THE
OF
THEOSOPHY
A Definitive Work on Theosophy
By
William Quan Judge
CHAPTER
9
Reincarnation
Continued
In the West, where the object of life is commercial,
financial, social, or scientific success, that is, personal profit,
aggrandizement, and power, the real life of man receives but little attention,
and we, unlike the Orientals, give scant prominence to the doctrine of
pre-existence and reincarnation.
That the church denies it is enough for many, with
whom no argument is of any use.
Relying on the church, they do not wish to disturb the
serenity of their faith in dogmas that may be illogical; and as they have been
taught that the church can bind them in hell, a blind fear of the anathema
hurled at reincarnation in the Constantinople council about 500 AD would alone
debar them from accepting the accursed theory. And the church in arguing on the
doctrine urges the objection that if men are convinced that they will live many
lives, the temptation to accept the present and do evil without check will be
too strong. Absurd as this seems, it is put forward by learned Jesuits, who say
men will rather have the present chance than wait for others.
If there were no retribution at all this would be a
good objection, but as Nature has also a Nemesis for every evil doer, and as each,
under the law of Karma -- which is that of cause and effect and perfect justice
-- must receive the exact consequences himself in every life for what good or
bad deeds and thoughts he did and had in other lives, the basis for moral
conduct is secure. It is safe under this system, since no man can by any
possibility, or favor, or edict, or belief escape the consequences, and each
one who grasps this doctrine will be moved by conscience and the whole power of
nature to do well in order that he may receive good and become happy.
It is maintained that the idea of rebirth is
uncongenial and unpleasant because on the one hand it is cold, allowing no
sentiment to interfere, prohibiting us from renouncing at will a life which we
have found to be sorrowful; and on the other, that there appears to be no
chance under it for us to see our loved ones who have passed away before us.
But whether we like it or not Nature's laws go forward unerringly, and
sentiment or feeling can in no way avert the consequence that must follow a
cause. If we eat bad food bad results must come. The glutton would have Nature
permit him to gorge himself without the indigestion which will come, but
Nature's laws are not to be thus put aside.
Now, the objection to reincarnation that we will not
see our loved ones in heaven as promised in dogmatic religion, presupposes a
complete stoppage of the evolution and development of those who leave earth
before ourselves, and also assumes that recognition is dependent on physical
appearance. But as we progress in this life, so also must we progress upon
leaving it, and it would be unfair to compel the others to await our arrival in
order that we may recognize them. And if one reflects on the natural
consequences of arising to heaven where all trammels are cast off, it must be
apparent that those who have been there, say, twenty of mortal years before us
must, in the nature of things mental and spiritual, have made a progress equal
to many hundreds of years here under varied and very favourable circumstances.
How then could we, arriving later and still imperfect, be able to recognize
those who had been perfecting themselves in heaven with such advantages? And as
we know that the body is left behind to disintegrate, so, it is evident,
recognition cannot depend, in the spiritual and mental life, on physical
appearance. For not only is this thus plain, but since we are aware that an
unhandsome or deformed body often enshrines a glorious mind and pure soul, and
that a beautifully formed exterior -- such as in the case of the Borgias -- may
hide an incarnate devil in character, the physical form gives no guarantee of
recognition in that world where the body is absent. And the mother who has lost
a child who had grown to maturity must know that she loved the child when a
baby as much as afterwards when the great alteration to later life had
completely swept away the form and features of early youth.
The Theosophists see that this objection can have no
existence in the face of the eternal and pure life of the soul. And Theosophy
also teaches that those who are like unto each other and love each other will
be reincarnated together whenever the conditions permit. Whenever one of us has
gone farther on the road to
perfection, he will always be moved to help and
comfort those who belong to the same family. But when one has become gross and
selfish and wicked, no one would want his companionship in any life.
Recognition depends on the inner sight and not on outward appearance; hence
there is no force in this objection. And the other phase of it relating to loss
of parent, child, or relative is based on the erroneous notion that as the
parents give the child its body so also is given its soul. But soul is immortal
and parentless; hence this objection is without a root.
Some urge that Heredity invalidates Reincarnation. We
urge it as proof. Heredity in giving us a body in any family provides the
appropriate environment for the Ego. The Ego only goes into the family which
either completely answers to its whole nature, or which gives an opportunity
for the working out of its evolution, and which is also connected with it by
reason of past
incarnations or causes mutually set up. Thus the evil
child may come to the presently good family because parents and child are
indissolubly connected by past actions. It is a chance for redemption to the
child and the occasion of punishment to the
parents. This points to bodily heredity as a natural
rule governing the bodies we must inhabit, just as the houses in a city will
show the mind of the builders.
And as we as well as our parents were the makers and
influencers of bodies, took part in and are responsible for states of society
in which the development of physical body and brain was either retarded or
helped on, debased or the contrary, so we are in this life responsible for the
civilization in which we now appear. But when we look at the characters in
human bodies, great inherent differences are seen. This is due to the soul
inside, who is suffering or enjoying in the family, nation, and race his own
thoughts and acts in the past lives have made it inevitable he should incarnate
with.
Heredity provides the tenement and also imposes those
limitations of capacity of brain or body which are often a punishment and
sometimes a help, but it does not affect the real Ego. The transmission of
traits is a physical matter, and
nothing more than the coming out into a nation of the
consequences of the prior lives of all Egos who are to be in that race. The
limitations imposed on the Ego by any family heredity are exact consequences of
that Ego's prior lives.
The fact that such physical traits and mental
peculiarities are transmitted does not confute reincarnation, since we know
that the guiding mind and real character of each are not the result of a body
and brain but are peculiar to the Ego in its essential life. Transmission of
trait and tendency by means of parent and body
is exactly the mode selected by nature for providing
the incarnating Ego with the proper tenement in which to carry on its work.
Another mode would be impossible and subversive of order.
Again, those who dwell on the objection from heredity
forget that they are accentuating similarities and overlooking divergencies.
For while investigations on the line of heredity have recorded many transmitted
traits, they have not done so in respect to divergencies from heredity vastly
greater in number. Every
mother knows that the children of a family are as
different in character as the fingers on one hand -- they are all from the same
parents, but all vary incharacter and capacity.
But heredity as the great rule and as a complete
explanation is absolutely overthrown by history, which shows no constant
transmission of learning, power, and capacity. For instance, in the case of the
ancient Egyptians long gone and their line of transmission shattered, we have
no transmission to their
descendants.
If physical heredity settles the question of
character, how has the great Egyptian character been lost? The same question
holds in respect to other ancient and extinct nations. And taking an individual
illustration we have the great musician Bach, whose direct descendants showed a
decrease in musical ability leading to its final disappearance from the family
stock. But Theosophy teaches that in both of these instances -- as in all like
them -- the real capacity and ability have only disappeared from a family and
national body, but are retained in the Egos who once exhibited them, being now
incarnated in some other nation and family of the present time.
Suffering comes to nearly all men, and a great many
live lives of sorrow from the cradle to the grave, so it is objected that
reincarnation is unjust because we suffer for the wrong done by some other person
in another life. This objection is based on the false notion that the person in
the other life was some one else. But in every life it is the same person. When
we come again we do not take up the body of some one else, nor another's deeds,
but are like an actor who plays many parts, the same actor inside though the
costumes and the lines recited differ in each new play. Shakespeare was right
in saying that life is a play, for the great life of the soul is a drama, and
each new life and rebirth another act in which we assume another part and put
on a new dress, but
all through it we are the selfsame person. So instead
of its being unjust, it is perfect justice, and in no other manner could
justice be preserved.
But, it is said, if we reincarnate how is it that we
do not remember the other life; and further, as we cannot remember the deeds
for which we suffer is it not unjust for that reason? Those who ask this always
ignore the fact that they also have enjoyment and reward in life and are
content to accept them without
question. For if it is unjust to be punished for deeds
we do not remember, then it is also inequitable to be rewarded for other acts
which have been forgotten.
Mere entry into life is no fit foundation for any
reward or punishment. Reward and punishment must be the just desert for prior
conduct. Nature's law of justice is not imperfect, and it is only the
imperfection of human justice that requires the offender to know and remember
in this life a deed to which a penalty is annexed. In the prior life the doer
was then quite aware of what he did, and nature affixes consequences to his
acts, being thus just.
We well know that she will make the effect follow the
cause whatever we wish and whether we remember or forget what we did. If a baby
is hurt in its first years by the nurse so as to lay the ground for a crippling
disease in after life, as is often the case, the crippling disease will come
although the child neither brought on the present cause nor remembered aught
about it. But reincarnation, with its companion doctrine of Karma, rightly
understood, shows how perfectly just the whole scheme of nature is.
Memory of a prior life is not needed to prove that we
passed through that existence, nor is the fact of not remembering a good
objection. We forget the greater part of the occurrences of the years and days
of this life, but no one would say for that reason we did not go through these
years.
They were lived, and we retain but little of the
details in the brain, but the entire effect of them on the character is kept
and made a part of ourselves. The whole mass of detail of a life is preserved
in the inner man to be one day fully brought back
to the conscious memory in some other life when we are
perfected. And even now, imperfect as we are and little as we know, the
experiments in hypnotism show that all the smallest details are registered in
what is for the present known as the subconscious mind. The theosophical doctrine
is that not a single one of these happenings is forgotten in fact, and at the
end of life when the eyes are closed and those about say we are dead every
thought and circumstance of life flash vividly into and across the mind.
Many persons do, however, remember that they have
lived before. Poets have sung of this, children know it well, until the
constant living in an atmosphere of unbelief drives the recollection from their
minds for the present, but all are
subject to the limitations imposed upon the Ego by the
new brain in each life.
This is why we are not able to keep the pictures of
the past, whether of this life or the preceding ones. The brain is the
instrument for the memory of the soul, and, being new in each life with but a
certain capacity, the Ego is only able to use it for the new life up to its
capacity. That capacity will be fully
availed of or the contrary, just according to the
Ego's own desire and prior conduct, because such past living will have
increased or diminished its power to overcome the forces of material existence.
By living according to the dictates of the soul the
brain may at least be made porous to the soul's recollections; if the contrary
sort of a life is led, then more and more will clouds obscure that
reminiscence. But as the brain had no part in the life last lived, it is in
general unable to remember. And this is a wise law, for we should be very
miserable if the deeds and scenes of our former
lives were not hidden from our view until by
discipline we become able to bear a knowledge of them.
Another objection brought up is that under the
doctrine of reincarnation it is not possible to account for the increase of the
world's population. This assumes that we know surely that its population has
increased and are keeping informed of its fluctuations. But it is not certain
that the inhabitants of the globe
have increased, and, further, vast numbers of people
are annually destroyed of whom we know nothing. In China year after year many
thousands have been carried off by flood.
Statistics of famine have not been made. We do not
know by how many thousands the deaths in Africa exceed the births in any year.
The objection is based on imperfect tables which only have to do with western
lands.
It also assumes that there are fewer Egos out of
incarnation and waiting to come in than the number of those inhabiting bodies,
and this is incorrect. Annie Besant has put this well in her
"Reincarnation" by saying that the inhabited globe resembles a hall
in a town which is filled from the much greater population of the town outside;
the number in the hall may vary, but there is a constant source of supply from
the town. It is true that so far as concerns this globe the number of Egos
belonging to it is definite; but no one knows what that quantity is nor what is
the total capacity of the earth for sustaining them.
The statisticians of the day are chiefly in the West,
and their tables embrace but a small section of the history of man. They cannot
say how many persons were incarnated on the earth at any prior date when the
globe was full in all parts, hence the quantity of egos willing or waiting to
be reborn is unknown to the men of today. The Masters of theosophical knowledge
say that the total number of such egos is vast, and for that reason the supply
of those for the occupation of bodies to be born over and above the number that
die is sufficient. Then too it must be borne in mind that each ego for itself
varies the length of stay in the post-mortem states. They do not reincarnate at
the same interval, but come out of the state after death at different rates,
and whenever there occurs a great number of deaths by war, pestilence, or
famine, there is at once a rush of souls to incarnation, either in the same
place or in some other place or race.
The earth is so small a globe in the vast assemblage
of inhabitable planets there is a sufficient supply of Egos for incarnation
here. But with due respect to those who put this objection, I do not see that
it has the slightest force or any
relation to the truth of the doctrine of
reincarnation.
______________________
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From A Textbook
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How We Remember our Past Lives
Life after Death & Reincarnation
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Preface to the American Edition Introduction
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First Occult Experiences Teachings of Occult Philosophy
Later Occult Phenomena Appendix
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
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An Outline of Theosophy
Charles Webster Leadbeater
Theosophy - What it is How is it Known?
The Method of Observation General Principles
The Three Great Truths 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
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Three Fundamental Propositions Key Concepts of Theosophy
Cosmogenesis Anthropogenesis Root Races
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The Seven Principles of Man Karma
Reincarnation Helena Petrovna Blavatsky
Colonel Henry Steel Olcott William Quan Judge
The Start of the Theosophical
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History of the Theosophical
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Theosophical Society Presidents
History of the Theosophical
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The Three Objectives of the
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H P Blavatsky’s Secret Doctrine
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H P Blavatsky’s Esoteric Glossary
Mahatma Letters to A P Sinnett 1 - 25
A Modern Revival of Ancient Wisdom
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The Secret Doctrine – Volume 3
A compilation of H P Blavatsky’s
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Esoteric Christianity or the Lesser Mysteries
The Early Teachings of The Masters
A Collection of Fugitive Fragments
Fundamentals of the Esoteric Philosophy
Mystical,
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Essays Selected from "The Theosophist"
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In the Twilight”
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from 1909-1913 in The Theosophist.
compiled from
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Letters and
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Obras Teosoficas En Espanol
Theosophische Schriften Auf Deutsch
An Outstanding
Introduction to Theosophy
By a student of
Katherine Tingley
Elementary Theosophy Who is the Man? Body and Soul
Body, Soul and Spirit Reincarnation Karma
Nature is infinite in space and time --
boundless and eternal, unfathomable and ineffable. The all-pervading essence of
infinite nature can be called space, consciousness, life, substance, force,
energy, divinity -- all of which are fundamentally one.
2) The finite and the infinite
Nature is a unity in diversity, one in
essence, manifold in form. The infinite whole is composed of an infinite number
of finite wholes -- the relatively stable and autonomous things (natural
systems or artefacts) that we observe around us. Every natural system is not only
a conscious, living, substantial entity, but is consciousness-life-substance,
of a particular range of density and form. Infinite nature is an abstraction,
not an entity; it therefore does not act or change and has no attributes. The
finite, concrete systems of which it is composed, on the other hand, move and
change, act and interact, and possess attributes. They are composite,
inhomogeneous, and ultimately transient.
3) Vibration/worlds within worlds
The one essence manifests not only in
infinitely varied forms, and on infinitely varied scales, but also in
infinitely varying degrees of spirituality and substantiality, comprising an
infinite spectrum of vibration or density. There is therefore an endless series
of interpenetrating, interacting worlds within worlds, systems within systems.
The energy-substances of higher planes or
subplanes (a plane being a particular range of vibration) are relatively more
homogeneous and less differentiated than those of lower planes or subplanes.
Just as boundless space is comprised of
endless finite units of space, so eternal duration is comprised of endless
finite units of time. Space is the infinite totality of worlds within worlds,
but appears predominantly empty because only a tiny fraction of the
energy-substances composing it are perceptible and tangible to an entity at any
particular moment. Time is a concept we use to quantify the rate at which
events occur; it is a function of
change and motion, and presupposes a
succession of cause and effect. Every entity is extended in space and changes
'in time'.
All change (of position, substance, or
form) is the result of causes; there is no such thing as absolute chance.
Nothing can happen for no reason at all for nothing exists in isolation;
everything is part of an intricate web of causal interconnections and
interactions. The keynote of nature is harmony: every action is automatically
followed by an equal and opposite reaction, which sooner or later rebounds upon
the originator of the initial act. Thus, all our thoughts and deeds will
eventually bring us 'fortune' or 'misfortune' according to the degree to which
they were harmonious or disharmonious. In the long term, perfect justice
prevails in nature.
Because nature is fundamentally one, and
the same basic habits and structural, geometric, and evolutionary principles
apply throughout, there are correspondences between microcosm and macrocosm.
The principle of analogy -- as above, so below -- is a vital tool in our
efforts to understand reality.
All finite systems and their attributes are
relative. For any entity, energy-substances vibrating within the same range of
frequencies as its outer body are 'physical' matter, and finer grades of
substance are what we call energy, force, thought, desire, mind, spirit,
consciousness, but these are just as material to entities on the corresponding
planes as our physical world is to us. Distance and time units are also
relative: an atom is a solar system on its own scale, reembodying perhaps
millions of times in what for us is one second, and our whole galaxy may be a
molecule in some supercosmic entity, for which a million of our years is just a
second. The range of scale is infinite: matter-consciousness is both infinitely
divisible and infinitely aggregative.
All natural systems consist of smaller
systems and form part of larger systems. Hierarchies extend both 'horizontally'
(on the same plane) and 'vertically' or inwardly (to higher and lower planes).
On the horizontal level, subatomic particles form atoms, which combine into
molecules, which arrange themselves into cells, which form tissues and organs,
which form part of organisms, which form part of ecosystems, which form part of
planets, solar systems, galaxies, etc. The constitution of worlds and of the
organisms that inhabit them form 'vertical' hierarchies, and can be divided
into several interpenetrating layers or elements, from physical-astral to
psychomental to spiritual-divine, each of which can be further divided.
The human constitution can be divided up in
several different ways: e.g. into a trinity of body, soul, and spirit; or into
7 'principles' -- a lower quaternary consisting of physical body, astral
model-body, life-energy, and lower thoughts and desires, and an upper triad
consisting of higher mind (reincarnating ego), spiritual intuition, and inner
god. A planet or star can be regarded as a 'chain' of 12 globes, existing on 7
planes, each globe comprising several subplanes.
The highest part of every multilevelled
organism or hierarchy is its spiritual summit or 'absolute', meaning a
collective entity or 'deity' which is relatively perfected in relation to the
hierarchy in question. But the most 'spiritual' pole of one hierarchy is the
most 'material' pole of the next, superior hierarchy, just as the lowest pole
of one hierarchy is the highest pole of the one below.
Each level of a hierarchical system
exercises a formative and organizing influence on the lower levels (through the
patterns and prototypes stored up from past cycles of activity), while the
lower levels in turn react upon the higher. A system is therefore formed and
organized mainly from within outwards, from the inner levels of its
constitution, which are relatively more enduring and developed than the outer
levels. This inner guidance is sometimes active and selfconscious, as in our
acts of free will (constrained, however, by karmic tendencies from the past),
and sometimes it is automatic and passive, giving rise to our own automatic
bodily functions and habitual and instinctual behavior, and to the orderly,
lawlike operations of nature in general. The 'laws' of nature are therefore the
habits of the various grades of conscious entities that compose reality,
ranging from higher intelligences
(collectively forming the universal mind) to elemental nature-forces.
10) Consciousness and its vehicles
The core of every entity -- whether atom,
human, planet, or star -- is a monad, a unit of consciousness-life-substance,
which acts through a series of more material vehicles or bodies. The monad or
self in which the consciousness of a particular organism is focused is animated
by higher monads and expresses itself through a series of lesser monads, each
of which is the nucleus of one of the lower vehicles of the entity in question.
The following monads can be distinguished: the divine or galactic monad, the
spiritual or solar monad, the higher human or planetary-chain monad, the lower
human or globe monad, and the animal, vital-astral, and physical monads. At our
present stage of evolution, we are essentially the lower human monad, and our
task is to raise our consciousness from the animal-human to the spiritual-human
level of it.
Evolution means the unfolding, the bringing
into active manifestation, of latent powers and faculties 'involved' in a
previous cycle of evolution. It is the building of ever fitter vehicles for the
expression of the mental and spiritual powers of the monad. The more
sophisticated the lower vehicles of an entity, the greater their ability to express
the powers locked up in the higher levels of its constitution. Thus all things
are alive and conscious, but the degree of manifest life and consciousness is
extremely varied.
Evolution results from the interplay of
inner impulses and environmental stimuli. Ever building on and modifying the
patterns of the past, nature is infinitely creative.
12) Cyclic evolution/re-embodiment
Cyclic evolution is a fundamental habit of
nature. A period of evolutionary activity is followed by a period of rest. All
natural systems evolve through re-embodiment. Entities are born from a seed or
nucleus remaining from the previous evolutionary cycle of the monad, develop to
maturity, grow old, and pass away, only to re-embody in a new form after a
period of rest. Each new embodiment is the product of past karma and present
choices.
Nothing comes from nothing: matter and
energy can be neither created nor destroyed, but only transformed. Everything
evolves from preexisting material. The growth of the body of an organism is
initiated on inner planes, and involves the transformation of higher
energy-substances into lower, more material ones, together with the attraction
of matter from the environment.
When an organism has exhausted the store of
vital energy with which it is born, the coordinating force of the indwelling
monad is withdrawn, and the organism 'dies', i.e. falls apart as a unit, and
its constituent components go their separate ways. The lower vehicles decompose
on their respective subplanes, while, in the case of humans, the reincarnating
ego enters a dreamlike state of rest and assimilates the experiences of the
previous incarnation. When the time comes for the next embodiment, the
reincarnating ego clothes itself in many of the same atoms of different grades
that it had used previously, bearing the appropriate karmic impress. The same
basic processes of birth, death,
and rebirth apply to all entities, from atoms to humans to stars.
14) Evolution and involution of worlds
Worlds or spheres, such as planets and
stars, are composed of, and provide the field for the evolution of, 10 kingdoms
-- 3 elemental kingdoms, mineral, plant, animal, and human kingdoms, and 3
spiritual kingdoms. The impulse for a new manifestation of a world issues from
its spiritual summit or hierarch, from which emanate a series of steadily
denser globes or planes; the One expands into the many. During the first half
of the evolutionary cycle (the arc of descent) the energy-substances of each
plane materialize or condense, while during the second half (the arc of ascent)
the trend is towards dematerialization or etherealization, as globes and
entities are reabsorbed into the spiritual hierarch for a period of nirvanic
rest. The descending arc is characterized by the evolution of matter and
involution of spirit, while the ascending arc is characterized by the evolution
of spirit and involution of matter.
In each grand cycle of evolution,
comprising many planetary embodiments, a monad begins as an unselfconsciousness
god-spark, embodies in every kingdom of nature for the purpose of gaining
experience and unfolding its inherent faculties, and ends the cycle as a self
conscious god. Elementals ('baby monads') have no free choice, but
automatically act in harmony with one another and the rest of nature. In each
successive kingdom differentiation and individuality increase, and reach their
peak in the human kingdom with the attainment of selfconsciousness and a large
measure of free will.
In the human kingdom in particular,
self-directed evolution comes into its own. There is no superior power granting
privileges or handing out favours; we evolve according to our karmic merits and
demerits. As we progress through the spiritual kingdoms we become increasingly
at one again with nature, and willingly 'sacrifice' our circumscribed
selfconscious freedoms (especially the freedom to 'do our own thing') in order
to work in peace and harmony with the greater whole of which we form an
integral part. The highest gods of one hierarchy or world-system begin as
elementals in the next. The matter of any plane is composed of aggregated,
crystallized monads in their nirvanic sleep, and the spiritual and divine
entities embodied as planets and stars are the electrons and atomic nuclei --
the material building blocks -- of worlds on even larger scales. Evolution is
without beginning and without end, an endless adventure through the fields of
infinitude, in which there are always new worlds of experience in which to
become selfconscious masters of life.
There is no absolute separateness in
nature. All things are made of the same essence, have the same spiritual-divine
potential, and are interlinked by magnetic ties of sympathy. It is impossible
to realize our full potential, unless we recognize the spiritual unity of all
living beings and make universal brotherhood the keynote of our lives.
Hey Look!
Theosophy in Cardiff
Guide to the
Theosophy Wales King Arthur Pages
Arthur draws the Sword from the Stone
The Knights of The Round Table
The Roman Amphitheatre at Caerleon,
Eamont Bridge, Nr Penrith, Cumbria, England.
(History of the Kings of Britain)
The reliabilty of this work has long been a subject of
debate but it is the first definitive account of Arthur’s
Reign
and one which puts Arthur in a historcal context.
and his version’s political agenda
According to Geoffrey of Monmouth
The first written mention of Arthur as a heroic figure
The British leader who fought twelve battles
King Arthur’s ninth victory at
The Battle of the City of the Legion
King Arthur ambushes an advancing Saxon
army then defeats them at Liddington Castle,
Badbury, Near Swindon, Wiltshire, England.
King Arthur’s twelfth and last victory against the Saxons
Traditionally Arthur’s last battle in which he was
mortally wounded although his side went on to win
No contemporary writings or accounts of his life
but he is placed 50 to 100 years after the accepted
King Arthur period. He refers to Arthur in his inspiring
poems but the earliest written record of these dates
from over three hundred years after Taliesin’s death.
Mallerstang Valley, Nr Kirkby Stephen,
A 12th Century Norman ruin on the site of what is
reputed to have been a stronghold of Uther Pendragon
From
wise child with no earthly father to
Megastar
of Arthurian Legend
History of the Kings of Britain
Drawn from the Stone or received from the Lady of the Lake.
Sir Thomas Malory’s Le Morte d’Arthur has both versions
with both swords called Excalibur. Other versions
5th & 6th Century Timeline of Britain
From the departure of the Romans from
Britain to the establishment of sizeable
Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms
Glossary of
Arthur’s uncle:- The puppet ruler of the Britons
controlled and eventually killed by Vortigern
Amesbury, Wiltshire, England. Circa 450CE
An alleged massacre of Celtic Nobility by the Saxons
History of the Kings of Britain
Athrwys / Arthrwys
King of Ergyng
Circa 618 - 655 CE
Latin: Artorius; English: Arthur
A warrior King born in Gwent and associated with
Caerleon, a possible Camelot. Although over 100 years
later that the accepted Arthur period, the exploits of
Athrwys may have contributed to the King Arthur Legend.
He became King of Ergyng, a kingdom between
Gwent and Brycheiniog (Brecon)
Angles under Ida seized the Celtic Kingdom of
Bernaccia in North East England in 547 CE forcing
Although much later than the accepted King Arthur
period, the events of Morgan Bulc’s 50 year campaign
to regain his kingdom may have contributed to
Old Welsh: Guorthigirn;
Anglo-Saxon: Wyrtgeorn;
Breton: Gurthiern; Modern Welsh; Gwrtheyrn;
*********************************
An earlier ruler than King Arthur and not a heroic figure.
He is credited with policies that weakened Celtic Britain
to a point from which it never recovered.
Although there are no contemporary accounts of
his rule, there is more written evidence for his
existence than of King Arthur.
How Sir Lancelot slew two giants,
From Sir Thomas Malory’s Le Morte d’Arthur
How Sir Lancelot rode disguised
in Sir Kay's harness, and how he
From Sir Thomas Malory’s Le Morte d’Arthur
How Sir Lancelot jousted against
four knights of the Round Table,
From Sir Thomas Malory’s Le Morte d’Arthur
Try these if you are looking for a local
Theosophy Group or Centre
UK Listing of Theosophical Groups
Cardiff
Theosophical Society in Wales
Cardiff, Wales, UK. CF24 – 1DL
_____________________________
Cardiff Picture Gallery
Cardiff
Millennium Stadium
The Hayes Cafe
Outside Cardiff Castle Circa 1890
Church Street
Cardiff View
Royal
The Original
Norman Castle which stands inside
the Grounds of
the later
Inside the
Grounds at
Cardiff Street
Entertainment
Cardiff Indoor
Market
Cardiff
Theosophical Society in Wales