This group discusses the practical applications of the theosophical philosophy and the therapeutics of the wisdom of the ages.
Resources: http://www.universaltheosophy.com/art-of-living/
The art of living study group intends to discuss the relevance and connection of theosophical ideas to the challenges and hurdles of daily life. This group will focus on the ethical issues, psychological challenges and artistic applications of theosophy to the daily round and the common task. While the other three groups freely move back and forth between the universal and the particular, the theoretical and the practical, this group will make an attempt to stay focused on the practical side of the art of living equation.
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Weekly Theme for Contemplation: The Caduceus
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Art of Living Study Group
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In HPB’s article Psychic and Noetic Action Lucifer, October, November, 1890 there is a quote from Eliphas Lévi in regards to the Astral Light. The same quote also appears in Isis Unveiled, I:138.
“We have said that to acquire magical power, two things are necessary: to disengage the will from all servitude, and to exercise it in control.
“The sovereign will [of the adept] is represented in our symbols by the woman who crushes the serpent’s head, and by the resplendent angel who represses the dragon, and holds him under his foot and spear; the great magical agent, the dual current of light, the living and astral fire of the earth, has been represented in the ancient theogonies by the serpent with the head of a bull, a ram, or a dog. It is the double serpent of the caduceus, it is the Old Serpent of Genesis, but it is also the brazen serpent of Moses entwined around the tau, that is to say, the generative lingha. It is also the goat of the witch-sabbath, and the Baphomet of the Templars; it is the Hylé of the Gnostics; it is the double-tailed serpent which forms the legs of the solar cock of die Abraxas; finally, it is the Devil of M. Eudes de Mirville. But in very fact it is the blind force which souls [i.e., the lower Manas or Nephesh] have to conquer to liberate themselves from the bonds of the earth; for if their will does not free ‘them from this fatal attraction, they will be absorbed in the current by the force which has produced them, and will return to the central and eternal fire.”16
Modern day technology provides many challenges to those on the Theosophical journey. Everywhere we look there are distractions and the completion is keen to get our attention. The media constantly plays with our emotions. We need to say in control.
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The Caduceus seems to be a fitting symbol for healing. The Egyptians were skilled in the healing arts and magic. The true physician has knowledge of subtle energies and uses that knowledge to free the patient from illness. Illness itself is an imbalance of the elemental kingdoms in the body.
The elemental kingdoms may have their birth in the Astral Light. The patient has lost control of the elemental forces and seeks the physician to bring them into balance once again.
In many ways the patient is the student seeking knowledge and the physician is the wise teacher.
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This might be of help:
Caduceus (Gr.). The Greek poets and mythologists took the idea of the Caduceus of Mercury from the Egyptians. The Caduceus is found as two serpents twisted round a rod, on Egyptian monuments built before Osiris. The Greeks altered this. We find it again in the hands of Æsculapius assuming a different form to the wand of Mercurius or Hermes. It is a cosmic, sidereal or astronomical, as well as a spiritual and even physiological symbol, its significance changing with its application. Metaphysically, the Caduceus represents the fall of primeval and primordial matter into gross terrestrial matter, the one Reality becoming Illusion. (See Sect.Doct. I. 550.) Astronomically, the head and tail represent the points of the ecliptic where the planets and even the sun and moon meet in close embrace. Physiologically, it is the symbol of the restoration of the equilibrium lost between Life, as a unit, and the currents of life performing various functions in the human body.
Theosophical Glossary
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See Sect.Doct. I. 550.
Every one knows what the caduceus is, already modified by the Greeks.
The original symbol—with the triple head of the serpent—became altered
into a rod with a knob, and the two lower heads were separated, thus dis-
figuring somewhat the original meaning. Yet it is as good an illustration as
can be for our purpose, this laya rod entwined by two serpents. Verily the
wonderful powers of the magic caduceus were sung by all the ancient poets,
with a very good reason for those who understood the secret meaning.
