Continents

The term "continent" derives from Latin "continens," meaning "holding together" or "continuous." In an esoteric context, it signifies a self-contained or unbroken sphere of being, distinct from others. Its usage here transcends the geographical.

In the Buddhist cosmogony according to Gautama Buddha's exoteric doctrine, there are numberless systems of worlds (or Sakwala) all of which are born, mature, decay, and are destroyed periodically. Orientalists translate the teaching about "the four great continents which do not communicate with each other", as meaning that "upon the earth there are four great continents" (see Hardy's Eaftteni Monachism, p. 4), while the doctrine means simply that round or above tlie earth there are on either side four worlds, i.e., the earth appearing as the fourth on each side of the arc. Corybantes, Mysterirs of the. These were held in Phrygia in honour of Atys, the youth beloved by Cybele. The rites were very elalior ate within the temple and very noisy and tragic in public. They began by a public bewailing of the death of Atys and ended in tremendous rejoicing at his resurrection. The statue or image of the victim of Jupiter's jealously was placed during the ceremony in a pastos (coffin), and the priests sang his sufferings. Atys, as V^isvakarma in hidia, was a representative of Initiation and Adeptship. He is shown as being born im82 THEOSOl'HICAI. potont, bfcausi' i-liastity is a rrquisitc (tf tlif lifi" of an asi)ii-aiit. Atys is said to luivf establislu'd tlit» rites aiul worship of Cyhclc, in Lydia. fSot* ruusnn., vii., c. 17.)

The term "continents" as employed in esoteric traditions, particularly within the Buddhist and Hindu cosmogonies described by Blavatsky, offers a profound recalibration of our understanding of the cosmos. It moves beyond the mundane geography of our planet to delineate distinct planes or realms of being, separated by fundamental differences in essence or law, rather than mere physical distance. Mircea Eliade, in his exploration of myth and reality, would recognize this as a manifestation of sacred geography, where the world is not a homogeneous expanse but a structured cosmos divided into ordered domains.

These "continents" are not simply other lands on Earth waiting to be discovered, but separate universes, akin to the concept of lokas in Hindu philosophy or the various realms of rebirth in Buddhism. They represent distinct modes of existence, each with its own set of inhabitants and governing principles, inaccessible to beings of other continents without a radical transformation or a specific form of cosmic transit. This echoes Carl Jung's exploration of the collective unconscious, where different archetypal realms might be considered analogous to these separate continents of consciousness. The idea of impassable barriers between these realms suggests a fundamental ontological separation, a cosmic apartheid that underscores the vastness and complexity of existence as conceived by these ancient wisdom traditions. The Buddhist notion of Sakwala, the totality of worlds, further emphasizes this multiplicity.

The esoteric "continent" is a conceptual tool for understanding the layered nature of reality, where existence is not a single, continuous entity but a collection of discrete, self-contained universes. It invites us to contemplate the limits of our perception and the possibility of realities that lie beyond our immediate experience, separated not by space but by the very fabric of being. This perspective challenges the modern scientific assumption of a singular, unified universe, proposing instead a cosmos of distinct, self-contained spheres of existence, each a complete world unto itself.

RELATED_TERMS: Loka, Dvipa, Sakwala, Planes of Existence, Realms, Cosmos, World Systems, Cosmology