KOSMIC
MIND
From the
writings of Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, the
founder of modern Theosophy and co-founder of
the
original Theosophical Society in
Cardiff Theosophical Society
206 Newport Road,
Cardiff, Wales, UK, CF24 -1DL
theosophycardiff@uwclub.net
Helena Petrovna Blavatsky
1831-1891
The
Founder of Modern Theosophy
Kosmic Mind
By
Helena
Petrovna Blavatsky
From
"The Theosophist"
Volume XI, May 1890
Whatsoever quits the Laya (homogeneous) state,
becomes active conscious life. Individual consciousness emanates from, and
returns into Absolute consciousness, which is eternal MOTION. ESOTERIC AXIOMS Whatever that be which thinks, which understands, which
wills, which acts, it is something celestial and divine, and upon that account
must necessarily be eternal.
Would to goodness the men of science exercised their "scientific
imagination" a little more and their dogmatic and cold negations a little
less. Dreams differ. In that strange state of being which, as Byron has it,
puts us in a position "with seal'd eyes to
see," one often perceives more real facts than when awake. Imagination is,
again, one of the strongest elements in human nature, or in the words of Dugald Stewart it
"is the great spring of human activity,
and the principal source of human improvement. . . . Destroy the faculty, and
the condition of men will become as stationary as that of the brutes.
" It is the best guide of our blind senses,
without which the latter could never lead us beyond matter and its illusions.
The greatest discoveries of modern science are due to the imaginative faculty
of the discoverers. But when has anything new been postulated, when a theory
clashing with and contradicting a comfortably settled predecessor put forth,
without orthodox science first sitting on it, and trying to crush it out of
existence?
is formed of "working
hypotheses," the fruits of "scientific imagination" as Mr.
Tyndall felicitously called it.
Is it then, because consciousness in every universal atom and the
possibility of a complete control over the cells and atoms of his body by man,
have not been honored so far with the imprimatur of the Popes of exact science,
that the idea is to be dismissed as a dream? Occultism gives the same teaching.
Occultism tells us that every atom, like the monad of Leibnitz, is a little
universe in itself; and that every organ and cell in the human body is endowed
with a brain of its own, with memory, therefore, experience and discriminative
powers. The idea of Universal Life composed of individual atomic lives is one
of the oldest
teachings of esoteric philosophy, and the very modern hypothesis of
modern science, that of crystalline life, is the first ray from the ancient
luminary of knowledge that has reached our scholars. If
plants can be shown to have nerves and sensations and instinct (but another
word for consciousness), why not allow the same in the cells of the human body?
Science divides matter into organic and inorganic bodies, only because it
rejects the idea of absolute life and a life-principle as an entity: otherwise
it would be the first to see that absolute life cannot produce even a
geometrical point, or an atom inorganic in its essence. But Occultism, you see,
"teaches mysteries" they say; and mystery is the negation of common
sense, just as again metaphysics is but a kind of poetry, according to Mr.
Tyndall. There is no such thing for science as mystery; and therefore, as a
Life Principle is, and must remain for the intellects of our civilized races
for ever a mystery on physical lines--they who deal in this question have to be
of necessity either fools or knaves. Dixit.
Nevertheless, we may repeat with a French preacher: "mystery is the fatality
of science.
" Official science is surrounded on every side and
hedged in by unapproachable, for ever impenetrable mysteries. And why? Simply because physical science
is self-doomed to a squirrel-like progress around a wheel of matter limited by
our five senses. And though it is as confessedly ignorant of the
formation of matter, as of the generation of a simple cell; though it is as
powerless to explain what is this, that, or the other, it will yet dogmatize
and insist on what life, matter and the rest are not. It comes to this: the
words of Father Felix addressed fifty years ago to the French academicians have
nearly become immortal as a truism.
"Gentlemen," he said, "you throw into our teeth the
reproach that we teach mysteries. But imagine whatever science you will; follow
the magnificent sweep of its deductions. . . . and
when you arrive at its parent source you come face to face with the
unknown!"
Now to lay at rest once for all in the minds of Theosophists this vexed
question, we intend to prove that modern science, owing to physiology, is
itself on the eve of discovering that consciousness is universal--thus
justifying Edison's "dreams." But before we do this, we mean also to
show that though many a man of science is soaked through and through with such
belief, very few are brave enough to openly admit it, as the late Dr. Pirogoff of St. Petersburg has done in his posthumous
Memoirs. Indeed that great surgeon and pathologist raised by their publication
quite a howl of indignation among his colleagues. How then?
the public asked: He, Dr. Pirogoff, whom we regarded as almost the embodiment of
European learning, believing in the superstitions of crazy alchemists? He, who in the words of a contemporary:--
was the very incarnation of exact science and methods of thought; who
had dissected hundreds and thousands of human organs, making himself thus
acquainted with all the mysteries of surgery and anatomy as we are with our
familiar furniture; the savant for whom physiology had no secrets and who,
above all men, was one to whom Voltaire might have ironically asked whether he
had not found the immortal soul between the bladder and the blind gut,--that
same Pirogoff is found after his death devoting whole
chapters in his literary Will to the scientific demonstration. . . . Novoye Vremya of 1887. --Of what? Why, of the existence in
every organism of a distinct "VITAL FORCE" independent of any
physical or chemical process. Like Liebig he accepted the derided and tabooed
homogeneity of nature--a Life Principle--that persecuted and hapless teleology,
or the science of the final causes of things, which is as philosophical as it
is unscientific, if we have to believe imperial and royal academies. His
unpardonable sin in the eyes of dogmatic modern science, however, was this: The
great anatomist and surgeon, had the
"hardihood" to declare in his Memoirs, that:--
We have no cause to reject the possibility of the existence of organisms
endowed with such properties that would impart to them -- the direct embodiment
of the universal mind -- a perfection inaccessible to our own (human) mind. . . . Because, we have
no right to maintain that man is the last expression of the divine creative
thought. (Novove Vremya of
1887)
Such are the chief features of the heresy of one, who ranked high among
the men of exact science of his age. His Memoirs show plainly that not only he
believed in Universal Deity, divine Ideation, or the Hermetic "Thought
divine," as a Vital Principle, but taught all this, and tried to
demonstrate it scientifically. Thus he argues that Universal Mind needs no physico-chemical, or mechanical brain as an organ of
transmission. He even goes so far as to admit it in these suggestive words:--
Our reason must accept in all necessity an infinite and eternal Mind
which rules and governs the ocean of life. . . . Thought and creative ideation,
in full agreement with the laws of unity and causation, manifest themselves
plainly enough in universal life without the participation of brain-slush. . .
. Directing the forces and elements toward the formation of organisms, this
organizing life-principle becomes self-sentient, self-conscious, racial or
individual. Substance, ruled and directed by the
life-principle, is organised according to a general
defined plan into certain types. . . .
He explains this belief by confessing that never, during his long life
so full
of study, observation, and experiments, could he-- acquire the
conviction, that our brain could be the only organ of thought in the whole
universe, that everything in this world, save that organ, should be
unconditioned and senseless, and that human thought alone should impart to the
universe a meaning and a reasonable harmony in its integrity.
And he adds à propos of Moleschott's
materialism:--
Howsoever much fish and peas I may eat, never shall I consent to give
away my Ego into durance vile of a product casually extracted by modern alchemy
from the urine. If, in our conceptions of the Universe it be our fate to fall
into illusions, then my "illusion" has, at least, the advantage of
being very consoling. For it shows to me an intelligent Universe and the
activity of Forces working in it harmoniously and intelligently; and that my
"I" is not
the product of chemical and histological
elements but an embodiment of a common universal Mind. The latter, I sense and
represent to myself as acting in free will and consciousness in accordance with
the same laws which are traced for the guidance of my own mind, but only exempt
from that restraint which trammels our human conscious individuality.
For, as remarks elsewhere this great and philosophic man of Science:--
The limitless and the eternal, is not only a postulate of our mind and
reason, but also a gigantic fact, in itself. What would become of our ethical
or moral principle were not the everlasting and
integral truth to serve it as a foundation!
The above selections translated verbatim from the confessions of one who
was during his long life a star of the first magnitude in the fields of
pathology and surgery, show him imbued and soaked through with the philosophy
of a reasoned and scientific mysticism. In reading the Memoirs of that man of
scientific fame, we feel proud of to find him accepting, almost wholesale, the
fundamental doctrines and beliefs of Theosophy; with such an exceptionally
scientific mind in the ranks of mystics, the idiotic grins, the cheap satires
and flings at our great Philosophy by some
European and American "Freethinkers,"
become almost a compliment. More than ever do
they appear to us like the frightened discordant cry of the night-owl hurrying
to hide in its dark ruins before the light of the morning Sun.
The progress of physiology itself, as we have just said, is a sure
warrant that the dawn of that day when a full recognition of a universally
diffused mind will be an accomplished fact, is not far off. It is only a
question of time.
For, notwithstanding the boast of physiology, that the aim of its
researches is only the summing up of every vital function in order to bring
them into a definite order by showing their mutual relations to, and connection
with the laws of physics and chemistry, hence, in their final form, with
mechanical laws--we fear there is a good deal of contradiction between the
confessed object and the speculations of some of the best of our modern
physiologists; while few of them would dare to return as openly as did Dr. Pirogoff to the "exploded superstition" of vitalism and the severely exiled life principle, the
principium
vitæ of
The fact that we reject the interference of other forces in living things, depends entirely on the limitations of our senses.
We use, indeed, the same organs for our observations of both animate and inanimate
nature; and these organs can receive manifestations of only a limited realm of
motion.
Vibrations passed along the fibres of our
optic nerves to the brain reach our perceptions through our consciousness as
sensations of light and color;
vibrations affecting our consciousness through our
auditory organs strike us as sounds; all our feelings, through whichever of our
senses, are due to
nothing but motions.
Such are the teachings of physical Science, and such were in their
roughest outlines those of Occultism, æons and
millenniums back. The difference, however, and most vital distinction between
the two teachings, is this: official science sees in motion simply a blind,
unreasoning force or law; Occultism, tracing motion to its origin, identifies it
with the Universal Deity, and calls this eternal ceaseless motion--the
"Great Breath." [ See The Secret Doctrine,Volume I, pages 2 and 3 ]
Nevertheless, however limited the conception of Modern Science about the
said Force, still it is suggestive enough to have forced the following remark
from a great Scientist, the present professor of physiology at the University
of Basle, who speaks like an Occultist: [ From a paper read by him some time
ago at a public lecture ]
It would be folly in us to expect to be ever able to discover, with the
assistance only of our external senses, in animate nature that something which
we are unable to find in the inanimate.
And forthwith the lecturer adds that man being endowed "in addition to his
physical senses with an inner sense," a perception which gives him the
possibility of observing the states and phenomena of his own consciousness,
"he has to use that in dealing with animate nature"--a profession of
faith verging suspiciously on the borders of Occultism. He denies, moreover,
the assumption, that the states and phenomena of consciousness represent in
substance the same manifestations of motion as in the external world, and
fortifies his denial by
the reminder that not all of such states
and manifestations have necessarily a spatial extension. According to him that
only is connected with our conception of space which has reached our
consciousness through sight, touch, and the muscular sense, while all the other
senses, all the effects, tendencies, as all the interminable series of
representations, have no extension in space, but, only in time.
Thus he asks:--
Where then is there room in this for a mechanical theory? Objectors
might argue that this is so only in appearance, while in reality all these have
a spatial extension. But such an argument would be entirely erroneous. Our sole
reason for believing that objects perceived by the senses have such extension
in the external world, rests on the idea that they
seem to do so, as far as they can be watched and observed through the senses of
sight and touch. With
regard, however, to the realm of our inner senses even that
supposed foundation loses its force and there is no ground for admitting it.
The winding up argument of the lecturer is most interesting to Theosophists.
Says this physiologist of the modern
Thus, a deeper and more direct acquaintance with our inner nature
unveils to us a world entirely unlike the world represented to us by our
external senses, and reveals the most
heterogeneous faculties, shows objects having nought
to do with spatial extension, and phenomena absolutely disconnected with those
that fall under mechanical laws.
Hitherto the opponents of vitalism and
"life-principle," as well as the followers of the mechanical theory
of life, based their views on the supposed
fact, that, as physiology was progressing
forward, its students succeeded more and more in connecting its functions with
the laws of blind matter. All those manifestations that used to be attributed
to a "mystical life-force," they said, may be brought now under
physical and chemical laws. And they were, and still are loudly clamoring for
the recognition of the fact that it is only a question of time when it will be
triumphantly demonstrated that the whole vital process, in its grand totality,
represents nothing more mysterious than a very complicated phenomenon of
motion, exclusively governed by the forces of inanimate nature.
But here we have a professor of physiology who asserts that the history
of physiology proves, unfortunately for them, quite the contrary; and he
pronounces these ominous words:--
I maintain that the more our experiments and observations are exact and
many-sided, the deeper we penetrate into facts, the more we try to fathom and
speculate on the phenomena of life, the more we acquire the conviction, that
even those phenomena that we had hoped to be already able to explain by physical and chemical laws, are in reality
unfathomable. They are vastly more complicated, in fact; and as we stand at
present, they will not yield to any mechanical explanation.
This is a terrible blow at the puffed-up bladder known as Materialism,
which is as empty as it is dilated. A Judas in the camp of the apostles of
negation--the "animalists"! But the Basle professor is no solitary
exception, as we have just shown; and there are several physiologists who are
of his way of thinking; indeed some of them going so far as to almost accept free-will
and consciousness, in the simplest monadic protoplasms!
One discovery after the other tends in this direction. The works of some
German physiologists are especially interesting with regard to cases of
consciousness and positive discrimination--one is almost inclined to say
thought--in the Amœbas. Now the Amœbas
or animalculae are, as all know, microscopical
protoplasms--as the Vampyrello
Spirogyra for instance, a most simple elementary cell, a protoplasmic drop,
formless and almost structureless. And yet it shows
in its behavior something for which zoologists, if they do not call it mind and
power of reasoning, will have to find some other qualification, and coin a new
term. For see what Cienkowsky says of it. [ L. Cienkowsky.
See his work Beirage zur Kenniss der Monanden,
Archiv f. mikroshop. Anatomie.
]
Speaking of this microscopical, bare, reddish
cell he describes the way in which it hunts for and finds among a number of
other aquatic plants one called Spirogyra, rejecting every other food. Examining
its peregrinations under a powerful microscope, he found it when moved by
hunger, first projecting its pseudopodiæ (false feet)
by the help of which it crawls. Then it commences moving about until among a
great variety of plants it comes across a Spirogyra, after which it proceeds
toward the cellulated portion of one of the cells of
the latter, and placing itself on it, it bursts the tissue, sucks the contents
of one cell and then passes on to another, repeating the same process. This
naturalist never saw it take any other food, and it never touched any of the
numerous plants placed by Cienkowsky in its way.
Mentioning another Amoeba -- the Colpadella Pugnax -- he says that he found it showing the same
predilection for the Chlamydomonas on which it feeds
exclusively; "having made a puncture in the body of the Chlamydomonas it sucks its chlorophyll and then goes
away," he writes, adding these significant words: "The way of acting
of these monads
during their search for and reception of food,
is so amazing that one is almost inclined to see in them consciously acting
beings!" Not less suggestive are the observations of Th. W. Engelman (Beitraege zur Physiologie des Protoplasma), on the Arcella,
another unicellular organism only a trifle more complex than the Vampyrella.
He shows them in a drop of water under a microscope on a piece of glass,
lying so to speak, on their backs, i.e., on their convex side, so that the
pseudopodiæ,
projected from the edge of the shell, find no hold in space and leave the Amoeba
helpless. Under these circumstances the following curious fact is observed.
Under the very edge of one of the sides of the protoplasm gas-bubbles begin
immediately to form, which, making that side lighter, allow it to be raised,
bringing at the same time the opposite side of the creature into contact with
the glass, thus furnishing its pseudo or false feet means to get hold of the
surface and thereby turning over its body to raise itself on all its pseudopodiæ. After this, the Amoeba proceeds to suck back
into itself the gas-bubbles and begins to move. If a like drop of water is
placed on the lower extremity of the glass, then, following the law of gravity
the Amoeba will find themselves at first at the lower
end of the drop of water. Failing to find there a point of support, they
proceed to generate large bubbles of gas, when, becoming lighter than the
water, they are raised up to the surface of the drop.
In the words of Engelman:--
If, having reached the surface of the glass they find no more support
for their feet than before, forthwith one sees the gas-globules diminishing on
one side and increasing in size and number on the other, or both, until the
creatures touch with the edge of their shell, the surface of the glass, and
are enabled to turn over. No sooner is this done than the gas-globules disappear and the Arcella begin crawling. Detach them carefully by means of a
fine needle from the surface of the glass and thus bring them down once more to
the lower surface of the drop of water; and forthwith they will repeat the same
process, varying its details according to necessity and devising new means to
reach their desired aim. Try as much as you will to place them in uncomfortable
positions, and they find means to extricate themselves from them, each time, by
one device or the other; and no sooner have they succeeded than the gas-bubbles
disappear! It is impossible not to admit that such facts as these point to the
presence of some PSYCHIC process in the protoplasm. [
Loc. cit. Pflager's Archiv. Bk. S. 387]
Among hundreds of accusations against Asiatic nations of degrading
superstitions, based on "crass ignorance," there exists no more
serious
denunciation than that which charges and convicts
them of personifying and even deifying the chief organs of, and in, the human
body. Indeed, do not we hear these "benighted fools" of Hindus
speaking of the small-pox as a goddess--thus personifying the microbes of the variolic virus? Do we not read about Tantrikas,
a sect of mystics, giving proper names to nerves, cells and arteries,
connecting and identifying various parts of the body with deities, endowing
functions and physiological processes with intelligence, and what not? The
vertebrae, fibers, ganglia, the cord, etc., of the spinal column; the heart,
its four chambers, auricle and ventricle, valves and the rest; stomach, liver,
lungs and spleen, everything has its special deific name, is believed to act
consciously and to act under the potent will of the Yogi, whose head and heart
are the seats of Brahmâ and the various parts of whose body are all the
pleasure grounds of this or another deity!
This is indeed ignorance. Especially when we think that the said organs,
and the whole body of man are composed of cells, and these cells are now being recognised as individual organisms and -- quien sabe -- will come perhaps
to be recognized some day as an independent race of thinkers inhabiting the
globe, called man! It really looks like it. For was it not hitherto believed
that all the phenomena of assimilation and sucking in of food by the intestinal
canal, could be explained by the laws of diffusion and endosmosis? And now,
alas, physiologists have come to learn that the action of the intestinal canal
during the act of absorbing, is not identical with the action of the non-living
membrane in the dialyser. It is now well demonstrated
that --
This wall is covered with epithelium cells, each of which is an organism
per se, a living being, and with very complex functions. We know further, that
such a cell assimilates food--by means of active contractions of its
protoplasmic body--in a manner as mysterious as that which we notice in the
independent Amoeba and animalcules. We can observe
on the intestinal epithelium of the cold-blooded animals how these cells
project shoots --
pseudopodiæ -- out of
their contractive, bare, protoplasmic bodies--which pseudopodiæ,
or false feet, fish out of the food drops of fat, suck them into
their protoplasm and send it further, toward
the lymph-duct. . . . The lymphatic cells issuing from the nests of the adipose
tissue, and squeezing
themselves through the epithelium cells up to the
surface of the intestines, absorb therein the drops of fat and loaded with their
prey, travel homeward to the lymphatic canals. So long as this active work of
the cells remained unknown to us, the fact that while the globules of fat
penetrated through the walls of the intestines into lymphatic channels, the
smallest of pigmental grains introduced into the
intestines did not do so,--remained unexplained.
But today we know, that this faculty of
selecting their special food -- of assimilating the useful and rejecting the
useless and the harmful--is common to all the unicellular organisms. [ From the paper read by the Professor of Physiology at the
And the lecturer queries why, if this discrimination in the selection of
food exists in the simplest and most elementary of the cells, in the formless
and structureless protoplasmic drops--why it should
not exist also in the epithelium cells of our intestinal canal. Indeed, if the Vampyrella recognises its much
beloved Spirogyra, among hundreds of other plants as shown above, why should
not the epithelian cell, sense, choose and select its
favorite drop of fat from a pigmental grain? But we
will be told that "sensing, choosing, and selecting" pertains only to
reasoning beings, at least to the instinct of more structural animals than is
the protoplasmic cell outside or inside man. Agreed; but as we translate from
the lecture of a learned physiologist and the works of other learned
naturalists, we can only say, that these learned gentlemen must know what they
are talking about; though they are probably ignorant of the fact that their
scientific prose is but one degree removed from the ignorant, superstitious,
but rather poetical "twaddle" of the Hindu Yogis and Tântrikas.
Anyhow, our professor of physiology falls foul of the materialistic
theories of diffusion and endosmosis. Armed with the facts of the evident
discrimination and a mind in the cells, he demonstrates by numerous instances
the fallacy of trying to explain certain physiological processes by mechanical
theories; such for instance as the passing of sugar from the liver (where it is
transformed into glucose) into the blood. Physiologists find great difficulty
in explaining this process, and regard it as an impossibility to bring it under
the endosmosic laws. In all probability the lymphatic
cells play just as active a part during the absorption of alimentary substances
dissolved in water, as the peptics do, a process well
demonstrated by F. Hofmeister. [ Untersuchungen uber Resorption u. Assimilation der Nahrstoffe (Archiv f. Experimentale Pathologie, Bk.
XIX, 1885)
]
Generally speaking, poor convenient endosmose
is dethroned and exiled from among the active functionaries of the human body
as a useless sinecurist. It has lost its voice in the
matter of glands and other agents of secretion, in the action of which the same
epithelium cells have replaced it. The mysterious faculties of selection, of
extracting from the blood one kind of substance and rejecting another, of
transforming the former by means of decomposition and synthesis, of directing
some of the products into passages which will throw them out of the body and
redirecting others into lymphatic and blood vessels--such is the work of the
cells. "It is evident that in all this there is not the slightest hint at
diffusion or endosmose," says the
But perhaps physiology is luckier in some other department? Failing in
the laws of alimentation, it may have found some consolation for its mechanical
theories in the question of the activity of muscles and nerves, which it sought
to explain by electric laws? Alas, save in a few fishes -- in no other living
organisms, least of all in the human body, could it find any possibility of
pointing out electric currents as the chief ruling agency. Electro-biology on
the lines of pure dynamic electricity has egregiously failed. Ignorant of
"Fohat" no electrical currents suffice to
explain to it either muscular or nervous activity!
But there is such a thing as the physiology of external sensations. Here
we are no longer on terra incognita, and all such phenomena have already found
purely physical explanations. No doubt, there is the phenomenon of sight, the
eye with its optical apparatus, its camera obscura.
But the fact of the sameness of the reproduction of things in the eye,
according to the same laws of refraction as on the plate of a photographic
machine, is no vital phenomenon. The same may be reproduced on a dead eye. The
phenomenon of life consists in the evolution and development of the eye itself.
How is this marvellous and complicated work produced? To this Physiology
replies, "We do not know"; for, toward the solution of this great
problem--
Physiology has not yet made one single step. True, we can follow the
sequence of the stages of the development and formation of the eye, but why it
is so and what is the causal connection, we have absolutely no idea. The second
vital phenomenon of the eye is its accommodating activity. And here we are again
face to face with the functions of nerves and muscles--our old insoluble
riddles. The same may be said of all the organs of sense. The same also relates
to other departments of physiology. We had hoped to explain the phenomena of
the circulation of the blood by the laws of hydrostatics or hydrodynamics. Of
course the blood moves in accordance with the hydro-dynamical laws: but its
relation to them remains utterly passive. As to the active functions of the
heart and the muscles of its vessels, no one, so far, has ever been able to
explain them by physical laws.
The underlined words in the concluding portion of the able Professor's
lecture are worthy of an Occultist. Indeed, he seems to be repeating an
aphorism from the "Elementary Instructions" of the esoteric
physiology of practical Occultism:--
The riddle of life [ Life and activity are but two different names for
the same idea, or, what is still more correct, they are two words with which
the men of science connect no definite
idea whatever. Nevertheless, and perhaps just for that, they are obliged to use
them, for they contain the point of
contact between the most difficult problems
over which, in fact, the greatest thinkers of the materialistic school have
ever tripped." ] is found in the
active functions of a living organism, the
real perception of which activity we can get only through self-observation, and
not owing to our external
senses; by observations on our will, so far as
it penetrates our consciousness, thus revealing itself to our inner sense.
Therefore, when the
same phenomenon acts only on our external
senses, we recognize it no longer.
We see everything that takes place around and near the phenomenon of
motion, but the essence of that phenomenon we do not see at all, because we
lack for it a special organ of receptivity. We can accept that esse in a mere hypothetical way, and do so, in fact, when
we speak of "active functions."
Thus does every physiologist, for he cannot go on without such
hypothesis; and this is a first experiment of a psychological explanation of
all vital
phenomena. . . . And if it is demonstrated to us
that we are unable with the help only of physics and chemistry to explain the
phenomena of life, what may we expect from other adjuncts of physiology, from
the sciences of morphology, anatomy, and histology? I maintain that these can
never help us to unriddle the problem of any of the
mysterious phenomena of life. For after we have succeeded with the help of
scalpel and microscope in dividing the organisms into their most elementary
compounds, and reached the simplest of cells, it is just here that we find
ourselves face to face with the greatest problem of all. The simplest monad, a microscopical point of protoplasm, form less and structureless, exhibits yet all the essential vital
functions, alimentation, growth, breeding, motion, feeling and sensuous
perception, and even such functions which replace
"consciousness"--the soul of the higher animals!
The problem -- for Materialism -- is a terrible one, indeed! Shall our
cells, and infinitesimal monads in nature, do for us that which the arguments
of the greatest Pantheistic philosophers have hitherto failed to do? Let us
hope so. And if they do, then the "superstitious and ignorant"
Eastern Yogis, and even their exoteric followers, will find themselves
vindicated. For we hear from the same physiologist that--
A large number of poisons are prevented by the epithelium cells from
penetrating into lymphatic spaces, though we know that they are easily
decomposed in the abdominal and intestinal juices.
More than this. Physiology is aware
that by injecting these poisons directly into the blood, they will separate
from, and reappear through the intestinal walls, and that in this
process the lymphatic cells take a most active part.
If the reader turns to Webster's Dictionary he will find therein a
curious explanation at the words "lymphatic" and "lymph."
Etymologists think that the Latin word lympha is
derived from the Greek nymphe, "a nymph or
inferior goddess," they say. "The Muses were sometimes called nymphs
by the poets. Hence (according to Webster) all persons in a state of rapture,
as seers, poets, madmen, etc., were said to be caught by the nymphs."
The Goddess of Moisture (the Greek and Latin nymph or lymph, then) is
fabled in
This superstition is shown in their maintaining to this day that every
atom of matter in the four (or five) Elements is an emanation from an inferior
God or Goddess, himself or herself an earlier emanation from a superior deity;
and, moreover, that each of these atoms--being Brahmâ, one of whose names is Anu, or atom--no sooner is it emanated than it becomes
endowed with consciousness, each of its kind, and free-will, acting within the
limits of law. Now, he who knows that the Kosmic Trimurti (trinity) composed of Brahmâ, the Creator; Vishnu,
the Preserver; and Siva, the Destroyer, is a most magnificent and scientific
symbol of the material Universe and its gradual evolution; and who finds a
proof of this, in the etymology of the names of these deities, [ Brahmâ comes from the root brih,
to "expand", to "scatter", Vishnu, from the root vis or vish
(phonetically) "to
enter into", "to pervade" - the Universe of matter. As to Siva -
the patron of the yogis - the etymology of his name would remain
incomprehensible to the casual reader. ] plus the
doctrines of Gupta Vidya, or esoteric
knowledge--knows also how to correctly understand this
"superstition."
The five fundamental titles of Vishnu--added to that of Anu (atom) common to all the trimurtic
personages--which are, Bhutâlman, one with the
created or emanated materials of the world; Pradhanâtman,
"one with the senses;" Paramâtman,
"Supreme Soul"; and Âtman, Kosmic Soul, or the Universal Mind--show sufficiently what
the ancient Hindus meant by endowing with mind and consciousness every atom and
giving it a distinct name of a God or a Goddess. Place their Pantheon, composed
of 30 crores (or 300 millions) of deities within the
macrocosm (the Universe), or inside the microcosm (man), and the number will
not be found to be overrated, since they relate to the atoms, cells, and
molecules of everything that is.
This, no doubt, is too poetical and abstruse for our generation, but it
seems decidedly as scientific, if not more so, than the teachings derived from
the latest discoveries of Physiology and Natural History.
Cardiff
Theosophical Society
206 Newport
Road,
Cardiff,
Wales, UK, CF24 -1DL
Events
Information Line 029 2049 6017
For more info on Theosophy
Try these
Cardiff
Theosophical Society meetings are informal
and there’s always a cup of tea afterwards
The Cardiff Theosophical Society Website
The National Wales Theosophy Website
Dave’s
Streetwise Theosophy Boards
If
you run a Theosophy Group then please
Feel
free to use any material on this Website
Theosophy
Cardiff’s Instant Guide to Theosophy
Cardiff
Theosophical Order of Service (TOS)
Within the
British Isles, The Adyar Theosophical Society has
Groups in;
Bangor*Basingstoke*Billericay*Birmingham*Blackburn*Bolton*Bournemouth
Bradford*Bristol*Camberley*Cardiff*Chester*Conwy*Coventry*Dundee*Edinburgh
Folkstone*Glasgow*Grimsby*Inverness*Isle
of Man*Lancaster*Leeds*Leicester
Letchworth*London*Manchester*Merseyside*Middlesborough*Newcastle upon Tyne
North
Devon*Northampton*Northern Ireland*Norwich*Nottingham
Perth*Republic of Ireland*Sidmouth*Southport*Sussex*Swansea*Torbay
Tunbridge Wells*Wallasey*Warrington*Wembley*Winchester*Worthing
One Liners & Quick Explanations
The main criteria
for the inclusion of
links on this site is
that they are have some
relationship (however
tenuous) to Theosophy
and are lightweight,
amusing or entertaining.
Topics include
Quantum Theory and Socks,
Dick
Dastardly and Legendary Blues Singers.
No
Aardvarks were harmed in the
Includes
stuff about Marlon Brando, Old cars,
Odeon
Cinema Burnley, Heavy Metal, Wales,
Cups of Tea, Mrs Trellis of North Wales.
Cardiff
Theosophical Order of Service
General pages about Wales, Welsh History
and The History of Theosophy in Wales
Her Teachers Morya
& Koot Hoomi
The Most
Basic Theosophy Website in the Universe
If
you run a Theosophy Group you can use
this as an
introductory handout
Lentil burgers, a
thousand press ups before breakfast and
the daily 25 mile
run may put it off for a while but death
seems to get most of
us in the end. We are pleased to
present for your
consideration, a definitive work on the
subject by a Student of
Katherine Tingley entitled
For everyone
everywhere, not just in Wales
Theosophy and the Number Seven
A selection of articles relating to the
esoteric
significance of the Number 7 in Theosophy
The Spiritual Home of Urban Theosophy
The Earth Base for Evolutionary Theosophy
Quick Explanations with Links to More Detailed Info
What is Theosophy
? Theosophy Defined (More Detail)
Three Fundamental Propositions Key Concepts of Theosophy
Cosmogenesis Anthropogenesis Root Races
Ascended Masters After Death States
The Seven Principles of Man Karma
Reincarnation Helena Petrovna Blavatsky
Colonel Henry Steel Olcott William Quan Judge
The Start of the Theosophical
Society
History of the Theosophical
Society
Theosophical Society Presidents
History of the Theosophical
Society in Wales
The Three Objectives of the
Theosophical Society
Explanation of the Theosophical
Society Emblem
The Theosophical Order of
Service (TOS)
Glossaries of Theosophical Terms
by
Annie
Besant
THE PHYSICAL PLANE THE ASTRAL PLANE
KÂMALOKA
THE MENTAL PLANE DEVACHAN
THE BUDDHIC AND NIRVANIC PLANES
THE THREE KINDS OF KARMA COLLECTIVE KARMA
THE LAW OF SACRIFICE MAN'S
ASCENT
______________________
Annie Besant Visits Cardiff 1924
An Outline of Theosophy
Charles Webster Leadbeater
Theosophy - What it is How is it Known?
The Method of Observation General Principles
Advantage Gained from this
Knowledge
The Deity The Divine Scheme The Constitution of Man
The True Man Reincarnation The Wider Outlook
Death Man’s Past and Future Cause and Effect
Reincarnation
This
guide has been included in response
to the
number of enquiries we receive on this
subject at Cardiff
Theosophical Society
From A Textbook
of Theosophy By C W Leadbeater
How We Remember our Past Lives
Life after Death & Reincarnation
The
Slaughter of the
a
great demand by the public for lectures on Reincarnation
Classic Introductory Theosophy Text
A Text Book of Theosophy By C
What Theosophy Is From the Absolute to Man
The Formation of a Solar System The Evolution of Life
The Constitution of Man After Death Reincarnation
The Purpose of Life The Planetary Chains
The Result of Theosophical Study
The Occult
World
By
Alfred Percy
Sinnett
The
Occult World is an treatise on the
Occult
and Occult Phenomena, presented
in readable style, by an early giant of
the
Theosophical Movement.
Preface to the American Edition Introduction
Occultism and its Adepts The Theosophical Society
First Occult Experiences Teachings of Occult Philosophy
Later Occult Phenomena Appendix
The
Seven Principles of Man
By
Annie
Besant
A Student of Katherine Tingley
Katherine Tingley (1847
-1929)Was the founder & President
of the Point Loma
Theosophical Society 1896 -1929
She and her students produced a series of informative
Theosophical works in the early years of the 20th century
Elementary Theosophy Who is the Man?
Body and Soul
Body, Soul and Spirit Reincarnation
Karma The Seven in Man and Nature
Helena
Petrovna Blavatsky 1831 – 1891
The
Founder of Modern Theosophy
Index of
Articles by
By
H P
Blavatsky
Is the Desire to Live Selfish?
Ancient Magic in Modern Science
Precepts Compiled by H P Blavatsky
Obras Por H P Blavatsky
En Espanol
Articles
about the Life of H P Blavatsky
Writings of Ernest Egerton Wood
Theosophy and the Number Seven
A selection of articles relating to the
esoteric
significance of the Number 7 in Theosophy
Index of
Searchable
Full
Text Versions of
Definitive
Theosophical
Works
H P Blavatsky’s Secret Doctrine
Isis Unveiled by H P Blavatsky
H P Blavatsky’s Esoteric Glossary
Mahatma Letters to A P Sinnett 1 - 25
A Modern Revival of Ancient Wisdom
(Selection of Articles by H P Blavatsky)
The Secret Doctrine – Volume 3
A compilation of H P Blavatsky’s
writings published after her death
Esoteric Christianity or the Lesser Mysteries
The Early Teachings of The Masters
A Collection of Fugitive Fragments
Fundamentals of the Esoteric Philosophy
Mystical,
Philosophical, Theosophical, Historical
and Scientific Essays Selected from "The
Theosophist"
Edited by George
Robert Stow Mead
From Talks on the Path of Occultism - Vol. II
In the Twilight”
Series of Articles
The In the Twilight”
series appeared during
1898 in The Theosophical Review and
from 1909-1913 in The Theosophist.
compiled from information supplied by
her relatives and friends and edited by A P Sinnett
Letters and
Talks on Theosophy and the Theosophical Life
Obras Teosoficas En Espanol
Theosophische Schriften Auf
Deutsch
Karma Fundamental Principles Laws: Natural and Man-Made
The Law of Laws
The Eternal Now Succession
Causation
The Laws of Nature A
Lesson of The Law Karma Does Not Crush
Apply This Law
Man in The Three Worlds Understand The Truth
Man and His Surroundings The Three Fates The Pair of Triplets
Thought, The Builder Practical Meditation Will and Desire
The Mastery of Desire Two Other Points The Third Thread
Perfect Justice
Our Environment
Our Kith and Kin Our Nation
The Light for a Good Man Knowledge of Law The Opposing Schools
The More Modern View Self-Examination Out of the Past
Old Friendships
We Grow By Giving Collective Karma Family Karma
National Karma India’s Karma National
Disasters
Annotated Edition Published
1885
Preface to the Annotated Edition Preface to the Original Edition
Esoteric Teachers The Constitution of Man The Planetary Chain
The World Periods Devachan
Kama Loca
The Human Tide-Wave The Progress of Humanity
Buddha Nirvana The Universe The Doctrine Reviewed
Try these if you are looking for a
local Theosophy Group or Centre
UK Listing of Theosophical Groups
Worldwide Directory of Theosophical Links
General pages
about Wales, Welsh History
and The History of
Theosophy in Wales
Wales is a Principality within the United
Kingdom
and has an eastern border with England. The
land
area is just over 8,000 square miles. Snowdon in
North Wales is the highest mountain at
3,650 feet.
The coastline is almost 750 miles long. The
population
of Wales as at the 2001 census is
2,946,200.
Wales
Theosophy Links Summary
Hey Look! Theosophy in
Cardiff