Symbols and the Question of Unity

350.00

Every Breakthrough, every Age that introduces a new element in evolution, must also bring with it a new understanding of symbols, because the way in which man reveals himself and his higher states of consciousness in symbols tells us what the stage of evolution is and the achievements of any given Age. Symbols are the language whereby man expresses his experience of God, and whereby the Supreme reveals the part and image of Himself that man is in the process of expressing.

In ancient times the Zodiac, astrology’s basic alphabet, conveyed a body of higher knowledge; hence it formed part of the ‘sacred sciences’ not only in India but in all the Mystery Schools of the ancient world. Forecasting the future was only a small aspect of the practice, though an important and necessary ingredient. The sanctity of the art resided in the fact that its main purpose was to foster a perception based on unity. And this was to provide a basis for the whole field of life, to ultimately reach a harmonious fulfilment.

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Thea originally wrote the articles in Part One of Symbols and the Question of Unity, on Symbol, Number and the Cosmic Harmonies for Mother India, a monthly review of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram while living with The Mother in the Ashram in Pondicherry, in 1973 and 74. The updated, recently published 2nd edition, also contains twelve major articles she wrote much later for her students living around the world, from the Centre she established in the Palani Hills of South India. They focus on topics which form Thea’s Indocentric Cosmology: Part Two -The Tropical Zodiac; Part Three, a Calendar that Unifies, and Part Four, Toward a Consciousness of Unity, Essays on The Gnostic Circle.


‘Man’s possibilities are unlimited, as unlimited as is the universe, but to comprehend this it is necessary to go beyond fragmentary concepts of time and space and to recognize the harmonious interplay between vast and small, near and distant, which are only considered such because of the limits of our own perception.

Handed down through the ages is a design in which man is given the possibility of finding his place in the cosmic vastness; therein he can reach an understanding of what his function is in the universe, and what his spiritual destiny consists of. Not only can he view in this pattern his own spiritual fate, but this design, with all its relations of planetary interplay and energy flows, gives humanity the history of the whole evolutionary pattern, based on the unfolding in time and space of an eternal perfection; or better said, an ever perfecting consciousness is at work and this celestial harmony reveals the path humanity will follow in order that this universe be not only the inner spiritual image of God, but that ultimately all of Manifestation shall become the vivid, throbbing and pulsating divinity incarnate.’ (p. 13)

 

Symbols and the Question of Unity The Dot, or Point . . . represents the absorption of the All, of Creation, into its Origin. The Point is therefore the Origin. It is material creation sucked back into the Source, a dissolving of the manifestation into the ocean of its Origin. The Dot is thus equal to the Circle. It is the Circle, just as each degree or dot of the Circle represents the entire Circle, and consequently the Dot contains all and any possibility of manifestation of creation.’ (Basics of Symbols, the Language of Unity, pp. 73-74)

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‘Before we proceed further you have to REORIENT your consciousness. The whole of Indian spirituality is oriented toward OTHERWORLDLINESS. This may be overt, or it may be subtle. However it is camouflaged, this is the corrosion that set in after the Vedic Age had passed. It was a wave that engulfed the whole planet. India was no exception…Throughout the world this EARTH-Orientedness was lost when the wave set in to rid the planet of Paganism in all its myriad forms. India paid a heavy price’. (Part Two, Letters to an Inquirer on Celebrating Makar Sankranti, 21/22 December, , p 154 )

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‘…The Zero/Contraction is what holds the universe together. It is the binding force – the eternal all-pervading Centre. Without that there is no universe at all. And those number-powers encapsulate the Transcendent, the Cosmic, the Individual Soul. These are the triadic principles of all creation, of all created things. These principles through the 0/1 are at the root of our universal manifestation – and they are the components of the individual Soul, our vahana in this material creation of 9.
            This is the magnificence of the 9 – the number-power of the Divine Mother as India has long understood… Everything I have perceived and written since the beginning is true. But now, 36 years after the most important breakthrough of the Avatar’s descent, the final ingredient has come which has eluded me all along. Yes, Contraction and Expansion are indeed simultaneous. But I could not formulate accurately and completely how this simultaneity is experienced – factually – in the universe. Now it has come, 36 years after the first seeing. It has come…’ ( Thea’s Journal, the Miracle of Oneness, 2012, p 259)

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Weight .245 kg
Number of pages

279

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Paperback