Grant's Transplutonic Planet, Isis probaby exists

[militis]

When Kenneth Grant founded New Isis Lodge in 1955, he wrote a manifesto announcing the existence of a planet beyond Pluto.
The emanations from this planet, which he called Isis would he said have profound consequences for the consciousness of ourplanet.
Back in 1955, there were 9 planets and Isis would be the tenth, today we only have 8.  But using Grant's original QBL with Pluto as a planet attributed to Kether, Isis is attributed to an eleventh Sephiroth as per the Book of the Law.  ""My number is eleven, as all their numbers who are of us" --Nuit

The new planet has not yet been detected by radio telescope, its discovery being inferred from gravitational anomalies. However it does seem fairly certain to exist and be at least Earth sized probably much larger.

www.nytimes.com/2016/01/21/science/space/ninth-planet-solar-system-beyond-pluto.html?_r=0

[Gregory Peters]

Yes, I have been keeping an eye on the development of this story, its very exciting times!

[kylefite]

In Michael Bertiaux's lessons for the Monastery of the Seven Rays, we are very swiftly brought into the World of Esoteric Astrology. In fact, I've found my dialogues with new students of this work quickly veering into "reading lists" whereby the many references to the Voudon-Gnostic Astrology might be rendered intelligible.

At one point, Bertiaux emphasizes that he is not speaking of physical planets but OCCULT planets. This is a bit jarring at first as these "Occult Planets" are all being considered with reference to Scientific Astronomy (as any School of Astrology depends upon).

I bring this up as Grant was a Mystic of the Advaita School. His works nod toward apocalyptic disaster but do so from what we might regard as an Enlightened View. In his Skoob Occult Review interview, he spoke of the Forces impinging upon our Planet, preparing his Readers for this Influx.

When asked if he thought the human race would survive the "Invasions," he said no. Because there are no humans to survive.

I'm paraphrasing but the point is that all the Planets, Inhabitants Thereupon, the Universes, Dimensions are all within our own Consciousness and this Consciousness is (at its "Secret Center") ALL Consciousness. Crowley expressed this gloriously in his Introduction to The Book of the Law wherein he wrote:

"Each one of us has thus an universe of his own, but it is the same universe for each one as soon as it includes all possible experience. This implies the extension of consciousness to include all other consciousness."

It's my perspective that when Grant wrote of the Trans-Plutonian Planet, he was speaking of a State of Consciousness which operates beyond the Logic (to use another favorite term of Bertiaux) of our Solar System.

I'm also reading the same news reports with great interest but I'm also thinking of Grant's comment that we don't need sci-tech to get us out into the "Universe" with starships when we can transport ourselves with the Mind.

This is the Essence of the TT, breaking through RIGHT NOW with Magick. Grant passed ere this latest news blurb but had he not already assimilated any Gnosis suggested therein?

[Gregory Peters]

Spot on Kyle. I had mentioned somewhere else (discussion about kalas I think?) that we do not need scientific "validation" for any of this. Rather, it is an interesting side note in the continuum, and I personally find it very fun when science does bump into these issues. In a way the universe is laughing and playing with us, the endless dance of maya, saying peeak a boo, here I am!

[militis]

In the New Isis Lodge Manifesto , Grant describes a transplutonian planet.  Sometimes
a sausage  is just a sausage and not a phallic symbol and a planet is just a planet, in this
case one with strange and important vibrations.

Our Solar System has no logic.  Human logic is applied to the known and the unknown Universe.
Grant was quiet clear that Magick operates outside 'human' logic as does Liber Al. The Typhonian
Mysteries have a physical basis and this planet is somehow connected.

Personally I find the discovery of the planet extremely exciting, when its orbit is known and how long
its year is (10,000 to 20,000 years is current estimate) we may be able to ascertain the effect it will have
on human consciousness.

[stephen]

This is a very pertinent and interesting topic in which I believe a multi-dimensional approach is required.  The Outer Planets are BOTH Occult planets and physical planets, truly 'Out There' on the rim of our solar system. While I am aware of the recent remarkable discoveries about the physical planet Pluto, I am not too well informed about these recent developments, the NY Times link given by Militis did not seem to approve of the IT technology of the browser I am using. Astronomy currently defines these outer planets as 'Dwarf Planets' among more technical designations: a term of some considerable esoteric interest in itself.  Is there not one such Trans-Plutonian planet named Eris - actually larger in size than Pluto - that is already known?

Also worth consideration that in our Magickal Tree of Life we attribute Pluto to Kether (or Yuggoth to Kether if you prefer) the Emanation closest to the Ain Soph Aur of Divinity, while in the older heliocentric perspective it would have belonged to the Outer Darkness of transgressive exile: Here Be Dragons and Fallen Angels.

[militis]

Since there is some ambiguity about whether the planet Isis is physical or not
I thought it best to go back to the source.


In 1955 Grant first described Isis in the "Manifesto of New Isis Lodge".

The first 2 sentences of the Manifesto read as follows, (emphasis mine)

"A new and compelling influence is enveloping the earth and as yet there are few
individuals who are open to the influx of the subtle vibrations of this influence.

Its rays proceed from a source as yet unexplored by those who are not at one with it
in essence and in spirit and it finds its present focus in the outer universe in the
transplutonic planet Isis."

The new 9th planet is about 10 times the mass of earth (comparable to Neptune) and
takes 10,000 to 20,000 years to complete one full orbit of the Sun.

www.cnn.com/2016/01/20/us/possible-ninth-planet/

Based on its size Isis would definitely qualify as a planet unlike Pluto and Eris.

I don't have a copy of Manifesto of New Isis Lodge ( the quotes are from a plate in
Bogdan's bibliography) but presumably it explains more about these subtle vibrations.
These vibrations must of course be occult, as physical radiations, light, radio waves etc
affect people without them needing training.

Now the intriguing  question is why do these "subtle vibrations" use a physical locus ?

[Gregory Peters]

Feb 15, 2016 1:49:10 GMT militis said:

Now the intriguing  question is why do these "subtle vibrations" use a physical locus ?

Why indeed! It seems existence itself is an apparent fantastic blend of physical and subtle, a constant interplay of these polarities. Why does life exist at all? Isn't this another display of "As Above, So Below"? The strange commingling of illusion and reality - both variable in the extreme, playing a game with us. Perhaps this is all the Fall of Because

[stephen]

Right; I have been able to read your link on the 'possible ninth planet' thank you, Militis, and it was intriguing.  If the planet does exist, it is so much farther out there that it raises quite a number of speculations, both astronomical and occult.

The Manifesto of New Isis Lodge does not say a great deal more about the "transplutonic planet Isis" to my recollection; the two key paragraphs being discussed here are quoted in full in "The Stellar Lode" for those who are able to refer.

Now the intriguing question is why do these "subtle vibrations" use a physical locus ?

Well, physical planet or not, we are brought back to Esoteric Astrology and the idea of Occult Planets.  In the Western Esoteric Tradition the Sephiroth of the Tree of Life are given many attributions, on various levels (i.e. the four worlds) and among those for the most dense/material level of Assiyah are the planetary attributions. I think it was Dion Fortune who first referred to these as the Mundane Chakras.  They might be regarded as the densest manifestations of those vibrations which become increasingly refined, or subtle, on higher levels of manifestation. (I hope I am not being too simplistic here, or simply rephrasing what everyone well knows).

As scientific knowledge of the universe has progressed, so have these attributions been reconfigured with reference to Kether (Pluto)and Chokmah (Neptune) and the inclusion of Daath (Uranus) in the model used in the Typhonian Trilogies.

I am inclined to think that Kenneth Grant may very well have been interested in obtaining evidence for the physical basis of the planet Isis, although this was far from being essential to the development of the magickal current with which he and New Isis Lodge were working, as evidenced primarily by The Wisdom of S'lba.  Some contemplation of this might prove fruitful.

[Michael Staley]

Kenneth Grant seems to have picked up the idea - of occult forces using a transplutonic planet as a focus - from Eugen Grosche with whom he was in correspondence at the time.

In 1955 Grant wrote to the British Astronomical Society enquiring if they knew anything of a transplutonian planet called Isis. They replied that they didn't, but did mention Pogson's discovery on 23rd May 1856 of a relatively large body in the asteroid belt located approximately between Mars and Jupiter. Soon after its discovery it was named Isis after Pogson's daughter. Though the name was an interesting coincidence, as was the date of its discovery - May 23rd - being Grant's birthday, it was clearly not the transplutonic planet referenced.

In the course of a letter in the 1980s to an American correspondent, referring to the dispute with Karl Germer following publication of the Manifesto of New Isis Lodge, Grant wrote:

Poor old Karl was really put out by the Nu Isis Manifesto, but I think the greater shock was the mention in it (even by an initial only) of his old enemy Eugen Grosche. Of course, I knew nothing of their feud. Even so, it was stupid of me to describe the phenomenon as a planet. Karl could not understand that Nuit is in a grain of sand as much as in the vastest star.

A few years later, in Beyond the Mauve Zone, which was written in the early 1990s, there is an interesting footnote (46) in the chapter 'The Metaphysics of Transmission'. The footnote occurs on page 179 of the first (1999) edition, and on page 151 of the forthcoming 2016 edition. The footnote is to a reference to New Isis, and reads:

Thus named because the transmissions received (see Outer Gateways[Grant]) issued from a transplutonic plane(t) named Isis.

In 1955 there was no evidence of a planet is the solar system beyond Pluto, and Germer was keen to ridicule Grant on this point. In recent years there have been several such planets discovered or inferred, culminating in the latest which is the subject of this thread. However, as Militis points out, such a planet was conceived of as the focus, not the source.

[parsifal]

I recently came across an essay of Michael's, "Scintillations in Mauve," in which he very nicely ties the planet reference in the 1955 manifesto to the concept of Nuit. I've copied the relevant passage below here in bold. To me, anyway, it suggests that Kenneth Grant very deliberately hid deeper occult meanings in plain sight.

That being said, it is intriguing to contemplate the possibility of a dark planet or a Planet X out there on the outer fringes of the known solar system. I knew an occultist some years back who was very big on the idea of the stars and planets being living, evolving organisms. I think he picked it up from Gurdjieff. The concept was that a Sun is a more evolved being than a planet, and a planet is more evolved than a moon, but moons, like planets, will eventually evolve to become Suns (I think Gurdjieff's assertion that human life is "food for the moon" is tied to this, the notion that our moon is drawing energy from the biosphere of its more evolved host, which feeds it and helps it grow.

My intention here is not to go off on a Gurdjjieff tangent. What I'm getting at is that this person told me once that there was a "failed Sun" orbiting out there in the darkness beyond Pluto--a black planet or Planet X that had attained a highly evolved spiritual state but ultimately "failed spiritually"--and that this shadow entity has an influence on us just like the Sun does. I remember being very intrigued by this idea, and the notion of a literal "transplutonic Isis" out there is also fascinating to think about. But Michael's remarks persuade me to think that Grant was speaking symbolically.

On the subject, can anyone direct me to the full text of the 1955 manifesto? I've read that it's somewhere on the Koenig site, but I can't find it. Admittedly, I only did a cursory search.

On the formal launch of the Lodge in 1955, the Grants issued a Manifesto of New Isis Lodge in which they spoke of the discovery of a planet beyond Pluto, the transplutonic Isis, and what it might mean for the evolution of consciousness on this planet:

A new and compelling influence is enveloping the earth and as yet there are few individuals who are open to the influx of the subtle vibrations of this influence.

Its rays proceed from a source as yet unexplored by those who are not at one with it in essence and in spirit, and it finds its present focus in the outer universe in the transplutonic planet Isis.

In the inner being of man, also, this influence has a centre which will slowly begin to stir in mankind as a whole as the influence strengthens and flowers. As it is at the beginning of its course in relation to man, however, many ages will pass before he may avail himself fully of the great powers and energies which this influence is silently and continually bestowing on all who know how to identify the inner core of their being with its deep and inscrutable heart.

It is surely obvious that the Grants were not talking about the discovery of a physical planet; such a discovery would have been more relevant to an astronomical journal. If we bear in mind that the first sephirah, Kether, is attributed to Pluto, then a transplutonic planet would be ‘One Beyond Ten’, the Great Outside. Grant expressed it thus some years later, in Aleister Crowley and the Hidden God:

In The Book of the Law, the goddess Nuit exclaims: “My number is eleven, as all their numbers who are of us”, which is a direct allusion to the A.’. A.’., or Order of the Silver Star, and its system of Grades. Nuit is the Great Outside, represented physically as “Infinite Space and the Infinite Stars thereof” — that is, I s i s. Nuit and Isis are thus identified in The Book of the Law. Isis is terrestrial space, illuminated by the stars. Nuit is outer, or infinite space, the undying darkness that is the hidden source of Light; She is also, in a mystical sense, Inner Space and the Great Within.