Quest Magazine

Dust Matters

Originally printed in the November - December 2004 issue of Quest magazine. 
Citation: Bland, Betty. "Dust Matters." Quest  92.6 (NOVEMBER - DECEMBER 2004):202-203

By Betty Bland

Theosophical Society - Betty Bland served as President of the Theosophical Society in America and made many important and lasting contributions to the growth and legacy of the TSA. One of the inexorable matters of life is dust. It creeps in under windows and doors. It manufactures itself in the air. It is basically invisible until it has already produced a fine covering over everything around. As soon as it has been removed, dust resumes its march of conquest, defying any efforts to have everything "just so" even for a moment.

My mother who, at 91 years of age, has earned the family nickname of the "Eveready Bunny," has been an energetic householder all her life. Busy with an array of creative and service activities, she always viewed dust as a major nemesis. Although it is one of the lighter of housekeeping chores, it is one of the most odious to her and many other housekeepers.

During my growing-up years, Mother was fortunate enough to be able to hire someone to take care of the dusting, so I grew up unaware that dust actually collects on exposed surfaces. I assumed that it only accumulated in hidden corners and behind the books on my shelves. What a shock it was to this inveterate neat nick to discover, in my early married years, that relentless blanket gently smothering everything.

Every one of us encounters this same plight, within and without. Just as physical dust collects on our belongings, psychic dust blocks our access to the realm of spiritual clarity. Life experiences are the important ingredient in our human existence, providing the lessons we are here to learn. These experiences, necessary as they are, catch us in a karmic web of spiritual blindness. Things happen. We react in ways that we think will make our lives more to our liking. We become ensnared in our own little worlds. In other words, we have followed the natural path toward maturity by first becoming self-centered individuals.

Like the particles of dust swirling in the air which make the sunbeam visible, these experiences bring into focus our dharma, our purpose, the calling of our soul's pilgrim journey. The human predicament is to become fully invested in matter (life on this physical plane) and then to begin to clear away the emotional debris in order to wend our way home again.

Our humanity must reach the level of development at which we can learn how to dust! Inner dust is the accumulation of all the particles of experience that color our personality—the desires and avoidances. These are often referred to as attachments or patterns of desire, and are the emotional levers whereby karma works its power on us. In Hindu philosophy they are called the skandas, or the bundles of characteristics and predispositions that we carry with us from lifetime to lifetime.

The skandas are the third element in the nature or nurture argument concerning why people develop as they do. Anyone who doubts that a child arrives in this world with its own set of predispositions has only to experience the parenting of two children. Two children from the same gene pool and living in the same environment will be affected quite differently by the same event. One may remember a ride on an elephant as a major event, while the other barely takes notice, and so on. Even identical twins can reveal marked contrasts in personalities from the very start. One might imagine that the mirror of each child's soul has its own areas of stickiness, so that the dust collects more heavily in one area or another.

Wherever the dust is thickest, however, the fact remains that everyone has plenty of housecleaning to do. In The Voice of the Silence, H. P. Blavatsky speaks of the necessity of life experiences, or dust, in order to develop soul wisdom. But she says that the wisdom gleaned from life's lessons is only accomplished through regular dusting:

 

The seeds of Wisdom cannot sprout and grow in airless space. To live and reap experience the mind needs breadth and depth and points to draw it towards the Diamond Soul. Seek not those points in Maya's realm; but soar beyond illusions, search the eternal and the changeless SAT [the one eternal absolute], mistrusting fancy's false suggestions.

For mind is like a mirror; it gathers dust while it reflects. It needs the gentle breezes of Soul-Wisdom to brush away the dust of our illusions. Seek O Beginner, to blend thy Mind and Soul.

Shun ignorance, and likewise shun illusion. Avert thy face from world deceptions; mistrust thy senses, they are false. But within thy body—the shrine of thy sensations—seek in the Impersonal for the "eternal man"; and having sought him out, look inward: thou art Buddha.

Although HPB uses the Buddhist idiom in this passage, in this instance the Buddha nature can equally be expressed as the Christ within, or the higher self. This nature is always within us just as a clean surface always resides beneath the dust, but it is beyond our awareness. In order to begin the cleansing process, we first have to be still, sitting quietly so that the gentle soul breezes can find their way into our hearts. Stillness is a beginning, but the sweeping requires the effort of objective self-observation and correction, and reliance on something higher or beyond the personal self—its foibles being the source of the dust. Separative and selfish attitudes cloud the mind-mirror and block our vision. In a little note at the end of letter 71 in the Mahatma Letters to A.P. Sinnett, Mahatma KH defines an enlightened being as one from whom:

No curtain hides the spheres Elysian,
Nor these poor shells of half transparent dust;
For all that blinds the spirit's vision
Is pride and hate and lust. . . .

And so dust we must. If we want to peer into our mirror mind, we have to clear the normal accumulation of personal attachments on a regular basis. Perhaps you can even use this metaphor when you have to clean dusty objects in your outer environment, to remind yourself of the need for removing self-serving matter from your inner world. This is the matter that really matters.

Too Much of a Good Thing

By Betty Bland

Originally printed in the NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2006 issue of Quest magazine. 
Citation:Bland, Betty. "Too Much of a Good Thing." Quest  94.5 (NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2006):186-188.

Theosophical Society - Betty Bland served as President of the Theosophical Society in America and made many important and lasting contributions to the growth and legacy of the TSA.

"Be careful what you wish for because you might just get it," we often hear. In the middle of July, we wish for cold, and in mid-February, we long for hot summer days. If we are suffering a drought, we long for rains, but in flood conditions we cannot bear to see any more rain. This also is true for rest and work, depending on whether we are fatigued or bored. And so the list goes on. We are rather like Goldilocks when tasting the three bears' porridge. Papa Bear's was too hot; Mama Bear's was too cold; but Baby Bear's was just right, not extreme in either direction.

There is truth to the saying that evil is an exaggerated virtue. Knowledge is good, but too much theory without practical understanding leads to either dullness or fanaticism. Balance and proportion are crucial for the welfare of the whole. Although the underlying unity of the cosmos is undeniable, the list of apparent opposites in this manifested universe is endless: pliable and rigid, dark and light, strength and gentleness, etc. The tension between these opposites holds the whole system together and provides the field for our consciousness and growth.

FATHER-MOTHER SPIN A WEB WHOSE UPPER END IS FASTENED TO SPIRIT (Purusha)—THE LIGHT OF THE ONE DARKNESS—AND THE LOWER ONE TO MATTER (Prakriti), ITS (the Spirit's) SHADOWY END; AND THIS WEB IS THE UNIVERSE SPUN OUT OF THE TWO SUBSTANCES MADE IN ONE, WHICH IS SWÂBHÂVAT (self-becoming or unfolding out of itself).

The Secret Doctrine, Stanza III, sloka 10

Our universe requires a dynamic and complementary tension between the opposite forces called yin and yang, as illustrated by the Chinese symbol. Each of the equally divided dark and light portions of the revolving circle contains a germ of the other within its segment, showing that each aspect depends on the presence of the other in their eternal cosmic dance.

These energies, yin/yang, female/male, receptive/assertive, negative/positive, etc., are a part of this grand drama in which we, as participants, have to figure out how to find harmony and balance. Each of us has both types of qualities, but manifesting as male or female; we express one or the other more strongly. Yet either quality requires the mitigating presence of the other. This is true within our selves as well as in society. Protective fortitude is as necessary as sustaining nurturance. Because the masculine aspect has been overemphasized for several millennia, today, the need for finding balance through increased appreciation for the feminine is gaining expression.

Consider the image of the potter and clay. Being the clay or material to be shaped unto a useful vessel, we have to undergo the molding process. So that we may contain the feminine aspect of receptivity, we are shaped into a hollow that is open to spirit. Yet our substance has to be strong and resistant enough (a masculine quality) to be able to form and maintain a sturdy shape. When the clay is too wet and soft to be worked, it will collapse in on itself and be unable to function as a vessel. A balance in strength and pliability is needed.

We cannot promote one aspect of our nature over another. We have to be receptive to pine spirit, but we also have to present robust material for the potter's use. Therefore we need to develop a self-responsible, self-reliant strength that does not crumble under whatever energy happens our way. In order to be whole in our development we require strength of identity and purpose, while at the same time maintaining a gentle receptivity. If one day, we are to serve as teachers and masters of wisdom, we need to balance equally the masculine and feminine qualities within.

The chalice, a symbol of the feminine because its concave shape provides it with a potential for being filled, has always been a part of the Christian tradition. In spite of its importance in the sacrament of communion, however, the chalice has not held a prominent place in religious iconography. Possibly the chalice's low visibility has been symptomatic of the Church's limited acknowledgement of the feminine.

In fact, the West's long love affair with the Arthurian grail legends may have been spawned by this lack of feminine empowerment. The stories abound with brave and gallant knights charging in quest of the elusive grail. Nevertheless, it turns out that it is not bravery which wins the goal, but a receptive, purity of heart. Moreover, woven throughout the tales of adventure are encounters with powerful women who must be reckoned with along the way. The knights were seeking and being challenged by the feminine.

In the Hindu tradition, we find another story which prompts the audience to rethink and honor the feminine. Long ago there was a young aspiring yogini who longed to be the disciple of a great teacher. She approached him several times but was not even allowed past his outer devotees. In spite of rebuffs and ridicule, she persisted and finally gained audience with him. He promptly dismissed her youthful enthusiasm with the pronouncement that he did not accept females as his students. After persistent supplications on her part however, he accepted her argument that "all humanity must become feminine, or receptive, to pine spirit." He recognized in her argument a truth that resulted from an inner experience of wholeness and spiritual maturity.

Consideration of the feminine principle does not mean that we should promote one quality over the other, but that we should enhance that quality which has been most lacking in empowerment and acknowledgement. In doing so, we can achieve greater balance, in both our personal lives and in society around us. Equal appreciation of both qualities generates wholeness and encourages the full expression of humanity. Just as we would not choose to use only one eye, one leg, or one hand, so we should not choose to strengthen one of these aspects over another.

Whichever quality is less in your comfort zone is the one to pursue. Honor the receptiveness within your self, that you might be open to others, to nature, and to the Spirit that pours its power into our inner sanctuary; develop your strength of character, self-assertion, and action so that you might be of greater service to the world. Develop the mettle to hold the form, and the emptiness to become the receptive hollow. Be whole in both weakness and strength.

In Stories of the Spirit, Stories of the Heart, edited by Christina Feldman and Jack Kornfield, on page 283, the following illustration is given in a repertoire of the Dalai Lama's parables. Once, the spirit of a famous guru appeared in order to heal a small, discordant community of monks. All the monks had seen the spirit come out of the wall long enough to utter just one word. But each monk had heard a different word. The event is immortalized in this poem:

The one who wanted to die heard live.

The one who wanted to live heard die.

The one who wanted to take heard give.

The one who wanted to give heard keep.

The one who was always alert heard sleep.

The one who was always asleep heard wake.

The one who wanted to leave heard stay.

The one who wanted to stay, depart.

The one who never spoke heard preach.

The one who always preached heard pray.

Each one learned how he had been

In someone else's way.

Originally told by Pierre Delattre

That which makes us whole, will be neither too much nor too little, but just right.

Embracing the Feminine: A Search for Meaning and Healing

 

By Annie Kaufman

Theosophical Society - Annie KaufmanMy life began as a religious journey and has evolved as a process of spiritual growth. As a little girl my mother took me and my sisters to the Methodist Church. I was confirmed as a Methodist, and received my Bible before we moved away in 1965, when I was nine years old.

After my parents divorced, my mother took us to a Catholic church where I went to catechism and was baptized. Later, while in high school, I became a Mormon. As a Mormon, I wanted to broaden my education, so I studied complicated works from assorted lists of the "best books" one could read. I began my studies and searched for the meaning of my life with fierce diligence, believing this would help me cope with my childhood phobia of people. My list of books included chosen works by Hesse, Thomas Mann, and Dostoevsky.

Later, I spent a year and a half as a missionary in Ecuador. This helped me grow beyond my love affair with the Mormons and at the age of twenty-five, I left the Mormon Church, feeling its structure and rules did not truly help me with my discomfort in social situations. I still pored over spiritual texts and self-help books looking for answers to my struggle with anxiety. I used meditation, mindfulness, the medical profession, and other healing techniques to deal with this emotion and the physical ailments that accompany it.

During this period of study and contemplation which was partly due to illness, I became conscious of my connection with the planet. I was fascinated with the experience of expanded consciousness that occurred when reading inspiring literature and when I was alone in nature. Feeling my energy merge with my surroundings, I realized I could communicate with plants, animals, and objects especially when I walked and played my Native American flute. This experience of merging with nature became a source of healing and nurture in my otherwise chaotic world.

H. P. Blavatsky writes about "invisible intelligent Existences" in The Secret Doctrine (611) and refers to electricity and all the forces of light and heat as "gods" and indicates this understanding of energy was taught by the ancient Egyptians and the Hindus. These and other cultures have their stories of gnomes, geniis, little people, fairies, and the like which modern society dismisses as superstition.

Such entities are actually representatives of these invisible powers and are diverse expressions of the way the powers have always looked to, or been described by, the humans with whom they communicate. Through plants, animals, the wind, and other forces of nature, we see reflections here on earth both of our political chaos and the chaos in our souls.

I tried to understand my metaphysical experiences by studying science: basic quantum physics, genetics, and Western medicine. I wanted to know how the experiences of dreams and insights that were so astounding to me and touched my life occurred. I wanted to know intellectually why Einstein searched for a unifying principle; as I hoped this would explain what I felt intuitively.

The University of Chicago's Masters in Liberal Arts program provided me the opportunity to continue my multi-faceted investigation of what I now called the Universe. I received little support in my pursuits from peers and friends, who asked: "What will you do with that degree?" They wanted to know, I think, how it was going to translate into monetary value in my life. I explained I had already made the changes in my career that I felt were most beneficial to me, such as working part-time as a nurse. I found that the healing part of my experience and studies is what has been of greatest import in my life. The Masters program also introduced me to film-making as a way of journaling my experiences as they happened, which I felt was very important in my healing process.

Given the response I normally received when the topic came up, I did not talk about the Masters program. However, it introduced me to the Bhagavad Gita, an ancient Hindu scripture, and this book became part of the focus for my Masters project. In class, I recommended reading a chapter or parts of the book straight through and aloud, for hearing it spoken gave a richer sense of its original feeling and rhythm as well as its place in the culture in which it was created.

I knew I wanted to complete my project, both the film and the thesis, in a style that was attentive to both the moment and could direct the readers' attention to themselves. I had read Walden in high school, and Thoreau exemplified this approach to living, attending to and documenting what he saw and his connection to the universe. By discussing Walden along with the Bhagavad Gita in my project and documentary, I found a way to describe why I was looking at the right-brained thinking as a path to experiencing the interconnected web of life. I felt that this feminine thinking style, when squashed, leads to mental illness. This had been my experience and I wanted to demonstrate that when nurtured, this connection to the feminine leads to healing of both body and soul.

I created a documentary called Dostoevsky, the Gita, Walden and Anne to display this thinking style. It was inspired in part by an incident that happened at the Theosophical Society in Wheaton. During a weekend workshop on music and healing with Don Campbell, I was asked to respond to a small white box, the kind you get at the jewelry store when you buy a pair of earrings. Inside my box was a seed, a string, a blade of grass, and the smiling face of boy cut out from a magazine. I decided to dance in response to the box and found a copy of Pachelbel's Canon to dance to. As I danced, I knew this would be the first dance I would use in my film project. Using my understanding of the Bhagavad Gita as a springboard, I divided the movie into three parts, three being a sacred number, with "The Seed" representing creation and the beginning; "The Fruit of Life" describing reality in life's middle, and "Dissolution" representing death and destruction.

I filmed the first dance on the deck just outside my front door. In the second dance, I hummed an accompaniment to the Canon, dancing in between two mirrors in my bathroom so that my arms represent the many arms of Shiva, the Indian god of destruction. The last dance completes life's cycle, and to my surprise my neighbor walked by with his dog as I was filming late at night. I wanted to stop dancing, but the beginning of the dance had worked so well that I kept going. Later I read that Aesclepius, the Greek god of healing has a dog as his companion. Realizing this, I decided it was fitting to leave him and his dog in the film.

While showing my movie to friends and discussing it at the Theosophical Society, I realized I wanted to read The Secret Doctrine. Reading the Gita aloud in class was really an introductory step that led to reading The Secret Doctrine straight through. I realized it had been written and intentionally organized as a book, so that was the way I wanted to read it. I had started attending a Spiritualist Church and when I found that HPB met Colonel Olcott at a Spiritualist meeting in New York, I realized that my new interests, both in Spiritualism and in her book, were intertwining in an interesting way.

Seeing me with the book, a few of the staff at Olcott expressed incredulity, "Nobody reads The Secret Doctrine, at least not straight through!" I replied jokingly, "I said I was going to read it, not understand it." Then, when checking it out for the third or fourth time from the library, the librarian said, "You don't read that book straight through," to which I replied "Yes, you do, or I mean, you can!" (By then I was beginning to doubt myself and wondered if this project was beyond me after all.)

At first I found the book to be boring, technical, and disorganized. Even though I recognized this as what I expected right-brained writing would be like, I didn't find that my own propensity to write in this seemingly disconnected style made reading or understanding it any easier. Throughout The Secret Doctrine, HPB constantly moves from topic to topic. She might begin by discussing seven rays of energy or consciousness, and then shift to discussing different entities while throwing in the wisdom of the Chaldean peoples of Mesopotamia and the Semites and Egyptians of antiquity! Having read so many books, she referenced famous and obscure thinkers with whom I had little connection, decrying or exclaiming over thoughts by Descartes, Kant, Aristotle, Plato, Leibniz, and a certain Professor Crookes, among others.

In the end, I decided to tackle this book as I had tackled the works I had read in quantum physics or biology: I simply plowed through. I just kept going, and though still aware of the dryness, I stayed alert for the little pearls of wisdom interspersed among the difficult parts.

Then I noticed something quite unique: After the first three or four months—and about four hundred pages or so into the book—as I started flipping back to remind myself where HPB had been or what connection or line of thought she was following, the information on the previous pages seemed to rise up off the page, alive with new clarity, insight, and, yes, delight. This amazed me and it was not an occasional experience. I found it breathtaking. A friend commented that perhaps I had needed the overview in order to see HPB's ideas clearly when I returned to them from a point later on in the book. I am still not sure, but every time I looked at something I had already read, it seemed to have this new sparkle, this new freshness, about it.

I realized I was learning a great deal, and in my mind, I put together an amazing connection between Ancient Wisdom and my questions about the interconnected web of life. At the time, I was also reading Neil Douglas-Klotz's Desert Wisdom, which deals with creation religions that celebrate cosmogony, or the beginning of time, in scripture, song, and practice. As this is also the subject of The Secret Doctrine, the two studies went together, hand in hand.

Reading The Secret Doctrine and Desert Wisdom together, I realized how over time the feminine principle or the aspect of spirituality has been erased from the external forms of so many of today's world religions While I belonged to three different Christian churches, I had also read Judaism, Islam, the Tibetan Book of the Dead, Zen and Buddhism. I discovered that the ancient teachings string these ancient philosophical systems together and reconcile them. Tidbits of this information are to be found scattered in Egyptian papyri and in isolated sentences in the Tibetan Book of the Dead.

While reviewing these diverse descriptions of our beginnings, I found it comforting to know that between universes, consciousness is not lost. As HPB says,

Everything will have re-entered the Great Breath . . . reabsorption is by no means such a "dreamless sleep," but, on the contrary, absolute existence, an unconditioned unity, or a state, to describe which human language is absolutely and hopelessly inadequate. . . Nor is the individuality—nor even the essence of the personality, if any be left behind" lost, because reabsorbed. . . the same monad will re-emerge therefrom, as a still higher being, on a far higher plane, to recommence its cycle of perfected activity.

From a human perspective, each of these universes last billions of years, and I'm not sure why this thought comforted me, except perhaps that I also know that all the universes and time exist in the breath of the One. Our time—our universe—although real to us, is actually an experience of that oneness in all its aspects; a oneness that exists outside of time.

I think about this paradox as I move through life; that life is real and in the same moment, it is not real. Life has more to do with the process than with the material items we find around us. These material things, the trees, rocks, and the glories of nature, are an extension of our consciousness and as all was created, so it all exists in time and through eternity, as a point or movement in the breath of the One—or Fohat—as HPB mentions in her books.

Space opens up when it is observed, and in the beginning, from a point in eternity, all was created. The circle was created, and one human being, itself a reflection of that first point, looked to the horizon and saw that it was round.

I was celebrating the circle at a Universal Dances for Peace gathering recently and as we danced, we read a Hebrew verse from Proverbs about the beginning, which was rendered in beautiful calligraphy on a poster on the wall. The verse concerns Sacred Wisdom, also called Hokmah or Sophia in other traditions, which first desired creation and so poured herself out into the ground of being. Spinning in both directions, she created the universe. This sort of feminine beginning describes creation in most of the ancient traditions I have studied.

The Secret Doctrine mentions this spinning in that centrifugal and centripetal forces are the primary forces allowing creation to occur. The caduceus is a symbol of this one becoming two and the spinning is represented in the two snakes twining around each other in opposite directions. Thus is our fragile creation, created from and around a no-thing by the Fohat, or eternal presence, represented and taught by cultures, ancient and modern alike, arising out of the feminine aspect which was created when the one decided to become two.

H PB says when someone dies, the active agent which keeps the body alive is transformed; the preserver is transformed into the destroyer. The dissolution I danced as part three of my film is an inherent part of our process. We separate events into good and evil, constructive and destructive, and by siding ourselves with one, we create the "other" outside of ourselves with whom we then fight. Through our faiths and spiritual practices we experience the oneness I described earlier. But the difficulty comes when we try to deal with the split and the resulting differentiation—when one becomes two, male and female—and we start judging which is best. We think light is better than dark; that light is good, darkness evil. These qualities are part of the split in the origin of the universe, nothing more. When the forces are out of balance, it means the destructive force is out of balance, and we experience disharmony and discord. This view of life as opposition, with white representing good and black evil, creates strife. We can change our cultural perspective by choosing to use different symbols.

Life is more like a wheel with spokes than an endless array of opposites. These spokes can extend from the same center to create all sorts of positions on the circle of life. It is difficult for humans when their spiritual paths insist on one of these forces as being the only right one. This leads to strife and conflict. We struggle internally over what we deem to be right and true, and our own destructive forces use this struggle to create chaos around us.

Adding the feminine to the picture helps us create balance and harmony. Remember that Sacred Wisdom, Hokmah or Sophia, desired creation and that this being was one. Referring back to the scripture I mentioned earlier, by pouring out the one became two, and with the creation of matter there were now three. This split in the forces of male and female creates and brings forth the child. These forces are also two: creation and destruction, birth and death. These two intertwine around this creation, as the clockwise and counterclockwise spirals. When one of the forces shifts strongly out of balance, eventually its very state of imbalance brings about an opposing reaction.

We have been in throes of penetrating masculine energy at the expense of our nurturing feminine side. Our culture has been based on opposites: right and wrong, plus and minus, action and reaction. Our misguided interpretation of Newtonian physics is now being corrected by quantum physics in which uncertainty and probability can now be discussed. By using the sacred circle, we can see there are many spokes on the wheel connecting us to all the positions on any given topic. If we change our mentality from "us and them" to "me and all others, who are also me," we may be able to effect real change on this planet.

Now I often sit and let my personal battle rage within me without doing or changing anything in my relationships. I remind myself to look at what my situation is today, for example, by checking in with my significant other instead of making decisions without his input. I struggle to remain kind to the people around me, because this is what I can do. I engage others with kindness as often as I can. I find that while the kindness has not changed them, it has changed me. And sooner or later, my soul's position changes, possibly because I have continued to love from where I am.

I remember what HPB said about levels of consciousness, that higher means less material, not necessarily better, and I try not to judge who is right and who is wrong. In this, I am guided by what I now know was present in the beginning, feminine receptive Wisdom and Mystery. And in the words of my dear friend Verena, who is in her seventies, "ever since I met Sacred Mystery, I have been joyful."

The Women of the Revelation

Zachary F. Lansdowne

Originally printed in the NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2006 issue of Quest magazine. 
Citation: Lansdowne, Zachary F. "The Women of the Revelation." Quest  94.5 (NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2006):217-219, 224.

Theosophical Society - Zachary Lansdowne, Ph.D., has been a member of the Theosophical Society in American for the past fifteen years and has served as the President of the Theosophical Society in Boston. He has earned advanced degrees in engineering, psychology, philosophy, and religion. He has published many journal articles and five books. His latest book is The Revelation of Saint John(Red Wheel/Weiser, 2006), which provides a psychological analysis of every verse in the Revelation

The Revelation of Saint John, the last book of the Bible, has been a mystery ever since it first appeared about two thousand years ago, because it is written entirely in symbols. This enigmatic work includes two vivid feminine symbols: the celestial woman of chapter twelve and the seductive prostitute of chapter seventeen. What do these symbols mean?

Revelation 12:1 describes the celestial woman as "a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars." Many perse interpretations have been proposed for this woman: the constellation Virgo in which the moon is at the feet of Virgo, Mary the mother of Jesus, the people of Israel, and the heavenly church. Revelation 17:1 describes the seductive prostitute as "the great whore that sitteth upon many waters." Most commentators interpret this symbol as representing the ancient city of Rome. (In this article, all Biblical quotations come from the Authorized (King James) Version, unless stated otherwise.)

Psychological Approach of Interpretation

Helena P. Blavatsky, the founder of the Theosophical Society, provides the following key to interpreting the Revelation. She writes "The fact is . . . the whole Revelation, is simply an allegorical narrative of the Mysteries and initiation therein of a candidate, who is John himself." (Isis Unveiled, vol. II, 351) This quotation suggests the use of a psychological approach that takes every symbol as representing some aspect of an aspirant who is on the spiritual journey. Edgar Cayce, the well-known medium, makes a similar point:

Why, then, ye ask now, was this written (this vision) in such a manner that is hard to be interpreted, save in the experience of every soul who seeks to know, to walk in, a closer communion with Him? For the visions, the experiences, the names, the churches, the places, the dragons, the cities, all are but emblems of those forces that may war within the individual in its journey through the material, or from the entering into the material manifestation to the entering into the glory, or the awakening in the spirit. (Van Auken 158-159)

If we do use a psychological approach of interpretation, then what do the celestial woman and the seductive prostitute represent? Let us consider the meaning of these symbols by analyzing the first five verses of chapters twelve and seventeen.

The Celestial Woman

The first five verses of chapter twelve in the Revelation read:

1. And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars. 2. And she being with child cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered. 3. And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads. 4. And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth: and the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born. 5. And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto God, and to his throne.

With the psychological approach, the woman depicted in the first verse can represent some aspect of an aspirant who is on the spiritual journey. One clue is that the woman is in "heaven." Arthur E. Powell, in his book The Causal Body and the Ego, uses the word "heaven" as a synonym for the mental plane and we all know the feminine form is a symbol of receptivity. For example, Isaiah 54:5 states, "For thy Maker is thine husband," indicating that a human being ought to have a feminine, or receptive, relationship to the pine. Accordingly, the woman is interpreted as the aspirant's mental body, or mind, when it has this receptivity.

The meaning of sun and moon is similar to that in Joel 2:31: "The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the LORD come." According to Acts 2:20, the apostle Peter quoted this passage from Joel on the day of Pentecost, believing that the events of that day fulfilled Joel's prophecy. On the day of Pentecost, the apostles heard and followed the inner voice, referred to as the Holy Ghost or Spirit, instead of relying on external teachers and teachings. The sun being an external source of light, can represent an external teacher or authority figure, while the moon, also an external source but of reflected light, therefore represents an external teaching found in books.

Clothing often symbolizes the nature of the wearer, as shown in Zechariah 3:4: "Behold, I have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee, and I will clothe thee with change of raiment." Thus, "clothed by the sun" may indicate a nature influenced by external teachers. Placing something under one's feet can signify dominance, and so "moon under her feet" would indicate an understanding of external teachings.

The number twelve is known to represent the pine pattern or organization. For example, the year was divided into twelve months (I Kings 4:7), the people of Israel into twelve tribes (Genesis 49:28), and twelve apostles were chosen by Jesus (Matthew 10:1). Blavatsky uses a star as a metaphor for an "ideal" (Collected Writings, vol. 11, 262). Accordingly, "a crown of twelve stars" symbolizes mental ideals of spiritual development.

Mabel Collins writes in Light on the Path: "When you have found the beginning of the way, the star of your soul will show its light; and by that light you will perceive how great is the darkness in which it burns" (21). Here, "soul" is a synonym for the Divine Principle in a human being. In the second verse, "child" is taken as the soul, "cried" as a call for the soul's guidance, and "pain" as the distress from seeing what is revealed.

In Revelation 12:3 the dragon is equated with both "Satan" and the "Devil." The original Hebrew word for Satan means adversary, which is the translation used in Numbers 22:22. Thus, the great dragon symbolizes the great adversary that an aspirant must eventually face and overcome on the spiritual journey. Blavatsky refers to illusion as this adversary: "Only when the true discerning or discriminating power is set free is illusion overcome, and the setting free of that power is . . . the attainment of Adeptship" (Collected Writings, vol. 12, 691). Accordingly, the great dragon is taken as illusion.

The color red can indicate conflict, as in Nahum 2:3: "The shield of his mighty men is made red." Thus, the dragon's red color indicates that illusion engenders conflict. Indeed, A Course in Miracles says, "Without illusions conflict is impossible" (vol. II, 130). John 8:44 makes a similar point: "the devil . . . was a murderer from the beginning."

The vital body is an energetic counterpart of the physical body and has been given many other names such as biofield in alternative medicine, pranamaya kosha in the Hindu Upanishads, and the etheric body in Theosophy. In yoga philosophy, a chakra is an energy center in the vital body. Motoyama said that "there are seven chakras" (24). The seven heads in Revelation 12:3 can be taken as the seven chakras, as the numbers match and because a head has the shape of a chakra and is a center of authority.

It is often said that the seven chakras can determine the profile of the physical body, or outer form. Perhaps the crowns on these chakras are taken to mean that illusion gives paramount importance to the outer form. Paul, in Romans 8:7 (Revised Standard Version), expresses a similar idea: "For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God's law, indeed it cannot."

The ten horns of the dragon are symbols of power and dominion, since they are the chief means of attack and defense for animals endowed with them (Deuteronomy 33:17). The horns are taken as desires, which are the emotional forces that empower our personality. The number ten signifies completeness. For example, ten patriarchs are mentioned before the Flood (Genesis 5), the Egyptians were visited with ten plagues (Exodus 7-12), and there are Ten Commandments (Exodus 34:28). Thus, the ten horns on the dragon could indicate that illusion controls the full range of desires.

The third verse also mentions twenty-four features of the dragon: seven heads, ten horns, and seven crowns which add up to twenty-four and could symbolize the passage of time, because there are twenty-four hours in a day (John 11:9, Acts 23:23). Thus, the twenty-four features are interpreted to mean that illusion is closely related to time. Krishnamurti makes a similar point in his Notebook and his other writings: "Time is illusion" (153).

In Revelation 12:4, the "tail" can represent the spinal column, as the latter has the shape of a tail. According to yoga philosophy, the five lowest chakras are arranged along the spinal column. Wrong perception, interpretation, or appropriation of an ideal creates a false belief on the mental level. Combining a false belief with desire produces a reaction on the emotional level, such as pride or anger. Combining an emotional reaction with vital energy produces a compulsion on the physical level. If the "earth" refers to the personality, then casting the stars to the earth could mean transforming the mental ideals into false beliefs, emotional reactions, and ultimately, compulsions.

In verse five, the "man child" can be looked at as the soul, because the soul has wisdom, which is associated "with the ancient" (Job 12:12), but speaks with "a still small voice" (I Kings 19:12). The Bible sometimes associates rods with serpents, such as in Exodus 7:10: "Aaron cast down his rod before Pharaoh, and before his servants, and it became a serpent." The Sanskrit word kundalini means "coiling up like a serpent." According to yogic philosophy, the kundalini is normally dormant, but when it is awakened, it rises up the spinal column, like a snake rising from its coiled position, and stimulates the seven chakras. The phrase "rod of iron" can be interpreted as the spinal column after the kundalini has been raised.

With reference to the last line of Revelation 12:5, A Course in Miracles states: "In your heart the Heart of God is laid" (vol. II, 378). A throne is often interpreted as a point of contact with a king. The throne of God is taken as the heart of God, because we have our contact with God through the pine heart.

To summarize, the first five verses of chapter twelve could be looked at as having the following psychological meaning:

The aspirant's mind is receptive to the pine, because it is influenced by external teachers, understands external teachings, and aspires towards mental ideals of spiritual development.

The aspirant's mind, receptive to the soul, calls for its guidance and is distressed by seeing what is revealed.

The fact of illusion is revealed. Illusion appears as a great adversary responsible for all conflicts. Controlling the seven chakras and all desires, illusion gives paramount importance to the outer form, and deludes through the passage of time.

The chakras in the spinal column, which are controlled by illusion, have corrupted some of the mental ideals, turning them into false beliefs, emotional reactions, and compulsions. Illusion, operating on the mental level, is ready to fight against any guidance from the soul as soon as the mind has received it.

Eventually, the mind brings forth the guidance of the soul, which combines the wisdom of maturity with a still small voice. The soul will rule all aspects of the personality by way of awakened kundalini in the spinal column. It acts as the intermediary for God and is aligned with the heart of God.

The Seductive Prostitute

The first five verses of chapter seventeen read:

1. And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither; I will shew unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters: 2. With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication. 3. So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. 4. And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication: 5. And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.

In verse one, the word "angel" is a translation of the Greek word that simply means messenger. A vial of oil was used in anointing Saul (I Samuel 10:1), and can be a symbol of initiation. Thus, this visitor is interpreted as a messenger from the spiritual realm who has the power to initiate human beings into that realm.

The "great whore that sitteth upon many waters," the word whore could symbolize the ego, because a whore is corrupt and deluded by lusts. The word "great" is a translation of the Greek word that is sometimes used to denote people holding positions of authority (Mark 10:42). The "waters" symbolize emotional reactions, as in Psalms 69:2: "I sink in deep mire, where there is no standing: I am come into deep waters, where the floods overflow me." Thus, the ego is a controlling sense of identity that is supported by many emotional reactions.

The Old Testament sometimes uses a reference to fornication as a metaphor for idolatry. For example, Jeremiah 3:9 (International Children's Bible) states: "She was guilty of adultery. This was because she worshiped idols made of stone and wood." This commentary interprets idolatry in a broad sense to mean giving power to external circumstances, including any kind of physical possession. According to the symbols in 17:2, the ego corrupts the personality with idolatry. In fact, A Course in Miracles says, "The ego is idolatry" (vol. II, 467). In Revelation 12:4, as well as Revelation 17:2, the earth is the personality. The kings of the earth are interpreted as thoughts, because thoughts rule the rest of the personality.

The Bible often considers the wilderness to be a place of refuge and communion with God, as in Hosea 2:14: "I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak comfortably unto her." The wilderness in verse three is taken as a detached state of mind that is receptive to intuitive instruction.

The beast might represent the emotion, of guilt, because its scarlet color can be a symbol of iniquity, as shown in Isaiah 1:18: "though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow." Robert Perry says, "Guilt maintains the ego's existence" (A Course Glossary, 31). This quotation is consistent with identifying the scarlet beast as guilt and its rider as the ego; the ego offers a feeling of superiority to compensate for the feeling of inferiority that guilt imposes.

Blasphemy is often translated as slander, verbal abuse, or evil speaking. Although the English word means "contempt for God," the original Greek word is not necessarily concerned with God. In the Bible, a personal name often indicates the bearer's nature, rather than being just an artificial tag that distinguishes one person from another. For example, I Samuel 25:25 states: "for as his name is, so is he." Thus, the name of blasphemy refers to its nature, which is judgment and rage.

In the fourth verse, scarlet is used as a symbol of prosperity, as in II Samuel 1:24: "Ye daughters of Israel, weep over Saul, who clothed you in scarlet, with other delights, who put on ornaments of gold upon your apparel." Purple is a symbol of royalty or prominence. The Bible often uses the word "abomination" to denote practices that are derived from idolatry (II Kings 23:13).

In verse five, "forehead" is symbolical of mind or consciousness, as in Jeremiah 3:3: "thou hadst a whore's forehead, thou refusedst to be ashamed." Babylon is the Greek form of the Hebrew word Babel, which in turn means confusion (Genesis 11:9).

"Mystery" is a translation of the Greek word that sometimes means hidden purpose or will (II Thessalonians 2:7). Paramahansa Yogananda says, "Though the ego in most barbaric ways conspires to enslave him, man is not a body confined to a point in space but is essentially the omnipresent soul" (Autobiography of a Yogi, 160). A Course in Miracles states: "The ego wishes no one well. Yet its survival depends on your belief that you are exempt from its evil intentions" (vol. I, 317). Both quotations speak of the ego as though it has its own consciousness with a hidden evil purpose.

In summary, the first five verses of chapter seventeen have the following psychological meaning:

A messenger from the spiritual realm, who has the power to initiate human beings into that realm, comes to the aspirant and says, "Raise your consciousness and I will show you the truth about your ego, which is a controlling, corrupt, and deluded sense of identity supported by your many emotional reactions. Your thoughts have become idolatrous through your ego. Your feelings and motives have been deluded by the idolatrous beliefs of your ego."

The messenger helps the aspirant to achieve a detached state of mind that is receptive to intuitive instruction. Then the aspirant sees that his ego is maintained by his guilt, which is full of judgments and rage, and which controls his seven chakras and all of his desires.

The ego appears very attractive, because it offers self-glorification through prominence, prosperity, and valuable things. Its offering, however, is actually idolatrous and therefore corrupting. The ego's consciousness has a hidden purpose of enslaving the personality through great confusion, many kinds of temptation, and idolatrous experiences.

According to the preceding analysis, the celestial woman represents the mind when it is receptive to pine guidance, and the seductive prostitute represents the ego, or false personal sense of identity. During each day of our lives—indeed, in every moment—we choose one of these symbolic women to be our inner companion. Which one do we generally choose?

References 

Blavatsky, H. P. Collected Writings. 15 volumes. Wheaton, IL: Theosophical Society of America, 2002. 

Blavatsky, H. P. Isis Unveiled. 1877. 2 volumes. Reprint. Pasadena, CA: Theosophical University Press, 1976. 

Collins, M. Light on the Path. 1888. Reprint. Pasadena, CA: Theosophical University Press, 1976. 

A Course in Miracles. 3 volumes. Second Edition. Glen Ellen, CA: Foundation for Inner Peace, 1992. 

Krishnamurti, Jiddu. Krishnamurti's Notebook. New York: Harper and Row, 1976. 

Motoyama, H. Theories of the Chakras. Wheaton, IL: Theosophical Publishing House, 1984. 

Perry, R. A Course Glossary. West Sedona, AZ: The Circle of Atonement, 1996. 

Powell, A. E. The Causal Body and The Ego. 1928. Reprint. Wheaton, IL: Theosophical Publishing House, 1978. 

Van Auken, J. Edgar Cayce on the Revelation. Virginia Beach, VA: A.R.E. Press, 2000. 

Yogananda, P. Autobiography of a Yogi. 1946. Reprint. Los Angeles: Self-Realization Fellowship, 1969. 

 

Zachary Lansdowne, Ph.D., has been a member of the Theosophical Society in American for the past fifteen years and has served as the President of the Theosophical Society in Boston. He has earned advanced degrees in engineering, psychology, philosophy, and religion. He has published many journal articles and five books. His latest book is The Revelation of Saint John(Red Wheel/Weiser, 2006), which provides a psychological analysis of every verse in the Revelation

 

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