The Crown Jewels of Theosophy: A Rhapsody for Wakeful Dreamers

Philaletheians UK · Theosophy and Theosophists Series · 15 slides · Celebrating seven years online, 2007–2014

Fifteen slides, made to mark the website's seventh year online and subtitled A rhapsody for wakeful dreamers. It is unlike anything else in this section. Every slide but the first and the last is a photograph of a piece of beadwork — rings, loops, strands and necklaces of coloured glass and stone, arranged against a soft grey ground and lit so that each bead carries its own highlight — and each photograph is captioned with a single line naming what it is meant to picture. The captions are the whole text of the file, and they are worth setting out, because each one corresponds to a single-sheet document already held on this site under the heading Theosophical Jewels.

In order, they read: Cosmogenesis for babies, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven, over two bright interlocking toy rings; Cosmogenesis for grown-ups, with the line about the Sons of Light clothing themselves in the fabric of Darkness, over the same double loop made in dark and pearl glass; Our Seven Planets and Races, an arch of seven large beads with a small silver wing hanging at each end; The Sutratman of the Upanishads, transient personalities strung successively on a ray of Spiritual Monas, shown as an arch of white pearls on a single thread; Septenary Anthropos, son of the Heavenly Man, a fallen angel, a god in exile; The Rainbow of Hope, commemorating the ninetieth anniversary of the Theosophical Society in Peru; The Path of Action, the descending arc of consciousness from light to darkness; The Path of Renunciation, the ascending arc from darkness to light; The Cycle of Life, ever moving onward and upward; Live in the Ideal, fix your mind on the Master within; The Amaranthine Dream, the dream that never dies; The Love of Gods, an offering to the Master within, a ring of beads set around a jewelled eye; and The Aura of Sugata, our Merciful Lord and Master, a closed ring running through the colours of the spectrum. The final slide leaves the beadwork behind for a rainbow ground and a closing wish: that the One Light for All may disperse the darkness of separateness, and shield every sincere soul from untruth and self-deceit. Each of the pieces named above is also held on this site as its own single sheet, and this presentation is the gallery in which they are seen together.

View the presentation (PDF, 2.6 MB, 15 slides)