Planetary Chain Dictionary

A Theosophical definition of Planetary Chain :

Planetary Chain

Every kosmic body or globe, be it sun or planet, nebula or comet, atom or electron, is a composite entity formed of or comprised of inner and invisible energies and substances and of an outer, to us, and often visible, to us, physical vehicle or body. These elements all together number seven (or twelve), being what is called in theosophy the seven principles or elements of every self-contained entity; in other words, of every individual life-center.

Thus every one of the physical globes that we see scattered over the fields of space is accompanied by six invisible and superior globes, forming what in theosophy is called a chain. This is the case with every sun or star, with every planet, and with every moon of every planet. It is likewise the case with the nebulae and the comets as above stated: all are septiform entities, all have a sevenfold constitution, even as man has, who is a copy in the little of what the universe is in the great, there being for us one life in that universe, one natural system of "laws" in that universe. Every entity in the universe is an inseparable part of it; therefore what is in the whole is in every part, because the part cannot contain anything that the whole does not contain, the part cannot be greater than the whole.

Our own earth-chain is composed of seven (or twelve) globes, of which only one, our earth, is visible on this our earth plane to our physical sense apparatus, because that apparatus is builded or rather evolved to cognize this earth plane and none other. But the populations of all the seven (or twelve) globes of this earth-chain pass in succession, and following each other, from globe to globe, thus gaining experience of energy and matter and consciousness on all the various planes and spheres that this chain comprises.

The other six (or eleven) globes of our earth-chain are invisible to our physical sense, of course; and, limiting our explanation only to the manifest seven globes of the complete chain of twelve globes, the six globes other and higher than the earth exist two by two, on three planes of the solar system superior to our physical plane where our earth-globe is  - this our earth. These three superior planes or worlds are each one superior to the world or plane immediately beneath or inferior to it.

Our earth-globe is the fourth and lowest of all the manifest seven globes of our earth-chain. Three globes precede it on the descending or shadowy arc, and three globes follow it on the ascending or luminous arc of evolution. The Secret Doctrine by H. P. Blavatsky and the more recent work, Fundamentals of the Esoteric Philosophy (1932), contain most suggestive material for the student interested in this phase of the esoteric philosophy. (See also Ascending Arc)

See also: Planetary Chain , Mysticism, Body Mind and Soul

Planetary Chain Every kosmic body or globe, be it sun or planet, nebula or comet, atom or electron, is a composite entity comprised of inner and invisible energies and substances, and of an outer and often visible physical body. These elements all together, whether enumerated as seven or twelve, are the principles or elements of every self-contained entity or individual life-center. What theosophy calls a planetary chain is an entity composed of seven or twelve such multiprincipled globes, and which taken as a unit form one planetary chain. All celestial bodies are multiprincipled entities as man is, who is a copy in the small of what the universe is in the great, there being one life and one system of laws in that universe. Every entity in the universe is an inseparable part of it, therefore whatsoever the whole contains, is found in miniature in every part.

Our own earth-chain is composed of seven or twelve globes, of which only one, our physical earth, exists on this plane, perceptible to our physical sense apparatus because that apparatus is evolved to cognize this earth-plane and none other. But the life-waves of all the globes of the earth-chain pass in succession, following each other, from globe to globe, thus gaining experience of energy, matter, and consciousness on all the various planes and spheres that this chain comprises.

Limiting our explanation only to the manifest seven globes of the complete twelve, the six globes other than the earth exist, according to one diagrammatic delineation, two by two, on the three planes of the solar system more ethereal than the physical plane. These three superior planes or worlds are each one superior to the world or plane immediately beneath it. Our earth-globe is the fourth and most material of all the manifest globes of the earth-chain. Three globes precede it on the descending or shadowy arc and three globes follow it on the ascending or luminous arc of evolution.

(See also: Planetary Chain , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

A Theosophical definition of Round :

Round

The doctrine concerning our planetary chain commonly called that of the seven rounds means that the life cycle or life-wave begins its evolutionary course on globe A, the first of the series of seven (or ten) globes; then, completing its cycles there, runs down to globe B, and then to globe C, and then to globe D, our earth; and then, on the ascending arc, to globe E, then to globe F, and then to globe G. These are the manifest seven globes of the planetary chain. This is one planetary round. After the planetary round there ensues a planetary or chain nirvana, until the second round begins in the same way, but in a more "advanced" degree of evolution than was the first round.

A globe round is one of the seven passages of a life-wave during its planetary round, on any one (and therefore on and through each) of the globes. When the life-wave has passed through globe D, for instance, and ends its cycles on globe D, this is the globe round of globe D for that particular planetary round; and so with all the globes respectively. Seven root-races make one globe round. There are seven globe rounds therefore (one globe round for each of the seven globes) in each planetary round.

Seven planetary rounds equal one kalpa or manvantara or Day of Brahma. When seven planetary rounds have been accomplished, which is as much as saying forty-nine globe rounds (or globe manvantaras), there ensues a still higher nirvana than that occurring between globes G and A after each planetary round. This higher nirvana is coincident with what is called a pralaya of that planetary chain, which pralaya lasts until the cycle again returns for a new planetary chain to form, containing the same hosts of living beings as on the preceding chain, and which are now destined to enter upon the new planetary chain, but on and in a higher series of planes or worlds than in the preceding one.

When seven such planetary chains with their various kalpas or manvantaras have passed away, this sevenfold grand cycle is one solar manvantara, and then the solar system sinks into the solar or cosmic pralaya.

There are outer rounds and inner rounds. An inner round comprises the passage of the life-wave in any one planetary chain from globe A to globe G once around, and this takes place seven times in a planetary manvantara.

The outer round comprises the passage of the entirety of a life-wave of a planetary chain along the circulations of the solar system, from one of the seven sacred planets to another; and this for seven (or ten) times.

There is another aspect of the teaching concerning the outer rounds which cannot be elucidated here.

See also: Round , Mysticism, Body Mind and Soul

Round In connection with a planetary chain, when the life-wave of any planet passes through the seven root-races of one of its globes, this is called a globe-round. But the life-wave also passes in turn through the seven or twelve globes, beginning with globe A, and after an interglobal rest, passes to globe B, on the next lower subplane, then to globe C in similar manner, and following it, to globe D, which is on the lowest plane for that planetary chain. Rising then it in like manner passes through the three higher globes, E, F, and G. The circuit of these seven or twelve globes is called a planetary round, after which there is a planetary or chain-nirvana before the second round begins, which is made on a more advanced degree of evolution than was the first round.

Seven planetary rounds equal one kalpa, manvantara, or Day of Brahma. When seven planetary rounds (49 globe-rounds) have been thus accomplished, there ensues a still higher nirvana than that occurring between globes G and A after each planetary round. This higher nirvana is coincident with what is called a pralaya of that planetary chain, which lasts until a new planetary chain forms, containing the same hosts of living beings as on the preceding chain.

When seven such planetary chains with their various kalpas or manvantaras and pralayas have passed away, this sevenfold grand cycle is one solar manvantara, and then the solar system sinks into the solar or cosmic pralaya.

There are outer rounds and inner rounds. An inner round comprises the passage of the life-wave in any one planetary chain once from globe A to G, or from the first globe to the twelfth, and this takes place seven or twelve times in a planetary manvantara. The outer round comprises the passage of the entirety of a life-wave of a planetary chain along the circulations of the solar system, from one of the seven sacred planets to another, and in a specific serial order; and this seven or twelve times. Outer round can refer to two different events: the grand outer round, during which the spiritual monad makes a stay of varying length in each planetary chain; and the minor or small outer round, which is the post-mortem journey of the monad, after the death of an individual, to each of the planetary chains, but in this latter case its stay in each chain is relatively short.

See also INNER ROUND; OUTER ROUND

(See also: Round , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

A Theosophical definition of Planetary Spirit (Planetary Spirits) :

Planetary Spirit (Planetary Spirits)

Every celestial body in space, of whatever kind or type, is under the overseeing and directing influence of a hierarchy of spiritual and quasi-spiritual and astral beings, who in their aggregate are generalized under the name of celestial spirits. These celestial spirits exist therefore in various stages or degrees of evolution; but the term planetary spirits is usually restricted to the highest class of these beings when referring to a planet.

In every case, and whatever the celestial body may be, such a hierarchy of ethereal beings, when the most advanced in evolution of them are considered, in long past cycles of kosmic evolution had evolved through a stage of development corresponding to the humanity of earth. Every planetary spirit therefore, wherever existent, in those far past aeons of kosmic time was a man or a being equivalent to what we humans on earth call man.

The planetary spirits of earth, for instance, are intimately linked with the origin and destiny of our present humanity, for not only are they our predecessors along the evolutionary path, but certain classes of them are actually the spiritual guides and instructors of mankind. We humans, in far distant aeons of the future, on a planetary chain which will be the child or grandchild of the present earth-chain, will be the planetary spirits of that future planetary chain. It is obvious that as H. P. Blavatsky says: "Our Earth, being as yet only in its Fourth Round, is far too young to have produced high Planetary Spirits"; but when the seventh round of this earth planetary chain shall have reached its end, our present humanity will then have become dhyanchohans of various grades, planetary spirits of one group or class, with necessary evolutionary differences as among themselves.

The planetary spirits watch over, guide, and lead the hosts of evolving entities inferior to themselves during the various rounds of a planetary chain. Finally, every celestial globe, whether sun or planet or other celestial body, has as the summit or acme of its spiritual hierarchy a supreme celestial spirit who is the hierarch of its own hierarchy. It should not be forgotten that the humanity of today forms a component element or stage or degree in the hierarchy of this (our) planetary chain.

See also: Planetary Spirit (Planetary Spirits) , Mysticism, Body Mind and Soul

A Theosophical definition of Agnishvatta (Agnishvattas) :

Agnishvatta (Agnishvattas)

(Sanskrit) A compound of two words: agni, "fire"; shvatta, "tasted" or "sweetened," from svad, verb-root meaning "to taste" or "to sweeten." Therefore, literally one who has been delighted or sweetened by fire. A class of pitris: our solar ancestors as contrasted with the barhishads, our lunar ancestors.

The kumaras, agnishvattas, and manasaputras are three groups or aspects of the same beings: the kumaras represent the aspect of original spiritual purity untouched by gross elements of matter. The agnishvattas represent the aspect of their connection with the sun or solar spiritual fire. Having tasted or been "sweetened" by the spiritual fire  - the fire of intellectuality and spirituality  - they have been purified thereby. The manasaputras represent the aspect of intellectuality  - the functions of higher intellect.

The agnishvattas and manasaputras are two names for the same class or host of beings, and set forth or signify or represent two different aspects or activities of this one class of beings. Thus, for instance, a man may be said to be a kumara in his spiritual parts, an agnishvatta in his buddhic-manasic parts, and a manasaputra in his purely manasic aspect. Other beings could be called kumaras in their highest aspects, as for instance the beasts, but they are not imbodied agnishvattas or manasaputras.

The agnishvattas are the solar spiritual-intellectual parts of us, and therefore are our inner teachers. In preceding manvantaras, they had completed their evolution in the realms of physical matter, and when the evolution of lower beings had brought these latter to the proper state, the agnishvattas came to the rescue of these who had only the physical "creative fire," thus inspiring and enlightening these lower lunar pitris with spiritual and intellectual energies or "fires."

When this earth's planetary chain shall have reached the end of its seventh round, we, as then having completed the evolutionary course for this planetary chain, will leave this planetary chain as dhyan-chohans, agnishvattas; but the others now trailing along behind us  - the present beasts  - will be the lunar pitris of the next planetary chain to come.

While it is correct to say that these three names appertain to the same class of beings, nevertheless each name has its own significance in the occult teaching, which is why the three names are used with three distinct meanings. Imagine an unconscious god-spark beginning its evolution in any one solar or maha-manvantara. We may call it a kumara, a being of original spiritual purity, but with a destiny through karmic evolution connected with the realms of matter.

At the other end of the line, at the consummation of the evolution in this maha-manvantara, when the evolving entity has become a fully self-conscious god or divinity, its proper appellation then is agnishvatta, for it has been "sweetened" or purified by means of the working through it of the spiritual fires inherent in itself.

Now then, when such an agnishvatta assumes the role of a bringer of mind or of intellectual light to a lunar pitri which it overshadows and in which a ray from it incarnates, it then, although in its own realm an agnishvatta, functions as a manasaputra or child of mind or mahat. A brief analysis of the compound elements of these three names may be useful.

Kumara is from ku meaning "with difficulty" and mara meaning "mortal." The significance of the word therefore can be paraphrased as "mortal with difficulty," and the meaning usually given to it by Sanskrit scholars as "easily dying" is wholly exoteric and amusing, and doubtless arose from the fact that kumara is a word frequently used for child or boy, everybody knowing that young children "die easily." The idea therefore is that purely spiritual beings, although ultimately destined by evolution to pass through the realms of matter, become mortal, i.e., material, only with difficulty.

Agnishvatta has the meaning stated above, "delighted" or "pleased" or "sweetened," i.e., "purified" by fire  - which we may render in two ways: either as the fire of suffering and pain in material existence producing great fiber and strength of character, i.e., spirituality; or, perhaps still better from the standpoint of occultism, as signifying an entity or entities who have become one in essence through evolution with the aethery fire of spirit.

Manasaputra is a compound of two words: manasa, "mental" or "intellectual," from the word manas, "mind," and putra, "son" or "child," therefore a child of the cosmic mind  - a "mind-born son" as H. P. Blavatsky phrases it. (See also Pitris, Lunar Pitris)

See also: Agnishvatta (Agnishvattas) , Mysticism, Body Mind and Soul

Fourth Globe or Sphere The globe D of any planetary chain, especially of our earth-chain. The lowest of the chain, because it is by itself on the lowest of the series of cosmic planes in which a planetary chain is manifesting.

See also PLANETARY CHAIN

(See also: Fourth Globe, Sphere , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Manvantara (Sanskrit) [from manu + antara between]

Between two manus; a period of activity or manifestation. Manu is the entities collectively aggregated into a unity which appear first at the beginning of manifestation and from which, like a cosmic tree, everything is derived or born. A manvantara, therefore, is the period of activity between any two manus, on any plane, since in any such period there is a root-manu at the beginning of evolution and a seed-manu at its close, preceding a pralaya.

One has to gather from context what the meaning of the manvantara referred to is, remembering that what is applicable to a lesser period applied also to a greater, and conversely. When speaking of a manvantara of our planet, a period of one round of the planetary chain is usually meant. There is also the manvantara of any globe of the planetary chain. Seven rounds of the planetary chain make a mahamanvantara of a planet, a Day of Brahma. A solar manvantara is a period of seven Days of Brahma. The Life of Brahma is a mahamanvantara or mahakalpa of the solar system. A minor or globe manvantara is the duration of the seven root-races on any particular globe of the planetary chain. Even a root-race is sometimes called a manvantara because there is a root-manu and seed-manu to each race. The period of a human life is sometimes called a paurusha manvantara; the period of a planet's life, a bhaumika manvantara; the life period of the solar system, a saurya manvantara, the life period of the universe, a prakritika manvantara, which last can become synonymous with the saurya manvantara.

When the time arrives for the re-opening of a planetary manvantara, the planet

"descends again into manifestation through the inner divine planetary thirst for active life and is directed to the same solar system, and to the same spot, relatively speaking, that its predecessor (its former self) had, attracted thither by magnetic and other forces on the lower planes. It forms, in the beginning of its course or journey downwards, a planetary nebula; after many aeons it becomes a comet, following ultimately an elliptical orbit around the sun of our solar system, thus being 'captured,' as our scientists wrongly say, by the sun; and finally condenses into a planet in its earliest physical condition. The comets of short periodic time are on their way to rebecoming planets in our solar system, provided they successfully elude the many dangers that beset such ethereal bodies before condensation and hardening of their matter shield them from destruction" (Fund 63).

In a similar manner at the re-opening of a solar manvantara, a cosmic nebula is gradually formed of the principles of the former cosmos with its sun and planets, etc. Then

"this cosmic nebula drifts from the place where it first was evolved, the guiding impulse of karma directing here and directing there, this luminous nebulosity moving circularly, and contracting, passing through other phases of nebular evolution, such as the spiral stage and the annular, until it becomes spherical, or rather a nebular series of concentric spheres. The nebula in space, as just said, takes often a spiral form, and from the core, the center, there stream forth branches, spiral branches, and they look like whirling wheels within wheels, and they whirl during many ages. When the time has come -- when the whirling has developed pari passu with the indwelling lives and intelligences within the cosmic nebula -- then the annular form appears, a form like a ring or concentric rings, with a heart in the center, and after long aeons, the central heart becomes the sun or central body of the new solar system, and the rings the planets. These rings condense into other bodies, and these other bodies are the planets circulating around their elder brother, the sun; elder, because he was the first to condense into a sphere" (Fund 61-2).

In the first half of a manvantara (planetary as well as human) there is the descent of spirit into matter, and in the second half an ascent of spirit at the expense of matter. A manvantara or period of material manifestation is a temporary spiritual death, whereas the dawn of the succeeding pralaya is spiritual birth.

(See also: Manvantara , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Lunar Chain, Moon-Chain The planetary chain of the solar system which, although now dead and in decay, was the former imbodiment of our present earth-chain.

When the life forces inherent in a globe of a planetary chain have completed seven rounds on that globe, these life forces progressively pass out into a laya-center which then becomes, after a time period determined by karma, the vital nucleus for the corresponding globe or the next imbodiment of that planetary chain.

This took place on the lunar chain as the globes of this chain in the preceding chain-manvantara reached the end of their life-term in manifestation, and died in serial order from the first to the last globe. Thus each globe of the lunar chain as it died became a lunar globe-corpse still infilled with the molecular life of the globe, but deprived of all its higher, more ethereal and spiritual parts -- exactly as happens at the death and decay of a human physical body.

Though globe D of the moon-chain, as an instance in point, thus passed into invisibility with the disintegration of its molecular components and with the passage of cosmic ages, yet we are able to discern its phantom, our moon, because our senses, correlated to the physical plane of matter of our chain, are also correlated to what on the lunar chain would be astral matter, and thus are able to perceive what is actually the kama-rupa or astral shell of globe D of the lunar chain (our moon). Hence the earth-chain is the child or reimbodiment of the lunar chain.

(See also: Lunar Chain, Moon-Chain , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

A Theosophical definition of Brahma :

Brahma

(Sanskrit) A word of which the root, brih, means "expansion." It stands for the spiritual energy-consciousness side of our solar universe, i.e., our solar system, and the Egg of Brahma is that solar system.

A Day of Brahma or a maha-manvantara is composed of seven rounds, a period of 4,320,000,000 terrestrial years; this period is also called a kalpa. A Night of Brahma, the planetary rest period, which is also called the parinirvanic period, is of equal length.

Seven Days of Brahma make one solar kalpa; or, in other words, seven planetary cycles, each cycle consisting of seven rounds (or seven planetary manvantaras), form one solar manvantara.

One Year of Brahma consists of 360 Divine Days, each day being the duration of a planet's life, i.e., of a planetary chain of seven globes. The Life of Brahma (or the life of the universal system) consists of one hundred Divine Years, i.e., 4,320,000,000 years times 36,000 x 2.

The Life of Brahma is half ended: that is, fifty of his years are gone  - a period of 155,520,000,000,000 of our years have passed away since our solar system, with its sun, first began its manvantaric course. There remain, therefore, fifty more such Years of Brahma before the system sinks into rest or pralaya. As only half of the evolutionary journey is accomplished, we are, therefore, at the bottom of the kosmic cycle, i.e., on the lowest plane.

See also: Brahma , Mysticism, Body Mind and Soul

A Theosophical definition of Life-Wave :

Life-Wave

This is a term which means the collective hosts of monads, of which hosts there are seven or ten, according to the classification adopted. The monad is a spiritual ego, a consciousness-center, being in the spiritual realms of the universal life what the life-atoms are in the lower planes of form. These monads and life-atoms collectively are the seven (or ten) life-waves  - these monads with the life-atoms in and through which they work; these life-atoms having remained, when the former planetary chain went into pralaya, in space as  kosmic dust on the physical plane, and as corresponding life-atoms or life-specks of differentiated matter on the intermediate planes above the physical. Out of the working of the monads as they come down into matter  - or rather through and by the monadic rays permeating the lower planes of matter  - are the globes builded. The seven (or ten) life-waves or hosts of monads consist of monads in seven (or ten) degrees of advancement for each host.

When the hosts of beings forming the life-wave  - the life-wave being composed of the entities derived from a former but now dead planet, in our case the moon  - find that the time has arrived for them to enter upon their own particular evolutionary course, they cycle downwards as a life-wave along the planetary chain that has been prepared for them by the three hosts of elementary beings, of the three primordial elementary worlds, the forerunners of the life-wave, yet integral parts of it. This life-wave passes seven times in all around the seven spheres of our planetary chain, at first cycling down the shadowy arc through all the seven elements of the kosmos, gathering experience in each one of them; each particular entity of the life-wave, no matter what its grade or kind  - spiritual, psychic, astral, mental, divine  - advancing, until at the bottom of the arc, when the middle of the fourth round is attained, they feel the end of the downward impulse. Then begins the upward impulse, the reascent along the luminous arc upwards, towards the source from which the life-wave originally came.

See also: Life-Wave , Mysticism, Body Mind and Soul

Loka (Sanskrit) Place, locality; in Brahmanic literature, heavens; in theosophical literature, world, sphere, plane. Used in the metaphysical systems of India, both in contrast to and in conjunction with tala (inferior world).

"Wherever there is a loka there is an exactly correspondential tala, and in fact, the tala is the nether pole of its corresponding loka. Lokas and talas, therefore, in a way of speaking, may be considered to be the spiritual and the material aspects or substance-principles of the different worlds which compose and in fact are the kosmic universe" (OG 168). The lokas and talas must be thought of by twos: a loka and its corresponding tala can no more be separated than can the two poles of a magnet. They are the two sides of being, the two contrasting forces of nature, the light-side and the night-side.

There are many different divisions of the lokas and talas used in Hindu literature, but many are merely exoteric blinds. Dividing the universe into seven manifested grades or planes of being, which are really worlds, these worlds are polarized into lokas and talas, two by two throughout. The seven lokas and seven talas together form the seven cosmic planes.

Of these seven loka-tala pairs, the three highest belong to the relatively arupa (formless) or spiritual worlds, and are often called arupa lokas and arupa talas. The four lowest pairs belong to the rupa (form) or material worlds, and are often called rupa lokas and talas. These lokas and talas are not placed in nature's structure above each other like steps of a stair, but are within each other, interblending and continually interacting. Each inner one is finer and more ethereal than the next outer one; the inmost of either series is the most ethereal and spiritual of all. The more spiritual the center, the wider is its outflow of radiation and influence, and it therefore reaches far beyond the more material ones. Exoteric Hindu literature details specific limitations or frontiers to the reach of each loka and tala, as for instance when it is said that svarloka and talatala extend to the pole star, or that the reach of influence of bhuvarloka and mahatala extend to the sun.

Our earth, globe D of the earth-chain, is patala if we look at it from the material standpoint; and it is bhurloka if we look at it from the energy-consciousness side. In this globe the loka and tala are equally bipolarized because it is the only globe on the lowest cosmic plane. It is the turning point of our planetary chain where matter and spirit are equilibrated. The field of influence of this loka and tala -- and indeed of all the lokas and talas -- extends little farther than the psychomagnetic region of globe D.

The solar system as a whole has its corresponding cosmic lokas and talas; so has any planetary chain of the solar system and any globe of such chain. Each one of these different scales is built of its own series of lokas and talas on the analogical principle that what prevails in the cosmic whole as its fundamental structure must necessarily prevail in its every portion.

Just as the kosmos is divided into seven planes with its kosmic lokas and talas, its tattvas and bhutas -- its principles and elements -- so is every globe of our planetary chain, and indeed every human being, of necessity divided in a similar manner, with its own seven lokas and seven talas, which in the case of man are the principles and elements of his constitution. Thus,

"the seven principles of our globe are the seven lokas and seven talas belonging especially to earth; and the seven principles of each one of the other six globes of our planetary chain, are the respective lokas and talas belonging to each one of them. Now the two other globes on each plane of the three planes above ours, making thus the other six globes of our planetary chain, receive their respective life force, recieve their respective inflow of intellectual and spiritual energies and beings, from the respective lokas and talas of the sun. There are seven suns, but only one sun on this plane, as our globe is but one on this plane, the lowest of the seven kosmical planes."

"each one of these lokas and each one of these talas produces the following lower one of the scale from itself, . . . The highest of either line projects or sends forth the next lower. It, in addition to its own particular characteristic or swabhava, contains also within itself the nature of the one above it, its parent, and also sends forth the one lower than it, the third in the line downwards. And so on down the scale. So that each one of the principles or elements (or lokas or talas)

is likewise sevenfold, containing in itself the subelements of that or those of which it is the reflection from above" (Fund 472, 481-2).

The lokas, in our present fourth planetary round, are dominant on the luminous arc, while the talas are recessive; whereas the talas are the dominant factors or worlds on the shadowy arc of descent, where the lokas are recessive or involving. Virtue, purity, kindness, compassion are signs that the entity possessing them is evolving the spirit within, and therefore is ascending along the lokas of the luminous arc and thus is a denizen of the lokas as the dominant factors in his evolution. Selfishness, impurity, unkindness, cruelty, and deception are the signs that the entity possessing them is then under the influence or dominance of the talas, and is for the time being on a shadowy arc -- the particular and characteristic effect of the working of the influences of the talas.

(See also: Loka , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Solar System Commonly, the Sun with the nine principal planets -- Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto -- their satellites, and the minor planets, comets, and meteors; in theosophy, however, the solar system is a far more complex entity, for many of its worlds manifest on planes of being invisible to our senses.

The planets are individual manifestations of conscious intelligences, their distances from the sun being generally in rhythmical progression and their motions directed by mind and volition, as Kepler declared in his doctrine of Rectors, following the ancient teachings. The nebular hypothesis, once so popular in European scientific thought and now more or less rejected, was first suggested by Swedish seer Swedenborg and German philosopher Kant, and around the beginning of the 19th century was worked out in mathematical detail by the Frenchman Laplace. Though the nebular hypothesis as scientifically presented was unacceptable to theosophical thinkers, it nevertheless was based upon facts of cosmic evolution accepted by the ancient wisdom-religion and approximated somewhat more closely to what theosophy teaches as the facts of cosmogony than do the later tidal or planetesimal theories.

In theosophy the universe is the product of cosmic mind or intelligence, whose all-permeant activities manifest on our material plane as the laws of nature. The universe and all in it, proceeding from cosmic consciousness, is imbued throughout with the qualities and attributes of its divine originators; and as there is but one primordial fundamental life -- and therefore one fundamental law -- energizing and guiding all, the ancient teaching of analogy is the master key to understanding universal nature.

Calling the primordial origins of every being and thing by the term monads, as Leibniz did following Pythagoras, these monads may be looked upon as the seeds of cosmic life, life-centers or energy points, and in such case naught in the universe is the product of chance, but is the offspring of mind. Thus the solar system itself sprang from such a cosmic seed or monad; and the same holds true for the planets, nebulae, comets, and all other individually enduring cosmic bodies.

Comets are coordinated with earlier and later stages of nebular evolution, playing an activating part in the formation of individual celestial bodies. The planets did not emerge from the sun, but the sun is their "co-uterine brother" with the same nebular origin. The sun is the great distributor of light and other radiations, including vital energy, throughout the solar system, and is itself a member of a hierarchy of solar beings.

The ancient wisdom speaks of seven sacred planets which are especially connected with the earth, as indeed our own earth is likewise especially connected with various planetary chains, which mutually assisted in the formation of the seven or twelve globes of the planetary chains. These sacred planets are: the Moon, Mercury, Venus, Sun, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn -- the Sun and Moon being substitutes for esoteric and invisible planets. The complete number of the planets of a solar system is twelve, which is the number of globes composing a planetary chain. These twelve sacred planets are closely linked with the twelve houses of the zodiac, these links of unity being the energic coordinates tying our solar system in with the life and structure of the galaxy.

Theosophy makes a distinction between the solar system and the universal solar system -- the former has especial reference to the twelve sacred planets, while the universal solar system refers to all bodies belonging to and revolving around a master- or king-sun (raja-sun) and within the latter's far-flung realm on seven or more planes of being. It therefore contains planets and suns invisible to our present range of sense perception. Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto are said not to belong to the solar system (nor are they included among the twelve sacred planets), but are members of the universal solar system.

In the Brahmanical system the solar system was regarded as an Egg of Brahma (brahmanda), the prakritic or prithivi-form of Brahma, so that its life span is equivalent to the length of Brahma's manifested life. A Day of Brahma for a planetary chain consists of a planetary manvantara -- seven rounds of the various life-waves around that chain -- a period of 4,320,000,000 terrestrial years. The ensuing pralaya or Night of Brahma is of an equivalent length, together equaling 8,640,000,000 terrestrial years. Forty-nine such planetary Days and Nights equal one solar manvantara, equivalent to a Year of Brahma; and each such year of Brahma is figured as being 360 of his Days; and 100 such Years of Brahma equal Brahma's Life, a period of 311,040,000,000,000 terrestrial years -- including in this vast time period the various twilights and dawns. Theosophic philosophy states that one-half of Brahma's Life has been spent, or 50 Years of Brahma. At the end of Brahma's Life, the final consummation of the solar system, so far as the planetary chain is concerned, will occur, and everything within the bounds of this system will vanish, and the succeeding solar pralaya will commence.

(See also: Solar System , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

A Theosophical definition of Races :

Races

During evolution on our earth (and on the other six manifest globes of the planetary chain of earth correspondentially), mankind as a life-wave passes through seven evolutionary stages called root-races. Seven such root-races form the evolutionary cycle on this globe earth in this fourth round through the planetary chain; and this evolutionary cycle through our globe earth is called one globe round. We are at the present time in the fourth subrace of our present fifth root-race, on globe D or our earth.

Each root-race is divided in our teachings into seven minor races, and each one of these seven minor races is again in its turn subdivided into seven branchlet or still smaller racial units, etc.

The student who is interested in the matter of tracing the evolutionary arrangement or history of the seven root-races on our globe earth is referred primarily to H. P. Blavatsky's The Secret Doctrine, and secondarily to Fundamentals of the Esoteric Philosophy.

Each one of the seven root-races reaches its maximum of material efflorescence and power at about its middle point. When half of the cycle of any one of the seven root-races is run, then the racial cataclysm ensues, for such is the way in which nature operates; and at this middle racial point, at the middle point of the fourth subrace of the mother-race or root-race, a new root-race begins or is born out of the preceding root-race, and pursues its evolution from birth towards maturity, side by side with, or rather in connection with, the latter half of the preceding mother-race or root-race. It is in this fashion that the root-races overlap each other, a most interesting fact in ethnological or racial history. This overlapping likewise takes place in the cases of the minor and branchlet races.

It will be between sixteen thousand and twenty thousand years more before the racial cataclysm will ensue which will cut our own fifth root-race in two  - exactly as the same racial cataclysmic occurrence happened to the fourth-race Atlanteans who preceded us, and to the third-race Lemurians who preceded them; and as it will happen to the two root-races which will follow ours, the sixth and seventh  - for we are now approaching the middle point of our own fifth root-race, because we are nearing the middle point of the fourth subrace of this fifth root-race. (See also Globe, Planetary Chain, Round)

See also: Races , Mysticism, Body Mind and Soul

Seventh Round The final manifested round in the evolutionary life cycle of the life-waves coursing around a planetary chain. While little can be said regarding the condition of mankind in the seventh round, humans of the seventh round will have successfully become one with their sixth principle (buddhi); and as the seventh principle (atman) will be predominant in the seventh round, life on earth should then be glorious beyond present understanding. Only in the seventh root-race and in the seventh round will human beings truly and finally have become fully evolved septenary beings: then will they have attained the evolutionary status of dhyani-chohanship.

As each of the six previous rounds developed a cosmic element-principle, the seventh element will come into manifestation; we can obtain some conception of its nature by calling it adi-tattva. "Earth will reach her true ultimate form -- (inversely in this to man) -- her body shell -- only toward the end of the manvantara after the Seventh Round" (SD 1:260). Long before the earth shall have reached her seventh round, our moon, the earth's mother, will have dissolved into cosmic ether and dust. In its turn, long after the seventh round, the earth will be a moon to the planetary chain-to-be.

As the hosts of monads complete their cycling on the seven manifested globes of a planetary chain, one by one (commencing with globe A) each globe enters the state of pralaya, and the forces and higher substances comprising each globe are transferred to a laya-center, there to remain in statu quo until the time strikes for the new planetary chain to come into manifestation. These laya-centers are the focal points respectively for the birth of the globes of the new chain.

(See also: Seventh Round , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Earth-chain Our planet, like every visible cosmic body, is one of a composite chain or coadunated group formed of seven or twelve energies and substances, the ones on our plane alone visible to our physical senses.

These septenary or duodenary groups are called planetary chains, and the earth-chain is the one whose visible component is what we call the planet earth. The words and diagrams describing the idea are merely representations, not photographic. The components are distinctly separate spheres in each chain, but nevertheless form a coadunated unit, but no two globes are of the same substance.

See also PLANETARY CHAIN

(See also: Earth-chain , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Planet Usually refers to the visible satellites of our sun, though in its general sense including the planets belonging to other solar systems, and planets belonging to the universal solar system, whether visible or not on our plane.

One particular meaning is that of the seven sacred planets: Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, and two secret planets for which the Sun and Moon are substituted exoterically. Uranus and Neptune do not belong to this group, although circulating around our Sun; Neptune while belonging to our universal solar system does not cosmogonically belong to our own minor solar system, and hence is what from our standpoint may be called a capture.

Each planet, like all other celestial orbs, is composed of seven or twelve globes, in coadunation but not in consubstantiality, forming a planetary chain on the various cosmic planes, only those on our particular physical plane being visible to us. Planets are the outer shell of living beings and have evolved from cosmic seeds, passing through various stages including that of comets. They are inhabited by denizens adapted to their conditions.

 Each planet of the solar system is in its own particular stage of planetary evolution, one planet being in one round of its own evolutionary course, another in a different round of its evolutionary development; and the substances or matters composing them are in respectively different states of materiality, ethereality, or spirituality.

The periods of the planetary movements and of their nodes and apses are regulated by mathematical law originally impressed not only in the structure of the solar system, but in the svabhava or characteristic nature of each individual planet in the system, and these periods mark innumerable cycles of time, great and small. They shed influence on the earth and its inhabitants both as time indicators and by virtue of their quality as living beings. Each celestial body is the mansion, vehicle, or house of what is in its essence a divine entity; and these regents or governors, each one of its own sun or planet, are themselves undergoing courses of evolutionary unfolding in time periods so vast that mathematics of cosmic extent are required to compass them.

(See also: Planet , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Inner Round In theosophical literature, the passage of the ten classes or hosts of monads through all the globes comprising a planetary chain. An inner round begins on the highest globe and continues its progress around and through them all, concluding the cycle again at the globe from which it first started. The same journey is undergone by the spiritual monad after death.

Such a complete circuit of the life-waves on each and every one of the globes of a planetary chain is termed a planetary round or chain-round, whereas the complete passage of a life-wave on one globe before going to the next succeeding globe is termed a globe-round; seven or twelve of these globe-rounds comprise one planetary round. Each life-wave makes seven cycles on each globe, which are termed root-races.

See also ROUND

(See also: Inner Round , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Planetary Spirits Every celestial body is under the directing influence of a hierarchy of beings, spiritual, quasi-spiritual, and astral, the higher of which may be called celestial spirits; the term planetary spirits is usually restricted to the highest class of these beings pertaining to planets, although the phrase is also used in other senses.

These planetary spirits have evolved through past cosmic cycles of evolution from a state equivalent to the human; and the general hierarchy pertaining to each planet is closely linked with the destinies of the present various life-waves of that planet. We ourselves are destined in the future to become planetary spirits of a planetary chain that will be a later imbodiment of our present earth-chain. This earth, being only in its fourth round, has not yet produced high planetary spirits; but it will have begun to do so at the end of the seventh round. At the summit of the hierarchy of planetary spirits is a supreme hierarch.

Planetary spirits parallel the Buddhist dhyani-chohans or dhyanis; with the exception that the Buddhist phrase has far larger application as it includes not merely planetary spirits but likewise spiritual beings of various grades in a solar system. The higher planetaries are those presiding over an entire chain of globes, and their influence extends over all the seven, ten, or twelve globes of a chain.

There are also planetaries belonging to the same general planetary hierarchy who preside over a single globe of a chain, and again lower planetaries such as those in more or less immediate touch with mankind. There are planetaries of high spiritual status, and planetaries of far lower status who at times even may be spoken of as dark planetaries. Thus it is that the work of the higher planetaries is beautiful, compassionate, and indeed sublime; whereas the lowest or dark planetaries are frequently the agents of matter as contrasted with spirit.

What the Christians, following the Greeks, call angels, are planetary spirits of high type, while the Christian archangels correspond roughly with the highest subclasses of the planetaries. In Hindu thought the manus are planetary spirits of various hierarchical grades in a planetary chain; the prajapatis also in certain cases are identical with the manus, the latter having a special connection with the human life-wave.

(See also: Planetary Spirits , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Mercury For the Latin god,

See HERMES

Also the closest visible planet to the sun. Irregularities discovered in its orbit led astronomers at one time to suspect that there is an inter-Mercurial planet, and such a suspected planet, once claimed to have been seen crossing the solar disk, was named Vulcan. Mercury is included in the enumeration of the seven sacred planets of the ancients.

Theosophy, as it does with all the visible planetary bodies, considers Mercury to be the lowest globe of a septenary chain of globes; so that this planet is not one of the seven globes of the earth-chain (SD 1:163 et seq). A connection with the earth-chain, however, is found in that the spiritual rector or genius of the Mercury planetary chain has especial influence over globe E of the earth-chain, and over the fifth or present root-race of our globe D. Astrologically, the zodiacal houses of Mercury are Gemini and Virgo; it has given its name to the day of the week Wednesday.

As Mercury is about ready to inaugurate its last or seventh round, it is far older as a chain in its present imbodiment than is the earth-chain in its. It is supposed to receive seven times more light and other solar energies from the sun than the earth receives. "Mercury is, as an astrological planet, still more occult and mysterious than Venus. It is identical with the Mazdean Mithra, the genius, or god, 'established between the Sun and the Moon, the perpetual companion of "Sun" of Wisdom' " (SD 2:28). Esoterically the planets Mercury, Venus, and the Moon in ancient ceremonial rites were represented by three initiators. This is the origin of the three Magi or wise men associated with Christmas and the birth of Jesus.

The metal mercury plays a great part in alchemy, being one of the trinity of sulphur, mercury, salt -- denoting spirit, water, and blood; or flame, nature, and mother.

(See also: Mercury , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)