Who Is Alvar Hanso?

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3 Comments:

OK, now I have to watch this show.

-Quagga

By Anonymous, at 10/08/2005 3:11 AM  

Better start with the DVDs, because this show is more self-referential than a thesaurus. (Also if it starts to blow chunks this year I can warn you so you can pretend it was canceled after the first year.)

By J.M. Berger, at 10/08/2005 6:07 AM  

hansa means white goose or swan, vehicle of the Asvins. It also corresponds in the West to the pelican of alchemy.

The asvins:

Asvins, Asvinau (Sanskrit) The two horsemen; two Vedic divinities which in some respects parallel the Greek Dioscuri, Pollux and Castor. Harbingers of Ushas (the dawn), they are represented as twin horsemen, appearing in the sky in a golden chariot drawn by horses or birds.



One myth gives their origin as children of the sun by a nymph, Asvini, who concealed herself in the form of a mare; another myth makes Asvini their wife. Since they precede the sun's rising they are called the parents of the sun's form, Pushan. They are also the parents of Nakula and Sahadeva, Arjuna's brothers by Madri. Many Vedic hymns are addressed to them; their attributes pertain to youth and beauty, to speed, and to duality.



They bring treasures to mankind, averting misfortune and sickness, for they are the two physicians of heaven (svar-vaidyau). Yaska, the earliest known commentator on the Vedas, in his Nirukta writes that the Asvinau represent the transition from darkness to light and are identified with heaven and earth.



Blavatsky says that "these twins are, in the esoteric philosophy, the Kumara-Egos, the reincarnating 'Principles' in this Manvantara" (TG 41). That the Greek Dioscuri were respectively the son of Zeus and the son of a mortal, is a direct reference to the dual character of the kumaric mind or the higher manas, an immortal quality in human beings in its higher aspect, the lower aspect being connected with the mortal part of the human constitution.

By Anonymous, at 10/19/2005 12:19 PM