Facing Seven Virgins in the Hall of Judgment

Helena Petrovna Blavatsky · Constitution of Man Series · 8 pages

From the Commentary on the Pistis Sophia in Blavatsky Collected Writings XIII, occasioned by a passage in that text about the soul being brought before the Virgin of Light, who sees upon it the Sign of the Mystery of the Kingdom of the Ineffable. The synopsis states the doctrine plainly: that the after-death experiences of the souls of the dead, and their subsequent return to earth-life, depend on which of Seven Virgins they have to face in the Hall of Judgment — and that thrice blessed is he who, clad in the Vesture of Glory, can pass by the Guardians of every threshold.

The identifications are drawn across three traditions. In the Chaldean cosmogony Ana signifies the invisible heaven, the heavenly mother of the terrestrial sea, esoterically Akasha the mother of the Astral Light; Anaitis is one of the names of Kali, the female aspect or Shakti of Shiva, also called Annapurna and Kanya, the Virgin, whose mystery name is Uma-Kanya, the Virgin of Light. In the Egyptian and other cosmogonies the first septenary group of emanating potencies is called the Virgins of Light and represented collectively by the six-pointed star, which refers to the six forces or powers of nature, the six planes and principles, all synthesised by the seventh or central point in the star.

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