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FOOTNOTES TO“THE TWELVE SIGNS OF THE ZODIAC”
[The Theosophist, Vol. III, No. 2, November, 1881, pp. 41-44]
[This valuable and scholarly article by T. Subba Row is accompanied by a few footnotes appended by H.P.B. to various terms and statements of the author. They are as follows:]
[Concerning the Sign of Virgo;]
Virgo-Scorpio, when none but the initiates knew there were twelve signs. Virgo-Scorpio was then followed for the profane by Sagittarius. At the middle or junction-point where now stands Libra, and at the sign now [so] called which follows Virgo, two mystical signs were inserted which remained unintelligible to the profane.
[Of the zodiacal sign spoken of by Subba Row as the Crocodile:]
This constellation was never called Crocodile by the Western ancient astronomers who described it as a horned goat and called it so—Capricornus.
[Of the principle which Subba Row calls the Jivatma, and which he says is represented by the sign Sinha, or the Lion:]
In its lowest or most material state, as the life-principle 326 which animates the material bodies of the animal and vegetable worlds, etc.
[Of Subba Row’s statement that the sign Sinha, or the Lion, also represents “the real Christ, the anointed pure spirit, though the missionaries may frown at this interpretation”:]
Nevertheless it is a true one. The Jivatma in the Microcosm (man) is the same spiritual essence which animates the Macrocosm (universe), the differentiation, or specific difference between the two Jivatmas presenting itself but in the two states or conditions of the same and one Force. Hence, “this son of Paramatma” is an eternal correlation of the Father-Cause, Purusha manifesting himself as Brahmâ of the “golden egg” and becoming Viraj—the universe. We are “all born of Aditi, from the water” (Rig-Veda, Hymns to the Maruts, Bk. X, Hymn 63, 2), and “Being was born from non-being” (ibid., Mandala I, Sukta 164, 6).
[Of the Astral light:]
Even the very name of Kanya (Virgin) shows how all the ancient esoteric systems agreed in all their fundamental doctrines. The Kabalists and the Hermetic philosophers call the Astral Light the “heavenly or celestial Virgin.” The Astral Light in its unity is the 7th. Hence the seven principles diffused in every unity, or the 6 and ONE— two triangles and a crown.
[Of Subba Row’s statement that “Jivatma differs from Paramatma, or to state the same thing in other words, ‘Baddha’ differs from ‘Mukta,’ in being encased as it were within these 36 Tattvas, while the other is free”:]
As the Infinite differs from the Finite and the Unconditioned from the Conditioned.
[Of the 36 Tattvas:]
36 is three times 12, or 9 Tetraktys, or 12 Triads, the most sacred numbers in the Kabalistic and Pythagorean numerals.
[Of the sign Makara, or the Goat (Capricornus):]
See the article, in the August (1881) number, “The 327 Five-Pointed Star,”[1] where we stated that the five-pointed star or pentagram represented the five limbs of man.
[Of the “nine Prajapatis—the assistants of the Demiurgus”:]
The nine Kabalistic Sephiroth, emanated from Sephira the 10th, and the head Sephiroth are identical. Three trinities or triads with their emanative principle form the Pythagorean mystic Decad, the sum of all which represents the whole Kosmos.
Footnotes
- ↑ [Pages 250-54 in the present Volume.—Compiler.]