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| Saturn | Sun |
| Seven sages | Sufi |
Sankaracharya or Shankara, the renowned Hindu sage and espouser of Advaita Vedanta, believed to have lived around 800 AD. Said to have awakened at a very young age, and to have been a brilliant student and debater, Shankara left a tremendous legacy of writings (including Tantric and devotional writings and hymns) and tradition. Widely revered as one of the greatest sages of India.
Just as in dream the universe existing in one’s own Self is seen as if it external, so, be it known that even in the waking state this universe exists within and yet appears to be external. – Dakshinamurti Stotra.
Sankara was a native of Kerala or Malabar, and lived a very erratic life, disputing with heretics and popularising the Vedanta philosophy by his preaching and writings wherever he went. His travels extentdent as far as Kashmir, and he died at Kedaranath in the Himalayas at the early age of thirty-two. His learning and sanctity were held in such high estimation and reverence, that he was looked upon as an incarnation of Siva, and was believed to have the power of working miracles. The god Siva was the special object of his worship, and he was the founder of the freat sect of Smartava Brahmans, who are very numerous and powerful in the south. He established several maths or monasteries fo the teaching and preservation of his doctrines. Some of these still remain. The chief one is ata Sringa-giri, on the edge of the Western Ghauts in the Mysore, and it has the supreme control of the Smartava sect. The writings attributed to him are very numerous; chief among them are his Bhasyas or commentaries on the Sutras or aphorisms of Vyasa, a commentary on the Bhagavad Gita, some commentaries on the Upanishads and the Ananda-lahari, a hymn in praise of Parvati, the consort of Siva.
Saturn is the sixth planet measured from the sun. Its mean distance to the sun amounts to 9.54 A.U. (872 million miles) and its period of revolution is 29.46 years. Saturn has a ring system that consists of 9 main rings. Sixty two moons are known to orbit the planet, of which the greater is Titan. The length of his day is ten hours.
In astrology Saturn governs the sense of hearing, a negative or receptive sense. The planetary influence of restricts limits, crystallizes and binds everything. In this sense Saturn governs the encircling limit of consciousness, the «ring pass not» for each individual in manifestation. As the ruler of personal ego is the planet of fate, for it represents the personal will, the lower mind and is practically the ego in manifestation in the physical world. Saturn has a bad reputation· in no sense is it an evil planet essentially, but its restraining and materializing influence offers more opportunity for its interpretation into direct and deliberate evil than any other planet, owing to the solidifying and hindering influence which it produces· but it can also be seen in true humility, reverence, endurance, sacrifice, surrender and serenity. This quality of restraint is peculiar to ancient China, which is now ruled by Libra, and expressed so wisely by Lao Tsu, Chuang Tsu and later by Confucius. It shows the importance and relevance of space, silence and time in art and in relationships.
Speaking from the color standpoint, the pure Green Ray belongs to Saturn, which influences this color both scientifically and philosophically. To study the importance of this planet is to become an alchemist in the true sense, for it is the transmutation of the whole man from the mundane to the spiritual.
Etherial, father, mighty Titan, hear,
great fire of Gods and men, whom all revere:
endu’d with various council, pure and strong,
to whom perfection and decrease belong.
The Hymns of Orpheus, “To Saturn”, tr. by Thomas Taylor
Saturnus of Romans is the Cronus of the Greeks and Sani of Hindus. In ancient Greek mythology, he is the god of time (chronos), who existed before the creation of the world. He is one of Titans, son of Uranus and Gaea. So he is a symbol of time and limitation arising from the inter-relations of spirit (Uranus) and matter (Gaea). In Alchemy Saturn is a common symbol for lead and is also used to represent the nigredo of black phase of the Great Work.
In ancient myths and legends we often encounter the mention of seven sages. These eminent representatives of the humankind have different names and features in the legends of Assyria, Greece, China, India and Persia. Who were these wise men and why it was so important for our ancestors? Here we present these sevens sages in various nations.
Assyria
In the mythology of the Assyrians they are referred to as seven Apkallu. They were divine beings mentioned by Berosus. These beings are described as demi-gods created by the god Ea. Their duty was to establish culture and give civilization to mankind. They served as priests of Ea and as advisors to the earliest kings of Sumer before the flood. The Apkallu were fish-like men who emerged from the water Abzu, the primeval sea below the void space of the underworld and the earth above. These seven Apkalou are: Antapa (or Oannes) Uannetugga, Enmedugga, Enmegalamma, Enmebulugga, An-Enlilda and Utuabzu.
Greece
The Seven Sages of Greece was the title given by ancient Greek tradition to seven early-6th-century BC wise men and lawgivers who were renowned in the following centuries for their wisdom. The first to refer to is the Athenian philosopher Plato (427-347), who mentions seven names of wise people. In Plato’s Protagoras, Socrates says: “Among these were Thales of Miletus, and Pittacus of Mytilene, and Bias of Priene, and our own Solon, and Cleobulus of Lindus, and Myson of Chenae and the seventh of them was said to be Chilon of Sparta». These seven people were later believed to have founded Greek philosophy. A generation after Plato, Demetrius of Phalerum, a pupil of Aristotle of Stagira, was not too happy with Myson either, so he replaced him with Periander, the tyrant of Corinth.
China
The Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove were a group of Chinese scholars, writers, and musicians of the 3rd century CE. The Seven Sages wished to escape the intrigues, corruption and stifling atmosphere of court life during the politically fraught «Three Kingdoms period» of Chinese history. In order to do so, they gathered in a bamboo grove near the house of Ji Kang in Shanyang (now in Henan province) where they enjoyed, and praised in their works, the simple, rustic life.
The Seven Sages of ancient China.
India
The seven sages (saptarsi) of India are the seven visionaries (rishi) who extolled at many places of the Vedas, ancient Epics and other literary works of Hinduism. These are: Kratu, Pulaha, Pulastya, Atri, Angiras, Vashista and Bhrigu. According to secret doctrine of Hinduism these sages are directly related to the seven stars of Ursa Major. Their correspondence is as follows: Kratu, α Ursa Major; Pulaha β Ursa Major; Pulastya γ Ursa Major; Atri, δ Great Bear; Angiras, ε Ursa Major; Vashista, ζ Ursa Major; and Bhrigu, η Ursa Major.
Iran
The group of seven divine beings of Persia consists of god Ahuramazda and six Amesaspentas. Ameshaspentas is an Avestan language term for a class of divine entities in Zoroastrianism and literally means "Immortal (which is) holy". So we have: Ahuramazda (large demon) Vochumano (divine mind), Asa Vahista (divine law), Ksatra Vaira (omnipotent), Spenta Armaiti (Piety), Haurvatat (Wholeness) and Ameretat (immortality). The last three of those are three godesses.
Soul is the real being of man, as distinguished from body, mind and emotions. Soul is the eternal, immaterial, spiritual dimension of an organism, which animates the physical form. In esoteric tradition animals, plants and even rocks have collective souls, that is all lions have one soul and similarly the dogs, the willows etc. The Greek philosopher Plato believed that the soul could exist independently of the body and in many traditions the projection of the soul beyond the body is taken as proof of immortality.
The Egyptians held the soul was a divine Ray, acting through a peculiar, fluid-like compound. With Hinduists the soul is believed capable of reincarnation. They teach that the human soul is a portion of the Soul of the World (anima mundi). Pythagoras, who did so much in his day to link the Eastern and Western philosophies, gave the same teachings. The soul is a fragment of the Oversoul, a spark of the One Flame, imprisoned in the body. It is that life aspect which gives to man – as to all forms in manifestation – life, or being and consciousness.
In Chine, Lao-tse taught that the spiritual soul (hun) is united to the semi-material vital soul (p’o) and between them they animate the physical body. The Greeks in their turn, held that the soul with all the mental faculties was separable from the body. The Stoics gave currency to a new designation of the animating principle or theory to the vital processes, namely spirit, soul and body. This trichotomy of human beings correspond to the triads of Monad, Self and ego of Theosophy; yehida, haya and nesama of Cabbala; atman, buddhi and manas of yogis.The soul is the self, the "I" that inhabits the body and acts through it. Without the soul, the body is like a light bulb without electricity, a computer without the software, a space suit with no astronaut inside. With the introduction of the soul, the body acquires life, sight and hearing, thought and speech, intelligence and emotions, will and desire, personality and identity. - Yanki Tauber.
The soul body or anandamaya kosha (“sheath of bliss”), also referred to as the “causal body” (karana sarira), is the soul’s manifest nature as an individual being - an effulgent, human-like form composed of light. The “soul body” is not a body in sense of a case, a vessel, vehicle or enclosure for something else. The soul body is the soul itself - a radiant, self-effulgent, human-like, super-intelligent being. Sri Aurobindo says that “the soul is a spark of the divine spirit which supports the individual nature; mind, life, body are the instruments for the manifestation of the nature. In most men the soul is hidden and covered over by the action of the external nature; they mistake the vital being for the soul, because it is the vital which animates and move the body. But this vital being is a thing made up of desires and executive forces, good and bad; it is the desire-soul, not the true thing. It is when the true soul (psyche) comes forward and begins first to influence and then govern the actions of the instrumental nature that man begins to overcome vital desire and grow towards a divine nature.
Sun is the central body of the solar system. It is a dwarf star at a mean distance 149,500,000 km (an astronomical unite or A.U). Its diameter is 109 times the diameter of the earth. Sun is embedded in the local interstellar cloud. Local Interstellar Cloud (LIC) or Local Fluff is the interstellar cloud roughly 30 light-years across through which the solar system is moving. The stars Altair and α Centauri are also moving in the same LIC.
In astrological study the Sun is the center of all life, force or energy and represents the positive and primal fount of all existence. In the Sun are contained all the colors of the solar spectrum. Every form of existence manifesting in the solar system is bathed in the rays of Sun. Sun represents the individuality, or the soul of the man, divested of all outer ephemeral phases and moods. It corresponds in its highest interpretation to the very basis of the nature, the very essence of existence itself, upon which is built that idea of “I am” which is the root of individuality. To the character it gives power, authority, and dignity, will, resolution, self-reliance. In the body corresponds to the heart and its associated with the blood vessels. It is the source of all vital energy, no matter whether coming directly from the Sun or indirectly through the Moon or the Ascendant.
Sun is the central focus of radiating energy, physical and spiritual, of any solar system. In our solar system the sun is one of several suns subordinate to the more central sun of the universal solar system. Its names among the many peoples of the earth are countless: Mithras, Apollo, Phoebus, Ammon-Ra, Helios, Surya, etc. Symbolized by the circle with a central point, it is for its own system the All-Father. Sun worship, in the occult sense, was once the universal foundation of religion. The sun is often found contrasted with the moon as spiritual is with material; and solar magic means white magic as contrasted with the dark lunar magic. Sun is a symbol of the higher self as the means by which the lower consciousness shall arise to union with the higher. The higher Self (Sun) produces in the lower nature the indwelling divine Savior (Aesculapius) to heal and raise the soul.
When the man departs from this body he mounts upwards by those very rays and quickly she sends off his mind, he goes to the sun. For the Sun is the door of the world, an entrance for the knowing, and a bar to the ignorant. Katha Upanishad, VIII, 6, 5.
From the Sun comes our physical light, but that light is at the same time an emblem of all mental illumination, of knowledge, truth and right. In this respect a distinction was made between it as a mental and a physical phenomenon – a distinction which placed Apollo (a God) on one side and Helios (a Titan) on the other. Accordingly Apollo is the oracular god who throws light on the dark ways of the future. He is the god of music and song, which are only heard where light and security reigns. As god of music he was the leader of the Muses, Musagetes, and he himself played on a wonderful lyre that Hermes had made for him. The symbols of Helios were the horse, a crown of seven rays and a cornucopia. The symbols of Apollo were the wolf, swan, raven dolphin, laurel and lyre.
“The Sun is the heart of the Solar System and its brain is hidden behind the (visible) Sun. From thence, sensation is radiated into every nerve-center of the great body, and the waves of the life-essence flow into each artery and vein. The planets are its limbs and pulses” (Secret Doctrine 1:541).
Our visible sun, though the center of its system is not the father of the planets but their “co-uterine brother,” one of the “eight sons of Aditi.” It is not the creator of the fohatic forces, but their radiating focus. Nor is it an incandescent and cooling body; it is nature’s great laboratory of intelligently vital and electromagnetic forces for our system. Physiologically, the sun pulsates life through the solar system, in connection with the 11 and 22 years sunspot phenomena—the solar spots being due to the contraction of the solar heart. The sun is a vitally electric glowing sphere; what our eyes see is a reflection, the shell of the real sun, which is hidden behind this reflection.
Sufism is a type of mysticism of Islam. The term Mysticism had its beginning in the mystery cults of the Greeks, which involved a close circle of devotees who because of their innate capacity were believed to have the knowledge of the divine revealed to them. Etymology aside, mysticism has been practiced since ages across all the cultures and has been a vital part of the major religions of the world. Perhaps it represents an innate desire of the man to understand himself and the world around.
All forms of mysticism aspire for a union with the divine and believe that it is only possible through the purification of soul to receive direct knowledge and revelation from the divine.
Sufism has borrowed very much from Plato and Aristotle, as well as the Neoplatonist philosophers. The close contact between the Muslim and the Christian communities during the formative years of Islam had its influence on the development of the Sufism – the mystic tradition of Islam..
Sufism in the beginning was primarily an individual endeavor. The Sufis would usually live in isolation practicing self-mortification and were distinguished by a cloak of wool (Suf), which is believed to be the origin of the word Sufi. The Sufis in the early period were primarily ascetics and Sufism had not yet evolved into a fully developed system of theosophical doctrines, which became the core feature of the later Sufism.
As the early Sufi masters started teaching those in search of divine, a distinct tradition in the form of closely-knit communities centered around these masters flourished. The transformation of such communities into those, which shared a spiritual lineage, took place around the 11th century and led to the formation of Sufi orders (silsilas), chains. The early Sufi orders like Muhasibi, Qassari, Junaydi and Nuri, though limited to particular geographic locales were influential in the development of Sufi thought.
Later major Sufi orders with a wider appeal were established around Sufi masters like, Chishti by abu Ishaq Shami (Syria), Suharwardi by abu Najib Suharwardi, (Kazakhstan), Rifai by Ahmed Rifai (Iraq) and Mevlavi by Jalal ud Din Rumi (Konya).
The Sufi orders practiced presently run in hundreds but most of these represent the off shoots of the earlier ones. The 13th century considered the golden age of Sufism was marked by the development of comprehensive mystical and theosophical doctrines of Sufism by the Sufi scholars like ibn ul Arabi of Spain, and the popular Persian Sufi poet Jalal ud Din Rumi.
Apart from the Christian asceticism, Hinduism had a significant influence on Sufism both in terms of the philosophical basis and the meditation practices, which started much before Sufism reached the Indian subcontinent. The concept of existential unity of being (wahdat-ul-wujood) propounded by the ibn ul Arabi in the 13th century bears striking similarity to the Advaita philosophy (unified Brahma-Jnana) of the Puranas (ancient Hindu religious texts). The concept of wahdat-ul-wujood has been a dominant philosophy in the later day Sufis which brought them closer to the Hindu mystics like Ramanand, Chaitanya, Ramanuja, Namdev, Mira Bai, Tukaram, and Ramdas, resulting in social movements like the Bhakti movement. The Sufis also incorporated some of the meditation techniques from the Hindu mystics like the breathing techniques to facilitate their Sufi practices.
Sufis regards the soul as the agency for communication with God. It is the higher soul, as Sufis believe, created before any human being came into existence, consisting of heart (qalb), spirit (ruh), and conscience (sirr) that has the ability to know God.
The sirr is regarded by many Sufis to represent the “secret shrine of God himself, wherein he knows man and man can know him.”
The heart (qalb) has an important place is Sufism and is considered to contain the divine spark that leads to spiritual realization. For the heart (qalb) to reflect the truth as it is, it has to be cleansed of the rust of worldly influences.
There is another soul (nafs) that Sufis regard as the seat of passions that creates hurdles in the communion of the higher soul with God. The nafs has to be transformed from nafs-e ammara (lustful soul) to nafs-e lawwama (self-blaming soul) and ultimately into nafs-e mutmaenna (peaceful soul) to return to truth.