Theosophy on Sirius

The brightest star in the night sky of our Earth, Sirius is said by modern science to be twice the size of our sun and twenty-five times more luminous than it.

It is often called the “Dog Star” due to its position of prominence in the constellation that has been named Canis Major, literally “Greater Dog.” Science says that it is moving closer to our solar system, meaning that it will very gradually become brighter to us.

H. P. Blavatsky wrote and explained very little about Sirius, when compared with later “Theosophical” teachers such as Alice Bailey, whose work we do not and cannot support or give credence to, for reasons clearly explained here and in more detail here. This does not mean that HPB knew very little about it but rather that she was only permitted or instructed to say very little about it by those Eastern Adepts and Initiates who she spoke of as “The Masters.”

Her key statements on the subject are this:

“Sirius was called the dog-star. It was the star of Mercury or Budha, called the great instructor of mankind, before other Buddhas.” (“The Secret Doctrine” Vol. 2, p. 374)

And this:

“In Egyptian, Sothis. The dog-star: the star worshipped in Egypt and reverenced by the Occultists; by the former because its heliacal rising with the Sun was a sign of the beneficent inundation of the Nile, and by the latter because it is mysteriously associated with Thoth-Hermes, god of wisdom, and Mercury, in another form. Thus Sothis-Sirius had, and still has, a mystic and direct influence over the whole living heaven, and is connected with almost every god and goddess. . . . [it] is directly connected with the ring “Pass me not”; . . . Being connected with the Pyramid, Sirius was, therefore, connected with the initiations which took place in it. . . . To sum up, all religions are not, as Dufeu, the French Egyptologist, sought to prove, derived from Sirius, the dog-star, but Sirius-Sothis is certainly found in connection with every religion of antiquity.” (“The Theosophical Glossary” p. 300, Entry for “Sirius”)

There is much food for thought in the “Glossary” entry, such as the facts that –

(1) Sirius is “reverenced by the Occultists.”

(2) Sirius has “a mystic and direct influence over the whole living heaven.”

(3) Sirius bears a connection with initiations that take place here on Earth.

(4) Sirius is “directly connected” with what is known in the Masters’ Esoteric Doctrine as “the Ring PASS-NOT.”

(5) Sirius bears a mysterious close association with Mercury; not only the planet of that name but the Divine Wisdom which it represents and with which it is occultly connected.

On the fifth point, it is interesting to note that in her article “The History of a Planet,” which is about Venus, HPB happens to mention also the planet Mercury, calling it “the double of Sirius in our solar system.”

As for the “Ring PASS-NOT,” also called “The great circle of “Pass not” and “the Dhyanipasa, the “rope of the Angels,” this is dealt with primarily on p. 90 and p. 130-135 of the first volume of “The Secret Doctrine.” It is said to be the unseen “rope” (figuratively speaking, of course) that serves as the border and boundary between the world of matter and the world of pure spirit, between the finite and the truly INFINITE. It is instituted by the Lipika (high celestial beings) and until the Universal Pralaya, i.e. when the whole life cycle of our whole Universe reaches its inevitable periodical end, it is they alone who can cross its “forbidden line.” Until then – the Great Day “BE-WITH-US” when all is absorbed into the state of Parinirvana – no man, deva, or Dhyan Chohan, can cross it, “not even in spirit.”

It is connected in some way with the numbers 31415, the mathematical value of π or “pi.”

“The semi-initiated Occultist will represent this laya-point to himself as existing on some plane which, if not physical, is still conceivable to the human intellect. But the full Initiate knows that the ring “Pass-Not” is neither a locality nor can it be measured by distance, but that it exists in the absoluteness of infinity. In this “Infinity” of the full Initiate there is neither height, breadth nor thickness, but all is fathomless profundity, reaching down from the physical to the “para-para-metaphysical.” In using the word “down,” essential depth – “nowhere and everywhere” – is meant, not depth of physical matter.” (“The Secret Doctrine” Vol. 1, p. 131)

Even the little that can be said about it shows that it really defies words but nonetheless we are told that Sirius is directly connected with it.

In closing, we must mention that many systems may call themselves “Esoteric Astrology” but according to the great Adept-Teachers who gave Theosophy to the world, Esoteric Astrology “remains to this day . . . a secret science in the East,” (“The Theosophical Glossary” p. 38, Entry for “Astrology”) for They say that “Astrology is built wholly upon this mystic and intimate connection between the heavenly bodies and mankind; and it is one of the great secrets of Initiation and Occult mysteries,” (“The Secret Doctrine” Vol. 2, p. 500).