Planetary Spirit

Planetary Spirit is a Theosophical concept that generally refers to a hierarchy of celestial beings in charge of building the cosmos, a solar system, or a particular planet.

General description

The term "Planetary Spirit" is used in different ways. In the most frequent application, it refers to the hierarchy of beings that rule a planet, and that can be regarded as "a kind of finite or personal god":

Planetary Spirits. Primarily the rulers or governors of the planets. As our earth has its hierarchy of terrestrial planetary spirits, from the highest to the lowest plane, so has every other heavenly body. In Occultism, however, the term “Planetary Spirit” is generally applied only to the seven highest hierarchies corresponding to the Christian archangels. These have all passed through a stage of evolution corresponding to the humanity of earth on other worlds, in long past cycles. Our earth, being as yet only in its fourth round, is far too young to have produced high planetary spirits. The highest planetary spirit ruling over any globe is in reality the “Personal God” of that planet and far more truly its “over-ruling providence” than the self-contradictory Infinite Personal Deity of modern Churchianity.

In another function, the Planetaries are described as "karmic agencies":

The “Planetary”—who are not the Dhyani-Buddhas—have everything to do with the earth, physically and morally. It is they who rule its destinies and the fate of men. They are Karmic agencies. While the Dhyāni-Buddhas are concerned with the human spirit, the Planetary Spirits (which belong to a different hierarchy of beings) "have no concern with the three higher principles; they have, however, something to do with the fourth".

In some instances the term Planetary Spirit also refers to former human beings whose consciousness have expanded beyond the limits of the solar system. As Mahatma K.H. wrote:

There can be no Planetary Spirit that was not once material or what you call human. When our great Buddha — the patron of all the adepts, the reformer and the codifier of the occult system, reached first Nirvana on earth, he became a Planetary Spirit; i.e. — his spirit could at one and the same time rove the interstellar spaces in full consciousness. . .

Finally, the term is sometimes used in a less technical way, probably referring to the dual Monad atma-buddhi before becoming a human being.

Builders

The Planetary Spirits that fashion the cosmos and the planets are sometimes referred to as the "builders" or "creative spirits":

The Builders are those who build and fashion things into a form. The term is equally applied to the Builders of the Universe and to the small globes like those of our chain. By planetary system our solar system alone is meant.

It must be remembered that the planetary spirit has nothing to do with the spiritual man, but with things of matter and cosmic beings. The gods and rulers of our Earth are cosmic Rulers; that is to say, they form into shape and fashion cosmic matter, for which they were called Cosmocratores.

The “Builders,” the “Sons of Manvantaric Dawn,” are the real creators of the Universe; and in this doctrine, which deals only with our Planetary System, they, as the architects of the latter, are also called the “Watchers” of the Seven Spheres, which exoterically are the Seven planets, and esoterically the seven earths or spheres (planets) of our chain also.

The “Builders” are a class called, as I already explained, Cosmocratores, or the invisible but intelligent Masons, who fashion matter according to the ideal plan ready for them in that which we call Divine and Cosmic ideation. They were called by the early Masons the “Grand Architect of the Universe” collectively: but now the modern Masons make of their G. A. O. T. U. a personal and singular Deity.

See also Elohīm.

Earth's Planetary Spirit

Mme. Blavatsky stated that "The terrestrial spirit of the earth is not of a very high grade". This is corroborated in Stanza I.1 of the second volume of The Secret Doctrine, which says: "The Lha which turns the fourth (Globe, or our Earth) is servant to the Lha(s) of the Seven (the planetary Spirits)." To this, Mme. Blavatsky comments:

This expression shows in plain language that the Spirit-Guardian of our globe, which is the fourth in the chain, is subordinate to the chief Spirit (or God) of the Seven Planetary Genii or Spirits.

There is a marked difference, however, between the Rulers of the Sacred Planets and the Rulers of a small “chain” of worlds like our own.

If, for instance, Esoteric Philosophy teaches that the “Spirit” (collectively again) of Jupiter is far superior to the Terrestrial Spirit, it is not because Jupiter is so many times larger than our earth, but because its substance and texture are so much finer than, and superior to, that of the earth. And it is in proportion to this quality that the Hierarchies of respective “Planetary Builders” reflect and act upon the ideations they find planned for them in the Universal Consciousness, the real great Architect of the Universe.

Avataras

Master K.H. wrote about their role at the beginning of a new Round:

The highest Planetary Spirits, those who can no longer err . . . appear on Earth but at the origin of every new human kind; at the junction of, and close of the two ends of the great cycle. And, they remain with man no longer than the time required for the eternal truths they teach to impress themselves so forcibly upon the plastic minds of the new races as to warrant them from being lost or entirely forgotten in ages hereafter, by the forthcoming generations. The mission of the planetary Spirit is but to strike the KEY NOTE OF TRUTH. Once he has directed the vibration of the latter to run its course uninterruptedly along the catenation of that race and to the end of the cycle — the denizen of the highest inhabited sphere disappears from the surface of our planet — till the following “resurrection of flesh.” The vibrations of the Primitive Truth are what your philosophers name “innate ideas.”

At the beginning of each Round, when humanity reappears under quite different conditions than those afforded for the birth of each new race and its sub-races, a "Planetary" has to mix with these primitive men, and to refresh their memories, and reveal to them the truths they knew during the preceding Round. Hence the confused traditions about Jehovahs, Ormazds, Osirises, Brahms, and the tutti quanti. But that happens only for the benefit of the first Race. It is the duty of the latter to choose the fit recipients among its sons, who are "set apart" to use a Biblical phrase — as the vessels to contain the whole stock of knowledge, to be divided among the future races and generations until the close of that Round.

The truths revealed to man by the “Planetary Spirits” (the highest Kumâras, those who incarnate no longer in the universe during this Mahâmanvantara), who appear on earth as Avatâras only at the beginning of every new human race, and at the junction or close of the two ends of the small and great cycle, were made in time to fade away from the memory of man as he became more animalized. Yet, though these Teachers remain with man no longer than the time required to impress upon the plastic minds of child-humanity the eternal verities they teach, the spirit of the teachings remains vivid though latent in mankind. The full knowledge of the primitive revelation having, however, remained always with a few Elect, has been transmitted, from that time up to now, from one generation of Adepts to another.

At the close of the evolution on this Globe there will be a Planetary which will act on the next Round:

The last seventh Race will have its Buddha as every one of its predecessors had; but, its adepts will be far higher than any of the present race, for among them will abide the future Planetary, the Dhyan Chohan whose duty it will be to instruct or "refresh the memory" of the first race of the fifth Round men after this planet's future obscuration.

Additional resources

Articles

• Planetary Spirits in Theosophy World
• Builders in Theosophy World
• Archon(s) in Theosophy World