blocks of all material structures and organic wholes. Each element represents a basic kind of energy and consciousness that operates within each of us. Just as modern physics has shown that energy is matter, these four elements interweave and combine to form all matter. When the spark of life leaves a human body at death, the four elements all dissociate and return to their primal state. It is only life itself, manifesting in an organized, living whole, that holds together the four elements. All four are in every person, although each person is consciously more attuned to some types of energy than others. Each of the four elements manifests in three vibrational modalities: cardinal, fixed, and mutable. Hence, when we combine the four elements with the three modalities, we have twelve primary patterns of energy which are called the zodiacal signs.

Rahu and Ketu

From Rahu and Ketu in Hindu Mythology:

“According to mythological tales Rahu is the head of the dragon. Head as we know contain the brain and controls the functioning of the entire body. This suggests that Rahu is the controlling and active node. Ketu rules of the body, sends feelings and sensations to the brain. To analyse those sensations and take action if necessary is within the jurisdiction of Rahu. More precisely Ketu has the power of transforming the events into experience which turn into wisdom.”

Rahu and Ketu

The head is the Luciferic and the tail is the Ahrimanic, where Rahu relates to Dharma, and Ketu to Karma.

Literature

Wikipedia have a good reference article on the symbolism of serpents:

Wikipedia – Serpent(symbolism)

I look at the snake in European mythology in The Snake and the Heel in Mythos which build on Steiner’s lectures.

More on Incan religion in

Andean Mysticism and Healing the Plane(pdf) by Oakley E. Gordon, Ph.D.

Rahu and Ketu

Serpents of the Kundalini Fire

To continue the tale of the serpents lets look at the Kundalini Fire from India. The Kundalini system looks like the Caduceus Staff with the two Serpents around the spine: The serpents has two different colors like the two outer pillars in the Kabbalah Tree of Life, and they have the same interpretations as the Feminine and Masculine energies. Seven Lotus Flowers or Chakras, which are spiritual organs, are placed on the spine.

Macrocosmic Man

Left side of Man  is the masculine side and the right side is the feminine side, as we see the Tree of Life from the front, the macrocosmic man.

Chakras in the Tree of Life
! Face looking out of paper !

The correspondence between the Chakras (see later) and the Sephirots:

1. Sahasrara or the Crown Chakra, corresponds to Keter
2. Ajna, the Third Eye , or the Brow Chakra corresponds to Chokmah, and the back head chakra with Binah.
3. Vishuddha or the Throat Chakra corresponds to Chesed and Ta Chui, The Neck Chakra, with Gevurah.
4. Ahanhata or the Heart Chakra corresponds to Tiferet
5. Manipura or the Navel Chakra, where Hod corresponds to the Liver and Netzach corresponds to the Stomach
6. Svadhistana or the Sacral Chakra corresponds to Yesod
7. Muladhara, the base of spine, the Root Chakra, corresponds to Malkhut

From the heart and up the feminine and masculine energies are nearly in Equilibrium with the heart near the center.

5. Chesed, 6. Gevurah, 7. Chokmah, 8. Binah, 9. Daat, 10. Kether

Microcosmic Man

Rudolf Steiner describes the two sides of man as being a kind of fight between Luciferic and Ahrimanic powers, where Lucifer is the masculine power (Yang) and Ahriman is the feminine power (Yin). Both described in the literature as Serpents or Dragons. Lucifer represents The Right Pillar, and Ahriman The Left Pillar. They are on Earth seen as Evil powers, but they are necessary factors in our development, as we both need the Feminine and Masculine influence, but we need to find the balance between them. From The Balance in the World and Man, Lucifer and Ahriman:

The left part of you — your left man, as it were — is the fortification set up by Lucifer, and your right man is the fortification set up by Ahriman. And the whole art of life consists in finding the true balance between them.

See also an extended Collection of Steiner texts about Lucifer and Ahriman(pdf) . The energy flows from the left side to the right side, from the Luciferic or Masculine side to the Ahrimanic or Feminine side.

Microcosmic Man

Crossed arms or legs shortcuts the natural streams and should be avoided, except where specified in meditative practices.

From The Kingdom of God from www.adishakti.org/

“Now this Kundalini is the power which is placed in the sacrum bone, nowhere else… And imagine this bone is called sacrum; “sacrum” means “sacred. So they knew there was something in it… This is the primule, is the germinating power within us. Now this fact has been accepted for thousands of years in India and elsewhere. For in the Bible also … they talk of the Tree of Life. That is the same as this… So this is the thing that is being described in our ancient books, in all the scriptures, even in the Qur’an they are described as Ruh, R,U,H, Ruh. “Ruh” means the “cold breeze”, the “cool breeze”. The cool breeze of the Holy Ghost is described in the Bible also.

Japanese Mitsudomoe

The Mitsudomoe represents the trinity of the Shinto religion: Sky, Man, and Earth, which is the same as the three Pillars of Kabbalah: first, second and third, or Steiners Lucifer, Christ, and Ahriman, or the Hindi Rajas, Sattva, and Tamas.

Japanese Mitsudomoe

Korean Sam-Taegeuk

In Sam-taegeuk we have the same three, with red as heaven, blue as Earth, the physical world, and yellow as man.

Korean Sam-Taegeuk

In relation to Kabbalah, blue is the left pillar, yellow the center pillar, and red is the right pillar.

Bön tradition of Tibet

Bön is the oldest spiritual tradition of Tibet, and they use the same symbol as the Korean Sam-Taegeuk.

The Three Gunas

In the Aurvedic tradition the three Gunas are the three principles of the world. The “trinity”, Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva, represent the gunas, or qualities of tamas, sattva and rajas. From Brahman, Atman, Karma and Gunas

They are sattva (goodness, virtue, essence), rajas (power, passion, activity) and tamas (dullness, inertia). All earthly events, like the laws of nature, are guided by one of the three gunas or a combination thereof. There should be a balance between them for harmonious workings of the world. Disequilibria will lead to chaos, war, suffering, corruption and destruction.

The three gunas dominate People by various degrees and a way to regulate these in the body and mind is through ayurvedic cooking:

Sattvic foods :

Are fresh, juicy, light, unctuous, nourishing, sweet and tasty.
Give the necessary energy to the body without taxing it.
The foundation of higher states of consciousness.
Examples : juicy fruits, fresh vegetables that are easily digestible, fresh milk and butter, whole soaked or also sprouted beans, grains and nuts, many herbs and spices in the right combinations with other foods,…

Rajasic foods :

Are bitter, sour, salty, pungent, hot and dry.
Increase the speed and excitement of the human organism.
The foundation of motion, activity and pain.
Examples : sattvic foods that have been fried in oil or cooked too much or eaten in excess, specific foods and spices that are strongly exciting, …

Tamasic Foods :

Are dry, old, decaying, distasteful and/or unpalatable.
Consume a large amount of energy while being digested.
The foundation of ignorance, doubt, pessimism, …
Examples : foods that have been strongly processed, canned or frozen and/or are old, stale or incompatible with each other – meat, fish, eggs and liquor are especially tamasic.

Saints and seers can survive easily on sattvic foods alone. Householders that live in the world and have to keep pace with its’ changes also need rajasic energy. They ought to keep a balance between the sattvic and rajasic foods and try to avoid tamasic foods as much as possible.

Tamas is Yin or the left pillar of the Kabbalah Tree of Life, and Rajas is Yang or the right pillar, and Sattva is the equilibrium, Tao the imaginary line between Yin and Yang, the center pillar.

Hatha Yoga

The definition of Hatha Yoga, from Erin Goldman:

Yoga, as you may know, means union. Hatha is actually two words in one. Ha meaning sun and tha meaning moon. So one might say that Hatha Yoga is the union of opposites (of sun and moon). We all have “sun energy” within us. This is a masculine, active, fire energy. We also have within us “moon energy”. This is a feminine, passive, cooling energy. The practice of Hatha Yoga joins together these two opposite energies, creating a balanced individual. The combination of the words Ha and Tha in sanskrit means forceful. Thus, the practice creates a more balanced and more powerful you.

And as Ha are the masculine Sun it relates to Rajas, Yang or Lucifer and Tha the feminine Moon relates to Tamas, Yin or Ahriman, and Hatha is the equilibrium and relates to Sattva, Tao, or Christ.

Yamas and Niyamas

In Hatha yoga there are a set of moral and ethic directives, Yamas and Niyamas, that work on the area of Ha and Tha:

The Yamas

Since Yama comes from the root word ‘yam’ ‘to hold’ or ‘to rule’, yama yoga represents the behaviours that ‘control’ certain negative tendencies (the ‘animal/instinctive nature’) that occur in all human beings. These are the five ideals of:

• Ahimsa (non-violence)
• Satya (truth)
• Asteya (non-stealing, or non-cheating)
• Brahmacharya (continence, involving self-restraint and moderation in all you do)
• Aparigraha (non-coveting, including no envy, jealousy or unhealthy competitiveness).

The Niyamas

The niyamas are the general actions that are necessary if we truly want to achieve a condition of health and deep balance within ourselves. The niyamas ask us to aim for:

• Purity (Sauca)
• Contentment (Santosha)
• Ardour (Ishawar-Pranidhana)
• Discipline (Tapas)
• And study of the Self (Svadhyaya)

Yamas is rules to discipline Tha or Yin where Niyamas are rules to discipline Ha or Yang.

Ketu and Rahu

Satyam

Brhadaranyaka Upanishad 5.4.1-5.5.1:

“Clearly, that is itself, and that was just this, namely, the Satyam (the real or true) itself. ‘Brahman is the real (Satyam)’– a man who knows this immense and first-born divine being in this manner conquers these worlds. ‘Brahman is the real (Satyam)’– a man who knows this immense and first-born divine being in this manner, would he ever be conquered himself? For Brahman is simply Satyam (the real or true).

…..The gods venerated only Satyam (the real or true) , which is made up of three syllables — sa, ti, yam. Sa is one syllable, ti is another, yam is the third. The first and last syllables constitute the real, while the middle syllable is the unreal. So the unreal is trapped on both sides by the real and becomes completely united with the real. The unreal does not injure a man who knows this.”

And a slightly different explanation given in Chandogya Upanishad 8.5.4:

“Now the name of Brahman is Satyam (Real or true). This word has three syllables: sa, ti, and yam. Of these, sat is the immortal, and ti is the mortal, while the syllable yam is what joins those two together. Because the two are joined together (yam) by it, it is called yam. Anyone who knows this goes to the heavenly world every single day.”

The last can be shown in western esoteric tradition as:

Incan Tradition

In the Incan tradition they have yachay, munay, and llankey which is the same as the three Pillars of Kabbalah: right, center and left pillar, or Steiners Lucifer, Christ, and Ahriman, or the Hindi Rajas, Sattva, and Tamas:

In the Andes they recognize three ways of knowing, each associated with a different part of our physical body. I have found this distinction to be very useful in organizing my thoughts about what the Andean culture has to offer and how it differs from our own. One way of knowing is through the yachay, which is located in the head. The yachay is the center of the intellect. A second way of knowing is through the munay, which is located in the heart. The munay is the center of love. And a third way of knowing is through the llankay, which is located slightly below the navel. The llankay is the center of the physical body. The Andeans take the whole of who we are as a being and differentiate it into three aspects, sometimes, for they also differentiate it in other ways as well, into two aspects (the right side and left side of the body), or some other number, depending upon the context. […]  Anyway, one class of distinctions the Andeans make in our existence is between the intellect (yachay), the heart (munay), and the ability to manipulate the physical world (the llankay), we can be differentiated in other ways as well. Kenosis.

The Pentagram and the Ether Streams

Steiner describes, in “From the Contents of Esoteric Classes“, the pentagram with:

We’re always surrounded by five ether streams in the world around us on earth. They’re called earth, water, fire, air and thought ethers. These etheric streams are also active in man: earth either from the head to the right foot, from there water ether to the left hand, from there fire ether to the right hand, from there air ether to the left foot, and then thought ether back to the head. This is the occultist’s sacred pentagram, the symbol of man. Its point is directed upwards, which indicates that the spirit streams to man from the heights. The pentagram is present in many flowers and other things in nature. The sign of black magic is a pentagram with one point at the bottom, through which magicians attract bad forces from the earth and send them out of the two top horns into the environment by means of their bad will in order to use soul and nature forces for their own egotistical, evil purposes.

The cross sections of the five etheric streams and their connections with color, taste, and body regions are as follows:

Prithivi Tattwa, earth ether, square with only the corners distinct, yellow, sweet, bones and muscles;
 Apas Tattwa, water ether, crescent moon at fifth day, white, tart, digestion;
 Teja/Agni Tattwa, fire ether, equilateral triangle, red, hot, blood;
 Vaju Tattwa, air ether, circle, green, sour, nerves;
Akasha Tattwa, thought ether, two intersecting spirals — one is distinct, dark blue, bitter, lymph vessel system.

The five ether streams are called Tattwas.

And in “The Creative Cosmic Tone“

It is characteristic of it [the etheric body] that it is indeed, the architect, the creator of the physical body. Just as ice forms out of water, so does the physical body fashion itself out of the etheric body, which, like the ocean, is flooded through by many currents flowing in all directions. Among them are five main currents. When you stand with feet apart and arms outstretched, you can accurately follow the direction of these five currents. They form a pentagram. Everybody has these five currents hidden in him. The healthy etheric body appears so that these currents are, as it were, his bony framework. You must not suppose however, that everything pertaining to the etheric body is only within, because when a person moves, for instance, the currents actually go through the air. This pentagram is as mobile as a man’s physical bony framework. Thus, when the occultist speaks of the pentagram as the figure of man, it is not a matter of something that has been thought out, but rather he is speaking of it as the anatomist does of the skeleton.

Yin and Yang Meridians

Here we see the meridians of the chinese acupunkture system, with Yin as right side and Yang as left side.

The Rosicrucian Cross

The Rosicrucian Cross is the symbol for the Spiritual Stream started by Christian Rosenkreuz known under the name Rosicrucianism. The Rosicrucian Cross combines the seven Red Roses, Lotus Flowers or Chakra’s with the Cross we have seen in the Caduceus Staff or the Tree of Life of the Kabbalah. When the Roses Bloom on the cross the Chakra’s has been opened. The twelve rays are the influence of the Zodiac as the roses symbolize the planets.

In this context, the roses are Yang and the cross Yin, but together they are life, Tao or in Hindi Rajas, Tamas and Sattva.

In Steiners terminology Lucifer, Ahriman and Christ:

He who tears the roses from the black cross and has nothing left but the black cross, would fall into the clutches of Ahriman. The black cross in itself represents life when it strives to embrace inanimate matter. Also, if one were to separate the cross from the roses, keeping only the latter, one would nor find the proper thing. For the roses, separate from the cross, tend to elevate us to a life of selfish striving toward the spiritual, but not to a life in which we reveal the spirit in a material world. Not the cross alone, not the roses alone, but the roses on the cross, the cross carrying the roses: That is our proper symbol. RS

From a meditation by Steiner:

Imagine you see before you a black cross. Let this black cross be for you a symbol for the baser elements that have been cast out of man’s impulses and passions; and at the point where the beams of the cross meet, picture to yourself seven resplendent bright red roses arranged in a circle. Let these roses symbolize for you a blood that is the expression of passions and impulses that have undergone purification.

Kundalini Rising

There are three forces connected with the spine, also called Sushumna or Aaron’s rod. These are Kundalini, the serpent-fire, Ida the female force, and Pingala the male force. The Moon moves in the Ida and the Sun in the Pingala. Ida is cooling. Pingala is heating. The two serpents, around the Spine, has two different colors like the two outer pillars in the Kabbalah Tree of Life, and they have the same interpretations as the Feminine and Masculine energies. They connect Earth with the spiritual world and the spiritual world with Earth. For these to flow the Lotus Flowers, or Chakras, has to be open or running. When European esoteric talk about Initiation eastern religions talk about Kundalini Rising. The development path is described in The Eightfold Path.

Chakras

The Chakras is known all over the world and are the spiritual organs controlling our body. The Inkas in south America know five of them, and they match the Indian descriptions.

The five ñawi (eyes) are roughly equivalent to the chakras. Kulli ñawi corresponds to the third eye, Sonqo ñawi to the heart, kunka ñawi to the throat, cosco ñawi to the navel, and siki ñawi to the root chakra.

The Chinese know them and use them in their medicine. They are the base for Astrology, and most alternative medical schools. When we are born, our Astral organs contains a picture of our Karma, which through our youth are build into the Etheric organs, and the pictures are erased from the Astral body as they are imprinted in the Etheric body. Astrology tells about Karmas influence on you, through those Etheric organs. Through your life you build your new karma in your Astral body, constantly modeling the Astral organs. When the Kundalini fires, your Astral body’s Chakras are imprinted into the Ether body, and you have now made your own Etheric organs, from the Karma you have build in this life, and is now free from the tyranny of your birth chart. The Chakras relation to our spiritual bodies are shown in a table in Dream Interpretation in Esoteric Work

Yetzer ha Tob and Yetzer ha Ra

From “An Introduction to the Study of the Kabalah” by William Wynn Westcott:

In another form of symbolism the Kabalist tells us a man has two companions, or guides; one on the right, Yetzer ha Tob, to good acts, he is from the higher Sephiroth; and one on the left, Yetzer ha Ra, encouraging the appetites and passions, temptations to evil, is an agent of Samael and of The Beast.

Man is in a very unfortunate position according to the Zohar 95 b, for it is there said that the Evil Angel joins him at birth, but the Good Angel only at the age of 13 years.

Merkabah

Merkabah, also spelled Merkava, is the divine light vehicle allegedly used by ascended masters to connect with and reach those in tune with the higher realms, symbolized with the Kabbalah. “Mer” means Light, “Ka” means Spirit, and “Ba” means Body. Mer-Ka-Ba means the spirit/body with rotating fields of light, which transports energy in our spiritual bodies, our chakras are the seven lowest of these sephira.

The four Chayot angels, Man, Ox, Lion and Eagle, represent the basic archetypes that God used to create the current nature of the world, the lower 4 sephira. They also relate to the inner planets, Earth, Moon, Venus, and Mercury.

In Alchemy

In Synergetic Qabala the relation between the Gunas and Alchemical metals are described

Alchemy is not concerned exclusively with consciousness, but also seeks the subtle transformation of the body, so that the physical level is also brought into perfect equilibrium.  Thus, the alchemical metals may be considered analogous to the chakras of the yogis.  We can draw another parallel among the three major principles of alchemy and those of Yoga, which are known as the Gunas. Mercury……….Sattva Sulphur………Rajas Salt……….Tamas The quality of Mercury is vital and reflective; it equates with the spiritual principles of goodness and intelligence; Sattva guna is illuminative.  The quality of Sulphur is fiery and passionate like the principles of Rajas, which incites desire, attachment and action.  The quality of Salt is arrestive and binding, and reflects the gross inertia of matter, which is much like Tamas.  These gunas and the three alchemical substances symbolize spirit, soul and body.  Another “alchemical” way the gunas were applied concerns food: sattvic foods incline one toward meditation and the spiritual life (fruits, vegetables, nuts, and grains); rajasic foods are stimulating (i.e. spicy food); tamasic food incites the baser instincts (animal flesh). The concept of four basic elements, harmonized in a fifth, is also common to both alchemy and yoga doctrines.  The Indian elements are known as Tattvas.  They are:  Akasha (quintessence); Tejas or Agni (fire); Apas (water); Vayu (air); Prithivi (earth).  Furthermore, the preparation for the practice of both alchemy and yoga requires a moral or ethical preparation.  Both stress that evil tendencies should be overcome while positive virtues are developed.  This includes both behavior and the purification of various body centers.  The objective is not wealth, but health or wholeness. Alchemy also speaks of a “secret fire”, which is often compared to a serpent or dragon.  Here again, we find the correspondence to Kundalini, the serpent-power.  Alchemy is performed by the aid of Mercury, the illuminative principle, and the powers of the sun and moon.  Both alchemists and Tantrics practice with the essential aid, sometimes sexual, of a mystical sister, the alchemist’s soror mystica or yogi’s yogini, complement of King/Queen, Shiva-Shakti, God/Goddess joined together in the miracle marriage.  The yogic system works in three channels in the subtle body.  One equates with the sun, another with the moon.  They are called ida and pingala.  The third, or harmonizing channel, is known as sushumna, and is associated with illumination.  The twin serpents twine together and open the third way, as shown in the Cadeusus.

Paracelsus in “The life of Philippus Theophrastus Bombast of Hohenheim…” by Franz Hartmann

The Bible tells us that Man is made out of nothing ; that is to say, his spirit, the real man, is from God, who is not a thing, but the eternal reality ; but he is made into three somethings or substances,’ and these three constitute the whole of Man: they are himself, and he is they, and from them he receives all that is good or evil for him. Every state in which man can possibly enter is determined by number, measure, and weight.’ The “Three Substances” are the three forms or modes of action in which the universal primordial Will is manifesting itself throughout Nature, for all things are a Trinity in a Unity. The ” Salt” represents the principle of corporification, the astringent or contractive and solidifying quality, or, in other words, the body ; the ‘Sulphur’ represents the expansive power — the centrifugal force, in contradistinction to the centripetal motion of the first quality — it is that which “burns,” i.e., the soul or light in all things ; and the “Mercury” is the Life, i.e. that principle or form of will which manifests itself as life, or consciousness and sensation. Each of these forms of will is an individual power ;  nevertheless they are substantial, for “matter” and “force” are one, and originate from the same cause. The three substances, held together in harmonious proportions, constitute health; their disharmony constitutes disease, and their disruption death.

Steiner in Salt, Mercury, Sulphur

In olden times men did not use the abstract word think to express something that arose in the mind as a picture. When a real knower spoke about ‘thinking’ he spoke of the salt-process just described. Nor did he speak in an abstract way of the ‘will’ but of the astral forces laying hold of the airy element in man, of the sulphur-process from which the will is born. Willing was a process of concrete reality and it was said that the adjustment between the two — for they are opposite processes — was brought about by the mercury-process, by that which is fluid and yet has form, which swings to and fro from the etheric nature to the astral nature, from the fluidic to the aeriform.

Dambala and Aida Wedo – Tahiti

Body, Soul, and Spirit

In the western countries the church only work with Body and Soul, having done away with the spirit in 689. Steiner says :

 Even the concept of the threefold nature of the human organism or the human being in its entirety has in a certain respect been abolished for occidental civilization by the eighth Ecumenical Council of Constantinople in the year 869. I have often mentioned this. The dogma was then established that the Christian does not have to believe in the threefold human being but only in a twofold human being.
The belief in body, soul and spirit was tabooed, and medieval theologians and philosophers who still knew a great deal about the true facts had a hard time to circumvent this truth, for the so-called trichotomy, the “membering” of the human being into body, soul, and spirit had been declared a heresy. They were compelled to teach the duality, namely, that man consists of body and soul, and not of body, soul and spirit.

and here:

Outside the circle of spiritual science, as you know, the total nature of man is thought of as consisting of but two parts, the bodily-physical and the psychic. In the realm of recognized science it is not customary nowadays to mention the spirit. Indeed, following certain premises, the result of reverting to the threefold organization of man (body, soul and spirit), as did the catholicizing Viennese philosopher, Günther, in the nineteenth century, raised scientific misgivings and also the blacklisting, in Rome, of Günther’s interesting books. This was done because as early as 869, at the eighth Ecumenical Council at Constantinople, the Catholic Church, in contradiction to both the Old and the New Testaments, had abolished the spirit. It had guided the development of dogmatism in such a way that the organization of man was permitted to comprise body and soul only. Curiously enough, this catholic development has persisted into our present science. If we seek to ascertain from history why scientists admit only body and soul we find but one reason. In the course of time the spirit has been forgotten; the habits of thought prevalent in certain circles have lost the ability to accept the spirit along with the soul of man.

This has melted soul and spirit together to one unit giving the dualistic view with body and soul as opposites, placing the bad Ego in the body and the goodly in the soul, where the Ego should be in the equilibrium in the soul between the materialistic body and the goodly spirit, we should walk the golden middle-way between the physical and the spiritual..

Literature

I have used “The Kabbalistic Sefirot and the Chakras“, and “The Chakras” by Kheper.net, and “Chakras” by Bellabenes Astralseiten (German), in preparation of this text. The Mans inner Cosmic System looks at the organs role in the body. Steiner says that the meaning of Mercury and Venus was changed in old times, so when Steiner connect Venus with the Kidneys and Mercury with the lungs, old traditions will typically do the opposite, as in Universal Healing TAO.

Notes on Lucifer & Ahriman, The spiritual Bodies and Initiation, and The Eightfold Path. A visually inspiring page on Chakras at Chrystal Links. In “Knowledge of the Higher Worlds And Its Attainment” Rudolf Steiner goes more in depth with the Lotus Flowers or Chakras. In “The Occult Significance of the Bhagavad Gita” Steiner looks at Sattva, Rajas, and Tamas. Kundalini Shakta by Arthur Avalon (Sir John Woodroffe). In Alchemy: Salt, Mercury, Sulphur and Alchemy: The Evolution of the Mysteries by Rudolf Steiner.

Principles of Christian Dream Interpretation

This paper is quite interesting. The Jews and Christians has thousand of years experience with dream interpretation and they accepted the spiritual world as the source of the dreams which our psychoanalysts don’t, and that limit their success in dream interpretation.

Ha and tha