Books: AE in the Irish Theosophist

G >> George William Russell >> AE in the Irish Theosophist

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R--This is motion, air, breath or spirit; it is also abstract desire,
and here we find the teaching of the Rig-Veda in harmony. "Desire
first arose in It which was the primal germ of mind, and which sages,
searching with their intellect, have discovered in their hearts to
be the bond which connects Entity with non-Entity." The corresponding
colour of this letter is Red.

H (hay) and L--Motion awakens Heat and Light which correspond
respectively to H and L. That primordial ocean of being, says the
book of Dzyan, was "fire and heat and motion:" which are explained
as the noumenal essences of these material manifestations. The
colour of H is Orange, of L yellow. L also conveys the sense
of radiation.

Y (yea)--This letter signifies condensation, drawing together, the
force of attraction, affinity. Matter at the stage of evolution
to which this refers is gaseous, nebulous, or ethereal: the fire-
mists in space gather together to become worlds. The colour Y
is green.

W (way)--Water is the next element in manifestation: in cosmic
evolution it is spoken of as chaos, the great Deep; its colour,
I think, is indigo. After this stage the elements no longer manifest
singly, but in pairs, or with a dual aspect.

G (gay) and K--Reflection and Hardness; matter becomes crystalline
or metalic: the corresponding colour is blue.

S and Z--A further differentiation; matter is atomic: the abstract
significance of number or seed is attached to these letters: their
colour is violet.

J and Tchay--Earth and gross Substance: this is the lowest point
in evolution; the worlds have now condensed into solid matter.
The colour of these letters is orange.

N and Ng--Some new forces begin to work here; the corresponding
sounds have, I think, the meaning of continuation and transformation
or change: these new forces propel evolution in the upward or
ascending arc: their colour is yellow.

D and T--The colour of these letters is red. The involution of
the higher forces into the lower forms alluded to before now begins.
D represents this infusion of life into matter; it is descent and
involution, death or forgetfulness, perhaps, for a time to the
incarnating power. T is evolution, the upward movement generating
life; the imprisoned energies surge outwards and vegetation begins.

Ith and Ish--These correspond respectively to growth or expansion
and vegetation; the earth, as Genesis puts it, "puts forth grass
and herbs and trees yielding fruit." The colour of these letters
is green.

B and P--After the flora the fauna. B is Life or Being, animal and
human. Humanity appears; B is masculine, P feminine. P has also
a meaning of division, differentiation or production, which may
refer to maternity. The colour here is blue.

F and V--The colour is violet. Evolution moves still upwards,
entering the ethereal planes once more. Lightness and vastness
are the characteristics of this stage: we begin to permeate with
part of our nature the higher spheres of being and reach the
consummation in the last stage, represented by

M--which has many meanings; it is thought, it is the end or death
to the personality, it is the Receiver into which all flows, it
is also the Symbol of maternity in a universal sense, it has this
meaning when the life impulse (which is always represented by a
vowel) follows it, as in "ma." It is the Pralaya of the worlds;
the lips close as it is uttered. Its colour is indigo.

O--The last vowel sound symbolizes abstract space, the spirit
assumes once more the garment of primordial matter; it is the
Nirvana of eastern philosophy.

I will now try to show how the abstract significance of these sound
reveals a deeper meaning in the roots of Aryan language than
philologists generally allow. Prof. Max Muller says in the
introduction to Biographies of Words. "Of ultimates in the sense
of primary elements of language, we can never hope to know anything,"
and he also asserts that the roots are incapable of further analysis.
I will endeavour now to show that this further analysis can be made.

I should not be understood to say that all the so-called roots can
be made to yield a secret meaning when analysed. Philologists are
not all agreed as to what constitutes a root, or what words are roots,
and in this general uncertainty it should not be expected that these
correspondences, which as I have said are not complete, will apply
in every instance. There are many other things which add to the
difficulty; a root is often found to have very many different meanings;
some of these may have arisen in the manner I suggest, and many
more are derived from the primary meanings and are therefore not
intuitive at all. The intuition will have to be exercised to discover
what sensations would likely be awakened by the perception of an
action or object; or if the root has an abstract significance,
the thought must be analysed in order to discover its essential
elements. I described previously the manner in which I thought a
single sensation, the perception of the colour Red, would suggest
its correspondence in sound, the letter R. Where the idea is more
complex, a combination of two, tree or four sounds are necessary
to express it, but they all originate in the same way. The reader
who desires to prove the truth of the theory here put forward can
adopt either of two methods; he can apply the correspondences to
the roots, or he may try for himself to create words expressing
simple, elemental ideas by combining the necessary letters; and
then, if he turns to the roots, he will probably find that many
of the words he has created in this way were actually used long ago,
and this pratice will enable him more easily to understand in what
sense, or on what plane, any particular letter should be taken.
I think it probably that in the Sacred Language before mentioned,
this could at once have been recognized by a difference in the
intonation of the voice. This may have been a survival to some
extent of the chanting which was the distinguishing characteristic
of the speech of the Second Race. (Secret Doctrine, vol. II, p. 198)
In the written language it is not easily possible to discover this
without much thought, unless endeavour has previously been made to
re-awaken the faculty of intuitive speech, which we formerly possessed
and which became atrophied.

It is not possible here to go into the analysis of the roots at
much length: I can only illustrate the method which will be found to
apply more surely where the roots express most elemental conceptions.
Let us take as example the root, Wal, to boil. Boiling is brought
about by the action of fire upon water, and here we find the letters W,
water, and L, light or fire, united. In War, to well up as a spring,
the sounds for water and motion are combined. A similar idea is
expressed in Wat, to well out; the abstract significance of T,
which is to evolve, come forth or appear, being here applied to a
special action. A good method to follow in order to understand
how the pure abstract meaning of a letter may be applied in many
different ways, is to take some of the roots in which any one letter
is prominent and then compare them. Let us take D. It has an
abstract relation to involution or infusion; it may be view in
two ways, either as positive or negative; as the exertion of force
or the reception of force. Now I think if we compare the following
roots a similarity of action will be found to underlie them all.
Id, to swell; Ad, to eat; Dhu, to put; Da, to bind; Ad, to smell;
Du, to enter; Da, to suck.

I am not here going exhaustively to analyse the roots, as this is
not an essay upon philology, but an attempt to make clear some of
the mysteries of sound; those who wish to study this side of the
subject more fully can study with this light the primitive languages.
A few more examples must suffice. The root, Mar, to die, may be
variously interpreted as the end of motion, the cessation of breath,
or the withdrawal of spirit, R being expressive of what on various
planes is motion, spirit, air and breath. In Bur, to be active,
life and movement are combined,: in Gla, to glow, reflection and
light; the same idea is in Gol, a lake. We find combined in Kar,
to grind, hardness and motion: in Thah, to generate, expansion
and heat; in Pak, to comb, division and hardness, the suggestion
being division with some hard object; the same idea is in Pik,
to cut. In Pis, to pound, the letters for division and matter in
its molecular state are combined: in Fath, to fly, lightness and
expansion: in Yas, to gird, drawing together and number; in Rab,
to be vehement, energy and life; in Rip, to break, energy and
division. In Yudh, to fight, the meaning suggested may be, coming
together to destroy. Without further analysis the reader will be
able to detect the relation which the abstractions corresponding
to each letter bear to the defined application in the following words.
Ak, to be sharp; Ank, to bend; Idh, to kindle; Ar, to move;
Al, to burn; Ka, to sharpen; Har, to burn; Ku, to hew; Sa, to
produce; Gal, to be yellow or green; Ghar, to be yellow or green;
Thak, to thaw; Tar, to go through; Thu, to swell; Dak, to bite;
Nak, to perish; Pa, to nourish, to feed; Par, to spare; Pi, to
swell, to be fat; Pu, to purify; Pu, to beget; pau, little;
Put, to swell out; Flu, to fly, to float; Bar, to carry; Bhu,
to be, to become; Bla, to blow as a flower; Ma, to think; Mak,
to pound; Mi, to diminish; Mu, to shut up, to enclose; Yas, to
seethe, to ferment; Ys, to bind together, to mix; Yuk, to yoke,
to join; Ra, to love; Rik, to furrow; Luh, to shine; Rud, to
redden, to be red; Lub, to lust [?]; Lu, to cast off from; Wag,
to be moist; Wam, to spit out; So, to sow, to scatter; Sak, to
cut, to cleave; Su, to generate; Swa, to toss; Swal, to boil up;
Ska, to cut; Skap, to hew; Sniw, to snow; Spew, to spit out;
Swid, to sweat; etc. An analysis of some sacred words and the
names of Deities may now prove interesting.

It has been said that before we can properly understand the character
of any deity we would have to know the meaning and the numbers
attached to each letter in the name, for in this way the powers
and functons of the various gods were indicated. If we take as
examples names familiar to everyone, Brahma, Vishnu, and Rudra,
the three aspects of Parabrahm in manifestation, and analyse them
in the same way as the roots, they will be found to yield up their
essential meaning. Form the union of B, life, R, breath, and Ma,
the producer, I would translate Brahma as "the creative breath of life."
Vishnu similarly analysed is the power that "pervades, expands, and
preserves;" I infer this from the union of V, whose force is pervasion,
Sh, expansion, and N, continuation. Rudra is "the breath that absorbs
the breath." Aum is the most sacred name of all names; it is held
to symbolize the action of the Great breath from its dawn to its close:
it is the beginning, A, the middle, U, and the close M. It is also
an affirmation of the relation of our spiritual nature to the universal
Deity whose aspects are Brahma, Vishnu, and Rudra. I shall have
more to say of the occult power of this word later on. Taken in
conjunction with two other words, it is "the threefold designation
of the Supreme Being." Om Tat Sat has a significance referable to
a still higher aspect of Deity than that other Trinity; the Om
here signifies that it is the All; Tat that it is self-existent
or self-evolved; I think the repetition of the T in Tat gives it
this meaning: Sat would signify that in it are contained the seeds
of all manifestation. H.P. Blavatsky translates this word as Be-ness,
which seems to be another way of expressing the same idea. The
mystic incantation familiar to all students of the Upanishads, Om,
bhur, Om, Bhwar, Om, Svar," is an assertion of the existence of
the Divine Self in all the three worlds or Lokas. Loka is generally
translated as a place; the letters suggest to me that a place or
world is only a hardening or crystalization of Fire or Light.
In Bhur Loka the crystalization of the primordial element of Fire
leaves only one principle active, the life principle generally called
Prana. Bhur Loka then is the place where life is active; we have
B, life, and R, movement, to suggest this. In the word Bhuvar a
new letter, V, is inserted: this letter, as I have said, corresponds
to the Astral world, so the Bhuvar Loka is the place where both
the Astral and Life principles are active. It is more difficult
to translate Svar Loka: there is some significance attached here
to the letter S, which I cannot grasp. It might mean that this
world contains the germs of Astral life; but this does not appear
sufficiently distinctive, Svar Loka is generally known as Devachan,
and the whole incantation would mean that the Deity is present
throughout the Pranic, Astral and Devachanic worlds. It is
interesting to note what is said in the Glossary by H.P.B., about
these three words (p. 367): they are said to be "lit by and born
of fire," and to possess creative powers. The repetition of them
with the proper accent should awaken in the occultist the powers
which correspond to the three worlds. I think by these examples
that the student will be able to get closer to the true significance
of incantation; those who understand the occult meaning of the
colours attached to the letters will be able to penetrate deeper
than others into these mysteries.

I may here say something about the general philosophy of incantation.
There is said to be in nature a homogenous sound or tone which
everywhere stirs up the molecules into activity. This is the "Word"
which St. John says was in the beginning (the plane of causation);
in another sense it is the Akasa of occult science, the element
of sound, it is the Pythagorean "music of the spheres." The
universe is built up, moulded and sustained by this element which
is everywhere present, though inaudible by most men at this stage
of evolution. It is not sound by the physical ears, but deep in
the heart sometimes may be heard "the mystic sounds of the Akasic
heights." The word Aum represents this homogeneous sound, it stirs
up a power which is latent in it called the Yajna. The Glossary
says that this "is one of the forms of Akasa within which the mystic
word calls it into existence:" it is a bridge by means of which
the soul can cross over to the world of the Immortals. It is this
which is alluded to in the Nada-Bindu Upanishad. "The mind becoming
insensible to the external impressions, becomes one with the sound,
as milk with water, and then becomes rapidly absorbed in chidakas
(the Akasa where consciousness pervades). The sound..... serves
the purpose of a lure to the ocean waves of Chitta (mind), ...the
serpent Chitta through listening to the Nada is entirely absorbed
in it, and becoming unconscious of everything concentrates itself
on the sound." We may quote further from another Upanishad.
"Having left behind the body, the organs and objects of sense, and
having seized the bow whose stick is fortitude and whose string
is asceticism, and having killed with the arrow of freedom from
egoism the first guardian, ....he crosses by means of the boat Om
to the other side of the ether within the heart, and when the ether
is revealed he enters slowly, as a miner seeking minerals enters
a mine, into the hall of Brahman. ...Thenceforth, pure, clean,
tranquil, breathless, endless, imperishable, firm, unborn, and
independent, he stands in his own greatness, and having seen the
Self standing in his own greatness, he looks at the wheel of
the world."

Let no one think that this is all, and that the mere repetition of
words will do anything except injure those who attempt the use of
these methods without further knowledge. It has been said (Path,
April, 1887) that Charity, Devotion, and the like virtues are
structural necessities in the nature of the man who would make this
attempt. We cannot, unless the whole nature has been purified by
long services and sacrifice, and elevated into mood at once full
of reverence and intense will, become sensitive to the subtle powers
possessed by the spiritual soul.

What is here said about the Aum which is the name of our own God,
and the way in which it draws forth the hidden power will serve to
illustrate the method in using other words. The Thara-Sara Upanishad
of Sukla-Yajur Veda says "Through Om is Brahm produced: through Na
is Vishnu produced; through Ma is Rudra produced, etc." All these
are names of gods; they correspond to forces in man and nature,
in their use the two are united, and the man mounts upwards to
the Immortals.

I have been forced to compress what I had to say in these articles,
I have only been able to suggest rather than put forward ideas,
for my own knowledge of these correspondences is very incomplete.
As far as I know the subject has been untouched hitherto, and this
must be my excuse for the meagre nature of the information given.
I hope later on to treat of the relation of sound and colour to
form and to show how these correspondences will enable us to
understand the language which the gods speak to us through flowers,
trees, and natural forms. I hope also to be able to show that it
was a knowledge of the relation of sound to form which dictated
the form of the letters in many primaeval alphabets.

--5/15, 6/15, 7/15, 8/15, 9/15, 1893

At the Dawn of the Kaliyuga *

Where we sat on the hillside together that evening the winds were
low and the air was misty with light. The huge sunbrowned slope
on which we were sitting was sprinkled over with rare spokes of grass;
it ran down into the vagueness underneath where dimly the village
could be seen veiled by its tresses of lazy smoke. Beyond was a
bluer shade and a deeper depth, out of which, mountain beyond mountain,
the sacred heights of Himalay rose up through star-sprinkled zones
of silver and sapphire air. How gay were our hearts! The silent
joy of the earth quickened their beating. What fairy fancies
alternating with the sweetest laughter came from childish lips!
In us the Golden Age whispered her last, and departed. Up came
the white moon, her rays of dusty pearl slanting across the darkness
from the old mountain to our feet. "A bridge!" we cried, "Primaveeta,
who long to be a sky-walker, here is a bridge for you!"

Primaveeta only smiled; he was always silent; he looked along
the gay leagues of pulsating light that lead out to the radiant
mystery. We went on laughing and talking; then Primaveeta broke
his silence.

"Vyassa," he said, "I went out in thought, I went into the light,
but it was not that light. I felt like a fay; I sparkled with
azure and lilac; I went on, and my heart beat with longing for I
knew not what, and out and outward I sped till desire stayed and I
paused, and the light looked into me full of meaning. I felt like
a spark, and the dancing of the sea of joy bore me up, up, up!"

"Primaveeta, who can understand you?" said his little sister Vina,
"you always talk of the things no one can see; Vyassa, sing for us."

"Yes! yes! let Vyassa sing!" they all cried; and they shouted and
shouted until I began:--

"Shadowy petalled, like the lotus, loom the mountains with their snows:
Through the sapphire Soma rising, such a flood of glory throws
As when the first in yellow splendour Brahma from the lotus rose.

"High above the darkening mounds where fade the fairy lights of day,
All the tiny planet folk are waving us from far away;
Thrilled by Brahma's breath they sparkle with the magic of the gay.

"Brahma, all alone in gladness, dreams the joys that throng in space,
Shepherds all the whirling splendours onward to their resting place,
Where at last in wondrous silence fade in One the starry race."

"Vyassa is just like Primaveeta, he is full of dreams to-night,"
said Vina. And indeed I was full of dreams; my laughter had all
died away; a vague and indescribable unrest came over me; the
universal air around seemed thrilled by the stirring of unknown powers.
We sat silent awhile; then Primaveeta cried out: "Oh, look, look,
look, the Devas! the bright persons! they fill the air with
their shining."

We saw them pass by and we were saddened, for they were full of
solemn majesty; overhead a chant came from celestial singers full
of the agony of farewell and departure, and we knew from their
song that the gods were about to leave the earth which would
nevermore or for ages witness their coming. The earth and the air
around it seemed to tingle with anguish. Shuddering we drew closer
together on the hillside while the brightness of the Devas passed
onward and away; and clear cold and bright as ever, the eternal
constellations, which change or weep not, shone out, and we were
alone with our sorrow. To awed we were to speak, but we clung closer
together and felt a comfort in each other; and so, crouched in
silence; within me I heard as from far away a note of deeper anguish,
like a horn blown out of the heart of the ancient Mother over a
perished hero: in a dread moment I saw the death and the torment;
he was her soul-point, the light she wished to shine among men.
What would follow in the dark ages to come, rose up before me in
shadowy, over-crowding pictures; like the surf of a giant ocean
they fluctuated against the heavens, crested with dim, giantesque
and warring figures. I saw stony warriors rushing on to battle;
I heard their fierce hard laughter as they rode over the trampled foe;
I saw smoke arise from a horrible burning, and thicker and blacker
grew the vistas, with here and there a glow from some hero-heart
that kept the true light shining within. I turned to Primaveeta
who was crouched beside me: he saw with me vision for vision, but,
beyond the thick black ages that shut me out from hope, he saw the
resurrection of the True, and the homecoming of the gods. All this
he told me later, but now our tears were shed together. Then
Primaveeta rose up and said, "Vyasa, where the lights were shining,
where they fought for the True, there you and I must fight; for,
from them spreads out the light of a new day that shall dawn behind
the darkness." I saw that he was no longer a dreamer; his face
was firm with a great resolve. I could not understand him, but I
determined to follow him, to fight for the things he fought for,
to work with him, to live with him, to die with him; and so,
thinking and trying to understand, my thought drifted back to that
sadness of the mother which I had first felt. I saw how we share
joy or grief with her, and, seized with the inspiration of her sorrow,
I sang about her loved one:--

"Does the earth grow grey with grief
For her hero darling fled?
Though her vales let fall no leaf,
In our hearts her tears are shed.

"Still the stars laugh on above,
Not to them her grief is said;
Mourning for her hero love
In our hearts her tears are shed.

"We her children mourn for him,
Mourn the elder hero dead;
In the twilight grey and dim
In our hearts the tears are shed."

"Vyassa," they said, "you will break our hearts." And we sat in
silence and sorrow more complete till we heard weary voices calling
up to us from the darkness below: "Primaveeta! Vyassa! Chandra!
Parvati! Vina! Vasudeva!" calling all our names. We went down
to our homes in the valley; the breadth of glory had passed away
from the world, and our hearts were full of the big grief that
children hold.

--October 15, 1893

--------------
* Note--Kaliyuga. The fourth, the black or iron age, our present
period, the duration of which is 432,000 years. It began 3,102
years B.C. at the moment of Krishna's death, and the first cycle
of 5,000 years will end between the years 1897 and 1898.
--------------

The Meditation of Parvati

Parvata rose up from his seat under the banyan tree. He passed
his hand unsteadily over his brow. Throughout the day the young
ascetic had been plunged in profound meditation, and now, returning
from heaven to earth, he was dazed like one who awakens in darkness
and knows not where he is. All day long before his inner eye burned
the light of the Lokas, until he was wearied and exhausted with
their splendours; space glowed like a diamond with intolerable
lustre, and there was no end to the dazzling processions of figures.
He had seen the fiery dreams of the dead in Swargam. He had been
tormented by the sweet singing of the Gandharvas, whose choral song
reflected in its ripples the rhythmic pulse of Being. He saw how
the orbs, which held them, were set within luminous orbs still of
wider circuit, and vaster and vaster grew the vistas, and smaller
seemed the soul at gaze, until at last, a mere speck of life, he
bore the burden of innumerable worlds. Seeking for Brahma, he
found only the great illusion as infinite as Brahma's being.

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