“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. HPB.

“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.

“The sun is the substitute for the invisible inter-Mercurial planet.” (S.D.
Vol. III, 459) HP Blavatsky.

“Jehovah was identified with Saturn and Vulcan.” (S.D. I, 632) EA 676.

“Sun, substituting for the veiled planet Vulcan.” EP1 418.

“Sun, veiling Vulcan.” EA 50. AAB.

“Vulcan is within the orbit of Mercury.” TCF 206. AAB.

“The first ray - as it expresses itself through Vulcan.” DN 84. AAB.

“Vulcan, the fire-God.” CW Vol 11 65.

“That "Father" of the Pharisees was Jehovah, because identical with Cain, Saturn, Vulcan, etc. -- the planet under which they were born, and the God whom they worshipped.” SD1 578.

“Intra-Mercurial Planet:

See Vulcan.” CW. Index. HPB.

“Q. Can you tell us something of the planets for which the Sun and the Moon were substitutes?
A. 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.”

Q. What is it that made these planets sacred or secret?
A. Their occult influences, as far as I know. CW Vol 10 341.

“Using the Astronomical key, IEU is the Spiritual Sun, the father of the Physical Sun, which again is the father of the “intra-mercurial planet.” See The Secret Doctrine, II, 28, and Part I, Transactions of the Blavatsky Lodge, p. 48. (C.W. X, 340). CW Vol 13 34.

“As if the debate over what is and what is not a planet hasn't gotten confusing enough, Hubble Space Telescope astronomers have now confirmed the existence of a tortured, baked object that could be called a "cometary planet." The gas giant planet, dubbed HD 209458b, is orbiting so close to its star that its heated atmosphere is escaping away into space. Now, observations by the new Cosmic Origins Spectrograph (COS) aboard NASA's Hubble suggest that powerful stellar winds are sweeping the castoff material behind the scorched planet and shaping it into a comet-like tail.

This artist's illustration shows a view of the gas giant planet HD 209458b, as seen from the surface of a hypothetical nearby companion object. The planet is orbiting so close to its sunlike star that its heated atmosphere is escaping into space. Spectroscopic observations by the new Cosmic Origins Spectrograph (COS) aboard the Hubble Space Telescope suggest that powerful stellar winds are sweeping the castoff material behind the scorched planet and shaping it into a comet-like tail.

NASA FINDS SUPER HOT PLANET WITH UNIQUE COMET-LIKE TAIL

WASHINGTON -- Astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have confirmed the existence of a baked object that could be called a "cometary planet." The gas giant planet, named HD 209458b, is orbiting so close to its star that its heated atmosphere is escaping into space.

"Since 2003 scientists have theorized the lost mass is being pushed back into a tail, and they have even calculated what it looks like," said astronomer Jeffrey Linsky of the University of Colorado in Boulder, leader of the COS study. "We think we have the best observational evidence to support that theory. We have measured gas coming off the planet at specific speeds, some coming toward Earth. The most likely interpretation is that we have measured the velocity of material in a tail."

The planet, located 153 light years from Earth, weighs slightly less than Jupiter but orbits 100 times closer to its star than the Jovian giant. The roasted planet zips around its star in a short 3.5 days. In contrast, our solar system's fastest planet, Mercury, orbits the sun in 88 days. The extrasolar planet is one of the most intensely scrutinized, because it is the first of the few known alien worlds that can be seen passing in front of, or transiting, its star. Linsky and his team used COS to analyze the planet's atmosphere during transiting events.
During a transit, astronomers study the structure and chemical makeup of a planet's atmosphere by sampling the starlight that passes through it. The dip in starlight because of the planet's passage, excluding the atmosphere, is very small, only about 1.5 percent. When the atmosphere is added, the dip jumps to 8 percent, indicating a bloated atmosphere.

COS detected the heavy elements carbon and silicon in the planet's super-hot 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit atmosphere. This detection revealed the parent star is heating the entire atmosphere, dredging up the heavier elements and allowing them to escape the planet.

The COS data also showed the material leaving the planet was not all traveling at the same speed. "We found gas escaping at high velocities, with a large amount of this gas flowing toward us at 22,000 miles per hour," Linsky said. "This large gas flow is likely gas swept up by the stellar wind to form the comet-like tail trailing the planet."

Hubble's newest spectrograph has the ability to probe a planet's chemistry at ultraviolet wavelengths not accessible to ground-based telescopes. COS is proving to be an important instrument for probing the atmospheres of "hot Jupiters" like HD 209458b.

Another Hubble instrument, the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS), observed the planet in 2003. The STIS data showed an active, evaporating atmosphere, and a comet-tail-like structure was suggested as a possibility. But STIS wasn't able to obtain the spectroscopic detail necessary to show a tail, or an Earthward-moving component of the gas, during transits. The tail was detected for the first time because of the unique combination of very high ultraviolet sensitivity and good spectral resolution provided by COS.

Although this extreme planet is being roasted by its star, it won't be destroyed anytime soon. "It will take about a trillion years for the planet to evaporate," Linsky said. Inbox Astronomy (outreach@stsci.edu) 15/7/10.

JC: As Vulcan is within the orb of Mercury perhaps some faint and as yet unmeasured or unrecognised movement will show up some time. It is well worth our time and thoughts to consider the extra solar gas giant planet, currently named HD 209458b as discussed by NASA in the above statement. To be noted is the very close orbit of 3.5 Earth days long that this Vulcan like planet has to its Sun. This close orbit amounts to one eighth the orbital radii of Mercury's to our sun which is every 87.969 days by comparison, and as we know Vulcan is said to be within three degrees of Mercury's orbit.

I was immediately struck by this, as a planet such as this is usually considered to be of the first ray aspect Will and Power. HD 209458b (unofficially named as "Osiris") and in the constellation of Pegasus, is so close to its great central sun, a star that is a solar analogous to our sun, that it is losing some of its gaseous materiel as it is burned up or vaporised by the intense heat. We might note that this planet is a gas giant in a stupendous sense and 0.69 the mass of Jupiter and with a volume two and a half times greater.

The wind storms on Osiris are measured as 7000km/h. The planet's temperature is at least least 750 °C (1300 °F) and such planets are generically known as hot Jupiter's with orbs approximately between 0.015 and 0.5 AU of their parent stars. Mercury's temperature by comparison is (427 °C, − 801 °F). By this we can gauge the relative temperature of Vulcan as being perhaps +/- 537.8°C - 1000°F estimated.

This 'roasted' Vulcan like planet has an extremely high insolation or level of solar radiation impact from its star due such is the extreme proximity that it has. It is said to be ‘a surprisingly dark object’ with an ‘intense heating of its outer atmosphere’ and this reflects its 30% light reflectivity which is very low and further indicates its high capacity of absorption of solar energy. Esoterically we might here ponder the nature of planets as absorbers and radiators of energy. There may be a dual connotation with this planet being an occult radiator of energy into the system as a veil to its huge Sun.

The envelope of hydrogen carbon and oxygen around the outer atmosphere of Osiris has been measured as 10,000 K giving rise to a tail of evaporation of atoms said to be 100–500 million (1–5×108) kg of hydrogen per second losing 7% of its mass over the estimated lifetime of some 5 billion years, though this is in debate as the magnetic atmosphere may hold much within its attraction. The mission to Mercury named MESSENGER may well discover Vulcan in 2011 when more observations will take place and the source of ultra violet radiation detected as a moon but soon discredited may reveal the reality of Vulcan. Could it be possible that Vulcan is a small gas planet and indeed a “fiery stone” perhaps quite ethereal, rather than a dense stone like planet.

Theme: Vulcan.

The Vajra or dor-jay translates as "foremost of stones" or "lord of stones" denoting the Diamond, and the Thunderbolt and Diamond vehicle. We can here see in mystical parlance certain themes on this teaching. Tibetan Buddhism associates the fusion of compassion and wisdom as producing a Buddha known as the "foremost of stones". Master DK names the human units as "living stones" and the human units on Vulcan are the "fiery stones". The term "philosophers stone" should also be factored into the equation.

Symbolically and factually the units of the mineral kingdom are known as the "stones" though without the living process of struggle and striving through "painful endeavor" as there is understood to be in a human unit. The living stones are mentioned both in the Bible and the teachings of Chohan Hilarion also as the developed purified souls.

The mineral kingdom is inert, undeveloped and comparatively dead to the life aspect. Minerals lost long ago their vital supply of prana, with a few exceptions, and under karmic law this has now passed to the vegetable kingdom. The mineral kingdom is essentially of such a low vibration that it does not have an adequate supply of solar prana or vitality. Humans are a far in advanced expression of life or spirit, and the foremost of the human kingdom is a Buddha who has achieved Identification with the "universal vehicle or "beatific" Vajra vehicle. This vesture is known as the thunderbolt and diamond vehicle, thus are the Vajra-sattvas diamond souled.

The connotation with the Stone and the Diamond [philosophers stone] is of great interest because it demonstrates evolution through the mineral, human and spiritual kingdom up to the eighth and ninth Initiations. A Diamond is the highest product of the mineral compound called Carbon and the diamond souled Buddha is the highest product of the human kingdom and of the earth evolution. The Diamond Vajra vehicle or truth body is described by Tsong Kapa as being "the scriptural division of the knowledge bearers." All connotations and correspondences with the first ray of will and power and Vulcan are obvious to see.

The fiery units on Vulcan are said to have a special connection with the mineral kingdom because our earth mineral evolution are subject to forging and development by the processes of fire, heat and tremendous pressures. This should serve to give us a hint as to the processes, occultly understood, with which they evolve and develop as units in the first ray school of training known as Vulcan which lies three degrees within the orbit of Mercury.

All physical phenomena as we understand the term have an electrical origin and an initial vibration on the first sub plane of the physical plane. Head Centre 1st ray Vulcan. The thousand-petalled synthetic lotus, the brahmarandra. Jewel in the lotus.

Hiram, King of Tyre was said to "walked about amidst fiery stones" in the court of Shamballa or eden of the Holy Bible and was possibly connected with the School for fiery stones. JPC.

"VULCAN - The School for Fiery Stones. There is a curious connection between the human units who pass through its halls and the mineral kingdom. The human units on the earth scheme are called in mystical parlance "the living stones"; on Vulcan they are called "fiery stones." TCF 1178.

28:12 "Son of man, sing a lament for the king of Tyre, and say to him, This is what the sovereign LORD says...

28:14 "You were on the holy mountain of God; you walked about amidst fiery stones." Ezekiel.

“Mercury's moon":

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A moon orbiting Mercury was, for a short time, believed to exist. On March 27, 1974, two days before Mariner 10 made its flyby of Mercury, instruments on Earth began registering large amounts of ultraviolet radiation in the vicinity of Mercury which, according to one astronomer, "had no right to be there". By the next day, the radiation had disappeared; it reappeared three days later, appearing to originate from an object which was, seemingly, detached from Mercury. Some astronomers speculated that they had detected a star, but others argued that the object must be a moon, citing the two different directions the radiation had emanated from and the belief that such high-energy radiation could not penetrate very far through the interstellar medium. Adding to their arguments, the object's speed was calculated to be 4 kilometers per second (2.4 miles per second), which matched the expected speed of a moon.

31 Crateris may be an eclipsing binary. Soon, however, the "moon" was detected moving away from Mercury, and was, eventually, identified as a star, 31 Crateris. The origin of the radiation detected on March 27 is still unknown. 31 Crateris happens to be a spectroscopic binary with a period of 2.9 days, and this may be the source of the ultraviolet radiation.

Mercury's moon, although non-existent, did spark an important discovery in astronomy: ultraviolet radiation, it was found, was not as completely absorbed by the interstellar medium as was formerly thought. wikipedia.

20/7/10.