Aug 26, 2016
The Search for Vulcan
Another apparent DK contradiction to which I have given considerable thought is his numerous comments on the mysterious planet Vulcan.
Unlike the comment on Apollonius, which was made only once, and could be written off as an Alice A. Bailey error, comments on Vulcan was made numerous times and is an important part of his teachings. If Vulcan does not exist then this creates a great flaw in his writings.
So, does the physical planet Vulcan exist?
The possibility of a hidden planet within the orbit of Mercury was made famous by amateur French astronomer Edmond Modeste Lescarbault who claimed to observe it on March 26, 1859. This sighting was confirmed as valid by the greatest astronomer of the day, Urbain Le Verrier. He calculated that Mercury had a wobble in its orbit that could be accounted for by an inner planet. When he confirmed Lescarbault’s observation, because of his reputation, this was hailed by The New York Times as one of the great discoveries of the century.
Based on supposed observations Le Verrier calculated some details of Vulcan. It supposedly revolved about the Sun in a nearly circular orbit at a distance of 21 million kilometres (13 million miles). By contrast, Mercury, the closest planet to the sun, is 36 million miles from the sun. The period of revolution was 19 days and 17 hours compared to Mercury’s 88 days and the earth 365 days. Leverrier also estimated the diameter of Vulcan to be about two thousand kilometers (1243 miles), or only a little over half the diameter of our Moon.
The problem was that repeated observations could not positively confirm the existence of Vulcan to fellow astronomers. Even so, Le Verrier maintained his belief in Vulcan until he died in 1877. At his death interest in Vulcan subsided though many still believed that such a planet was necessary to account for Mercury’s unusual orbital wobble.
This changed though in 1919 when observations during a solar eclipse confirmed ingredients of Einstein’s theory of relativity and gravity that accounted for Mercury’s wobble. No longer was a missing planet needed to explain the anomaly.
A handful continued to believe in Vulcan until the current age of space probes and super telescopes. Now the space between Mercury and the Sun has been so thoroughly observed that the possibility of a physical planet being there is close to zero. The only possible physical objects that could be there would be asteroid sized of a couple miles in diameter, far too small to be considered a planet.
HPB seemed to pick up on the supposed existence of Vulcan and used the name for a mysterious hidden planet. Here are some quotes:
Not all of the Intra-Mercurial planets, nor yet those in the orbit of Neptune are yet discovered, though they are strongly suspected.
We know that such exist and where they exist; and that there are innumerable
planets “burnt out” they say, — in obscuration we say.
KH Mahatma Letters.
“It is the same in the Eastern Esoteric Philosophy, which, however, adds that the Sun is not a planet, but the central star of our system, and the Moon a dead planet, from which all the principles are gone, both being substitutes, the one for an invisible inter-Mercurial planet, and the other for a planet which seems to have now altogether disappeared from view.” SD3 459.
“The Sun The Giver of Life physically, Spiritually and Esoterically, the substitute for the inter-Mercurial Planet, a sacred and secret planet with the ancients.” SD3 454.
“Q. Can you tell us something of the planets for which the Sun and the Moon were substitutes?
There is no secret in it, though our modern astrologers are ignorant of these planets. One is an intra-mercurial planet, which is supposed to have been discovered, and named by anticipation Vulcan, and the other a planet with a retrograde motion, sometimes visible at a certain hour of night and apparently near the moon. The occult influence of this planet is transmitted by the moon.”
Notes from a meeting held at 17, Lansdowne Road, London, W., on January 31st, 1888
So what do the direct words of DK say about an intra-mercurial planet?
The reader may be surprised to learn that the answer is – nothing.
“But wait,” says a student. “As I recall Alice A. Bailey mentioned that Vulcan was an intra-mercurial planet.”
Yes, Bailey did mention it in her own words in footnotes seemingly to be using data from Blavatsky’s writings, but DK is never quoted directly as saying this. The earliest quote I can find about Vulcan being within the obit of Mercury is from the Mahatma letters concerning which DK tells us that few of them contain the words of a Master.
It seems quite possible then that HPB did receive information about a sacred planet known to the ancients but because speculation of Vulcan was in the news, she assumed incorrectly through her own initiative that this was it.
So… If Vulcan does not exist as a dense physical planet within the orbit of Mercury, where is it?
The most common proposal put forth by students is that Vulcan is not physical, but probably composed of the fourth ether or higher.
That would indeed seem to be the obvious possibility as both HPB and DK spoke of etheric planets beyond the vision of earth science.
Indeed Rudolf Steiner spoke of Vulcan as being in a highly spiritualized state. He said this in his book Cosmic Memory:
“‘No soul which, with its thinking is still tied to a physical body, should reflect about Vulcan and its life.’ That is, only the mystery students of the higher order, who may leave their physical body and can acquire supersensible knowledge outside of it, can learn something about Vulcan.”
Then DK says this about previous inhabitants of Vulcan:
They could only “come in” in the middle of the fifth round, and were a group of initiates who arrested their own evolution (technically speaking) in order to take up a special piece of work on the planet Vulcan; therefore, they must return to continue and complete that which has been left undone. Owing to the results of their experience on Vulcan, the physical vehicle necessitated is of such an order that they could not at this time, and in this round, incarnate without disaster.
Treatise on Cosmic Fire, Pg 719
But, just as we seem to have the mystery solved we come across this tabulation in the writings of DK:
The Dense Physical Planets:
Earth 4th Chain 4th Globe
Jupiter 3rd Chain 4th Globe
Saturn 3rd Chain 4th Globe
Mars 4th Chain 4th Globe
Vulcan 3rd Chain 4th Globe
Venus 5th Chain 5th Globe
Mercury 4th Chain 5th Globe”
Esoteric Astrology, Pg 693
So here we have a tabulation of some planets in the dense physical and Vulcan is listed as one of them along with Earth, Mars and others that we know to be physical.
Now it is possible that Alice A. Bailey wrote the headline for the tabulation, but not likely in this case.
Let us assume that DK gave the heading for this tabulation and ask: Where then is Vulcan?
Here is another possibility. Vulcan may be another name for our physical sun. Here are some quotes:
Vulcan (the sun, exoterically considered)
Treatise on Cosmic Fire, Page 369
Vulcan – the sun exoterically considered
Esoteric Astrology, Pg 652
The Sun (Veiling Vulcan)
Esoteric Psychology, Vol 1, Page 62
Planet: The Sun, substituting for the veiled planet Vulcan.
Esoteric Psychology, Vol 1, Pg 418 (Quoting from the Secret Doctrine)
Sun, veiling Vulcan.
Esoteric Astrology, Pg 50
The Sun (standing here for Vulcan, which is a sacred planet) governs a centre in the front of the throat
Esoteric Astrology, Pg 78
It indeed sounds like a possibility that Vulcan could just be another name for the Sun, which was considered to be one of the seven planets by the ancients.
This is a possibility but DK also talks about other veiled planets that are literal planets. For instance, he tells us that the moon veils Uranus, Neptune and Vulcan and the Sun also veils Neptune and several hidden planets.
We know that Uranus and Neptune are definitely planets in the dense physical so speaking of them as veiled does not mean they are invisible, the same or etheric.
Could there be another explanation?
There is one more interesting possibility. In the past we have heard all kinds of speculation from new agers about the mysterious planet X, or Nibiru, made popular by Zecharia Sitchin. This planet is supposed to pass by earth and cause a cataclysm every 3600 years.
Scientists have not taken the existence of this planet seriously and have found no evidence of its reality. Even so, they are open to the possibility that more sizable planets are out there and astronomers are continually scanning the skies for new planets.
This paid off with the discovery by famed astronomer Mike Brown and team in 2005 of what appeared to be a 10th planet, (now named Eris) for it was a little larger in mass than Pluto.
Instead of calling Eris a planet, Astronomers reclassified what a planet was and threw both Pluto and Eris out of the mix and decided to call objects of such size dwarf planets.
Brown and his team have now found quite a few objects beyond the orbit of Pluto and astronomers have named the region the Kuiper belt.
Now Brown believes he is on the verge of his greatest discovery. He has teamed up with fellow astronomer, Konstantin Batygin, and have been studying anomalies in the orbits of various planetoids and have calculated that the grouping of their orbits must be caused by a large planet, over ten times the size of earth. They are sure of its existence by a probability of 15,000 to one.
Their calculations indicate that this planet is way out there, It’s nearest approach is seven times further away than Neptune and its furthest approach is over three times that far.
This extreme distance will make this planet very difficult to find, but Brown is working on it.
Now the interesting thing is that other astronomers are not sneering at this idea but acknowledge that Brown and Batygin are most likely on to something. They can’t argue with what their math indicates.
Now consider this. If a planet does exist in the outer reaches of the solar system that is over ten times more massive than earth, would the Hierarchy be aware of it?
Most likely.
Would they have a name for it?
Most likely.
What could the name be? Let’s see, is there a planet identified by them that we have not yet found?
By golly, there is – none other than Vulcan.
In conclusion, my proposal is this. HPB received the fact that there was a sacred planet unknown to astronomers of her day. Because there was much speculation at that time that an intra-Mercurial planet existed, and given the name Vulcan, she mistakenly assumed that this was the missing planet. DK just used that name in his writings to identify the missing planet without specifying where it was.
If indeed another planet ten times the size of earth exists in our solar system it would be of significance to the Hierarchy and the only missing link in the dense physical noted by them is Vulcan.
Go HERE for the story of the search for the missing planet.
Copyright 2016 by J J Dewey
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