Theosophical Encyclopedia

Neptune

Details: Published: Monday, 30 December 2019 10:02

TE 2 419 Neptune

The eighth planet of the Solar System, and the fourth largest. Although its mean distance is 4.5 billion kilometers away from the Sun, it is at times farther from the Sun than Plato due to the latter’s eccentric orbit. Neptune has rings like Saturn. Its largest moon, Triton, revolves around Neptune in the opposite direction of the planet’s rotation. Furthermore, its orbit tilts 157o to its equator, compared to less than 5o for other major satellites in the solar system. Helena P. Blavatsky wrote that Neptune does not really belong to our Solar System.

Historical Photos from the Adyar Archives Curuppumullage Jinarājadāsa

Details: Published: Sunday, 24 November 2019 09:47

Curuppumullage Jinarājadāsa (16 December 1875 – 18 June 1953), was a Sri Lankan scholar, lecturer, and writer who served as the fourth President of the Theosophical Society based in Adyar, Chennai, India from 1945 to 1953. An accomplished linguist, he traveled extensively for fifty years as an international lecturer, speaking in English, French, Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese, as well as Sinhalese and Tamil. He was known to his wide circle of friends as "Raja", "Brother Raja", or "CJ".

Lords of The Dark Face

Details: Published: Thursday, 14 November 2019 05:12

Evil sorcerers of the Atlantean period mentioned in the The Secret Doctrine and works of Charles W. Leadbeater who were destroyed by the Lords of the Dazzling Face (Adepts of White Magic) and the Lords of the Fires (Gnomes and fire elementals). They used air-vehicles called Viwans, said by Helena P. Blavatsky to be like air balloons.

Non-Being

Details: Published: Thursday, 07 November 2019 05:00

Non-Being is, paradoxically, regarded in theosophy and Advaita as Absolute Being or Be-ness.

Avīchi

Details: Published: Tuesday, 29 October 2019 12:02

A Sanskrit term (lit. “waveless”), usually transliterated avīci, referring to a state of the greatest isolation, perhaps the conscious equivalent of absolute zero, and attained after physical death by a person who has been unrelentingly selfish and devoted to inflicting injury on others, therefore is a state devoid of spirituality, the result of a life of absolute evil. In Buddhist literature, it is the lowest Hell, immediately below one called Nirarbuda (“excessively cold”).

Brothers of the Shadow

Details: Published: Friday, 18 October 2019 16:07

Refers to those who in their occult practices concern themselves almost entirely with the material forces in Nature. The term is often applied to the so-called “Black Magicians” or “Sorcerers.”

Pantheism

Details: Published: Friday, 04 October 2019 05:43

From the Greek pan- meaning “involving all” and théisme meaning “pertaining to the divine.” It is a doctrine that equates God with all the matter and forces of the universe, but not transcending them. In that sense it is closely associated with monism, the doctrine that there is only one reality in the universe, usually conceived in spiritual terms (although atheistic materialism is also a kind of monism).