The Guardian of the Village - George William Russell

A deva in

theosophy Theosophy is a religious movement established in the United States in the late 19th century. Founded primarily by the Russian Helena Blavatsky and based largely on her writings, it draws heavily from both older European philosophies such as Neop ...

and the

New Age movement New Age is a range of spiritual or religious practices and beliefs that rapidly grew in Western society during the early 1970s. Its highly eclectic and unsystematic structure makes a precise definition difficult. Although many scholars consid ...

refers to any of the spiritual forces or

beings Existence is the state of having being or reality in contrast to nonexistence and nonbeing. Existence is often contrasted with essence: the essence of an entity is its essential features or qualities, which can be understood even if one does ...

behind

nature Nature is an inherent character or constitution, particularly of the Ecosphere (planetary), ecosphere or the universe as a whole. In this general sense nature refers to the Scientific law, laws, elements and phenomenon, phenomena of the physic ...

. The origin of the word "deva" comes from Sanskrit. According to Theosophist Charles Webster Leadbeater, devas represent a separate

evolution Evolution is the change in the heritable Phenotypic trait, characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. It occurs when evolutionary processes such as natural selection and genetic drift act on genetic variation, re ...

from that of humanity. The concept of devas as nature spirits was further developed in the writings of Theosophist Geoffrey Hodson. It is believed that there are numerous different types of devas with a population in the millions performing different functions on Earth to help the

ecology Ecology () is the natural science of the relationships among living organisms and their Natural environment, environment. Ecology considers organisms at the individual, population, community (ecology), community, ecosystem, and biosphere lev ...

function better. It is asserted devas can be observed by those whose

third eye The third eye (also called the mind's eye or inner eye) is an invisible eye, usually depicted as located on the forehead, supposed to provide perception beyond ordinary sight. In Hinduism, the third eye refers to the ajna (or brow) chakra. In bot ...

has been activated.Hodson, Geoffrey, ''Kingdom of the Gods''. 1952. In addition, it is believed by Theosophists that there are millions of devas living inside the

Sun The Sun is the star at the centre of the Solar System. It is a massive, nearly perfect sphere of hot plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core, radiating the energy from its surface mainly as visible light a ...

, the indwelling solar deity of which Theosophists call the '' Solar Logos.'' These devas are called ''solar angels'' or sometimes ''solar devas'' or ''solar spirits''. Sometimes, it is believed, they visit Earth and can be observed, like other devas, by humans whose third eyes have been activated.Powell, A.E. ''The Solar System: A Complete Outline of the Theosophical Scheme of Evolution''. London:1930. The Theosophical Publishing House. See the chart on page 44 called "The Evolution of Life"--this ''lifewave chart'' shows the various life forms that evolving souls inhabit as they reincarnate. The ''solar spirits'' living inside the Sun are shown at the top of the chart as the most advanced life forms in the

Solar System The Solar SystemCapitalization of the name varies. The International Astronomical Union, the authoritative body regarding astronomical nomenclature, specifies capitalizing the names of all individual astronomical objects but uses mixed "Sola ...

. Theosophists believe that there are also devas living inside all the other

star A star is a luminous spheroid of plasma (physics), plasma held together by Self-gravitation, self-gravity. The List of nearest stars and brown dwarfs, nearest star to Earth is the Sun. Many other stars are visible to the naked eye at night sk ...

s besides Sol; these are called ''stellar angels''. In the

Findhorn Findhorn ( or ''Inbhir Èireann'') is a village in Moray, Scotland. It is located on the eastern shore of Findhorn Bay and immediately south of the Moray Firth. Findhorn is 3 miles (5 km) northwest of Kinloss, Scotland, Kinloss, and abou ...

material, the term refers to

archetypal The concept of an archetype ( ) appears in areas relating to behavior, History of psychology#Emergence of German experimental psychology, historical psychology, philosophy and literary analysis. An archetype can be any of the following: # a stat ...

spiritual intelligences behind species. In other words, the group soul of a species. Some New Age sources use the term as a generic term to designate any being regarded as being composed of etheric matter--

elemental An elemental is a mythic supernatural being that is described in occult and alchemy, alchemical works from around the time of the European Renaissance, and particularly elaborated in the 16th century works of Paracelsus. According to Paracelsu ...

s, nature spirits (including the various types of nature spirits such as

fairies A fairy (also called fay, fae, fae folk, fey, fair folk, or faerie) is a type of mythical being or legendary creature, generally described as anthropomorphism, anthropomorphic, found in the folklore of multiple European cultures (including Cel ...

, ondines, etc.). The pre-New Age etymology of the term is described in the article

Deva (Hinduism) ''Deva'' (, ) means 'shiny', 'exalted', 'heavenly being', 'divine being', 'anything of excellence', and is also one of the Sanskrit terms used to indicate a deity in Hinduism.Monier Monier-Williams, A Sanskrit-English Dictionary” Etymologicall ...

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Image of a typical deva as claimed to have been observed by Geoffrey Hodson and other Theosophists with their third eyes—this particular deva is colored gold and purple, but it has been claimed by Theosophists that the various types of devas may appear in any combination of colors when observed by clairvoyant sight

Another picture of a deva from Geoffrey Hodson’s book ''Kingdom of the Gods''
Nature spirits

Deva Deva may refer to: Arts and entertainment Fictional characters * Deva, List of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2nd edition monsters, an ''Advanced Dungeons & Dragons'' 2nd edition monster * Deva, in the 2023 Indian film ''Salaar: Part 1 – Ceasefir ...

it:Deva#I_Deva_nella_teosofia

References

Further reading

External links