Solar Logoi Logos, when used in connection with the sun, is a generalizing term for the seven or twelve fundamental spiritual and intellectual solar powers, at the summit of which stands the solar hierarch, the physical sun being but the reflection or garment of these unified septenary or duodenary powers.

In consequence, every being in the universe, great or small, has as its primordial origin a spiritual entity which, emanating from itself its own characteristic powers, produces these latter as its logoi. In the case of our sun there are seven or twelve chief forces or primary entitative rays which compose in their aggregate the true sun, unified at their summit or supreme hierarch; and these seven or twelve powers or forces are the solar logoi, the globes of the solar chain or the planes of the solar system. On the descending evolutionary scale, each of these seven or twelve primary forces may be subdivided into seven or twelve minor powers or forces.

The solar logoi were termed by the ancients the planetary rectors or genii, each having its main habitat in one of the Houses of Life known as the sacred planets. These solar and planetary logoi are focused in the human body in the various chakras.

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

Sarvavasu (Sanskrit) [from sarva all + vasu one of the 12 adityas or solar divinities, rays, or logoi]

One of the seven principal logoi or rays of the sun.

(See also: Sarvavasu, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Omkara, Omoroca (Sanskrit) The sacred, mystical syllable Aum or Om; also one of the twelve lingas, the twelve powers of the creative or generative logoi of the solar system.

(See also: Omkara, Omoroca, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Seven (Solar) Rays Sunlight contains the characteristic potency of every one of the seven solar logoi. It is possible for the adept to sound seven notes, each of which will be in more or less perfect synchrony with the vibrational rate of the respective solar ray or power issuing from its own solar logos.

Such ancient magic is not only an act of reverential unity with the lord and giver of life for the solar system, but puts one in synchrony of a spiritual and intellectual as well as psychical type with the spiritual and other powers resident in and issuing from the sun (cf ML 73). Mystic words of seven vowels refer in a general fashion to the same ancient wisdom-magic.

See also OEAOHOO

(See also: Seven Rays, Seven Solar Rays, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Sol (Latin) Sun; it is said that the Latin solus (the only) was used of the One Good, and that this word afterwards became sol, the sun (SD 2:575). Pythagoras called Venus sol alter (the other sun); Arnobius says that Mercury also is sol -- the vehicle of a solar logos. Every one of the sacred planets is sol in the same manner, for each is, so far as the solar system is concerned, the especial vehicle of one of the seven or twelve solar logoi.

(See also: Sol, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Universal Solar System The sum-total on all planes of all the bodies, visible or invisible, which pertain to the inclusive Brahmanda (egg of Brahma) of which our sun with its family of planetary chains forms a part. The Logos of the universal solar system, called the universal sun, has its foci of spiritual, psychological, ethereal, and material fields of action in and through emanated rays or minor logoi or suns, of which our sun is one, and each of these last has its corresponding subdivisional activities and functions. Our solar system, septenary or denary in itself, pertains to a single one of the primary seven rays of the universal solar system.

(See also: Universal Solar System, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Body mind and Soul)

Svaraj (Sanskrit) The self-ruling, the self-resplendent; one of the seven principal rays of the sun, "the last or seventh (synthetical) ray of the seven solar rays; the same as Brahma" (TG 315). These seven are really the entire range of the seven occult forces, or divinities, of the solar system; hence the names of these seven rays are names given to them in Hindu semi-occult philosophical literature as Sushumna, Harikesa, Visvakarman, Visvatryarchas, Samnaddhas, Sarvavasu, and Svaraj. Otherwise these seven rays are the seven solar logoi whose functions in the solar system are at once creative -- or the intelligent impulses behind cosmic evolution -- and supportive of the solar system, in addition to bringing about the various regenerating changes. The seven rays are elaborations of the Hindu Trimurti of Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva.

See also SURYA

(See also: Svaraj, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Body mind and Soul)

A Theosophical definition of Logos :

Logos

(Greek) In old Greek philosophy the word logos was used in many ways, of which the Christians often sadly misunderstood the profoundly mystical meaning. Logos is a word having several applications in the esoteric philosophy, for there are different kinds or grades of logoi, some of them of divine, some of them of a spiritual character; some of them having a cosmic range, and others ranges much more restricted.

In fact, every individual entity, no matter what its evolutionary grade on the ladder of life, has its own individual logos. The divine-spiritual entity behind the sun is the solar logos of our solar system. Small or great as every solar system may be, each has its own logos, the source or fountainhead of almost innumerable logoi of less degree in that system. Every man has his own spiritual logos; every atom has its own logos; every atom likewise has its own paramatman and mulaprakriti, for every entity everywhere has its own highest. These things and the words which express them are obviously relative.

One meaning of the Greek logos is "word"  - a phrase or symbol taken from the ancient Mysteries meaning the "lost word," the "lost" logos of man's heart and brain. The logos of our own planetary chain, so far as this fourth round is concerned, is the Wondrous Being or Silent Watcher.

The term, therefore, is a relative and not an absolute one, and has many applications.

See also: Logos, Mysticism, Body Mind and Soul)

Radiation Generally, the emission of life energies, or various kinds of energic outflowings or productions radially outward from a center. Thus it is a name for the entire cosmic process of formation of worlds; the production of many out of one, the passing from unity to measureless diversity and multiplicity.

The radiations of the ten or twelve solar logoi from the heart of the solar chain, streaming through and permeating the entire extent of the sun's kingdom and becoming focalized in the different planetary bodies, illustrate the modus of the general principle of radiation.

According to theosophic teachings physical matter is a condensation of light, as is being experimentally verified. It is evident that the subject of the emanation of innumerable forms of life energy on all the planes of the cosmos is a very wide one, and the words fohat, light, life, electricity, etc., are used in this connection. These radiations may be classified on a septenary, denary, or duodenary system, as when we speak of the seven, ten, or twelve rays of the solar logos.

See also RAY

(See also: Radiation, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Heptachord The seven-stringed lyre of Apollo, corresponding to septenates in general, such as seven musical tones, seven prismatic colors, seven human or cosmic principles, etc. From it the god evoked the harmony that governs the worlds in their motions.

One of its correspondences is the seven sacred planets, Apollo being the sun. As the ancients all regarded the sun, under whatever name, as a seven- or twelve-rayed one -- the allusions here being to the doctrine of the logoi proceeding from the sun's heart and finding their respective individual habitations in the planets -- the heptachord is thus the actual or organic structure of the solar system; and in reality Apollo's heptachord is Apollo's own self flowing forth in seven logoic powers.

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

Heptachord The seven-stringed lyre of Apollo, corresponding to septenates in general, such as seven musical tones, seven prismatic colors, seven human or cosmic principles, etc. From it the god evoked the harmony that governs the worlds in their motions.

One of its correspondences is the seven sacred planets, Apollo being the sun. As the ancients all regarded the sun, under whatever name, as a seven- or twelve-rayed one -- the allusions here being to the doctrine of the logoi proceeding from the sun's heart and finding their respective individual habitations in the planets -- the heptachord is thus the actual or organic structure of the solar system; and in reality Apollo's heptachord is Apollo's own self flowing forth in seven logoic powers.

(See also: Hephaistos, Hephaestus, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Sapta-Surya (Sanskrit) The seven suns; the seven fundamental solar logoi of our own sun; the suns of our universal solar system. They are likewise connected to the hierarchies of intelligent beings or dhyani-chohans of various classes which enter into creative functions or action when the central sun emits creative light preceding the later periods of manvantaric activity.

Those classes of the dhyani-chohans who are the cosmic architects open the manvantaric drama by entering upon their respective functions, and once the lines of structure are thus laid, the lower classes of dhyani-chohans -- high though they may be in spirituality and intellectuality -- begin thereupon their work as builders, which is ceaseless until the manvantaric end.

References to these two general classes of ideative cosmic spirits, the architects and the cosmic masons or builders, are found in nearly all of the ancient religio-philosophic scriptures of the world.

(See also: Sapta-Surya, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Surya (Sanskrit) The sun, its regent or informing divinity; in the Vedas, the sun god, the most concrete of the solar gods, generally distinguished, at least in name, from Savitri and Aditya. He was regarded as one of the original Vedic triad: Indra or Vayu presiding over the atmosphere; Agni, over the earth; and Surya, over the space of the solar system.

In Vedic literature, Surya is also called Loka-chakshuh (eye of the world). He is considered the son of Dyaus, the cosmic spirit -- pictured as the spatial extent of cosmic mind -- and of Aditi (space). He is represented as moving through the celestial sphere in a chariot drawn by seven ruddy horses or by one horse with seven heads, referring to the seven principles or elements of the solar system, or to his own seven principles as a unit with their seven different logoi or heads; or the former refers to the seven logoi as manifested in the regents of the seven sacred planets, the latter to their common origin from the one cosmic element, often figuratively called fire (SD 1:101).

In later mythology Surya is particularly identified with Savitri as one of the twelve adityas of the sun in the twelve months of the year, and his seven-horsed chariot is described as driven by Aruna (dawn). Surya was represented also as the husband of Sanjna (spiritual consciousness, cosmic or human), and the offspring of Aditi (space), mother of all the gods. One legend represents Surya as crucified on a lathe by Visvakarman -- his father-in-law, the creator of gods and men, and their carpenter -- and having an eighth part of his rays cut off, which deprives his head of its effulgency, creating round it a dark aureole -- "a mystery of the last initiation, and an allegorical representation of it" (TG 313).

Sanjna is the sakti of Surya, just as a human spiritual consciousness or buddhi is the sakti of atman, at once its vehicle, its manifestation, and itself in action. This is the reason the sun is considered the patron, parent, and governor of all the manasaputras, and therefore in a generalized sense the source of mind -- sanjna, spiritual intellect or consciousness.

The names of the seven principal rays of the sun are: Sushumna, Harikesa, Visvakarman, Visvatryarchas, Sannaddha, Sarvavsu, and Svaraj. "These seven rays are the entire gamut of the seven occult forces (or gods) of nature, as their respective names well prove. . . . As each stands for one of the creative gods or Forces, it is easy to see how important were the functions of the sun in the eyes of antiquity, and why it was deified by the profane" (TG 315). These principal rays of Surya are from another standpoint the seven solar logoi, each one of the seven having its respective home in the seven sacred planets; equally, there may be said to be twelve rays of the sun, and twelve sacred planets, each one a home or mansion of one of the solar logoi.

Surya is only the appearance on this cosmic plane of the solar heart or central spiritual sun; although in a more mystical sense, Surya, our sun, is one of the reflections of a galactic center, which astronomically is the prototype, albeit far more advanced in cosmic evolution than is the sun itself. The visible reflection of the sun is composed of highly ethereal matter belonging to the fifth, sixth, and seventh substrates of the lowest cosmic plane or prithivi. Within and above all these rise in ever more sublime steps six other cosmic planes, on and in which are the other globes of the solar chain. The sun's primary essence belongs to the highest division of the seventh state of mother-substance (adi-tattva). This primary sun, of which our visible sun is the reflection, is concealed from the gaze of all but the very highest dhyani-chohans.

(See also: Surya, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Body mind and Soul)

Logos (Greek) plural logoi. Word; expressive cosmic intelligence manifested in every rational being. With Plato, that power of the mind which is manifested in speech; its relation to nous or intelligence is not always clearly distinguished.

With reference to the logos in man, an important distinction was made by the ancients between the logos endiathetos (ideal or unspoken word) and the logos prophorikos (expressed or spoken word), the former being an unexpressed idea in the mind. The word was adopted by Christian theologians mingled with ideas taken from the Hebrews, used in the second sense, as found in the first chapter of John, where the Logos seems almost anthropomorphized.

In theosophy, logos stands for the manifested unity at the head of any hierarchy, which is the First Logos. There are innumerable such logoi in cosmic space. The Second Logos emanates from it and is dual, combining both the active and passive sides of the emanation from the First Logos, just as a word combines idea or thought with the vibratory energy of sound. The Third Logos, again, is the offspring or emanation from the Second or Dual Logos.

It is just in these three logoi, considered as a cosmic unit, that arose the original teaching of the Christian Trinity. In the original Christian idea, the Son was identified with the Third Logos and proceeded from the Father and the Holy Spirit, the Second Logos, originally in Christianity a feminine cosmic power; whereas the Roman Catholic Church made the procession of the Son come directly from the First Logos or Father, the Holy Ghost being misplaced and made the Third Logos. In later developments of Christian theology, the Logos is spoken of as the Word made flesh, the manifestation of God on earth, the Son of God, Christ, the miscalled Second Person of the Trinity. This idea was still further narrowed and debased into the doctrine of a single and special earthy manifestation of the Godhead.

After parabrahman, the one ineffable and unthinkable reality, comes the First or Unmanifested Logos, corresponding to paramatman in cosmos and atman in man, the supreme monadic self in any hierarchy; then as an emanation from the former comes the quasi-manifested or Second Logos, corresponding to cosmic and human buddhi, always envisaged as a feminine potency; and then from the former two proceeds the manifested, creative, or Third Logos, corresponding to mahat on the cosmic plane and manas in the human constitution. Thus Logos is a center of unity in a being, which may exist in an unmanifest or a manifest condition, but always derivative from the supreme mystery above it -- to which must be added an intermediate state of partial or incipient manifestation. Man is sometimes spoken of as the Third Logos, as it corresponds to manas.

"This (first)

Logos may be called in the language of old writers either Eswara or Pratyagatma or Sabda Brahmam. It is called the Verbum or the Word by the Christians, and it is the divine Christos who is eternally in the bosom of his father. It is called Avalokiteswara by the Buddhists; at any rate, Avalokiteswara in one sense is the Logos in general, . . . In almost every doctrine they have formulated the existence of a centre of spiritual energy which is unborn and eternal, and which exists in a latent condition in the bosom of Parabrahmam at the time of pralaya, and starts as a centre of conscious energy at the time of cosmic activity. It is the first gnatha or the ego in the cosmos, and every other ego and every other self . . . is but its reflection or manifestation. In its inmost nature it is not unknowable as Parabrahmam, but it is an object of the highest knowledge that man is capable of acquiring. . . .

". . . Parabrahmam by itself cannot be seen as it is. It is seen by the Logos with a veil thrown over it, and that veil is the mighty expanse of cosmic matter. It is the basis of all material manifestations in the cosmos.

". . . the first manifestation of Parabrahmam is a Trinity, the highest Trinity that we are capable of understanding. It consists of Mulaprakriti, Eswara or the Logos, and the conscious energy of the Logos, which is its power and light; and here we have the three principles upon which the whole cosmos seems to be based. First, we have matter; secondly, we have force -- at any rate, the foundation of all the forces in the cosmos; and thirdly, we have the ego or the one root of self, of which every other kind of self is but a manifestation or reflection" (Notes on BG 18-22).

On account of the universal analogies running throughout Nature, every cosmic unit, such as a solar system or a sun, is an expression in itself of a minor series of First, Second, and Third Logoi; and this primordial Triad through the Third Logos breaks into seven offspring-logoi, which become the seven solar logoi.

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

Kasyapa (Sanskrit) A sage often mentioned in the Vedas. The son of Marichi, Brahma's mind-born son; the father of Vivasvat, the father of Manu, the progenitor of mankind; husband of Aditi, chief and father of the adityas -- who are the powers of the sun -- and one of the seven great cosmic rishis.

Father by Aditi's sisters of demons, nagas, reptiles, birds, and all living things. The Atharva-Veda says that the "self-born Kasyapa sprang from Time," time often being identified with Vishnu, the preserver. Thus Kasyapa represents one of the primordial spiritual-intellectual powers of the solar system, and is one of the main original solar logoi. Especially in his function as chief of the solar adaityas, cosmically he is the sun itself.

Being thus the cosmic head of his hierarchy -- a hierarchy necessarily represented on earth -- there is likewise in humanity a group of human beings who are, as it were, by spiritual-psychological affinity descendants of Kasyapa in the direct line, and in whom the powers of Kasyapa from time to time become strongly manifest. When such strongly manifested Kasapika powers appear in a person by all occult right and customary usage, such imbodiment of the powers of the hierarch Kasyapa is likewise called Kasyapa.

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

Hierarchy of Compassion, Spiritual-psychological Hierarchy The hierarchy of spiritual beings extending from the highest solar or galactic monad, to the least element forming its vehicles or being.

"It is built of divinities, demigods, buddhas, bodhisattvas, and great and noble men, who serve as a living channel for the spiritual currents coming to this and every other planet of our system from the heart of the solar divinity, and who themselves shed glory and light and peace upon that pathway from the compassionate deeps of their own being. . . .

"On our earth there is a minor hierarchy of light. Working in this sphere there are lofty intelligences, human souls, having their respective places in the hierarchical degrees. These masters or mahatmas are living forces in the spiritual life of the world; and awakened minds and intuitive hearts sense their presence, at least at times" (FSO 467-8). The head of the terrestrial spiritual-psychological hierarchy is a being sometimes called the Silent Watcher, who acts as a channel for all the spiritual forces flowing to and from the earth, and who is connected inwardly with all the beings on earth.

In theosophical literature, the Hierarchy of Compassion of our solar system is sometimes given as:

1)    adi-buddhi (primal wisdom), the mystic universally diffused essence;

2)    mahabuddhi (universal buddhi), the Logos;

3)    daiviprakriti (universal divine light), universal life, the Second Logos;

4)    ) Sons of Light, the seven cosmic logoi, the logoi of cosmic life, the Third Logos;

5)    dhyani-buddhas (buddhas of contemplation);

6)    dhyani-bodhisattvas (bodhisattvas of contemplation);

7)    manushya-buddhas (human buddhas), racial buddhas;

8)    bodhisattvas; and

9)    men.

Here, the Sons of Light or the seven cosmic logoi emanating from the sun and working in its kingdom are the parents of the rectors or planetary spirits of the seven sacred planets. The seven dhyani-buddhas, also called the celestial buddhas or causal buddhas, through their emanated representatives each govern one round of the septenary cycles of evolution on a planetary chain. The seven dhyani-bodhisattvas, or bodhisattvas of the celestial realms, similarly through their emanated representatives each govern one of the seven globes comprising a planetary chain.

The manushya-buddhas are the buddhas which watch over the root-races in a round, two appearing in every race, one near the commencement and one near the midpoint of each root-race. Gautama Buddha was the second racial buddha of the fifth root-race.

The bodhisattvas of earth are those spiritual and intellectually advanced human beings who leave the nirvana of buddhahood in order to remain on earth for their sublime work of aiding, stimulating, and guiding those hosts of entities, including humanity, trailing behind them.

(See also: Hierarchy of Compassion, Spiritual-psychological Hierarchy, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Hierarchy of Compassion, Spiritual-psychological Hierarchy The hierarchy of spiritual beings extending from the highest solar or galactic monad, to the least element forming its vehicles or being.

"It is built of divinities, demigods, buddhas, bodhisattvas, and great and noble men, who serve as a living channel for the spiritual currents coming to this and every other planet of our system from the heart of the solar divinity, and who themselves shed glory and light and peace upon that pathway from the compassionate deeps of their own being. . . .

"On our earth there is a minor hierarchy of light. Working in this sphere there are lofty intelligences, human souls, having their respective places in the hierarchical degrees. These masters or mahatmas are living forces in the spiritual life of the world; and awakened minds and intuitive hearts sense their presence, at least at times" (FSO 467-8). The head of the terrestrial spiritual-psychological hierarchy is a being sometimes called the Silent Watcher, who acts as a channel for all the spiritual forces flowing to and from the earth, and who is connected inwardly with all the beings on earth.

In theosophical literature, the Hierarchy of Compassion of our solar system is sometimes given as:

1)    adi-buddhi (primal wisdom), the mystic universally diffused essence;

2)    mahabuddhi (universal buddhi), the Logos;

3)    daiviprakriti (universal divine light), universal life, the Second Logos;

4)    ) Sons of Light, the seven cosmic logoi, the logoi of cosmic life, the Third Logos;

5)    dhyani-buddhas (buddhas of contemplation);

6)    dhyani-bodhisattvas (bodhisattvas of contemplation);

7)    manushya-buddhas (human buddhas), racial buddhas;

8)    bodhisattvas; and

9)    men.

Here, the Sons of Light or the seven cosmic logoi emanating from the sun and working in its kingdom are the parents of the rectors or planetary spirits of the seven sacred planets. The seven dhyani-buddhas, also called the celestial buddhas or causal buddhas, through their emanated representatives each govern one round of the septenary cycles of evolution on a planetary chain. The seven dhyani-bodhisattvas, or bodhisattvas of the celestial realms, similarly through their emanated representatives each govern one of the seven globes comprising a planetary chain.

The manushya-buddhas are the buddhas which watch over the root-races in a round, two appearing in every race, one near the commencement and one near the midpoint of each root-race. Gautama Buddha was the second racial buddha of the fifth root-race.

The bodhisattvas of earth are those spiritual and intellectually advanced human beings who leave the nirvana of buddhahood in order to remain on earth for their sublime work of aiding, stimulating, and guiding those hosts of entities, including humanity, trailing behind them.

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

Seven Sacred Planets The ancients spoke of seven planets which they named the seven sacred planets, and they were serialized as Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Sun, Venus, Mercury, and Moon.

The Sun and Moon are, however, used as substitutes for two secret planets, one near the sun and one over the moon, these secret planets being invisible to us at present. That near the Sun, an intra-mercurial planet, has been called Vulcan and was supposed to have been discovered in 1859, when a black spot was seen in transit across the solar disk; but since that time the discovery has not been verified by astronomers.

The teaching regarding it is that it became invisible to our physical senses at about the midpoint of the third root-race; but as we have now reached again, on the upward arc, the plane corresponding to the same degree of development, in a relatively short cyclic period it should begin again to show itself.

The planet for which the Moon stands as a substitute, sometimes called the Planet of Death, is near the Moon and also invisible to our physical senses. It has a retrograde motion and is slowly dying.

Each of these seven planets is, like our earth, a chain of globes, sevenfold or twelvefold in composition, having six superior globes of finer, more ethereal matter above the physical globe. Only those globes which are on the same cosmic plane of nature are physically visible to each other. For instance, we can see only the fourth-plane planetary globes of each of the other planetary or sidereal chains because we are on the fourth cosmic plane.

These seven planets are called sacred because every one of the globes of the earth chain is under the dominant guidance, and is actually largely formed by, one of these planets, assisted in each case by the other six. Further, every root-race of every one of the globes during each round is under the protection and guidance of one of the seven sacred planets.

But the main reason for calling them sacred is that our universal solar system is composed of seven planes of being, or worlds, over which are the seven primordial logoi. These are subdivided into seven minor logoi or powers, forming sevenfold groups or minor solar systems, and our solar system is one such group. In our solar system, our sacred planets are the respective houses, each house containing the seven forces of one of the seven chief rays of the solar logos: one such chief ray being our particular logos.

(See also: Seven Sacred Planets, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Sushumna susumna (Sanskrit) Astronomically, the highest of the seven principal rays or Logoi of the sun, the others being Harikesa, Visvakarman, Visvatryarchas, Sannaddha, Sarvavasu, and Svaraj. These rays "are all mystical, and each has its distinct application in a distinct state of consciousness, for occult purposes.

The Sushumna, which, as said in the Nirukta (II, 6), is only to light up the moon, is the ray nevertheless cherished by the initiated Yogis. The totality of the Seven Rays spread through the Solar system constitute, so to say, the physical Upadhi (basis) of the Ether of Science; in which Upadhi, light, heat, electricity, etc., etc., -- the forces of orthodox science -- correlate to produce their terrestrial effects. As psychic and spiritual effects, they emanate from, and have their origin in, the supra-soar Upadhi, in the ether of the Occultist -- or Akasa" (SD 1:515n).

(See also: Sushumna, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Body mind and Soul)

Martanda or Marttanda (Sanskrit) [from marta mortal, transitory + anda egg]

The sun or sun god of the Vedas; an earlier form is mritanda. Cosmologically a title applied to any celestial orb, though most commonly a name of the sun or Surya, as being phenomenal productions of Brahma-prakriti or of the productive and generative dual cosmic spirit. Just as the egg bears the seed of a future being, so the celestial bodies were each supposed to contain the life-germ of its own future imbodiment as a higher entity -- in other words, the celestial bodies reproduce themselves in new imbodiments. The highest adaitya of the sun is likewise called preeminently Marttanda; it is also a name for the number 12, referring to the 12 solar logoi, intimately connected with the 12 mansions or constellations of the zodiac.

"AEther, whether Akasa is meant by the term, or its lower principle, Ether -- is septenary. Akasa is Aditi in the allegory, and the mother of Marttanda (the sun), the Deva-matri -- 'Mother of the gods.' In the solar system, the sun is her Buddhi and Vahan, the Vehicle, hence the 6th principle; in Kosmos all the suns are the Kama rupa of Akasa and so is ours. It is only when regarded as an individual Entity in his own Kingdom that Surya (the sun) is the 7th principle of the great body of matter" (SD 1:527n).

(See also: Martanda, Marttanda, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)