Mercury and Buddha

[Bruce Michael]

Dear Companions,
Atlantis, the Antediluvian World: Part IV: Chapter IV: The God Odin, Woden, or Wotan.

according to the learned researches of Sir William Jones, Odin and Buddha are probably the same person, it is curious to see the names of Bondvar, Wodansday, and Votan designating in India, Scandinavia, and in Mexico the day of a brief period." ("Vues des Cordilleras," p. 148, ed. 1810.)

So Odin/Woden/Wotan, is one as the same as Buddha- Wednesday is his day- Wotan's day. Wednesday, Mercury.
So when HPB says Buddha is Mercury (in the Secret Doctrine) she is hinting at this.

The following notes are from "Foundations of Esotericism" by R. Steiner:

Atma was seeded on Old Saturn, Buddhi on Old Sun, Manas Old Moon.

The two next impulses Kama and Manas (Kama-Manas) man could not find could not find on Earth, "they do not lie in its evolutionary sequence." Kama was only to be found as a force on Mars. "It was added shortly before man incarnated." The second impulse (Manas) came from Mercury in the fifth subrace of the Atlanteans, with the original Semites.
*****

Later he say the Mars principle is Kama Manas, quicksilver is Buddhi/Mercury.

So Mercury shares the impulses of Manas with the Old Moon condition, and also Mars as Kama-Manas(Desire Mind).

More notes from "Foundations of Esotericism":

The particles of the white Sun ether became fluid, then solid gold.

"The fact that Mercury is still fluid is connected with the whole process of Earth evolution. It will become solid when the God Mercury has fulfilled his mission... Had we not has quicksilver we should not have had the Christ Principle (Budhi).

Budhi is Love and compassion. Wisdom- Manas, Power/Strength- Atma, Beauty- Budhi.

Buddha is the teacher of love and compassion (the Christ Principle).
This is the Mercury principle seeded on Old Sun. Odin/Woden/Wotan- Mercury. Buddha now alloys mercury with iron.

Awaken the sleeping
metal to be
In rivers melting molten
of fluidic levity -
before setting fast
and captured there to form
Or released into the World,
swift, is cured, its soul.

- The Brothers

-Br.Bruce

[Vajradhara]

Namaste Bruce,

thank you for the post.

Originally Posted by Bruce Michael

So Odin/Woden/Wotan, is one as the same as Buddha-

i would suggest you read your quoted text again, it says "probably" it does not assert that it is so.

of course that Norse mythos regarding Odin arose some 800 years after the arising of the Buddha Dharma would tend to make this an incorrect conclusion. interestingly, there is a well known Buddhist scholar, Asanga, that places the beginning of Buddhism some 2000 years earlier than western scholars have determined it arose. if this is correct, that would make is some 6,500 years ago that the Buddha Dharma arose in this world system.

Budhi is Love and compassion. Wisdom- Manas, Power/Strength- Atma, Beauty- Budhi.

do you suppose that you could show me that this is the mean of this word in Sanskrit?

the root "budh" in Sanskrit means "to awaken" it is a verb and, when the suffix "~a" is added, the term is an epiteth which is only applied to a certain sort of being, what we term a Buddha.

Buddha is the teacher of love and compassion (the Christ Principle).

interestingly enough Buddhism does teach about love but not in the manner in which you have suggested. love, as any other strong emotional response, is a result of "I making" or the ego in it's attachment to external sensory objects seeking reinforcment processes. love, anger, jealousy and so forth are all emotional extremes and, as Buddhism is the Middle Way, the Buddha teaches a way free of the extremes.

in this case, Compassion rather than love, is the extolled emtional virtue.

This is the Mercury principle seeded on Old Sun. Odin/Woden/Wotan- Mercury. Buddha now alloys mercury with iron.

-Br.Bruce

i do find western alchemical language to be quite interesting.. it is not too disimilar to Taoist Spiritual Alchemy. fortunately or unfortunately, depending on your view, i've spent vastly more time studying Taoist alchemical language than western language.. as such, i'm not sure what you are propsing.

iron is not a term oft used in Taoist alchemcial texts.. though, i should say, i've fairly confined my study to the Northern Complete Reality school and their texts along with the Classics, of course

metta,

~v

[Bruce Michael]

Dear Vajradhara,



>i would suggest you read your quoted text again, it says "probably" it >does not assert that it is so.

I'll bring it home for you. I did find some more detail on that:

Pooden, Poden, Woden & Wod

Here is further explanation:
Universe, Earth and Man: Lecture X: The reflection in the fourth epoch of mans experiences with the ancient Gods and their way of the Cross. The Christ-Mystery.

We see beings who, when the people of Europe were at an earlier stage of evolution, were fully understood, incarnating and appearing later as teachers in the schools of initiation, and on this account being honoured as Gods. We see Wotan, who had previously dwelt as an Initiate in a human body and taught in the Mysteries, being able, because he had not descended so deeply, to incarnate in a nation which, in a certain way, was backward, and on this account had preserved a feeling for the nothingness of the physical plane, of its unworthiness as an expression of the Deity, who looked on it as a place of sorrow and pain, and who held that the only real bliss was in leaving it. This individuality, known as Wotan and who had taught in the Mysteries of the Germanic peoples, is the same who appeared later as the Buddha, and with the same mission. (It is possible to touch on such secrets as we are speaking of in the privacy of an Anthroposophical Lodge.) Buddha, who mediated between our world and the higher worlds, is the same individuality who passed over Europe and is remembered there under the name of Wotan.

>do you suppose that you could show me that this is the mean of this >word in Sanskrit? the root "budh" in Sanskrit means "to awaken" it is a >verb and, when the suffix "~a" is added, the term is an epiteth which is >only applied to a certain sort of being, what we term a Buddha.

When A.P. Sinnett published his Esoteric Buddhism the printer's made a mistake and used two ds. There was an attempt by theosophists to distinguish between Budhism and Buddhism- you can find quotes form HPB on this.

Budhi is part of our being, part of the Higher Self, if you will. Broadly speaking our Higher Self consists of Manas, the transformed Kama Rupa, Budhi the transformed Linga Sharira and Atma the transformed physical body.

Budhi is the principle of compassion and sacrifice even as it appears in the animal world- parents caring for their young.

What appears Cosmically as love, is reflected here on earth as thinking, in that thinking draws together all the separated facts in the world and draws them together.

As a higher plane, the Budhi or Sushupti plane, comes before the Nirvanic Plane.

>love, anger, jealousy and so forth are all emotional extremes and, as >Buddhism is the Middle Way, the Buddha teaches a way free of the >extremes.

The concept of love in the Christian sense is not just an emotion. Love of course, in used in many ways these days.

>iron is not a term oft used in Taoist alchemcial texts.. though, i should >say, i've fairly confined my study to the Northern Complete Reality school >and their texts along with the Classics, of course


I'd like to get you some links with some pictures of experiments proving the
connections. Traditionally it has been:
Sun- Gold
Moon-Silver
Mercury-quicksilver
Mars-iron
Saturn-lead
Venus-copper
Jupiter-Tin

I will carry it further as much as I can next time.

Blessings,
Br.Bruce

[Bruce Michael]

Greetings Readers,
Just why did the Christian alchemists direct their efforts toward refining base metals? Was it to make a load of money? Yes there were bad alchemists who had that in mind, but the true ones gave their proceeds to the poor.

Valentin Tomberg explains how the Alchemists were carrying out a higher purpose:

This goal of true Christianity finds expression in the image of the
Washing of the Feet from the sublime Gospel of St. John. There Christ
bends down to the lowly and even to the lowest of the low, the feet
of which He washes. In this image, the idea is expressed that the Christ impulse has the task of enabling the 'low' to be purified: by going down oneself into the lowest regions of being in order to ennoble them.

Now there is nothing, either in man or nature, which cannot be
transformed. Among the ways that this striving came to expression was
in the misunderstood and misused Alchemy, widespread in Europe in the
Middle Ages. The alchemists were wholly filled with the wish to transform the 'lower into a higher', and were convinced that this was just as possible in the case of metals and other substances as with the human soul forces.

Their efforts to transform base metals into precious ones were
actually expression of a deeply inward permeation with the reality of
the Christ Impulse. They strove to apply the great principle of
Washing of the Feet, even in material processes in their laboratories ; and they did this- the original, true alchemists - because they had the actual experience: it is possible to transform the 'lower into the higher'. They expanded their inner experience into the outer realm of physical substances and forces.

The Alchemy of the Middle Ages is merely one especially conspicuous
example of the working of the Christ impulse in man. There are many
such examples. In all of them the main thing is that they give expression in various ways to the principle of the Washing of the Feet. This principle is actually the spiritual-moral foundation for any true Christianity. It is especially the basis of Christian Rosicrucianism.

-Br.Bruce

[Snoopy]

Originally Posted by Vajradhara

i would suggest you read your quoted text again, it says "probably" it does not assert that it is so.

Get off the fence Vaj! Odin and the Buddha are not even possibly the same!

s.

[AndrewX]

This thread got me interested, so I took a quick gander, just for kicks. What I found on Purucker's Encyclopedic Theosophical Glossary (online) blew me away ...

Odin (Icelandic, Scandinavian) [from Wodan from odr cosmic mind; cf Greek nous, Sanskrit mahat] As a god, foremost of the aesir in Norse mythology; as a human being, the founder of the ancient Norse religion. Odin is the Great Sacrifice of our world system, hung or mounted on the Tree of Life throughout its duration, seeking runes of wisdom in the material worlds, "raising them with song" and at the end of time falling once more from the tree. He is said to have given one eye as forfeit to the matter-giant Mimer for the privilege of partaking of Mimer's well of wisdom: experience in material life. Thus matter receives a part of divine vision during the god's imbodiment.

As creative spirit Odin and his brother creators, Vili and Vi (will and awe), give rise to the worlds in manifestation. At the creation of humanity, Odin again participates with two creative energies on a lower level, Honer and Lodur (water and fire). Odin gives the breath of spirit, Honer mind, and Lodur vitality to the incipient humans.

In the myths Odin rides the eight-legged steed Sleipnir, wears a blue fur coat, and is the owner of a marvelous ring, Draupnir, from which eight more drip every ninth night, symbolizing proliferating cycles of every kind. His spear is named Gungnir (swaying), perhaps an allusion to the pendulum swing between life and death which is nature's eternal way. Odin has two wolf hounds (the animal nature), Gere (greedy) and Freke (gluttonous); he feeds them, but himself subsists on wine or mead (wisdom) alone. His two ravens, Hugin (mind) and Munin (memory), fly daily over the battlefield Vigridsslatten (plain of consecration, earth), and report back to Allfather by night.

Odin's hall is named Valhalla (hall of the chosen), where his heroes are brought by the Valkyries (crowners of the chosen) to feast with Yggjung (the ever-young, Odin).
As a planetary deity Odin is connected with Mercury, and his day is Wednesday (Woden's day). He has many names, each fitting the role he has to play. At the beginning of a life cycle he is named Ofner (opener), while at the end he is called Svafner (closer). Blavatsky refers to the human Odin as "one of these thirty-five Buddhas; one of the earliest, indeed, for the continent to which he and his race belonged, is also one of the earliest" (SD 2:423).

The Secret Doctrine reference will make sense if we remember that each "race" (stage of human development) has its own continent (such as Atlantis, Lemuria, Hyporborea, etc. prior to our own) ... as well as its own Buddhas and Christs (or World Teachers and Bodhisattvas), a Manu, and a reigning Maha-Chohan (`Lord of Civilization,' holding office for aeons at a time).

Namaskar

[Bruce Michael]

That was a very good entry Andrew.
It is remarkable that the learned philologist, Sir William Jones
William Jones (philologist - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)
was able to discover this fact purely through his detailed study of the languages.

He was quoted in Atlantis, the Antediluvian World by Ignatius Donnelly [1882] and Godfrey Higgins' Anacalypsis 1833:
ANACALYPSIS
Later, as we know, it was confirmed clairvoyantly.
We can follow Lord Buddha in his previous incarnations and also view the immensely valuable work that he does today for his beloved humanity.

The Greek Gods were also the teachers on Atlantis- the name "Atlas" comes from there.
Zarathustra too, was a Bodhisattva.

Warm Regards,
Br.Bruce