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object:BOOK I. -- PART I. COSMIC EVOLUTION
book class:The Secret Doctrine
class:chapter

Vol. I. -- COSMOGENESIS.
London:
THE THEOSOPHICAL PUBLISHING COMPANY, LIMITED.
7, Duke Street, Adelphi, W.C.
WILLIAM Q. JUDGE,
117, Nassau Street, New York.
THE MANAGER OF THE THEOSOPHIST,
Adyar, Madras.
--1888.

[[Vol. 1, Page iv]]

"Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1888, by H. P. Blavatsky,
in the Office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington, D. C."

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The Secret Doctrine by H. P. Blavatsky: Contents, Preface

[[Vol. 1, Page v]]

This Work
I Dedicate to all True Theosophists,
In every Country,
And of every Race,
For they called it forth, and for them it was recorded.
[[Vol. 1, Page vi -- blank]]

[[Vol. 1, Page vii]]

PREFACE.
THE Author -- the writer, rather -- feels it necessary to apologise for the long delay which has
occurred in the appearance of this work. It has been occasioned by ill-health and the magnitude of the
undertaking. Even the two volumes now issued do not complete the scheme, and these do not treat
exhaustively of the subjects dealt with in them. A large quantity of material has already been
prepared, dealing with the history of occultism as contained in the lives of the great Adepts of the
Aryan Race, and showing the bearing of occult philosophy upon the conduct of life, as it is and as it
ought to be. Should the present volumes meet with a favourable reception, no effort will be spared to
carry out the scheme of the work in its entirety. The third volume is entirely ready; the fourth almost
so.
This scheme, it must be added, was not in contemplation when the preparation of the work was first
announced. As originally announced, it was intended that the "Secret Doctrine" should be an amended
and enlarged version of "Isis Unveiled." It was, however, soon found that the explanations which
could be added to those already put before the world in the last-named and other works dealing with
esoteric science, were such as to require a different method of treatment: and consequently the present
volumes do not contain, in all, twenty pages extracted from "Isis Unveiled."
The author does not feel it necessary to ask the indulgence of her readers and critics for the many
defects of literary style, and the imperfect English which may be found in these pages. She is a
foreigner, and her knowledge of the language was acquired late in life. The English tongue is
employed because it offers the most widely-diffused medium for conveying the truths which it had
become her duty to place before the world.
These truths are in no sense put forward as a revelation; nor does the author claim the position of a
revealer of mystic lore, now made public for the first time in the world's history. For what is contained
in this work is to be found scattered throughout thousands of volumes embodying the scriptures of the
great Asiatic and early European religions, hidden under glyph and symbol, and hitherto left
unnoticed because of this veil. What is now attempted is to gather the oldest tenets together and to
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The Secret Doctrine by H. P. Blavatsky: Contents, Preface

make of them one harmonious and unbroken whole. The sole advantage which the writer has over her
predecessors, is that she need not resort to personal speculations and theories. For this work is a
partial statement of what she herself has been taught by more advanced students, supplemented, in a
few details only, by the results of her

[[Vol. 1, Page]] viii

own study and observation. The publication of many of the facts herein stated has been rendered
necessary by the wild and fanciful speculations in which many Theosophists and students of
mysticism have indulged, during the last few years, in their endeavour to, as they imagined, work out
a complete system of thought from the few facts previously communicated to them.
It is needless to explain that this book is not the Secret Doctrine in its entirety, but a select number of
fragments of its fundamental tenets, special attention being paid to some facts which have been seized
upon by various writers, and distorted out of all resemblance to the truth.
But it is perhaps desirable to state unequivocally that the teachings, however fragmentary and
incomplete, contained in these volumes, belong neither to the Hindu, the Zoroastrian, the Chaldean,
nor the Egyptian religion,.neither to Buddhism, Islam, Judaism nor Christianity exclusively. The
Secret Doctrine is the essence of all these. Sprung from it in their origins, the various religious
schemes are now made to merge back into their original element, out of which every mystery and
dogma has grown, developed, and become materialised.
It is more than probable that the book will be regarded by a large section of the public as a romance of
the wildest kind; for who has ever even heard of the book of Dzyan?
The writer, therefore, is fully prepared to take all the responsibility for what is contained in this work,
and even to face the charge of having invented the whole of it. That it has many shortcomings she is
fully aware; all that she claims for it is that, romantic as it may seem to many, its logical coherence
and consistency entitle this new Genesis to rank, at any rate, on a level with the "working hypotheses"
so freely accepted by modern science. Further, it claims consideration, not by reason of any appeal to
dogmatic authority, but because it closely adheres to Nature, and follows the laws of uniformity and
analogy.
The aim of this work may be thus stated: to show that Nature is not "a fortuitous concurrence of
atoms," and to assign to man his rightful place in the scheme of the Universe; to rescue from
degradation the archaic truths which are the basis of all religions; and to uncover, to some extent, the
fundamental unity from which they all spring; finally, to show that the occult side of Nature has never
been approached by the Science of modern civilization.
If this is in any degree accomplished, the writer is content. It is written in the service of humanity, and
by humanity and the future generations it must be judged. Its author recognises no inferior court of
appeal. Abuse she is accustomed to; calumny she is daily acquainted with; at slander she smiles in
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The Secret Doctrine by H. P. Blavatsky: Contents, Preface

silent contempt.
De minimis non curat lex.
H.P.B.
London, October, 1888.

[[Vol. 1, Page ix]]

TABLE OF CONTENTS.
------PAGE.
INTRODUCTION ... xvii.

The Need of such a Book ... xix.
The Antiquity of Documents and MSS. ... xxiii.
What the Book is intended to do ... xxviii.
------VOLUME FIRST.
COSMOGENESIS.


PROEM ... 1
The Oldest MSS. in the world and its Symbolism ... 2
The One Life, Active and Passive ... 4
The Secret Doctrine -- Pantheism -- Atheism ... 6
"Space" in all Religions and in Occultism ... 9
Seven Cosmic Elements -- Seven Races of Mankind ... 12
The Three Postulates of the Secret Doctrine ... 14
Description of the Stanzas from the Book of Dzyan ... 20
------BOOK I. -- PART I.
COSMIC EVOLUTION.


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SEVEN STANZAS FROM THE BOOK OF DZYAN ... 27
------STANZA I. -- THE NIGHT OF THE UNIVERSE... 35
The Seven Eternities ... 36

"Time" ... 37
The Universal Mind and the Dhyan Chohans ... 38
Nidana and Maya: The Causes of Misery ... 39
The Great Breath ... 43
Being and Non-Being ... 45
The Eye of Dangma ... 47
Alaya, the Universal Soul ... 49

[[Vol. 1, Page]] x CONTENTS.

STANZA II. -- THE IDEA OF DIFFERENTIATION ... 53
The Absolute knows Itself not ... 55
The Germ of Life was not yet ... 57
The Universe was still concealed in the Divine Thought ... 61
------STANZA III. -- THE AWAKENING OF KOSMOS ... 62
The Great Vibration ... 63

Nature's Symbols ... 65
The Power of Numbers ... 67
The Logoi and the Dragon ... 73
The Astral Light ... 75
Primeval Radiations from Unity ... 79
The Web of Being ... 83
Conscious Electricity: Fohat ... 85
------STANZA IV. -- THE SEPTENARY HIERARCHIES ... 86
The Sons of the Fire ... 86

The Vehicle of the Universe -- the Dhyan Chohans ... 89
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The Army of the Voice ... 93
Speech and Mind ... 95
The Ogdoad and the Heptad ... 99
The Stellar "Sons of Light" ... 103
------STANZA V. -- FOHAT: THE CHILD OF THE SEPTENARY HIERARCHIES ... 106
The Fiery Whirlwind and the Primordial Seven ... 106

They Produce Fohat ... 108
The Correlation of the "Gods" ... 113
Evolution of the "Principles" of Nature ... 119
The Mystery of the Fire ... 121
The Secret of the Elements ... 123
The Square of the Tabernacle ... 125
The Planetary Spirits and the Lipika ... 129
The Ring "Pass Not" ... 130
The Sidereal Book of Life ... 131
The Soul's Pilgrimage and its "Rest" ... 134
------STANZA VI. -- OUR WORLD, ITS GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT ... 136
The Logos ... 136

Mystery of the Female Logos ... 137

[[Vol. 1, Page]] xi CONTENTS.

The Seven Layu Centres ... 138
The "Elementary Germs" ... 139
The Evolution of the Elements ... 140
The Building of the Worlds ... 145
A Neutral Centre ... 147
"Dead" Planets -- The Moon ... 149
------THEOSOPHICAL MISCONCEPTIONS ... 152
The Planetary Divisions and the Human Principles ... 153

The Moon ... 155
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Transmigrations of the Ego ... 159
The Septenary Chain ... 161
Relation of the other Planets to the Earth ... 163
------EXPLANATIONS CONCERNING THE GLOBES AND THE MONADS ... 170
The Lunar Chain and the Earth Chain ... 172

The Earth, the Child of the Moon ... 173
Classification of the Monads ... 175
The Monad Defined ... 177
The Lunar Monads -- the Pitris ... 179
A Triple Evolution in Nature ... 181
------STANZA VI. -- CONTINUED ... 191
"Creation" in the Fourth Round ... 191

The "Curse," "Sin," and "War" ... 193
The Struggle for Life and the Birth of the Worlds ... 202
The Adepts and the Sacred Island ... 207
------STANZA VII. -- THE PARENTS OF MAN ON EARTH ... 213
Divisions of the Hierarchies ... 214

Correlations of Beings ... 223
What incarnates in Animal Man ... 233
Formation of Man: the Thinker ... 238
Occult and Kabalistic Pneumatics ... 243
Akasa and Ether ... 257
The Invisible "Lives" ... 259
Occult Vital Chemistry and Bacteriology ... 261

[[Vol. 1, Page]] xii CONTENTS.

The Watcher and his Shadow ... 265
Earth peopled by the Shadows of the Gods ... 267

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------SUMMING UP ... 269
The pith and marrow of the Secret Doctrine ... 273

Hermes in Christian Garb ... 285
Some Occult Aphorisms ... 289
The Seven Powers of Nature ... 293
--------------------BOOK I. -- PART II.
THE EVOLUTION OF SYMBOLISM IN ITS APPROXIMATE ORDER.



I. SYMBOLISM AND IDEOGRAPHS ... 303

Emblem and Symbol differ ... 305

Magic Potency of Sound ... 307
Mystery Language ... 309
------II. THE MYSTERY LANGUAGE AND ITS KEYS ... 310
Egypt's many Religions ... 311

The Jews and their System ... 313
Moses copied from Sargon ... 319
Identity of Ancient Symbols ... 323
------III. PRIMORDIAL SUBSTANCE AND DIVINE THOUGHT ... 325
Divine Thought, or Cineritious Matter? ... 327

Ether and Intelligence ... 330
The Seven Prakritis ... 335
The Mystic Fire ... 339
One Tree of Knowledge ... 341
------IV. CHAOS -- THEOS -- KOSMOS ... 342
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The Union of Chaos and Spirit ... 343
The Birth of Mind ... 345
------V. THE HIDDEN DEITY, ITS SYMBOLS AND GLYPHS ... 349
The Gnostic Idea ... 351

International Correlation of Gods ... 355

[[Vol. 1, Page]] xiii CONTENTS.

PAGE.
VI. THE MUNDANE EGG ... 359
Egg-born Logoi ... 363
The Winged Globe ... 365
------VII. THE DAYS AND NIGHTS OF BRAHMA ... 368
Human Gods and Divine Men ... 369

The Rebirth of Gods ... 371
The Puranic Prophecy ... 377
------VIII. THE LOTUS AS A UNIVERSAL SYMBOL ... 379
Exoteric and Esoteric ... 381

The Purity of early Phallicism ... 383
The Egyptian Lotus ... 385
------IX. DEUS LUNUS ... 386
A Glance at the Lunar Myth ... 387

A Key-note to the Moon ... 389
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Copies and Originals... 393
The Moon Bi-sexual ... 397
------X. TREE AND SERPENT AND CROCODILE WORSHIP ... 403
Degeneration of the Symbol ... 405

The Seven-headed Dragons ... 407
Dragon and Crocodile ... 409
------XI. DEMON EST DEUS INVERSUS ... 411
Death is Life ... 413

The Fall of the Angels ... 418
Transformation of the Legend ... 421
------XII. THE THEOGONY OF THE CREATIVE GODS ... 424
The Point within the Circle ... 426

The Logos or Verbum ... 429
The Factors of Creation ... 432
Identity of the Hierarchies in all Religions ... 438
Difference between the Aryan and Semitic Systems ... 444

[[Vol. 1, Page]] xiv CONTENTS.

PAGE.
XIII. THE SEVEN CREATIONS ... 445
The Gnostic and the Hindu Versions ... 449
The Seven Puranic "Creations" ... 450
------XIV. THE FOUR ELEMENTS. ... 460

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The "Gods" and the "Elements" ... 463
The Language of the Elements ... 464
Pagan and Christian Worship of the Elements ... 467
------XV. ON KWAN-SHI-YIN AND KWAN-YIN ... 470
Kwan-Shi-Yin and Phallicism ... 471

The Real Meaning ... 472
--------------------BOOK I. -- PART III.
SCIENCE AND THE SECRET DOCTRINE CONTRASTED.



I. REASONS FOR THESE ADDENDA ... 477

Occultism versus Materialism ... 479

The Sabbath of the Mystic ... 481
------II. MODERN PHYSICISTS ARE PLAYING AT BLIND MAN'S BUFF ... 482
------III. AN LUMEN SIT CORPUS NEC NON? ... 483
The Hypothetical Ether ... 485

Scientific Theories of its Constitution ... 489

------IV. IS GRAVITATION A LAW? ... 490
Intelligences or Blind Forces? ... 493

The Cause of Attraction ... 498

[[Vol. 1, Page]] xv CONTENTS.
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PAGE.
V. THE THEORIES OF ROTATION SCIENCE ... 500
Conflicting Hypotheses ... 502
More Hypotheses ... 505
------VI. THE MASKS OF SCIENCE ... 506
What are the "Forces?" ... 508

The View of the Occultists ... 510
Scientific and Occult Theories on Heat ... 515
The Atoms of Science ... 519
------VII. AN ATTACK ON THE SCIENTIFIC THEORY OF FORCE BY A MAN OF SCIENCE ... 523
Ether and Atoms ... 527

------VIII. LIFE, FORCE, OR GRAVITY? ... 529
Dr. Richardson on Nervous Ether ... 531

The Senses and their Action ... 535
Too much "Life" may Kill ... 539
------IX. THE SOLAR THEORY ... 540
The Primordial Element ... 542

Elements and Meta-Elements ... 546
The Tree of Life and Being ... 549
Prof. Crookes on the Elements ... 552
------X. THE COMING FORCE ... 554
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Mr. Keeley, an Unconscious Occultist ... 557
Inter-Etheric Waves ... 561
The Secrets of Sound and Odour ... 565
------Xl. ON THE ELEMENTS AND ATOMS ... 566
Metaphysical Chemistry ... 569

What are the Seven Planets? ... 575
The Cyclic Fall of the Gods ... 577

[[Vol. 1, Page]] xvi CONTENTS.

PAGE.
XII. ANCIENT THOUGHT IN MODERN DRESS ... 579
All-Potential Unity ... 583
The "Seventh" in Chemistry ... 585
------XIII. THE MODERN NEBULAR THEORY ... 588
Forces are Emanations ... 591

What is the Nebula? ... 595
------XIV. FORCES -- MODES OF MOTION OR INTELLIGENCES? ... 601
The Vital Principle ... 603

Occult and Physical Science ... 605
------XV. GODS, MONADS, AND ATOMS ... 610
The Gods of the Ancients -- the Monads ... 613

The Monad and the Duad ... 617
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The Genesis of the Elements ... 621
Hermes and Huxley ... 625
The Teaching of Leibnitz ... 627
The Monads according to Occultism ... 632
------XVI. CYCLIC EVOLUTION AND KARMA ... 634
Karmic Cycles and Universal Ethics ... 637

Destiny and Karma ... 639
Karma-Nemesis ... 643
------XVII. THE ZODIAC AND ITS ANTIQUITY ... 647
The Jewish Patriarchs and the Signs of the Zodiac ... 651

Zodiacal Cycles ... 656
Hindu Astronomy ... 661
------XVIII. SUMMARY OF THE MUTUAL POSITION ... 668
Science Confesses her Ignorance ... 669

Materialism is leading Europe towards a catastrophe ... 675
------[[Contents of Volume 2]]

Secret Doctrine Homepage

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The Secret Doctrine by H. P. Blavatsky, Vol 2, Contents

The Secret Doctrine by H. P. Blavatsky -- Vol. 2

Theosophical University Press Online Edition

[[Vol. 2, Page iii]]

THE SECRET DOCTRINE:
THE SYNTHESIS
OF
SCIENCE, RELIGION, AND PHILOSOPHY.

by H. P. BLAVATSKY,
Author of "ISIS UNVEILED."

"There is no Religion higher than Truth."
VOL. II. -- ANTHROPOGENESIS.
London: THE THEOSOPHICAL PUBLISHING COMPANY, LIMITED.
7, Duke Street, Adelphi, W.C.
WILLIAM Q. JUDGE,
117, Nassau Street, New York.
THE MANAGER OF THE THEOSOPHIST.
Adyar, Madras.
--1888.

[[Vol. 2, Page iv]]

"Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1888, by H. P. Blavatsky,
in the Office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington, D.C."

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The Secret Doctrine by H. P. Blavatsky, Vol 2, Contents

[[Vol. 2, Page v]]

This Work
I Dedicate to all True Theosophists,
In every Country,
And of every Race,
For they called it forth, and for them it was recorded.

[[Vol. 2, Page vii]]

TABLE OF CONTENTS.
[[Contents of Volume 1, Secret Doctrine Homepage]]
------VOLUME SECOND.

PRELIMINARY NOTES.
On the Archaic Stanzas, and the Four Prehistoric Continents ... 1
The Imperishable Sacred Land ... 6
The Hyperborean ... 7
Lemuria ... 7
Atlantis ... 8
The Tropics at the Pole ... 11
BOOK II. -- PART I.
ANTHROPOGENESIS.

STANZAS FROM THE BOOK OF DZYAN . . . 15
------THE BEGINNINGS OF SENTIENT LIVE ... 22
Man, the Third Logos ... 25

The Celestial Governors of Humanity ... 29
Parent Stars and Sister Planets ... 33
Three Kinds of Light ... 35
The Numbers of Creation ... 39
The First War in Heaven ... 45

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------TWO ANTEDILUVIAN ASTRONOMERS ... 47
------STANZA II. -- NATURE UNAIDED FAILS ... 52
The Monsters of Chaos ... 53

The "Double Dragon" ... 57

Who are the Flames? ... 63

[[Vol. 2, Page]] viii CONTENTS.

THE CHRONOLOGY OF THE BRAHMINS ... 66
The Race that never dies ... 67
Cosmogony, an intelligent plan ... 73
------STANZA III. -- ATTEMPTS TO CREATE MAN ... 75
The various classes of Creators ... 77

Man, a god in animal form ... 81
"Fires," "Sparks," and "Flames" ... 83
------STANZA IV. -- CREATION OF THE FIRST RACES ... 86
Pitris of the Gods and Demons ... 89

What Prometheus symbolized ... 95
The Hammer of Thor ... 99
The Divine Rebels ... 103
Man's Father, the Sun ... 105
------STANZA V. -- THE EVOLUTION OF THE SECOND RACE ... 109

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The Secret Work of Chiram ... 113
The outgrowth of Races ... 117
Leda, Castor, and Pollux ... 121
Jah-Hovah Androgynous ... 125
The Jewish God-name ... 127
------STANZA VI. -- THE EVOLUTION OF THE SWEAT-BORN ... 131
Bi-sexual reproduction ... 133

The Virgin Third Race ... 135
A Few Words about Deluges and Noahs ... 138
Various Deluges ... 141
The Arkite Symbols ... 143
Could Men Exist 18,000,000 Years ago? ... 148
Spontaneous Generation ... 151
The Solar System in the Puranas ... 155
Oceans of Carbonic Acid? ... 159
------STANZA VII. -- FROM THE SEMI-DIVINE DOWN TO THE FIRST HUMAN RACES ... 161
Monads and Rounds ... 167

A Suggestive Explanation ... 171

[[Vol. 2, Page]] ix CONTENTS.

A Saint -- Hypnotised ... 175
Sweat-born and Androgynes ... 177
------STANZA VIII. -- EVOLUTION OF THE ANIMAL MAMMALIANS -- THE FIRST ... 180
Archaic Zoology ... 183

The Sin of the Mindless Men ... 185
------WHAT MAY BE THE OBJECTIONS TO THE FOREGOING ... 185
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The Secret Doctrine by H. P. Blavatsky, Vol 2, Contents

------STANZA IX. -- THE FINAL EVOLUTION OF MAN ... 191
The Hairy Men of China ... 195

The Separation of Sexes ... 197
Primeval Language ... 199
------EDENS, SERPENTS AND DRAGONS ... 202
The Garden of Eden a College ... 203

Flying Camels ... 205
Two Schools of Magic ... 211
The Flying Dragons ... 219
------THE SONS OF GOD AND THE SACRED ISLAND ... 220
The Magicians of Atlantis ... 223

------STANZA X. -- THE HISTORY OF THE FOURTH RACE ... 227
The Mysteries among the Mayas ... 229

Satanic Myths ... 233
Mahasura and Satan ... 237
Man, the pale shadow of God ... 243
The curse of Vasishta ... 247
------ARCHAIC TEACHINGS IN THE PURANAS AND GENESIS ... 251
From worm to man ... 255

Identity of Human and Animal embryos ... 259
------A PANORAMIC VIEW OF THE EARLY RACES ... 263
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The Secret Doctrine by H. P. Blavatsky, Vol 2, Contents

The Natural "Fall" ... 267
The Symbolism of Kronos ... 269

[[Vol. 2, Page]] x CONTENTS.

STANZA X. -- Continued ... 271
The Golden Age ... 273
No Devils outside Humanity ... 275
------ARE GIANTS A FICTION? ... 277
The Seven Virgin Youths ... 281

The Tibetan Lilith ... 285
The Races of Men not all Human ... 287
------THE RACES WITH THE "THIRD EYE" ... 289
Occult Physiology ... 295

The Evolution of the Eye ... 299
The Third Eye is now a Gland ... 301
------THE PRIMEVAL MANUS OF HUMANITY ... 307
The Four Earlier Races ... 311

The Esoteric Meaning of " /Fish" ... 313
------STANZA XI. -- THE CIVILIZATION AND DESTRUCTION OF THE FOURTH AND FIFTH
RACES ... 316

Degeneration of Mankind ... 319
Atlantis now Ocean Floor ... 325
Changes of Climate ... 329
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How to Read Symbols ... 335
The Antediluvian Buddhas ... 339
------CYCLOPEAN RUINS AND COLOSSAL STONES AS WITNESSES TO GIANTS ... 341
Living, Speaking, and Moving Stones ... 345

It takes a God to become a Man ... 349
------STANZA XII. -- THE FIFTH RACE AND ITS DIVINE INSTRUCTORS ... 351
The Astronomical Dragon ... 353

Serpents and Dragons under different Symbolisms ... 355
The Sidereal and Cosmic Glyphs ... 357
Our Divine Instructors ... 365
The Origin of the Satanic Myth ... 378
Noah was a Kabir, hence he must have been a Demon ... 390

[[Vol. 2, Page]] xi CONTENTS.

The oldest Persian Traditions about the Polar, and the Submerged Continents ... 393
Western Speculations founded on the Greek and Puranic Traditions ... 402
The "Curse" from a Philosophical point of view ... 409
------ADDITIONAL FRAGMENTS FROM A COMMENTARY ON THE VERSES OF STANZA XII. ...
423

The Oldest Records about Atlantis ... 425
The Doom of Atlantis ... 427
The Races, Sub-Races, and Family Races ... 434
-------CONCLUSION ... 437
-------

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The Secret Doctrine by H. P. Blavatsky, Vol 2, Contents

BOOK II. -- PART II.
THE ARCHAIC SYMBOLISM OF THE WORLD-RELIGIONS.

ESOTERIC TENETS CORROBORATED IN EVERY SCRIPTURE ... 449
------ XVI. ADAM-ADAMI ... 452
The Cabalistic Four Adams ... 457

------XVII. THE "HOLY OF HOLIES": ITS DEGRADATION ... 459
Christian Symbolism ... 463

The "Four-faced" Brahma ... 465
The Old and the New Jehovah ... 469
------XVIII. ON THE MYTH OF THE "FALLEN ANGEL," IN ITS VARIOUS ASPECTS ... 475
The Evil Spirit: Who and What? ... 475

The Gods of Light proceed from the Gods of Darkness ... 483
The many meanings of the "War in Heaven" ... 492
------XIX. IS PLEROMA SATAN'S LAIR? ... 506
Jehovah's Personating Spirit ... 509

The Mysterium Magnum ... 512
The Logos and Satan are One ... 515

[[Vol. 2, Page]] xii CONTENTS.

XX. PROMETHEUS THE TITAN ... 519
His Origin in Ancient India ... 519
The Boon he Gives ... 523

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------XXI. ENOICHION-HENOCH ... 529
------XXII. THE SYMBOLISM OF THE MYSTERY NAMES IAO AND JEHOVAH ... 536
Cross and Circle ... 545

The Fall of the Cross into Matter ... 553

------XXIII. THE UPANISHADS IN GNOSTIC LITERATURE ... 563
When Time be no longer ... 565

The Divine Self's Wisdom ... 566
------XXIV. THE CROSS AND THE PYTHAGOREAN DECADE ... 573
Poseidon's Five Ministers ... 577

The Mystery of the Number Six ... 583
The Cross and Christian After-thought ... 587
------XXV. THE MYSTERIES OF THE HEBDOMAD ... 590

Saptaparna ... 590
The Tetraktis in relation to the Heptagon ... 598
The Septenary Element in the Vedas ... 605
The Septenary in the Exoteric Works ... 611
Seven in Astronomy, Science and Magic ... 618
The Seven Souls of the Egyptologists ... 630
--------------------BOOK II. -- PART III.
ADDENDA.


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SCIENCE AND THE SECRET DOCTRINE CONTRASTED.


I. ARCHAIC, OR MODERN ANTHROPOLOGY? ... 645
The Occult and the Modern Doctrines ... 649
Science is Silent on every Problem ... 653

[[Vol. 2, Page]] xiii CONTENTS.

II. THE ANCESTORS MANKIND IS OFFERED BY SCIENCE ... 656
Various Modes of Reproduction ... 659
A Pithecoid Man Wanted ... 669
Plastidular Souls and Conscious Nerve-Cells ... 670
The atoms of our "Father-Bathybius" ... 674
------III. THE FOSSIL RELICS OF MAN AND THE ANTHROPOID APE ... 675
Insurmountable difficulties for the Darwinians ... 677

The Argument of "Rudimentary Organs" ... 683
"Epitomized History" in the Foetus ... 684
The Evidence of Skulls ... 687
------------IV. DURATION OF THE GEOLOGICAL PERIODS, RACE CYCLES, AND THE ANTIQUITY OF
MAN ... 690

Sayce's Sketch of Chronology ... 691

(a) Speculations on the Age of the Globe ... 694

The Adept-Astronomer ... 698
(b) On Chains of Planets and their Plurality ... 699
States of Consciousness ... 701
Worlds mentioned in the Bible ... 703
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(c) Esoteric Geological Chronology ... 709
Parallelism of Life ... 711
The Two Sciences contrasted ... 713
The Paleolithic Landseer ... 721
Astral Man -- the Solution ... 728
The Kabalists and Science ... 730
------V. ORGANIC EVOLUTION AND CREATIVE CENTRES ... 731
Dhyan Chohans and these Centres ... 732

(a) Origin and Evolution of the Mammalia ... 734
(b) The European Paleolithic Races -- whence and how distributed ... 738

[[Vol. 2, Page]] xiv CONTENTS.

VI. GIANTS, CIVILIZATIONS, AND SUBMERGED CONTINENTS TRACED IN HISTORY ...
742
A Mysterious Nation ... 743
The Seven Sabbaths ... 747
"Revelation" and the "Secret Doctrine" ... 748
Druidic Stones ... 752
Races of Giants ... 755
Mazdean "Seven Earths" ... 759
(a) Statements about the Sacred Islands ... 760
The Heirloom of Atlantis ... 763
The God-bearing Land ... 765
The Power of Names ... 767
The Sons of Coelus and Terra ... 769
Southern and Northern Atlantis ... 770
Niobe and her Children ... 771
The Cycles of Time ... 773
The Titans in Prison ... 776
-------

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VII. SCIENTIFIC AND GEOLOGICAL PROOFS OF THE EXISTENCE OF SEVERAL
SUBMERGED CONTINENTS ... 778
Corroborations of Occultism by Geology ... 779
Evidence of the Flora ... 781
Atlantis necessary to Ethnology ... 783
Astraea falls on her Head ... 785
Communication between South-Sea Islands ... 788
Evidence of Language ... 790
Ragon explains Masonic Symbols ... 795
The End a fitting prelude to Truth ... 798
------Index (prepared by John P. Van Mater)
[[Contents, Volume 1]]


Homepage

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The Secret Doctrine by H. P. Blavatsky -- Vol. 1

Theosophical University Press Online Edition

[[Vol. 1, Page xvii]]

INTRODUCTORY.
------"Gently to hear, kindly to judge."
-- SHAKESPEARE.

SINCE the appearance of Theosophical literature in England, it has become customary to call its
teachings "Esoteric Buddhism." And, having become a habit -- as an old proverb based on daily
experience has it -- "Error runs down an inclined plane, while Truth has to laboriously climb its way up
hill."
Old truisms are often the wisest. The human mind can hardly remain entirely free from bias, and
decisive opinions are often formed before a thorough examination of a subject from all its aspects has
been made. This is said with reference to the prevailing double mistake (a) of limiting Theosophy to
Buddhism: and (b) of confounding the tenets of the religious philosophy preached by Gautama, the
Buddha, with the doctrines broadly outlined in "Esoteric Buddhism." Any thing more erroneous than
this could be hardly imagined. It has enabled our enemies to find an effective weapon against
theosophy; because, as an eminent Pali scholar very pointedly expressed it, there was in the volume
named "neither esotericism nor Buddhism." The esoteric truths, presented in Mr. Sinnett's work, had
ceased to be esoteric from the moment they were made public; nor did it contain the religion of
Buddha, but simply a few tenets from a hitherto hidden teaching which are now supplemented by
many more, enlarged and explained in the present volumes. But even the latter, though giving out
many fundamental tenets from the SECRET DOCTRINE of the East, raise but a small corner of the
dark veil. For no one, not even the greatest living adept, would be permitted to, or could -- even if he
would -- give out promiscuously, to a mocking, unbelieving world, that which has been so effectually
concealed from it for long aeons and ages.
"Esoteric Buddhism" was an excellent work with a very unfortunate

[[Vol. 1, Page]] xviii INTRODUCTORY.

title, though it meant no more than does the title of this work, the "SECRET DOCTRINE." It proved
unfortunate, because people are always in the habit of judging things by their appearance, rather than
their meaning; and because the error has now become so universal, that even most of the Fellows of

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the Theosophical Society have fallen victims to the same misconception. From the first, however,
protests were raised by Brahmins and others against the title; and, in justice to myself, I must add that
"Esoteric Buddhism" was presented to me as a completed volume, and that I was entirely unaware of
the manner in which the author intended to spell the word "Budh-ism."
This has to be laid directly at the door of those who, having been the first to bring the subject under
public notice, neglected to point out the difference between "Buddhism" -- the religious system of
ethics preached by the Lord Gautama, and named after his title of Buddha, "the Enlightened" -- and
Budha, "Wisdom," or knowledge (Vidya), the faculty of cognizing, from the Sanskrit root "Budh," to
know. We theosophists of India are ourselves the real culprits, although, at the time, we did our best to
correct the mistake. (See Theosophist, June, 1883.) To avoid this deplorable misnomer was easy; the
spelling of the word had only to be altered, and by common consent both pronounced and written
"Budhism," instead of "Buddhism." Nor is the latter term correctly spelt and pronounced, as it ought to
be called, in English, Buddhaism, and its votaries "Buddhaists."
This explanation is absolutely necessary at the beginning of a work like this one. The "Wisdom
Religion" is the inheritance of all the nations, the world over, though the statement was made in
"Esoteric Buddhism" (Preface to the original Edition) that "two years ago (i.e. 1883), neither I nor any
other European living, knew the alphabet of the Science, here for the first time put into a scientific
shape," etc. This error must have crept in through inadvertence. For the present writer knew all that
which is "divulged" in "Esoteric Buddhism" -- and much more -- many years before it became her duty
(in 1880) to impart a small portion of the Secret Doctrine to two European gentlemen, one of whom
was the author of "Esoteric Buddhism"; and surely the present writer has the undoubted, though to her,
rather equivocal, privilege of being a European, by birth and education. Moreover, a considerable part
of the philosophy

[[Vol. 1, Page]] xix INTRODUCTORY.

expounded by Mr. Sinnett was taught in America, even before Isis Unveiled was published, to two
Europeans and to my colleague, Colonel H. S. Olcott. Of the three teachers the latter gentleman has
had, the first was a Hungarian Initiate, the second an Egyptian, the third a Hindu. As permitted,
Colonel Olcott has given out some of this teaching in various ways; if the other two have not, it has
been simply because they were not allowed: their time for public work having not yet come. But for
others it has, and the appearance of Mr. Sinnett's several interesting books is a visible proof of the fact.
It is above everything important to keep in mind that no theosophical book acquires the least additional
value from pretended authority.
In etymology Adi, and Adhi Budha, the one (or the First) and "Supreme Wisdom" is a term used by
Aryasanga in his Secret treatises, and now by all the mystic Northern Buddhists. It is a Sanskrit term,
and an appellation given by the earliest Aryans to the Unknown deity; the word "Brahma" not being
found in the Vedas and the early works. It means the absolute Wisdom, and "Adi-bhuta" is translated
"the primeval uncreated cause of all" by Fitzedward Hall. AEons of untold duration must have elapsed,
before the epithet of Buddha was so humanized, so to speak, as to allow of the term being applied to
mortals and finally appropriated to one whose unparalleled virtues and knowledge caused him to
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receive the title of the "Buddha of Wisdom unmoved." Bodha means the innate possession of divine
intellect or "understanding"; "Buddha," the acquirement of it by personal efforts and merit; while
Buddhi is the faculty of cognizing the channel through which divine knowledge reaches the "Ego," the
discernment of good and evil, "divine conscience" also; and "Spiritual Soul," which is the vehicle of
Atma. "When Buddhi absorbs our EGOtism (destroys it) with all its Vikaras, Avalokiteshvara becomes
manifested to us, and Nirvana, or Mukti, is reached," "Mukti" being the same as Nirvana, i.e., freedom
from the trammels of "Maya" or illusion. "Bodhi" is likewise the name of a particular state of trance
condition, called Samadhi, during which the subject reaches the culmination of spiritual knowledge.
Unwise are those who, in their blind and, in our age, untimely hatred of Buddhism, and, by re-action,
of "Budhism," deny its esoteric teachings (which are those also of the Brahmins), simply because the
name

[[Vol. 1, Page]] xx INTRODUCTORY.

suggests what to them, as Monotheists, are noxious doctrines. Unwise is the correct term to use in their
case. For the Esoteric philosophy is alone calculated to withstand, in this age of crass and illogical
materialism, the repeated attacks on all and everything man holds most dear and sacred, in his inner
spiritual life. The true philosopher, the student of the Esoteric Wisdom, entirely loses sight of
personalities, dogmatic beliefs and special religions. Moreover, Esoteric philosophy reconciles all
religions, strips every one of its outward, human garments, and shows the root of each to be identical
with that of every other great religion. It proves the necessity of an absolute Divine Principle in nature.
It denies Deity no more than it does the Sun. Esoteric philosophy has never rejected God in Nature, nor
Deity as the absolute and abstract Ens. It only refuses to accept any of the gods of the so-called
monotheistic religions, gods created by man in his own image and likeness, a blasphemous and sorry
caricature of the Ever Unknowable. Furthermore, the records we mean to place before the reader
embrace the esoteric tenets of the whole world since the beginning of our humanity, and Buddhistic
occultism occupies therein only its legitimate place, and no more. Indeed, the secret portions of the
"Dan" or Jan-na"* ("Dhyan") of Gautama's metaphysics -- grand as they appear to one unacquainted
with the tenets of the Wisdom Religion of antiquity -- are but a very small portion of the whole. The
Hindu Reformer limited his public teachings to the purely moral and physiological aspect of the
Wisdom Religion, to Ethics and MAN alone. Things "unseen and incorporeal," the mystery of Being
outside our terrestrial sphere, the great Teacher left entirely untouched in his public lectures, reserving
the hidden Truths for a select circle of his Arhats. The latter received their Initiation at the famous
Saptaparna cave (the Sattapanni of Mahavansa) near Mount Baibhar (the Webhara of the Pali MSS.).
This cave was in Rajagriha, the ancient capital of Mogadha, and was the Cheta cave of Fa-hian, as
rightly suspected by some archaeologists.**
Time and human imagination made short work of the purity and philo[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* Dan, now become in modern Chinese and Tibetan phonetics ch'an, is the general term for the

esoteric schools, and their literature. In the old books, the word Janna is defined as "to reform one's self

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by meditation and knowledge," a second inner birth. Hence Dzan, Djan phonetically, the "Book of

Dzyan."

** Mr. Beglor, the chief engineer at Buddhagaya, and a distinguished archaeologist, was the first, we

believe, to discover it.


[[Vol. 1, Page]] xxi INTRODUCTORY.


sophy of these teachings, once that they were transplanted from the secret and sacred circle of the
Arhats, during the course of their work of proselytism, into a soil less prepared for metaphysical
conceptions than India; i.e., once they were transferred into China, Japan, Siam, and Burmah. How the
pristine purity of these grand revelations was dealt with may be seen in studying some of the so-called
"esoteric" Buddhist schools of antiquity in their modern garb, not only in China and other Buddhist
countries in general, but even in not a few schools in Thibet, left to the care of uninitiated Lamas and
Mongolian innovators.
Thus the reader is asked to bear in mind the very important difference between orthodox Buddhism -i.e., the public teachings of Gautama the Buddha, and his esoteric Budhism. His Secret Doctrine,
however, differed in no wise from that of the initiated Brahmins of his day. The Buddha was a child of
the Aryan soil; a born Hindu, a Kshatrya and a disciple of the "twice born" (the initiated Brahmins) or
Dwijas. His teachings, therefore, could not be different from their doctrines, for the whole Buddhist
reform merely consisted in giving out a portion of that which had been kept secret from every man
outside of the "enchanted" circle of Temple-Initiates and ascetics. Unable to teach all that had been
imparted to him -- owing to his pledges -- though he taught a philosophy built upon the ground-work
of the true esoteric knowledge, the Buddha gave to the world only its outward material body and kept
its soul for his Elect. (See also Volume II.) Many Chinese scholars among Orientalists have heard of
the "Soul Doctrine." None seem to have understood its real meaning and importance.
That doctrine was preserved secretly -- too secretly, perhaps -- within the sanctuary. The mystery that
shrouded its chief dogma and aspirations -- Nirvana -- has so tried and irritated the curiosity of those
scholars who have studied it, that, unable to solve it logically and satisfactorily by untying the Gordian
knot, they cut it through, by declaring that Nirvana meant absolute annihilation.
Toward the end of the first quarter of this century, a distinct class of literature appeared in the world,
which became with every year more defined in its tendency. Being based, soi-disant, on the scholarly
researches of Sanskritists and Orientalists in general, it was held scientific. Hindu, Egyptian, and other
ancient religions, myths, and emblems were made to yield anything the symbologist wanted them to

[[Vol. 1, Page]] xxii INTRODUCTORY.

yield, thus often giving out the rude outward form in place of the inner meaning. Works, most
remarkable for their ingenious deductions and speculations, in circulo vicioso, foregone conclusions
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generally changing places with premisses as in the syllogisms of more than one Sanskrit and Pali
scholar, appeared rapidly in succession, over-flooding the libraries with dissertations rather on phallic
and sexual worship than on real symbology, and each contradicting the other.
This is the true reason, perhaps, why the outline of a few fundamental truths from the Secret Doctrine
of the Archaic ages is now permitted to see the light, after long millenniums of the most profound
silence and secrecy. I say "a few truths," advisedly, because that which must remain unsaid could not
be contained in a hundred such volumes, nor could it be imparted to the present generation of
Sadducees. But, even the little that is now given is better than complete silence upon those vital truths.
The world of to-day, in its mad career towards the unknown -- which it is too ready to confound with
the unknowable, whenever the problem eludes the grasp of the physicist -- is rapidly progressing on
the reverse, material plane of spirituality. It has now become a vast arena -- a true valley of discord and
of eternal strife -- a necropolis, wherein lie buried the highest and the most holy aspirations of our
Spirit-Soul. That soul becomes with every new generation more paralyzed and atrophied. The "amiable
infidels and accomplished profligates" of Society, spoken of by Greeley, care little for the revival of
the dead sciences of the past; but there is a fair minority of earnest students who are entitled to learn
the few truths that may be given to them now; and now much more than ten years ago, when "Isis
Unveiled," or even the later attempts to explain the mysteries of esoteric science, were published.
One of the greatest, and, withal, the most serious objection to the correctness and reliability of the
whole work will be the preliminary STANZAS: "How can the statements contained in them be
verified?" True, if a great portion of the Sanskrit, Chinese, and Mongolian works quoted in the present
volumes are known to some Orientalists, the chief work -- that one from which the Stanzas are given -is not in the possession of European Libraries. The Book of Dzyan (or "Dzan") is utterly unknown to
our Philologists, or at any rate was never heard of by them under its present name. This is, of course, a
great drawback

[[Vol. 1, Page]] xxiii INTRODUCTORY.

to those who follow the methods of research prescribed by official Science; but to the students of
Occultism, and to every genuine Occultist, this will be of little moment. The main body of the
Doctrines given is found scattered throughout hundreds and thousands of Sanskrit MSS., some already
translated -- disfigured in their interpretations, as usual, -- others still awaiting their turn. Every
scholar, therefore, has an opportunity of verifying the statements herein made, and of checking most of
the quotations. A few new facts (new to the profane Orientalist, only) and passages quoted from the
Commentaries will be found difficult to trace. Several of the teachings, also, have hitherto been
transmitted orally: yet even those are in every instance hinted at in the almost countless volumes of
Brahminical, Chinese and Tibetan temple-literature.
However it may be, and whatsoever is in store for the writer through malevolent criticism, one fact is
quite certain. The members of several esoteric schools -- the seat of which is beyond the Himalayas,
and whose ramifications may be found in China, Japan, India, Tibet, and even in Syria, besides South
America -- claim to have in their possession the sum total of sacred and philosophical works in MSS.
and type: all the works, in fact, that have ever been written, in whatever language or characters, since
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the art of writing began; from the ideographic hieroglyphs down to the alphabet of Cadmus and the
Devanagari.
It has been claimed in all ages that ever since the destruction of the Alexandrian Library (see Isis
Unveiled, Vol. II., p. 27), every work of a character that might have led the profane to the ultimate
discovery and comprehension of some of the mysteries of the Secret Science, was, owing to the
combined efforts of the members of the Brotherhoods, diligently searched for. It is added, moreover,
by those who know, that once found, save three copies left and stored safely away, such works were all
destroyed. In India, the last of the precious manuscripts were secured and hidden during the reign of
the Emperor Akbar.*
It is maintained, furthermore, that every sacred book of that kind, whose text was not sufficiently
veiled in symbolism, or which had any
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* Prof. Max Muller shows that no bribes or threats of Akbar could extort from the Brahmans the

original text of the Veda; and boasts that European Orientalists have it (Lecture on the "Science of

Religion," p. 23). Whether Europe has the complete text is very doubtful, and the future may have very

disagreeable surprises in store for the Orientalists.


[[Vol. 1, Page]] xxiv INTRODUCTORY.


direct references to the ancient mysteries, after having been carefully copied in cryptographic

characters, such as to defy the art of the best and cleverest palaeographer, was also destroyed to the last

copy. During Akbar's reign, some fanatical courtiers, displeased at the Emperor's sinful prying into the

religions of the infidels, themselves helped the Brahmans to conceal their MSS. Such was Badaoni,

who had an undisguised horror for Akbar's mania for idolatrous religions.*

Moreover in all the large and wealthy lamasaries, there are subterranean crypts and cave-libraries, cut

in the rock, whenever the gonpa and the lhakhang are situated in the mountains. Beyond the Western

Tsay-dam, in the solitary passes of Kuen-lun** there are several such hiding places. Along the ridge of
Altyn-Toga, whose soil no European foot has ever trodden so far, there exists a certain hamlet, lost in a
deep gorge. It is a small cluster of houses, a hamlet rather than a monastery, with a poor-looking
temple in it, with one old lama, a hermit, living near by to watch it. Pilgrims say that the subterranean
galleries and halls under it contain a collection of books, the number of which, according to the
accounts given, is too large to find room even in the British Museum.***
All this is very likely to provoke a smile of doubt. But then, before
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* Badaoni wrote in his Muntakhab at Tawarikh: "His Majesty relished inquiries into the sects of these

infidels (who cannot be counted, so numerous they are, and who have no end of revealed books) . . .

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As they (the Sramana and Brahmins) surpass other learned men in their treatises on morals, on

physical and religious sciences, and reach a high degree in their knowledge of the future, in spiritual

power, and human perfection, they brought proofs based on reason and testimony, and inculcated their

doctrines so firmly that no man could now raise a doubt in his Majesty even if mountains were to

crumble to dust, or the heavens were to tear asunder." This work "was kept secret, and was not

published till the reign of Jahangir." (Ain i Akbari, translated by Dr. Blochmann, p. 104, note.)

** Karakorum mountains, Western Tibet.

*** According to the same tradition the now desolate regions of the waterless land of Tarim -- a true
wilderness in the heart of Turkestan -- were in the days of old covered with flourishing and wealthy
cities. At present, hardly a few verdant oases relieve its dead solitude. One such, sprung on the
sepulchre of a vast city swallowed by and buried under the sandy soil of the desert, belongs to no one,
but is often visited by Mongolians and Buddhists. The same tradition speaks of immense subterranean
abodes, of large corridors filled with tiles and cylinders. It may be an idle rumour, and it may be an
actual fact.

[[Vol. 1, Page]] xxv INTRODUCTORY.

the reader rejects the truthfulness of the reports, let him pause and reflect over the following well
known facts. The collective researches of the Orientalists, and especially the labours of late years of
the students of comparative Philology and the Science of Religions have led them to ascertain as
follows: An immense, incalculable number of MSS., and even printed works known to have existed,
are now to be found no more. They have disappeared without leaving the slightest trace behind them.
Were they works of no importance they might, in the natural course of time, have been left to perish,
and their very names would have been obliterated from human memory. But it is not so; for, as now
ascertained, most of them contained the true keys to works still extant, and entirely incomprehensible,
for the greater portion of their readers, without those additional volumes of Commentaries and
explanations. Such are, for instance, the works of Lao-tse, the predecessor of Confucius.*
He is said to have written 930 books on Ethics and religions, and seventy on magic, one thousand in
all. His great work, however, the heart of his doctrine, the "Tao-te-King," or the sacred scriptures of
the Taosse, has in it, as Stanislas Julien shows, only "about 5,000 words" (Tao-te-King, p. xxvii.),
hardly a dozen of pages, yet Professor Max Muller finds that "the text is unintelligible without
commentaries, so that Mr. Julien had to consult more than sixty commentators for the purpose of his
translation," the earliest going back as far as the year 163 B.C., not earlier, as we see. During the four
centuries and a half that preceded this earliest of the commentators there was ample time to veil the
true Lao-tse doctrine from all but his initiated priests. The Japanese, among whom are now to be found
the most learned of the priests and followers of Lao-tse, simply laugh at the blunders and hypotheses of
the European Chinese scholars; and tradition affirms that the commentaries to which our Western
Sinologues have access are not the real occult records, but intentional veils, and that the true
commentaries, as well as almost all the texts, have long since disappeared from the eyes of the
profane.

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[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* "If we turn to China, we find that the religion of Confucius is founded on the Five King and the Four

Shu-books, in themselves of considerable extent and surrounded by voluminous Commentaries,

without which even the most learned scholars would not venture to fathom the depth of their sacred

canon." (Lectures on the "Science of Religion," p. 185. Max Muller.) But they have not fathomed it -and this is the complaint of the Confucianists, as a very learned member of that body, in Paris,

complained in 1881.


[[Vol. 1, Page]] xxvi INTRODUCTORY.


If one turns to the ancient literature of the Semitic religions, to the Chaldean Scriptures, the elder sister

and instructress, if not the fountain-head of the Mosaic Bible, the basis and starting-point of

Christianity, what do the scholars find? To perpetuate the memory of the ancient religions of Babylon;

to record the vast cycle of astronomical observations of the Chaldean Magi; to justify the tradition of

their splendid and eminently occult literature, what now remains? -- only a few fragments, said to be

by Berosus.

These, however, are almost valueless, even as a clue to the character of what has disappeared. For they
passed through the hands of his Reverence the Bishop of Caesarea -- that self-constituted censor and
editor of the sacred records of other men's religions -- and they doubtless bear to this day the mark of
his eminently veracious and trustworthy hand. For what is the history of this treatise on the once grand
religion of Babylon?
Written in Greek by Berosus, a priest of the temple of Belus, for Alexander the Great, from the
astronomical and chronological records preserved by the priests of that temple, and covering a period
of 200,000 years, it is now lost. In the first century B.C. Alexander Polyhistor made a series of extracts
from it -- also lost. Eusebius used these extracts in writing his Chronicon (270-340 A.D.). The points
of resemblance -- almost of identity -- between the Jewish and the Chaldean Scriptures,* made the
latter most dangerous to Eusebius, in his role of defender and champion of the new faith which had
adopted the Jewish Scriptures, and with them an absurd chronology. It is pretty certain that Eusebius
did not spare the Egyptian Synchronistic tables of Manetho -- so much so that Bunsen** charges him
with mutilating history most unscrupulously. And Socrates, a historian of the fifth century, and
Syncellus, vice-patriarch of Constantinople (eighth century), both denounce him as the most daring
and desperate forger.
Is it likely, then, that he dealt more tenderly with the Chaldean records, which were already menacing
the new religion, so rashly accepted?
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* Found out and proven only now, through the discoveries made by George Smith (vide his "Chaldean

account of Genesis"), and which, thanks to this Armenian forger, have misled all the civilized nations

for over 1,500 years into accepting Jewish derivations for direct Divine Revelation!

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** Bunsen's "Egypt's Place in History," vol. i. p. 200


[[Vol. 1, Page]] xxvii INTRODUCTORY.


So that, with the exception of these more than doubtful fragments, the entire Chaldean sacred literature

has disappeared from the eyes of the profane as completely as the lost Atlantis. A few facts that were

contained in the Berosian History are given in Part II. of Vol. II., and may throw a great light on the
true origin of the Fallen Angels, personified by Bel and the Dragon.
Turning now to the oldest Aryan literature, the Rig-Veda, the student will find, following strictly in
this the data furnished by the said Orientalists themselves, that, although the Rig-Veda contains only
"about 10,580 verses, or 1,028 hymns," in spite of the Brahmanas and the mass of glosses and
commentaries, it is not understood correctly to this day. Why is this so? Evidently because the
Brahmanas, "the scholastic and oldest treatises on the primitive hymns," themselves require a key,
which the Orientalists have failed to secure.
What do the scholars say of Buddhist literature? Have they got it in its completeness? Assuredly not.
Notwithstanding the 325 volumes of the Kanjur and the Tanjur of the Northern Buddhists, each
volume we are told, "weighing from four to five pounds," nothing, in truth, is known of Lamaism. Yet,
the sacred canon of the Southern Church is said to contain 29,368,000 letters in the Saddharma
alankara,* or, exclusive of treatises and commentaries, "five or six times the amount of the matter
contained in the Bible," the latter, in the words of Professor Max Muller, rejoicing only in 3,567,180
letters. Notwithstanding, then, these "325 volumes" (in reality there are 333, Kanjur comprising 108,
and Tanjur 225 volumes), "the translators, instead of supplying us with correct versions, have
interwoven them with their own commentaries, for the purpose of justifying the dogmas of their
several schools."** Moreover, "according to a tradition preserved by the Buddhist schools, both of the
South and of the North, the sacred Buddhist Canon comprised originally 80,000 or 84,000 tracts, but
most of them were lost, so that there remained but 6,000," the professor tells his audiences. "Lost" as
usual for Europeans. But who can be quite sure that they are likewise lost for Buddhists and Brahmins?
Considering the sacredness for the Buddhists of every line written
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* Spence Hardy, "The Legends and Theories of the Buddhists," p. 66.

** "Buddhism in Tibet," p. 78.


[[Vol. 1, Page]] xxviii INTRODUCTORY.


upon Buddha or his "Good Law," the loss of nearly 76,000 tracts does seem miraculous. Had it been

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vice versa, every one acquainted with the natural course of events would subscribe to the statement

that, of these 76,000, five or six thousand treatises might have been destroyed during the persecutions

in, and emigrations from, India. But as it is well ascertained that Buddhist Arhats began their religious

exodus, for the purpose of propagating the new faith beyond Kashmir and the Himalayas, as early as
the year 300 before our era,* and reached China in the year 61 A.D.** when Kashyapa, at the
invitation of the Emperor Ming-ti, went there to acquaint the "Son of Heaven" with the tenets of
Buddhism, it does seem strange to hear the Orientalists speaking of such a loss as though it were really
possible. They do not seem to allow for one moment the possibility that the texts may be lost only for
West and for themselves; or, that the Asiatic people should have the unparalleled boldness to keep their
most sacred records out of the reach of foreigners, thus refusing to deliver them to the profanation and
misuse of races even so "vastly superior" to themselves.
Owing to the expressed regrets and numerous confessions of almost every one of the Orientalists (See
Max Muller's Lectures for example) the public may feel sufficiently sure (a) that the students of
ancient religions have indeed very few data upon which to build such final conclusions as they
generally do about the old religions, and (b) that such lack of data does not prevent them in the least
from dogmatising. One would imagine that, thanks to the numerous records of the Egyptian theogony
and mysteries preserved in the classics, and in a number of ancient writers, the rites and dogmas of
Pharaonic Egypt ought to be well understood at least; better, at any rate, than the too abstruse
philosophies and Pantheism of India, of whose religion and language Europe had hardly any idea
before the beginning of the present century. Along the Nile and on the face of the whole country, there
stand to this hour, exhumed yearly and daily, fresh relics which eloquently tell their own history. Still
it is not so. The learned Oxford philologist himself confesses the truth by saying that "Though . . . we
see still standing the Pyramids, and the ruins of temples and labyrinths, their walls
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* Lassen, ("Ind. Althersumkunde" Vol. II, p. 1,072) shows a Buddhist monastery erected in the Kailas

range in 137 B.C.; and General Cunningham, earlier than that.

** Reverend T. Edkins, "Chinese Buddhism."


[[Vol. 1, Page]] xxix INTRODUCTORY.


covered with hieroglyphic inscriptions, and with the strange pictures of gods and goddesses. . . . . . . .

On rolls of papyrus, which seem to defy the ravages of time, we have even fragments of what may be

called the sacred books of the Egyptians; yet, though much has been deciphered in the ancient records

of that mysterious race, the mainspring of the religion of Egypt and the original intention of its

ceremonial worship are far from being fully disclosed to us."* Here again the mysterious hieroglyphic

documents remain, but the keys by which alone they become intelligible have disappeared.

Nevertheless, having found that "there is a natural connection between language and religion"; and,

secondly, that there was a common Aryan religion before the separation of the Aryan race; a common

Semitic religion before the separation of the Semitic race; and a common Turanian religion before the
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separation of the Chinese and the other tribes belonging to the Turanian class; having, in fact, only
discovered "three ancient centres of religion" and "three centres of language," and though as entirely
ignorant of those primitive religions and languages, as of their origin, the professor does not hesitate to
declare "that a truly historical basis for a scientific treatment of those principal religions of the world
has been gained!"
A "scientific treatment" of a subject is no guarantee for its "historical basis"; and with such scarcity of
data on hand, no philologist, even among the most eminent, is justified in giving out his own
conclusions for historical facts. No doubt, the eminent Orientalist has proved thoroughly to the world's
satisfaction, that according to Grimm's law of phonetic rules, Odin and Buddha are two different
personages, quite distinct from each other, and he has shown it scientifically. When, however, he takes
the opportunity of saying in the same breath that Odin "was worshipped as the supreme deity during a
period long anterior to the age of the Veda and of Homer" (Compar. Theol., p. 318), he has not the
slightest "historical basis" for it. He makes history and fact subservient to his
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* So little acquainted are our greatest Egyptologists with the funerary rites of the Egyptians and the

outward marks of the difference of sexes made on the mummies, that it has led to the most ludicrous

mistakes. Only a year or two since, one of that kind was discovered at Boulaq, Cairo. The mummy of

what had been considered the wife of an unimportant Pharaoh, has turned out, thanks to an inscription

found on an amulet hung on his neck, to be that of Sesostris -- the greatest King of Egypt!


[[Vol. 1, Page]] xxx INTRODUCTORY.


own conclusions, which may be very "scientific," in the sight of Oriental scholars, but yet very wide of

the mark of actual truth. The conflicting views on the subject of chronology, in the case of the Vedas,

of the various eminent philologists and Orientalists, from Martin Haug down to Mr. Max Muller

himself, are an evident proof that the statement has no historical basis to stand upon, "internal

evidence" being very often a jack-o'lantern, instead of a safe beacon to follow. Nor has the Science of

modern Comparative Mythology any better proof to show, that those learned writers, who have

insisted for the last century or so that there must have been "fragments of a primeval revelation,
granted to the ancestors of the whole race of mankind . . . . preserved in the temples of Greece and
Italy," were entirely wrong. For this is what all the Eastern Initiates and Pundits have been proclaiming
to the world from time to time. While a prominent Cinghalese priest assured the writer that it was well
known that the most important Buddhist tracts belonging to the sacred canon were stored away in
countries and places inaccessible to the European pundits, the late Swami Dayan and Sarasvati, the
greatest Sanskritist of his day in India, assured some members of the Theosophical Society of the same
fact with regard to ancient Brahmanical works. When told that Professor Max Muller had declared to
the audiences of his "Lectures" that the theory . . . . "that there was a primeval preternatural revelation
granted to the fathers of the human race, finds but few supporters at present," -- the holy and learned
man laughed. His answer was suggestive. "If Mr. Moksh Mooller, as he pronounced the name, were a
Brahmin, and came with me, I might take him to a gupta cave (a secret crypt) near Okhee Math, in the
Himalayas, where he would soon find out that what crossed the Kalapani (the black waters of the
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ocean) from India to Europe were only the bits of rejected copies of some passages from our sacred
books. There was a "primeval revelation," and it still exists; nor will it ever be lost to the world, but
will reappear; though the Mlechchhas will of course have to wait."
Questioned further on this point, he would say no more. This was at Meerut, in 1880.
No doubt the mystification played, in the last century at Calcutta, by the Brahmins upon Colonel
Wilford and Sir William Jones was a cruel one. But it had been well deserved, and no one was more to
be blamed

[[Vol. 1, Page]] xxxi INTRODUCTORY.

in that affair than the Missionaries and Colonel Wilford themselves. The former, on the testimony of
Sir William Jones himself (see Asiat. Res., Vol. I., p. 272), were silly enough to maintain that "the
Hindus were even now almost Christians, because their Brahma, Vishnu and Mahesa were no other
than the Christian trinity."* It was a good lesson. It made the Oriental scholars doubly cautious; but
perchance it has also made some of them too shy, and caused, in its reaction, the pendulum of foregone
conclusions to swing too much the other way. For "that first supply on the Brahmanical market," made
for Colonel Wilford, has now created an evident necessity and desire in the Orientalists to declare
nearly every archaic Sanskrit manuscript so modern as to give to the missionaries full justification for
availing themselves of the opportunity. That they do so and to the full extent of their mental powers, is
shown by the absurd attempts of late to prove that the whole Puranic story about Chrishna was
plagiarized by the Brahmins from the Bible! But the facts cited by the Oxford Professor in his Lectures
on the "Science of Religion," concerning the now famous interpolations, for the benefit, and later on to
the sorrow, of Col. Wilford, do not at all interfere with the conclusions to which one who studies the
Secret Doctrine must unavoidably come. For, if the results show that neither the New nor even the Old
Testament borrowed anything from the more ancient religion of the Brahmans and Buddhists, it does
not follow that the Jews have not borrowed all they knew from the Chaldean records, the latter being
mutilated later on by Eusebius. As to the Chaldeans, they assuredly got their primitive learning from
the Brahmans, for Rawlinson shows an undeniably Vedic influence in the early mythology of Babylon;
and Col. Vans Kennedy has long since justly declared that Babylonia was, from her origin, the seat of
Sanskrit and Brahman learning. But all such proofs must lose their value, in the presence of the latest
theory worked out by Prof. Max Muller. What it is everyone knows. The code of phonetic laws has
now become a universal solvent for every identification and "connection" between
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* See Max Muller's "Introduction to the Science of Religion." Lecture On False Analogies in

comparative Theology, pp. 288 and 296 et seq. This relates to the clever forgery (on leaves inserted in

old Puranic MSS.), in correct and archaic Sanskrit, of all that the Pundits of Col. Wilford had heard

from him about Adam and Abraham, Noah and his three sons, etc., etc


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[[Vol. 1, Page]] xxxii INTRODUCTORY.


the gods of many nations. Thus, though the Mother of Mercury (Budha, Thot-Hermes, etc.), was Maia,

the mother of Buddha (Gautama), also Maya, and the mother of Jesus, likewise Maya (illusion, for

Mary is Mare, the Sea, the great illusion symbolically) -- yet these three characters have no
connection, nor can they have any, since Bopp, has "laid down his code of phonetic laws."
In their efforts to collect together the many skeins of unwritten history, it is a bold step for our
Orientalists to take, to deny, a priori, everything that does not dovetail with their special conclusions.
Thus, while new discoveries are daily made of great arts and sciences having existed far back in the
night of time, even the knowledge of writing is refused to some of the most ancient nations, and they
are credited with barbarism instead of culture. Yet the traces of an immense civilization, even in
Central Asia, are still to be found. This civilization is undeniably prehistoric. And how can there be
civilization without a literature, in some form, without annals or chronicles? Common sense alone
ought to supplement the broken links in the history of departed nations. The gigantic, unbroken wall of
the mountains that hem in the whole table-land of Tibet, from the upper course of the river Khuan-Khe
down to the Kara-Korum hills, witnessed a civilization during millenniums of years, and would have
strange secrets to tell mankind. The Eastern and Central portions of those regions -- the Nan-Schayn
and the Altyne-taga -- were once upon a time covered with cities that could well vie with Babylon. A
whole geological period has swept over the land, since those cities breathed their last, as the mounds of
shifting sand, and the sterile and now dead soil of the immense central plains of the basin of Tarim
testify. The borderlands alone are superficially known to the traveller. Within those table-lands of sand
there is water, and fresh oases are found blooming there, wherein no European foot has ever yet
ventured, or trodden the now treacherous soil. Among these verdant oases there are some which are
entirely inaccessible even to the native profane traveller. Hurricanes may "tear up the sands and sweep
whole plains away," they are powerless to destroy that which is beyond their reach. Built deep in the
bowels of the earth, the subterranean stores are secure; and as their entrances are concealed in such
oases, there is little fear that any one should discover them, even should several armies invade the
sandy wastes where --

[[Vol. 1, Page]] xxxiii INTRODUCTORY.

"Not a pool, not a bush, not a house is seen,
And the mountain-range forms a rugged screen
Round the parch'd flats of the dry, dry desert. . . . ."
But there is no need to send the reader across the desert, when the same proofs of ancient civilization
are found even in comparatively populated regions of the same country. The oasis of Tchertchen, for
instance, situated about 4,000 feet above the level of the river Tchertchen-D'arya, is surrounded with
the ruins of archaic towns and cities in every direction. There, some 3,000 human beings represent the
relics of about a hundred extinct nations and races -- the very names of which are now unknown to our
ethnologists. An anthropologist would feel more than embarrassed to class, divide and subdivide them;
the more so, as the respective descendants of all these antediluvian races and tribes know as little of
their own forefa thers themselves, as if they had fallen from the moon. When questioned about their
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origin, they reply that they know not whence their fathers had come, but had heard that their first (or
earliest) men were ruled by the great genii of these deserts. This may be put down to ignorance and
superstition, yet in view of the teachings of the Secret Doctrine, the answer may be based upon
primeval tradition. Alone, the tribe of Khoorassan claims to have come from what is now known as
Afghanistan, long before the days of Alexander, and brings legendary lore to that effect as
corroboration. The Russian traveller, Colonel (now General) Prjevalsky, found quite close to the oasis
of Tchertchen, the ruins of two enormous cities, the oldest of which was, according to local tradition,
ruined 3,000 years ago by a hero and giant; and the other by the Mongolians in the tenth century of our
era. "The emplacement of the two cities is now covered, owing to shifting sands and the desert wind,
with strange and heterogeneous relics; with broken china and kitchen utensils and human bones. The
natives often find copper and gold coins, melted silver, ingots, diamonds, and turquoises, and what is
the most remarkable -- broken glass. . . . ." "Coffins of some undecaying wood, or material, also,
within which beautifully preserved embalmed bodies are found. . . . . The male mummies are all
extremely tall powerfully built men with long waving hair. . . . . A vault was found with twelve dead
men sitting in it. Another time, in a separate coffin, a young girl was discovered by us. Her eyes were
closed with golden discs, and the jaws held firm by a golden circlet running from under the chin across
the top of the head. Clad in a narrow

[[Vol. 1, Page]] xxxiv INTRODUCTORY.

woollen garment, her bosom was covered with golden stars, the feet being left naked." (From a lecture
by N. M. Prjevalsky.) To this, the famous traveller adds that all along their way on the river Tchertchen
they heard legends about twenty-three towns buried ages ago by the shifting sands of the deserts. The
same tradition exists on the Lob-nor and in the oasis of Kerya.
The traces of such civilization, and these and like traditions, give us the right to credit other legendary
lore warranted by well educated and learned natives of India and Mongolia, when they speak of
immense libraries reclaimed from the sand, together with various reliques of ancient MAGIC lore,
which have all been safely stowed away.
To recapitulate. The Secret Doctrine was the universally diffused religion of the ancient and prehistoric
world. Proofs of its diffusion, au thentic records of its history, a complete chain of documents, showing
its character and presence in every land, together with the teaching of all its great adepts, exist to this
day in the secret crypts of libraries belonging to the Occult Fraternity.
This statement is rendered more credible by a consideration of the following facts: the tradition of the
thousands of ancient parchments saved when the Alexandrian library was destroyed; the thousands of
Sanskrit works which disappeared in India in the reign of Akbar; the universal tradition in China and
Japan that the true old texts with the commentaries, which alone make them comprehensible -amounting to many thousands of volumes -- have long passed out of the reach of profane hands; the
disappearance of the vast sacred and occult literature of Babylon; the loss of those keys which alone
could solve the thousand riddles of the Egyptian hieroglyphic records; the tradition in India that the
real secret commentaries which alone make the Veda intelligible, though no longer visible to profane
eyes, still remain for the initiate, hidden in secret caves and crypts; and an identical belief among the
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Buddhists, with regard to their secret books.
The Occultists assert that all these exist, safe from Western spoliating hands, to re-appear in some
more enlightened age, for which in the words of the late Swami Dayan and Sarasvati, "the Mlechchhas
(outcasts, savages, those beyond the pale of Aryan civilization) will have to wait."
For it is not the fault of the initiates that these documents are now "lost" to the profane; nor was their
policy dictated by selfishness, or

[[Vol. 1, Page]] xxxv INTRODUCTORY.

any desire to monopolise the life-giving sacred lore. There were portions of the Secret Science that for
incalculable ages had to remain concealed from the profane gaze. But this was because to impart to the
unprepared multitude secrets of such tremendous importance, was equivalent to giving a child a lighted
candle in a powder magazine.
The answer to a question which has frequently arisen in the minds of students, when meeting with
statements such as this, may be outlined here.
"We can understand," they say, "the necessity for concealing from the herd such secrets as the Vril, or
the rock-destroying force, discovered by J. W. Keely, of Philadelphia, but we cannot understand how
any danger could arise from the revelation of such a purely philosophic doctrine, as, e.g., the evolution
of the planetary chains."
The danger was this: Doctrines such as the planetary chain, or the seven races, at once give a clue to
the seven-fold nature of man, for each principle is correlated to a plane, a planet, and a race; and the
human principles are, on every plane, correlated to seven-fold occult forces -- those of the higher
planes being of tremendous power. So that any septenary division at once gives a clue to tremendous
occult powers, the abuse of which would cause incalculable evil to humanity. A clue, which is,
perhaps, no clue to the present generation -- especially the Westerns -- protected as they are by their
very blindness and ignorant materialistic disbelief in the occult; but a clue which would, nevertheless,
have been very real in the early centuries of the Christian era, to people fully convinced of the reality
of occultism, and entering a cycle of degradation, which made them rife for abuse of occult powers and
sorcery of the worst description.
The documents were concealed, it is true, but the knowledge itself and its actual existence had never
been made a secret of by the Hierophants of the Temple, wherein MYSTERIES have ever been made a
discipline and stimulus to virtue. This is very old news, and was repeatedly made known by the great
adepts, from Pythagoras and Plato down to the Neoplatonists. It was the new religion of the Nazarenes
that wrought a change for the worse -- in the policy of centuries.
Moreover, there is a well-known fact, a very curious one, corroborated to the writer by a reverend
gentleman attached for years to a Russian Embassy -- namely, that there are several documents in the

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St. Peters-

[[Vol. 1, Page]] xxxvi INTRODUCTORY.

burg Imperial Libraries to show that, even so late as during the days when Freemasonry, and Secret
Societies of Mystics flourished unimpeded in Russia, i.e., at the end of the last and the beginning of the
present century, more than one Russian Mystic travelled to Tibet via the Ural mountains in search of
knowledge and initiation in the unknown crypts of Central Asia. And more than one returned years
later, with a rich store of such information as could never have been given him anywhere in Europe.
Several cases could be cited, and well-known names brought forward, but for the fact that such
publicity might annoy the surviving relatives of the said late Initiates. Let any one look over the Annals
and History of Freemasonry in the archives of the Russian metropolis, and he will assure himself of the
fact stated.
This is a corroboration of that which has been stated many times before, and, unfortunately, too
indiscreetly. Instead of benefiting humanity, the virulent charges of deliberate invention and imposture
with a purpose thrown at those who asserted but a truthful, if even a little known fact, have only
generated bad Karma for the slanderers. But now the mischief is done, and truth should no longer be
denied, whatever the consequences. Is it a new religion, we are asked? By no means; it is not a
religion, nor is its philosophy new; for, as already stated, it is as old as thinking man. Its tenets are not
now published for the first time, but have been cautiously given out to, and taught by, more than one
European Initiate -- especially by the late Ragon.
More than one great scholar has stated that there never was a religious founder, whether Aryan,
Semitic or Turanian, who had invented a new religion, or revealed a new truth. These founders were all
transmitters, not original teachers. They were the authors of new forms and interpretations, while the
truths upon which the latter were based were as old as mankind. Selecting one or more of those grand
verities -- actualities visible only to the eye of the real Sage and Seer -- out of the many orally revealed
to man in the beginning, preserved and perpetuated in the adyta of the temples through initiation,
during the MYSTERIES and by personal transmission -- they revealed these truths to the masses. Thus
every nation received in its turn some of the said truths, under the veil of its own local and special
symbolism; which, as time went on, developed into a more or less philosophical cultus, a Pantheon in
mythical disguise. Therefore is Confucius, a very ancient

[[Vol. 1, Page]] xxxvii INTRODUCTORY.

legislator in historical chronology, though a very modern Sage in the World's History, shown by Dr.
Legge* -- who calls him "emphatically a transmitter, not a maker" -- as saying: "I only hand on: I
cannot create new things. I believe in the ancients and therefore I love them."** (Quoted in "Science of
Religions" by Max Muller.)
The writer loves them too, and therefore believes in the ancients, and the modern heirs to their
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Wisdom. And believing in both, she now transmits that which she has received and learnt herself to all
those who will accept it. As to those who may reject her testimony, -- i.e., the great majority -- she will
bear them no malice, for they will be as right in their way in denying, as she is right in hers in
affirming, since they look at TRUTH from two entirely different stand-points. Agreeably with the
rules of critical scholarship, the Orientalist has to reject a priori whatever evidence he cannot fully
verify for himself. And how can a Western scholar accept on hearsay that which he knows nothing
about? Indeed, that which is given in these volumes is selected from oral, as much as from written
teachings. This first instalment of the esoteric doctrines is based upon Stanzas, which are the records of
a people unknown to ethnology; it is claimed that they are written in a tongue absent from the
nomenclature of languages and dialects with which philology is acquainted; they are said to emanate
from a source (Occultism) repudiated by science; and, finally, they are offered through an agency,
incessantly discredited before the world by all those who hate unwelcome truths, or have some special
hobby of their own to defend. Therefore, the rejection of these teachings may be expected, and must be
accepted beforehand. No one styling himself a "scholar," in whatever department of exact science, will
be permitted to regard these teachings seriously. They will be derided and rejected a priori in this
century; but only in this one. For in the twentieth century of our era scholars will begin to recognize
that the Secret Doctrine has neither been invented nor exaggerated, but, on the contrary, simply
outlined; and finally, that its teachings antedate the Vedas.*** Have not the latter been derided,
rejected, and
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* Lun Yu ( I a) Schott. "Chinesische Literatur," p. 7.

** "Life of Confucius," p. 96.

*** This is no pretension to prophecy, but simply a statement based on the knowledge of facts. Every

century an attempt is being made to show the world that Occultism [[Footnote continued on next

page]]


[[Vol. 1, Page]] xxxviii INTRODUCTORY.


called "a modern forgery" even so recently as fifty years ago? Was not Sanskrit proclaimed at one time

the progeny of, and a dialect derived from, the Greek, according to Lempriere and other scholars?

About 1820, Prof. Max Muller tells us, the sacred books of the Brahmans, of the Magians, and of the

Buddhists, "were all but unknown, their very existence was doubted, and there was not a single scholar

who could have translated a line of the Veda . . . of the Zend Avesta, or . . . of the Buddhist Tripitaka,

and now the Vedas are proved to be the work of the highest antiquity whose 'preservation amounts

almost to a marvel' (Lecture on the Vedas).
The same will be said of the Secret Archaic Doctrine, when proofs are given of its undeniable
existence and records. But it will take centuries before much more is given from it. Speaking of the
keys to the Zodiacal mysteries as being almost lost to the world, it was remarked by the writer in "Isis
Unveiled" some ten years ago that: "The said key must be turned seven times before the whole system
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is divulged. We will give it but one turn, and thereby allow the profane one glimpse into the mystery.
Happy he, who understands the whole!"
The same may be said of the whole Esoteric system. One turn of the key, and no more, was given in
"Isis." Much more is explained in these volumes. In those days the writer hardly knew the language in
which the work was written, and the disclosure of many things, freely spoken about now, was
forbidden. In Century the Twentieth some disciple more informed, and far better fitted, may be sent by
the Masters of Wisdom to give final and irrefutable proofs that there exists a Science called GuptaVidya; and that, like the once-mysterious sources of the Nile, the source of all religions and
philosophies now known to the world has been for many ages forgotten and lost to men, but is at last
found.
Such a work as this has to be introduced with no simple Preface, but with a volume rather; one that
would give facts, not mere disquisitions, since the SECRET DOCTRINE is not a treatise, or a series of
vague theories, but contains all that can be given out to the world in this century.
It would be worse than useless to publish in these pages even those
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

[[Footnote continued from previous page]] is no vain superstition. Once the door permitted to be kept a

little ajar, it will be opened wider with every new century. The times are ripe for a more serious

knowledge than hitherto permitted, though still very limited, so far.


[[Vol. 1, Page]] xxxix INTRODUCTORY.


portions of the esoteric teachings that have now escaped from confinement, unless the genuineness and

au thenticity -- at any rate, the probability -- of the existence of such teachings was first established.

Such statements as will now be made, have to be shown warranted by various authorities: those of

ancient philosophers, classics and even certain learned Church Fathers, some of whom knew these

doctrines because they had studied them, had seen and read works written upon them; and some of

whom had even been personally initiated into the ancient Mysteries, during the performance of which

the arcane doctrines were allegorically enacted. The writer will have to give historical and trustworthy

names, and to cite well-known authors, ancient and modern, of recognized ability, good judgment, and

truthfulness, as also to name some of the famous proficients in the secret arts and science, along with
the mysteries of the latter, as they are divulged, or, rather, partially presented before the public in their
strange archaic form.
How is this to be done? What is the best way for achieving such an object? was the ever-recurring
question. To make our plan clearer, an illustration may be attempted. When a tourist coming from a
well-explored country, suddenly reaches the borderl and of a terra incognita, hedged in, and shut out
from view by a formidable barrier of impassable rocks, he may still refuse to acknowledge himself
baffled in his exploratory plans. Ingress beyond is forbidden. But, if he cannot visit the mysterious
region personally, he may still find a means of examining it from as short a distance as can be arrived
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at. Helped by his knowledge of landscapes left behind him, he can get a general and pretty correct idea
of the transmural view, if he will only climb to the loftiest summit of the altitudes in front of him. Once
there, he can gaze at it, at his leisure, comparing that which he dimly perceives with that which he has
just left below, now that he is, thanks to his efforts, beyond the line of the mists and the cloud-capped
cliffs.
Such a point of preliminary observation, for those who would like to get a more correct understanding
of the mysteries of the pre-archaic periods given in the texts, cannot be offered to them in these two
volumes. But if the reader has patience, and would glance at the present state of beliefs and creeds in
Europe, compare and check it with what is known to history of the ages directly preceding and

[[Vol. 1, Page]] xl INTRODUCTORY.

following the Christian era, then he will find all this in Volume III. of this work.
In that volume a brief recapitulation will be made of all the principal adepts known to history, and the
downfall of the mysteries will be described; after which began the disappearance and final and
systematic elimination from the memory of men of the real nature of initiation and the Sacred Science.
From that time its teachings became Occult, and Magic sailed but too often under the venerable but
frequently misleading name of Hermetic philosophy. As real Occultism had been prevalent among the
Mystics during the centuries that preceded our era, so Magic, or rather Sorcery, with its Occult Arts,
followed the beginning of Christianity.
However great and zealous the fanatical efforts, during those early centuries, to obliterate every trace
of the mental and intellectual labour of the Pagans, it was a failure; but the same spirit of the dark
demon of bigotry and intolerance has perverted systematically and ever since, every bright page
written in the pre-Christian periods. Even in her uncertain records, history has preserved enough of that
which has survived to throw an impartial light upon the whole. Let, then, the reader tarry a little while
with the writer, on the spot of observation selected. He is asked to give all his attention to that
millennium which divided the pre-Christian and the post-Christian periods, by the year ONE of the
Nativity. This event -- whether historically correct or not -- has nevertheless been made to serve as a
first signal for the erection of manifold bulwarks against any possible return of, or even a glimpse into,
the hated religions of the Past; hated and dreaded -- because throwing such a vivid light on the new
and intentionally veiled interpretation of what is now known as the "New Dispensation."
However superhuman the efforts of the early Christian fathers to obliterate the Secret Doctrine from
the very memory of man, they all failed. Truth can never be killed; hence the failure to sweep away
entirely from the face of the earth every vestige of that ancient Wisdom, and to shackle and gag every
witness who testified to it. Let one only think of the thousands, and perhaps millions, of MSS. burnt; of
monuments, with their too indiscreet inscriptions and pictorial symbols, pulverised to dust; of the
bands of early hermits and ascetics roaming about among the ruined cities of Upper and Lower Egypt,
in desert and

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[[Vol. 1, Page]] xli INTRODUCTORY.

mountain, valleys and highlands, seeking for and eager to destroy every obelisk and pillar, scroll or
parchment they could lay their hands on, if it only bore the symbol of the tau, or any other sign
borrowed and appropriated by the new faith; and he will then see plainly how it is that so little has
remained of the records of the Past. Verily, the fiendish spirits of fanaticism, of early and mediaeval
Christianity and of Islam, have from the first loved to dwell in darkness and ignorance; and both have
made
"-------------- the sun like blood, the earth a tomb,
The tomb a hell, and hell itself a murkier gloom!"

Both creeds have won their proselytes at the point of the sword; both have built their churches on

heaven-kissing hecatombs of human victims. Over the gateway of Century I. of our era, the ominous

words "the KARMA OF ISRAEL," fatally glowed. Over the portals of our own, the future seer may
discern other words, that will point to the Karma for cunningly made-up HISTORY, for events
purposely perverted, and for great characters slandered by posterity, mangled out of recognition,
between the two cars of Jagannatha -- Bigotry and Materialism; one accepting too much, the other
denying all. Wise is he who holds to the golden mid-point, who believes in the eternal justice of things.
Says Faigi Diwan, the "witness to the wonderful speeches of a free-thinker who belongs to a thousand
sects": "In the assembly of the day of resurrection, when past things shall be forgiven, the sins of the
Ka'bah will be forgiven for the sake of the dust of Christian churches." To this, Professor Max Muller
replies: "The sins of Islam are as worthless as the dust of Christianity. On the day of resurrection both
Muhammadans and Christians will see the vanity of their religious doctrines. Men fight about religion
on earth -- in heaven they shall find out that there is only one true religion -- the worship of God's
SPIRIT."*
In other words -- "THERE IS NO RELIGION (OR LAW) HIGHER THAN TRUTH" -- "SATYAT
NASTI PARO DHARMAH" -- the motto of the Maharajah of Benares, adopted by the Theosophical
Society.
As already said in the Preface, the Secret Doctrine is not a version of "Isis Unveiled" -- as originally
intended. It is a volume explanatory of
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* "Lectures on the Science of Religion," by F. Max Muller, p. 257.


[[Vol. 1, Page]] xlii INTRODUCTORY.


it rather, and, though entirely independent of the earlier work, an indispensable corollary to it. Much of

what was in Isis could hardly be understood by theosophists in those days. The Secret Doctrine will

now throw light on many a problem left unsolved in the first work, especially on the opening pages,

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which have never been understood.

Concerned simply with the philosophies within our historical times and the respective symbolism of

the fallen nations, only a hurried glance could be thrown at the panorama of Occultism in the two
volumes of Isis. In the present work, detailed Cosmogony and the evolution of the four races that
preceded our Fifth race Humanity are given, and now two large volumes explain that which was stated
on the first page of ISIS UNVEILED alone, and in a few allusions scattered hither and thither
throughout that work. Nor could the vast catalogue of the Archaic Sciences be attempted in the present
volumes, before we have disposed of such tremendous problems as Cosmic and Planetary Evolution,
and the gradual development of the mysterious Humanities and races that preceded our "Adamic"
Humanity. Therefore, the present attempt to elucidate some mysteries of the Esoteric philosophy has,
in truth, nothing to do with the earlier work. As an instance, the writer must be allowed to illustrate
what is said.
Volume I. of "Isis" begins with a reference to "an old book" -"So very old that our modern antiquarians might ponder over its pages an indefinite
time, and still not quite agree as to the nature of the fabric upon which it is written. It is
the only original copy now in existence. The most ancient Hebrew document on occult
learning -- the Siphrah Dzeniouta -- was compiled from it, and that at a time when the
former was already considered in the light of a literary relic. One of its illustrations
represents the Divine Essence emanating from ADAM* like a luminous arc proceeding
to form a circle; and then, having attained the highest point of its circumference, the
ineffable glory bends back again, and returns to earth, bringing a higher type of
humanity in its vortex. As it approaches nearer and nearer to our planet, the Emanation
becomes more and more shadowy, until upon touching the ground it is as black as
night."
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* The name is used in the sense of the Greek word [[anthropos]].


[[Vol. 1, Page]] xliii INTRODUCTORY.


The "very old Book" is the original work from which the many volumes of Kiu-ti were compiled. Not

only this latter and the Siphrah Dzeniouta but even the Sepher Jezirah,* the work attri buted by the

Hebrew Kabalists to their Patriarch Abraham (!), the book of Shu-king, China's primitive Bible, the

sacred volumes of the Egyptian Thoth-Hermes, the Puranas in India, and the Chaldean Book of

Numbers and the Pentateuch itself, are all derived from that one small parent volume. Tradition says,

that it was taken down in Senzar, the secret sacerdotal tongue, from the words of the Divine Beings,

who dictated it to the sons of Light, in Central Asia, at the very beginning of the 5th (our) race; for

there was a time when its language (the Sen-zar) was known to the Initiates of every nation, when the

forefa thers of the Toltec understood it as easily as the inhabitants of the lost Atlantis, who inherited it,

in their turn, from the sages of the 3rd Race, the Manushis, who learnt it direct from the Devas of the

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2nd and 1st Races. The "illustration" spoken of in "Isis" relates to the evolution of these Races and of
our 4th and 5th Race Humanity in the Vaivasvata Manvantara or "Round"; each Round being
composed of the Yugas of the seven periods of Humanity; four of which are now passed in our life
cycle, the middle point of the 5th being nearly reached. The illustration is symbolical, as every one can
well understand, and covers the ground from the beginning. The old book, having described Cosmic
Evolution and explained the origin of everything on earth, including physical man, after giving the true
history of the races from the First down to the Fifth (our) race, goes no further. It stops short at the
beginning of the Kali Yuga just 4989 years ago at the death of Krishna, the bright "Sun-god," the once
living hero and reformer.
But there exists another book. None of its possessors regard it as very ancient, as it was born with, and
is only as old as the Black Age,
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* Rabbi Jehoshua Ben Chananea, who died about A.D. 72, openly declared that he had performed

"miracles" by means of the Book of Sepher Jezireh, and challenged every sceptic. Franck, quoting from

the Babylonian Talmud, names two other thaumaturgists, Rabbis Chanina and Oshoi. (See "Jerusalem

Talmud, Sanhedrin," c. 7, etc.; and "Franck," pp. 55, 56.) Many of the Mediaeval Occultists,

Alchemists, and Kabalists claimed the same; and even the late modern Magus, Eliphas Levi, publicly

asserts it in print in his books on Magic.


[[Vol. 1, Page]] xliv INTRODUCTORY.


namely, about 5,000 years. In about nine years hence, the first cycle of the first five millenniums, that

began with the great cycle of the Kali-Yuga, will end. And then the last prophecy contained in that

book (the first volume of the prophetic record for the Black Age) will be accomplished. We have not

long to wait, and many of us will witness the Dawn of the New Cycle, at the end of which not a few

accounts will be settled and squared between the races. Volume II. of the Prophecies is nearly ready,

having been in preparation since the time of Buddha's grand successor, Sankaracharya.
One more important point must be noticed, one that stands foremost in the series of proofs given of the
existence of one primeval, universal Wisdom -- at any rate for the Christian Kabalists and students.
The teachings were, at least, partially known to several of the Fathers of the Church. It is maintained,
on purely historical grounds, that Origen, Synesius, and even Clemens Alexandrinus, had been
themselves initiated into the mysteries before adding to the Neo-Platonism of the Alexandrian school,
that of the Gnostics, under the Christian veil. More than this, some of the doctrines of the Secret
schools -- though by no means all -- were preserved in the Vatican, and have since become part and
parcel of the mysteries, in the shape of disfigured additions made to the original Christian programme
by the Latin Church. Such is the now materialised dogma of the Immaculate Conception. This
accounts for the great persecutions set on foot by the Roman Catholic Church against Occultism,
Masonry, and heterodox mysticism generally.
The days of Constantine were the last turning-point in history, the period of the Supreme struggle that
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ended in the Western world throttling the old religions in favour of the new one, built on their bodies.
From thence the vista into the far distant Past, beyond the "Deluge" and the Garden of Eden, began to
be forcibly and relentlessly closed by every fair and unfair means against the indiscreet gaze of
posterity. Every issue was blocked up, every record that hands could be laid upon, destroyed. Yet there
remains enough, even among such mutilated records, to warrant us in saying that there is in them every
possible evidence of the actual existence of a Parent Doctrine. Fragments have survived geological and
political cataclysms to tell the story; and every survival shows evidence that the now Secret Wisdom
was once the

[[Vol. 1, Page]] xlv INTRODUCTORY.

one fountain head, the ever-flowing perennial source, at which were fed all its streamlets -- the later
religions of all nations -- from the first down to the last. This period, beginning with Buddha and
Pythagoras at the one end and the Neo-Platonists and Gnostics at the other, is the only focus left in
History wherein converge for the last time the bright rays of light streaming from the aeons of time
gone by, unobscured by the hand of bigotry and fanaticism.
This accounts for the necessity under which the writer has laboured to be ever explaining the facts
given from the hoariest Past by evidence gathered from the historical period. No other means was at
hand, at the risk even of being once more charged with a lack of method and system. The public must
be made acquainted with the efforts of many World-adepts, of initiated poets, writers, and classics of
every age, to preserve in the records of Humanity the Knowledge of the existence, at least, of such a
philosophy, if not actually of its tenets. The Initiates of 1888 would indeed remain incomprehensible
and ever a seemingly impossible myth, were not like Initiates shown to have lived in every other age of
history. This could be done only by naming Chapter and Verse where may be found mention of these
great characters, who were preceded and followed by a long and interminable line of other famous
Antediluvian and Post-diluvian Masters in the arts. Thus only could be shown, on semi-traditional and
semi-historical authority, that knowledge of the Occult and the powers it confers on man, are not
altogether fictions, but that they are as old as the world itself.
To my judges, past and future, therefore -- whether they are serious literary critics, or those howling
dervishes in literature who judge a book according to the popularity or unpopularity of the author's
name, who, hardly glancing at its contents, fasten like lethal bacilli on the weakest points of the body -I have nothing to say. Nor shall I condescend to notice those crack-brained slanderers -- fortunately
very few in number -- who, hoping to attract public attention by throwing discredit on every writer
whose name is better known than their own, foam and bark at their very shadows. These, having first
maintained for years that the doctrines taught in the Theosophist, and which culminated in "Esoteric
Buddhism," had been all invented by the present writer, have finally turned round, and denounced "Isis
Unveiled" and the rest as a plagiarism from Eliphas Levi (!), Paracelsus (!!), and, mirabile

[[Vol. 1, Page]] xlvi INTRODUCTORY.

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dictu, Buddhism and Brahmanism (!!!) As well charge Renan with having stolen his Vie de Jesus from
the Gospels, and Max Muller his "Sacred Books of the East" or his "Chips" from the philosophies of
the Brahmins and Gautama, the Buddha. But to the public in general and the readers of the "Secret
Doctrine" I may repeat what I have stated all along, and which I now clo the in the words of Montaigne:
Gentlemen, "I HAVE HERE MADE ONLY A NOSEGAY OF CULLED FLOWERS, AND HAVE
BROUGHT NOTHING OF MY OWN BUT THE STRING THAT TIES THEM."
Pull the "string" to pieces and cut it up in shreds, if you will. As for the nosegay of FACTS -- you will
never be able to make away with these. You can only ignore them, and no more.
We may close with a parting word concerning this Volume I. In an INTRODUCTION prefacing a Part
dealing chiefly with Cosmogony, certain subjects brought forward might be deemed out of place, but
one more consideration added to those already given have led me to touch upon them. Every reader
will inevitably judge the statements made from the stand-point of his own knowledge, experience, and
consciousness, based on what he has already learnt. This fact the writer is constantly obliged to bear in
mind: hence, also the frequent references in this first Book to matters which, properly speaking, belong
to a later part of the work, but which could not be passed by in silence, lest the reader should look
down on this work as a fairy tale indeed -- a fiction of some modern brain.
Thus, the Past shall help to realise the PRESENT, and the latter to better appreciate the PAST. The
errors of the day must be explained and swept away, yet it is more than probable -- and in the present
case it amounts to certitude -- that once more the testimony of long ages and of history will fail to
impress anyone but the very intuitional -- which is equal to saying the very few. But in this as in all
like cases, the true and the faithful may console themselves by presenting the sceptical modern
Sadducee with the mathematical proof and memorial of his obdurate obstinacy and bigotry. There still
exists somewhere in the archives of the French Academy, the famous law of probabilities worked out
by an algebraical process for the benefit of sceptics by certain mathematicians. It runs thus: If two
persons give their evidence to

[[Vol. 1, Page]] xlvii INTRODUCTORY.

a fact, and thus impart to it each of them 5/6 of certitude; that fact will have then 35/36 of certitude;
i.e., its probability will bear to its improbability the ratio of 35 to 1. If three such evidences are joined
together the certitude will become 215/216. The agreement of ten persons giving each 1/2 of certitude
will produce 1023/1024 , etc., etc. The Occultist may remain satisfied, and care for no more.

Next Section
Contents

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The Secret Doctrine by H. P. Blavatsky, vol 1, Proem

The Secret Doctrine by H. P. Blavatsky -- Vol. 1

Theosophical University Press Online Edition

[[Vol. 1, Page 1]]

PROEM
------PAGES FROM A PRE-HISTORIC PERIOD.
AN Archaic Manuscript -- a collection of palm leaves made impermeable to water, fire, and air, by

some specific unknown process -- is before the writer's eye. On the first page is an immaculate white
disk within a dull black ground. On the following page, the same disk, but with a central point. The
first, the student knows to represent Kosmos in Eternity, before the re-awakening of still slumbering
Energy, the emanation of the Word in later systems. The point in the hitherto immaculate Disk, Space
and Eternity in Pralaya, denotes the dawn of differentiation. It is the Point in the Mundane Egg (see
Part II., "The Mundane Egg"), the germ within the latter which will become the Universe, the ALL,
the boundless, periodical Kosmos, this germ being latent and active, periodically and by turns. The
one circle is divine Unity, from which all proceeds, whither all returns. Its circumference -- a forcibly
limited symbol, in view of the limitation of the human mind -- indicates the abstract, ever incognisable
PRESENCE, and its plane, the Universal Soul, although the two are one. Only the face of the Disk
being white and the ground all around black, shows clearly that its plane is the only knowledge, dim
and hazy though it still is, that is attainable by man. It is on this plane that the Manvantaric
manifestations begin; for it is in this SOUL that slumbers, during the Pralaya, the Divine Thought,*
wherein lies concealed the plan of every future Cosmogony and Theogony.
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* It is hardly necessary to remind the reader once more that the term "Divine Thought," like that of

"Universal Mind," must not be regarded as even vaguely shadowing forth an intellectual process akin

to that exhibited by man. The "Unconscious," according to von Hartmann, arrived at the vast creative,

or rather Evolutionary Plan, "by a clairvoyant wisdom superior to all consciousness," which in the

Vedantic language would mean absolute Wisdom. Only those who realise how far Intuition soars

above the tardy processes of ratiocinative thought can form the faintest conception of [[Footnote

continued on next page]]


[[Vol. 1, Page]] 2 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.


It is the ONE LIFE, eternal, invisible, yet Omnipresent, without beginning or end, yet periodical in its


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regular manifestations, between which periods reigns the dark mystery of non-Being; unconscious, yet
absolute Consciousness; unrealisable, yet the one self-existing reality; truly, "a chaos to the sense, a
Kosmos to the reason." Its one absolute attri bute, which is ITSELF, eternal, ceaseless Motion, is
called in esoteric parlance the "Great Breath,"* which is the perpetual motion of the universe, in the
sense of limitless, ever-present SPACE. That which is motionless cannot be Divine. But then there is
nothing in fact and reality absolutely motionless within the universal soul.
Almost five centuries B.C. Leucippus, the instructor of Democritus, maintained that Space was filled
eternally with atoms actuated by a ceaseless motion, the latter generating in due course of time, when
those atoms aggregated, rotatory motion, through mutual collisions producing lateral movements.
Epicurus and Lucretius taught the same, only adding to the lateral motion of the atoms the idea of
affinity -- an occult teaching.
From the beginning of man's inheritance, from the first appearance of the architects of the globe he
lives in, the unrevealed Deity was recognised and considered under its only philosophical aspect -universal motion, the thrill of the creative Breath in Nature. Occultism sums up the "One Existence"
thus: "Deity is an arcane, living (or moving) FIRE, and the eternal witnesses to this unseen Presence
are Light, Heat, Moisture," -- this trinity including, and being the cause of, every
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

[[Footnote continued from previous page]] that absolute Wisdom which transcends the ideas of Time

and Space. Mind, as we know it, is resolvable into states of consciousness, of varying duration,

intensity, complexity, etc. -- all, in the ultimate, resting on sensation, which is again Maya. Sensation,

again, necessarily postulates limitation. The personal God of orthodox Theism perceives, thinks, and

is affected by emotion; he repents and feels "fierce anger." But the notion of such mental states clearly

involves the unthinkable postulate of the externality of the exciting stimuli, to say nothing of the

impossibility of ascribing changelessness to a Being whose emotions fluctuate with events in the

worlds he presides over. The conceptions of a Personal God as changeless and infinite are thus

unpsychological and, what is worse, unphilosophical.

* Plato proves himself an Initiate, when saying in Cratylus that [[theos]] is derived from the verb

[[theein]], "to move," "to run," as the first astronomers who observed the motions of the heavenly

bodies called the planets [[theoi]], the gods. (See Book II., "Symbolism of the Cross and Circle.")

Later, the word produced another term, [[aletheia]] -- "the breath of God."


[[Vol. 1, Page]] 3 PROEM.

phenomenon in Nature.* Intra-Cosmic motion is eternal and ceaseless; cosmic motion (the visible, or
that which is subject to perception) is finite and periodical. As an eternal abstraction it is the EVERPRESENT; as a manifestation, it is finite both in the coming direction and the opposite, the two being
the alpha and omega of successive reconstructions. Kosmos -- the NOUMENON -- has nought to do
with the causal relations of the phenomenal World. It is only with reference to the intra-cosmic soul,
the ideal Kosmos in the immutable Divine Thought, that we may say: "It never had a beginning nor
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will it have an end." With regard to its body or Cosmic organization, though it cannot be said that it
had a first, or will ever have a last construction, yet at each new Manvantara, its organization may be
regarded as the first and the last of its kind, as it evolutes every time on a higher plane . . . .
A few years ago only, it was stated that: -"The esoteric doctrine teaches, like Buddhism and Brahminism, and even the Kabala, that the one
infinite and unknown Essence exists from all eternity, and in regular and harmonious successions is
either passive or active. In the poetical phraseology of Manu these conditions are called the "Days"
and the "Nights" of Brahma. The latter is either "awake" or "asleep." The Svabhavikas, or
philosophers of the oldest school of Buddhism (which still exists in Nepaul), speculate only upon the
active condition of this "Essence," which they call Svabhavat, and deem it foolish to theorise upon the
abstract and "unknowable" power in its passive condition. Hence they are called atheists by both
Christian theologians and modern scientists, for neither of the
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* Nominalists, arguing with Berkeley that "it is impossible . . . to form the abstract idea of motion

distinct from the body moving" ("Prin. of Human Knowledge," Introd., par. 10), may put the question,

"What is that body, the producer of that motion? Is it a substance? Then you are believers in a

Personal God?" etc., etc. This will be answered farther on, in the Addendum to this Book; meanwhile,

we claim our rights of Conceptionalists as against Roscelini's materialistic views of Realism and

Nominalism. "Has science," says one of its ablest advocates, Edward Clodd, "revealed anything that

weakens or opposes itself to the ancient words in which the Essence of all religion, past, present, and

to come, is given; to do justly, to love mercy, to walk humbly before thy God?" Provided we connote

by the word God, not the crude anthropomorphism which is still the backbone of our current theology,

but the symbolic conception of that which is Life and Motion of the Universe, to know which in

physical order is to know time past, present, and to come, in the existence of successions of

phenomena; to know which, in the moral, is to know what has been, is, and will be, within human

consciousness. (See "Science and the Emotions." A Discourse delivered at South Place Chapel,

Finsbury, London, Dec. 27th, 1885.)


[[Vol. 1, Page]] 4 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

two are able to understand the profound logic of their philosophy. The former will allow of no other
God than the personified secondary powers which have worked out the visible universe, and which
became with them the anthropomorphic God of the Christians -- the male Jehovah, roaring amid
thunder and lightning. In its turn, rationalistic science greets the Buddhists and the Svabhavikas as the
"positivists" of the archaic ages. If we take a one-sided view of the philosophy of the latter, our
materialists may be right in their own way. The Buddhists maintained that there is no Creator, but an
infinitude of creative powers, which collectively form the one eternal substance, the essence of which
is inscrutable -- hence not a subject for speculation for any true philosopher. Socrates invariably
refused to argue upon the mystery of universal being, yet no one would ever have thought of charging
him with atheism, except those who were bent upon his destruction. Upon inaugurating an active
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period, says the Secret Doctrine, an expansion of this Divine essence from without inwardly and from
within outwardly, occurs in obedience to eternal and immutable law, and the phenomenal or visible
universe is the ultimate result of the long chain of cosmical forces thus progressively set in motion. In
like manner, when the passive condition is resumed, a contraction of the Divine essence takes place,
and the previous work of creation is gradually and progressively undone. The visible universe
becomes disintegrated, its material dispersed; and 'darkness' solitary and alone, broods once more over
the face of the 'deep.' To use a Metaphor from the Secret Books, which will convey the idea still more
clearly, an out-breathing of the 'unknown essence' produces the world; and an inhalation causes it to
disappear. This process has been going on from all eternity, and our present universe is but one of an
infinite series, which had no beginning and will have no end." -- (See "Isis Unveiled"; also "The Days
and Nights of Brahma" in Part II.)
This passage will be explained, as far as it is possible, in the present work. Though, as it now stands, it
contains nothing new to the Orientalist, its esoteric interpretation may contain a good deal which has
hitherto remained entirely unknown to the Western student.
The first illustration being a plain disc

the second one in the Archaic symbol shows

, a disc

with a point in it -- the first differentiation in the periodical manifestations of the ever-eternal nature,
sexless and infinite "Aditi in THAT" (Rig Veda), the point in the disc, or potential Space within
abstract Space. In its third stage the point is transformed into a diameter, thus
It now symbolises
a divine immaculate Mother-Nature within the all-embracing absolute Infinitude.

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 5 PROEM.

When the diameter line is crossed by a vertical one
, it becomes the mundane cross. Humanity has
reached its third root-race; it is the sign for the origin of human life to begin. When the circumference
disappears and leaves only the
it is a sign that the fall of man into matter is accomplished, and the
FOURTH race begins. The Cross within a circle symbolises pure Pantheism; when the Cross was left
uninscribed, it became phallic. It had the same and yet other meanings as a TAU inscribed within a
or as a "Thor's hammer," the Jaina cross, so-called, or simply Svastica within a circle
circle
By the third symbol -- the circle divided in two by the horizontal line of the diameter -- the first
manifestation of creative (still passive, because feminine) Nature was meant. The first shadowy
perception of man connected with procreation is feminine, because man knows his mother more than
his father. Hence female deities were more sacred than the male. Nature is therefore feminine, and, to
a degree, objective and tangible, and the spirit Principle which fructifies it is concealed. By adding to
the circle with the horizontal line in it, a perpendicular line, the tau was formed -- --- the oldest
form of the letter. It was the glyph of the third root-race to the day of its symbolical Fall -- i.e., when
, the circle, or
the separation of sexes by natural evolution took place -- when the figure became

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sexless life modified or separated -- a double glyph or symbol. With the races of our Fifth Race it
became in symbology the sacr', and in Hebrew n'cabvah, of the first-formed races;* then it changed
(emblem of life), and still later into the sign of Venus,
Then comes the
into the Egyptian
Svastica (Thor's hammer, or the "Hermetic Cross" now), entirely separated from its Circle, thus
becoming purely phallic. The esoteric symbol of Kali Yuga is the five-pointed star reversed, thus
the sign of human sorcery, with its two points (horns) turned heavenward, a position every

--

[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* See that suggestive work, "The Source of Measures," where the author explains the real meaning of

the word "sacr'," from which "sacred," "sacrament," are derived, which have now become synonyms

of "holiness," though purely phallic!


[[Vol. 1, Page]] 6 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.


Occultist will recognise as one of the "left-hand," and used in ceremonial magic.*

It is hoped that during the perusal of this work the erroneous ideas of the public in general with regard

to Pantheism will be modified. It is wrong and unjust to regard the Buddhists and Advaitee Occultists

as atheists. If not all of them philosophers, they are, at any rate, all logicians, their objections and

arguments being based on strict reasoning. Indeed, if the Parabrahmam of the Hindus may be taken as

a representative of the hidden and nameless deities of other nations, this absolute Principle will be

found to be the prototype from which all the others were copied. Parabrahm is not "God," because It is

not a God. "It is that which is supreme, and not supreme (paravara)," explains Mandukya Upanishad

(2.28). IT is "Supreme" as CAUSE, not supreme as effect. Parabrahm is simply, as a "Secondless
Reality," the all-inclusive Kosmos -- or, rather, the infinite Cosmic Space -- in the highest spiritual
sense, of course. Brahma (neuter) being the unchanging, pure, free, undecaying supreme Root, "the
ONE true Existence, Paramarthika," and the absolute Chit and Chaitanya (intelligence, consciousness)
cannot be a cogniser, "for THAT can have no subject of cognition." Can the flame be called the
essence of Fire? This Essence is "the LIFE and LIGHT of the Universe, the visible fire and flame are
destruction, death, and evil." "Fire and Flame destroy the body of an Arhat, their essence makes him
immortal." (Bodhi-mur, Book II.) "The knowledge of the absolute Spirit, like the effulgence of the
sun, or like heat in fire, is naught else than the absolute Essence itself," says Sankaracharya. IT -- is
"the Spirit of the Fire," not fire itself; therefore, "the attri butes of the latter, heat or flame, are not the
attri butes of the Spirit, but of that of which that Spirit is the unconscious cause." Is not the above
sentence the true key-note of later Rosicrucian
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* We are told by the Western mathematicians and some American Kabalists, that in the Kabala also

"the value of the Jehovah name is that of the diameter of a circle." Add to this the fact that Jehovah is

the third Sephiroth, Binah, a feminine word, and you have the key to the mystery. By certain

Kabalistic transformations this name, androgynous in the first chapters of Genesis, becomes in its


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transformations entirely masculine, Cainite and phallic. The fact of choosing a deity among the pagan

gods and making of it a special national God, to call upon it as the "One living God," the "God of

Gods," and then proclaim this worship Monotheistic, does not change it into the ONE Principle whose

"Unity admits not of multiplication, change, or form," especially in the case of a priapic deity, as

Jehovah now demonstrated to be.

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 7 PROEM.

philosophy? Parabrahm is, in short, the collective aggregate of Kosmos in its infinity and eternity, the
"THAT" and "THIS" to which distributive aggregates can not be applied.* "In the beginning THIS
was the Self, one only" (Aitareya Upanishad); the great Sankaracharya, explains that "THIS" referred
to the Universe (Jagat); the sense of the words, "In the beginning," meaning before the reproduction of
the phenomenal Universe.
Therefore, when the Pantheists echo the Upanishads, which state, as in the Secret Doctrine, that "this"
cannot create, they do not deny a Creator, or rather a collective aggregate of creators, but only refuse,
very logically, to attri bute "creation" and especially formation, something finite to an Infinite
Principle. With them, Parabrahmam is a passive because an Absolute Cause, the unconditioned
Mukta. It is only limited Omniscience and Omnipotence that are refused to the latter, because these
are still attri butes (as reflected in man's perceptions); and because Parabrahm, being the "Supreme
ALL," the ever invisible spirit and Soul of Nature, changeless and eternal, can have no attri butes;
absoluteness very naturally precluding any idea of the finite or conditioned from being connected with
it. And if the Vedantin postulates attri butes as belonging simply to its emanation, calling it "Iswara
plus Maya," and Avidya (Agnosticism and Nescience rather than ignorance), it is difficult to find any
Atheism in this conception.** Since there can be neither two INFINITES nor two ABSOLUTES in a
Universe supposed to be Boundless, this Self-Existence can hardly be conceived of as creating
personally. In the sense and perceptions of finite "Beings," THAT is Non-"being," in the sense that it
is the one BE-NESS; for, in this ALL lies concealed its coeternal and coeval emanation or inherent
radiation, which, upon becoming periodically Brahma (the male-female Potency) becomes or expands
itself into the manifested Universe. Narayana moving on the (abstract) waters of Space, is transformed
into the Waters of concrete substance moved by him, who now becomes the manifested WORD or
Logos.
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* See "Vedanta Sara," by Major G. A. Jacob; as also "The Aphorisms of S'andilya," translated by

Cowell, p. 42.

** Nevertheless, prejudiced and rather fanatical Christian Orientalists would like to prove this pure

Atheism. For proof of this, see about Major Jacob's "Vedanta Sara." Yet, the whole Antiquity echoes

this Vedantic thought: -"Omnis enim per se divom natura necesse est

Immortali aevo summa cum pace fruatur."

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[[Vol. 1, Page]] 8 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.


The orthodox Brahmins, those who rise the most against the Pantheists and Adwaitees, calling them

Atheists, are forced, if Manu has any authority in this matter, to accept the death of Brahma, the
creator, at the expiration of every "Age" of this (creative) deity (100 Divine years -- a period which in
our years requires fifteen figures to express it). Yet, no philosopher among them will view this "death"
in any other sense than as a temporary disappearance from the manifested plane of existence, or as a
periodical rest.
The Occultists are, therefore, at one with the Adwaita Vedantin philosophers as to the above tenet.
They show the impossibility of accepting on philosophical grounds the idea of the absolute ALL
creating or even evolving the "Golden Egg," into which it is said to enter in order to transform itself
into Brahma -- the Creator, who expands himself later into gods and all the visible Universe. They say
that Absolute Unity cannot pass to infinity; for infinity presupposes the limitless extension of
something, and the duration of that "something"; and the One All is like Space -- which is its only
mental and physical representation on this Earth, or our plane of existence -- neither an object of, nor a
subject to, perception. If one could suppose the Eternal Infinite All, the Omnipresent Unity, instead of
being in Eternity, becoming through periodical manifestation a manifold Universe or a multiple
personality, that Unity would cease to be one. Locke's idea that "pure Space is capable of neither
resistance nor Motion" -- is incorrect. Space is neither a "limitless void," nor a "conditioned fulness,"
but both: being, on the plane of absolute abstraction, the ever-incognisable Deity, which is void only
to finite minds,* and on that of mayavic perception, the Plenum, the absolute Container of all that is,
whether manifested or unmanifested: it is, therefore, that ABSOLUTE ALL. There is no difference
between the Christian Apostle's "In Him we live and move and have our being," and the Hindu Rishi's
"The Universe lives in, proceeds from, and will
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* The very names of the two chief deities, Brahma and Vishnu, ought to have long ago suggested their

esoteric meanings. For the root of one, Brahmam, or Brahm, is derived by some from the word Brih,

"to grow" or "to expand" (see Calcutta Review, vol. lxvi., p. 14); and of the other, Vishnu, from the

root Vis, "to pervade," to enter in the nature of the essence; Brahma-Vishnu being this infinite

SPACE, of which the gods, the Rishis, the Manus, and all in this universe are simply the potencies,

Vibhutayah.


[[Vol. 1, Page]] 9 PROEM.


return to, Brahma (Brahma)": for Brahma (neuter), the unmanifested, is that Universe in abscondito,

and Brahma, the manifested, is the Logos, made male-female* in the symbolical orthodox dogmas.

The God of the Apostle-Initiate and of the Rishi being both the Unseen and the Visible SPACE. Space

is called in the esoteric symbolism "the Seven-Skinned Eternal Mother-Father." It is composed from

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its undifferentiated to its differentiated surface of seven layers.
"What is that which was, is, and will be, whether there is a Universe or not; whether there be gods or
none?" asks the esoteric Senzar Catechism. And the answer made is -- SPACE.
It is not the One Unknown ever-present God in Nature, or Nature in abscondito, that is rejected, but
the God of human dogma and his humanized "Word." In his infinite conceit and inherent pride and
vanity, man shaped it himself with his sacrilegious hand out of the material he found in his own small
brain-fabric, and forced it upon mankind as a direct revelation from the one unrevealed SPACE.**
The Occultist
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* See Manu's account of Brahma separating his body into male and female, the latter the female Vach,

in whom he creates Viraj, and compare this with the esotericism of Chapters II., III., and IV. of

Genesis.

** Occultism is indeed in the air at the close of this our century. Among many other works recently

published, we would recommend one especially to students of theoretical Occultism who would not

venture beyond the realm of our special human plane. It is called "New Aspects of Life and Religion,"

by Henry Pratt, M.D. It is full of esoteric dogmas and philosophy, the latter rather limited, in the

concluding chapters, by what seems to be a spirit of conditioned positivism. Nevertheless, what is said

of Space as "the Unknown First Cause," merits quotation. "This unknown something, thus recognised

as, and identified with, the primary embodiment of Simple Unity, is invisible and impalpable" -(abstract space, granted); "and because invisible and impalpable, therefore incognisable. And this

incognisability has led to the error of supposing it to be a simple void, a mere receptive capacity. But,

even viewed as an absolute void, space must be admitted to be either Self-existent, infinite, and

eternal, or to have had a first cause outside, behind, and beyond itself.

"And yet could such a cause be found and defined, this would only lead to the transferring thereto of

the attri butes otherwise accruing to space, and thus merely throw the difficulty of origination a step
farther back, without gaining additional light as to primary causation." (p. 5.)
This is precisely what has been done by the believers in an anthropomorphic Creator, an extracosmic,
instead of an intracosmic God. Many -- most of Mr. Pratt's subjects, we may say -- are old Kabalistic
ideas and theories which he presents in quite a new garb: "New Aspects" of the Occult in Nature,
indeed. Space, however, viewed as a "Substantial Unity" -- the "living Source of Life" -- is as the "Un[[Footnote continued on next page]]

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 10 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

accepts revelation as coming from divine yet still finite Beings, the manifested lives, never from the
Unmanifestable ONE LIFE; from those entities, called Primordial Man, Dhyani-Buddhas, or Dhyan-

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Chohans, the "Rishi-Prajapati" of the Hindus, the Elohim or "Sons of God," the Planetary Spirits of all
nations, who have become Gods for men. He also regards the Adi-Sakti -- the direct emanation of
Mulaprakriti, the eternal Root of THAT, and the female aspect of the Creative Cause Brahma, in her
A'kasic form of the Universal Soul -- as philosophically a Maya, and cause of human Maya. But this
view does not prevent him from believing in its existence so long as it lasts, to wit, for one
Mahamanvantara; nor from applying Akasa, the radiation of Mulaprakriti,* to practical purposes,
connected as the World-Soul is with all natural phenomena, known or unknown to science.
The oldest religions of the world -- exoterically, for the esoteric root or foundation is one -- are the
Indian, the Mazdean, and the Egyptian. Then comes the Chaldean, the outcome of these -- entirely lost
to the world now, except in its disfigured Sabeanism as at present rendered by the archaeologists;
then, passing over a number of religions that will be mentioned later, comes the Jewish, esoterically,
as in the Kabala, following in the line of Babylonian Magism; exoterically, as in Genesis and the
Pentateuch, a collection of allegorical legends. Read by the light of the Zohar, the initial four chapters
of Genesis are the fragment
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

[[Footnote continued from previous page]] known Causeless Cause," is the oldest dogma in

Occultism, millenniums earlier than the Pater-AEther of the Greeks and Latins. So are the "Force and

Matter, as Potencies of Space, inseparable, and the Unknown revealers of the Unknown." They are all

found in Aryan philosophy personified by Visvakarman, Indra, Vishnu, etc., etc. Still they are

expressed very philosophically, and under many unusual aspects, in the work referred to.

* In contradistinction to the manifested universe of matter, the term Mulaprakriti (from Mula, "the

root," and prakriti, "nature"), or the unmanifested primordial matter -- called by Western alchemists

Adam's Earth -- is applied by the Vedantins to Parabrahmam. Matter is dual in religious metaphysics,

and septenary in esoteric teachings, like everything else in the universe. As Mulaprakriti, it is

undifferentiated and eternal; as Vyakta, it becomes differentiated and conditioned, according to

Svetasvatara Upanishad, I. 8, and Devi Bhagavata Purana. The author of the Four Lectures on the

Bhagavad Gita, says, in speaking of Mulaprakriti: "From its (the Logos') objective standpoint,

Parabrahmam appears to it as Mulaprakriti. . . . Of course this Mulaprakriti is material to it, as any

material object is material to us. . . . Parabrahmam is an unconditioned and absolute reality, and

Mulaprakriti is a sort of veil thrown over it." (Theosophist, Vol. VIII., p. 304.)

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 11 PROEM.

of a highly philosophical page in the World's Cosmogony. (See Book III., Gupta Vidya and the
Zohar.) Left in their symbolical disguise, they are a nursery tale, an ugly thorn in the side of science
and logic, an evident effect of Karma. To have let them serve as a prologue to Christianity was a cruel
revenge on the part of the Rabbis, who knew better what their Pentateuch meant. It was a silent protest
against their spoliation, and the Jews have certainly now the better of their traditional persecutors. The
above-named exoteric creeds will be explained in the light of the Universal doctrine as we proceed
with it.
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The Occult Catechism contains the following questions and answers:
"What is it that ever is?" "Space, the eternal Anupadaka."* "What is it that ever was?" "The Germ in
the Root." "What is it that is ever coming and going?" "The Great Breath." "Then, there are three
Eternals?" "No, the three are one. That which ever is is one, that which ever was is one, that which is
ever being and becoming is also one: and this is Space."
"Explain, oh Lanoo (disciple)." -- "The One is an unbroken Circle (ring) with no circumference, for it
is nowhere and everywhere; the One is the boundless plane of the Circle, manifesting a diameter only
during the manvantaric periods; the One is the indivisible point found nowhere, perceived everywhere
during those periods; it is the Vertical and the Horizontal, the Father and the Mother, the summit and
base of the Father, the two extremities of the Mother, reaching in reality nowhere, for the One is the
Ring as also the rings that are within that Ring. Light in darkness and darkness in light: the 'Breath
which is eternal.' It proceeds from without inwardly, when it is everywhere, and from within
outwardly, when it is nowhere -- (i.e., maya,** one of the centres***). It expands and
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* Meaning "parentless" -- see farther on.

** Esoteric philosophy, regarding as Maya (or the illusion of ignorance) every finite thing, must

necessarily view in the same light every intra-Cosmic planet and body, as being something organised,

hence finite. The expression, therefore, "it proceeds from without inwardly, etc." refers in the first

portion of the sentence to the dawn of the Mahamanvantaric period, or the great re-evolution after one

of the complete periodical dissolutions of every compound form in Nature (from planet to molecule)

into its ultimate essence or element; and in its second portion, to the partial or local manvantara,

which may be a solar or even a planetary one.

*** By "centre," a centre of energy or a Cosmic focus is meant; when the so-called "Creation," or

formation of a planet, is accomplished by that force which is designated by the Occultists LIFE and by

Science "energy," then the process takes place [[Footnote continued on next page]]


[[Vol. 1, Page]] 12 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.


contracts (exhalation and inhalation). When it expands the mother diffuses and scatters; when it
contracts, the mother draws back and ingathers. This produces the periods of Evolution and
Dissolution, Manwantara and Pralaya. The Germ is invisible and fiery; the Root (the plane of the
circle) is cool; but during Evolution and Manwantara her garment is cold and radiant. Hot Breath is
the Father who devours the progeny of the many-faced Element (heterogeneous); and leaves the
single-faced ones (homogeneous). Cool Breath is the Mother, who conceives, forms, brings forth, and
receives them back into her bosom, to reform them at the Dawn (of the Day of Brahma, or
Manvantara). . . . ."

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For clearer understanding on the part of the general reader, it must be stated that Occult Science
recognises Seven Cosmical Elements -- four entirely physical, and the fifth (Ether) semi-material, as it
will become visible in the air towards the end of our Fourth Round, to reign supreme over the others
during the whole of the Fifth. The remaining two are as yet absolutely beyond the range of human
perception. These latter will, however, appear as presentments during the 6th and 7th Races of this
Round, and will become known in the 6th and 7th Rounds respectively.* These seven elements with
their numberless Sub-Elements
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

[[Footnote continued from previous page]] from within outwardly, every atom being said to contain in

itself creative energy of the divine breath. Hence, whereas after an absolute pralaya, or when the preexisting material consists but of ONE Element, and BREATH "is everywhere," the latter acts from

without inwardly: after a minor pralaya, everything having remained in statu quo -- in a refrigerated

state, so to say, like the moon -- at the first flutter of manvantara, the planet or planets begin their

resurrection to life from within outwardly.

* It is curious to notice how, in the evolutionary cycles of ideas, ancient thought seems to be reflected

in modern speculation. Had Mr. Herbert Spencer read and studied ancient Hindu philosophers when

he wrote a certain passage in his "First Principles" (p. 482), or is it an independent flash of inner

perception that made him say half correctly, half incorrectly, "motion as well as matter, being fixed in

quantity (?), it would seem that the change in the distribution of Matter which Motion effects, coming

to a limit in whichever direction it is carried (?), the indestructible Motion thereupon necessitates a

reverse distribution. Apparently, the universally co-existent forces of attraction and repulsion which,

as we have seen, necessitate rhythm in all minor changes throughout the Universe, also necessitate

rhythm in the totality of its changes -- produce now an immeasurable period during which the

attracting forces predominating, cause universal concentration, and then an immeasurable period,
during which the repulsive forces predominating, cause universal diffusion -- alternate eras of
Evolution and dissolution."

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 13 PROEM.

far more numerous than those known to Science) are simply conditional modifications and aspects of
the ONE and only Element. This latter is not Ether,* not even A'kasa but the Source of these. The
Fifth Element, now advocated quite freely by Science, is not the Ether hypothesised by Sir Isaac
Newton -- although he calls it by that name, having associated it in his mind probably with the
AEther, "Father-Mother" of Antiquity. As Newton intuitionally says, "Nature is a perpetual
circulatory worker, generating fluids out of solids, fixed things out of volatile, and volatile out of
fixed, subtile out of gross, and gross out of subtile. . . . . Thus, perhaps, may all things be originated
from Ether," (Hypoth, 1675).
The reader has to bear in mind that the Stanzas given treat only of the Cosmogony of our own
planetary System and what is visible around it, after a Solar Pralaya. The secret teachings with regard
to the Evolution of the Universal Kosmos cannot be given, since they could not be understood by the
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highest minds in this age, and there seem to be very few Initiates, even among the greatest, who are
allowed to speculate upon this subject. Moreover the Teachers say openly that not even the highest
Dhyani-Chohans have ever penetrated the mysteries beyond those boundaries that separate the
milliards of Solar systems from the "Central Sun," as it is called. Therefore, that which is given,
relates only to our visible Kosmos, after a "Night of Brahma."
Before the reader proceeds to the consideration of the Stanzas from the Book of Dzyan which form
the basis of the present work, it is absolutely necessary that he should be made acquainted with the
few fundamental conceptions which underlie and pervade the entire system of thought to which his
attention is invited. These basic ideas are few in number, and on their clear apprehension depends the
understanding of all that follows; therefore no apology is required for asking the reader to make
himself familiar with them first, before entering on the perusal of the work itself.
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* Whatever the views of physical Science upon the subject, Occult Science has been teaching for ages

that A'kasa -- of which Ether is the grossest form -- the fifth universal Cosmic Principle (to which

corresponds and from which proceeds human Manas) is, cosmically, a radiant, cool, diathermanous

plastic matter, creative in its physical nature, correlative in its grossest aspects and portions,

immutable in its higher principles. In the former condition it is called the Sub-Root; and in

conjunction with radiant heat, it recalls "dead worlds to life." In its higher aspect it is the Soul of the

World; in its lower -- the DESTROYER.


[[Vol. 1, Page]] 14 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.


The Secret Doctrine establishes three fundamental propositions: -(a) An Omnipresent, Eternal, Boundless, and Immutable PRINCIPLE on which all speculation is

impossible, since it transcends the power of human conception and could only be dwarfed by any

human expression or similitude. It is beyond the range and reach of thought -- in the words of

Mandukya, "unthinkable and unspeakable."

To render these ideas clearer to the general reader, let him set out with the postulate that there is one
absolute Reality which antecedes all manifested, conditioned, being. This Infinite and Eternal Cause -dimly formulated in the "Unconscious" and "Unknowable" of current European philosophy -- is the
rootless root of "all that was, is, or ever shall be." It is of course devoid of all attri butes and is
essentially without any relation to manifested, finite Being. It is "Be-ness" rather than Being (in
Sanskrit, Sat), and is beyond all thought or speculation.
This "Be-ness" is symbolised in the Secret Doctrine under two aspects. On the one hand, absolute
abstract Space, representing bare subjectivity, the one thing which no human mind can either exclude
from any conception, or conceive of by itself. On the other, absolute Abstract Motion representing
Unconditioned Consciousness. Even our Western thinkers have shown that Consciousness is
inconceivable to us apart from change, and motion best symbolises change, its essential characteristic.
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This latter aspect of the one Reality, is also symbolised by the term "The Great Breath," a symbol
sufficiently graphic to need no further elucidation. Thus, then, the first fundamental axiom of the
Secret Doctrine is this metaphysical ONE ABSOLUTE -- BE-NESS -- symbolised by finite
intelligence as the theological Trinity.
It may, however, assist the student if a few further explanations are given here.
Herbert Spencer has of late so far modified his Agnosticism, as to assert that the nature of the "First
Cause,"* which the Occultist more logically derives from the "Causeless Cause," the "Eternal," and
the "Unknowable," may be essentially the same as that of the Consciousness which wells up within
us: in short, that the impersonal reality pervading
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

*The "first" presupposes necessarily something which is the "first brought forth, the first in time,

space, and rank" -- and therefore finite and conditioned. The "first" [[Footnote continued on next

page]]


[[Vol. 1, Page]] 15 PROEM.


the Kosmos is the pure noumenon of thought. This advance on his part brings him very near to the

esoteric and Vedantin tenet.*

Parabrahm (the One Reality, the Absolute) is the field of Absolute Consciousness, i.e., that Essence

which is out of all relation to conditioned existence, and of which conscious existence is a conditioned

symbol. But once that we pass in thought from this (to us) Absolute Negation, duality supervenes in

the contrast of Spirit (or consciousness) and Matter, Subject and Object.

Spirit (or Consciousness) and Matter are, however, to be regarded, not as independent realities, but as

the two facets or aspects of the Absolute (Parabrahm), which constitute the basis of conditioned Being

whether subjective or objective.
Considering this metaphysical triad as the Root from which proceeds all manifestation, the great
Breath assumes the character of precosmic Ideation. It is the fons et origo of force and of all
individual consciousness, and supplies the guiding intelligence in the vast scheme of cosmic
Evolution. On the other hand, precosmic root-substance (Mulaprakriti) is that aspect of the Absolute
which underlies all the objective planes of Nature.
Just as pre-Cosmic Ideation is the root of all individual consciousness, so pre-Cosmic Substance is the
substratum of matter in the various grades of its differentiation.
Hence it will be apparent that the contrast of these two aspects of the Absolute is essential to the
existence of the "Manifested Universe." Apart from Cosmic Substance, Cosmic Ideation could not
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manifest as individual consciousness, since it is only through a vehicle** of matter that consciousness
wells up as "I am I," a physical basis being necessary to focus a ray of the Universal Mind at a certain
stage of complexity. Again, apart from Cosmic Ideation, Cosmic Substance would remain an empty
abstraction, and no emergence of consciousness could ensue.
The "Manifested Universe," therefore, is pervaded by duality, which is, as it were, the very essence of
its EX-istence as "manifestation."
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

[[Footnote continued from previous page]] cannot be the absolute, for it is a manifestation. Therefore,

Eastern Occultism calls the Abstract All the "Causeless One Cause," the "Rootless Root," and limits

the "First Cause" to the Logos, in the sense that Plato gives to this term.

* See Mr. Subba Row's four able lectures on the Bhagavad Gita, "Theosophist," February, 1887.

** Called in Sanskrit: "Upadhi."


[[Vol. 1, Page]] 16 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.


But just as the opposite poles of subject and object, spirit and matter, are but aspects of the One Unity

in which they are synthesized, so, in the manifested Universe, there is "that" which links spirit to

matter, subject to object.

This something, at present unknown to Western speculation, is called by the occultists Fohat. It is the

"bridge" by which the "Ideas" existing in the "Divine Thought" are impressed on Cosmic substance as

the "laws of Nature." Fohat is thus the dynamic energy of Cosmic Ideation; or, regarded from the

other side, it is the intelligent medium, the guiding power of all manifestation, the "Thought Divine"
transmitted and made manifest through the Dhyan Chohans,* the Architects of the visible World.
Thus from Spirit, or Cosmic Ideation, comes our consciousness; from Cosmic Substance the several
vehicles in which that consciousness is individualised and attains to self -- or reflective -consciousness; while Fohat, in its various manifestations, is the mysterious link between Mind and
Matter, the animating principle electrifying every atom into life.
The following summary will afford a clearer idea to the reader.
(1.) The ABSOLUTE; the Parabrahm of the Vedantins or the one Reality, SAT, which is, as Hegel
says, both Absolute Being and Non-Being.
(2.) The first manifestation, the impersonal, and, in philosophy, unmanifested Logos, the precursor of
the "manifested." This is the "First Cause," the "Unconscious" of European Pantheists.
(3.) Spirit-matter, LIFE; the "Spirit of the Universe," the Purusha and Prakriti, or the second Logos.
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(4.) Cosmic Ideation, MAHAT or Intelligence, the Universal World-Soul; the Cosmic Noumenon of
Matter, the basis of the intelligent operations in and of Nature, also called MAHA-BUDDHI.
The ONE REALITY; its dual aspects in the conditioned Universe.
Further, the Secret Doctrine affirms: -(b.) The Eternity of the Universe in toto as a boundless plane; periodically "the playground of
numberless Universes incessantly manifesting and disappearing," called "the manifesting stars," and
the "sparks of Eternity." "The Eternity of the Pilgrim"** is like a wink
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* Called by Christian theology: Archangels, Seraphs, etc., etc.

** "Pilgrim" is the appellation given to our Monad (the two in one) during its cycle of incarnations. It

is the only immortal and eternal principle in us, being an indivisible part of the integral whole -- the

Universal Spirit, from which it emanates, and into which it is absorbed at the end of the cycle. When it

is said to emanate from the one [[Footnote continued on next page]]


[[Vol. 1, Page]] 17 PROEM.


of the Eye of Self-Existence (Book of Dzyan.) "The appearance and disappearance of Worlds is like a

regular tidal ebb of flux and reflux." (See Part II., "Days and Nights of Brahma.")

This second assertion of the Secret Doctrine is the absolute universality of that law of periodicity, of

flux and reflux, ebb and flow, which physical science has observed and recorded in all departments of

nature. An alternation such as that of Day and Night, Life and Death, Sleeping and Waking, is a fact

so common, so perfectly universal and without exception, that it is easy to comprehend that in it we

see one of the absolutely fundamental laws of the universe.
Moreover, the Secret Doctrine teaches: -(c) The fundamental identity of all Souls with the Universal Over-Soul, the latter being itself an aspect
of the Unknown Root; and the obligatory pilgrimage for every Soul -- a spark of the former -- through
the Cycle of Incarnation (or "Necessity") in accordance with Cyclic and Karmic law, during the whole
term. In other words, no purely spiritual Buddhi (divine Soul) can have an independent (conscious)
existence before the spark which issued from the pure Essence of the Universal Sixth principle, -- or
the OVER-SOUL, -- has (a) passed through every elemental form of the phenomenal world of that
Manvantara, and (b) acquired individuality, first by natural impulse, and then by self-induced and selfdevised efforts (checked by its Karma), thus ascending through all the degrees of intelligence, from
the lowest to the highest Manas, from mineral and plant, up to the holiest archangel (Dhyani-Buddha).

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The pivotal doctrine of the Esoteric philosophy admits no privileges or special gifts in man, save those
won by his own Ego through personal effort and merit throughout a long series of metempsychoses
and reincarnations. This is why the Hindus say that the Universe is Brahma and Brahm, for Brahma
is in every atom of the universe, the six principles in Nature being all the outcome -- the variously
differentiated aspects -- of the SEVENTH and ONE, the only reality in the Universe whether
Cosmical or micro-cosmical; and also why the permutations (psychic, spiritual and physical), on the
plane of manifestation and form, of the sixth (Brahm the vehicle of Brahma) are viewed by
metaphysical
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

[[Footnote continued from previous page]] spirit, an awkward and incorrect expression has to be used,

for lack of appropriate words in English. The Vedantins call it Sutratma (Thread-Soul), but their

explanation, too, differs somewhat from that of the occultists; to explain which difference, however, is

left to the Vedantins themselves.


[[Vol. 1, Page]] 18 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.


antiphrasis as illusive and Mayavic. For although the root of every atom individually and of every

form collectively, is that seventh principle or the one Reality, still, in its manifested phenomenal and

temporary appearance, it is no better than an evanescent illusion of our senses. (See, for clearer

definition, Addendum "Gods, Monads and Atoms," and also "Theophania," "Bodhisatvas and

Reincarnation," etc., etc.)

In its absoluteness, the One Principle under its two aspects (of Parabrahmam and Mulaprakriti) is

sexless, unconditioned and eternal. Its periodical (manvantaric) emanation -- or primal radiation -- is

also One, androgynous and phenomenally finite. When the radiation radiates in its turn, all its
radiations are also androgynous, to become male and female principles in their lower aspects. After
Pralaya, whether the great or the minor Pralaya (the latter leaving the worlds in statu quo*), the first
that re-awakes to active life is the plastic A'kasa, Father-Mother, the Spirit and Soul of Ether, or the
plane on the surface of the Circle. Space is called the "Mother" before its Cosmic activity, and FatherMo ther at the first stage of re-awakening. (See Comments, Stanza II.) In the Kabala it is also FatherMo ther-Son. But whereas in the Eastern doctrine, these are the Seventh Principle of the manifested
Universe, or its "Atma-Buddhi-Manas" (Spirit, Soul, Intelligence), the triad branching off and
dividing into the seven cosmical and seven human principles, in the Western Kabala of the Christian
mystics it is the Triad or Trinity, and with their occultists, the male-female Jehovah, Jah-Havah. In
this lies the whole difference between the esoteric and the Christian trinities. The Mystics and the
Philosophers, the Eastern and Western Pantheists, synthesize their pregenetic triad in the pure divine
abstraction. The orthodox, anthropomorphize it. Hiranyagarbha, Hari, and Sankara -- the three
hypostases of the manifesting "Spirit of the Supreme Spirit" (by which title Prithivi -- the Earth -greets Vishnu in his first Avatar) -- are the purely metaphysical abstract qualities of formation,
preservation, and destruction, and are the three divine Avasthas (lit. hypostases) of that which "does
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

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* It is not the physical organisms that remain in statu quo, least of all their psychical principles, during

the great Cosmic or even Solar pralayas, but only their Akasic or astral "photographs." But during the

minor pralayas, once over-taken by the "Night," the planets remain intact, though dead, as a huge

animal, caught and embedded in the polar ice, remains the same for ages.


[[Vol. 1, Page]] 19 PROEM.


not perish with created things" (or Achyuta, a name of Vishnu); whereas the orthodox Christian

separates his personal creative Deity into the three personages of the Trinity, and admits of no higher

Deity. The latter, in Occultism, is the abstract Triangle; with the orthodox, the perfect Cube. The
creative god or the aggregate gods are regarded by the Eastern philosopher as Bhrantidarsanatah -"false apprehension," something "conceived of, by reason of erroneous appearances, as a material
form," and explained as arising from the illusive conception of the Egotistic personal and human Soul
(lower fifth principle). It is beautifully expressed in a new translation of Vishnu Purana. "That Brahma
in its totality has essentially the aspect of Prakriti, both evolved and unevolved (Mulaprakriti), and
also the aspect of Spirit and the aspect of Time. Spirit, O twice born, is the leading aspect of the
Supreme Brahma.* The next is a twofold aspect, -- Prakriti, both evolved and unevolved, and is the
time last." Kronos is shown in the Orphic theogony as being also a generated god or agent.
At this stage of the re-awakening of the Universe, the sacred symbolism represents it as a perfect
Circle with the (root) point in the Centre. This sign was universal, therefore we find it in the Kabala
also. The Western Kabala, however, now in the hands of Christian mystics, ignores it altogether,
though it is plainly shown in the Zohar. These sectarians begin at the end, and show as the symbol of
pregenetic Kosmos this sign
, calling it "the Union of the Rose and Cross," the great mystery of
occult generation, from whence the name -- Rosicrucians (Rose Cross)!
As may be judged, however, from the most important, as the best known of the Rosicrucians' symbols,
there is one which has never been hitherto understood even by modern mystics. It is that of the
"Pelican" tearing open its breast to feed its seven little ones -- the real creed of the Brothers of the
Rosie-Cross and a direct outcome from the Eastern
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* Thus Spencer, who, nevertheless, like Schopenhauer and von Hartmann, only reflects an aspect of

the old esoteric philosophers, and hence lands his readers on the bleak shore of Agnostic despair -reverently formulates the grand mystery; "that which persists unchanging in quantity, but ever

changing in form, under these sensible appearances which the Universe presents to us, is an unknown

and unknowable power, which we are obliged to recognise as without limit in Space and without

beginning or end in time." It is only daring Theology -- never Science or philosophy -- which seeks to

gauge the Infinite and unveil the Fathomless and Unknowable.


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[[Vol. 1, Page]] 20 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.


Secret Doctrine. Brahma (neuter) is called Kalahansa, meaning, as explained by Western Orientalists,
the Eternal Swan or goose (see Stanza III., Comment. 8), and so is Brahma, the Creator. A great
mistake is thus brought under notice; it is Brahma (neuter) who ought to be referred to as Hansavahana (He who uses the swan as his Vehicle) and not Brahma the Creator, who is the real Kalahansa,
while Brahma (neuter) is hamsa, and "A-hamsa," as will be explained in the Commentary. Let it be
understood that the terms Brahma and Parabrahmam are not used here because they belong to our
Esoteric nomenclature, but simply because they are more familiar to the students in the West. Both are
the perfect equivalents of our one, three, and seven vowelled terms, which stand for the ONE ALL,
and the One "All in all."
Such are the basic conceptions on which the Secret Doctrine rests.
It would not be in place here to enter upon any defence or proof of their inherent reasonableness; nor
can I pause to show how they are, in fact, contained -- though too often under a misleading guise -- in
every system of thought or philosophy worthy of the name.
Once that the reader has gained a clear comprehension of them and realised the light which they throw
on every problem of life, they will need no further justification in his eyes, because their truth will be
to him as evident as the sun in heaven. I pass on, therefore, to the subject matter of the Stanzas as
given in this volume, adding a skeleton outline of them, in the hope of thereby rendering the task of
the student more easy, by placing before him in a few words the general conception therein explained.
Stanza I. The history of cosmic evolution, as traced in the Stanzas, is, so to say, the abstract
algebraical formula of that Evolution. Hence the student must not expect to find there an account of all
the stages and transformations which intervene between the first beginnings of "Universal" evolution
and our present state. To give such an account would be as impossible as it would be
incomprehensible to men who cannot even grasp the nature of the plane of existence next to that to
which, for the moment, their consciousness is limited.
The Stanzas, therefore, give an abstract formula which can be applied, mutatis mutandis, to all
evolution: to that of our tiny earth, to

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 21 PROEM.

that of the chain of planets of which that earth forms one, to the solar Universe to which that chain
belongs, and so on, in an ascending scale, till the mind reels and is exhausted in the effort.
The seven Stanzas given in this volume represent the seven terms of this abstract formula. They refer
to, and describe the seven great stages of the evolutionary process, which are spoken of in the Puranas
as the "Seven Creations," and in the Bible as the "Days" of Creation.

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--------------------The First Stanza describes the state of the ONE ALL during Pralaya, before the first flutter of reawakening manifestation.
A moment's thought shows that such a state can only be symbolised; to describe it is impossible. Nor

can it be symbolised except in negatives; for, since it is the state of Absoluteness per se, it can possess

none of those specific attri butes which serve us to describe objects in positive terms. Hence that state

can only be suggested by the negatives of all those most abstract attri butes which men feel rather than

conceive, as the remotest limits attainable by their power of conception.

The stage described in Stanza II. is, to a western mind , so nearly identical with that mentioned in the
first Stanza, that to express the idea of its difference would require a treatise in itself. Hence it must be
left to the intuition and the higher faculties of the reader to grasp, as far as he can, the meaning of the
allegorical phrases used. Indeed it must be remembered that all these Stanzas appeal to the inner
faculties rather than to the ordinary comprehension of the physical brain.
Stanza III. describes the Re-awakening of the Universe to life after Pralaya. It depicts the emergence
of the "Monads" from thei[[r]] state of absorption within the ONE; the earliest and highest stage in the
formation of "Worlds," the term Monad being one which may apply equally to the vastest Solar
System or the tiniest atom.
Stanza IV. shows the differentiation of the "Germ" of the Universe

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 22 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

into the septenary hierarchy of conscious Divine Powers, who are the active manifestations of the One
Supreme Energy. They are the framers, shapers, and ultimately the creators of all the manifested
Universe, in the only sense in which the name "Creator" is intelligible; they inform and guide it; they
are the intelligent Beings who adjust and control evolution, embodying in themselves those
manifestations of the ONE LAW, which we know as "The Laws of Nature."
Generically, they are known as the Dhyan Chohans, though each of the various groups has its own
designation in the Secret Doctrine.
This stage of evolution is spoken of in Hindu mythology as the "Creation" of the Gods.
In Stanza V. the process of world-formation is described: --- First, diffused Cosmic Matter, then the
fiery "whirlwind," the first stage in the formation of a nebula. That nebula condenses, and after
passing through various transformations, forms a Solar Universe, a planetary chain, or a single planet,
as the case may be.
The subsequent stages in the formation of a "World" are indicated in Stanza VI., which brings the
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evolution of such a world down to its fourth great period, corresponding to the period in which we are
now living.
Stanza VII. continues the history, tracing the descent of life down to the appearance of Man; and thus
closes the first Book of the Secret Doctrine.
The development of "Man" from his first appearance on this earth in this Round to the state in which
we now find him will form the subject of Book II.
--------------------NOTE.
The Stanzas which form the thesis of every section are given throughout in their modern translated version, as it would

be worse


[[Vol. 1, Page]] 23 PROEM.


than useless to make the subject still more difficult by introducing the archaic phraseology of the
original, with its puzzling style and words. Extracts are given from the Chinese Thibetan and Sanskrit
translations of the original Senzar Commentaries and Glosses on the Book of DZYAN -- these being
now rendered for the first time into a European language. It is almost unnecessary to state that only
portions of the seven Stanzas are here given. Were they published complete they would remain
incomprehensible to all save the few higher occultists. Nor is there any need to assure the reader that,
no more than most of the profane, does the writer, or rather the humble recorder, understand those
forbidden passages. To facilitate the reading, and to avoid the too frequent reference to foot-notes, it
was thought best to blend together texts and glosses, using the Sanskrit and Tibetan proper names
whenever those cannot be avoided, in preference to giving the originals. The more so as the said terms
are all accepted synonyms, the former only being used between a Master and his chelas (or disciples).
Thus, were one to translate into English, using only the substantives and technical terms as employed
in one of the Tibetan and Senzar versions, Verse I would read as follows: --- "Tho-ag in Zhi-gyu slept
seven Khorlo. Zodmanas zhiba. All Nyug bosom. Konch-hog not; Thyan-Kam not; Lha-Chohan not;
Tenbrel Chugnyi not; Dharmakaya ceased; Tgenchang not become; Barnang and Ssa in Ngovonyidj;
alone Tho-og Yinsin in night of Sun-chan and Yong-grub (Parinishpanna), &c., &c.," which would
sound like pure Abracadabra.
As this work is written for the instruction of students of Occultism, and not for the benefit of
philologists, we may well avoid such foreign terms wherever it is possible to do so. The
untranslateable terms alone, incomprehensible unless explained in their meanings, are left, but all such
terms are rendered in their Sanskrit form. Needless to remind the reader that these are, in almost every
case, the late developments of the later language, and pertain to the Fifth Root-Race. Sanskrit, as now
known, was not spoken by the Atlanteans, and most of the philosophical terms used in the systems of
the India of the post-Mahabharatan period are not found in the Vedas, nor are they to be met with in
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the original Stanzas, but only their equivalents. The reader who is not a Theosophist, is once more
invited to regard all that which follows as a fairy tale, if he likes; at best as one of the yet unproven
speculations of

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 24 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

dreamers; and, at the worst, as an additional hypothesis to the many Scientific hypotheses past,
present and future, some exploded, others still lingering. It is not in any sense worse than are many of
the so called Scientific theories; and it is in every case more philosophical and probable.
In view of the abundant comments and explanations required, the references to the footnotes are given
in the usual way, while the sentences to be commented upon are marked with figures. Additional
matter will be found in the Chapters on Symbolism forming Part II., as well as in Part III., these being
often more full of information than the text.
---------------------

Next Section

Contents


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The Secret Doctrine by H. P. Blavatsky, Vol 1, Stanzas of Dzyan

The Secret Doctrine by H. P. Blavatsky -- Vol. 1

Theosophical University Press Online Edition

[[Vol. 1, Page 25]]

PART I.

COSMIC EVOLUTION.
--------------------SEVEN STANZAS TRANSLATED WITH COMMENTARIES
FROM THE

SECRET BOOK OF DZYAN.


[[Vol. 1, Page 26]]


Nor Aught nor Nought existed; yon bright sky
Was not, nor heaven's broad roof outstretched above.
What covered all? what sheltered? what concealed?
Was it the water's fathomless abyss?
There was not death -- yet there was nought immortal,
There was no confine betwixt day and night;
The only One breathed breathless by itself,
Other than It there nothing since has been.
Darkness there was, and all at first was veiled
In gloom profound -- an ocean without light -The germ that still lay covered in the husk
Burst forth, one nature, from the fervent heat.
........
Who knows the secret? who proclaimed it here?
Whence, whence this manifold creation sprang?
The Gods themselves came later into being -Who knows from whence this great creation sprang?
That, whence all this great creation came,
Whether Its will created or was mute,
The Most High Seer that is in highest heaven,
He knows it -- or perchance even He knows not."

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"Gazing into eternity . . .
Ere the foundations of the earth were laid,
.....
Thou wert. And when the subterranean flame
Shall burst its prison and devour the frame . . .
Thou shalt be still as Thou wert before
And knew no change, when time shall be no more.
Oh! endless thought, divine ETERNITY."

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 27 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

COSMIC EVOLUTION.
In Seven Stanzas translated from the Book of Dzyan.
--------------------STANZA I.

1. THE ETERNAL PARENT WRAPPED IN HER EVER INVISIBLE ROBES HAD SLUMBERED

ONCE AGAIN FOR SEVEN ETERNITIES.

2. TIME WAS NOT, FOR IT LAY ASLEEP IN THE INFINITE BOSOM OF DURATION.

3. UNIVERSAL MIND WAS NOT, FOR THERE WERE NO AH-HI TO CONTAIN IT.

4. THE SEVEN WAYS TO BLISS WERE NOT. THE GREAT CAUSES OF MISERY WERE NOT,
FOR THERE WAS NO ONE TO PRODUCE AND GET ENSNARED BY THEM.
5. DARKNESS ALONE FILLED THE BOUNDLESS ALL, FOR FATHER, MOTHER AND SON
WERE ONCE MORE ONE, AND THE SON HAD NOT AWAKENED YET FOR THE NEW
WHEEL, AND HIS PILGRIMAGE THEREON.
6. THE SEVEN SUBLIME LORDS AND THE SEVEN TRUTHS HAD CEASED TO BE, AND
THE UNIVERSE, THE SON OF NECESSITY, WAS IMMERSED IN PARANISHPANNA, TO BE
OUTBREA THED BY THAT WHICH IS AND YET IS NOT. NAUGHT WAS.
7. THE CAUSES OF EXISTENCE HAD BEEN DONE AWAY WITH; THE VISIBLE THAT WAS,
AND THE INVISIBLE THAT IS, RESTED IN ETERNAL NON-BEING -- THE ONE BEING.

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8. ALONE THE ONE FORM OF EXISTENCE STRETCHED BOUNDLESS, INFINITE,
CAUSELESS, IN DREAMLESS SLEEP; AND LIFE PULSATED UNCONSCIOUS IN
UNIVERSAL SPACE, THROUGHOUT THAT ALL-PRESENCE WHICH IS SENSED BY THE
OPENED EYE OF THE DANGMA.
9. BUT WHERE WAS THE DANGMA WHEN THE ALAYA OF THE UNIVERSE WAS IN
PARAMARTHA AND THE GREAT WHEEL WAS ANUPADAKA?

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 28 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

STANZA II.

1. . . . WHERE WERE THE BUILDERS, THE LUMINOUS SONS OF MANVANTARIC DAWN? .
. . IN THE UNKNOWN DARKNESS IN THEIR AH-HI PARANISHPANNA. THE PRODUCERS
OF FORM FROM NO-FORM -- THE ROOT OF THE WORLD -- THE DEVAMATRI AND
SVABHAVAT, RESTED IN THE BLISS OF NON-BEING.
2. . . . WHERE WAS SILENCE? WHERE THE EARS TO SENSE IT? NO, THERE WAS
NEITHER SILENCE NOR SOUND; NAUGHT SAVE CEASELESS ETERNAL BREATH, WHICH
KNOWS ITSELF NOT.
3. THE HOUR HAD NOT YET STRUCK; THE RAY HAD NOT YET FLASHED INTO THE
GERM; THE MATRIPADMA HAD NOT YET SWOLLEN.
4. HER HEART HAD NOT YET OPENED FOR THE ONE RAY TO ENTER, THENCE TO FALL,
AS THREE INTO FOUR, INTO THE LAP OF MAYA.
5. THE SEVEN SONS WERE NOT YET BORN FROM THE WEB OF LIGHT. DARKNESS
ALONE WAS FATHER-MOTHER, SVABHAVAT; AND SVABHAVAT WAS IN DARKNESS.
6. THESE TWO ARE THE GERM, AND THE GERM IS ONE. THE UNIVERSE WAS STILL
CONCEALED IN THE DIVINE THOUGHT AND THE DIVINE BOSOM. . . .
------STANZA III.

1. . . . THE LAST VIBRATION OF THE SEVENTH ETERNITY THRILLS THROUGH
INFINITUDE. THE MOTHER SWELLS, EXPANDING FROM WITHIN WITHOUT, LIKE THE
BUD OF THE LOTUS.
2. THE VIBRATION SWEEPS ALONG, TOUCHING WITH ITS SWIFT WING THE WHOLE
UNIVERSE AND THE GERM THAT DWELLETH IN DARKNESS: THE DARKNESS THAT
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BREATHES OVER THE SLUMBERING WATERS OF LIFE. . .
3. DARKNESS RADIATES LIGHT, AND LIGHT DROPS ONE SOLITARY RAY INTO THE
MOTHER-DEEP. THE RAY SHOOTS THROUGH THE VIRGIN EGG, THE RAY CAUSES THE
ETERNAL EGG TO THRILL, AND DROP THE NON-ETERNAL GERM, WHICH CONDENSES
INTO THE WORLD-EGG.

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 29 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

4. THEN THE THREE FALL INTO THE FOUR. THE RADIANT ESSENCE BECOMES SEVEN
INSIDE, SEVEN OUTSIDE. THE LUMINOUS EGG, WHICH IN ITSELF IS THREE, CURDLES
AND SPREADS IN MILK-WHITE CURDS THROUGHOUT THE DEPTHS OF MOTHER, THE
ROOT THAT GROWS IN THE DEPTHS OF THE OCEAN OF LIFE.
5. THE ROOT REMAINS, THE LIGHT REMAINS, THE CURDS REMAIN, AND STILL
OEAOHOO IS ONE.
6. THE ROOT OF LIFE WAS IN EVERY DROP OF THE OCEAN OF IMMORTALITY, AND
THE OCEAN WAS RADIANT LIGHT, WHICH WAS FIRE, AND HEAT, AND MOTION.
DARKNESS VANISHED AND WAS NO MORE; IT DISAPPEARED IN ITS OWN ESSENCE,
THE BODY OF FIRE AND WATER, OR FATHER AND MOTHER.
7. BEHOLD, OH LANOO! THE RADIANT CHILD OF THE TWO, THE UNPARALLELED
REFULGENT GLORY: BRIGHT SPACE SON OF DARK SPACE, WHICH EMERGES FROM
THE DEPTHS OF THE GREAT DARK WATERS. IT IS OEAOHOO THE YOUNGER, THE * * *
HE SHINES FORTH AS THE SON; HE IS THE BLAZING DIVINE DRAGON OF WISDOM;
THE ONE IS FOUR, AND FOUR TAKES TO ITSELF THREE,** AND THE UNION PRODUCES
THE SAPTA, IN WHOM ARE THE SEVEN WHICH BECOME THE TRIDASA (OR THE HOSTS
AND THE MULTITUDES). BEHOLD HIM LIFTING THE VEIL AND UNFURLING IT FROM
EAST TO WEST. HE SHUTS OUT THE ABOVE, AND LEAVES THE BELOW TO BE SEEN AS
THE GREAT ILLUSION. HE MARKS THE PLACES FOR THE SHINING ONES, AND TURNS
THE UPPER INTO A SHORELESS SEA OF FIRE, AND THE ONE MANIFESTED INTO THE
GREAT WATERS.
8. WHERE WAS THE GERM AND WHERE WAS NOW DARKNESS? WHERE IS THE SPIRIT
OF THE FLAME THAT BURNS IN THY LAMP, OH LANOO? THE GERM IS THAT, AND
THAT IS LIGHT, THE WHITE BRILLIANT SON OF THE DARK HIDDEN FATHER.
9. LIGHT IS COLD FLAME, AND FLAME IS FIRE, AND FIRE PRODUCES HEAT, WHICH
YIELDS WATER: THE WATER OF LIFE IN THE GREAT MOTHER.
10. FATHER-MOTHER SPIN A WEB WHOSE UPPER END IS FASTENED TO SPIRIT -- THE
LIGHT OF THE ONE DARKNESS -- AND THE LOWER ONE TO ITS SHADOWY END,
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MATTER; AND THIS WEB IS THE UNIVERSE SPUN OUT OF THE TWO SUBSTANCES
MADE IN ONE, WHICH IS SVABHAVAT.
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

** In the English translation from the Sanskrit the numbers are given in that language, Eka, Chatur,

etc., etc. It was thought best to give them in English.


[[Vol. 1, Page]] 30 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.


11. IT EXPANDS WHEN THE BREATH OF FIRE IS UPON IT; IT CONTRACTS WHEN THE

BREATH OF THE MOTHER TOUCHES IT. THEN THE SONS DISSOCIATE AND SCATTER,

TO RETURN INTO THEIR MOTHER'S BOSOM AT THE END OF THE GREAT DAY, AND REBECOME ONE WITH HER; WHEN IT IS COOLING IT BECOMES RADIANT, AND THE SONS

EXPAND AND CONTRACT THROUGH THEIR OWN SELVES AND HEARTS; THEY

EMBRACE INFINITUDE.

12. THEN SVABHAVAT SENDS FOHAT TO HARDEN THE ATOMS. EACH IS A PART OF

THE WEB. REFLECTING THE "SELF-EXISTENT LORD" LIKE A MIRROR, EACH BECOMES

IN TURN A WORLD.

------STANZA IV.

1. . . . LISTEN, YE SONS OF THE EARTH, TO YOUR INSTRUCTORS -- THE SONS OF THE

FIRE. LEARN, THERE IS NEITHER FIRST NOR LAST, FOR ALL IS ONE: NUMBER ISSUED
FROM NO NUMBER.
2. LEARN WHAT WE WHO DESCEND FROM THE PRIMORDIAL SEVEN, WE WHO ARE
BORN FROM THE PRIMORDIAL FLAME, HAVE LEARNT FROM OUR FATHERS. . . .
3. FROM THE EFFULGENCY OF LIGHT -- THE RAY OF THE EVER-DARKNESS -- SPRUNG
IN SPACE THE RE-AWAKENED ENERGIES; THE ONE FROM THE EGG, THE SIX, AND THE
FIVE. THEN THE THREE, THE ONE, THE FOUR, THE ONE, THE FIVE -- THE TWICE SEVEN
THE SUM TOTAL. AND THESE ARE THE ESSENCES, THE FLAMES, THE ELEMENTS, THE
BUILDERS, THE NUMBERS, THE ARUPA, THE RUPA, AND THE FORCE OF DIVINE MAN -THE SUM TOTAL. AND FROM THE DIVINE MAN EMANATED THE FORMS, THE SPARKS,
THE SACRED ANIMALS, AND THE MESSENGERS OF THE SACRED FATHERS WITHIN
THE HOLY FOUR.
4. THIS WAS THE ARMY OF THE VOICE -- THE DIVINE MOTHER OF THE SEVEN. THE
SPARKS OF THE SEVEN ARE SUBJECT TO, AND THE SERVANTS OF, THE FIRST, THE
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SECOND, THE THIRD, THE FOURTH, THE FIFTH, THE SIXTH, AND THE SEVENTH OF THE
SEVEN. THESE "SPARKS" ARE CALLED SPHERES, TRIANGLES, CUBES, LINES, AND
MODELLERS; FOR THUS STANDS THE ETERNAL NIDANA -- THE OEAOHOO, WHICH IS:

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 31 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

5. "DARKNESS" THE BOUNDLESS, OR THE NO-NUMBER, ADI-NIDANA SVABHAVAT: -I. THE ADI-SANAT, THE NUMBER, FOR HE IS ONE.
II. THE VOICE OF THE LORD SVABHAVAT, THE NUMBERS, FOR HE IS ONE
AND NINE.
III. THE "FORMLESS SQUARE."
AND THESE THREE ENCLOSED WITHIN THE

ARE THE SACRED FOUR; AND THE

TEN ARE THE ARUPA UNIVERSE. THEN COME THE "SONS," THE SEVEN FIGHTERS, THE
ONE, THE EIGHTH LEFT OUT, AND HIS BREATH WHICH IS THE LIGHT-MAKER.
6. THEN THE SECOND SEVEN, WHO ARE THE LIPIKA, PRODUCED BY THE THREE. THE
REJECTED SON IS ONE. THE "SON-SUNS" ARE COUNTLESS.
------STANZA V.

1. THE PRIMORDIAL SEVEN, THE FIRST SEVEN BREATHS OF THE DRAGON OF
WISDOM, PRODUCE IN THEIR TURN FROM THEIR HOLY CIRCUMGYRATING BREATHS
THE FIERY WHIRLWIND.
2. THEY MAKE OF HIM THE MESSENGER OF THEIR WILL. THE DZYU BECOMES FOHAT,
THE SWIFT SON OF THE DIVINE SONS WHOSE SONS ARE THE LIPIKA, RUNS CIRCULAR
ERRANDS. FOHAT IS THE STEED AND THE THOUGHT IS THE RIDER. HE PASSES LIKE
LIGHTNING THROUGH THE FIERY CLOUDS; TAKES THREE, AND FIVE, AND SEVEN
STRIDES THROUGH THE SEVEN REGIONS ABOVE, AND THE SEVEN BELOW. HE LIFTS
HIS VOICE, AND CALLS THE INNUMERABLE SPARKS, AND JOINS THEM.
3. HE IS THEIR GUIDING SPIRIT AND LEADER. WHEN HE COMMENCES WORK, HE
SEPARATES THE SPARKS OF THE LOWER KINGDOM THAT FLOAT AND THRILL WITH
JOY IN THEIR RADIANT DWELLINGS, AND FORMS THEREWITH THE GERMS OF
WHEELS. HE PLACES THEM IN THE SIX DIRECTIONS OF SPACE, AND ONE IN THE
MIDDLE -- THE CENTRAL WHEEL.

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4. FOHAT TRACES SPIRAL LINES TO UNITE THE SIXTH TO THE SEVENTH -- THE
CROWN; AN ARMY OF THE SONS OF LIGHT STANDS AT EACH ANGLE, AND THE
LIPIKA IN THE MIDDLE WHEEL, THEY SAY: THIS IS GOOD, THE

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 32 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

FIRST DIVINE WORLD IS READY, THE FIRST IS NOW THE SECOND. THEN THE "DIVINE
ARUPA" REFLECTS ITSELF IN CHHAYA LOKA, THE FIRST GARMENT OF THE
ANUPADAKA.
5. FOHAT TAKES FIVE STRIDES AND BUILDS A WINGED WHEEL AT EACH CORNER OF
THE SQUARE, FOR THE FOUR HOLY ONES AND THEIR ARMIES.
6. THE LIPIKA CIRCUMSCRIBE THE TRIANGLE, THE FIRST ONE, THE CUBE, THE
SECOND ONE, AND THE PENTACLE WITHIN THE EGG. IT IS THE RING CALLED "PASS
NOT" FOR THOSE WHO DESCEND AND ASCEND. ALSO FOR THOSE WHO DURING THE
KALPA ARE PROGRESSING TOWARDS THE GREAT DAY "BE WITH US." THUS WERE
FORMED THE RUPA AND THE ARUPA: FROM ONE LIGHT SEVEN LIGHTS; FROM EACH
OF THE SEVEN, SEVEN TIMES SEVEN LIGHTS. THE WHEELS WATCH THE RING. . . . .
------STANZA VI.

1. BY THE POWER OF THE MOTHER OF MERCY AND KNOWLEDGE -- KWAN-YIN -- THE
"TRIPLE" OF KWAN-SHAI-YIN, RESIDING IN KWAN-YIN-TIEN, FOHAT, THE BREATH OF
THEIR PROGENY, THE SON OF THE SONS, HAVING CALLED FORTH, FROM THE LOWER
ABYSS, THE ILLUSIVE FORM OF SIEN-TCHANG AND THE SEVEN ELEMENTS:*
2. THE SWIFT AND RADIANT ONE PRODUCES THE SEVEN LAYA CENTRES, AGAINST
WHICH NONE WILL PREVAIL TO THE GREAT DAY "BE-WITH-US," AND SEATS THE
UNIVERSE ON THESE ETERNAL FOUNDATIONS SURROUNDING TSIEN-TCHAN WITH
THE ELEMENTARY GERMS.
3. OF THE SEVEN -- FIRST ONE MANIFESTED, SIX CONCEALED, TWO MANIFESTED,
FIVE CONCEALED; THREE MANIFESTED, FOUR CONCEALED; FOUR PRODUCED, THREE
HIDDEN; FOUR AND ONE TSAN REVEALED, TWO AND ONE HALF CONCEALED; SIX TO
BE MANIFESTED, ONE LAID ASIDE. LASTLY, SEVEN SMALL WHEELS REVOLVING; ONE
GIVING BIRTH TO THE OTHER.
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* Verse 1 of Stanza VI. is of a far later date than the other Stanzas, though still very ancient. The old

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text of this verse, having names entirely unknown to the Orientalists would give no clue to the

student.


[[Vol. 1, Page]] 33 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.


4. HE BUILDS THEM IN THE LIKENESS OF OLDER WHEELS, PLACING THEM ON THE

IMPERISHABLE CENTRES.

HOW DOES FOHAT BUILD THEM? HE COLLECTS THE FIERY DUST. HE MAKES BALLS

OF FIRE, RUNS THROUGH THEM, AND ROUND THEM, INFUSING LIFE THEREINTO
THEN' SETS THEM INTO MOTION; SOME ONE WAY, SOME THE OTHER WAY. THEY ARE
COLD, HE MAKES THEM HOT. THEY ARE DRY, HE MAKES THEM MOIST. THEY SHINE,
HE FANS AND COOLS THEM. THUS ACTS FOHAT FROM ONE TWILIGHT TO THE OTHER,
DURING SEVEN ETERNITIES.
5. AT THE FOURTH, THE SONS ARE TOLD TO CREATE THEIR IMAGES. ONE THIRD
REFUSES -- TWO OBEY.
THE CURSE IS PRONOUNCED; THEY WILL BE BORN ON THE FOURTH, SUFFER AND
CAUSE SUFFERING; THIS IS THE FIRST WAR.
6. THE OLDER WHEELS ROTATED DOWNWARDS AND UPWARDS. . . . THE MOTHER'S
SPAWN FILLED THE WHOLE. THERE WERE BATTLES FOUGHT BETWEEN THE
CREATORS AND THE DESTROYERS, AND BATTLES FOUGHT FOR SPACE; THE SEED
APPEARING AND RE-APPEARING CONTINUOUSLY.
7. MAKE THY CALCULATIONS, LANOO, IF THOU WOULDEST LEARN THE CORRECT
AGE OF THY SMALL WHEEL. ITS FOURTH SPOKE IS OUR MOTHER. REACH THE
FOURTH "FRUIT" OF THE FOURTH PATH OF KNOWLEDGE THAT LEADS TO NIRVANA,
AND THOU SHALT COMPREHEND, FOR THOU SHALT SEE . . . . .
------STANZA VII.

1. BEHOLD THE BEGINNING OF SENTIENT FORMLESS LIFE.
FIRST THE DIVINE, THE ONE FROM THE MOTHER-SPIRIT; THEN THE SPIRITUAL; THE
THREE FROM THE ONE, THE FOUR FROM THE ONE, AND THE FIVE FROM WHICH THE
THREE, THE FIVE, AND THE SEVEN. THESE ARE THE THREE-FOLD, THE FOUR-FOLD
DOWNWARD; THE "MIND-BORN" SONS OF THE FIRST LORD; THE SHINING SEVEN.
IT IS THEY WHO ARE THOU, ME, HIM, OH LANOO. THEY, WHO WATCH OVER THEE,
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AND THY MOTHER EARTH.

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 34 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

2. THE ONE RAY MULTIPLIES THE SMALLER RAYS. LIFE PRECEDES FORM, AND LIFE
SURVIVES THE LAST ATOM OF FORM. THROUGH THE COUNTLESS RAYS PROCEEDS
THE LIFE-RAY, THE ONE, LIKE A THREAD THROUGH MANY JEWELS.
3. WHEN THE ONE BECOMES TWO, THE THREEFOLD APPEARS, AND THE THREE ARE
ONE; AND IT IS OUR THREAD, OH LANOO, THE HEART OF THE MAN-PLANT CALLED
SAPTASARMA.
4. IT IS THE ROOT THAT NEVER DIES; THE THREE-TONGUED FLAME OF THE FOUR
WICKS. THE WICKS ARE THE SPARKS, THAT DRAW FROM THE THREE-TONGUED
FLAME SHOT OUT BY THE SEVEN -- THEIR FLAME -- THE BEAMS AND SPARKS OF ONE
MOON REFLECTED IN THE RUNNING WAVES OF ALL THE RIVERS OF EARTH.
5. THE SPARK HANGS FROM THE FLAME BY THE FINEST THREAD OF FOHAT. IT
JOURNEYS THROUGH THE SEVEN WORLDS OF MAYA. IT STOPS IN THE FIRST, AND IS
A METAL AND A STONE; IT PASSES INTO THE SECOND AND BEHOLD -- A PLANT; THE
PLANT WHIRLS THROUGH SEVEN CHANGES AND BECOMES A SACRED ANIMAL.
FROM THE COMBINED ATTRIBUTES OF THESE, MANU, THE THINKER IS FORMED.
WHO FORMS HIM? THE SEVEN LIVES, AND THE ONE LIFE. WHO COMPLETES HIM? THE
FIVE-FOLD LHA. AND WHO PERFECTS THE LAST BODY? FISH, SIN, AND SOMA. . . . .
6. FROM THE FIRST-BORN THE THREAD BETWEEN THE SILENT WATCHER AND HIS
SHADOW BECOMES MORE STRONG AND RADIANT WITH EVERY CHANGE. THE
MORNING SUN-LIGHT HAS CHANGED INTO NOON-DAY GLORY. . . . .
7. THIS IS THY PRESENT WHEEL, SAID THE FLAME TO THE SPARK. THOU ART MYSELF,
MY IMAGE, AND MY SHADOW. I HAVE CLOTHED MYSELF IN THEE, AND THOU ART
MY VAHAN TO THE DAY, "BE WITH US," WHEN THOU SHALT RE-BECOME MYSELF
AND OTHERS, THYSELF AND ME. THEN THE BUILDERS, HAVING DONNED THEIR FIRST
CLOTHING, DESCEND ON RADIANT EARTH AND REIGN OVER MEN -- WHO ARE
THEMSELVES. . . .
Thus ends this portion of the archaic narrative, dark, confused, almost incomprehensible. An attempt
will now be made to throw light into this darkness, to make sense out of this apparent NON-SENSE.

Next Section

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Contents

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The Secret Doctrine by H. P. Blavatsky -- Vol. 1

Theosophical University Press Online Edition

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 35 STANZA I.

COMMENTARIES
ON THE SEVEN STANZAS AND THEIR TERMS, ACCORDING TO THEIR
NUMERATION, IN STANZAS AND SLOKAS.
STANZA I.
1. "THE ETERNAL PARENT (Space), WRAPPED IN HER EVER INVISIBLE ROBES, HAD
SLUMBERED ONCE AGAIN FOR SEVEN ETERNITIES (a)."
The "Parent Space" is the eternal, ever present cause of all -- the incomprehensible DEITY, whose
"invisible robes" are the mystic root of all matter, and of the Universe. Space is the one eternal thing
that we can most easily imagine, immovable in its abstraction and uninfluenced by either the presence
or absence in it of an objective Universe. It is without dimension, in every sense, and self-existent.
Spirit is the first differentiation from THAT, the causeless cause of both Spirit and Matter. It is, as
taught in the esoteric catechism, neither limitless void, nor conditioned fulness, but both. It was and
ever will be. (See Proem pp. 2 et seq.)
Thus, the "Robes" stand for the noumenon of undifferentiated Cosmic Matter. It is not matter as we
know it, but the spiritual essence of matter, and is co-eternal and even one with Space in its abstract
sense. Root-nature is also the source of the subtile invisible properties in visible matter. It is the Soul,
so to say, of the ONE infinite Spirit. The Hindus call it Mulaprakriti, and say that it is the primordial
substance, which is the basis of the Upadhi or vehicle of every phenomenon, whether physical, mental
or psychic. It is the source from which Akasa radiates.
(a) By the Seven "Eternities," aeons or periods are meant. The word "Eternity," as understood in
Christian theology, has no meaning to the Asiatic ear, except in its application to the ONE existence;
nor is

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 36 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

the term sempiternity, the eternal only in futurity, anything better than a misnomer.* Such words do
not and cannot exist in philosophical metaphysics, and were unknown till the advent of ecclesiastical
Christianity. The Seven Eternities meant are the seven periods, or a period answering in its duration to
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100 years of Brahma -- making a total of 311,040,000,000,000 of years; each year of Brahma being
composed of 360 "days," and of the same number of "nights" of Brahma (reckoning by the
Chandrayana or lunar year); and a "Day of Brahma" consisting of 4,320,000,000 of mortal years.
These "Eternities" belong to the most secret calculations, in which, in order to arrive at the true total,
every figure must be 7x (7 to the power of x); x varying according to the nature of the cycle in the
subjective or real world; and every figure or number relating to, or representing all the different cycles
from the greatest to the smallest -- in the objective or unreal world -- must necessarily be multiples of
seven. The key to this cannot be given, for herein lies the mystery of esoteric calculations, and for the
purposes of ordinary calculation it has no sense. "The number seven," says the Kabala, "is the great
number of the Divine Mysteries;" number ten is that of all human knowledge (Pythagorean decade);
1,000 is the number ten to the third power, and therefore the number 7,000 is also symbolical. In the
Secret Doctrine the figure and number 4 are the male symbol only on the highest plane of abstraction;
on the plane of matter the 3 is the masculine and the 4 the female: the upright and the horizontal in the
fourth stage of symbolism, when the symbols became the glyphs of the generative powers on the
physical plane.
------STANZA I. -- Continued.
2. TIME WAS NOT, FOR IT LAY ASLEEP IN THE INFINITE BOSOM OF DURATION (a).

[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* It is stated in Book II., ch. viii., of Vishnu Purana: "By immortality is meant existence to the end of

the Kalpa;" and Wilson, the translator, remarks in a footnote: "This, according to the Vedas, is all that

is to be understood of the immortality (or eternity) of the gods; they perish at the end of universal

dissolution (or Pralaya)." And Esoteric philosophy says: They "perish" not, but are re-absorbed.


[[Vol. 1, Page]] 37 TIME AND UNIVERSAL MIND.


(a) Time is only an illusion produced by the succession of our states of consciousness as we travel

through eternal duration, and it does not exist where no consciousness exists in which the illusion can

be produced; but "lies asleep." The present is only a mathematical line which divides that part of

eternal duration which we call the future, from that part which we call the past. Nothing on earth has

real duration, for nothing remains without change -- or the same -- for the billionth part of a second;

and the sensation we have of the actuality of the division of "time" known as the present, comes from

the blurring of that momentary glimpse, or succession of glimpses, of things that our senses give us,

as those things pass from the region of ideals which we call the future, to the region of memories that
we name the past. In the same way we experience a sensation of duration in the case of the
instantaneous electric spark, by reason of the blurred and continuing impression on the retina. The real
person or thing does not consist solely of what is seen at any particular moment, but is composed of
the sum of all its various and changing conditions from its appearance in the material form to its
disappearance from the earth. It is these "sum-totals" that exist from eternity in the "future," and pass
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by degrees through matter, to exist for eternity in the "past." No one could say that a bar of metal
dropped into the sea came into existence as it left the air, and ceased to exist as it entered the water,
and that the bar itself consisted only of that cross-section thereof which at any given moment
coincided with the mathematical plane that separates, and, at the same time, joins, the atmosphere and
the ocean. Even so of persons and things, which, dropping out of the to-be into the has-been, out of
the future into the past -- present momentarily to our senses a cross-section, as it were, of their total
selves, as they pass through time and space (as matter) on their way from one eternity to another: and
these two constitute that "duration" in which alone anything has true existence, were our senses but
able to cognize it there.
------STANZA I. -- Continued.
3. . . . UNIVERSAL MIND WAS NOT, FOR THERE WERE NO AH-HI (celestial beings) TO

CONTAIN (hence to manifest) IT (a).

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 38 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

(a) Mind is a name given to the sum of the states of Consciousness grouped under Thought, Will, and
Feeling. During deep sleep, ideation ceases on the physical plane, and memory is in abeyance; thus
for the time-being "Mind is not," because the organ, through which the Ego manifests ideation and
memory on the material plane, has temporarily ceased to function. A noumenon can become a
phenomenon on any plane of existence only by manifesting on that plane through an appropriate basis
or vehicle; and during the long night of rest called Pralaya, when all the existences are dissolved, the
"UNIVERSAL MIND" remains as a permanent possibility of mental action, or as that abstract
absolute thought, of which mind is the concrete relative manifestation. The AH-HI (Dhyan-Chohans)
are the collective hosts of spiritual beings -- the Angelic Hosts of Christianity, the Elohim and
"Messengers" of the Jews -- who are the vehicle for the manifestation of the divine or universal
thought and will. They are the Intelligent Forces that give to and enact in Nature her "laws," while
themselves acting according to laws imposed upon them in a similar manner by still higher Powers;
but they are not "the personifications" of the powers of Nature, as erroneously thought. This hierarchy
of spiritual Beings, through which the Universal Mind comes into action, is like an army -- a "Host,"
truly -- by means of which the fighting power of a nation manifests itself, and which is composed of
army corps, divisions, brigades, regiments, and so forth, each with its separate individuality or life,
and its limited freedom of action and limited responsibilities; each contained in a larger individuality,
to which its own interests are subservient, and each containing lesser individualities in itself.
------STANZA I. -- Continued.
4. THE SEVEN WAYS TO BLISS (Moksha* or Nirvana) WERE NOT (a). THE GREAT CAUSES

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OF MISERY (Nidana** and Maya) WERE NOT, FOR THERE WAS NO ONE TO PRODUCE AND
GET ENSNARED BY THEM (b).
(a) There are seven "Paths" or "Ways" to the bliss of Non-Exist[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

*Nippang in China; Neibban in Burmah; or Moksha in India.

** The "12" Nidanas (in Tibetan Ten-brel chug-nyi) the chief causes of existence, effects generated

by a concatenation of causes produced (see Comment. II).


[[Vol. 1, Page]] 39 THE CAUSES OF BEING.


ence, which is absolute Being, Existence, and Consciousness. They were not, because the Universe

was, so far, empty, and existed only in the Divine Thought. For it is . . .

(b) The twelve Nidanas or causes of being. Each is the effect of its antecedent cause, and a cause, in

its turn, to its successor; the sum total of the Nidanas being based on the four truths, a doctrine

especially characteristic of the Hinayana System.* They belong to the theory of the stream of

catenated law which produces merit and demerit, and finally brings Karma into full sway. It is based

upon the great truth that re-incarnation is to be dreaded, as existence in this world only entails upon

man suffering, misery and pain; Death itself being unable to deliver man from it, since death is merely

the door through which he passes to another life on earth after a little rest on its threshold -Devachan. The Hinayana System, or School of the "Little Vehicle," is of very ancient growth; while
the Mahayana is of a later period, having originated after the death of Buddha. Yet the tenets of the
latter are as old as the hills that have contained such schools from time immemorial, and the Hinayana
and Mahayana Schools (the latter, that of the "Great Vehicle") both teach the same doctrine in reality.
Yana, or Vehicle (in Sanskrit, Vahan) is a mystic expression, both "vehicles" inculcating that man
may escape the sufferings of rebirths and even the false bliss of Devachan, by obtaining Wisdom and
Knowledge, which alone can dispel the Fruits of Illusion and Ignorance.
Maya or illusion is an element which enters into all finite things, for everything that exists has only a
relative, not an absolute, reality, since the appearance which the hidden noumenon assumes for any
observer depends upon his power of cognition. To the untrained eye of the savage, a painting is at first
an unmeaning confusion of streaks and daubs of color, while an educated eye sees instantly a face or a
landscape. Nothing is permanent except the one hidden absolute existence which contains in itself the
noumena of all realities. The existences belonging to every plane of being, up to the highest DhyanChohans, are, in degree, of the nature of shadows cast by a magic lantern on a colourless screen; but
all things are relatively real, for the cogniser is also a reflection, and the things cognised are therefore
as real to him as himself. Whatever reality things possess must be looked for in them
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

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* See Wassilief on Buddhism, pp. 97-950.


[[Vol. 1, Page]] 40 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.


before or after they have passed like a flash through the material world; but we cannot cognise any

such existence directly, so long as we have sense-instruments which bring only material existence into

the field of our consciousness. Whatever plane our consciousness may be acting in, both we and the

things belonging to that plane are, for the time being, our only realities. As we rise in the scale of

development we perceive that during the stages through which we have passed we mistook shadows

for realities, and the upward progress of the Ego is a series of progressive awakenings, each advance
bringing with it the idea that now, at last, we have reached "reality;" but only when we shall have
reached the absolute Consciousness, and blended our own with it, shall we be free from the delusions
produced by Maya.
------STANZA I. -- Continued.
5. DARKNESS ALONE FILLED THE BOUNDLESS ALL (a), FOR FATHER, MOTHER AND

SON WERE ONCE MORE ONE, AND THE SON HAD NOT AWAKENED YET FOR THE NEW
WHEEL* AND HIS PILGRIMAGE THEREON (b).
(a) "Darkness is Father-Mother: light their son," says an old Eastern proverb. Light is inconceivable
except as coming from some source which is the cause of it; and as, in the instance of primordial light,
that source is unknown, though as strongly demanded by reason and logic, therefore it is called
"Darkness" by us, from an intellectual point of view. As to borrowed or secondary light, whatever its
source, it can be but of a temporary mayavic character. Darkness, then, is the eternal
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* That which is called "wheel" is the symbolical expression for a world or globe, which shows that the

ancients were aware that our Earth was a revolving globe, not a motionless square as some Christian

Fathers taught. The "Great Wheel" is the whole duration of our Cycle of being, or Maha Kalpa, i.e.,

the whole revolution of our special chain of seven planets or Spheres from beginning to end; the

"Small Wheels" meaning the Rounds, of which there are also Seven.


[[Vol. 1, Page]] 41 WHAT IS DARKNESS IN PHILOSOPHY?


matrix in which the sources of light appear and disappear. Nothing is added to darkness to make of it

light, or to light to make it darkness, on this our plane. They are interchangeable, and scientifically

light is but a mode of darkness and vice versa. Yet both are phenomena of the same noumenon --


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which is absolute darkness to the scientific mind, and but a gray twilight to the perception of the
average mystic, though to that of the spiritual eye of the Initiate it is absolute light. How far we
discern the light that shines in darkness depends upon our powers of vision. What is light to us is
darkness to certain insects, and the eye of the clairvoyant sees illumination where the normal eye
perceives only blackness. When the whole universe was plunged in sleep -- had returned to its one
primordial element -- there was neither centre of luminosity, nor eye to perceive light, and darkness
necessarily filled the boundless all.
(b) The Father-Mother are the male and female principles in root-nature, the opposite poles that
manifest in all things on every plane of Kosmos, or Spirit and Substance, in a less allegorical aspect,
the resultant of which is the Universe, or the Son. They are "once more One" when in "The Night of
Brahma," during Pralaya, all in the objective Universe has returned to its one primal and eternal cause,
to reappear at the following Dawn -- as it does periodically. "Karana" -- eternal cause -- was alone. To
put it more plainly: Karana is alone during the "Nights of Brahma." The previous objective Universe
has dissolved into its one primal and eternal cause, and is, so to say, held in solution in space, to
differentiate again and crystallize out anew at the following Manvantaric dawn, which is the
commencement of a new "Day" or new activity of Brahma -- the symbol of the Universe. In esoteric
parlance, Brahma is Father-Mother-Son, or Spirit, Soul and Body at once; each personage being
symbolical of an attri bute, and each attri bute or quality being a graduated efflux of Divine Breath in
its cyclic differentiation, involutionary and evolutionary. In the cosmicophysical sense, it is the
Universe, the planetary chain and the earth; in the purely spiritual, the Unknown Deity, Planetary
Spirit, and Man -- the Son of the two, the creature of Spirit and Matter, and a manifestation of them in
his periodical appearances on Earth during the "wheels," or the Manvantaras. -- (See Part II. : "Days
and Nights of Brahma.")

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 42 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

STANZA I. -- Continued.
6. THE SEVEN SUBLIME LORDS AND THE SEVEN TRUTHS HAD CEASED TO BE (a), AND
THE UNIVERSE, THE SON OF NECESSITY, WAS IMMERSED IN PARANISHPANNA (b)
(absolute perfection, Paranirvana, which is Yong-Grub) TO BE OUT-BREATHED BY THAT
WHICH IS AND YET IS NOT. NAUGHT WAS (c).
(a) The seven sublime lords are the Seven Creative Spirits, the Dhyan-Chohans, who correspond to
the Hebrew Elohim. It is the same hierarchy of Archangels to which St. Michael, St. Gabriel, and
others belong, in the Christian theogony. Only while St. Michael, for instance, is allowed in dogmatic
Latin theology to watch over all the promontories and gulfs, in the Esoteric System, the Dhyanis
watch successively over one of the Rounds and the great Root-races of our planetary chain. They are,
moreover, said to send their Bhodisatvas, the human correspondents of the Dhyani-Buddhas (of whom
vide infra) during every Round and Race. Out of the Seven Truths and Revelations, or rather revealed
secrets, four only have been handed to us, as we are still in the Fourth Round, and the world also has
only had four Buddhas, so far. This is a very complicated question, and will receive more ample
treatment later on.
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So far "There are only Four Truths, and Four Vedas" -- say the Hindus and Buddhists. For a similar
reason Irenaeus insisted on the necessity of Four Gospels. But as every new Root-race at the head of a
Round must have its revelation and revealers, the next Round will bring the Fifth, the following the
Sixth, and so on.
(b) "Paranishpanna" is the absolute perfection to which all existences attain at the close of a great
period of activity, or Maha-Manvantara, and in which they rest during the succeeding period of
repose. In Tibetan it is called Yong-Grub. Up to the day of the Yogacharya school the true nature of
Paranirvana was taught publicly, but since then it has become entirely esoteric; hence so many
contradictory interpretations of it. It is only a true Idealist who can understand it. Everything has to be
viewed as ideal, with the exception of Paranirvana, by him who would comprehend that state, and
acquire a knowledge of how Non Ego, Voidness, and Darkness are Three in One and alone Selfexistent and perfect. It is absolute, however, only in a relative

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 43 MOTIONS, THE "GREAT BREATH."

sense, for it must give room to still further absolute perfection, according to a higher standard of
excellence in the following period of activity -- just as a perfect flower must cease to be a perfect
flower and die, in order to grow into a perfect fruit, -- if a somewhat Irish mode of expression may be
permitted.
The Secret Doctrine teaches the progressive development of everything, worlds as well as atoms; and
this stupendous development has neither conceivable beginning nor imaginable end. Our "Universe"
is only one of an infinite number of Universes, all of them "Sons of Necessity," because links in the
great Cosmic chain of Universes, each one standing in the relation of an effect as regards its
predecessor, and being a cause as regards its successor.
The appearance and disappearance of the Universe are pictured as an outbreathing and inbreathing of
"the Great Breath," which is eternal, and which, being Motion, is one of the three aspects of the
Absolute -- Abstract Space and Duration being the other two. When the "Great Breath" is projected, it
is called the Divine Breath, and is regarded as the breathing of the Unknowable Deity -- the One
Existence -- which breathes out a thought, as it were, which becomes the Kosmos. (See "Isis
Unveiled.") So also is it when the Divine Breath is inspired again the Universe disappears into the
bosom of "the Great Mother," who then sleeps "wrapped in her invisible robes."
(c) By "that which is and yet is not" is meant the Great Breath itself, which we can only speak of as
absolute existence, but cannot picture to our imagination as any form of existence that we can
distinguish from Non-existence. The three periods -- the Present, the Past, and the Future -- are in the
esoteric philosophy a compound time; for the three are a composite number only in relation to the
phenomenal plane, but in the realm of noumena have no abstract validity. As said in the Scriptures:
"The Past time is the Present time, as also the Future, which, though it has not come into existence,
still is"; according to a precept in the Prasanga Madhyamika teaching, whose dogmas have been

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known ever since it broke away from the purely esoteric schools.* Our ideas, in short, on duration and
time are all derived from our
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* See Dzungarian "Mani Kumbum," the "Book of the 10,000 Precepts." Also consult Wassilief's "Der

Buddhismus," pp. 327 and 357, etc.


[[Vol. 1, Page]] 44 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.


sensations according to the laws of Association. Inextricably bound up with the relativity of human

knowledge, they nevertheless can have no existence except in the experience of the individual ego,

and perish when its evolutionary march dispels the Maya of phenomenal existence. What is Time, for

instance, but the panoramic succession of our states of consciousness? In the words of a Master, "I

feel irritated at having to use these three clumsy words -- Past, Present, and Future -- miserable

concepts of the objective phases of the subjective whole, they are about as ill-adapted for the purpose

as an axe for fine carving." One has to acquire Paramartha lest one should become too easy a prey to

Samvriti -- is a philosophical axiom.*

------STANZA I. -- Continued.
7. THE CAUSES OF EXISTENCE HAD BEEN DONE AWAY WITH (a); THE VISIBLE THAT

WAS, AND THE INVISIBLE THAT IS, RESTED IN ETERNAL NON-BEING, THE ONE BEING

(b).
(a) "The Causes of Existence" mean not only the physical causes known to science, but the
metaphysical causes, the chief of which is the desire to exist, an outcome of Nidana and Maya. This
desire for a sentient life shows itself in everything, from an atom to a sun, and is a reflection of the
Divine Thought propelled into objective existence, into a law that the Universe should exist.
According to esoteric teaching, the real cause of that supposed desire, and of all existence, remains for
ever hidden, and its first emanations are the most complete abstractions mind can conceive. These
abstractions must of necessity be postulated as the cause of the material Universe which presents itself
to the senses and intellect; and they underlie the secondary and subordinate powers of Nature, which,
anthropomorphized, have been worshipped as God and gods by the common herd of every age. It is
impossible to conceive anything without a cause; the attempt to do so makes the mind a blank.
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* In clearer words: "One has to acquire true Self-Consciousness in order to understand Samvriti, or the

'origin of delusion.'" Paramartha is the synonym of the Sanskrit term Svasam-vedana, or "the

reflection which analyses itself." There is a difference in the interpretation of the meaning of

"Paramartha" between the Yogacharyas and the Madhyamikas, neither of whom, however, explain

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the real and true esoteric sense of the expression. See further, sloka No. 9.


[[Vol. 1, Page]] 45 BEING AND NON-BEING.


This is virtually the condition to which the mind must come at last when we try to trace back the chain

of causes and effects, but both science and religion jump to this condition of blankness much more
quickly than is necessary; for they ignore the metaphysical abstractions which are the only
conceivable cause of physical concretions. These abstractions become more and more concrete as they
approach our plane of existence, until finally they phenomenalise in the form of the material Universe,
by a process of conversion of metaphysics into physics, analogous to that by which steam can be
condensed into water, and the water frozen into ice.
(b) The idea of Eternal Non-Being, which is the One Being, will appear a paradox to anyone who does
not remember that we limit our ideas of being to our present consciousness of existence; making it a
specific, instead of a generic term. An unborn infant, could it think in our acceptation of that term,
would necessarily limit its conception of being, in a similar manner, to the intrauterine life which
alone it knows; and were it to endeavour to express to its consciousness the idea of life after birth
(death to it), it would, in the absence of data to go upon, and of faculties to comprehend such data,
probably express that life as "Non-Being which is Real Being." In our case the One Being is the
noumenon of all the noumena which we know must underlie phenomena, and give them whatever
shadow of reality they possess, but which we have not the senses or the intellect to cognize at present.
The impalpable atoms of gold scattered through the substance of a ton of auriferous quartz may be
imperceptible to the naked eye of the miner, yet he knows that they are not only present there but that
they alone give his quartz any appreciable value; and this relation of the gold to the quartz may faintly
shadow forth that of the noumenon to the phenomenon. But the miner knows what the gold will look
like when extracted from the quartz, whereas the common mortal can form no conception of the
reality of things separated from the Maya which veils them, and in which they are hidden. Alone the
Initiate, rich with the lore acquired by numberless generations of his predecessors, directs the "Eye of
Dangma" toward the essence of things in which no Maya can have any influence. It is here that the
teachings of esoteric philosophy in relation to the Nidanas and the Four Truths become of the greatest
importance; but they are secret.

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 46 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

STANZA I. -- Continued.
8. ALONE, THE ONE FORM OF EXISTENCE STRETCHED BOUNDLESS, INFINITE,
CAUSELESS, IN DREAMLESS SLEEP (a); AND LIFE PULSATED UNCONSCIOUS IN
UNIVERSAL SPACE, THROUGHOUT THAT ALL-PRESENCE WHICH IS SENSED BY THE
"OPENED EYE"* OF THE DANGMA (b).**

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(a) The tendency of modern thought is to recur to the archaic idea of a homogeneous basis for
apparently widely different things -- heterogeneity developed from homogeneity. Biologists are now
searching for their homogeneous protoplasm and chemists for their protyle, while science is looking
for the force of which electricity, magnetism, heat, and so forth, are the differentiations. The Secret
Doctrine carries this idea into the region of metaphysics and postulates a "One Form of Existence" as
the basis and source of all things. But perhaps the phrase, the "One Form of Existence," is not
altogether correct. The Sanskrit word is Prabhavapyaya, "the place, or rather plane, whence emerges
the origination, and into which is the resolution of all things," says a commentator. It is not the
"Mother of the World," as translated by Wilson (see Book I., Vishnu Purana); for Jagad Yoni (as
shown by FitzEdward Hall) is scarcely so much "the Mother of the World" or "the Womb of the
World" as the "Material Cause of the Universe." The Puranic Commentators explain it by Karana -"Cause" -- but the Esoteric philosophy, by the ideal spirit of that cause. It is, in its secondary stage,
the Svabhavat of the Buddhist philosopher, the eternal cause and effect, omnipresent yet abstract, the
self-existent plastic Essence and the root of all things, viewed in the same dual light as the Vedantin
views his Parabrahm and Mulaprakriti, the one under two aspects. It seems indeed extraordinary to
find great scholars speculating on the possibility of the Vedanta, and the Uttara-Mimansa especially,
having been "evoked by the teachings of the Buddhists,"
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* In India it is called "The Eye of Siva," but beyond the great range it is known as "Dangma's opened

eye" in esoteric phraseology.

** Dangma means a purified soul, one who has become a Jivanmukta, the highest adept, or rather a

Mahatma so-called. His "opened eye" is the inner spiritual eye of the seer, and the faculty which

manifests through it is not clairvoyance as ordinarily understood, i.e., the power of seeing at a

distance, but rather the faculty of spiritual intuition, through which direct and certain knowledge is

obtainable. This faculty is intimately connected with the "third eye," which mythological tradition

ascribes to certain races of men. Fuller explanations will be found in Book II.


[[Vol. 1, Page]] 47 THE EYE OF DANGMA.


whereas, it is on the contrary Buddhism (of Gautama, the Buddha) that was "evoked" and entirely

upreared on the tenets of the Secret Doctrine, of which a partial sketch is here attempted, and on

which, also, the Upanishads are made to rest.* The above, according to the teachings of Sri

Sankaracharya,** is undeniable.
(b) Dreamless sleep is one of the seven states of consciousness known in Oriental esotericism. In each
of these states a different portion of the mind comes into action; or as a Vedantin would express it, the
individual is conscious in a different plane of his being. The term "dreamless sleep," in this case is
applied allegorically to the Universe to express a condition somewhat analogous to that state of
consciousness in man, which, not being remembered in a waking state, seems a blank, just as the sleep
of the mesmerised subject seems to him an unconscious blank when he returns to his normal
condition, although he has been talking and acting as a conscious individual would.
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------STANZA I. -- Continued.
9. BUT WHERE WAS THE DANGMA WHEN THE ALAYA OF THE UNIVERSE (Soul as the

basis of all, Anima Mundi) WAS IN PARAMARTHA (a) (Absolute Being and Consciousness which
are Absolute Non-Being and Unconsciousness) AND THE GREAT WHEEL WAS ANUPADAKA
(b)?
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* And yet, one, claiming authority, namely, Sir Monier Williams, Boden Professor of Sanskrit at

Oxford, has just denied this fact. This is what he taught his audience, on June the 4th, 1888, in his

annual address before the Victoria Institute of Great Britain: "Originally, Buddhism set its face against

all solitary asceticism . . . to attain sublime heights of knowledge. It had no occult, no esoteric system

of doctrine . . . withheld from ordinary men" (!!) And, again: " . . . When Gautama Buddha began his

career, the later and lower form of Yoga seems to have been little known." And then, contradicting

himself, the learned lecturer forthwith informs his audience that "We learn from Lalita-Vistara that

various forms of bodily torture, self-maceration, and austerity were common in Gautama's time." (!!)

But the lecturer seems quite unaware that this kind of torture and self-maceration is precisely the

lower form of Yoga, Hatha Yoga, which was "little known" and yet so "common" in Gautama's time.

** It is even argued that all the Six Darsanas (Schools of philosophy) show traces of Buddha's

influence, being either taken from Buddhism or due to Greek teaching! (See Weber, Max Muller, etc.)

We labour under the impression that Colebrooke, "the highest authority" in such matters, had long ago

settled the question by showing, that "the Hindus were in this instance the teachers, not the learners."


[[Vol. 1, Page]] 48 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

(a) Here we have before us the subject of centuries of scholastic disputations. The two terms "Alaya"
and "Paramartha" have been the causes of dividing schools and splitting the truth into more different
aspects than any other mystic terms. Alaya is literally the "Soul of the World" or Anima Mundi, the
"Over-Soul" of Emerson, and according to esoteric teaching it changes periodically its nature. Alaya,
though eternal and changeless in its inner essence on the planes which are unreachable by either men
or Cosmic Gods (Dhyani Buddhas), alters during the active life-period with respect to the lower
planes, ours included. During that time not only the Dhyani-Buddhas are one with Alaya in Soul and
Essence, but even the man strong in the Yoga (mystic meditation) "is able to merge his soul with it"
(Aryasanga, the Bumapa school). This is not Nirvana, but a condition next to it. Hence the
disagreement. Thus, while the Yogacharyas (of the Mahayana school) say that Alaya is the
personification of the Voidness, and yet Alaya (Nyingpo and Tsang in Tibetan) is the basis of every
visible and invisible thing, and that, though it is eternal and immutable in its essence, it reflects itself
in every object of the Universe "like the moon in clear tranquil water"; other schools dispute the
statement. The same for Paramartha: the Yogacharyas interpret the term as that which is also
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dependent upon other things (paratantra); and the Madhyamikas say that Paramartha is limited to
Paranishpanna or absolute perfection; i.e., in the exposition of these "two truths" (out of four), the
former believe and maintain that (on this plane, at any rate) there exists only Samvritisatya or relative
truth; and the latter teach the existence of Paramarthasatya, the "absolute truth."* "No Arhat, oh
mendicants, can reach absolute knowledge before he becomes one with Paranirvana. Parikalpita and
Paratantra are his two great enemies" (Aphorisms of the Bodhisattvas). Parikalpita (in Tibetan Kunttag) is error, made by those unable to realize the emptiness and illusionary nature of all; who believe
something to exist which does not -- e.g., the Non-Ego. And
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

*"Paramartha" is self-consciousness in Sanskrit, Svasamvedana, or the "self-analysing reflection" -from two words, parama (above everything) and artha (comprehension), Satya meaning absolute true

being, or Esse. In Tibetan Paramarthasatya is Dondampaidenpa. The opposite of this absolute reality,

or actuality, is Samvritisatya -- the relative truth only -- "Samvriti" meaning "false conception" and

being the origin of illusion, Maya; in Tibetan Kundzabchi-denpa, "illusion-creating appearance."


[[Vol. 1, Page]] 49 ALAYA, THE UNIVERSAL SOUL.


Paratantra is that, whatever it is, which exists only through a dependent or causal connexion, and

which has to disappear as soon as the cause from which it proceeds is removed -- e.g., the light of a

wick. Destroy or extinguish it, and light disappears.

Esoteric philosophy teaches that everything lives and is conscious, but not that all life and

consciousness are similar to those of human or even animal beings. Life we look upon as "the one

form of existence," manifesting in what is called matter; or, as in man, what, incorrectly separating

them, we name Spirit, Soul and Matter. Matter is the vehicle for the manifestation of soul on this

plane of existence, and soul is the vehicle on a higher plane for the manifestation of spirit, and these
three are a trinity synthesized by Life, which pervades them all. The idea of universal life is one of
those ancient conceptions which are returning to the human mind in this century, as a consequence of
its liberation from anthropomorphic theology. Science, it is true, contents itself with tracing or
postulating the signs of universal life, and has not yet been bold enough even to whisper "Anima
Mundi!" The idea of "crystalline life," now familiar to science, would have been scouted half a
century ago. Botanists are now searching for the nerves of plants; not that they suppose that plants can
feel or think as animals do, but because they believe that some structure, bearing the same relation
functionally to plant life that nerves bear to animal life, is necessary to explain vegetable growth and
nutrition. It hardly seems possible that science can disguise from itself much longer, by the mere use
of terms such as "force" and "energy," the fact that things that have life are living things, whether they
be atoms or planets.
But what is the belief of the inner esoteric Schools? the reader may ask. What are the doctrines taught
on this subject by the Esoteric "Buddhists"? With them "Alaya" has a double and even a triple
meaning. In the Yogacharya system of the contemplative Mahayana school, Alaya is both the
Universal Soul (Anima Mundi) and the Self of a progressed adept. "He who is strong in the Yoga can
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introduce at will his Alaya by means of meditation into the true Nature of Existence." The "Alaya has
an absolute eternal existence," says Aryasanga -- the rival of Nagarjuna.* In one sense it is Pradhana;
which
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* Aryasanga was a pre-Christian Adept and founder of a Buddhist esoteric school, though Csoma di

Koros places him, for some reasons of his own, in the seventh century [[Footnote continued on next

page]]


[[Vol. 1, Page]] 50 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.


is explained in Vishnu Purana as: "that which is the unevolved cause, is emphatically called by the

most eminent sages Pradhana, original base, which is subtile Prakriti, viz., that which is eternal, and

which at once is (or comprehends) what is and what is not, or is mere process." "Prakriti," however, is

an incorrect word, and Alaya would explain it better; for Prakriti is not the "uncognizable Brahma."*

It is a mistake of those who know nothing of the Universality of the Occult doctrines from the very

cradle of the human races, and especially so of those scholars who reject the very idea of a

"primordial revelation," to teach that the Anima Mundi, the One Life or "Universal Soul," was made

known only by Anaxagoras, or during his age. This philosopher brought the teaching forward simply

to oppose the too materialistic conceptions on Cosmogony of Democritus, based on his exoteric
theory of blindly driven atoms. Anaxagoras of Clazomene was not its inventor but only its propagator,
as also was Plato. That which he called Mundane Intelligence, the nous ([[nous]]), the principle that
according to his views is absolutely separated and free from matter and acts on design,** was called
Motion, the ONE LIFE, or Jivatma, ages before the year 500 B.C. in India. Only the Aryan
philosophers never endowed the principle, which with them is infinite, with the finite "attri bute" of
"thinking."
This leads the reader naturally to the "Supreme Spirit" of Hegel and the German Transcendentalists as
a contrast that it may be useful to point out. The schools of Schelling and Fichte have diverged widely
from the primitive archaic conception of an ABSOLUTE principle, and have mirrored only an aspect
of the basic idea of the Vedanta. Even the "Absoluter Geist" shadowed forth by von Hartman in his
pessimistic philosophy of the Unconscious, while it is, perhaps, the closest approximation made by
European speculation to the Hindu Adwaitee Doctrines, similarly falls far short of the reality.
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

[[Footnote continued from previous page]] A.D. There was another Aryasanga, who lived during the

first centuries of our era and the Hungarian scholar most probably confuses the two.

* "The indiscreet cause which is uniform, and both cause and effect, and which those who are

acquainted with first principles call Pradhana and Prakriti, is the incognizable Brahma who was before

all" (Vayu Purana); i.e., Brahma does not put forth evolution itself or create, but only exhibits various

aspects of itself, one of which is Prakriti, an aspect of Pradhana.

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** Finite Self-consciousness, I mean. For how can the absolute attain it otherwise than as simply an

aspect, the highest of which known to us is human consciousness?


[[Vol. 1, Page]] 51 CAN THE FINITE CONCEIVE THE INFINITE?

According to Hegel, the "Unconscious" would never have undertaken the vast and laborious task of
evolving the Universe, except in the hope of attaining clear Self-consciousness. In this connection it is
to be borne in mind that in designating Spirit, which the European Pantheists use as equivalent to
Parabrahm, as unconscious, they do not attach to that expression of "Spirit" -- one employed in the
absence of a better to symbolise a profound mystery -- the connotation it usually bears.
The "Absolute Consciousness," they tell us, "behind" phenomena, which is only termed
unconsciousness in the absence of any element of personality, transcends human conception. Man,
unable to form one concept except in terms of empirical phenomena, is powerless from the very
constitution of his being to raise the veil that shrouds the majesty of the Absolute. Only the liberated
Spirit is able to faintly realise the nature of the source whence it sprung and whither it must eventually
return. . . . As the highest Dhyan Chohan, however, can but bow in ignorance before the awful
mystery of Absolute Being; and since, even in that culmination of conscious existence -- "the merging
of the individual in the universal consciousness" -- to use a phrase of Fichte's -- the Finite cannot
conceive the Infinite, nor can it apply to it its own standard of mental experiences, how can it be said
that the "Unconscious" and the Absolute can have even an instinctive impulse or hope of attaining
clear self-consciousness?* A Vedantin would never admit this Hegelian idea; and the Occultist would
say that it applies perfectly to the awakened MAHAT, the Universal Mind already projected into the
phenomenal world as the first aspect of the changeless ABSOLUTE, but never to the latter. "Spirit
and Matter, or Purusha and Prakriti are but the two primeval aspects of the One and Secondless," we
are taught.
The matter-moving Nous, the animating Soul, immanent in every atom, manifested in man, latent in
the stone, has different degrees of power; and this pantheistic idea of a general Spirit-Soul pervading
all Nature is the oldest of all the philosophical notions. Nor was the Archaeus a discovery of
Paracelsus nor of his pupil Van Helmont; for it is again the same Archaeus or "Father-Ether," -- the
manifested basis
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* See Schwegler's "Handbook of the History of Philosophy" in Sterling's translation, p. 28.


[[Vol. 1, Page]] 52 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.


and source of the innumerable phenomena of life -- localised. The whole series of the numberless

speculations of this kind are but variations on this theme, the key-note of which was struck in this

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primeval Revelation. (See Part II., "Primordial Substance.")

(b) The term Anupadaka, "parentless," or without progenitors, is a mystical designation having several

meanings in the philosophy. By this name celestial beings, the Dhyan-Chohans or Dhyani-Buddhas,

are generally meant. But as these correspond mystically to the human Buddhas and Bodhisattwas,
known as the "Manushi (or human) Buddhas," the latter are also designated "Anupadaka," once that
their whole personality is merged in their compound sixth and seventh principles -- or Atma-Buddhi,
and that they have become the "diamond-souled" (Vajra-sattvas),* the full Mahatmas. The "Concealed
Lord" (Sangbai Dag-po), "the one merged with the absolute," can have no parents since he is Selfexistent, and one with the Universal Spirit (Svayambhu),** the Svabhavat in the highest aspect. The
mystery in the hierarchy of the Anupadaka is great, its apex being the universal Spirit-Soul, and the
lower rung the Manushi-Buddha; and even every Soul-endowed man is an Anupadaka in a latent state.
Hence, when speaking of the Universe in its formless, eternal, or absolute condition, before it was
fashioned by the "Builders" -- the expression, "the Universe was Anupadaka." (See Part II.,
"Primordial Substance.")
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* Vajra -- diamond-holder. In Tibetan Dorjesempa; sempa meaning the soul, its adamantine quality

referring to its indestructibility in the hereafter. The explanation with regard to the "Anupadaka" given

in the Kala Chakra, the first in the Gyu(t) division of the Kanjur, is half esoteric. It has misled the

Orientalists into erroneous speculations with respect to the Dhyani-Buddhas and their earthly

correspondencies, the Manushi-Buddhas. The real tenet is hinted at in a subsequent Volume, (see

"The Mystery about Buddha"), and will be more fully explained in its proper place.

** To quote Hegel again, who with Schelling practically accepted the Pantheistic conception of

periodical Avatars (special incarnations of the World-Spirit in Man, as seen in the case of all the great

religious reformers) . . . . "the essence of man is spirit . . . . only by stripping himself of his finiteness

and surrendering himself to pure self-consciousness does he attain the truth. Christ-man, as man in

whom the Unity of God-man (identity of the individual with the Universal consciousness as taught by

the Vedantins and some Adwaitees) appeared, has, in his death and history generally, himself

presented the eternal history of Spirit -- a history which every man has to accomplish in himself, in

order to exist as Spirit." -- Philosophy of History. Sibree's English translation, p. 340.


Next Section
Contents

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The Secret Doctrine by H. P. Blavatsky -- Vol. 1

Theosophical University Press Online Edition

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 53 THE STATE OF PARANIRVANA.

STANZA II.
COMMENTARY.
1. . . . . WHERE WERE THE BUILDERS, THE LUMINOUS SONS OF MANVANTARIC DAWN
(a)? . . . . IN THE UNKNOWN DARKNESS IN THEIR AH-HI (Chohanic, Dhyani-Buddhic)
PARANISHPANNA, THE PRODUCERS OF FORM (rupa) FROM NO-FORM (arupa), THE
ROOT OF THE WORLD -- THE DEVAMATRI* AND SVABHAVAT, RESTED IN THE BLISS
OF NON-BEING (b).
(a) 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 opening sentence of Stanza I., when
mentioning "Seven Eternities," is made to apply both to the Maha-Kalpa or "the (great) Age of
Brahma," as well as to the Solar pralaya and subsequent resurrection of our Planetary System on a
higher plane. There are many kinds of pralaya (dissolution of a thing visible), as will be shown
elsewhere.
(b) Paranishpanna, remember, is the summum bonum, the Absolute, hence the same as Paranirvana.
Besides being the final state it is that condition of subjectivity which has no relation to anything but
the one absolute truth (Para-marthasatya) on its plane. It is that state which leads one to appreciate
correctly the full meaning of Non-Being, which, as explained, is absolute Being. Sooner or later, all
that now seemingly exists, will be in reality and actually in the state of Paranishpanna. But there is a
great difference between conscious and unconscious "being." The condition of Paranishpanna, without
Paramartha, the Self-analys[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

"Mother of the Gods," Aditi, or Cosmic Space. In the Zohar, she is called Sephira the Mother of the

Sephiroth, and Shekinah in her primordial form, in abscondito.


[[Vol. 1, Page]] 54 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.


ing consciousness (Svasamvedana), is no bliss, but simply extinction (for Seven Eternities). Thus, an


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iron ball placed under the scorching rays of the sun will get heated through, but will not feel or

appreciate the warmth, while a man will. It is only "with a mind clear and undarkened by personality,

and an assimilation of the merit of manifold existences devoted to being in its collectivity (the whole
living and sentient Universe)," that one gets rid of personal existence, merging into, becoming one
with, the Absolute,* and continuing in full possession of Paramartha.
------STANZA II. -- Continued.
2. . . . . WHERE WAS SILENCE? WHERE WERE THE EARS TO SENSE IT? NO! THERE WAS

NEITHER SILENCE, NOR SOUND (a). NAUGHT SAVE CEASELESS, ETERNAL BREATH
(Motion) WHICH KNOWS ITSELF NOT (b).
(a) The idea that things can cease to exist and still BE, is a fundamental one in Eastern psychology.
Under this apparent contradiction in terms, there rests a fact of Nature to realise which in the mind,
rather than to argue about words, is the important thing. A familiar instance of a similar paradox is
afforded by chemical combination. The question whether Hydrogen and Oxygen cease to exist, when
they combine to form water, is still a moot one, some arguing that since they are found again when the
water is decomposed they must be there all the while; others contending that as they actually turn into
something totally different they must cease to exist as themselves for the time being; but neither side
is able to form the faintest conception of the real condition of a thing, which has become something
else and yet has not ceased to be itself. Existence as water may be said to be, for Oxygen and
Hydrogen, a state of Non-being which is "more real being" than their existence as gases; and it may
faintly symbolise the
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* Hence Non-being is "ABSOLUTE Being," in esoteric philosophy. In the tenets of the latter even

Adi-Budha (first or primeval wisdom) is, while manifested, in one sense an illusion, Maya, since all

the gods, including Brahma, have to die at the end of the "Age of Brahma"; the abstraction called

Parabrahm alone -- whether we call it Ensoph, or Herbert Spencer's Unknowable -- being "the One

Absolute" Reality. The One secondless Existence is ADWAITA, "Without a Second," and all the rest

is Maya, teaches the Adwaita philosophy.


[[Vol. 1, Page]] 55 THE ABSOLUTE KNOWS ITSELF NOT.


condition of the Universe when it goes to sleep, or ceases to be, during the "Nights of Brahma" -- to

awaken or reappear again, when the dawn of the new Manvantara recalls it to what we call existence.

(b) The "Breath" of the One Existence is used in its application only to the spiritual aspect of

Cosmogony by Archaic esotericism; otherwise, it is replaced by its equivalent in the material plane -Motion. The One Eternal Element, or element-containing Vehicle, is Space, dimensionless in every


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sense; co-existent with which are -- endless duration, primordial (hence indestructible) matter, and
motion -- absolute "perpetual motion" which is the "breath" of the "One" Element. This breath, as
seen, can never cease, not even during the Pralayic eternities. (See "Chaos, Theos, Kosmos," in Part
II.)
But the "Breath of the One Existence" does not, all the same, apply to the One Causeless Cause or the
"All Be-ness" (in contradistinction to All-Being, which is Brahma, or the Universe). Brahma (or Hari)
the four-faced god who, after lifting the Earth out of the waters, "accomplished the Creation," is held
to be only the instrumental, and not, as clearly implied, the ideal Cause. No Orientalist, so far, seems
to have thoroughly comprehended the real sense of the verses in the Purana, that treat of "creation."
Therein Brahma is the cause of the potencies that are to be generated subsequently for the work of
"creation." When a translator says, "And from him proceed the potencies to be created, after they had
become the real cause": "and from IT proceed the potencies that will create as they become the real
cause" (on the material plane) would perhaps be more correct? Save that one (causeless) ideal cause
there is no other to which the universe can be referred. "Worthiest of ascetics! through its potency -i.e., through the potency of that cause -- every created thing comes by its inherent or proper nature."
If, in the Vedanta and Nyaya, nimitta is the efficient cause, as contrasted with upadana, the material
cause, (and in the Sankhya, pradhana implies the functions of both); in the Esoteric philosophy,
which reconciles all these systems, and the nearest exponent of which is the Vedanta as expounded by
the Advaita Vedantists, none but the upadana can be speculated upon; that which is in the minds of
the Vaishnavas (the Vasishta-dvaita) as the ideal in contradistinction to the real -- or Parabrahm and
Isvara -- can find no room in published speculations, since

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 56 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

that ideal even is a misnomer, when applied to that of which no human reason, even that of an adept,
can conceive.
To know itself or oneself, necessitates consciousness and perception (both limited faculties in relation
to any subject except Parabrahm), to be cognized. Hence the "Eternal Breath which knows itself not."
Infinity cannot comprehend Finiteness. The Boundless can have no relation to the bounded and the
conditioned. In the occult teachings, the Unknown and the Unknowable MOVER, or the SelfExisting, is the absolute divine Essence. And thus being Absolute Consciousness, and Absolute
Motion -- to the limited senses of those who describe this indescribable -- it is unconsciousness and
immoveableness. Concrete consciousness cannot be predicated of abstract Consciousness, any more
than the quality wet can be predicated of water -- wetness being its own attri bute and the cause of the
wet quality in other things. Consciousness implies limitations and qualifications; something to be
conscious of, and someone to be conscious of it. But Absolute Consciousness contains the cognizer,
the thing cognized and the cognition, all three in itself and all three one. No man is conscious of more
than that portion of his knowledge that happens to have been recalled to his mind at any particular
time, yet such is the poverty of language that we have no term to distinguish the knowledge not
actively thought of, from knowledge we are unable to recall to memory. To forget is synonymous with
not to remember. How much greater must be the difficulty of finding terms to describe, and to
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distinguish between, abstract metaphysical facts or differences. It must not be forgotten, also, that we
give names to things according to the appearances they assume for ourselves. We call absolute
consciousness "unconsciousness," because it seems to us that it must necessarily be so, just as we call
the Absolute, "Darkness," because to our finite understanding it appears quite impenetrable, yet we
recognize fully that our perception of such things does not do them justice. We involuntarily
distinguish in our minds, for instance, between unconscious absolute consciousness, and
unconsciousness, by secretly endowing the former with some indefinite quality that corresponds, on a
higher plane than our thoughts can reach, with what we know as consciousness in ourselves. But this
is not any kind of consciousness that we can manage to distinguish from what appears to us as
unconsciousness.

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 57 THE GERM OF LIFE.

STANZA II. -- Continued.
3. THE HOUR HAD NOT YET STRUCK; THE RAY HAD NOT YET FLASHED INTO THE
GERM (a); THE MATRI-PADMA (mother lotus) HAD NOT YET SWOLLEN (b).*
(a) The ray of the "Ever Darkness" becomes, as it is emitted, a ray of effulgent light or life, and
flashes into the "Germ" -- the point in the Mundane Egg, represented by matter in its abstract sense.
But the term "Point" must not be understood as applying to any particular point in Space, for a germ
exists in the centre of every atom, and these collectively form "the Germ;" or rather, as no atom can be
made visible to our physical eye, the collectivity of these (if the term can be applied to something
which is boundless and infinite) forms the noumenon of eternal and indestructible matter.
(b) One of the symbolical figures for the Dual creative power in Nature (matter and force on the
material plane) is Padma, the water-lily of India. The Lotus is the product of heat (fire) and water
(vapour or Ether); fire standing in every philosophical and religious system as a representation of the
Spirit of Deity,** the active, male, generative principle; and Ether, or the Soul of matter, the light of
the fire, for the passive female principle from which everything in this Universe emanated. Hence,
Ether or Water is the Mother, and Fire is the Father. Sir W. Jones (and before him archaic botany)
showed that the seeds of the Lotus contain -- even before they germinate -- perfectly formed leaves,
the miniature shape of what one day, as perfect plants, they will become: nature thus giving us a
specimen of the preformation of its production . . . the seed of all phanerogamous plants bearing
proper flowers containing an embryo plantlet ready formed.*** (See Part II., "The Lotus Flower as an
Universal Symbol.") This explains the sentence "The Mother had not yet swollen" -- the form being
usually sacrificed to the inner or root idea in Archaic symbology.
The Lotus, or Padma, is, moreover, a very ancient and favourite
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* An unpoetical term, yet still very graphic. (See foot-note to Stanza III.)


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** Even in Christianity. (See Part II., "Primordial Substance and Divine Thought.")

*** Gross, "The Hea then Religion," p. 195.


[[Vol. 1, Page]] 58 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.


simile for the Kosmos itself, and also for man. The popular reasons given are, firstly, the fact just

mentioned, that the Lotus-seed contains within itself a perfect miniature of the future plant, which

typifies the fact that the spiritual prototypes of all things exist in the immaterial world before those
things become materialised on Earth. Secondly, the fact that the Lotus plant grows up through the
water, having its root in the Ilus, or mud, and spreading its flower in the air above. The Lotus thus
typifies the life of man and also that of the Kosmos; for the Secret Doctrine teaches that the elements
of both are the same, and that both are developing in the same direction. The root of the Lotus sunk in
the mud represents material life, the stalk passing up through the water typifies existence in the astral
world, and the flower floating on the water and opening to the sky is emblematical of spiritual being.
STANZA II. -- Continued.
4. HER HEART HAD NOT YET OPENED FOR THE ONE RAY TO ENTER, THENCE TO FALL
AS THREE INTO FOUR IN THE LAP OF MAYA (a).
(a) The Primordial Substance had not yet passed out of its precosmic latency into differentiated
objectivity, or even become the (to man, so far,) invisible Protyle of Science. But, as the hour strikes
and it becomes receptive of the Fohatic impress of the Divine Thought (the Logos, or the male aspect
of the Anima Mundi, Alaya) -- its heart opens. It differentiates, and the THREE (Father, Mother, Son)
are transformed into four. Herein lies the origin of the double mystery of the Trinity and the
immaculate Conception. The first and Fundamental dogma of Occultism is Universal Unity (or
Homogeneity) under three aspects. This led to a possible conception of Deity, which as an absolute
unity must remain forever incomprehensible to finite intellects. "If thou wouldest believe in the Power
which acts within the root of a plant, or imagine the root concealed under the soil, thou hast to think of
its stalk or trunk and of its leaves and flowers. Thou canst not imagine that Power independently of
these objects. Life can be known only by the Tree of Life. . . ." (Precepts for Yoga). The idea of
Absolute Unity

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 59 ASTRAL LIGHT IS NOT THE ANIMA MUNDI.

would be broken entirely in our conception, had we not something concrete before our eyes to contain
that Unity. And the deity being absolute, must be omnipresent, hence not an atom but contains IT
within itself. The roots, the trunk and its many branches are three distinct objects, yet they are one
tree. Say the Kabalists: "The Deity is one, because It is infinite. It is triple, because it is ever
manifesting." This manifestation is triple in its aspects, for it requires, as Aristotle has it, three
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principles for every natural body to become objective: privation, form, and matter.* Privation meant
in the mind of the great philosopher that which the Occultists call the prototypes impressed in the
Astral Light -- the lowest plane and world of Anima Mundi. The union of these three principles
depends upon a fourth -- the LIFE which radiates from the summits of the Unreachable, to become an
universally diffused Essence on the manifested planes of Existence. And this QUATERNARY
(Father, Mother, Son, as a UNITY, and a quaternary, as a living manifestation) has been the means of
leading to the very archaic Idea of Immaculate Conception, now finally crystallized into a dogma of
the Christian Church, which carnalized this metaphysical idea beyond any common sense. For one has
but to read the Kabala and study its numerical methods of interpretation to find the origin of that
dogma. It is purely astronomical, mathematical, and pre-eminently metaphysical: the Male element in
Nature (personified by the male deities and Logoi -- Viraj, or Brahma; Horus, or Osiris, etc., etc.) is
born through, not from, an immaculate source, personified by the "Mother"; because that Male having
a Mother cannot have a "Father" -- the abstract Deity being sexless, and not even a Being but Be-ness,
or Life itself. Let us render this in the mathematical language of the author of "The Source of
Measures." Speaking of the "Measure of a Man" and his numerical (Kabalistic) value, he writes that in
Genesis, ch. iv., v. 1, "It is called the 'Man even Jehovah'
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* A Vedantin of the Visishtadwaita philosophy would say that, though the only independent Reality,

Parabrahmam is inseparable from his trinity. That He is three, "Parabrahmam, Chit, and Achit," the

last two being dependent realities unable to exist separately; or, to make it clearer, Parabrahmam is the

SUBSTANCE -- changeless, eternal, and incognizable -- and Chit (Atma), and Achit (Anatma) are its

qualities, as form and colour are the qualities of any object. The two are the garment, or body, or

rather attri bute (Sarira) of Parabrahmam. But an Occultist would find much to say against this claim,

and so would the Adwaitee Vedantin.


[[Vol. 1, Page 60]] THE SECRET DOCTRINE.


Measure, and this is obtained in this way, viz.: 113 x 5 = 565, and the value 565 can be placed under

the form of expression 56.5 x 10 = 565. Here the Man-number 113 becomes a factor of 56.5 x 10, and

the (Kabalistic) reading of this last numbered expression is Jod, He, Vau, He, or Jehovah. . . . The

expansion of 565 into 56.5 x 10 is purposed to show the emanation of the male (Jod) from the female

(Eva) principle; or, so to speak, the birth of a male element from an immaculate source, in other
words, an immaculate conception."
Thus is repeated on Earth the mystery enacted, according to the Seers, on the divine plane. The "Son"
of the immaculate Celestial Virgin (or the undifferentiated cosmic protyle, Matter in its infinitude) is
born again on Earth as the Son of the terrestrial Eve -- our mother Earth, and becomes Humanity as a
total -- past, present, and future -- for Jehovah or Jod-he-vau-he is androgyne, or both male and
female. Above, the Son is the whole KOSMOS; below, he is MANKIND. The triad or triangle
becomes Tetraktis, the Sacred Pythagorean number, the perfect Square, and a 6-faced cube on Earth.
The Macroprosopus (the Great Face) is now Microprosopus (the lesser face); or, as the Kabalists have
it, the "Ancient of Days," descending on Adam Kadmon whom he uses as his vehicle to manifest
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through, gets transformed into Tetragrammaton. It is now in the "Lap of Maya," the Great Illusion,
and between itself and the Reality has the Astral Light, the great Deceiver of man's limited senses,
unless Knowledge through Paramarthasatya comes to the rescue.
------STANZA II. -- Continued.
5. THE SEVEN (Sons) WERE NOT YET BORN FROM THE WEB OF LIGHT. DARKNESS

ALONE WAS FATHER-MOTHER, SVABHAVAT, AND SVABHAVAT WAS IN DARKNESS
(a).
(a) The Secret Doctrine, in the Stanzas given here, occupies itself chiefly, if not entirely, with our
Solar System, and especially with our planetary chain. The "Seven Sons," therefore, are the creators of
the latter. This teaching will be explained more fully hereafter. (See Part II., "Theogony of the
Creative Gods.")

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 61 DIVINE THOUGHT, DIVINE THINKERS.

Svabhavat, the "Plastic Essence" that fills the Universe, is the root of all things. Svabhavat is, so to
say, the Buddhistic concrete aspect of the abstraction called in Hindu philosophy Mulaprakriti. It is
the body of the Soul, and that which Ether would be to Akasa, the latter being the informing principle
of the former. Chinese mystics have made of it the synonym of "being." In the Ekasloka-Shastra of
Nagarjuna (the Lung-shu of China) called by the Chinese the Yih-shu-lu-kia-lun, it is said that the
original word of Yeu is "Being" or "Subhava," "the Substance giving substance to itself," also
explained by him as meaning " without action and with action," "the nature which has no nature of its
own." Subhava, from which Svabhavat, is composed of two words: Su "fair," "handsome," "good";
Sva, "self"; and bhava, "being" or "states of being."
------STANZA II. -- Continued.
6. THESE TWO ARE THE GERM, AND THE GERM IS -- ONE. THE UNIVERSE WAS STILL

CONCEALED IN THE DIVINE THOUGHT AND THE DIVINE BOSOM.
The "Divine Thought" does not imply the idea of a Divine thinker. The Universe, not only past,
present, and future -- which is a human and finite idea expressed by finite thought -- but in its totality,
the Sat (an untranslateable term), the absolute being, with the Past and Future crystallized in an eternal
Present, is that Thought itself reflected in a secondary or manifest cause. Brahma (neuter) as the
Mysterium Magnum of Paracelsus is an absolute mystery to the human mind. Brahma, the malefemale, its aspect and anthropomorphic reflection, is conceivable to the perceptions of blind faith,
though rejected by human intellect when it attains its majority. (See Part II., "Primordial Substance
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and Divine Thought.")
Hence the statement that during the prologue, so to say, of the drama of Creation, or the beginning of
cosmic evolution, the Universe or the "Son" lies still concealed "in the Divine Thought," which had
not yet penetrated "into the Divine Bosom." This idea, note well, is at the root, and forms the origin of
all the allegories about the "Sons of God" born of immaculate virgins.

Next Section
Contents

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The Secret Doctrine by H. P. Blavatsky -- Vol. 1

Theosophical University Press Online Edition

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 62 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

STANZA III.
COMMENTARY.
1. THE LAST VIBRATION OF THE SEVENTH ETERNITY THRILLS THROUGH INFINITUDE
(a). THE MOTHER SWELLS, EXPANDING FROM WITHIN WITHOUT LIKE THE BUD OF THE
LOTUS (b).
(a) The seemingly paradoxical use of the sentence "Seventh Eternity," thus dividing the indivisible, is
sanctified in esoteric philosophy. The latter divides boundless duration into unconditionally eternal and
universal Time and a conditioned one (Khandakala). One is the abstraction or noumenon of infinite
time (Kala); the other its phenomenon appearing periodically, as the effect of Mahat (the Universal
Intelligence limited by Manvantaric duration). With some schools, Mahat is "the first-born" of
Pradhana (undifferentiated substance, or the periodical aspect of Mulaprakriti, the root of Nature),
which (Pradhana) is called Maya, the Illusion. In this respect, I believe, esoteric teaching differs from
the Vedantin doctrines of both the Adwaita and the Visishtadwaita schools. For it says that, while
Mulaprakriti, the noumenon, is self-existing and without any origin -- is, in short, parentless,
Anupadaka (as one with Brahmam) -- Prakriti, its phenomenon, is periodical and no better than a
phantasm of the former, so Mahat, with the Occultists, the first-born of Gnana (or gnosis) knowledge,
wisdom or the Logos -- is a phantasm reflected from the Absolute NIRGUNA (Parabrahm, the one
reality, "devoid of attri butes and qualities"; see Upanishads); while with some Vedantins Mahat is a
manifestation of Prakriti, or Matter.
(b) Therefore, the "last vibration of the Seventh Eternity" was "fore-ordained" -- by no God in
particular, but occurred in virtue of the eternal and changeless LAW which causes the great periods of
Activity and Rest, called so graphically, and at the same time so poetically, the "Days and Nights of
Brahma." The expansion "from within without" of the Mother, called elsewhere the "Waters of Space,"
"Universal Matrix," etc., does not allude to an expansion from a small centre or focus, but, without
reference to size or limitation or area, means the development of limitless subjectivity into as limitless
objectivity. "The ever (to us) invisible and immaterial Substance present in eternity, threw its
periodical shadow from its own plane into the lap

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 63 THE UNIVERSE, A FLITTING SHADOW.

of Maya." It implies that this expansion, not being an increase in size -- for infinite extension admits of
no enlargement -- was a change of condition. It "expanded like the bud of the Lotus"; for the Lotus
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plant exists not only as a miniature embryo in its seed (a physical characteristic), but its prototype is
present in an ideal form in the Astral Light from "Dawn" to "Night" during the Manvantaric period,
like everything else, as a matter of fact, in this objective Universe; from man down to mite, from giant
trees down to the tiniest blades of grass.
All this, teaches the hidden Science, is but the temporary reflection, the shadow of the eternal ideal
prototype in Divine Thought -- the word "Eternal," note well again, standing here only in the sense of
"AEon," as lasting throughout the seemingly interminable, but still limited cycle of activity, called by
us Manvantara. For what is the real esoteric meaning of Manvantara, or rather a Manu-Antara? It
means, esoterically, "between two Manus," of whom there are fourteen in every "Day of Brahma,"
such a "Day" consisting of 1,000 aggregates of four ages, or 1,000 "Great Ages," Mahayugas. Let us
now analyse the word or name Manu. Orientalists and their Dictionaries tell us that the term "Manu" is
from the root Man, "to think"; hence "the thinking man." But, esoterically, every Manu, as an
anthropomorphized patron of his special cycle (or Round), is but the personified idea of the "Thought
Divine" (as the Hermetic "Pymander"); each of the Manus, therefore, being the special god, the creator
and fashioner of all that appears during his own respective cycle of being or Manvantara. Fohat runs
the Manus' (or Dhyan-Chohans') errands, and causes the ideal prototypes to expand from within
without -- viz., to cross gradually, on a descending scale, all the planes from the noumenon to the
lowest phenomenon, to bloom finally on the last into full objectivity -- the acme of illusion, or the
grossest matter.
------STANZA III. -- continued.
2. THE VIBRATION SWEEPS ALONG, TOUCHING WITH ITS SWIFT WING (simultaneously)

THE WHOLE UNIVERSE, AND THE GERM THAT DWELLETH IN DARKNESS: THE
DARKNESS THAT BREATHES (moves) OVER THE SLUMBERING WATERS OF LIFE (a).

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 64 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

(a) The Pythagorean Monad is also said to dwell in solitude and darkness like the "germ." The idea of
the "breath" of Darkness moving over "the slumbering Waters of life," which is primordial matter with
the latent Spirit in it, recalls the first chapter of Genesis. Its original is the Brahminical Narayana (the
mover on the Waters), who is the personification of the eternal Breath of the unconscious All (or
Parabrahm) of the Eastern Occultists. The Waters of Life, or Chaos -- the female principle in
symbolism -- are the vacuum (to our mental sight) in which lie the latent Spirit and Matter. This it was
that made Democritus assert, after his instructor Leucippus, that the primordial principles of all were
atoms and a vacuum, in the sense of space, but not of empty space, as "Nature abhors a vacuum"
according to the Peripatetics, and every ancient philosopher.
In all Cosmogonies "Water" plays the same important part. It is the base and source of material
existence. Scientists, mistaking the word for the thing, understood by water the definite chemical
combination of oxygen and hydrogen, thus giving a specific meaning to a term used by Occultists in a
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generic sense, and which is used in Cosmogony with a metaphysical and mystical meaning. Ice is not
water, neither is steam, although all three have precisely the same chemical composition.
------STANZA III. -- Continued.
2.[[3.]] "DARKNESS" RADIATES LIGHT, AND LIGHT DROPS ONE SOLITARY RAY INTO

THE WATERS, INTO THE MOTHER DEEP. THE RAY SHOOTS THROUGH THE VIRGIN-EGG;
THE RAY CAUSES THE ETERNAL EGG TO THRILL, AND DROP THE NON-ETERNAL
(periodical) GERM, WHICH CONDENSES INTO THE WORLD EGG (a).
(a) The solitary ray dropping into the mother deep may be taken as meaning Divine Thought or
Intelligence, impregnating chaos. This, however, occurs on the plane of metaphysical abstraction, or
rather the plane whereon that which we call a metaphysical abstraction is a reality. The Virgin-egg
being in one sense abstract Egg-ness, or the power of becoming developed through fecundation, is
eternal and for ever the same. And just as the fecundation of an egg takes place before it is dropped; so
the non-eternal periodical germ which becomes later in

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 65 NATURE'S SYMBOLS.

symbolism the mundane egg, contains in itself, when it emerges from the said symbol, "the promise
and potency" of all the Universe. Though the idea per se is, of course, an abstraction, a symbolical
mode of expression, it is a symbol truly, as it suggests the idea of infinity as an endless circle. It brings
before the mind's eye the picture of Kosmos emerging from and in boundless space, a Universe as
shoreless in magnitude if not as endless in its objective manifestation. The simile of an egg also
expresses the fact taught in Occultism that the primordial form of everything manifested, from atom to
globe, from man to angel, is spheroidal, the sphere having been with all nations the emblem of eternity
and infinity -- a serpent swallowing its tail. To realize the meaning, however, the sphere must be
thought of as seen from its centre. The field of vision or of thought is like a sphere whose radii proceed
from one's self in every direction, and extend out into space, opening up boundless vistas all around. It
is the symbolical circle of Pascal and the Kabalists, "whose centre is everywhere and circumference
nowhere," a conception which enters into the compound idea of this emblem.
The "Mundane Egg" is, perhaps, one of the most universally adopted symbols, highly suggestive as it
is, equally in the spiritual, physiological, and cosmological sense. Therefore, it is found in every worldtheogony, where it is largely associated with the serpent symbol; the latter being everywhere, in
philosophy as in religious symbolism, an emblem of eternity, infinitude, regeneration, and
rejuvenation, as well as of wisdom. (See Part II. "Tree and Serpent and Crocodile Worship.") The
mystery of apparent self-generation and evolution through its own creative power repeating in
miniature the process of Cosmic evolution in the egg, both being due to heat and moisture under the
efflux of the unseen creative spirit, justified fully the selection of this graphic symbol. The "Virgin
Egg" is the microcosmic symbol of the macrocosmic prototype -- the "Virgin Mother" -- Chaos or the
Primeval Deep. The male Creator (under whatever name) springs forth from the Virgin female, the
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immaculate root fructified by the Ray. Who, if versed in astronomy and natural sciences, can fail to see
its suggestiveness? Cosmos as receptive Nature is an Egg fructified -- yet left immaculate; once
regarded as boundless, it could have no other representation than a spheroid. The Golden Egg was
surrounded by seven natural elements (ether, fire, air, water), "four ready, three secret." It may be
found

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 66 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

stated in Vishnu Purana, where elements are translated "Envelopes" and a secret one is added: "Ahamkara" (see Wilson's Vishnu Purana, Book I., p. 40). The original text has no "Aham-kara;" it mentions
seven Elements without specifying the last three (see Part II. on "The Mundane Egg").
------STANZA III. -- Continued.
4. (Then) THE THREE (triangle) FALL INTO THE FOUR (quaternary). THE RADIANT ESSENCE

BECOMES SEVEN INSIDE, SEVEN OUTSIDE (a). THE LUMINOUS EGG (Hiranyagarbha),
WHICH IN ITSELF IS THREE (the triple hypostases of Brahma, or Vishnu, the three "Avasthas"),
CURDLES AND SPREADS IN MILK-WHITE CURDS THROUGHOUT THE DEPTHS OF
MOTHER, THE ROOT THAT GROWS IN THE OCEAN OF LIFE (b).
The use of geometrical figures and the frequent allusions to figures in all ancient scriptures (see
Puranas, Egyptian papyri, the "Book of the Dead" and even the Bible) must be explained. In the "Book
of Dzyan," as in the Kabala, there are two kinds of numerals to be studied -- the figures, often simple
blinds, and the Sacred Numbers, the values of which are all known to the Occultists through Initiation.
The former is but a conventional glyph, the latter is the basic symbol of all. That is to say, that one is
purely physical, the other purely metaphysical, the two standing in relation to each other as matter
stands to spirit -- the extreme poles of the ONE Substance.
As Balzac, the unconscious Occultist of French literature, says somewhere, the Number is to Mind the
same as it is to matter: "an incomprehensible agent;" (perhaps so to the profane, never to the Initiated
mind). Number is, as the great writer thought, an Entity, and, at the same time, a Breath emanating
from what he called God and what we call the ALL; the breath which alone could organize the
physical Kosmos, "where naught obtains its form but through the Deity, which is an effect of
Number." It is instructive to quote Balzac's words upon this subject: -"The smallest as the most immense creations, are they not to be distinguished from each
other by their quantities, their qualities, their dimensions, their forces and attri butes, all
begotten by the NUMBER? The infinitude of the Numbers is a fact proven to our mind,
but of which no proof can be physically

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[[Vol. 1, Page]] 67 THE POWER OF NUMBERS.

given. The mathematician will tell us that the infinitude of the numbers exists but is not
to be demonstrated. God is a Number endowed with motion, which is felt but not
demonstrated. As Unity, it begins the Numbers, with which it has nothing in common. . . .
. The existence of the Number depends on Unity, which, without a single Number,
begets them all. . . . . What! unable either to measure the first abstraction yielded to you
by the Deity, or to get hold of it, you still hope to subject to your measurements the
mystery of the Secret Sciences which emanate from that Deity? . . . . And what would
you feel, were I to plunge you into the abysses of MOTION, the Force which organizes
the Number? What would you think, were I to add that Motion and Number* are
begotten by the WORD, the Supreme Reason of the Seers and Prophets, who, in days of
old, sensed the mighty Breath of God, a witness to which is the Apocalypse?"
(b) "The radiant essence curdled and spread throughout the depths" of Space. From an astronomical
point of view this is easy of explanation: it is the "milky way," the world-stuff, or primordial matter in
its first form. It is more difficult, however, to explain it in a few words or even lines, from the
standpoint of Occult Science and Symbolism, as it is the most complicated of glyphs. Herein are
enshrined more than a dozen symbols. To begin with, the whole pantheon of mysterious objects,**
every one of them having some definite Occult meaning, extracted from the allegorical "churning of
the ocean" by the Hindu gods. Besides Amrita, the water of life or immortality, "Surabhi" the "cow of
plenty," called "the fountain of milk and curds," was extracted from this "Sea of Milk." Hence the
universal adoration of the cow and bull, one the productive, the other the generative power in Nature:
symbols connected with both the Solar and the Cosmic deities. The specific properties, for occult
purposes, of the "fourteen precious things," being explained only at the fourth Initiation, cannot be
given here; but the following may be remarked. In the "Satapatha Brahmana" it is stated that the
churning of the "Ocean of Milk" took place in the Satya Yug, the first age which immediately followed
the "Deluge." As, however, neither the Rig-Veda nor
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* Number, truly; but never MOTION. It is Motion which begets the Logos, the Word, in occultism.

** The "Fourteen precious things." The narrative or allegory is found in the Satapatha Brahmana and

others. The Japanese Secret Science of the Buddhist Mystics, the Yamabooshi, has "seven precious

things." We will speak of them, hereafter.


[[Vol. 1, Page]] 68 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.


Manu -- both preceding Vaivasvata's "deluge," that of the bulk of the Fourth Race -- mention this

deluge, it is evident that it is not the "great" deluge, nor that which carried away Atlantis, nor even the

deluge of Noah, which is meant here. This "churning" relates to a period before the earth's formation,

and is in direct connection with that other universal legend, the various and contradictory versions of

which culminated in the Christian dogma of the "War in Heaven," and the fall of the Angels (see Book

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II., also Revelations chap. xii.). The Brahmanas, reproached by the Orientalists with their versions on
the same subjects, often clashing with each other, are pre-eminently occult works, hence used
purposely as blinds. They were allowed to survive for public use and property only because they were
and are absolutely unintelligible to the masses. Otherwise they would have disappeared from
circulation as long ago as the days of Akbar.
------STANZA III. -- Continued.
5. THE ROOT REMAINS, THE LIGHT REMAINS, THE CURDS REMAIN, AND STILL

OEAOHOO (a) IS ONE (b).
(a) OEAOHOO is rendered "Father-Mother of the Gods" in the Commentaries, or the SIX IN ONE, or
the septenary root from which all proceeds. All depends upon the accent given to these seven vowels,
which may be pronounced as one, three, or even seven syllables by adding an e after the letter "o."
This mystic name is given out, because without a thorough mastery of the triple pronunciation it
remains for ever ineffectual.
(b) This refers to the Non-Separateness of all that lives and has its being, whether in active or passive
state. In one sense, Oeaohoo is the "Rootless Root of All"; hence, one with Parabrahmam; in another
sense it is a name for the manifested ONE LIFE, the Eternal living Unity. The "Root" means, as
already explained, pure knowledge (Sattva),*
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* The original for Understanding is Sattva, which Sankara (acharya) renders antahkarana. "Refined,"

he says, "by sacrifices and other sanctifying operations." In the Katha, at p. 148, Sattva is said by

Sankara to mean buddhi -- a common use of the word. ("The BHAGAVATGITA with The

Sanatsugatiya and The Anugita," trans- [[Footnote continued on next page]]


[[Vol. 1, Page]] 69 THE BLOSSOM OF THE ROOT OF LIFE.


eternal (Nitya) unconditioned reality or SAT (Satya), whether we call it Parabrahmam or Mulaprakriti,

for these are the two aspects of the ONE. The "Light" is the same Omnipresent Spiritual Ray, which

has entered and now fecundated the Divine Egg, and calls cosmic matter to begin its long series of

differentiations. The curds are the first differentiation, and probably refer also to that cosmic matter

which is supposed to be the origin of the "Milky Way" -- the matter we know. This "matter," which,

according to the revelation received from the primeval Dhyani-Buddhas, is, during the periodical sleep

of the Universe, of the ultimate tenuity conceivable to the eye of the perfect Bodhisatva -- this matter,

radical and cool, becomes, at the first reawakening of cosmic motion, scattered through Space;
appearing, when seen from the Earth, in clusters and lumps, like curds in thin milk. These are the seeds
of the future worlds, the "Star-stuff."

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------STANZA III. -- Continued.
6. THE ROOT OF LIFE WAS IN EVERY DROP OF THE OCEAN OF IMMORTALITY (Amrita)*

AND THE OCEAN WAS RADIANT LIGHT, WHICH WAS FIRE AND HEAT AND MOTION.
DARKNESS VANISHED AND WAS NO MORE.** IT DISAPPEARED IN ITS OWN ESSENCE,
THE BODY OF FIRE AND WATER, OF FATHER AND MOTHER (a).
(a) The essence of darkness being absolute light, Darkness is taken as the appropriate allegorical
representation of the condition of the Universe during Pralaya, or the term of absolute rest, or nonbeing, as it appears to our finite minds. The "fire," "heat," and "motion" here spoken of, are, of course,
not the fire, heat, and motion of physical science, but the underlying abstractions, the noumena, or the
soul, of the essence of these material manifestations -- the "things in themselves," which, as modern
science confesses, entirely elude the instru[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

[[Footnote continued from previous page]] lated by Kashinath Trimbak Telang, M.A.; edited by Max

Muller.) Whatever meaning various schools may give the term, Sattva is the name given among Occult

students of the Aryasanga School to the dual Monad or Atma-buddhi, and Atma-buddhi on this plane

corresponds to Parabrahm and Mulaprakriti on the higher plane.

* Amrita is "immortality."

** See Commentary No. 1 to this Stanza.


[[Vol. 1, Page]] 70 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.


ments of the laboratory, and which even the mind cannot grasp, although it can equally little avoid the

conclusion that these underlying essences of things must exist. Fire and Water, or Father* and Mother,

may be taken here to mean the divine Ray and Chaos. "Chaos, from this union with Spirit obtaining

sense, shone with pleasure, and thus was produced the Protogonos (the first-born light)," says a

fragment of Hermas. Damascius calls it Dis in "Theogony" -- "The disposer of all things." (See Cory's

"Ancient Fragments," p. 314.)
According to the Rosicrucian tenets, as handled and explained by the profane for once correctly, if
only partially, so "Light and Darkness are identical in themselves, being only divisible in the human
mind"; and according to Robert Fludd, "Darkness adopted illumination in order to make itself visible"
(On Rosenkranz). According to the tenets of Eastern Occultism, DARKNESS is the one true actuality,
the basis and the root of light, without which the latter could never manifest itself, nor even exist. Light
is matter, and DARKNESS pure Spirit. Darkness, in its radical, metaphysical basis, is subjective and
absolute light; while the latter in all its seeming effulgence and glory, is merely a mass of shadows, as
it can never be eternal, and is simply an illusion, or Maya.
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Even in the mind-baffling and science-harassing Genesis, light is created out of darkness "and darkness
was upon the face of the deep" (ch. i. v. 2.) -- and not vice versa. "In him (in darkness) was life; and
the life was the light of men" (John i. 4). A day may come when the eyes of men will be opened; and
then they may comprehend better than they do now, that verse in the Gospel of John that says "And the
light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehendeth it not." They will see then that the word
"darkness" does not apply to man's spiritual eyesight, but indeed to "Darkness," the absolute, that
comprehendeth not (cannot cognize) transient light, however transcendent to human eyes. Demon est
Deus inversus. The devil is now called Darkness by the Church, whereas, in the Bible he is called the
"Son of God" (see Job), the bright star of the early morning, Lucifer (see Isaiah). There is a whole
philosophy of dogmatic craft in the reason why the first Archangel, who sprang from the depths of
Chaos, was called Lux (Lucifer), the "Luminous Son of the Morning," or man[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* See "Kwan-Shai-Yin." The real name from the text cannot be given.


[[Vol. 1, Page]] 71 LIGHT EMERGES FROM DARKNESS.


vantaric Dawn. He was transformed by the Church into Lucifer or Satan, because he is higher and

older than Jehovah, and had to be sacrificed to the new dogma. (See Book II.)


--------STANZA III. -- Continued.
7. BEHOLD, OH LANOO!** THE RADIANT CHILD OF THE TWO, THE UNPARALLELED

REFULGENT GLORY, BRIGHT SPACE, SON OF DARK SPACE, WHO EMERGES FROM THE

DEPTHS OF THE GREAT DARK WATERS. IT IS OEAOHOO, THE YOUNGER, THE * * *

(whom thou knowest now as Kwan-Shai-Yin. -- Comment) (a). HE SHINES FORTH AS THE SUN.

HE IS THE BLAZING DIVINE DRAGON OF WISDOM. THE EKA IS CHATUR (four), AND

CHATUR TAKES TO ITSELF THREE, AND THE UNION PRODUCES THE SAPTA (seven) IN

WHOM ARE THE SEVEN WHICH BECOME THE TRIDASA*** (the thrice ten) THE HOSTS

AND THE MULTITUDES (b). BEHOLD HIM LIFTING THE VEIL, AND UNFURLING IT FROM

EAST TO WEST. HE SHUTS OUT THE ABOVE AND LEAVES THE BELOW TO BE SEEN AS
THE GREAT ILLUSION. HE MARKS THE PLACES FOR THE SHINING ONES (stars) AND
TURNS THE UPPER (space) INTO A SHORELESS SEA OF FIRE, AND THE ONE
MANIFESTED (element) INTO THE GREAT WATERS (c).
"Bright Space, son of dark Space," corresponds to the Ray dropped at the first thrill of the new "Dawn"
into the great Cosmic depths, from which it re-emerges differentiated as Oeaohoo the younger, (the
"new LIFE"), to become, to the end of the life-cycle, the germ of all things. He is "the Incorporeal man
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who contains in himself the divine Idea," -- the generator of Light and Life, to use an expression of
Philo Judaeus. He is called the "Blazing Dragon of Wisdom,"
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

** Lanoo is a student, a chela who studies practical Esotericism.

*** "Tri-dasa," or three times ten (30), alludes to the Vedic deities, in round numbers, or more

accurately 33 -- a sacred number. They are the 12 Adityas, the 8 Vasus, the 11 Rudras, and 2 Aswins -the twin sons of the Sun and the Sky. This is the root-number of the Hindu Pantheon, which

enumerates 33 crores or over three hundred millions of gods and goddesses.


[[Vol. 1, Page]] 72 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.


because, firstly, he is that which the Greek philosophers called the Logos, the Verbum of the Thought

Divine; and secondly, because in Esoteric philosophy this first manifestation, being the synthesis or the

aggregate of Universal Wisdom, Oeaohoo, "the Son of the Son," contains in himself the Seven

Creative Hosts (The Sephiroth), and is thus the essence of manifested Wisdom. "He who bathes in the

light of Oeaohoo will never be deceived by the veil of Maya."

Kwan-Shai-Yin is identical with, and an equivalent of the Sanskrit Avalokiteshwara, and as such he is

an androgynous deity, like the Tetragrammaton and all the Logoi* of antiquity. It is only by some sects

in China that he is anthropomorphized and represented with female attri butes,** when, under his
female aspect, he becomes Kwan-Yin, the goddess of mercy, called the "Divine Voice."*** The latter
is the patron deity of Thibet and of the island of Puto in China, where both deities have a number of
monasteries.**** (See Part II. Kwan-Shai-Yin and Kwan-yin.)
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* Hence all the higher gods of antiquity are all "Sons of the Mother" before they become those of the

"Father." The Logoi, like Jupiter or Zeus, Son of Kronos-Saturn, "Infinite Time" (or Kala), in their

origin were represented as male-female. Zeus is said to be the "beautiful Virgin," and Venus is made

bearded. Apollo is originally bisexual, so is Brahma-Vach in Manu and the Puranas. Osiris is

interchangeable with Isis, and Horus is of both sexes. Finally St. John's vision in Revelation, that of the

Logos, who is now connected with Jesus -- is hermaphrodite, for he is described as having female

breasts. So is the Tetragrammaton = Jehovah. But there are two Avalokiteshwaras in Esotericism; the

first and the second Logos.

** No religious symbol can escape profanation and even derision in our days of politics and Science.

In Southern India the writer has seen a converted native making pujah with offerings before a statue of

Jesus clad in woman's clothes and with a ring in his nose. When asking the meaning of the masquerade

we were answered that it was Jesu-Maria blended in one, and that it was done by the permission of the

Padri, as the zealous convert had no money to purchase two statues or "idols" as they, very properly,

were called by a witness -- another but a non-converted Hindu. Blasphemous this will appear to a

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dogmatic Christian, but the Theosophist and the Occultist must award the palm of logic to the
converted Hindu. The esoteric Christos in the gnosis is, of course, sexless, but in exoteric theology he
is male and female.
*** The Gnostic Sophia, "Wisdom" who is "the Mother" of the Ogdoad (Aditi, in a certain sense, with
her eight sons), is the Holy Ghost and the Creator of all, as in the ancient systems. The "father" is a far
later invention. The earliest manifested Logos was female everywhere -- the mother of the seven
planetary powers.
**** See "Chinese Buddhism," by the Rev. J. C. Edkins, who always gives correct facts, although his
conclusions are very frequently erroneous.

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 73 THE DRAGON AND THE LOGOI.

(b) "The "Dragon of Wisdom" is the One, the "Eka" (Sanskrit) or Saka. It is curious that Jehovah's
name in Hebrew should also be One, Echod. "His name is Echod": say the Rabbins. The philologists
ought to decide which of the two is derived from the other -- linguistically and symbolically: surely,
not the Sanskrit? The "One" and the Dragon are expressions used by the ancients in connection with
their respective Logoi. Jehovah -- esoterically (as Elohim) -- is also the Serpent or Dragon that tempted
Eve, and the "Dragon" is an old glyph for "Astral Light" (Primordial Principle), "which is the Wisdom
of Chaos." Archaic philosophy, recognizing neither Good nor Evil as a fundamental or independent
power, but starting from the Absolute ALL (Universal Perfection eternally), traced both through the
course of natural evolution to pure Light condensing gradually into form, hence becoming Matter or
Evil. It was left with the early and ignorant Christian fathers to degrade the philosophical and highly
scientific idea of this emblem (the Dragon) into the absurd superstition called the "Devil." They took it
from the later Zoroastrians, who saw devils or the Evil in the Hindu Devas, and the word Evil thus
became by a double transmutation D'Evil in every tongue (Diabolos, Diable, Diavolo, Teufel). But the
Pagans have always shown a philosophical discrimination in their symbols. The primitive symbol of
the serpent symbolised divine Wisdom and Perfection, and had always stood for psychical
Regeneration and Immortality. Hence -- Hermes, calling the serpent the most spiritual of all beings;
Moses, initiated in the wisdom of Hermes, following suit in Genesis; the Gnostic's Serpent with the
seven vowels over its head, being the emblem of the seven hierarchies of the Septenary or Planetary
Creators. Hence, also, the Hindu serpent Sesha or Ananta, "the Infinite," a name of Vishnu, whose first
Vahan or vehicle on the primordial waters is this serpent.* Yet they all made a difference between the
good and the bad Serpent (the Astral Light of
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* Like the logoi and the Hierarchies of Powers, however, the "Serpents" have to be distinguished one

from the other. Sesha or Ananta, "the couch of Vishnu," is an allegorical abstraction, symbolizing

infinite Time in Space, which contains the germ and throws off periodically the efflorescence of this

germ, the manifested Universe; whereas, the gnostic Ophis contained the same triple symbolism in its

seven vowels as the One, Three and Seven-syllabled Oeaohoo of the Archaic doctrine; i.e., the One

Unmanifested Logos, the Second manifested, the triangle concreting into the Quaternary or

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Tetragrammaton, and the rays of the latter on the material plane.


[[Vol. 1, Page]] 74 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.


the Kabalists) -- between the former, the embodiment of divine Wisdom in the region of the Spiritual,
and the latter, Evil, on the plane of matter.* Jesus accepted the serpent as a synonym of Wisdom, and
this formed part of his teaching: "Be ye wise as serpents," he says. "In the beginning, before Mother
became Father-Mother, the fiery Dragon moved in the infinitudes alone" (Book of Sarparajni.) The
Aitareya Brahmana calls the Earth Sarparajni, "the Serpent Queen," and "the Mother of all that
moves." Before our globe became egg-shaped (and the Universe also) "a long trail of Cosmic dust (or
fire mist) moved and writhed like a serpent in Space." The "Spirit of God moving on Chaos" was
symbolized by every nation in the shape of a fiery serpent breathing fire and light upon the primordial
waters, until it had incubated cosmic matter and made it assume the annular shape of a serpent with its
tail in its mouth -- which symbolises not only Eternity and Infinitude, but also the globular shape of all
the bodies formed within the Universe from that fiery mist. The Universe, as well as the Earth and
Man, cast off periodically, serpent-like, their old skins, to assume new ones after a time of rest. The
serpent is, surely, a not less graceful or a more unpoetical image than the caterpillar and chrysalis from
which springs the butterfly, the Greek emblem of Psyche, the human soul. The "Dragon" was also the
symbol of the Logos with the Egyptians, as with the Gnostics. In the "Book of Hermes," Pymander, the
oldest and the most spiritual of the Logoi of the Western Continent, appears to Hermes in the shape of
a Fiery Dragon of "Light, Fire, and Flame." Pymander, the "Thought Divine" personified, says: The
Light is me, I am the Nous (the mind or Manu), I am thy God, and I am far older than the human
principle which escapes from the shadow ("Darkness," or the concealed Deity). I am the germ of
thought, the resplendent Word, the Son of God. All that thus sees and hears in thee is the Verbum of the
Master, it is the Thought (Mahat) which is God, the Father.**
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

*The Astral Light, or the AEther, of the ancient pagans (for the name of Astral Light is quite modern)

is Spirit . . . . Matter. Beginning with the pure spiritual plane, it becomes grosser as it descends until it

becomes the Maya or the tempting and deceitful serpent on our plane.

** By "God, the Father," the seventh principle in Man and Kosmos are here unmistakeably meant, this

principle being inseparable in its Esse and Nature from the seventh Cosmic principle. In one sense it is

the Logos of the Greeks and the Avalokiteswara of the esoteric Buddhists.


[[Vol. 1, Page]] 75 NOUMENAL AND PHENOMENAL LIGHT.


The celestial Ocean, the 'Ether . . . . is the Breath of the Father, the life-giving principle, the Mother,

the Holy Spirit, for these are not separated, and their union is LIFE."

Here we find the unmistakeable echo of the Archaic Secret Doctrine, as now expounded. Only the

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latter does not place at the head and Evolution of Life "the Father," who comes third and is the "Son of
the Mother," but the "Eternal and Ceaseless Breath of the ALL." The Mahat (Understanding, Universal
Mind, Thought, etc.), before it manifests itself as Brahma or Siva, appears as Vishnu, says Sankhya
Sara (p. 16); hence Mahat has several aspects, just as the logos has. Mahat is called the Lord, in the
Primary Creation, and is, in this sense, Universal Cognition or Thought Divine; but, "That Mahat
which was first produced is (afterwards) called Ego-ism, when it is born as "I," that is said to be the
second Creation" (Anugita, ch. xxvi.). And the translator (an able and learned Brahmin, not a European
Orientalist) explains in a foot-note (6), "i.e., when Mahat develops into the feeling of SelfConsciousness -- I -- then it assumes the name of Egoism," which, translated into our esoteric
phraseology, means when Mahat is transformed into the human Manas (or even that of the finite gods),
and becomes Aham-ship. Why it is called the Mahat of the Second creation (or the ninth, that of the
Kumara in Vishnu Purana) will be explained in Book II. The "Sea of Fire" is then the Super-Astral
(i.e., noumenal) Light, the first radiation from the Root, the Mulaprakriti, the undifferentiated Cosmic
Substance, which becomes Astral Matter. It is also called the "Fiery Serpent," as above described. If
the student bears in mind that there is but One Universal Element, which is infinite, unborn, and
undying, and that all the rest -- as in the world of phenomena -- are but so many various differentiated
aspects and transformations (correlations, they are now called) of that One, from Cosmical down to
microcosmical effects, from super-human down to human and sub-human beings, the totality, in short,
of objective existence -- then the first and chief difficulty will disappear and Occult Cosmology may be
mastered.* All the Kabalists and Occultists, Eastern and Western, recognise (a)
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* In the Egyptian as in the Indian theogony there was a concealed deity, the ONE, and the creative,

androgynous god. Thus Shoo is the god of creation and Osiris is, in his original primary form, the "god

whose name is unknown." (See Mariette's Abydos II., p. 63, and Vol. III., pp. 413, 414, No. 1122.)


[[Vol. 1, Page]] 76 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.


the identity of "Father-Mother" with primordial AEther or Akasa, (Astral Light)*; and (b) its

homogeneity before the evolution of the "Son," cosmically Fohat, for it is Cosmic Electricity. "Fohat

hardens and scatters the seven brothers" (Book III. Dzyan); which means that the primordial Electric

Entity -- for the Eastern Occultists insist that Electricity is an Entity -- electrifies into life, and

separates primordial stuff or pregenetic matter into atoms, themselves the source of all life and

consciousness. "There exists an universal agent unique of all forms and of life, that is called Od,** Ob,

and Aour, active and passive, positive and negative, like day and night: it is the first light in Creation"

(Eliphas Levi's Kabala): --- the first Light of the primordial Elohim -- the Adam, "male and female" -or (scientifically) ELECTRICITY AND LIFE.
(c) The ancients represented it by a serpent, for "Fohat hisses as he glides hither and thither" (in

zigzags). The Kabala figures it with the Hebrew letter Teth , whose symbol is the serpent which
played such a prominent part in the Mysteries. Its universal value is nine, for it is the ninth letter of the
alphabet and the ninth door of the fifty portals or gateways that lead to the concealed mysteries of
being. It is the magical agent par excellence, and designates in Hermetic philosophy "Life infused into
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primordial matter," the essence that composes all things, and the spirit that determines their form. But
there are two secret Hermetical operations, one spiritual, the other material-correlative, and for ever
united. "Thou shalt separate the earth from the fire, the subtile from the solid . . . that which ascends
from earth to heaven and descends again from heaven to earth. It (the subtile light), is the strong force
of every force, for it conquers every subtile thing and penetrates into every solid. Thus was the world
formed" (Hermes).
It was not Zeno alone, the founder of the Stoics, who taught that the
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* See next note.

** Od is the pure life-giving Light, or magnetic fluid; Ob the messenger of death used by the sorcerers,

the nefarious evil fluid; Aour is the synthesis of the two, Astral Light proper. Can the Philologists tell

why Od -- a term used by Reichenbach to denominate the vital fluid -- is also a Tibetan word meaning

light, brightness, radiancy? It equally means "Sky" in an occult sense. Whence the root of the word?

But Akasa is not quite Ether, but far higher than that, as will be shown.


[[Vol. 1, Page]] 77 DEITY IN SPACE AND TIME.


Universe evolves, when its primary substance is transformed from the state of fire into that of air, then

into water, etc. Heracleitus of Ephesus maintained that the one principle that underlies all phenomena

in Nature is fire. The intelligence that moves the Universe is fire, and fires is intelligence. And while

Anaximenes said the same of air, and Thales of Miletus (600 years B.C.) of water, the Esoteric

Doctrine reconciles all those philosophers by showing that though each was right the system of none

was complete.
------STANZA III. -- Continued.
8. WHERE WAS THE GERM, AND WHERE WAS NOW DARKNESS? WHERE IS THE SPIRIT

OF THE FLAME THAT BURNS IN THY LAMP, OH LANOO? THE GERM IS THAT, AND
THAT IS LIGHT; THE WHITE BRILLIANT SON OF THE DARK HIDDEN FATHER (a).
(a) The answer to the first question, suggested by the second, which is the reply of the teacher to the
pupil, contains in a single phrase one of the most essential truths of occult philosophy. It indicates the
existence of things imperceptible to our physical senses which are of far greater importance, more real
and more permanent, than those that appeal to these senses themselves. Before the Lanoo can hope to
understand the transcendentally metaphysical problem contained in the first question he must be able
to answer the second, while the very answer he gives to the second will furnish him with the clue to the
correct reply to the first.

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In the Sanscrit Commentary on this Stanza, the terms used for the concealed and the unrevealed
Principle are many. In the earliest MSS. of Indian literature this Unrevealed, Abstract Deity has no
name. It is called generally "That" (Tad in Sanskrit), and means all that is, was, and will be, or that can
be so received by the human mind.
Among such appellations, given, of course, only in esoteric philosophy, as the "Unfathomable
Darkness," the "Whirlwind," etc. -- it is also called the "It of the Kalahansa, the Kala-ham-sa," and
even the "Kali Hamsa," (Black swan). Here the m and the n are convertible, and

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 78 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

both sound like the nasal French an or am, or, again, en or em (Ennui, Embarras, etc.) As in the
Hebrew Bible, many a mysterious sacred name in Sanscrit conveys to the profane ear no more than
some ordinary, and often vulgar word, because it is concealed anagrammatically or otherwise. This
word of Hansa or esoterically "hamsa" is just such a case. Hamsa is equal to a-ham-sa, three words
meaning "I am he" (in English), while divided in still another way it will read "So-ham," "he (is) I" -Soham being equal to Sah, "he," and aham, "I," or "I am he." In this alone is contained the universal
mystery, the doctrine of the identity of man's essence with god-essence, for him who understands the
language of wisdom. Hence the glyph of, and the allegory about, Kalahansa (or hamsa), and the name
given to Brahma neuter (later on, to the male Brahma) of "Hansa-Vahana," he who uses the Hansa as
his vehicle." The same word may be read "Kalaham-sa" or "I am I" in the eternity of Time, answering
to the Biblical, or rather Zoroastrian "I am that I am." The same doctrine is found in the Kabala, as
witness the following extract from an unpublished MS. by Mr. S. Liddell McGregor Mathers, the
, Hoa, Atah, Ani; He, Thou, I; are used
learned Kabalist: "The three pronouns
to symbolize the ideas of Macroprosopus and Microprosopus in the Hebrew Qabalah. Hoa, "He," is
applied to the hidden and concealed Macroprosopus; Atah, "Thou," to Microprosopus; and Ani, "I," to
the latter when He is represented as speaking. (See Lesser Holy Assembly, 204 et seq.) It is to be noted
that each of these names consists of three letters, of which the letter Aleph , A, forms the conclusion
of the first word Hoa, and the commencement of Atah and Ani, as if it were the connecting link
is the symbol of the Unity and consequently of the unvarying Idea of the Divine
between them. But
in the name Hoa are the letters and
, the symbols
operating through all these. But behind the
of the numbers Six and Five, the Male and the Female, the Hexagram and the Pentagram. And the
numbers of these three words, Hoa Atah Ani, are 12, 406, and 61, which are resumed in the key
numbers of 3, 10, and 7, by the Qabalah of the Nine Chambers, which is a form of the exegetical rule
of Temura."
It is useless to attempt to explain the mystery in full. Materialists and the men of modern Science will
never understand it, since, in order

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 79 PRIMEVAL RADIATIONS FROM THE UNITY.

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to obtain clear perception of it, one has first of all to admit the postulate of a universally diffused,
omnipresent, eternal Deity in Nature; secondly, to have fathomed the mystery of electricity in its true
essence; and thirdly, to credit man with being the septenary symbol, on the terrestrial plane, of the One
Great UNIT (the Logos), which is Itself the Seven-vowelled sign, the Breath crystallized into the
WORD.* He who believes in all this, has also to believe in the multiple combination of the seven
planets of Occultism and of the Kabala, with the twelve zodiacal signs; to attri bute, as we do, to each
planet and to each constellation an influence which, in the words of Ely Star (a French Occultist), "is
proper to it, beneficent or maleficent, and this, after the planetary Spirit which rules it, who, in his turn,
is capable of influencing men and things which are found in harmony with him and with which he has
any affinity." For these reasons, and since few believe in the foregoing, all that can now be given is
that in both cases the symbol of Hansa (whether "I," "He," Goose or Swan) is an important symbol,
representing, for instance, Divine Wisdom, Wisdom in darkness beyond the reach of men. For all
exoteric purposes, Hansa, as every Hindu knows, is a fabulous bird, which, when given milk mixed
with water for its food (in the allegory) separated the two, drinking the milk and leaving the water; thus
showing inherent wisdom -- milk standing symbolically for spirit, and water for matter.
That this allegory is very ancient and dates from the very earliest archaic period, is shown by the
mention (in Bhagavata Purana) of a certain caste named "Hamsa" or "Hansa," which was the "one
caste" par excellence; when far back in the mists of a forgotten past there was among the Hindus only
"One Veda, One Deity, One Caste." There is also a range in the Himalayas, described in the old books
as being situated north of Mount Meru, called "Hamsa," and connected with episodes pertaining to the
history of religious mysteries and initiations. As to the name of Kala-Hansa being the supposed vehicle
of Brahma-Prajapati, in the exoteric texts and translations of the
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* This is again similar to the doctrine of Fichte and German Pantheists. The former reveres Jesus as the

great teacher who inculcated the unity of the spirit of man with the God-Spirit (the Adwaita doctrine)

or universal Principle. It is difficult to find a single speculation in Western metaphysics which has not

been anticipated by Archaic Eastern philosophy. From Kant to Herbert Spencer, it is all a more or less

distorted echo of the Dwaita, Adwaita, and Vedantic doctrines generally.


[[Vol. 1, Page]] 80 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.


Orientalists, it is quite a mistake. Brahma, the neuter, is called by them Kala-Hansa and Brahma, the

male, Hansa-Vahana, because forsooth "his vehicle or Vahan is a swan or goose" (vide "the Hindu

Classical Dictionary.") This is a purely exoteric gloss. Esoterically and logically, if Brahma, the

infinite, is all that is described by the Orientalists, namely, agreeably with the Vedantic texts, an

abstract deity in no way characterised by the description of any human attri butes, and it is still

maintained that he or it is called Kala-Hansa -- then how can it ever become the Vahan of Brahma, the

manifested finite god? It is quite the reverse. The "Swan or goose" (Hansa) is the symbol of that male
or temporary deity, as he, the emanation of the primordial Ray, is made to serve as a Vahan or vehicle
for that divine Ray, which otherwise could not manifest itself in the Universe, being, antiphrastically,
itself an emanation of "Darkness" -- for our human intellect, at any rate. It is Brahma, then, who is
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Kala-Hansa, and the Ray, the Hansa-Vahana.
As to the strange symbol chosen, it is equally suggestive; the true mystic significance being the idea of
a universal matrix, figured by the primordial waters of the "deep," or the opening for the reception, and
subsequently for the issue, of that one ray (the Logos), which contains in itself the other seven
procreative rays or powers (the logoi or builders). Hence the choice by the Rosecroix of the aquatic
fowl -- whether swan or pelican,* with seven young ones for a symbol, modified and adapted to the
religion of every country. En-Soph is called the "Fiery Soul of the Pelican" in the Book of Numbers.**
(See Part II. "The Hidden Deity and its Symbols and Glyphs.") Appearing with every Manvantara as
Narayan, or Swayambhuva (the
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* Whether the genus of the bird be cygnus, anser, or pelecanus, it is no matter, as it is an aquatic bird

floating or moving on the waters like the Spirit, and then issuing from those waters to give birth to

other beings. The true significance of the symbol of the Eighteenth Degree of the Rose-Croix is

precisely this, though poetised later on into the motherly feeling of the Pelican rending its bosom to

feed its seven little ones with its blood.

** The reason why Moses forbids eating the pelican and swan, classing the two among the unclean

fowls, and permits eating "bald locusts, beetles, and the grasshopper after his kind" (Leviticus xi. and

Deuteronomy xiv.) is a purely physiological one, and has to do with mystic symbology only in so far

as the word "unclean," like every other word, ought not to be read and understood literally, as it is

esoteric like all the [[Footnote continued on next page]]


[[Vol. 1, Page]] 81 PRIMEVAL DIFFERENTIATIONS.


Self-Existent), and penetrating into the Mundane Egg, it emerges from it at the end of the divine

incubation as Brahma or Prajapati, a progenitor of the future Universe into which he expands. He is
Purusha (spirit), but he is also Prakriti (matter). Therefore it is only after separating himself into two
halves -- Brahma-vach (the female) and Brahma-Viraj (the male), that the Prajapati becomes the male
Brahma.
------STANZA III. -- Continued.
9. LIGHT IS COLD FLAME, AND FLAME IS FIRE, AND THE FIRE PRODUCES HEAT, WHICH

YIELDS WATER, THE WATER OF LIFE IN THE GREAT MOTHER (Chaos) (a).
(a) It must be remembered that the words "Light," "Fire," and "Flame" used in the Stanzas have been
adopted by the translators thereof from the vocabulary of the old "Fire philosophers,"** in order to
render better the meaning of the archaic terms and symbols employed in the original. Otherwise they
would have remained entirely unintelligible to a European reader. But to a student of the Occult the
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terms used will be sufficiently clear.
All these -- "Light," "Flame," "Hot," "Cold," "Fire," "Heat," "Water," and the "water of life" are all, on
our plane, the progeny; or as a modern physicist would say, the correlations of ELECTRICITY.
Mighty word, and a still mightier symbol! Sacred generator of a no less sacred progeny; of fire -- the
creator, the preserver and the destroyer; of light -- the essence of our divine ancestors; of flame -- the
Soul of things. Electricity, the ONE Life at the upper rung of Being, and Astral Fluid, the Athanor of
the Alchemists, at its lowest; GOD and DEVIL, GOOD and EVIL. . . .
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

[[Footnote continued from previous page]] rest, and may as well mean "holy" as not. It is a blind, very

suggestive in connection with certain superstitions -- e.g., that of the Russian people who will not use

the pigeon for food; not because it is "unclean," but because the "Holy Ghost" is credited with having

appeared under the form of a Dove.

** Not the Mediaeval Alchemists, but the Magi and Fire-Worshippers, from whom the Rosicrucians or

the Philosophers per ignem, the successors of the theurgists borrowed all their ideas concerning Fire,

as a mystic and divine element.


[[Vol. 1, Page]] 82 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.


Now, why is Light called in the Stanzas "cold flame"? Because in the order of Cosmic evolution (as

taught by the Occultist), the energy that actuates matter after its first formation into atoms is generated

on our plane by Cosmic heat; and because Kosmos, in the sense of dissociated matter, was not, before

that period. The first primordial matter, eternal and coeval with Space, "which has neither a beginning

nor an end," is "neither hot nor cold, but is of its own special nature," says the Commentary (Book II).
Heat and cold are relative qualities and pertain to the realms of the manifested worlds, which all
proceed from the manifested Hyle, which, in its absolutely latent aspect, is referred to as the "cold
Virgin," and when awakened to life, as the "Mother." The ancient Western Cosmogonic myths state
that at first there was but cold mist which was the Father, and the prolific slime (the Mother, Ilus or
Hyle), from which crept forth the Mundane snake-matter, (Isis, vol. i., p. 146). Primordial matter, then,
before it emerges from the plane of the never-manifesting, and awakens to the thrill of action under the
impulse of Fohat, is but "a cool Radiance, colourless, formless, tasteless, and devoid of every quality
and aspect." Even such are her first-born, the "four sons," who "are One, and become Seven," -- the
entities, by whose qualifications and names the ancient Eastern Occultists called the four of the seven
primal "centres of Forces," or atoms, that develop later into the great Cosmic "Elements," now divided
into the seventy or so sub-elements, known to science. The four primal natures of the first Dhyan
Chohans, are the so-called (for want of better terms) "Akasic," "Ethereal," "Watery," and "Fiery,"
answering, in the terminology of practical occultism, to scientific definitions of gases, which, to
convey a clear idea to both Occultists and laymen, must be defined as Parahydrogenic,* Paraoxygenic,
Oxyhydrogenic, and Ozonic, or perhaps Nitr-ozonic; the latter forces or gases (in Occultism,
supersensuous, yet atomic substances) being the most effective and active when energising on the
plane of more grossly differentiated matter.** These are both electro-positive and electro-negative.
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[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

*[[Para]], "beyond," outside.

** Each of these and many more are probably the missing links of chemistry. They are known by other

names in Alchemy and to the Occultists who practise in phenomenal powers. It is by combining and

recombining in a certain way (or dissociating) the "Elements" by means of astral fire that the greatest

phenomena are produced.


[[Vol. 1, Page]] 83 THE WEB OF BEING.


STANZA III. -- Continued.

10. FATHER-MOTHER SPIN A WEB WHOSE UPPER END IS FASTENED TO SPIRIT (Purusha),

THE LIGHT OF THE ONE DARKNESS, AND THE LOWER ONE TO MATTER (Prakriti) ITS (the

Spirit's) SHADOWY END; AND THIS WEB IS THE UNIVERSE SPUN OUT OF THE TWO

SUBSTANCES MADE IN ONE, WHICH IS SWABHAVAT (a).

(a) In the Mandukya (Mundaka) Upanishad it is written, "As a spider throws out and retracts its web,

as herbs spring up in the ground . . . so is the Universe derived from the undecaying one" (I. 1. 7).
Brahma, as "the germ of unknown Darkness," is the material from which all evolves and develops "as
the web from the spider, as foam from the water," etc. This is only graphic and true, if Brahma the
"Creator" is, as a term, derived from the root brih, to increase or expand. Brahma "expands" and
becomes the Universe woven out of his own substance.
The same idea has been beautifully expressed by Goethe, who says:
"Thus at the roaring loom of Time I ply,
And weave for God the garment thou see'st Him by."
------STANZA III. -- Continued.
`. IT (the Web) EXPANDS WHEN THE BREATH OF FIRE (the Father) IS UPON IT; IT

CONTRACTS WHEN THE BREATH OF THE MOTHER (the root of Matter) TOUCHES IT. THEN
THE SONS (the Elements with their respective Powers, or Intelligences) DISSOCIATE AND
SCATTER, TO RETURN INTO THEIR MOTHER'S BOSOM AT THE END OF THE "GREAT
DAY" AND REBECOME ONE WITH HER (a). WHEN IT (the Web) IS COOLING, IT BECOMES
RADIANT, ITS SONS EXPAND AND CONTRACT THROUGH THEIR OWN SELVES AND
HEARTS; THEY EMBRACE INFINITUDE. (b)
The expanding of the Universe under the breath of FIRE is very suggestive in the light of the "Fire
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mist" period of which modern science speaks so much, and knows in reality so little.
Great heat breaks up the compound elements and resolves the

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 84 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

heavenly bodies into their primeval one element, explains the commentary. "Once disintegrated into its
primal constituent by getting within the attraction and reach of a focus, or centre of heat (energy), of
which many are carried about to and fro in space, a body, whether alive or dead, will be vapourised
and held in "the bosom of the Mother" until Fohat, gathering a few of the clusters of Cosmic matter
(nebulae) will, by giving it an impulse, set it in motion anew, develop the required heat, and then leave
it to follow its own new growth.
The expanding and contracting of the Web -- i.e., the world stuff or atoms -- expresses here the
pulsatory movement; for it is the regular contraction and expansion of the infinite and shoreless Ocean
of that which we may call the noumenon of matter emanated by Swabhavat, which causes the universal
vibration of atoms. But it is also suggestive of something else. It shows that the ancients were
acquainted with that which is now the puzzle of many scientists and especially of astronomers: the
cause of the first ignition of matter or the world-stuff, the paradox of the heat produced by the
refrigerative contraction and other such Cosmic riddles. For it points unmistakeably to a knowledge by
the ancients of such phenomena. "There is heat internal and heat external in every atom," say the
manuscript Commentaries, to which the writer has had access; "the breath of the Father (or Spirit) and
the breath (or heat) of the Mother (matter);" and they give explanations which show that the modern
theory of the extinction of the solar fires by loss of heat through radiation, is erroneous. The
assumption is false even on the Scientists' own admission. For as Professor Newcomb points out
(Popular Astronomy, pp. 506-508), "by losing heat, a gaseous body contracts, and the heat generated
by the contraction exceeds that which it had to lose in order to produce the contraction." This paradox,
that a body gets hotter as the shrinking produced by its getting colder is greater, led to long disputes.
The surplus of heat, it was argued, was lost by radiation, and to assume that the temperature is not
lowered pari passu with a decrease of volume under a constant pressure, is to set at nought the law of
Charles (Nebular Theory, Winchell). Contraction develops heat, it is true; but contraction (from
cooling) is incapable of developing the whole amount of heat at any time existing in the mass, or even
of maintaining a body at a constant temperature, etc. Professor Winchell tries to reconcile the paradox -only a seeming one in fact, as

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 85 CONSCIOUS ELECTRICITY.

Homer Lanes proved, -- by suggesting "something besides heat." "May it not be," he asks, "simply a
repulsion among the molecules, which varies according to some law of the distance?" But even this
will be found irreconcileable, unless this "something besides heat" is ticketed "Causeless Heat," the
"Breath of Fire," the all-creative Force Plus ABSOLUTE INTELLIGENCE, which physical science is
not likely to accept.
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However it may be, the reading of this Stanza shows it, notwithstanding its archaic phraseology, to be
more scientific than even modern science.
------STANZA III. -- Continued.
12. THEN SVABHAVAT SENDS FOHAT TO HARDEN THE ATOMS. EACH (of these) IS A

PART OF THE WEB (Universe). REFLECTING THE "SELF-EXISTENT LORD" (Primeval Light)
LIKE A MIRROR, EACH BECOMES IN TURN A WORLD.* . . .
"Fohat hardens the atoms"; i.e., by infusing energy into them: he scatters the atoms or primordial
matter. "He scatters himself while scattering matter into atoms" (MSS. Commentaries.)
It is through Fohat that the ideas of the Universal Mind are impressed upon matter. Some faint idea of
the nature of Fohat may be gathered from the appellation "Cosmic Electricity" sometimes applied to it;
but to the commonly known properties of electricity must, in this case, be added others, including
intelligence. It is of interest to note that modern science has come to the conclusion, that all cerebration
and brain-activity are attended by electrical phenomena. (For further details as to "Fohat" See Stanza
V. and Comments.")
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* This is said in the sense that the flame from a fire is endless, and that the lights of the whole Universe

could be lit at one simple rush-light without diminishing its flame.

---------------------

Next Section

Contents


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`The Secret Doctrine by H. P. Blavatsky -- Vol. 1


Theosophical University Press Online Edition


[[Vol. 1, Page]] 86 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.


STANZA IV.

COMMENTARY.

1. LISTEN, YE SONS OF THE EARTH, TO YOUR INSTRUCTORS -- THE SONS OF THE FIRE

(a). LEARN THERE IS NEITHER FIRST NOR LAST; FOR ALL IS ONE NUMBER, ISSUED
FROM NO NUMBER (b).
(a) These terms, the "Sons of the Fire," the "Sons of the Fire-Mist," and the like, require explanation.
They are connected with a great primordial and universal mystery, and it is not easy to make it clear.
There is a passage in the Bhagavatgita (ch. viii.) wherein Krishna, speaking symbolically and
esoterically, says: "I will state the times (conditions) . . . at which devotees departing (from this life)
do so never to return (be reborn), or to return (to incarnate again). The Fire, the Flame, the day, the
bright (lucky) fortnight, the six months of the Northern solstice, departing (dying) in these, those who
know the Brahman (Yogis) go to the Brahman. Smoke, night, the dark (unlucky) fortnight, the six
months of the Southern solstice, (dying) in these, the devotee goes to the lunar light (or mansion the
astral light also) and returns (is reborn). These two paths, bright and dark, are said to be eternal in this
world (or great kalpa, 'Age'). By the one a man goes never to come back, by the other he returns." Now
these names, "Fire," "Flame," "Day," the "bright fortnight," etc., as "Smoke," "Night," and so on,
leading only to the end of the lunar path are incomprehensible without a knowledge of Esotericism.
These are all names of various deities which preside over the Cosmo-psychic Powers. We often speak
of the Hierarchy of "Flames" (see Book II.) of the "Sons of Fire," etc. Sankaracharya the greatest of
the Esoteric masters of India, says that fire means a deity which presides over Time (kala). The able
translator of Bhagavatgita, Kashinath Trimbak Telang, M.A., of Bombay, confesses he has "no clear
notion of the meaning of these verses" (p. 81, footnote). It seems quite clear, on the contrary, to him
who knows the occult doctrine. With these verses the mystic sense of the solar and lunar symbols are
connected: the Pitris are lunar deities and our ancestors, because they created the physical man.

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 87 THE SEVEN MYSTIC SENSES.

The Agnishwatha, the Kumara (the seven mystic sages), are solar deities, though the former are Pitris
also; and these are the "fashioners of the Inner Man." (See Book II.) They are: -"The Sons of Fire" -- because they are the first Beings (in the Secret Doctrine they are called "Minds"),
evolved from Primordial Fire. "The Lord is a consuming Fire" (Deuteronomy iv. 24); "The Lord
(Christos) shall be revealed with his mighty angels in flaming fire" (2 Thessal. i. 7, 8). The Holy Ghost
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descended on the Apostles like "cloven tongues of fire," (Acts ii. v. 3); Vishnu will return on Kalki, the
White Horse, as the last Avatar amid fire and flames; and Sosiosh will be brought down equally on a
White Horse in a "tornado of fire." "And I saw heaven open and behold a white horse, and he that sat
upon him . . . . is called the Word of God," (Rev. xix. 13) amid flaming Fire. Fire is AEther in its
purest form, and hence is not regarded as matter, but it is the unity of Aether -- the second manifested
deity -- in its universality. But there are two "Fires" and a distinction is made between them in the
Occult teachings. The first, or the purely Formless and invisible Fire concealed in the Central Spiritual
Sun, is spoken of as "triple" (metaphysically); while the Fire of the manifested Kosmos is Septenary,
throughout both the Universe and our Solar System. "The fire or knowledge burns up all action on the
plane of illusion," says the commentary. "Therefore, those who have acquired it and are emancipated,
are called 'Fires.' " Speaking of the seven senses symbolised as Hotris, priests, the Brahmana says in
Anugita: "Thus these seven (senses, smell and taste, and colour, and sound, etc., etc.) are the causes of
emancipation;" and the commentator adds: "It is from these seven from which the Self is to be
emancipated. 'I' (am here devoid of qualities) must mean the Self, not the Brahmana who speaks."
("Sacred Books of the East," ed. by Max Muller, Vol. VIII., 278.)
(b) The expression "All is One Number, issued from No Number" relates again to that universal and
philosophical tenet just explained in Stanza III. (Comm. 4). That which is absolute is of course No
Number; but in its later significance it has an application in Space as in Time. It means that not only
every increment of time is part of a larger increment, up to the most indefinitely prolonged duration
conceivable by the human intellect, but also that no manifested thing can

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 88 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

be thought of except as part of a larger whole: the total aggregate being the One manifested Universe
that issues from the unmanifested or Absolute -- called Non-Being or "No-Number," to distinguish it
from BEING or "the One Number."
------STANZA IV. -- Continued.
(2) LEARN WHAT WE, WHO DESCEND FROM THE PRIMORDIAL SEVEN, WE, WHO ARE

BORN FROM THE PRIMORDIAL FLAME, HAVE LEARNED FROM OUR FATHERS (a).
(a) This is explained in Book II., and this name, "Primordial Flame," corroborates what is said in the
first paragraph of the preceding commentary on Stanza IV.
The distinction between the "Primordial" and the subsequent seven Builders is this: The former are the
Ray and direct emanation of the first "Sacred Four," the Tetraktis, that is, the eternally Self-Existent
One (Eternal in Essence note well, not in manifestation, and distinct from the universal ONE). Latent,
during Pralaya, and active, during Manvantara, the "Primordial" proceed from "Father-Mother" (SpiritHyle, or Ilus); whereas the other manifested Quaternary and the Seven proceed from the Mother alone.

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It is the latter who is the immaculate Virgin-Mother, who is overshadowed, not impregnated, by the
Universal MYSTERY -- when she emerges from her state of Laya or undifferentiated condition. In
reality, they are, of course, all one; but their aspects on the various planes of being are different. (See
Part II., "Theogony of the Creative Gods.")
The first "Primordial" are the highest Beings on the Scale of Existence. They are the Archangels of
Christianity, those who refuse -- as Michael did in the latter system, and as did the eldest "Mind-born
sons" of Brahma (Veddhas) -- to create or rather to multiply.
------STANZA IV. -- Continued.
3. FROM THE EFFULGENCY OF LIGHT -- THE RAY OF THE EVER-DARKNESS -- SPRUNG

IN SPACE THE RE-AWAKENED ENERGIES (Dhyan Chohans): THE ONE FROM THE EGG,
THE SIX AND THE FIVE (a); THEN THE THREE, THE ONE,

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 89 THE VEHICLE OF THE UNIVERSE.

THE FOUR, THE ONE, THE FIVE -- THE TWICE SEVEN, THE SUM TOTAL (b). AND THESE
ARE: THE ESSENCES, THE FLAMES, THE ELEMENTS, THE BUILDERS, THE NUMBERS,
THE ARUPA (formless), THE RUPA (with bodies), AND THE FORCE OR DIVINE MAN -- THE
SUM TOTAL. AND FROM THE DIVINE MAN EMANATED THE FORMS, THE SPARKS, THE
SACRED ANIMALS, AND THE MESSENGERS OF THE SACRED FATHERS (the Pitris)
WITHIN THE HOLY FOUR.*
(a) This relates to the sacred Science of the Numerals: so sacred, indeed, and so important in the study
of Occultism that the subject can hardly be skimmed, even in such a large work as the present. It is on
the Hierarchies and correct numbers of these Beings invisible (to us) except upon very rare occasions,
that the mystery of the whole Universe is built. The Kumaras, for instance, are called the "Four"
though in reality seven in number, because Sanaka, Sananda, Sanatana and Sanat-Kumara are the chief
Vaidhatra (their patronymic name), as they spring from the "four-fold mystery." To make the whole
clearer we have to turn for our illustrations to tenets more familiar to some of our readers, namely, the
Brahminical.
According to Manu, Hiranyagarbha is Brahma the first male formed by the undiscernible Causeless
CAUSE in a "Golden Egg resplendent as the Sun," as states the Hindu Classical Dictionary.
"Hiranyagarbha" means the golden, or rather the "Effulgent Womb" or Egg. The meaning tallies
awkwardly with the epithet of "male." Surely the esoteric meaning of the sentence is clear enough. In
the Rig Veda it is said: -- "THAT, the one Lord of all beings . . . . the one animating principle of gods
and man," arose, in the beginning, in the Golden Womb, Hiranyagarbha -- which is the Mundane Egg
or sphere of our Universe. That Being is surely androgynous, and the allegory of Brahma separating
into two and recreating in one of his halves (the female Vach) himself as Viraj, is a proof of it.

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"The One from the Egg, the Six and the Five," give the number 1065, the value of the first-born (later
on the male and female Brahma-Prajapati), who answers to the numbers 7, and 14, and 21
respectively. The Prajapati are, like the Sephiroth, only seven, including the
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* The 4, represented in the Occult numerals by the Tetraktis, the Sacred or Perfect Square, is a Sacred

Number with the mystics of every nation and race. It has one and the same significance in

Brahmanism, Buddhism, the Kabala and in the Egyptian, Chaldean and other numerical systems.


[[Vol. 1, Page]] 90 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.


synthetic Sephira of the triad from which they spring. Thus from Hiranyagarbha or Prajapati, the

triune (primeval Vedic Trimurti, Agni, Vayu, and Surya), emanate the other seven, or again ten, if we

separate the first three which exist in one, and one in three, all, moreover, being comprehended within

that one "supreme" Parama, called Guhya or " secret," and Sarvatma, the "Super-Soul." "The seven

Lords of Being lie concealed in Sarvatma like thoughts in one brain." So are the Sephiroth. It is either

seven when counting from the upper Triad headed by Kether, or ten -- exoterically. In the

Mahabharata the Prajapati are 21 in number, or ten, six, and five (1065), thrice seven.*

(b) "The Three, the One, the Four, the One, the Five" (in their totality -- twice seven) represent 31415 -the numerical hierarchy of the Dhyan-Chohans of various orders, and of the inner or circumscribed

world.** When placed on the boundary of the great circle of "Pass not" (see Stanza V.), called also the
Dhyanipasa, the "rope of the Angels," the "rope" that hedges off the phenomenal from the noumenal
Kosmos, (not falling within the range of our present objective consciousness); this number, when not
enlarged by permutation and expansion, is ever 31415 anagrammatically and Kabalistically, being
both the number of the circle and the mystic Svastica, the twice seven once more; for whatever way
the two sets of figures are counted, when added separately, one figure after another, whether
crossways, from right or from left, they will always yield fourteen. Mathematically they represent the
well-known calculation, namely, that the ratio of the diameter to the circumference of a circle is as 1 to
3.1415, or the value of the (pi), as this ratio is called -- the symbol being always used in
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* In the Kabala the same numbers are a value of Jehovah, viz., 1065, since the numerical values of the

three letters which compose his name -- Jod, Vau and twice He -- are respectively 10 ( ), 6 ( ) and

); or again thrice seven, 21. "Ten is the Mother of the Soul, for Life and Light are therein

5(

united," says Hermes. "For number one is born of the Spirit and the number ten from matter (chaos,

feminine); the unity has made the ten, the ten the unity" (Book of the Keys). By the means of the

Temura, the anagrammatical method of the Kabala, and the knowledge of 1065 (21), a universal

science may be obtained regarding Kosmos and its mysteries" (Rabbi Yogel). The Rabbis regard the

numbers 10, 6, and 5 as the most sacred of all.


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** The reader may be told that an American Kabalist has now discovered the same number for the
Elohim. It came to the Jews from Chaldaea. See "Hebrew Metrology" in the Masonic Review, July,
1885, McMillan Lodge, No. 141.

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 91 THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTIONS.

mathematical formulae to express it. This set of figures must have the same meaning, since the 1 :
314,159, and then again 1 : 3 : 1,415,927 are worked out in the secret calculations to express the
various cycles and ages of the "first born," or 311,040,000,000,000 with fractions, and yield the same
13,415 by a process we are not concerned with at present. And it may be shown that Mr. Ralston
Skinner, author of The Source of Measures, reads the Hebrew word Alhim in the same number values,
by omitting, as said, the ciphers and by permutation -- 13,514: since
(a) is 1 : (l) is 3 (or 30);
(m) is 4 (40), and anagrammatically -- 31,415 as explained by him.
(h) is 5; (i) 1 for 10; and
Thus, while in the metaphysical world, the circle with the one central Point in it has no number, and is
called Anupadaka (parentless and numberless) -- viz., it can fall under no calculation, -- in the
manifested world the mundane Egg or Circle is circumscribed within the groups called the Line, the
Triangle, the Pentacle, the second Line and the Cube (or 13514); and when the Point having generated
a Line, thus becomes a diameter which stands for the androgynous Logos, then the figures become
31415, or a triangle, a line, a cube, the second line, and a pentacle. "When the Son separates from the
Mother he becomes the Father," the diameter standing for Nature, or the feminine principle. Therefore
it is said: "In the world of being, the one Point fructifies the Line -- the Virgin Matrix of Kosmos (the
egg-shaped zero) -- and the immaculate Mother gives birth to the form that combines all forms."
Prajapati is called the first procreating male, and "his Mother's husband."* This gives the key-note to
all the later divine sons from immaculate mothers. It is greatly corroborated by the significant fact that
Anna (the name of the Mother of the Virgin Mary) now represented by the Roman Catholic church as
having given birth to her daughter in an immaculate way ("Mary conceived without sin"), is derived
from the Chaldean Ana, heaven, or Astral Light, Anima Mundi; whence Anaitia, Devi-durga, the wife
of Siva, is also called Annapurna,
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* We find the same expression in Egypt. Mout signifies, for one thing, "Mother," and shows the

character assigned to her in the triad of that country. "She was no less the mother than the wife of

Ammon, one of the principle titles of the god being "the husb and of his mother." The goddess Mout, or

Mut, is addressed as "our lady," the "queen of Heaven" and of "the Earth," thus "sharing these titles

with the other mother goddesses, Isis, Hathor, etc." (Maspero).


[[Vol. 1, Page]] 92 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.


and Kanya, the Virgin; "Uma-Kanya" being her esoteric name, and meaning the "Virgin of light,"

Astral Light in one of its multitudinous aspects.

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(c) The Devas, Pitris, Rishis; the Suras and the Asuras; the Daityas and Adityas; the Danavas and
Gandharvas, etc., etc., have all their synonyms in our Secret Doctrine, as well as in the Kabala and the
Hebrew Angelology; but it is useless to give their ancient names, as it would only create confusion.
Many of these may be also found now, even in the Christian hierarchy of divine and celestial powers.
All those Thrones and Dominions, Virtues and Principalities, Cherubs, Seraphs and demons, the
various denizens of the Sidereal World, are the modern copies of archaic prototypes. The very
symbolism in their names, when transliterated and arranged in Greek and Latin, are sufficient to show
it, as will be proved in several cases further on.
The "Sacred Animals" are found in the Bible as well as in the Kabala, and they have their meaning (a
very profound one, too) on the page of the origins of Life. In the Sepher Jezirah it is stated that "God
engraved in the Holy Four the throne of his glory, the Ophanim (Wheels or the World-Spheres), the
Seraphim,* the Sacred Animals, and the ministering angels, and from these three (the Air, Water, and
Fire or Ether) he formed his habitation." Thus was the world made "through three Seraphim -- Sepher,
Saphar, and Sipur," or "through Number, Numbers, and Numbered." With the astronomical key these
"Sacred Animals" become the signs of the Zodiac.
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* This is the literal translation from the IXth and Xth Sections: "Ten numbers without what? One: the

spirit of the living God . . . . who liveth in eternities! Voice and Spirit and Word, and this is the Holy

Spirit. Two: Spirit out of Spirit. He designed and hewed therewith twenty-two letters of foundation,

three Mothers and seven double and Twelve single, and one spirit out of them. Three: Water out of

spirit; he designed and hewed with them the barren and the void, mud and earth. He designed them as

a flowerbed, hewed them as a wall, covered them as a paving. Four: Fire out of water. He designed

and hewed therewith the throne of glory and the wheels, and the seraphim and the holy animals and

the ministering angels, and of the three He founded his dwelling, as it is said, He makes his angels

spirits and his servants fiery flames!" Which words "founded his dwelling" show clearly that in the

Kabala, as in India, the Deity was considered as the Universe, and was not, in his origin, the extracosmic God he is now.


[[Vol. 1, Page]] 93 THE POTENCY OF SPEECH AND SOUND.


STANZA IV. -- Continued.

4. THIS WAS THE ARMY OF THE VOICE -- THE DIVINE SEPTENARY. THE SPARKS OF
THE SEVEN ARE SUBJECT TO, AND THE SERVANTS OF, THE FIRST, SECOND, THIRD,
FOURTH, FIFTH, SIXTH, AND THE SEVENTH OF THE SEVEN (a). THESE ("sparks") ARE
CALLED SPHERES, TRIANGLES, CUBES, LINES, AND MODELLERS; FOR THUS STANDS
THE ETERNAL NIDANA -- THE OI-HA-HOU (the Permutation of Oeaohoo) (b).*
(a) This Sloka gives again a brief analysis of the Hierarchies of the Dhyan Chohans, called Devas
(gods) in India, or the conscious intelligent powers in Nature. To this Hierarchy correspond the actual
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types into which humanity may be divided; for humanity, as a whole, is in reality a materialized
though as yet imperfect expression thereof. The "army of the Voice" is a term closely connected with
the mystery of Sound and Speech, as an effect and corollary of the cause -- Divine Thought. As
beautifully expressed by P. Christian, the learned author of "The History of Magic" and of "L'Homme
Rouge des Tuileries," the word spoken by, as well as the name of, every individual largely determine
his future fate. Why? Because --- "When our Soul (mind) creates or evokes a thought, the representative sign of that
thought is self-engraved upon the astral fluid, which is the receptacle and, so to say, the
mirror of all the manifestations of being.
"The sign expresses the thing: the thing is the (hidden or occult) virtue of the sign.
"To pronounce a word is to evoke a thought, and make it present: the magnetic potency
of the human speech is the commencement of every manifestation in the Occult World.
To utter a Name is not only to define a Being (an Entity), but to place it under and
condemn it through the emission of the Word (Verbum), to the influence of one or more
Occult potencies. Things are, for every one of us, that which it (the Word) makes them
while naming them. The Word (Verbum) or the speech of every man is, quite
unconsciously to himself, a BLESSING or a CURSE; this is why our present ignorance
about the properties or attri butes of the IDEA as well as about the attri butes and
properties of MATTER, is often fatal to us.
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* The literal signification of the word is, among the Eastern Occultists of the North, a circular wind,

whirlwind; but in this instance, it is a term to denote the ceaseless and eternal Cosmic Motion; or

rather the Force that moves it, which Force is tacitly accepted as the Deity but never named. It is the

eternal Karana, the ever-acting Cause.


[[Vol. 1, Page]] 94 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.


"Yes, names (and words) are either BENEFICENT or MALEFICENT; they are, in a

certain sense, either venomous or health-giving, according to the hidden influences

attached by Supreme Wisdom to their elements, that is to say, to the LETTERS which

compose them, and the NUMBERS correlative to these letters."

This is strictly true as an esoteric teaching accepted by all the Eastern Schools of Occultism. In the

Sanskrit, as also in the Hebrew and all other alphabets, every letter has its occult meaning and its

rationale; it is a cause and an effect of a preceding cause and a combination of these very often

produces the most magical effect. The vowels, especially, contain the most occult and formidable
potencies. The Mantras (esoterically, magical rather than religious) are chanted by the Brahmins and
so are the Vedas and other Scriptures.

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The "Army of the Voice," is the prototype of the "Host of the Logos," or the "WORD" of the Sepher
Jezirah, called in the Secret Doctrine "the One Number issued from No-Number" -- the One Eternal
Principle. The esoteric theogony begins with the One, manifested, therefore not eternal in its presence
and being, if eternal in its essence; the number of the numbers and numbered -- the latter proceeding
from the Voice, the feminine Vach, Satarupa "of the hundred forms," or Nature. It is from this number
10, or creative nature, the Mother (the occult cypher, or "nought," ever procreating and multiplying in
union with the Unit "I," one, or the Spirit of Life), that the whole Universe proceeded.
In the Anugita a conversation is given (ch. vi., 15) between a Brahmana and his wife, on the origin of
Speech and its occult properties.* The wife asks how Speech came into existence, and which was prior
to the other, Speech or Mind. The Brahmana tells her that the Apana (inspirational breath) becoming
lord, changes that intelligence, which does not understand Speech or Words, into the state of Apana,
and thus opens the mind. Thereupon he tells her a story, a dialogue between Speech and Mind. "Both
went to the Self of Being (i.e., to the individual Higher Self, as Nilakantha thinks, to Prajapati,
according to the commentator Arjuna Misra), and asked him to destroy their doubts and decide which
of them preceded and was superior to the
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* Anugita forms part of the Asvamedha Parvan of the "Mahabharata." The translator of the

Bhagavatgita, edited by Max Muller, regards it as a continuation of the Bhagavatgita. Its original is

one of the oldest Upanishads.


[[Vol. 1, Page]] 95 SPEECH AND MIND.


other. To this the lord said: 'Mind is Superior.' But Speech answered the Self of Being, by saying: 'I

verily yield (you) your desires,' meaning that by speech he acquired what he desired. Thereupon again,

the Self told her that there are two minds, the 'movable' and the 'immovable.' 'The immovable is with

me,' he said, 'the movable is in your dominion' (i.e. of Speech) on the plane of matter. To that you are

superior. But inasmuch, O beautiful one, as you came personally to speak to me (in the way you did,

i.e. proudly), therefore, O, Sarasvati! you shall never speak after (hard) exhalation." "The goddess

Speech" (Sarasvati, a later form or aspect of Vach, the goddess also of secret learning or Esoteric

Wisdom), "verily, dwelt always between the Prana and the Apana. But O noble one! going with the

Apana wind (vital air), though impelled, without the Prana (expirational breath), she ran up to
Prajapati (Brahma), saying, 'Be pleased, O venerable sir!' Then the Prana appeared again, nourishing
Speech. And, therefore, Speech never speaks after (hard or inspirational) exhalation. It is always noisy
or noiseless. Of these two, the noiseless is the superior to the noisy (Speech) . . . . The (speech) which
is produced in the body by means of the Prana, and which then goes (is transformed) into Apana, and
then becoming assimilated with the Udana (physical organs of Speech) . . . then finally dwells in the
Samana ('at the navel in the form of sound, as the material cause of all words,' says Arjuna Misra). So
Speech formerly spoke. Hence the mind is distinguished by reason of its being immovable, and the
Goddess (Speech) by reason of her being movable."
This allegory is at the root of the Occult law, which prescribes silence upon the knowledge of certain
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secret and invisible things perceptible only to the spiritual mind (the 6th sense), and which cannot be
expressed by "noisy" or uttered speech. This chapter of Anugita explains, says Arjuna Misra,
Pranayama, or regulation of the breath in Yoga practices. This mode, however, without the previous
acquisition of, or at least full understanding of the two higher senses, of which there are seven, as will
be shown, pertains rather to the lower Yoga. The Hatha so called was and still is discountenanced by
the Arhats. It is injurious to the health and alone can never develop into Raj Yoga. This story is quoted
to show how inseparably connected are, in the metaphysics of old, intelligent beings, or rather
"Intelligences," with every sense or

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 96 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

function whether physical or mental. The Occult claim that there are seven senses in man, as in nature,
as there are seven states of consciousness, is corroborated in the same work, chapter vii., on Pratyahara
(the restraint and regulation of the senses, Pranayama being that of the "vital winds" or breath). The
Brahmana speaks in it "of the institution of the seven sacrificial Priests (Hotris). He says: "The nose
and the eyes, and the tongue, and the skin and the ear as the fifth (or smell, sight, taste, touch and
hearing), mind and understanding are the seven sacrificial priests separately stationed"; and which
"dwelling in a minute space (still) do not perceive each other" on this sensuous plane, none of them
except mind. For mind says: "The nose smells not without me, the eye does not take in colour, etc.,
etc. I am the eternal chief among all elements (i.e., senses). Without me, the senses never shine, like an
empty dwelling, or like fires the flames of which are extinct. Without me, all beings, like fuel half
dried and half moist, fail to apprehend qualities or objects even with the senses exerting themselves."*
This, of course, with regard only to mind on the sensuous plane. Spiritual mind (the upper portion or
aspect of the impersonal MANAS) takes no cognisance of the senses in physical man. How well the
ancients were acquainted with the correlation of forces and all the recently discovered phenomena of
mental and physical faculties and functions, with many more mysteries also -- may be found in reading
chapters vii. and viii. of this (in philosophy and mystic learning) priceless work. See the quarrel of the
senses about their respective superiority and their taking the Brahman, the lord of all creatures, for
their arbiter. "You are all greatest and not greatest," or superior to objects, as A. Misra says, none
being independent of the other. "You are all possessed of one another's qualities. All are greatest in
their own spheres and all support one another. There is one unmoving (life-wind or breath, the 'Yoga
inhalation,' so called, which is the breath of the One or Higher SELF). That is the (or my) own Self,
accumulated in numerous (forms)."
This Breath, Voice, Self or "Wind" (pneuma?) is the Synthesis of the Seven Senses, noumenally all
minor deities and esoterically -- the septenary and the "Army of the VOICE."
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* This shows the modern metaphysicians, added to all past and present Haegels, Berkeleys,

Schopenhauers, Hartmanns, Herbert Spencers, and even the modern Hylo-Idealists to boot, no better

than the pale copyists of hoary antiquity.


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[[Vol. 1, Page]] 97 NATURE, THE PERPETUAL MOTION.


(b) Next we see Cosmic matter scattering and forming itself into elements; grouped into the mystic

four within the fifth element -- Ether, the lining of Akasa, the Anima Mundi or Mother of Kosmos.

"Dots, Lines, Triangles, Cubes, Circles" and finally "Spheres" -- why or how? Because, says the

Commentary, such is the first law of Nature, and because Nature geometrizes universally in all her
manifestations. There is an inherent law -- not only in the primordial, but also in the manifested matter
of our phenomenal plane -- by which Nature correlates her geometrical forms, and later, also, her
compound elements; and in which there is no place for accident or chance. It is a fundamental law in
Occultism, that there is no rest or cessation of motion in Nature.* That which seems rest is only the
change of one form into another; the change of substance going hand in hand with that of form -- as
we are taught in Occult physics, which thus seem to have anticipated the discovery of the
"Conservation of matter" by a considerable time. Says the ancient Commentary** to Stanza IV.: -"The Mother is the fiery Fish of Life. She scatters her spawn and the Breath (Motion) heats and
quickens it. The grains (of spawn) are soon attracted to each other and form the curds in the Ocean (of
Space). The larger lumps coalesce and receive new spawn -- in fiery dots, triangles and cubes, which
ripen, and at the appointed time some of the lumps detach themselves and assume spheroidal form, a
process which they effect only when not interfered with by the others. After which, law No. * * * comes
into operation. Motion (the Breath) becomes the whirlwind and sets them into rotation."***
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* It is the knowledge of this law that permits and helps the Arhat to perform his Siddhis, or various

phenomena, such as disintegration of matter, the transport of objects from one place to another.

** These are ancient Commentaries attached with modern Glossaries to the Stanzas, as the

Commentaries in their symbolical language are usually as difficult to understand as the Stanzas

themselves.

*** In a polemical scientific work, "The Modern Genesis," the author, the Rev. W. B. Slaughter,

criticising the position assumed by the astronomers, asks: -- "It is to be regretted that the advocates of

this (nebular) theory have not entered more largely into the discussion of it (the beginning of rotation).

No one condescends to give us the rationale of it. How does the process of cooling and contracting the

mass impart to it a rotatory motion?" The question is amply treated in the Addendum. It is not

materialistic science that can ever solve it. "Motion is eternal in the unmanifested, and periodical in the

manifest," says an Occult teaching. It is "when heat caused [[Footnote continued on next page]]


[[Vol. 1, Page]] 98 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.


STANZA IV. -- Continued.

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5. . . . . . WHICH IS: ---"DARKNESS," THE BOUNDLESS OR THE NO-NUMBER, ADI-NIDANA SVABHAVAT: THE
(for x, unknown quantity):
I. THE ADI-SANAT, THE NUMBER, FOR HE IS ONE (a).
II. THE VOICE OF THE WORD, SVABHAVAT, THE NUMBERS, FOR HE IS ONE AND NINE.*
III. THE "FORMLESS SQUARE." (Arupa.) (b).
AND THESE THREE ENCLOSED WITHIN THE

(boundless circle), ARE THE SACRED

FOUR, AND THE TEN ARE THE ARUPA (subjective, formless) UNIVERSE (c); THEN COME
THE "SONS," THE SEVEN FIGHTERS, THE ONE, THE EIGHTH LEFT OUT, AND HIS
BREATH WHICH IS THE LIGHT-MAKER (Bhaskara) (d).
(a) "Adi-Sanat," translated literally is the First or "primeval" ancient, which name identifies the
Kabalistic "Ancient of Days" and the "Holy Aged" (Sephira and Adam Kadmon) with Brahma the
Creator, called also Sanat among his other names and titles.
Svabhavat is the mystic Essence, the plastic root of physical Nature -- "Numbers" when manifested;
the Number, in its Unity of Substance, on the highest plane. The name is of Buddhist use and a
Synonym for the four-fold Anima Mundi, the Kabalistic "Archetypal World," from whence proceed
the "Creative, Formative, and the
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

[[Footnote continued from previous page]] by the descent of FLAME into primordial matter causes its

particles to move, which motion becomes Whirlwind." A drop of liquid assumes a spheroidal form

owing to its atoms moving around themselves in their ultimate, unresolvable, and noumenal essence;

unresolvable for physical science, at any rate.

* Which makes ten, or the perfect number applied to the "Creator," the name given to the totality of

the Creators blended by the Monotheists into One, as the "Elohim," Adam Kadmon or Sephira -- the

Crown -- are the androgyne synthesis of the 10 Sephiroth, who stand for the symbol of the manifested

Universe in the popularised Kabala. The esoteric Kabalists, however, following the Eastern Occultists,

divide the upper Sephirothal triangle from the rest (or Sephira, Chochmah and Binah), which leaves

seven Sephiroth. As for Svabhavat, the Orientalists explain the term as meaning the Universal plastic

matter diffused through Space, with, perhaps, half an eye to the Ether of Science. But the Occultists

identify it with "FATHER-MOTHER" on the mystic plane. (Vide supra.)


[[Vol. 1, Page]] 99 THE OGDOAD AND HEPTAD.


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Material Worlds"; the Scintillae or Sparks, -- the various other worlds contained in the last three. The
Worlds are all subject to Rulers or Regents -- Rishis and Pitris with the Hindus, Angels with the Jews
and Christians, Gods, with the Ancients in general.
(b)

This means that the "Boundless Circle" (Zero) becomes a figure or number, only when one of

the nine figures precedes it, and thus manifests its value and potency, the Word or Logos in union with
VOICE and Spirit* (the expression and source of Consciousness) standing for the nine figures and
thus forming, with the Cypher, the Decade which contains in itself all the Universe. The triad forms
within the circle the Tetraktis or Sacred Four, the Square within the Circle being the most potent of all
the magical figures.
(c) The "One Rejected" is the Sun of our system. The exoteric version may be found in the oldest
Sanskrit Scriptures. In the Rig Veda, Aditi, "The Boundless" or infinite Space, translated by Mr. Max
Muller, "the visible infinite, visible by the naked eye (!!); the endless expanse beyond the Earth,
beyond the clouds, beyond the sky," is the equivalent of "Mother-Space" coeval with "Darkness." She
is very properly called "The Mother of the Gods," DEVA-MATRI, as it is from her Cosmic matrix that
all the heavenly bodies of our system were born -- Sun and Planets. Thus she is described,
allegorically, in this wise: "Eight Sons were born from the body of Aditi; she approached the gods
with seven, but cast away the eighth, Martanda," our sun. The seven sons called the Aditya are,
cosmically or astronomically, the seven planets; and the Sun being excluded from their number shows
plainly that the Hindus may have known, and in fact knew of a seventh planet, without calling it
Uranus.** But esoterically and theologically,
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* "In union with the Spirit and the Voice," referring to the Abstract Thought and concrete Voice, or the

manifestation thereof, the effect of the Cause. Adam Kadmon or Tetragrammaton is the Logos in the

Kabala; therefore this triad answers in the latter to the highest triangle of Kether, Chochmah and

Binah, the last a female potency and at the same time the male Jehovah, as partaking of the nature of

Chochmah, or the male Wisdom.

** The Secret Doctrine teaches that the Sun is a central Star and not a planet. Yet the Ancients knew

of and worshipped seven great gods, excluding the Sun and Earth. Which was that "Mystery God" they

set apart? Of course not Uranus, discovered only by Herschel in 1781. But could it not be known by

another name? Says the [[Footnote continued on next page]]


[[Vol. 1, Page]] 100 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.


so to say, the Adityas are, in their primitive most ancient meanings, the eight, and the twelve great

gods of the Hindu Pantheon. "The Seven allow the mortals to see their dwellings, but show themselves

only to the Arhats," says an old proverb, "their dwellings" standing here for planets. The ancient
Commentary gives an allegory and explains it: --

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"Eight houses were built by Mother. Eight houses for her Eight Divine sons; four large and four small
ones. Eight brilliant suns, according to their age and merits. Bal-ilu (Martanda) was not satisfied,
though his house was the largest. He began (to work) as the huge elephants do. He breathed (drew in)
into his stomach the vital airs of his brothers. He sought to devour them. The larger four were far
away; far, on the margin of their kingdom.* They were not robbed (affected), and laughed. Do your
worst, Sir, you cannot reach us, they said. But the smaller wept. They complained to the Mother. She
exiled Bal-i-lu to the centre of her Kingdom, from whence he could not move. (Since then) he (only)
watches and threatens. He pursues them, turning slowly around himself, they turning swiftly from him,
and he following from afar the direction in which his brothers move on the path that encircles their
houses.** From that day he feeds on the sweat of the Mother's body. He fills himself with her breath
and refuse. Therefore, she rejected him."
Thus the "rejected Son" being our Sun, evidently, as shown above, the "Sun-Sons" refer not only to
our planets but to the heavenly bodies in general. Himself only a reflection of the Central Spiritual
Sun, Surya is the prototype of all those bodies that evolved after him. In the Vedas he is called LokaChakshuh, "the Eye of the World" (our
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

[[Footnote continued from previous page]] author of "Maconnerie Occulte": -- "Occult Sciences

having discovered through astronomical calculations that the number of the planets must be seven, the

ancients were led to introduce the Sun into the scale of the celestial harmonies, and make him occupy

the vacant place. Thus, every time they perceived an influence that pertained to none of the six planets

known, they attri buted it to the Sun. The error only seems important, but was not so in practical

results, if the ancient astrologers replaced Uranus by the Sun, which is a central Star relatively

motionless, turning only on its axis and regulating time and measure; and which cannot be turned aside

from its true functions." . . . . . . The nomenclature of the days of the week is thus faulty. "The SunDay ought to be Uranus-day (Urani dies, Urandi)," adds the learned writer, Ragon.

* Planetary System.

** "The Sun rotates on his axis always in the same direction in which the planets revolve in their

respective orbits," astronomy teaches us.


[[Vol. 1, Page]] 101 FIRE, THE GREAT SYMBOL OF DEITY.


planetary world), and he is one of the three chief deities. He is called indifferently the Son of Dyaus
and of Aditi, because no distinction is made with reference to, or scope allowed for, the esoteric
meaning. Thus he is depicted as drawn by seven horses, and by one horse with seven heads; the former
referring to his seven planets, the latter to their one common origin from the One Cosmic Element.
This "One Element" is called figuratively "FIRE." The Vedas (Aitareya-Brahmana of Haug also; p. i)
teach "that the fire verily is all the deities." (Narada in Anugita).
The meaning of the allegory is plain, for we have both the Dzyan Commentary and modern science to
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explain it, though the two differ in more than one particular. The Occult Doctrine rejects the
hypothesis born out of the Nebular Theory, that the (seven) great planets have evolved from the Sun's
central mass, not of this our visible Sun, at any rate. The first condensation of Cosmic matter of course
took place about a central nucleus, its parent Sun; but our sun, it is taught, merely detached itself
earlier than all the others, as the rotating mass contracted, and is their elder, bigger brother therefore,
not their father. The eight Adityas, "the gods," are all formed from the eternal substance (Cometary
matter* -- the Mother) or the "World-Stuff " which is both the fifth and the sixth COSMIC Principle,
the Upadhi or basis of the Universal Soul, just as in man, the Microcosm, Manas** is the Upadhi of
Buddhi.***
(d) There is a whole poem on the pregenetic battles fought by the growing planets before the final
formation of Kosmos, thus accounting for the seemingly disturbed position of the systems of several
planets, the plane of the satellites of some (of Neptune and Uranus, for instance, of which the ancients
knew nothing, it is said) being tilted over, thus giving them an appearance of retrograde motion. These
planets are called the warriors, the Architects, and are accepted by the
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* This Essence of Cometary matter, Occult Science teaches, is totally different from any of the

chemical or physical characteristics with which modern science is acquainted. It is homogeneous in its

primitive form beyond the Solar Systems, and differentiates entirely once it crosses the boundaries of

our Earth's region, vitiated by the atmospheres of the planets and the already compound matter of the

interplanetary stuff, heterogeneous only in our manifested world.

** Manas -- the Mind-Principle, or the human Soul.

*** Buddhi -- the divine Soul.


[[Vol. 1, Page]] 102 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.


Roman Church as the leaders of the heavenly Hosts, thus showing the same traditions. Having evolved

from Cosmic Space, and before the final formation of the primaries and the annulation of the planetary

nebula, the Sun, we are taught, drew into the depths of its mass all the Cosmic vitality he could,

threatening to engulf his weaker "brothers" before the law of attraction and repulsion was finally

adjusted; after which he began feeding on "The Mother's refuse and sweat"; in other words, on those
portions of Ether (the "breath of the Universal Soul") of the existence and constitution of which
science is as yet absolutely ignorant. A theory of this kind having been propounded by Sir William
Grove (see "Correlation of the Physical Forces," 1843, p. 81; and "Address to the British Association,
1866"), who theorized that the systems "are gradually changing by atmospheric additions or
subtractions, or by accretions and diminutions arising from nebular substances" . . . and again that "the
Sun may condense gaseous matter as it travels in Space and so heat may be produced" -- the archaic
teaching seems scientific enough, even in this age.* Mr. W. Mattieu Williams suggested that the
diffused matter or Ether which is the recipient of the heat radiations of the Universe is thereby drawn
into the depths of the solar mass. Expelling thence the previously condensed and thermally exhausted
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Ether, it becomes compressed and gives up its heat, to be in turn itself driven out in a rarified and
cooled state, to absorb a fresh supply of heat, which he supposes to be in this way taken up by the
Ether, and again concentrated and redistributed by the Suns of the Universe.**
This is about as close an approximation to the Occult teachings as Science ever imagined; for
Occultism explains it by "the dead breath" given back by Martanda and his feeding on the "sweat and
refuse" of "Mother Space." What could affect Neptune,*** Saturn and Jupiter,
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* Very similar ideas in Mr. W. Mattieu Williams' "The Fuel of the Sun;" in Dr. C. William Siemens'

"On the Conservation of Solar Energy" (Nature, XXV., p. 440-444, March 9, 1882); and also in Dr. P.

Martin Duncan's "Address of the President of the Geological Society," London, May, 1877.

** See "Comparative Geology," by Alexander Winchell, LL.D., p. 56.

*** When we speak of Neptune it is not as an Occultist but as a European. The true Eastern Occultist

will maintain that, whereas there are many yet undiscovered planets in our system, Neptune does not

belong to it, his apparent connection with our sun and the influence of the latter upon Neptune

notwithstanding. This connection is mayavic, imaginary, they say.


[[Vol. 1, Page]] 103 THE STELLAR "SONS OF LIGHT."


but little, would have killed such comparatively small "Houses" as Mercury, Venus and Mars. As

Uranus was not known before the end of the eighteenth century, the name of the fourth planet

mentioned in the allegory must remain to us, so far, a mystery.

The "Breath" of all the "seven" is said to be Bhaskara (light-making), because they (the planets) were
all comets and suns in their origin. They evolve into Manvantaric life from primaeval Chaos (now the
noumenon of irresolvable nebulae) by aggregation and accumulation of the primary differentiations of
the eternal matter, according to the beautiful expression in the Commentary, "Thus the Sons of Light
clothed themselves in the fabric of Darkness." They are called allegorically "the Heavenly Snails," on
account of their (to us) formless INTELLIGENCES inhabiting unseen their starry and planetary
homes, and, so to speak, carrying them as the snails do along with themselves in their revolution. The
doctrine of a common origin for all the heavenly bodies and planets, was, as we see, inculcated by the
Archaic astronomers, before Kepler, Newton, Leibnitz, Kant, Herschel and Laplace. Heat (the Breath),
attraction and repulsion -- the three great factors of Motion -- are the conditions under which all the
members of all this primitive family are born, developed, and die, to be reborn after a "Night of
Brahma," during which eternal matter relapses periodically into its primary undifferentiated state. The
most attenuated gases can give no idea of its nature to the modern physicist. Centres of Forces at first,
the invisible sparks of primordial atoms differentiate into molecules, and become Suns -- passing
gradually into objectivity gaseous, radiant, cosmic, the one "Whirlwind" (or motion) finally giving the
impulse to the form, and the initial motion, regulated and sustained by the never-resting Breaths -- the
Dhyan Chohans.
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------STANZA IV. -- Continued.
6. . . . . THEN THE SECOND SEVEN, WHO ARE THE LIPIKA, PRODUCED BY THE THREE

(Word, Voice, and Spirit). THE REJECTED SON IS ONE, THE "SON-SUNS" ARE COUNTLESS.
The Lipi-ka, from the word lipi, "writing," means literally the

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 104 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

"Scribes."* Mystically, these Divine Beings are connected with Karma, the Law of Retri bution, for
they are the Recorders or Annalists who impress on the (to us) invisible tablets of the Astral Light,
"the great picture-gallery of eternity" -- a faithful record of every act, and even thought, of man, of all
that was, is, or ever will be, in the phenomenal Universe. As said in "Isis," this divine and unseen
canvas is the BOOK OF LIFE. As it is the Lipika who project into objectivity from the passive
Universal Mind the ideal plan of the universe, upon which the "Builders" reconstruct the Kosmos after
every Pralaya, it is they who stand parallel to the Seven Angels of the Presence, whom the Christians
recognise in the Seven "Planetary Spirits" or the "Spirits of the Stars;" for thus it is they who are the
direct amanuenses of the Eternal Ideation -- or, as called by Plato, the "Divine Thought." The Eternal
Record is no fantastic dream, for we meet with the same records in the world of gross matter. "A
shadow never falls upon a wall without leaving thereupon a permanent trace which might be made
visible by resorting to proper processes," says Dr. Draper. . . . "The portraits of our friends or
landscape-views may be hidden on the sensitive surface from the eye, but they are ready to make their
appearance as soon as proper developers are resorted to. A spectre is concealed on a silver or a glassy
surface, until, by our necromancy, we make it come forth into the visible world. Upon the walls of our
most private apartments, where we think the eye of intrusion is altogether shut out, and our retirement
can never be profaned, there exist the vestiges of all our acts, silhouettes of whatever we have
done."** Drs. Jevons and Babbage believe that every thought, displacing the particles of the brain and
setting them in motion, scatters them throughout the Universe, and they think that "each particle of the
existing matter must be a register of all that has happened." (Principles of Science, Vol. II. p. 455.)
Thus the ancient doctrine has begun to acquire rights of citizenship in the speculations of the scientific
world.
The forty "Assessors" who stand in the region of Amenti as the accusers of the Soul before Osiris,
belong to the same class of deities as the Lipika, and might stand paralleled, were not the Egyptian
gods so
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

*These are the four "Immortals" which are mentioned in Atharva Veda as the "Watchers" or Guardians

of the four quarters of the sky (see ch. lxxvi., 1-4, et seq.).


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** "Conflict between Religion and Science." -- Draper, pp. 132 and 133.


[[Vol. 1, Page]] 105 THE DIVINE RECORDERS.


little understood in their esoteric meaning. The Hindu Chitra-Gupta who reads out the account of

every Soul's life from his register, called Agra-Sandhani; the "Assessors" who read theirs from the

heart of the defunct, which becomes an open book before (whether) Yama, Minos, Osiris, or Karma -are all so many copies of, and variants from the Lipika, and their Astral Records. Nevertheless, the
Lipi-ka are not deities connected with Death, but with Life Eternal.
Connected as the Lipika are with the destiny of every man and the birth of every child, whose life is
already traced in the Astral Light not fatalistically, but only because the future, like the PAST, is ever
alive in the PRESENT -- they may also be said to exercise an influence on the Science of Horoscopy.
We must admit the truth of the latter whether we will or not. For, as observed by one of the modern
adepts of Astrology, "Now that photography has revealed to us the chemical influence of the Sidereal
system, by fixing on the sensitized plate of the apparatus milliards of stars and planets that had hitherto
baffled the efforts of the most powerful telescopes to discover them, it becomes easier to understand
how our solar system can, at the birth of a child, influence his brain -- virgin of any impression -- in a
definite manner and according to the presence on the zenith of such or another zodiacal
constellation."*
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

** Les Mysteres de l'Horoscope, p. XI.

---------------------

Next Section

Contents


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The Secret Doctrine by H. P. Blavatsky -- Vol. 1


Theosophical University Press Online Edition


[[Vol. 1, Page]] 106 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.


STANZA V.

1. THE PRIMORDIAL SEVEN, THE FIRST SEVEN BREATHS OF THE DRAGON OF WISDOM,

PRODUCE IN THEIR TURN FROM THEIR HOLY CIRCUMGYRATING BREATHS THE FIERY

WHIRLWIND (a).

COMMENTARY.
(a) This is, perhaps, the most difficult of all the Stanzas to explain. Its language is comprehensible only
to him who is thoroughly versed in Eastern allegory and its purposely obscure phraseology. The
question will surely be asked, "Do the Occultists believe in all these 'Builders,' 'Lipika,' and 'Sons of
Light' as Entities, or are they merely imageries?" To this the answer is given as plainly: "After due
allowance for the imagery of personified Powers, we must admit the existence of these Entities, if we
would not reject the existence of spiritual humanity within physical mankind. For the hosts of these
Sons of Light and 'Mind-born Sons' of the first manifested Ray of the UNKNOWN ALL, are the very
root of spiritual man." Unless we want to believe the unphilosophical dogma of a specially created soul
for every human birth -- a fresh supply of these pouring in daily, since "Adam" -- we have to admit the
occult teachings. This will be explained in its place. Let us see, now, what may be the occult meaning
of this Stanza.
The Doctrine teaches that, in order to become a divine, fully conscious god, -- aye, even the highest -the Spiritual primeval INTELLIGENCES must pass through the human stage. And when we say
human, this does not apply merely to our terrestrial humanity, but to the mortals that inhabit any world,
i.e., to those Intelligences that have reached the appropriate equilibrium between matter and spirit, as
we have now, since the middle point of the Fourth Root Race of the Fourth Round was passed. Each
Entity must have won for itself the right of becoming divine, through self-experience. Hegel, the great
German thinker, must have known or sensed intuitionally this truth when saying, as he did, that the
Unconscious evolved the Universe only "in the hope of attaining clear self-consciousness," of
becoming, in other words, MAN; for this is also the secret meaning of the usual Puranic phrase about

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 107 NO MAN -- NO GOD.

Brahma being constantly "moved by the desire to create." This explains also the hidden Kabalistic
meaning of the saying: "The Breath becomes a stone; the stone, a plant; the plant, an animal; the
animal, a man; the man, a spirit; and the spirit, a god." The Mind-born Sons, the Rishis, the Builders,
etc., were all men -- of whatever forms and shapes -- in other worlds and the preceding Manvantaras.
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This subject, being so very mystical, is therefore the most difficult to explain in all its details and
bearings; since the whole mystery of evolutionary creation is contained in it. A sentence or two in it
vividly recalls to mind similar ones in the Kabala and the phraseology of the King Psalmist (civ.), as
both, when speaking of God, show him making the wind his messenger and his "ministers a flaming
fire." But in the Esoteric doctrine it is used figuratively. The "fiery Wind" is the incandescent Cosmic
dust which only follows magnetically, as the iron filings follow the magnet, the directing thought of
the "Creative Forces." Yet, this cosmic dust is something more; for every atom in the Universe has the
potentiality of self-consciousness in it, and is, like the Monads of Leibnitz, a Universe in itself, and for
itself. It is an atom and an angel.
In this connection it should be noted that one of the luminaries of the modern Evolutionist School, Mr.
A. R. Wallace, when discussing the inadequacy of "natural selection" as the sole factor in the
development of physical man, practically concedes the whole point here discussed. He holds that the
evolution of man was directed and furthered by superior Intelligences, whose agency is a necessary
factor in the scheme of Nature. But once the operation of these Intelligences is admitted in one place, it
is only a logical deduction to extend it still further. No hard and fast line can be drawn.
------STANZA V. -- Continued.
2. THEY MAKE OF HIM THE MESSENGER OF THEIR WILL (a). THE DZYU BECOMES

FOHAT; THE SWIFT SON OF THE DIVINE SONS, WHOSE SONS ARE THE LIPIKA,* RUNS
CIRCULAR ERRANDS. HE IS THE STEED, AND
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* The difference between the "Builders," the Planetary Spirits, and the Lipika must not be lost sight of.

(See Nos. 5 and 6 of this Commentary.)


[[Vol. 1, Page]] 108 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.


THE THOUGHT IS THE RIDER (i.e., he is under the influence of their guiding thought). HE

PASSES LIKE LIGHTNING THROUGH THE FIERY CLOUDS (cosmic mists) (b); TAKES

THREE, AND FIVE, AND SEVEN STRIDES THROUGH THE SEVEN REGIONS ABOVE AND

THE SEVEN BELOW (the world to be). HE LIFTS HIS VOICE, AND CALLS THE

INNUMERABLE SPARKS (atoms) AND JOINS THEM TOGETHER (c).

(a) This shows the "Primordial Seven" using for their Vahan (vehicle, or the manifested subject which

becomes the symbol of the Power directing it), Fohat, called in consequence, the "Messenger of their

will" -- the fiery whirlwind.

"Dzyu becomes Fohat" -- the expression itself shows it. Dzyu is the one real (magical) knowledge, or

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Occult Wisdom; which, dealing with eternal truths and primal causes, becomes almost omnipotence
when applied in the right direction. Its antithesis is Dzyu-mi, that which deals with illusions and false
appearances only, as in our exoteric modern sciences. In this case, Dzyu is the expression of the
collective Wisdom of the Dhyani-Buddhas.
(b) As the reader is supposed not to be acquainted with the Dhyani-Buddhas, it is as well to say at once
that, according to the Orientalists, there are five Dhyanis who are the "celestial" Buddhas, of whom
the human Buddhas are the manifestations in the world of form and matter. Esoterically, however, the
Dhyani-Buddhas are seven, of whom five only have hitherto manifested,* and two are to come in the
sixth and seventh Root-races. They are, so to speak, the eternal prototypes of the Buddhas who appear
on this earth, each of whom has his particular divine prototype. So, for instance, Amitabha is the
Dhyani-Buddha of Gautama Sakyamuni, manifesting through him whenever this great Soul incarnates
on earth as He did in Tzon-kha-pa.** As the synthesis of the seven Dhyani-Buddhas, Avalokiteswara
was the first Buddha (the Logos), so Amitabha is the inner "God" of Gautama, who, in China, is called
Amita(-Buddha). They are, as Mr. Rhys Davids
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* See A. P. Sinnett's "Esoteric Buddhism," 5th annotated edition, pp. 171-173.

** The first and greatest Reformer who founded the "Yellow-Caps," Gyalugpas. He was born in the

year 1355 A.D. in Amdo, and was the Avatar of Amitabha, the celestial name of Gautama Buddha.


[[Vol. 1, Page]] 109 THEOGONY OF THE CREATORS.


correctly states, "the glorious counterparts in the mystic world, free from the debasing conditions of

this material life" of every earthly mortal Buddha -- the liberated Manushi-Buddhas appointed to

govern the Earth in this Round. They are the "Buddhas of Contemplation," and are all Anupadaka

(parentless), i.e., self-born of divine essence. The exoteric teaching which says that every DhyaniBuddha has the faculty of creating from himself, an equally celestial son -- a Dhyani-Bodhisattva -who, after the decease of the Manushi (human) Buddha, has to carry out the work of the latter, rests on

the fact that owing to the highest initiation performed by one overshadowed by the "Spirit of Buddha" - (who is credited by the Orientalists with having created the five Dhyani-Buddhas!), -- a candidate

becomes virtually a Bodhisattva, created such by the High Initiator.

(c) Fohat, being one of the most, if not the most important character in esoteric Cosmogony, should be

minutely described. As in the oldest Grecian Cosmogony, differing widely from the later mythology,

Eros is the third person in the primeval trinity: Chaos, Gaea, Eros: answering to the Kabalistic En-Soph
(for Chaos is SPACE, [[Chaino]], "void") the Boundless ALL, Shekinah and the Ancient of Days, or
the Holy Ghost; so Fohat is one thing in the yet unmanifested Universe and another in the phenomenal
and Cosmic World. In the latter, he is that Occult, electric, vital power, which, under the Will of the
Creative Logos, unites and brings together all forms, giving them the first impulse which becomes in
time law. But in the unmanifested Universe, Fohat is no more this, than Eros is the later brilliant
winged Cupid, or LOVE. Fohat has naught to do with Kosmos yet, since Kosmos is not born, and the
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gods still sleep in the bosom of "Father-Mother." He is an abstract philosophical idea. He produces
nothing yet by himself; he is simply that potential creative power in virtue of whose action the
NOUMENON of all future phenomena divides, so to speak, but to reunite in a mystic supersensuous
act, and emit the creative ray. When the "Divine Son" breaks forth, then Fohat becomes the propelling
force, the active Power which causes the ONE to become TWO and THREE -- on the Cosmic plane of
manifestation. The triple One differentiates into the many, and then Fohat is transformed into that force
which brings together the elemental atoms and makes them aggregate and combine. We find an echo
of this primeval teaching

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 110 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

in early Greek mythology. Erebos and Nux are born out of Chaos, and, under the action of Eros, give
birth in their turn to Ether and Hemera, the light of the superior and the light of the inferior or
terrestrial regions. Darkness generates light. See in the Puranas Brahma's "Will" or desire to create;
and in the Phoenician Cosmogony of Sanchoniathon the doctrine that Desire, [[pothos]], is the
principle of creation.
Fohat is closely related to the "ONE LIFE." From the Unknown One, the Infinite TOTALITY, the
manifested ONE, or the periodical, Manvantaric Deity, emanates; and this is the Universal Mind,
which, separated from its Fountain-Source, is the Demiurgos or the creative Logos of the Western
Kabalists, and the four-faced Brahma of the Hindu religion. In its totality, viewed from the standpoint
of manifested Divine Thought in the esoteric doctrine, it represents the Hosts of the higher creative
Dhyan Chohans. Simultaneously with the evolution of the Universal Mind, the concealed Wisdom of
Adi-Buddha -- the One Supreme and eternal -- manifests itself as Avalokiteshwara (or manifested
Iswara), which is the Osiris of the Egyptians, the Ahura-Mazda of the Zoroastrians, the Heavenly Man
of the Hermetic philosopher, the Logos of the Platonists, and the Atman of the Vedantins.* By the
action of the manifested Wisdom, or Mahat, represented by these innumerable centres of spiritual
Energy in the Kosmos, the reflection of the Universal Mind, which is Cosmic Ideation and the
intellectual Force accompanying such ideation, becomes objectively the Fohat of the Buddhist esoteric
philosopher. Fohat, running along the seven principles of AKASA, acts upon manifested substance or
the One Element, as declared above, and by differentiating it into various centres of Energy, sets in
motion the law of Cosmic Evolution, which, in obedience to the Ideation of the Universal Mind, brings
into existence all the various states of being in the manifested Solar System.
The Solar System, brought into existence by these agencies, consists of Seven Principles, like
everything else within these centres. Such is the teaching of the trans-Himalayan Esotericism. Every
philosophy, however, has its own way of dividing these principles.
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* Mr. Subba Row seems to identify him with, and to call him, the LOGOS. (See his four lectures on

the "Bhagavadgita" in the Theosophist.)


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[[Vol. 1, Page]] 111 THE PROTEAN SPIRIT-SUBSTANCE.


Fohat, then, is the personified electric vital power, the transcendental binding Unity of all Cosmic

Energies, on the unseen as on the manifested planes, the action of which resembles -- on an immense

scale -- that of a living Force created by WILL, in those phenomena where the seemingly subjective

acts on the seemingly objective and propels it to action. Fohat is not only the living Symbol and

Container of that Force, but is looked upon by the Occultists as an Entity -- the forces he acts upon
being cosmic, human and terrestrial, and exercising their influence on all those planes respectively. On
the earthly plane his influence is felt in the magnetic and active force generated by the strong desire of
the magnetizer. On the Cosmic, it is present in the constructive power that carries out, in the formation
of things -- from the planetary system down to the glow-worm and simple daisy -- the plan in the mind
of nature, or in the Divine Thought, with regard to the development and growth of that special thing.
He is, metaphysically, the objectivised thought of the gods; the "Word made flesh," on a lower scale,
and the messenger of Cosmic and human ideations: the active force in Universal Life. In his secondary
aspect, Fohat is the Solar Energy, the electric vital fluid,* and the preserving fourth
[[Footnote(s)]]

* In 1882 the President of the Theosophical Society, Col. Olcott, was taken to task for asserting in one
of his lectures that Electricity is matter. Such, nevertheless, is the teaching of the Occult Doctrine.
"Force," "Energy," may be a better name for it, so long as European Science knows so little about its
true nature; yet matter it is, as much as Ether is matter, since it is as atomic, though several removes
from the latter. It seems ridiculous to argue that because a thing is imponderable to Science, therefore
it cannot be called matter. Electricity is "immaterial" in the sense that its molecules are not subject to
perception and experiment; yet it may be -- and Occultism says it is -- atomic; therefore it is matter.
But even supposing it were unscientific to speak of it in such terms, once Electricity is called in
Science a source of Energy, Energy simply, and a Force -- where is that Force or that Energy which
can be thought of without thinking of matter? Maxwell, a mathematician and one of the greatest
authorities upon Electricity and its phenomena, said, years ago, that Electricity was matter, not motion
merely. "If we accept the hypothesis that the elementary substances are composed of atoms we cannot
avoid concluding that electricity also, positive as well as negative, is divided into definite elementary
portions, which behave like atoms of electricity." (Helmholtz, Faraday Lecture, 1881). We will go
further than that, and assert that Electricity is not only Substance but that it is an emanation from an
Entity, which is neither God nor Devil, but one of the numberless Entities that rule and guide our world
according to the eternal Law of KARMA. (See the Addendum to this Book.)

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 112 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

principle, the animal Soul of Nature, so to say, or -- Electricity. In India, Fohat is connected with
Vishnu and Surya in the early character of the (first) God; for Vishnu is not a high god in the Rig
Veda. The name Vishnu is from the root vish, "to pervade," and Fohat is called the "Pervader" and the
Manufacturer, because he shapes the atoms from crude material.* In the sacred texts of the Rig Veda,
Vishnu, also, is "a manifestation of the Solar Energy," and he is described as striding through the
Seven regions of the Universe in three steps, the Vedic God having little in common with the Vishnu
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of later times. Therefore the two are identical in this particular feature, and one is the copy of the other.
The "three and seven" strides refer to the Seven spheres inhabited by man, of the esoteric Doctrine, as
well as to the Seven regions of the Earth. Notwithstanding the frequent objections made by would-be
Orientalists, the Seven Worlds or spheres of our planetary chain are distinctly referred to in the
exoteric Hindu scriptures. But how strangely all these numbers are connected with like numbers in
other Cosmogonies and with their symbols, can be seen from comparisons and parallelisms made by
students of old religions. The "three strides of Vishnu" through the "seven regions of the Universe," of
the Rig Veda, have been variously explained by commentators as meaning "fire, lightning and the Sun"
cosmically; and as having been taken in the Earth, the atmosphere, and the sky; also as the "three
steps" of the dwarf (Vishnu's incarnation), though more philosophically -- and in the astronomical
sense, very correctly -- they are explained by Aurnavabha as being the various positions of the sun,
rising, noon, and setting. Esoteric philosophy alone explains it clearly, and the Zohar laid it down very
philosophically and comprehensively. It is said and plainly demonstrated therein that in the beginning
the Elohim (Elhim) were called Echod, "one," or the "Deity is one in many," a very simple idea in a
pantheistic conception (in its philosophical sense, of course). Then came the change, "Jehovah is
Elohim," thus unifying the multiplicity and taking the first step towards Monotheism. Now to the
query, "How is Jehovah Elohim?" the answer is, "By three Steps" from below.
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* It is well known that sand, when placed on a metal plate in vibration assumes a series of regular

curved figures of various descriptions. Can Science give a complete explanation of this fact?


[[Vol. 1, Page]] 113 THE CORRELATION OF THE GODS.


The meaning is plain.* They are all symbols, and emblematic, mutually and correlatively, of Spirit,

Soul and Body (MAN); of the circle transformed into Spirit, the Soul of the World, and its body (or

Earth). Stepping out of the Circle of Infinity, that no man comprehendeth, Ain-Soph (the Kabalistic

synonym for Parabrahm, for the Zeroana Akerne, of the Mazdeans, or for any other

"UNKNOWABLE") becomes "One" -- the ECHOD, the EKA, the AHU -- then he (or it) is

transformed by evolution into the One in many, the Dhyani-Buddhas or the Elohim, or again the

Amshaspends, his third Step being taken into generation of the flesh, or "Man." And from man, or JahHova, "male female," the inner divine entity becomes, on the metaphysical plane, once more the

Elohim.

The Kabalistic idea is identical with the Esotericism of the Archaic period. This esotericism is the

common property of all, and belongs neither to the Aryan 5th Race, nor to any of its numerous Subraces. It cannot be claimed by the Turanians, so-called, the Egyptians, Chinese, Chaldeans, nor any of
the Seven divisions of the Fifth Root Race, but really belongs to the Third and Fourth Root Races,
whose descendants we find in the Seed of the Fifth, the earliest Aryans. The Circle was with every
nation the symbol of the Unknown -- "Boundless Space," the abstract garb of an ever present
abstraction -- the Incognisable Deity. It represents limitless Time in Eternity. The Zeroana Akerne is
also the "Boundless Circle of the Unknown Time," from which Circle issues the radiant light -- the
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Universal SUN, or Ormazd** -- and the latter
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* The numbers 3, 5, and 7 are prominent in speculative masonry, as shown in "Isis." A mason writes: -"There are the 3, 5, and 7 steps to show a circular walk. The three faces of 3, 3; 5, 3; and 7, 3; etc., etc.

Sometimes it comes in this form -- 753/2 = 376.5 and 7635/2 = 3817.5 and the ratio of 20612/6561 feet

for cubit measure gives the Great Pyramid measures," etc., etc. Three, five and seven are mystical

numbers, and the last and the first are as greatly honoured by Masons as by the Parsis -- the triangle

being a symbol of Deity everywhere. (See the Masonic Cyclopedia, and "Pythagorean Triangle,"

Oliver.) As a matter of course, doctors of divinity (Cassel, for instance) show the Zohar explaining and

of the

supporting the Christian trinity (!). It is the latter, however, that had its origin from the

Hea then, in the Archaic Occultism and Symbology. The three strides relate metaphysically to the

descent of Spirit into matter, of the Logos falling as a ray into the Spirit, then into the Soul, and finally

into the human physical form of man, in which it becomes LIFE.

** Ormazd is the Logos, the "First Born" and the Sun.


[[Vol. 1, Page]] 114 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.


is identical with Kronos, in his AEolian form, that of a Circle. For the circle is Sar, and Saros, or cycle,
and was the Babylonian god whose circular horizon was the visible symbol of the invisible, while the
sun was the ONE Circle from which proceeded the Cosmic orbs, and of which he was considered the
leader. Zero-ana, is the Chakra or circle of Vishnu, the mysterious emblem which is, according to the
definition of a mystic, "a curve of such a nature that as to any, the least possible part thereof, if the
curve be protracted either way it will proceed and finally re-enter upon itself, and form one and the
same curve -- or that which we call the circle." No better definition could thus be given of the natural
symbol and the evident nature of Deity, which having its circumference everywhere (the boundless)
has, therefore, its central point also everywhere; in other words, is in every point of the Universe. The
invisible Deity is thus also the Dhyan Chohans, or the Rishis, the primitive seven, and the nine,
without, and ten, including, their synthetical unit; from which IT steps into Man. Returning to the
Commentary (4) of Stanza IV. the reader will understand why, while the trans-Himalayan Chakra has
inscribed within it
|
|
(triangle, first line, cube second line, and a pentacle with a dot in
the centre thus:

, and some other variations), the Kabalistic circle of the Elohim reveals, when the

(Alhim or Elohim) are numerically read, the famous numerals 13514,
letters of the word
or by anagram 31415 -- the astronomical (pi) number, or the hidden meaning of Dhyani-Buddhas, of
the Gebers, the Geborim, the Kabeiri, and the Elohim, all signifying "great men," "Titans," "Heavenly
Men," and, on earth, "the giants."
The Seven was a Sacred Number with every nation; but none applied it to more physiologically
materialistic uses than the Hebrews. With these it was pre-eminently the generative number and 9 the

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male causative one, forming as shown by the Kabalists the

or otz -- "the Tree of the Garden of

Eden,"* the "double hermaphrodite rod" of the fourth race. Whereas with the Hindus and Aryans
generally, the significance was manifold, and related almost entirely to purely metaphysical
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* This was the symbol of the "Holy of Holies," the 3 and the 4 of sexual separation. Nearly every one

of the 22 Hebrew letters are merely phallic symbols. Of the two letters -- as shown above -- one, the

ayin, is a negative female letter, symbolically an eye; the other a male letter, tza, a fish-hook or a dart.


[[Vol. 1, Page]] 115 MANIFESTED SYMBOLS.


and astronomical truths.* Their Rishis and gods, their Demons and Heroes, have historical and ethical

meanings, and the Aryans never made their religion rest solely on physiological symbols, as the old

Hebrews have done. This is found in the exoteric Hindu Scriptures. That these accounts are blinds is

shown by their contradicting each other, a different construction being found in almost every Purana

and epic poem. Read esoterically -- they will all yield the same meaning. Thus one account enumerates

Seven worlds, exclusive of the nether worlds, also seven in number; these fourteen upper and nether

worlds have

[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* We are told by a Kabalist, who in a work not yet published contrasts the Kabala and Zohar with

Aryan Esotericism, that "The Hebrew clear, short, terse and exact modes far and beyond measure

surpass the toddling word-talk of the Hindus -- just as by parallelisms the Psalmist says, 'My mouth

speaks with my tongue, I know not thy numbers' (lxxi., 15). . . . The Hindu Glyph shows by its

insufficiency in the large admixture of adventitious sides the same borrowed plumage that the Greeks

(the lying Greeks) had, and that Masonry has: which in the rough monosyllabic (and apparent) poverty

of the Hebrew, shows the latter to have come down from a far more remote antiquity than any of these,

and to have been the source (!?), or nearer the old original source than any of them." This is entirely

erroneous. Our learned brother and correspondent judges apparently the Hindu religious systems by

their Shastras and Puranas, probably the latter, and in their modern translation moreover, which is

disfigured out of all recognition, by the Orientalists. It is to their philosophical systems that one has to

turn, to their esoteric teaching, if he would make a point of comparison. No doubt the symbology of

the Pentateuch and even of the New Testament, comes from the same source. But surely the Pyramid

of Cheops, whose measurements are all found repeated by Professor Piazzi Smy the in Solomon's

alleged and mythical temple, is not of a later date than the Mosaic books? Hence, if there is any such

great identity as claimed, it must be due to servile copying on the part of the Jews, not on that of the
Egyptians. The Jewish glyphs -- and even their language, the Hebrew -- are not original. They are
borrowed from the Egyptians, from whom Moses got his Wisdom; from the Coptic, the probable
kinsman, if not parent, of the old Phoenician and from the Hyksos, their (alleged) ancestors, as
Josephus shows in his "Against Apion," I., 25. Aye; but who are the Hyksos shepherds? And who the
Egyptians? History knows nothing of the question, and speculates and theorizes out of the depths of
the respective consciousnesses of her historians. (See Isis Unveiled, vol. II., p. 430-438.) "Khamism, or
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old Coptic," says Bunsen, "is from Western Asia, and contains some germ of the Semitic, thus bearing
witness to the primitive cognate unity of the Aryan and Semitic races"; and he places the great events
in Egypt 9,000 years B.C. The fact is that in archaic Esotericism and Aryan thought we find a grand
philosophy, whereas in the Hebrew records we find only the most surprising ingenuity in inventing
apotheoses for phallic worship and sexual theogony.

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 116 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

nothing to do with the classification of the septenary chain and belong to the purely aethereal, invisible
worlds. These will be noticed elsewhere. Suffice for the present to show that they are purposely
referred to as though they belonged to the chain. "Another enumeration calls the Seven worlds -- earth,
sky, heaven, middle region, place of birth, mansion of the blest, and abode of truth; placing the 'Sons
of Brahma' in the sixth division, and stating the fifth, or Jana Loka, to be that where animals destroyed
in the general conflagration are born again." (see Hindu Classical Dictionary.) Some real esoteric
teaching is given in the "Symbolism." He who is prepared for it will understand the hidden meaning.
------STANZA V. -- Continued.
3. HE IS THEIR GUIDING SPIRIT AND LEADER. WHEN HE COMMENCES WORK, HE

SEPARATES THE SPARKS OF THE LOWER KINGDOM (mineral atoms) THAT FLOAT AND
THRILL WITH JOY IN THEIR RADIANT DWELLINGS (gaseous clouds), AND FORMS
THEREWITH THE GERMS OF WHEELS. HE PLACES THEM IN THE SIX DIRECTIONS OF
SPACE AND ONE IN THE MIDDLE -- THE CENTRAL WHEEL (a).
(a) "Wheels," as already explained, are the centres of force, around which primordial Cosmic matter
expands, and, passing through all the six stages of consolidation, becomes spheroidal and ends by
being transformed into globes or spheres. It is one of the fundamental dogmas of Esoteric Cosmogony,
that during the Kalpas (or aeons) of life, MOTION, which, during the periods of Rest "pulsates and
thrills through every slumbering atom"* (Commentary on Dzyan), assumes an evergrowing
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

*It may be asked, as also the writer has not failed to ask, "Who is there to ascertain the difference in

that motion, since all nature is reduced to its primal essence, and there can be no one -- not even one of

the Dhyani-Chohans, who are all in Nirvana -- to see it?" The answer to this is: "Everything in Nature

has to be judged by analogy. Though the highest Deities (Archangels or Dhyani-Buddhas) are unable

to penetrate the mysteries too far beyond our planetary system and the visible Kosmos, yet there were

great seers and prophets in olden times who were enabled to perceive the mystery of Breath and

Motion retrospectively, when the systems of worlds were at rest and plunged in their periodic sleep."


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[[Vol. 1, Page]] 117 THE ANTIQUITY OF PHYSICAL SCIENCES.


tendency, from the first awakening of Kosmos to a new "Day," to circular movement. The "Deity
becomes a WHIRLWIND." They are also called Rotae -- the moving wheels of the celestial orbs
participating in the world's creation -- when the meaning refers to the animating principle of the stars
and planets; for in the Kabala, they are represented by the Ophanim, the Angels of the Spheres and
stars, of which they are the informing Souls. (See Kabala Denudata, "De Anima," p. 113.)
This law of vortical movement in primordial matter, is one of the oldest conceptions of Greek
philosophy, whose first historical Sages were nearly all Initiates of the Mysteries. The Greeks had it
from the Egyptians, and the latter from the Chaldeans, who had been the pupils of Brahmins of the
esoteric school. Leucippus, and Democritus of Abdera -- the pupil of the Magi -- taught that this
gyratory movement of the atoms and spheres existed from eternity.* Hicetas, Heraclides, Ecphantus,
Pythagoras, and all his pupils, taught the rotation of the earth; and Aryabhata of India, Aristarchus,
Seleucus, and Archimedes calculated its revolution as scientifically as the astronomers do now; while
the theory of the Elemental Vortices was known to Anaxagoras, and maintained by him 500 years
B.C., or nearly 2,000 before it was taken up by Galileo, Descartes, Swedenborg, and finally, with slight
modifications, by Sir W. Thomson. (See his "Vortical Atoms.") All such knowledge, if justice be only
done to it, is an echo of the archaic doctrine, an attempt to explain which is now being made. How men
of the last few centuries have come to the same ideas and conclusions that were taught as axiomatic
truths in the secrecy of the Adyta dozens of
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

*"The doctrine of the rotation of the earth about an axis is taught by the Pythagorean Hicetas, probably

as early as 500 B.C. It was also taught by his pupil Ecphantus, and by Heraclides, a pupil of Plato. The

immobility of the Sun and the orbital rotation of the earth were shown by Aristarchus of Samos as

early as 281 B.C. to be suppositions accordant with facts of observation. The Heliocentric theory was

taught about 150 B.C., by Seleucus of Seleucia on the Tigris. -- [It was taught 500 B.C. by Pythagoras.

-- H. P. B.] It is said also that Archimedes, in a work entitled Psammites, inculcated the Heliocentric

theory. The sphericity of the earth was distinctly taught by Aristotle, who appealed for proof to the

figure of the Earth's shadow on the moon in eclipses (Aristotle, De Coelo, lib. II, cap. XIV.). The same

idea was defended by Pliny (Nat. Hist., II., 65). These views seem to have been lost from knowledge

for more than a thousand years. . . ." (Comparative Geology, Part IV., "Pre-Kantian Speculation," p.

551, by Alex. Winchell, LL.D.).


[[Vol. 1, Page]] 118 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.


millenniums ago, is a question that is treated separately. Some were led to it by the natural progress in
physical science and by independent observation; others -- such as Copernicus, Swedenborg, and a few
more -- their great learning notwithstanding, owed their knowledge far more to intuitive than to
acquired ideas, developed in the usual way by a course of study.* (See "A Mystery about Buddha.")
By the "Six directions of Space" is here meant the "Double Triangle," the junction and blending
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together of pure Spirit and Matter, of the Arupa and the Rupa, of which the Triangles are a Symbol.
This double Triangle is a sign of Vishnu, as it is Solomon's seal, and the Sri-Antara of the Brahmins.
------STANZA V. -- (Continued.)
4. FOHAT TRACES SPIRAL LINES TO UNITE THE SIX TO THE SEVENTH -- THE CROWN

(a); AN ARMY OF THE SONS OF LIGHT STANDS AT EACH ANGLE (and) THE LIPIKA -- IN
THE MIDDLE WHEEL. THEY (the Lipika) SAY, "THIS IS GOOD" (b). THE FIRST DIVINE
WORLD IS READY, THE FIRST (is now), THE SECOND (world), THEN THE "DIVINE ARUPA"
(the formless Universe
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* That Swedenborg, who could not possibly have known anything of the esoteric ideas of Buddhism,

came independently near the Occult teaching in his general conceptions, is shown by his essay on the

Vortical Theory. In Clissold's translation of it, quoted by Prof. Winchell, we find the following resume:

-- "The first Cause is the Infinite or Unlimited. This gives existence to the First Finite or Limited."

(The Logos in His manifestation and the Universe.) "That which produces a limit is analogous to

motion. (See first Stanza, supra.) The limit produced is a point, the Essence of which is Motion; but

being without parts, this Essence is not actual Motion, but only a connatus to it." (In our Doctrine it is

not a "connatus," but a change from eternal vibration in the unmanifested, to Vortical Motion in the

phenomenal or manifested World). . . "From this first proceed Extension, Space, Figure, and

Succession, or Time. As in Geometry a point generates a line, a line a surface, and a surface a solid, so

here the connatus of a point tends towards lines, surfaces and solids. In other words, the Universe is

contained in ovo in the first natural point . . . the Motion toward which the connatus tends, is circular,

since the circle is the most perfect of all figures . . . The most perfect figure of a Motion . . . must be

the perpetually circular, that is to say, it must proceed from the centre to the periphery and from the

periphery to the centre." (Quoted from Principia Rerum Naturalia.) This is Occultism pure and simple.

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 119 THE EVOLUTION OF THE PRINCIPLES.

of Thought) REFLECTS ITSELF IN CHHAYALOKA (the shadowy world of primal form, or the
intellectual) THE FIRST GARMENT OF (the) ANUPADAKA (c).
(a) This tracing of "Spiral lines" refers to the evolution of man's as well as Nature's principles; an
evolution which takes place gradually (as will be seen in Book II., on "The origin of the Human
Races"), as does everything else in nature. The Sixth principle in Man (Buddhi, the Divine Soul)
though a mere breath, in our conceptions, is still something material when compared with divine
"Spirit" (Atma) of which it is the carrier or vehicle. Fohat, in his capacity of DIVINE LOVE (Eros),
the electric Power of affinity and sympathy, is shown allegorically as trying to bring the pure Spirit,
the Ray inseparable from the ONE absolute, into union with the Soul, the two constituting in Man the
MONAD, and in Nature the first link between the ever unconditioned and the manifested. "The first is
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now the second" (world) -- of the Lipikas -- has reference to the same.
(b) The "Army" at each angle is the Host of angelic Beings (Dhyan-Chohans) appointed to guide and
watch over each respective region from the beginning to the end of Manvantara. They are the "Mystic
Watchers" of the Christian Kabalists and Alchemists, and relate, symbolically as well as
cosmogonically, to the numerical system of the Universe. The numbers with which these celestial
Beings are connected are extremely difficult to explain, as each number refers to several groups of
distinct ideas, according to the particular group of "Angels" which it is intended to represent. Herein
lies the nodus in the study of symbology, with which, unable to untie by disentangling it, so many
scholars have preferred dealing as Alexander dealt with the Gordian knot; hence erroneous conceptions
and teachings, as a direct result.
The "First is the Second," because the "First" cannot really be numbered or regarded as the First, as
that is the realm of noumena in its primary manifestation: the threshold to the World of Truth, or SAT,
through which the direct energy that radiates from the ONE REALITY -- the Nameless Deity -reaches us. Here again, the untranslateable term SAT (Be-ness) is likely to lead into an erroneous
conception, since that which is manifested cannot be SAT, but is something phenomenal, not
everlasting, nor, in truth, even sempiternal. It is coeval and

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 120 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

coexistent with the One Life, "Secondless," but as a manifestation it is still a Maya -- like the rest. This
"World of Truth" can be described only in the words of the Commentary as "A bright star dropped
from the heart of Eternity; the beacon of hope on whose Seven Rays hang the Seven Worlds of Being."
Truly so; since those are the Seven Lights whose reflections are the human immortal Monads -- the
Atma, or the irradiating Spirit of every creature of the human family. First, this septenary Light; then: -(c) The "Divine World" -- the countless Lights lit at the primeval Light -- the Buddhis, or formless
divine Souls, of the last Arupa (formless) world; the "Sum Total," in the mysterious language of the
old Stanza. In the Catechism, the Master is made to ask the pupil: -"Lift thy head, oh Lanoo; dost thou see one, or countless lights above thee, burning in the dark
midnight sky?"
"I sense one Flame, oh Gurudeva, I see countless undetached sparks shining in it."
"Thou sayest well. And now look around and into thyself. That light which burns inside thee, dost thou
feel it different in anywise from the light that shines in thy Brother-men?"
"It is in no way different, though the prisoner is held in bondage by Karma, and though its outer
garments delude the ignorant into saying, 'Thy Soul and My Soul.' "
The radical unity of the ultimate essence of each constituent part of compounds in Nature -- from Star

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to mineral Atom, from the highest Dhyan Chohan to the smallest infusoria, in the fullest acceptation of
the term, and whether applied to the spiritual, intellectual, or physical worlds -- this is the one
fundamental law in Occult Science. "The Deity is boundless and infinite expansion," says an Occult
axiom; and hence, as remarked, the name of Brahma.* There is a deep philosophy underlying the
earliest worship in the world, that of the Sun and of Fire. Of all the Elements known to physical
science, Fire is the one that has ever eluded definite analysis. It is confidently asserted that
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* In the Rig Veda we find the names Brahmanaspati and Brihaspati alternating and equivalent to each

other. Also see "Brihad Upanishad"; Brihaspati is a deity called "the Father of the gods."


[[Vol. 1, Page]] 121 THE MYSTERY OF THE FIRE.


Air is a mixture containing the gases Oxygen and Nitrogen. We view the Universe and the Earth as

matter composed of definite chemical molecules. We speak of the primitive ten Earths, endowing each

with a Greek or Latin name. We say that water is, chemically, a compound of Oxygen and Hydrogen.

But what is FIRE? It is the effect of combustion, we are gravely answered. It is heat and light and

motion, and a correlation of physical and chemical forces in general. And this scientific definition is

philosophically supplemented by the theological one in Webster's Dictionary, which explains fire as

"the instrument of punishment, or the punishment of the impenitent in another state" -- the "state," by

the bye, being supposed to be spiritual; but, alas! the presence of fire would seem to be a convincing

proof of its material nature. Yet, speaking of the illusion of regarding phenomena as simple, because

they are familiar, Professor Bain says (Logic. Part II.): "Very familiar facts seem to stand in no need of
explanation themselves and to be the means of explaining whatever can be assimilated to them. Thus,
the boiling and evaporation of a liquid is supposed to be a very simple phenomenon requiring no
explanation, and a satisfactory explanation of rarer phenomena. That water should dry up is, to the
uninstructed mind, a thing wholly intelligible; whereas to the man acquainted with physical science the
liquid state is anomalous and inexplicable. The lighting of a fire by a flame is a GREAT SCIENTIFIC
DIFFICULTY, yet few people think so" (p. 125).
What says the esoteric teaching with regard to fire? "Fire," it says, "is the most perfect and
unadulterated reflection, in Heaven as on Earth, of the ONE FLAME. It is Life and Death, the origin
and the end of every material thing. It is divine 'SUBSTANCE.' " Thus, not only the FIREWORSHIPPER, the Parsee, but even the wandering savage tribes of America, which proclaim
themselves "born of fire," show more science in their creeds and truth in their superstitions, than all the
speculations of modern physics and learning. The Christian who says: "God is a living Fire," and
speaks of the Pentecostal "Tongues of Fire" and of the "burning bush" of Moses, is as much a fireworshipper as any other "hea then." The Rosicrucians, among all the mystics and Kabalists, were those
who defined Fire in the right and most correct way. Procure a sixpenny lamp, keep it only supplied
with oil, and you will be able to light at its flame the lamps, candles,

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[[Vol. 1, Page]] 122 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

and fires of the whole globe without diminishing that flame. If the Deity, the radical One, is eternal and
an infinite substance ("the Lord thy God is a consuming fire") and never consumed, then it does not
seem reasonable that the Occult teaching should be held as unphilosophical when it says: "Thus were
the Arupa and Rupa worlds formed: from ONE light seven lights; from each of the seven, seven times
seven," etc., etc.
------STANZA V. -- Continued.
5. FOHAT TAKES FIVE STRIDES (having already taken the first three) (a), AND BUILDS A

WINGED WHEEL AT EACH CORNER OF THE SQUARE FOR THE FOUR HOLY ONES . . . . .
AND THEIR ARMIES (hosts) (b).
(a) The "strides," as already explained (see Commentary on Stanza IV.), refer to both the Cosmic and
the Human principles -- the latter of which consist, in the exoteric division, of three (Spirit, Soul, and
Body), and, in the esoteric calculation, of seven principles -- three rays of the Essence and four
aspects.* Those who have studied Mr. Sinnett's "Esoteric Buddhism" can easily grasp the
nomenclature. There are two esoteric schools -- or rather one school, divided into two parts -- one for
the inner Lanoos, the other for the outer or semi-lay chelas beyond the Himalayas; the first teaching a
septenary, the other a six-fold division of human principles.
From a Cosmic point of view, Fohat taking "five strides" refers here to the five upper planes of
Consciousness and Being, the sixth and the seventh (counting downwards) being the astral and the
terrestrial, or the two lower planes.
(b) "Four winged wheels at each corner . . . . . for the four holy ones and their armies (hosts)" . . . . .
These are the "four Maharajahs" or great Kings of the Dhyan-Chohans, the Devas who preside, each
over one of the four cardinal points. They are the Regents or Angels who rule over the Cosmical
Forces of North, South,
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* The four aspects are the body, its life or vitality, and the "Double" of the body, the triad which

disappears with the death of the person, and the Kama-rupa which disintegrates in Kama-loka.


[[Vol. 1, Page]] 123 THE SECRET OF THE ELEMENTS.


East and West, Forces having each a distinct occult property. These BEINGS are also connected with

Karma, as the latter needs physical and material agents to carry out her decrees, such as the four kinds

of winds, for instance, professedly admitted by Science to have their respective evil and beneficent

influences upon the health of Mankind and every living thing. There is occult philosophy in that

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Roman Catholic doctrine which traces the various public calamities, such as epidemics of disease, and
wars, and so on, to the invisible "Messengers" from North and West. "The glory of God comes from
the way of the East" says Ezekiel; while Jeremiah, Isaiah, and the Psalmist assure their readers that all
the evil under the Sun comes from the North and the West -- which proposition, when applied to the
Jewish nation, sounds like an undeniable prophecy for themselves. And this accounts also for St.
Ambrose (On Amos, ch. iv.) declaring that it is precisely for that reason that "we curse the NorthWind, and that during the ceremony of baptism we begin by turning towards the West (Sidereal), to
renounce the better him who inhabits it; after which we turn to the East."
Belief in the "Four Maharajahs" -- the Regents of the Four cardinal points -- was universal and is now
that of Christians,* who call them, after St. Augustine, "Angelic Virtues," and "Spirits" when
enumerated by themselves, and "Devils" when named by Pagans. But where is the difference between
the Pagans and the Christians in this cause? Following Plato, Aristotle explained that the term
[[stoicheia]] was understood only as meaning the incorporeal principles placed at each of the four great
divisions of our Cosmical world to supervise them. Thus, no more than the Christians did, do they
adore and worship the Elements and the cardinal (imaginary) points, but the "gods" that ruled these
respectively. For the Church there are two kinds of Sidereal beings, the
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* Says the scholarly Vossius, in his Theol. Cir. I. VII.: "Though St. Augustine has said that every

visible thing in this world had an angelic virtue as an overseer near it, it is not individuals but entire

species of things that must be understood, each such species having indeed its particular angel to watch

it. He is at one in this with all the philosophers . . . For us these angels are spirits separated from the

objects . . . whereas for the philosophers (pagan) they were gods." Considering the Ritual established

by the Roman Catholic Church for "Spirits of the Stars," the latter look suspiciously like "Gods," and

were no more honoured and prayed to by the ancient and modern pagan rabble than they are now at

Rome by the highly cultured Catholic Christians.


[[Vol. 1, Page]] 124 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.


Angels and the Devils. For the Kabalist and Occultist there is but one; and neither of them makes any

difference between "the Rectors of Light" and the Cosmocratores, or "Rectores tenebrarum harum,"

whom the Roman Church imagines and discovers in a "Rector of Light" as soon as he is called by

another name than the one she addresses him by. It is not the "Rector" or "Maharajah" who punishes or
rewards, with or without "God's" permission or order, but man himself -- his deeds or Karma,
attracting individually and collectively (as in the case of whole nations sometimes), every kind of evil
and calamity. We produce CAUSES, and these awaken the corresponding powers in the sidereal
world; which powers are magnetically and irresistibly attracted to -- and react upon -- those who
produced these causes; whether such persons are practically the evil-doers, or simply Thinkers who
brood mischief. Thought is matter,* we are taught by modern Science; and "every particle of the
existing matter must be a register of all that has happened," as in their "Principles of Science" Messrs.
Jevons and Babbage tell the profane. Modern Science is drawn more every day into the maelstrom of
Occultism; unconsciously, no doubt, still very sensibly. The two main theories of science -- re the
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relations between Mind and Matter -- are Monism and Materialism. These two cover the whole ground
of negative psychology with the exception of the quasi-occult views of the pantheistic German
schools.**
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* Not of course in the sense of the German Materialist Moleschott, who assures us that "Thought is the

movement of matter," a statement of almost unequalled absurdity. Mental states and bodily states are

utterly contrasted as such. But that does not affect the position that every thought, in addition to its

physical accompaniment (brain-change), exhibits an objective -- though to us supersensuously

objective -- aspect on the astral plane. (See "The Occult World," pp. 89, 90.)

** The views of our present-day scientific thinkers as to the relations between mind and matter may be

reduced to two hypotheses. These show that both views equally exclude the possibility of an

independent Soul, distinct from the physical brain through which it functions. They are: -(1.) MATERIALISM, the theory which regards mental phenomena as the product of molecular change

in the brain; i.e., as the outcome of a transformation of motion into feeling (!). The cruder school once

went so far as to identify mind with a "peculiar mode of motion" (!!), but this view is now happily

regarded as absurd by most of the men of science themselves.

(2.) MONISM, or the Single Substance Doctrine, is the more subtle form of negative psychology,

which one of its advocates, Professor Bain, ably terms "guarded [[Footnote continued on next page]]


[[Vol. 1, Page]] 125 THE REAL MEANING OF THE TABERNACLE.

In the Egyptian temples, according to Clemens Alexandrinus, an immense curtain separated the
tabernacle from the place for the congregation. The Jews had the same. In both, the curtain was drawn
over five pillars (the Pentacle) symbolising our five senses and five Root-races esoterically, while the
four colours of the curtain represented the four cardinal points and the four terrestrial elements. The
whole was an allegorical symbol. It is through the four high Rulers over the four points and Elements
that our five senses may become cognisant of the hidden truths of Nature; and not at all, as Clemens
would have it, that it is the elements per se that furnished the Pagans with divine Knowledge or the
knowledge of God.* While the Egyptian emblem was spiritual, that of the Jews was purely
materialistic, and, indeed, honoured only the blind Elements and the imaginary "Points." For what was
the meaning of the square tabernacle raised by Moses in the wilderness, if it had not the same cosmical
significance? "Thou shalt make an hanging . . . of blue, purple, and scarlet" and "five pillars of shittim
wood for the hanging . . . four brazen rings in the four corners thereof . . . boards of fine wood for the
four sides, North, South, West, and East . . . of the Tabernacle . . . with Cherubims of cunning work."
(Exodus, ch. xxvi., xxvii.) The Tabernacle and the square courtyard, Cherubim and all, were precisely
the same as those in the Egyptian temples. The square form of the Tabernacle meant just the same
thing as it still means, to this day, in the exoteric worship of the Chinese and Tibetans -- the four
cardinal points signifying that which the four sides of the pyramids, obelisks, and other such square
erections mean. Josephus takes care to explain the whole thing. He declares that the Tabernacle pillars
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are the same
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

[[Footnote continued from previous page]] Materialism." This doctrine, which commands a very wide

assent, counting among its upholders such men as Lewis, Spencer, Ferrier, and others, while positing

thought and mental phenomena generally as radically contrasted with matter, regards both as equal to

the two sides, or aspects, of one and the same substance in some of its conditions. Thought as thought,

they say, is utterly contrasted with material phenomena, but it must be also regarded as only "the

subjective side of nervous motion" whatever our learned men may mean by this.

* Thus the sentence, "Natura Elementorum obtinet revelationem Dei," (In Clemens's Stromata, R. IV.,

para. 6), is applicable to both or neither. Consult the Zends, vol II., p. 228, and Plutarch De Iside, as

compared by Layard, Academie des Inscriptions, 1854, Vol. XV.


[[Vol. 1, Page]] 126 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.


as those raised at Tyre to the four Elements, which were placed on pedestals whose four angles faced

the four cardinal points: adding that "the angles of the pedestals had equally the four figures of the

Zodiac" on them, which represented the same orientation (Antiquities I., VIII., ch. xxii.).
The idea may be traced in the Zoroastrian caves, in the rock-cut temples of India, as in all the sacred
square buildings of antiquity that have survived to this day. This is shown definitely by Layard, who
finds the four cardinal points, and the four primitive elements, in the religion of every country, under
the shape of square obelisks, the four sides of the pyramids, etc., etc. Of these elements and their points
the four Maharajahs were the regents and the directors.
If the student would know more of them, he has but to compare the Vision of Ezekiel (chap. i.) with
what is known of Chinese Buddhism (even in its exoteric teachings); and examine the outward shape
of these "Great Kings." In the opinion of the Rev. Joseph Edkins, they are "the Devas who preside each
over one of the four continents into which the Hindus divide the world."* Each leads an army of
spiritual beings to protect mankind and Buddhism. With the exception of favouritism towards
Buddhism, the four celestial beings are precisely this. They are the protectors of mankind and also the
Agents of Karma on Earth, whereas the Lipika are concerned with Humanity's hereafter. At the same
time they are the four living creatures "who have the likeness of a man" of Ezekiel's visions, called by
the translators of the Bible, "Cherubim," "Seraphim," etc.; and by the Occultists, "the winged Globes,"
the "Fiery Wheels," and in the Hindu Pantheon by a number of different names. All these Gandharvas,
the "Sweet Songsters," the Asuras, Kinnaras, and Nagas, are the allegorical descriptions of the "four
Maharajahs." The Seraphim are the fiery Serpents of Heaven which we find in a passage describing
Mount Meru as: "the exalted mass of glory, the venerable haunt of gods and heavenly choristers . . . .
not to be reached by sinful men . . . . because guarded by Serpents." They are called the Avengers, and
the "Winged Wheels."
Their mission and character being explained, let us see what the
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[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

*The Hindus happen to divide the world into seven continents, exoterically as esoterically; and their

four cosmic Devas are eight, presiding over the eight points of the compass and not the Continents.

(Compare "Chinese Buddhism," p. 216.)


[[Vol. 1, Page]] 127 THE DRAGONS OF SECRET WISDOM.


Christian Bible-interpreters say of the Cherubim: -- "The word signifies in Hebrew, fullness of

knowledge; these angels are so called from their exquisite Knowledge, and were therefore used for the

punishment of men who affected divine Knowledge." (Interpreted by Cruden in his Concordance, from

Genesis iii., 24.) Very well; and vague as the information is, it shows that the Cherub placed at the gate

of the garden of Eden after the "Fall," suggested to the venerable Interpreters the idea of punishment

connected with forbidden Science or divine Knowledge -- one that generally leads to another "Fall,"

that of the gods, or "God," in man's estimation. But as the good old Cruden knew nought of Karma, he

may be forgiven. Yet the allegory is suggestive. From Meru, the abode of gods, to Eden, the distance is

very small, and from the Hindu Serpents to the Ophite Cherubim, the third out of the seven of which
was the Dragon, the separation is still smaller, for both watched the entrance to the realm of Secret
Knowledge. But Ezekiel plainly describes the four Cosmic Angels: "I looked, and behold, a whirlwind,
a cloud and fire infolding it . . . also out of the midst thereof came the likeness of four living creatures .
. . they had the likeness of a man. And every one had four faces and four wings . . . the face of a man,
and the face of a lion, the face of an ox, and the face of an eagle . . . " ("Man" was here substituted for
"Dragon." Compare the "Ophite Spirits."*) . . . "Now as I beheld the living creatures behold one wheel
upon the Earth with his four faces . . . as it were a wheel in the middle of a wheel . . . for the support of
the living creature was in the wheel . . . their appearance was like coals of fire . . ." etc. (Ezekiel, ch. i.)
There are three chief groups of Builders and as many of the Planetary Spirits and the Lipika, each
group being again divided into Seven sub-groups. It is impossible, even in such a large work as this, to
enter into a minute examination of even the three principal groups, as it would demand an extra
volume. The "Builders" are the representatives of the first "Mind-Born" Entities, therefore of the
primeval Rishi-Prajapati: also of the Seven great Gods of Egypt, of which Osiris is the chief: of the
Seven Amshaspends of the Zoroastrians, with
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* The Angels recognised by the Roman Catholic Church who correspond to these "Faces" were with

the Ophites: -- Dragon -- Raphael; Lion -- Michael; Bull, or ox -- Uriel; and Eagle -- Gabriel. The four

keep company with the four Evangelists, and preface the Gospels.


[[Vol. 1, Page]] 128 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.


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Ormazd at their head: or the "Seven Spirits of the Face": the Seven Sephiroth separated from the first

Triad, etc., etc.*

They build or rather rebuild every "System" after the "Night." The Second group of the Builders is the

Architect of our planetary chain exclusively; and the third, the progenitor of our Humanity -- the
Macrocosmic prototype of the microcosm.
The Planetary Spirits are the informing spirits of the Stars in general, and of the Planets especially.
They rule the destinies of men who are all born under one or other of their constellations; the second
and third groups pertaining to other systems have the same functions, and all rule various departments
in Nature. In the Hindu exoteric Pantheon they are the guardian deities who preside over the eight
points of the compass -- the four cardinal and the four intermediate points -- and are called Loka-Palas,
"Supporters or guardians of the World" (in our visible Kosmos), of which Indra (East), Yama (South),
Varuna (West), and Kuvera (North) are the chief; their elephants and their spouses pertaining of course
to fancy and afterthought, though all of them have an occult significance.
The Lipika (a description of whom is given in the Commentary on Stanza IV. No. 6) are the Spirits of
the Universe, whereas the Builders are only our own planetary deities. The former belong to the most
occult portion of Cosmogenesis, which cannot be given here. Whether the Adepts (even the highest)
know this angelic order in the completeness of its triple degrees, or only the lower one connected with
the records of our world, is something which the writer is unprepared to say, and she would incline
rather to the latter supposition. Of its highest grade one thing only is taught: the Lipika are connected
with Karma -- being its direct Recorders.**
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* The Jews, save the Kabalists, having no names for East, West, South, and North, expressed the idea

by words signifying before, behind, right and left, and very often confounded the terms exoterically,

thus making the blinds in the Bible more confused and difficult to interpret. Add to this the fact that

out of the forty-seven translators of King James I. of England's Bible "only three understood Hebrew,

and of these two died before the Psalms were translated" (Royal Masonic Cyclopaedia), and one may

easily understand what reliance can be placed on the English version of the Bible. In this work the

Douay Roman Catholic version is generally followed.

** The Symbol for Sacred and Secret Knowledge was universally in antiquity, a Tree, by which a

Scripture or a Record was also meant. Hence the word Lipika, the [[Footnote continued on next page]]


[[Vol. 1, Page]] 129 THE LIPIKA.


STANZA V. -- Continued.

6. THE LIPIKA CIRCUMSCRIBE THE TRIANGLE, THE FIRST ONE (the vertical line or the

figure 1.), THE CUBE, THE SECOND ONE, AND THE PENTACLE WITHIN THE EGG (circle)
(a). IT IS THE RING CALLED "PASS NOT," FOR THOSE WHO DESCEND AND ASCEND (as
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also for those) WHO, DURING THE KALPA, ARE PROGRESSING TOWARD THE GREAT DAY
"BE WITH US" (b). . . . THUS WERE FORMED THE ARUPA AND THE RUPA (the Formless
World and the World of Forms); FROM ONE LIGHT SEVEN LIGHTS; FROM EACH OF THE
SEVEN SEVEN TIMES SEVEN LIGHTS. THE "WHEELS" WATCH THE RING.
The Stanza proceeds with a minute classification of the Orders of Angelic Hierarchy. From the group
of Four and Seven emanates the "mind-born" group of Ten, of Twelve, of Twenty-one, etc., all these
divided again into sub-groups of septenaries, novenaries, duodecimals, and so on, until the mind is lost
in this endless enumeration of celestial hosts and Beings, each having its distinct task in the ruling of
the visible Kosmos during its existence.
(a) The esoteric meaning of the first sentence of the Sloka is, that those who have been called Lipikas,
the Recorders of the Karmic ledger, make an impassible barrier between the personal EGO and the
impersonal SELF, the Noumenon and Parent-Source of the former. Hence the allegory. They
circumscribe the manifested world of matter within the RING "Pass-Not." This world is the symbol
(objective) of the ONE divided into the many, on the planes of Illusion, of Adi (the "First") or of Eka
(the "One"); and this One is the collective aggregate, or totality, of the principal Creators or Architects
of this visible universe. In Hebrew Occultism their name is both Achath, feminine, "One," and Achod,
"One" again, but masculine. The monotheists have taken (and are still taking) advantage of the
profound esotericism of the Kabala to apply the name by which the One Supreme Essence is known to
ITS manifestation, the Sephiroth-Elohim, and call it Jehovah. But this is
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

[[Footnote continued from previous page]] "writers" or scribes; the "Dragons," symbols of wisdom,

who guard the Trees of Knowledge; the "golden" apple Tree of the Hesperides; the "Luxuriant Trees"

and vegetation of Mount Meru guarded by a Serpent. Juno giving to Jupiter, on her marriage with him,

a Tree with golden fruit is another form of Eve offering Adam the apple from the Tree of Knowledge.


[[Vol. 1, Page]] 130 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.


quite arbitrary and against all reason and logic, as the term Elohim is a plural noun, identical with the

plural word Chiim, often compounded with the Elohim.* Moreover, in Occult metaphysics there are,

properly speaking, two "ONES" -- the One on the unreachable plane of Absoluteness and Infinity, on

which no speculation is possible, and the Second "One" on the plane of Emanations. The former can

neither emanate nor be divided, as it is eternal, absolute, and immutable. The Second, being, so to

speak, the reflection of the first One (for it is the Logos, or Iswara, in the Universe of Illusion), can do

all this.** It emanates from itself -- as the upper Sephirothal Triad emanates the lower seven Sephiroth - the seven Rays or Dhyan Chohans; in other words, the Homogeneous becomes the Heterogeneous,

the "Protyle" differentiates into the Elements. But these, unless they return into their primal Element,
can never cross beyond the Laya, or zero-point.
Hence the allegory. The Lipika separate the world (or plane) of pure spirit from that of Matter. Those
who "descend and ascend" -- the incarnating Monads, and men striving towards purification and
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"ascending," but still not having quite reached the goal -- may cross the "circle of the Pass-Not," only
on the day "Be-With-Us"; that day when man, freeing himself from the trammels of ignorance, and
recog[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* The sentence in the Sepher Jezirah and elsewhere: "Achath-Ruach-Elohim-Chiim" denotes the

Elohim as androgynous at best, the feminine element almost predominating, as it would read: "ONE is

She the Spirit of the Elohim of Life." As said above, Echath (or Achath) is feminine, and Echod (or

Achod) masculine, both meaning ONE.

** This metaphysical tenet can hardly be better described than Mr. Subba Row's in "Bhagavadgita"

lectures: "Mulaprakriti (the veil of Parabrahmam) acts as the one energy through the Logos (or

'Eswara'). Now Parabrahmam, is the one essence from which starts into existence a centre of energy,

which I shall for the present call the Logos. . . . It is called the Verbum . . . by the Christians, and it is

the divine Christos who is eternal in the bosom of his father. It is called Avalokiteshwara by the

Buddhists. . . . In almost every doctrine, they have formulated the existence of a centre of spiritual

energy which is unborn and eternal, and which exists in the bosom of Parabrahmam at the time of

Pralaya, and starts as a centre of conscious energy at the time of Cosmic activity. . . ." For, as the

lecturer premised by saying, Parabraham is not this or that, it is not even consciousness, as it cannot be

related to matter or anything conditioned. It is not Ego nor is it Non-ego, not even Atma, but verily the

one source of all manifestations and modes of existence.

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 131 THE SIDEREAL BOOK OF LIFE.

nising fully the non-separateness of the Ego within his personality -- erroneously regarded as his own -from the UNIVERSAL EGO (Anima Supra-Mundi), merges thereby into the One Essence to become
not only one "with us" (the manifested universal lives which are "ONE" LIFE), but that very life itself.
Astronomically, the "Ring PASS-NOT" that the Lipika trace around the Triangle, the First One, the
Cube, the Second One, and the Pentacle to circumscribe these figures, is thus shown to contain the
symbol of 31415 again, or the coefficient constantly used in mathematical tables (the value of , pi), the
geometrical figures standing here for numerical figures. According to the general philosophical
teachings, this ring is beyond the region of what are called nebulae in astronomy. But this is as
erroneous a conception as that of the topography and the descriptions, given in Puranic and other
exoteric Scriptures, about the 1008 worlds of the Devaloka worlds and firmaments. There are worlds,
of course, in the esoteric as well as in the profane scientific teachings, at such incalculable distances
that the light of the nearest of them which has just reached our modern Chaldees, had left its luminary
long before the day on which the words "Let there be Light" were pronounced; but these are no worlds
on the Devaloka plane, but in our Kosmos.
The chemist goes to the laya or zero point of the plane of matter with which he deals, and then stops
short. The physicist or the astronomer counts by billions of miles beyond the nebulae, and then they
also stop short; the semi-initiated Occultist will represent this laya-point to himself as existing on some
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plane which, if not physical, is still conceivable to the human intellect. But the full Initiate knows that
the ring "Pass-Not" is neither a locality nor can it be measured by distance, but that it exists in the
absoluteness of infinity. In this "Infinity" of the full Initiate there is neither height, breadth nor
thickness, but all is fathomless profundity, reaching down from the physical to the "para-parametaphysical." In using the word "down," essential depth -- "nowhere and everywhere" -- is meant, not
depth of physical matter.
If one searches carefully through the exoteric and grossly anthropomorphic allegories of popular
religions, even in these the doctrine embodied in the circle of "Pass-Not" thus guarded by the Lipika,
may be dimly perceived. Thus one finds it even in the teachings of

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 132 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

the Vedantin sect of the Visishtadwaita, the most tenaciously anthropomorphic in all India. For we
read of the released soul that: -After reaching Moksha (a state of bliss meaning "release from Bandha" or bondage), bliss is enjoyed
by it in a place called PARAMAPADHA, which place is not material, but made of Suddasatwa (the
essence, of which the body of Iswara -- "the Lord" -- is formed). There, Muktas or Jivatmas (Monads)
who have attained Moksha, are never again subject to the qualities of either matter or Karma. "But if
they choose, for the sake of doing good to the world, they may incarnate on Earth."* The way to
Paramapadha, or the immaterial worlds, from this world, is called Devayana. When a person has
attained Moksha and the body dies: -"The Jiva (Soul) goes with Sukshma Sarira** from the heart of the body, to the Brahmarandra in the
crown of the head, traversing Sushumna, a nerve connecting the heart with the Brahmarandra. The Jiva
breaks through the Brahmarandra and goes to the region of the Sun (Suryamandala) through the solar
Rays. Then it goes, through a dark spot in the Sun, to Paramapadha. The Jiva is directed on its way by
the Supreme Wisdom acquired by Yoga.*** The Jiva thus proceeds to Paramapadha by the aid of
Athivahikas (bearers in transit), known by the names of Archi-Ahas . . . Aditya, Prajapati, etc. The
Archis here mentioned are certain pure Souls, etc., etc." (Visishtadwaita Catechism, by Pundit
Bhashyacharya, F.T.S.)
No Spirit except the "Recorders" (Lipika) has ever crossed its forbidden line, nor will any do so until
the day of the next Pralaya, for it is the boundary that separates the finite -- however infinite in man's
sight -- from the truly INFINITE. The Spirits referred to, therefore, as those who "ascend and descend"
are the "Hosts" of what we loosely call "celestial Beings." But they are, in fact, nothing of the kind.
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* These voluntary re-incarnations are referred to in our Doctrine as Nirmanakayas (the surviving

spiritual principles of men).

** Sukshma-sarira, "dream-like" illusive body, with which are clothed the inferior Dhyanis of the

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celestial Hierarchy.

*** Compare this esoteric tenet with the Gnostic doctrine found in "Pistis-Sophia" (Knowledge =

Wisdom), in which treatise Sophia Achamoth is shown lost in the waters of Chaos (matter), on her way

to Supreme Light, and Christos delivering and helping her on the right Path. Note well, "Christos" with

the Gnostics meant the impersonal principal, the Atman of the Universe, and the Atma within every

man's soul -- not Jesus; though in the old Coptic MSS. in the British Museum "Christos" is almost

constantly replaced by "Jesus."

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 133 THE GOD OF MAN AND THE GOD OF THE ANT.

They are Entities of the higher worlds in the hierarchy of Being, so immeasurably high that, to us, they
must appear as Gods, and collectively -- GOD. But so we, mortal men, must appear to the ant, which
reasons on the scale of its special capacities. The ant may also, for all we know, see the avenging
finger of a personal God in the hand of the urchin who, in one moment, under the impulse of mischief,
destroys its anthill, the labour of many weeks -- long years in the chronology of insects. The ant,
feeling it acutely, and attri buting the undeserved calamity to a combination of Providence and sin, may
also, like man, see in it the result of the sin of its first parent. Who knows and who can affirm or deny?
The refusal to admit in the whole Solar system of any other reasonable and intellectual beings on the
human plane, than ourselves, is the greatest conceit of our age. All that science has a right to affirm, is
that there are no invisible Intelligences living under the same conditions as we do. It cannot deny pointblank the possibility of there being worlds within worlds, under totally different conditions to those
that constitute the nature of our world; nor can it deny that there may be a certain limited
communication* between some of those worlds and our own. To the highest, we are taught, belong the
seven orders of the purely divine Spirits; to the six lower ones belong hierarchies that can occasionally
be seen and heard by men, and who do communicate with their progeny of the Earth; which progeny is
indissolubly linked with them, each principle in man having its direct source in the nature of those
great Beings, who furnish us with the respective invisible elements in us. Physical Science is welcome
to speculate upon the physiological mechanism of living beings, and to continue her fruitless efforts in
trying to resolve our feelings, our sensations, mental and spiritual, into functions of their inorganic
vehicles. Nevertheless, all that will ever be accomplished in this direction has already been done, and
Science will go no farther.
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* The greatest philosopher of European birth, Imanuel Kant, assures us that such a communication is in

no way improbable. "I confess I am much disposed to assert the existence of Immaterial natures in the

world, and to place my own soul in the class of these beings. It will hereafter, I know not where, or

when, yet be proved that the human soul stands even in this life in indissoluble connection with all

immaterial natures in the spirit-world, that it reciprocally acts upon these and receives impressions

from them." (Traume eines Geistersehers, quoted by C. C. Massey, in his preface to Von Hartmann's

"Spiritismus.")


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[[Vol. 1, Page]] 134 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.


She is before a dead wall, on the face of which she traces, as she imagines, great physiological and
psychic discoveries, but every one of which will be shown later on to be no better than the cobwebs
spun by her scientific fancies and illusions. The tissues of our objective framework alone are
subservient to the analysis and researches of physiological science.* The six higher principles in them
will evade for ever the hand that is guided by an animus that purposely ignores and rejects the Occult
Sciences.
The "Great Day of BE-WITH-US," then, is an expression the only merit of which lies in its literal
translation. Its significance is not so easily revealed to a public, unacquainted with the mystic tenets of
Occultism, or rather of Esoteric Wisdom or "Budhism." It is an expression peculiar to the latter, and as
hazy for the profane as that of the Egyptians who called the same the "Day of COME-TO-US,"**
which
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* E.g., all that modern physiological research in connection with psychological problems has, and

owing to the nature of things, could have shown, is, that every thought, sensation, and emotion is

attended with a re-marshalling of the molecules of certain nerves. The inference drawn by scientists of

the type of Buchner, Vogt, and others, that thought is molecular motion, necessitates a complete

abstraction being made of the fact of our subjective consciousness.

** See "Le Livre des Morts," by Paul Pierret; "Le Jour de 'Viens a nous' . . . c'est le jour ou Osiris a dit

au Soleil: Viens! Je le vois rencontrant le Soleil dans l'Amenti." (Chap. xvii., p. 61.) The Sun here

stands for the Logos (or Christos, or Horus) as central Essence synthetically, and as a diffused essence

of radiated Entities, different in substance, but not in essence. As expressed by the Bhagavadgita

lecturer, "it must not be supposed that the Logos is but a single centre of energy manifested from

Parabrahmam; there are innumerable other centres . . . and their number is almost infinite in the bosom

of Parabrahmam." Hence the expressions, "The Day of Come to us" and "The Day of Be with us," etc.

Just as the square is the Symbol of the Four sacred Forces or Powers -- Tetraktis -- so the Circle shows

the boundary within the Infinity that no man can cross, even in spirit, nor Deva nor Dhyan Chohan.

The Spirits of those who "descend and ascend" during the course of cyclic evolution shall cross the
"iron-bound world" only on the day of their approach to the threshold of Paranirvana. If they reach it -they will rest in the bosom of Parabrahmam, or the "Unknown Darkness," which shall then become for
all of them Light -- during the whole period of Mahapralaya, the "Great NIGHT," namely,
311,040,000,000,000 years of absorption in Brahm. The day of "Be-With-Us" is this period of rest or
Paranirvana. See also for other data on this peculiar expression, the day of "Come-To-Us," The
Funerary Ritual of the Egyptians, by Viscount de Rouge. It corresponds to the Day of the Last
Judgment of the Christians, which has been sorely materialised by their religion.

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 135 THE SOUL'S PILGRIMAGE.

is identical with the former, though the verb "be" in this sense, might be still better replaced with either
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of the two words "Remain" or "Rest-with-us," as it refers to that long period of REST which is called
Paranirvana. As in the exoteric interpretation of the Egyptian rites the soul of every defunct person -from the Hierophant down to the sacred bull Apis -- became an Osiris, was Osirified, though the Secret
Doctrine had always taught, that the real Osirification was the lot of every Monad only after 3,000
cycles of Existences; so in the present case. The "Monad," born of the nature and the very Essence of
the "Seven" (its highest principle becoming immediately enshrined in the Seventh Cosmic Element),
has to perform its septenary gyration throughout the Cycle of Being and forms, from the highest to the
lowest; and then again from man to God. At the threshold of Paranirvana it reassumes its primeval
Essence and becomes the Absolute once more.
---------------------

Next Section

Contents


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The Secret Doctrine by H. P. Blavatsky -- Vol. 1

Theosophical University Press Online Edition

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 136 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

STANZA VI.
1. BY THE POWER OF THE MOTHER OF MERCY AND KNOWLEDGE (a), KWAN-YIN,* THE
"TRIPLE" OF KWAN-SHAI-YIN, RESIDING IN KWAN-YIN-TIEN (b), FOHAT, THE BREATH
OF THEIR PROGENY, THE SON OF THE SONS, HAVING CALLED FORTH FROM THE
LOWER ABYSS (chaos) THE ILLUSIVE FORM OF SIEN-TCHAN (our Universe) AND THE
SEVEN ELEMENTS: -(a.) The Mother of Mercy and Knowledge is called "the triple" of Kwan-Shai-Yin because in her
correlations, metaphysical and cosmical, she is the "Mother, the Wife and the Daughter" of the Logos,
just as in the later theological translations she became "the Father, Son and (the female) Holy Ghost" -the Sakti or Energy -- the Essence of the three. Thus in the Esotericism of the Vedantins, Daiviprakriti,
the Light manifested through Eswara, the Logos,** is at one and the same time the Mother and also the
Daughter of the Logos or Verbum of Parabrahmam; while in that of the trans-Himalayan teachings it is
-- in the hierarchy of allegorical and metaphysical theogony -- "the MOTHER" or abstract, ideal
matter, Mulaprakriti, the Root of Nature; -- from the metaphysical standpoint, a correlation of AdiBhuta, manifested in the Logos, Avalokiteshwara; -- and from the purely occult and
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* This stanza is translated from the Chinese text, and the names, as the equivalents of the original

terms, are preserved. The real esoteric nomenclature cannot be given, as it would only confuse the

reader. The Brahmanical doctrine has no equivalent to these. Vach seems, in many an aspect, to

approach the Chinese Kwan-yin, but there is no regular worship of Vach under this name in India, as

there is of Kwan-Yin in China. No exoteric religious system has ever adopted a female Creator, and

thus woman was regarded and treated, from the first dawn of popular religions, as inferior to man. It is

only in China and Egypt that Kwan-Yin and Isis were placed on a par with the male gods. Esotericism

ignores both sexes. Its highest Deity is sexless as it is formless, neither Father nor Mother; and its first

manifested beings, celestial and terrestrial alike, become only gradually androgynous and finally

separate into distinct sexes.

** The "Theosophist" of February, 1887, p. 305, first lecture on the Bhagavadgita.


[[Vol. 1, Page]] 137 THE MYSTERY OF THE FEMALE LOGOS.


Cosmical, Fohat,* the "Son of the Son," the androgynous energy resulting from this "Light of the
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Logos," and which manifests in the plane of the objective Universe as the hidden, as much as the
revealed, Electricity -- which is LIFE.
(b) Kwan-Yin-Tien means the "melodious heaven of Sound," the abode of Kwan-Yin, or the "Divine
Voice" literally. This "Voice" is a synonym of the Verbum or the Word: "Speech," as the expression of
thought. Thus may be traced the connection with, and even the origin of the Hebrew Bath-Kol, the
"daughter of the Divine Voice," or Verbum, or the male and female Logos, the "Heavenly Man" or
Adam Kadmon, who is at the same time Sephira. The latter was surely anticipated by the Hindu Vach,
the goddess of Speech, or of the Word. For Vach -- the daughter and the female portion, as is stated, of
Brahma, one "generated by the gods" -- is, in company with Kwan-Yin, with Isis (also the daughter,
wife and sister of Osiris) and other goddesses, the female Logos, so to speak, the goddess of the active
forces in Nature, the Word, Voice or Sound, and Speech. If Kwan-Yin is the "melodious Voice," so is
Vach; "the melodious cow who milked forth sustenance and water" (the female principle) -- "who
yields us nourishment and sustenance," as Mother-Nature. She is associated in the work of creation
with the Prajapati. She is male and female ad libitum, as Eve is with Adam. And she is a form of Aditi - the principle higher than Ether -- in Akasa, the synthesis of all the forces in Nature; thus Vach and
Kwan-Yin are both the magic potency of Occult sound in Nature and Ether -- which "Voice" calls
forth Sien-Tchan, the illusive form of the Universe out of Chaos and the Seven Elements.
Thus in Manu Brahma (the Logos also) is shown dividing his body into two parts, male and female,
and creating in the latter, who is Vach, Viraj, who is himself, or Brahma again -- it is in this way a
learned Vedantin Occultist speaks of that "goddess," explaining the reason why Eswara (or Brahma) is
called Verbum or Logos; why in fact it is called Sabda Brahmam: -[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* Says the lecturer on p. 306: "Evolution is commenced by the intellectual energy of the Logos, not

merely on account of the potentialities locked up in Mulaprakriti. This light of the Logos is the link . . .

between objective matter and the subjective thought of Eswara (or Logos). It is called in several

Buddhist books Fohat. It is the one instrument with which the Logos works."


[[Vol. 1, Page]] 138 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.


"The explanation I am going to give you will appear thoroughly mystical; but if mystical, it has a

tremendous significance when properly understood. Our old writers said that Vach is of four kinds (see

Rig Veda and the Upanishads). Vaikhari-Vach is what we utter. Every kind of Vaikhari-Vach exists in

its Madhyama, further in its Pasyanti, and ultimately in its Para form.* The reason why this Pranava is

called Vach is this, that the four principles of the great Kosmos correspond to these four forms of

Vach. Now the whole manifested solar System exists in its Sukshma form in the light or energy of the

Logos, because its energy is caught up and transferred to Cosmic matter. . . . The whole Kosmos in its

objective form is Vaikhari-Vach, the light of the Logos is the Madhyama form, and the Logos itself the
Pasyanti form, and Parabrahm the Para form or aspect of that Vach. It is by the light of this
explanation that we must try to understand certain statements made by various philosophers to the
effect that the manifested Kosmos is the Verbum manifested as Kosmos" (see Lecture on the
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Bhagavadgita, referred to above).
------STANZA VI. -- (Continued.)
2. THE SWIFT AND THE RADIANT ONE PRODUCES THE SEVEN Layu** (a) CENTRES,

AGAINST WHICH NONE WILL PREVAIL TO THE GREAT DAY "BE WITH US" -- AND
SEATS THE UNIVERSE ON THESE ETERNAL FOUNDATIONS, SURROUNDING SIENTCHAN WITH THE ELEMENTARY GERMS (b).
(a.) The seven Layu centres are the seven Zero points, using the term Zero in the same sense that
Chemists do, to indicate a point at which, in Esotericism, the scale of reckoning of differentiation
begins. From the Centres -- beyond which Esoteric philosophy allows us to perceive the dim
metaphysical outlines of the "Seven Sons" of Life and Light, the Seven Logoi of the Hermetic and all
other philosophers -- begins
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* Madhya is said of something whose commencement and end are unknown, and Para means infinite.

These expressions all relate to infinitude and to division of time.

** From the Sanskrit Laya, the point of matter where every differentiation has ceased.


[[Vol. 1, Page]] 139 FROM NO-NUMBER TO NUMBER SEVEN.


the differentiation of the elements which enter into the constitution of our Solar System. It has often

been asked what was the exact definition of Fohat and his powers and functions, as he seems to

exercise those of a Personal God as understood in the popular religions. The answer has just been

given in the comment on Stanza V. As well said in the Bhagavadgita Lectures, "The whole Kosmos

must necessarily exist in the One Source of energy from which this light (Fohat) emanates." Whether

we count the principles in Kosmos and man as seven or only as four, the forces of, and in, physical

Nature are Seven; and it is stated by the same authority that "Pragna, or the capacity of perception,

exists in seven different aspects corresponding to the seven conditions of matter" (Personal and

impersonal God). For, "just as a human being is composed of seven principles, differentiated matter in
the Solar System exists in seven different conditions" (ibid). So does Fohat.* He is One and Seven, and
on the Cosmic plane is behind all such manifestations as light, heat, sound, adhesion, etc., etc., and is
the "spirit" of ELECTRICITY, which is the LIFE of the Universe. As an abstraction, we call it the
ONE LIFE; as an objective and evident Reality, we speak of a septenary scale of manifestation, which
begins at the upper rung with the One Unknowable CAUSALITY, and ends as Omnipresent Mind and
Life immanent in every atom of Matter. Thus, while science speaks of its evolution through brute
matter, blind force, and senseless motion, the Occultists point to intelligent LAW and sentient LIFE,
and add that Fohat is the guiding Spirit of all this. Yet he is no personal god at all, but the emanation of
those other Powers behind him whom the Christians call the "Messengers" of their God (who is in
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reality only the Elohim, or rather one of the Seven Creators called Elohim), and we, the "Messenger of
the primordial Sons of Life and Light."
(b.) The "Elementary Germs" with which he fills Sien-Tchan (the "Universe") from Tien-Sin (the
"Heaven of Mind," literally, or that which is absolute) are the Atoms of Science and the Monads of
Leibnitz.
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* "Fohat" has several meanings. (See Stanza V., Commentary et infra). He is called the "Builder of the

Builders," the Force that he personifies having formed our Septenary chain.


[[Vol. 1, Page]] 140 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.


STANZA VI. -- Continued.

3. OF THE SEVEN (elements) -- FIRST ONE MANIFESTED, SIX CONCEALED; TWO

MANIFESTED -- FIVE CONCEALED; THREE MANIFESTED -- FOUR CONCEALED; FOUR

PRODUCED -- THREE HIDDEN; FOUR AND ONE TSAN (fraction) REVEALED -- TWO AND

ONE HALF CONCEALED; SIX TO BE MANIFESTED -- ONE LAID ASIDE (a). LASTLY,

SEVEN SMALL WHEELS REVOLVING; ONE GIVING BIRTH TO THE OTHER (b).

(a.) Although these Stanzas refer to the whole Universe after a Mahapralaya (universal destruction),

yet this sentence, as any student of Occultism may see, refers also by analogy to the evolution and final

formation of the primitive (though compound) Seven Elements on our Earth. Of these, four elements

are now fully manifested, while the fifth -- Ether -- is only partially so, as we are hardly in the second
half of the Fourth Round, and consequently the fifth Element will manifest fully only in the Fifth
Round. The Worlds, including our own, were of course, as germs, primarily evolved from the ONE
Element in its second stage ("Father-Mother," the differentiated World's Soul, not what is termed the
"Over-Soul" by Emerson), whether we call it, with modern Science, Cosmic dust and Fire Mist, or
with Occultism -- Akasa, Jivatma, divine Astral Light, or the "Soul of the World." But this first stage
of Evolution was in due course of time followed by the next. No world, as no heavenly body, could be
constructed on the objective plane, had not the Elements been sufficiently differentiated already from
their primeval Ilus, resting in Laya. The latter term is a synonym of Nirvana. It is, in fact, the Nirvanic
dissociation of all substances, merged after a life-cycle into the latency of their primary conditions. It is
the luminous but bodiless shadow of the matter that was, the realm of negativeness -- wherein lie latent
during their period of rest the active Forces of the Universe. Now, speaking of Elements, it is made the
standing reproach of the Ancients, that they "supposed their Elements simple and undecomposable."*
Once more this is an unwarrantable state[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* The shades of our pre-historical ancestors might return the compliment to modern physicists, now

that new discoveries in chemistry have led Mr. Crookes, F.R.S., to admit that Science is yet a thousand

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leagues from the knowledge of the compound nature of the simplest molecule. From him we learn that

such a thing as a really simple [[Footnote continued on next page]]


[[Vol. 1, Page]] 141 WERE THE ANCIENTS IGNORANT OF THE PHYSICAL SCIENCES?


ment; as, at any rate, their initiated philosophers can hardly come under such an imputation, since it is

they who have invented allegories and religious myths from the beginning. Had they been ignorant of

the Heterogeneity of their Elements they would have had no personifications of Fire, Air, Water, Earth,
and AEther; their Cosmic gods and goddesses would never have been blessed with such posterity, with
so many sons and daughters, elements born from and within each respective Element. Alchemy and
occult phenomena would have been a delusion and a snare, even in theory, had the Ancients been
ignorant of the potentialities and correlative functions and attri butes of every element that enters into
the composition of Air, Water, Earth, and even Fire -- the latter a terra incognita to this day to modern
Science, which is obliged to call it Motion, evolution of light and heat, state of ignition, -- defining it
by its outward aspects in short, and remaining ignorant of its nature. But that which
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

[[Footnote continued from previous page]] molecule entirely homogeneous is terra incognita in

chemistry. "Where are we to draw the line?" he asks; "is there no way out of this perplexity? Must we

either make the elementary examinations so stiff that only 60 or 70 candidates can pass, or must we

open the examination doors so wide that the number of admissions is limited only by the number of

applicants?" And then the learned gentleman gives striking instances. He says: "Take the case of

yttrium. It has its definite atomic weight, it behaved in every respect as a simple body, an element, to

which we might indeed add, but from which we could not take away. Yet this yttrium, this supposed

homogeneous whole, on being submitted to a certain method of fractionation, is resolved into portions

not absolutely identical among themselves, and exhibiting a gradation of properties. Or take the case of

didymium. Here was a body betraying all the recognised characters of an element. It had been

separated with much difficulty from other bodies which approximated closely to it in their properties,

and during this crucial process it had undergone very severe treatment and very close scrutiny. But

then came another chemist, who, treating this assumed homogeneous body by a peculiar process of

fractionation, resolved it into the two bodies praseodymium and neodymium, between which certain

distinctions are perceptible. Further, we even now have no certainty that neodymium and
praseodymium are simple bodies. On the contrary, they likewise exhibit symptoms of splitting up.
Now, if one supposed element on proper treatment is thus found to comprise dissimilar molecules, we
are surely warranted in asking whether similar results might not be obtained in other elements, perhaps
in all elements, if treated in the right way. We may even ask where the process of sorting-out is to stop - a process which of course pre-supposes variations between the individual molecules of each species.
And in these successive separations we naturally find bodies approaching more and more closely to
each other." (Presidential address before the Royal Society of Chemists, March, 1888.)

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modern Science seems to fail to perceive is that, differentiated as may have been those simple
chemical atoms -- which archaic philosophy called "the creators of their respective Parents," fathers,
brothers, husbands of their mothers, and those mothers the daughters of their own sons, like Aditi and
Daksha, for example -- differentiated as these elements were in the beginning, still, they were not the
compound bodies known to science, as they are now. Neither Water, Air, Earth (synonym for solids
generally) existed in their present form, representing the three states of matter alone recognised by
Science; for all these are the productions already recombined by the atmospheres of globes completely
formed -- even to fire -- so that in the first periods of the earth's formation they were something quite
sui generis. Now that the conditions and laws ruling our solar system are fully developed; and that the
atmosphere of our earth, as of every other globe, has become, so to say, a crucible of its own, Occult
Science teaches that there is a perpetual exchange taking place in space of molecules, or of atoms
rather, correlating, and thus changing their combining equivalents on every planet. Some men of
Science, and those among the greatest physicists and chemists, begin to suspect this fact, which has
been known for ages to the Occultists. The spectroscope only shows the probable similarity (on
external evidence) of terrestrial and sidereal substance; it is unable to go any farther, or to show
whether atoms gravitate towards one another in the same way and under the same conditions as they
are supposed to do on our planet, physically and chemically. The scale of temperature, from the
highest degree to the lowest that can be conceived of, may be imagined to be one and the same in and
for the whole Universe; nevertheless, its properties, other than those of dissociation and reassociation,
differ on every planet; and thus atoms enter into new forms of existence, undreamt of, and
incognizable to, physical Science. As already expressed in "Five Years of Theosophy," the essence of
Cometary matter, for instance, "is totally different from any of the chemical or physical characteristics
with which the greatest chemists and physicists of the earth are acquainted" (p. 242). And even that
matter, during rapid passage through our atmosphere, undergoes a certain change in its nature. Thus
not alone the elements of our planets, but even those of all its sisters in the Solar System, differ as
widely from each other in their combinations, as from the Cosmic elements beyond our

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 143 THE SLEEP OF THE ETERNAL MOTHER.

Solar limits.* Therefore, they cannot be taken as a standard for comparison with the same in other
worlds.** Enshrined in their virgin, pristine state within the bosom of the Eternal Mother, every atom
born beyond the threshold of her realm is doomed to incessant differentiation. "The Mother sleeps, yet
is ever breathing." And every breath sends out into the plane of manifestation her Protean products,
which, carried on by the wave of the efflux, are scattered by Fohat, and driven toward and beyond this
or another planetary atmosphere. Once caught by the latter, the atom is lost; its pristine purity is gone
for ever, unless Fate dissociates it by leading it to "a current of EFFLUX" (an occult term meaning
quite a different process from that which the ordinary term implies); when it may be carried once more
to the borderl and where it had perished, and taking its flight, not into Space above but into Space
within, it will be brought under a state of differential equilibrium and happily re-absorbed. Were a truly
learned Occultist-alchemist to write the "Life and Adventures of an Atom" he would secure thereby the
eternal scorn of the modern chemist, perchance also his subsequent
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

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* This is again corroborated by the same man of science in the same lecture, who quotes Clerk

Maxwell, saying "that the elements are not absolutely homogeneous." He writes: "It is difficult to

conceive of selection and elimination of intermediate varieties, for where can these eliminated

molecules have gone to, if, as we have reason to believe, the hydrogen, &c. of the fixed stars is

composed of molecules identical in all respects with our own." And he adds: "In the first place we may

call in question this absolute molecular identity, since we have hitherto had no means for coming to a

conclusion save the means furnished by the spectroscope, while it is admitted that, for accurately

comparing and discriminating the spectra of two bodies, they should be examined under identical

states of temperature, pressure, and all other physical conditions. We have certainly seen, in the

spectrum of the sun, rays which we have not been able to identify."
** "Each world has its Fohat, who is omnipresent in his own sphere of action. But there are as many
Fohats as there are worlds, each varying in power and degree of manifestations. The individual Fohats
make one Universal, Collective Fohat -- the aspect-Entity of the one absolute Non-Entity, which is
absolute Be-Ness, 'SAT.' "Millions and billions of worlds are produced at every Manvantara" -- it is
said. Therefore there must be many Fohats, whom we consider as conscious and intelligent Forces.
This, no doubt, to the disgust of scientific minds. Nevertheless the Occultists, who have good reasons
for it, consider all the forces of Nature as veritable, though supersensuous, states of Matter; and as
possible objects of perception to Beings endowed with the requisite senses.

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 144 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

gratitude.* However it may be, "The Breath of the Father-Mother issues cold and radiant and gets hot
and corrupt, to cool once more, and be purified in the eternal bosom of inner Space," says the
Commentary. Man absorbs cold pure air on the mountain-top, and throws it out impure, hot and
transformed. Thus -- the higher atmosphere being the mouth, and the lower one the lungs of every
globe -- the man of our planet breathes only the refuse of "Mother"; therefore, "he is doomed to die on
it."**
(b) The process referred to as "the small wheels giving birth, one to the other," takes place in the sixth
region from above, and on the plane of the most material world of all in the manifested Kosmos -- our
terrestrial plane. These "Seven Wheels" are our planetary chain (see Commentary Nos. 5 and 6). By
"Wheels" the various spheres and centres of forces are generally meant; but in this case they refer to
our septenary ring.
------STANZA VI. -- Continued.
4. HE BUILDS THEM IN THE LIKENESS OF OLDER WHEELS (worlds), PLACING THEM ON

THE IMPERISHABLE CENTRES (a).
HOW DOES FOHAT BUILD THEM? HE COLLECTS THE FIERY DUST. HE MAKES BALLS
OF FIRE, RUNS THROUGH THEM AND ROUND THEM, INFUSING LIFE THEREINTO; THEN
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SETS THEM INTO MOTION, SOME ONE, SOME THE OTHER WAY. THEY ARE COLD -- HE
MAKES THEM HOT. THEY ARE DRY -- HE MAKES THEM MOIST. THEY SHINE -- HE FANS
AND COOLS THEM (b).
THUS ACTS FOHAT FROM ONE Twilight TO THE OTHER DURING SEVEN ETERNITIES.***
(a) The Worlds are built "in the likeness of older Wheels" -- i.e., those that existed in preceding
Manvantaras and went into Pralaya,
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* Indeed, if such an imaginary Chemist happened to be intuitional, and would for a moment step out of

the habitual groove of strictly "Exact Science," as the Alchemists of old did, he might be repaid for his

audacity.

** He who would allotropise sluggish oxygen into Ozone to a measure of alchemical activity, reducing

it to its pure essence (for which there are means), would discover thereby a substitute for an "Elixir of

Life" and prepare it for practical use.

*** A period of 311,040,000,000,000 years, according to Brahminical calculations.


[[Vol. 1, Page]] 145 THE COSMIC PLANE, AN ILLUSION.


because the LAW for the birth, growth, and decay of everything in Kosmos, from the Sun to the glowworm in the grass, is ONE. It is an everlasting work of perfection with every new appearance, but the

Substance-Matter and Forces are all one and the same. But this LAW acts on every planet through

minor and varying laws. The "imperishable Laya Centres" have a great importance, and their meaning

must be fully understood if we would have a clear conception of the Archaic Cosmogony, whose

theories have now passed into Occultism. At present, one thing may be stated. The worlds are built
neither upon, nor over, nor in the Laya centres, the zero-point being a condition, not any mathematical
point.
(b) Bear in mind that Fohat, the constructive Force of Cosmic Electricity, is said, metaphorically, to
have sprung like Rudra from Brahma "from the brain of the Father and the bosom of the Mother," and
then to have metamorphosed himself into a male and a female, i.e., polarity, into positive and negative
electricity. He has seven sons who are his brothers; and Fohat is forced to be born time after time
whenever any two of his son-brothers indulge in too close contact -- whether an embrace or a fight. To
avoid this, he binds together and unites those of unlike nature and separates those of similar
temperaments. This, of course, relates, as any one can see, to electricity generated by friction and to the
law involving attraction between two objects of unlike, and repulsion between those of like polarity.
The Seven "Sons-brothers," however, represent and personify the seven forms of Cosmic magnetism
called in practical Occultism the "Seven Radicals," whose co-operative and active progeny are, among
other energies, Electricity, Magnetism, Sound, Light, Heat, Cohesion, etc. Occult Science defines all
these as Super-sensuous effects in their hidden behaviour, and as objective phenomena in the world of
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senses; the former requiring abnormal faculties to perceive them -- the latter, our ordinary physical
senses. They all pertain to, and are the emanations of, still more supersensuous spiritual qualities, not
personated by, but belonging to, real and conscious CAUSES. To attempt a description of such
ENTITIES would be worse than useless. The reader must bear in mind that, according to our teaching
which regards this phenomenal Universe as a great Illusion, the nearer a body is to the UNKNOWN
SUBSTANCE, the more it approaches reality, as being removed the farther

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 146 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

from this world of Maya. Therefore, though the molecular constitution of their bodies is not deducible
from their manifestations on this plane of consciousness, they nevertheless (from the standpoint of the
adept Occultist) possess a distinctive objective if not material structure, in the relatively noumenal -- as
opposed to the phenomenal -- Universe. Men of science may term them Force or Forces generated by
matter, or "modes of its motion," if they will; Occultism sees in the effects "Elemental" (forces), and,
in the direct causes producing them, intelligent DIVINE Workmen. The intimate connection of those
Elementals (guided by the unerring hand of the Rulers) -- their correlation we might call it -- with the
elements of pure Matter, results in our terrestrial phenomena, such as light, heat, magnetism, etc., etc.
Of course we shall never agree with the American Substantialists* who call every Force and Energy -whether Light, Heat, Electricity or Cohesion -- an "Entity"; for this would be equivalent to calling the
noise produced by the rolling of the wheels of a vehicle an Entity -- thus confusing and identifying that
"noise" with the driver outside, and the guiding Master Intelligence within the vehicle. But we
certainly give that name to the "drivers" and to these guiding Intelligences -- the ruling Dhyan
Chohans, as shown. The "Elementals," the Nature-Forces, are the acting, though invisible, or rather
imperceptible, secondary Causes and in themselves the effects of primary Causes behind the Veil of all
terrestrial phenomena. Electricity, light, heat, etc., have been aptly termed the "Ghost or Shadow of
Matter in Motion," i.e., supersensuous states of matter whose effects only we are able to cognize. To
expand, then, the simile given above. The sensation of light is like the sound of the rolling wheels -- a
purely phenomenal effect, having no existence outside the observer; the proximate exciting cause of
the sensation is comparable to the driver -- a supersensuous state of matter in motion, a Nature-Force
or Elemental. But, behind even this, stand -- just as the owner of the carriage directs the driver from
within -- the higher and noumenal causes, the Intelligences from whose essence radiate these States of
"Mother," generating the countless milliards of Elementals or psychic Nature-Spirits, just as every
drop of water generates its physical
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* See "Scientific Arena," a monthly Journal devoted to current philosophical teaching and its bearing

upon the religious thought of the Age. New York: A. Wilford Hall, Ph.D., LL.D., Editor. (1886, July,

August, and September.)


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infinitesimal Infusoria. (See "Gods, Monads, and Atoms," in Part III.) It is Fohat who guides the

transfer of the principles from one planet to the other, from one star to another -- child-star. When a

planet dies, its informing principles are transferred to a laya or sleeping centre, with potential but latent

energy in it, which is thus awakened into life and begins to form itself into a new sidereal body. (Vide
infra, "A Few Theosophical Misconceptions, etc.")
It is most remarkable that, while honestly confessing their entire ignorance of the true Nature of even
terrestrial matter -- primordial substance being regarded more as a dream than as a sober reality -- the
physicists should set themselves up as judges, nevertheless, of that matter, and claim to know what it is
able and is not able to do, in various combinations. Scientists know it (matter) hardly skin-deep, and
yet they will dogmatise. It is "a mode of motion" and nothing else. But the force that is inherent in a
living person's breath, when blowing a speck of dust from the table, is also, and undeniably, "a mode
of motion"; and it is as undeniably not a quality of the matter, or the particles of that speck, and it
emanates from the living and thinking Entity that breathed, whether the impulse originated consciously
or unconsciously. Indeed, to endow matter -- something of which nothing is known so far -- with an
inherent quality called Force, of the nature of which still less is known, is to create a far more serious
difficulty than that which lies in the acceptation of the intervention of our "Nature-Spirits" in every
natural phenomenon.
The Occultists, who do not say -- if they would express themselves correctly -- that matter, but only
the substance or essence of matter, is indestructible and eternal, (i.e., the Root of all, Mulaprakriti):
assert that all the so-called Forces of Nature, Electricity, Magnetism, Light, Heat, etc., etc., far from
being modes of motion of material particles, are in esse, i.e., in their ultimate constitution, the
differentiated aspects of that Universal Motion which is discussed and explained in the first pages of
this volume (See Proem). When Fohat is said to produce "Seven Laya Centres," it means that for
formative or creative purposes, the GREAT LAW (Theists may call it God) stops, or rather modifies
its perpetual motion on seven invisible points within the area of the manifested Universe. "The great
Breath digs through Space seven holes into Laya to cause them to circumgyrate during Manvantara"
(Occult Catechism). We

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 148 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

have said that Laya is what Science may call the Zero-point or line; the realm of absolute negativeness,
or the one real absolute Force, the NOUMENON of the Seventh State of that which we ignorantly call
and recognise as "Force"; or again the Noumenon of Undifferentiated Cosmic Substance which is itself
an unreachable and unknowable object to finite perception; the root and basis of all states of objectivity
and subjectivity too; the neutral axis, not one of the many aspects, but its centre. It may serve to
elucidate the meaning if we attempt to imagine a neutral centre -- the dream of those who would
discover perpetual motion. A "neutral centre" is, in one aspect, the limiting point of any given set of
senses. Thus, imagine two consecutive planes of matter as already formed; each of these corresponding
to an appropriate set of perceptive organs. We are forced to admit that between these two planes of
matter an incessant circulation takes place; and if we follow the atoms and molecules of (say) the
lower in their transformation upwards, these will come to a point where they pass altogether beyond
the range of the faculties we are using on the lower plane. In fact, to us the matter of the lower plane
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there vanishes from our perception into nothing -- or rather it passes on to the higher plane, and the
state of matter corresponding to such a point of transition must certainly possess special and not readily
discoverable properties. Such "Seven Neutral Centres,"* then, are produced by Fohat, who, when, as
Milton has it -"Fair foundations (are) laid whereon to build . . ."
quickens matter into activity and evolution.
The Primordial Atom (anu) cannot be multiplied either in its pregenetic state, or its primogeneity;
therefore it is called "SUM TOTAL," figuratively, of course, as that "SUM TOTAL" is boundless. (See
Addendum to this Book.) That which is the abyss of nothingness to the physicist, who knows only the
world of visible causes and effects, is the boundless Space of the Divine Plenum to the Occultist.
Among many other objections to the doctrine of an endless evolution and re-involution (or reabsorption) of the Kosmos, a process which, according to the Brahminical and Esoteric Doctrine, is
without a beginning or an end, the Occultist is told that it cannot be, since "by all the admissions of
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* Such, we believe, is the name applied by Mr. Keely, of Philadelphia, the inventor of the famous

"Motor" -- destined, as his admirers have hoped, to revolutionise the motor power of the world -- to

what he again calls the "Etheric Centres."


[[Vol. 1, Page]] 149 THE MOON IS NOT DEAD, BUT ONLY SLEEPETH.


modern scientific philosophy it is a necessity of Nature to run down." If the tendency of Nature "to run

down" is to be considered so forcible an objection to Occult Cosmogony, "How," we may ask, "do

your Positivists and Free-thinkers and Scientists account for the phalanx around us of active stellar

systems?" They had eternity to "run down" in; why, then, is not the Kosmos a huge inert mass? Even

the moon is only hypothetically believed to be a dead planet, "run down," and astronomy does not

seem to be acquainted with many such dead planets.* The query is unanswerable. But apart from this it

must be noted that the idea of the amount of "transformable energy" in our little system coming to an

end is based purely on the fallacious conception of a "white-hot, incandescent Sun" perpetually

radiating away his heat without compensation into Space. To this we reply that nature runs down and
disappears from the objective plane, only to re-emerge after a time of rest out of the subjective and to
reascend once more. Our Kosmos and Nature will run down only to reappear on a more perfect plane
after every PRALAYA. The matter of the Eastern philosophers is not the "matter" and Nature of the
Western metaphysicians. For what is Matter? And above all, what is our scientific philosophy but that
which was so justly and so politely defined by Kant as "the Science of the limits to our Knowledge"?
Where have the many attempts made by Science to bind, to connect, and define all the phenomena of
organic life by mere physical and chemical manifestations, brought it to? To speculation generally -mere soap-bubbles, that burst one after the other before the men of Science were permitted to discover
real facts. All this would have been avoided, and the progress of knowledge would have proceeded
with gigantic strides, had only Science and its philosophy abstained from accepting hypotheses on the
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mere one-sided Knowledge of their Matter.**
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* The moon is dead only so far as regards her inner "principles" -- i.e., psychically and spiritually,

however absurd the statement may seem. Physically, she is only as a semi-paralysed body may be. She

is aptly referred to in Occultism as the "insane mother," the great sidereal lunatic.

** The instance of Uranus and Neptune, whose satellites, four and one respectively, revolved, it was

thought, in their orbits from East to West, whereas all the other satellites rotate from West to East, is a

very good one, as showing how unreliable are all a priori speculations even when based on the strictest

mathematical analysis. The famous hypothesis of the formation of our Solar System out of the

nebulous rings, put [[Footnote continued on next page]]


[[Vol. 1, Page]] 150 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.


If no physical intellect is capable of counting the grains of sand covering a few miles of sea-shore; or

to fathom the ultimate nature and essence of those grains, palpable and visible on the palm of the

naturalist, how can any materialist limit the laws changing the conditions and being of the atoms in

primordial chaos, or know anything certain about the capabilities and potency of their atoms and
molecules before and after their formation into worlds? These changeless and eternal molecules -- far
thicker in space than the grains on the ocean shore -- may differ in their constitution along the line of
their planes of existence, as the soul-substance differs from its vehicle, the body. Each atom has seven
planes of being or existence, we are taught; and each plane is governed by its specific laws of
evolution and absorption. Ignorant of any, even approximate, chronological data from which to start in
attempting to decide the age of our planet or the origin of the solar system, astronomers, geologists,
and physicists are drifting with each new hypothesis farther and farther away from the shores of fact
into the fathomless depths of speculative ontology.* The Law of Analogy in the plan of structure
between the trans-Solar systems and the intra-Solar planets, does not necessarily bear upon the finite
conditions to which every visible body is subject, in this our plane of being. In Occult Science this law
is the first and most important key to Cosmic physics; but it has to be studied in its minutest details
and, "to be
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

[[Footnote continued from previous page]] forward by Kant and Laplace, was chiefly based on the

above fact that all the planets revolved in the same direction. It is on this fact, mathematically

demonstrated during the time of Laplace, that this great astronomer, calculating on the theory of

probabilities, offered to bet three milliards to one that the next planet discovered would have in its

system the same peculiarity of motion Eastward. The immutable laws of scientific mathematics got

"worsted by further experiments and observations," it was said. This idea of Laplace's mistake prevails

generally to this day; but some astronomers have finally succeeded in demonstrating (?) that the

mistake had been in accepting Laplace's assertion for a mistake; and steps to correct it without

attracting general attention to the bevue are now being taken. Many such unpleasant surprises are in


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store for hypotheses of even a purely physical character. What further disillusions, then, may there not
be in questions of a transcendental, Occult Nature? At any rate, Occultism teaches that the so-called
"reverse rotation" is a fact.
* The Occultists, having most perfect faith in their own exact records, astronomical and mathematical,
calculate the age of Humanity, and assert that the latter (as separate sexes) has existed in this Round
just 18,618,727 years, as the Brahmanical teachings and even some Hindu calendars declare.

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 151 NATURE CAN NEVER CEASE.

turned seven times," before one comes to understand it. Occult philosophy is the only science that can
teach it. How, then, can anyone hang the truth or the untruth of the Occultist's proposition that "the
Kosmos is eternal in its unconditioned collectivity, and finite but in its conditioned manifestations" on
this one-sided physical enunciation that "it is a necessity of Nature to run down?"
--------------------With these verses -- the 4th Sloka of Stanza VI. -- ends that portion of the Stanzas which relates to the
Universal Cosmogony after the last Mahapralaya or Universal destruction, which, when it comes,

sweeps out of Space every differentiated thing, Gods as atoms, like so many dry leaves. From this

verse onwards, the Stanzas are concerned only with our Solar System in general, with the planetary

chains therein, inferentially, and with the history of our globe (the 4th and its chain) especially. All the

Stanzas and verses which follow in this Book I. refer only to the evolution of, and on, our Earth. With

regard to the latter, a strange tenet -- strange from the modern scientific stand-point only, of course -- is
held, which ought to be made known.
But before entirely new and rather startling theories are presented to the reader, they must be prefaced
by a few words of explanation. This is absolutely necessary, as these theories clash not only with
modern science, but contradict, on certain points, earlier statements made by other Theosophists, who
claim to base their explanations and renderings of these teachings on the same authority as we do.*
This may give rise to the idea that there is a decided contradiction between the expounders of the same
doctrine; whereas the difference, in reality, arises from the incompleteness of the information given to
earlier writers, who thus drew some erroneous conclusions and indulged in premature speculations, in
their endeavour to present a complete system to the public. Thus the reader, who is already a student of
Theosophy, must not be surprised to find in these pages the rectification of certain statements made in
various Theosophical works, and also the explanation of certain points which have remained obscure,
because they were necessarily left incomplete. Many are the questions upon which even the author of
"Esoteric Buddhism" (the best and
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* "Esoteric Buddhism" and "Man."


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[[Vol. 1, Page]] 152 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.


most accurate of all such works) has not touched. On the other hand, even he has introduced several

mistaken notions which must now be presented in their true mystic light, as far as the present writer is

capable of doing so.

Let us then make a short break between the Slokas just explained and those which follow, for the

Cosmic periods which separate them are of immense duration. This will afford us ample time to take a

bird's eye view of some points pertaining to the Secret Doctrine, which have been presented to the
public under a more or less uncertain and sometimes mistaken light.
------[[This page continued in next section]]

Next Section
Contents

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The Secret Doctrine by H. P. Blavatsky -- Vol. 1

Theosophical University Press Online Edition

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 152 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

[[This page continued from previous section]]
A FEW EARLY THEOSOPHICAL MISCONCEPTIONS
CONCERNING PLANETS, ROUNDS, AND MAN.
Among the eleven Stanzas omitted* there is one which gives a full description of the formation of the
planetary chains one after another, after the first Cosmic and Atomic differentiation had commenced
in the primitive Acosmism. It is idle to speak of "laws arising when Deity prepares to create" for (a)
laws or rather LAW is eternal and uncreated; and (b) that Deity is Law, and vice versa. Moreover, the
one eternal LAW unfolds everything in the (to be) manifested Nature on a sevenfold principle; among
the rest, the countless circular chains of worlds, composed of seven globes, graduated on the four
lower planes of the world of formation (the three others belonging to the Archetypal Universe). Out of
these seven only one, the lowest and the most material of those globes, is within our plane or means of
perception, the six others lying outside of it and being therefore invisible to the terrestrial eye. Every
such chain of worlds is the progeny and creation of another, lower, and dead chain -- its
reincarnation, so to say. To make it clearer: we are told of the planets -- of which seven only were
held as sacred, as being ruled by the highest regents or gods, and not at all because the ancients knew
nothing of the others** -- that each of these, whether known or unknown, is a septenary, as is the
chain to which the Earth belongs (see "Esoteric
[[Footnote(s)]] to diagram

* See the note which follows the Commentary on the preceding page, and also the summary of the
Stanzas in the Proem, page 22.
** Many more planets are enumerated in the Secret Books than in modern astronomical works.

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 153 DESCENDING AND RE-ASCENDING STATES.

Buddhism"). For instance, all such planets as Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, etc., etc., or our
Earth, are as visible to us as our globe, probably, is to the inhabitants of the other planets, if any,
because they are all on the same plane; while the superior fellow-globes of these planets are on other
planes quite outside that of our terrestrial senses. As their relative position is given further on, and
also in the diagram appended to the Comments on Verse 7 of Stanza VI., a few words of explanation
is all that is needed at present. These invisible companions correspond curiously to that which we call
"the principles in Man." The seven are on three material planes and one spiritual plane, answering to
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the three Upadhis (material bases) and one spiritual vehicle (Vahan) of our seven principles in the
human division. If, for the sake of a clearer mental conception, we imagine the human principles to be
arranged as in the following scheme, we shall obtain the annexed diagram of correspondences: --

DIAGRAM I.
[[Footnote(s) to diagram]] -------------------------------------------------

*As we are proceeding here from Universals to Particulars, instead of using the inductive or

Aristotelean method, the numbers are reversed. Spirit is enumerated the first instead of seventh, as is

usually done, but, in truth, ought not to be done.

Or as usually named after the manner of Esoteric Buddhism and others: 1, Atma; 2, Buddhi (or

Spiritual Soul); 3, Manas (Human Soul); 4, Kama Rupa (Vehicle of Desires and Passions); 5, Linga

Sarira; 6, Prana; 7, Sthula Sarira.


[[Vol. 1, Page]] 154 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.


The dark horizontal lines of the lower planes are the Upadhis in one case, and the planes in the case of

the planetary chain. Of course, as regards the human principles, the diagram does not place them quite

in order, yet it shows the correspondence and analogy to which attention is now drawn. As the reader

will see, it is a case of descent into matter, the adjustment -- in both the mystic and the physical senses

-- of the two, and their interblending for the great coming "struggle of life" that awaits both the

entities. "Entity" may be thought a strange term to use in the case of a globe; but the ancient
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philosophers, who saw in the earth a huge "animal," were wiser in their generation than our modern
geologists are in theirs; and Pliny, who called the Earth our kind nurse and mother, the only element
which is not inimical to man, spoke more truly than Watts, who fancied that he saw in her the
footstool of God. For Earth is only the footstool of man in his ascension to higher regions; the
vestibule -". . . . . . . to glorious mansions,
Through which a moving crowd for ever press."
But this only shows how admirably the occult philosophy fits everything in Nature, and how much
more logical are its tenets than the lifeless hypothetical speculations of physical science.
Having learned thus much, the mystic will be better prepared to understand the occult teaching,
though every formal student of modern science may, and probably will, regard it as preposterous
nonsense. The student of occultism, however, holds that the theory at present under discussion is far
more philosophical and probable than any other. It is more logical, at any rate, than the theory recently
advanced which made of the moon the projection of a portion of our Earth extruded when the latter
was but a globe in fusion, a molten plastic mass.*
It is said that the planetary chains having their "Days" and their
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* Says the author of "Modern Science and Modern Thought," Mr. Samuel Laing: "The astronomical

conclusions are theories based on data so uncertain, that while in some cases they give results

incredibly short, like that of 15 millions of years for the whole past process of formation of the solar

system, in others they give results almost incredibly long, as in that which supposes the moon to have

been thrown off when the Earth was rotating in three hours, while the utmost actual retardation

obtained from observation would require 600 millions of years to make it rotate in twenty-three hours

instead of twenty-four" (p. 48). And if physicists persist, why should the chronology of the Hindus be

laughed at as exaggerated?


[[Vol. 1, Page]] 155 EXCHANGE OF LIFE-PRINCIPLES.


"Nights" -- i.e., periods of activity or life, and of inertia or death -- and behave in heaven as do men on

Earth: they generate their likes, get old, and become personally extinct, their spiritual principles only

living in their progeny as a survival of themselves.

Without attempting the very difficult task of giving out the whole process in all its cosmic details,
enough may be said to give an approximate idea of it. When a planetary chain is in its last Round, its
Globe 1 or A, before finally dying out, sends all its energy and "principles" into a neutral centre of
latent force, a "laya centre," and thereby informs a new nucleus of undifferentiated substance or
matter, i.e., calls it into activity or gives it life. Suppose such a process to have taken place in the lunar

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"planetary" chain; suppose again, for argument's sake (though Mr. Darwin's theory quoted below has
lately been upset, even if the fact has not yet been ascertained by mathematical calculation) that the
moon is far older than the Earth. Imagine the six fellow-globes of the moon -- aeons before the first
globe of our seven was evolved -- just in the same position in relation to each other as the fellowglobes of our chain occupy in regard to our Earth now. (See in "Esoteric Buddhism," "The
Constitution of Man," and the "Planetary Chain.") And now it will be easy to imagine further Globe A
of the lunar chain informing Globe A of the terrestrial chain, and -- dying; Globe B of the former
sending after that its energy into Globe B of the new chain; then Globe C of the lunar, creating its
progeny sphere C of the terrene chain; then the Moon (our Satellite*) pouring forth into
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* She is the satellite, undeniably, but this does not invalidate the theory that she has given to the Earth

all but her corpse. For Darwin's theory to hold good, besides the hypothesis just upset (vide last

footnote), other still more incongruous speculations had to be invented. The Moon, it is said, has

cooled nearly six times as rapidly as the Earth (Winchell's "World-Life"): "The Moon, if the earth is

14,000,000 years old since its incrustation, is only eleven and two thirds millions of years old since

that stage . . ." etc. And if our Moon is but a splash from our Earth, why can no similar inference be

established for the Moons of other planets? The Astronomers "do not know." Why should Venus and

Mercury have no satellites, and by what, when they exist, were they formed? Because, we say, science

has only one key -- the key of matter -- to open the mysteries of nature withal, while occult

philosophy has seven keys and explains that which science fails to see. Mercury and Venus have no

satellites but they had "parents" just as the earth had. Both are far older than the Earth and, before the

latter reaches her seventh Round, her mother Moon will have dissolved [[Footnote continued on next

page]]


[[Vol. 1, Page]] 156 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

the lowest globe of our planetary ring -- Globe D, our Earth -- all its life, energy and powers; and,
having transferred them to a new centre becoming virtually a dead planet, in which rotation has
almost ceased since the birth of our globe. The Moon is now the cold residual quantity, the shadow
dragged after the new body, into which her living powers and "principles" are transfused. She now is
doomed for long ages to be ever pursuing the Earth, to be attracted by and to attract her progeny.
Constantly vampirised by her child, she revenges herself on it by soaking it through and through with
the nefarious, invisible, and poisoned influence which emanates from the occult side of her nature. For
she is a dead, yet a living body. The particles of her decaying corpse are full of active and destructive
life, although the body which they had formed is soulless and lifeless. Therefore its emanations are at
the same time beneficent and maleficent -- this circumstance finding its parallel on earth in the fact
that the grass and plants are nowhere more juicy and thriving than on the graves; while at the same
time it is the graveyard or corpse-emanations, which kill. And like all ghouls or vampires, the moon is
the friend of the sorcerers and the foe of the unwary. From the archaic aeons and the later times of the
witches of Thessaly, down to some of the present tantrikas of Bengal, her nature and properties were
known to every Occultist, but have remained a closed book for physicists.

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Such is the moon from the astronomical, geological, and physical standpoints. As to her metaphysical
and psychic nature it must remain an occult secret in this work, as it was in the volume on "Esoteric
Buddhism," notwithstanding the rather sanguine statement made therein on p. 113 (5th edition) that
"there is not much mystery left now in the riddle of the eighth sphere." These are topics, indeed, "on
which the adepts are very reserved in their communications to uninitiated pupils," and since they
have, moreover, never sanctioned or permitted any published speculations upon them, the less said the
better.
Yet without treading upon the forbidden ground of the "eighth sphere," it may be useful to state some
additional facts with regard to ex-monads of the lunar chain -- the "lunar ancestors" -- as they play a
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

[[Footnote continued from previous page]] into thin air, as the "Moons" of the other planets have, or

have not, as the case may be, since there are planets which have several moons -- a mystery again

which no OEdipus of astronomy has solved.


[[Vol. 1, Page]] 157 OPINIONS DIFFER AND YET AGREE.


leading part in the coming Anthropogenesis. This brings us directly to the septenary constitution of

man; and as some discussion has arisen of late about the best classification to be adopted for the

division of the microcosmic entity, two systems are now appended with a view to facilitate

comparison. The subjoined short article is from the pen of Mr. T. Subba Row, a learned Vedantin

scholar. He prefers the Brahmanical division of the Raja Yoga, and from a metaphysical point of view

he is quite right. But, as it is a question of simple choice and expediency, we hold in this work to the

"time-honoured" classification of the trans-Himalayan "Arhat Esoteric School." The following table

and its explanatory text are reprinted from the "Theosophist" of Madras, and they are also contained in

"Five Years of Theosophy": -SEPTENARY DIVISION IN DIFFERENT INDIAN SYSTEMS.
"We give below in a tabular form the classifications adopted by the Buddhist and Vedantic teachers of
the principles of man: --

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[[Footnote(s) to table]]

* Kosa (kosha) is "Sheath" literally, the sheath of every principle.
"Life."
The astral body or Linga Sarira.
Sthula-Upadhi, or basis of the principle.
|| Buddhi.

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 158 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

From the foregoing table it will be seen that the third principle in the Buddhist classification is not
separately mentioned in the Vedantic division, as it is merely the vehicle of Prana. It will also be seen
that the Fourth principle is included in the third Kosa (Sheath), as the same principle is but the vehicle
of will-power, which is but an energy of the mind. It must also be noticed that the Vignanamaya Kosa
is considered to be distinct from the Manomaya Kosa, as a division is made after death between the
lower part of the mind, as it were, which has a closer affinity with the fourth principle than with the
sixth; and its higher part, which attaches itself to the latter, and which is, in fact, the basis for the
higher spiritual individuality of man.
We may also here point out to our readers that the classification mentioned in the last column is, for
all practical purposes, connected with Raja Yoga, the best and simplest. Though there are seven
principles in man, there are but three distinct Upadhis (bases), in each of which his Atma may work
independently of the rest. These three Upadhis can be separated by an Adept without killing himself.
He cannot separate the seven principles from each other without destroying his constitution."
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The student will now be better prepared to see that between the three Upadhis of the Raja Yoga and
its Atma, and our three Upadhis, Atma, and the additional three divisions, there is in reality but very
little difference. Moreover, as every adept in cis-Himalayan or trans-Himalayan India, of the Patanjali,
the Aryasanga or the Mahayana schools, has to become a Raja Yogi, he must, therefore, accept the
Taraka Raja classification in principle and theory whatever classification he resorts to for practical
and occult purposes. Thus, it matters very little whether one speaks of the three Upadhis with their
three aspects and Atma, the eternal and immortal synthesis, or calls them the "seven principles."
For the benefit of those who may not have read, or, if they have, may not have clearly understood, in
Theosophical writings, the doctrine of the septenary chains of worlds in the Solar Kosmos, the
teaching is briefly thus: -1. Everything in the metaphysical as in the physical Universe is septenary. Hence every sidereal body,
every planet, whether visible

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 159 THE TRANSMIGRATIONS OF THE EGO.

or invisible, is credited with six companion globes. (See Diagram No. 3, after verse 6 of this
commentary.) The evolution of life proceeds on these seven globes or bodies from the 1st to the 7th in
Seven ROUNDS or Seven Cycles.
2. These globes are formed by a process which the Occultists call the "rebirth of planetary chains (or
rings)." When the seventh and last Round of one of such rings has been entered upon, the highest or
first globe "A," followed by all the others down to the last, instead of entering upon a certain time of
rest -- or "obscuration," as in their previous Rounds -- begins to die out. The "planetary" dissolution
(pralaya) is at hand, and its hour has struck; each globe has to transfer its life and energy to another
planet. (See diagram No. 2 infra, "The Moon and the Earth.")
3. Our Earth, as the visible representative of its invisible superior fellow globes, its "lords" or
"principles" (see diagram No. 1), has to live, as have the others, through seven Rounds. During the
first three, it forms and consolidates; during the fourth it settles and hardens; during the last three it
gradually returns to its first ethereal form: it is spiritualised, so to say.
4. Its Humanity develops fully only in the Fourth -- our present Round. Up to this fourth Life-Cycle, it
is referred to as "humanity" only for lack of a more appropriate term. Like the grub which becomes
chrysalis and butterfly, Man, or rather that which becomes man, passes through all the forms and
kingdoms during the first Round and through all the human shapes during the two following Rounds.
Arrived on our Earth at the commencement of the Fourth in the present series of life-cycles and races,
MAN is the first form that appears thereon, being preceded only by the mineral and vegetable
kingdoms -- even the latter having to develop and continue its further evolution through man. This
will be explained in Book II. During the three Rounds to come, Humanity, like the globe on which it
lives, will be ever tending to reassume its primeval form, that of a Dhyan Chohanic Host. Man tends

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to become a God and then -- GOD, like every other atom in the Universe.
"Beginning so early as with the 2nd round, Evolution proceeds already on quite a different plan. It is
only during the 1st round that (heavenly) man becomes a human being on globe A (rebecomes) a
mineral, a plant, an animal, on globe B and C, etc. The process changes

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 160 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

entirely from the second round -- but you have learned prudence . . . and I advise you to say nothing
before the time for saying it has come. . ." (Extract from the Teacher's letters on various topics.)
5. Every life-cycle on Globe D (our Earth)* is composed of seven root-races. They commence with
the Ethereal and end with the spiritual on the double line of physical and moral evolution -- from the
beginning of the terrestrial round to its close. (One is a "planetary round" from Globe A to Globe G,
the seventh; the other, the "globe round," or the terrestrial).
This is very well described in "Esoteric Buddhism" and needs no further elucidation for the time
being.
6. The first root-race, i.e., the first "men" on earth (irrespective of form) were the progeny of the
"celestial men," called rightly in Indian philosophy the "Lunar Ancestors" or the Pitris, of which there
are seven classes or Hierarchies. As all this will be sufficiently explained in the following sections and
in Book II., no more need be said of it here.
But the two works already mentioned, both of which treat of subjects from the occult doctrine, need
particular notice. "Esoteric Buddhism" is too well known in Theosophical circles, and even to the
outside world, for it to be necessary to enter at length upon its merits here. It is an excellent book, and
has done still more excellent work. But this does not alter the fact that it contains some mistaken
notions, and that it has led many Theosophists and lay-readers to form an erroneous conception of the
Secret Eastern Doctrines. Moreover it seems, perhaps, a little too materialistic.
"MAN," which came later, was an attempt to present the archaic doctrine from a more ideal
standpoint, to translate some visions in and from the Astral Light, to render some teachings partly
gathered from a Master's thoughts, but unfortunately misunderstood. This work also speaks of the
evolution of the early Races of men on Earth, and contains some excellent pages of a philosophical
character. But so far it is only an interesting little mystical romance. It has failed in its mission,
because the conditions required for a correct translation of these visions were not present. Hence the
reader must not wonder if our Volumes contradict these earlier descriptions in several particulars.
[[Footnote(s)]] ------------------------------------------------* We are not concerned with the other Globes in this work except incidentally.

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[[Vol. 1, Page]] 161 A RE-ADJUSTMENT OF FACTS.


Esoteric "Cosmogony" in general, and the evolution of the human Monad especially, differ so

essentially in these two books and in other Theosophical works written independently by beginners,

that it becomes impossible to proceed with the present work without special mention of these two

earlier volumes, for both have a number of admirers -- "Esoteric Buddhism" especially. The time has

arrived for the explanation of some matters in this direction. Mistakes have now to be checked by the

original teachings and corrected. If one of the said works has too pronounced a bias toward

materialistic science, the other is decidedly too idealistic, and is, at times, fantastic.

From the doctrine -- rather incomprehensible to western minds -- which deals with the periodical
"obscurations" and successive "Rounds" of the Globes along their circular chains, were born the first
perplexities and misconceptions. One of such has reference to the "Fifth-" and even "Sixth-Rounders."
Those who knew that a Round was preceded and followed by a long Pralaya, a pause of rest which
created an impassable gulf between two Rounds until the time came for a renewed cycle of life, could
not understand the "fallacy" of talking about "fifth and sixth Rounders" in our Fourth Round. Gautama
Buddha, it was held, was a Sixth-Rounder, Plato and some other great philosophers and minds, "FifthRounders." How could it be? One Master taught and affirmed that there were such "Fifth-Rounders"
even now on Earth; and though understood to say that mankind was yet "in the Fourth Round," in
another place he seemed to say that we were in the Fifth. To this an "apocalyptic answer" was returned
by another Teacher: -- "A few drops of rain do not make a Monsoon, though they presage it." . . . "No,
we are not in the Fifth Round, but Fifth Round men have been coming in for the last few thousand
years." This was worse than the riddle of the Sphinx! Students of Occultism subjected their brains to
the wildest work of speculation. For a considerable time they tried to outvie OEdipus and reconcile
the two statements. And as the Masters kept as silent as the stony Sphinx herself, they were accused of
inconsistency, "contradiction," and "discrepancies." But they were simply allowing the speculations to
go on, in order to teach a lesson which the Western mind sorely needs. In their conceit and arrogance,
as in their habit of materializing every metaphysical conception and term without allowing any margin
for Eastern

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 162 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

metaphor and allegory, the Orientalists have made a jumble of the Hindu exoteric philosophy, and the
Theosophists were now doing the same with regard to esoteric teachings. To this day it is evident that
the latter have utterly failed to understand the meaning of the term "Fifth and Sixth Rounders." But it
is simply this: every "Round" brings about a new development and even an entire change in the
mental, psychic, spiritual and physical constitution of man, all these principles evoluting on an ever
ascending scale. Thence it follows that those persons who, like Confucius and Plato, belonged
psychically, mentally and spiritually to the higher planes of evolution, were in our Fourth Round as
the average man will be in the Fifth Round, whose mankind is destined to find itself, on this scale of
Evolution, immensely higher than is our present humanity. Similarly Gautama Buddha -- Wisdom
incarnate -- was still higher and greater than all the men we have mentioned, who are called Fifth
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Rounders, while Buddha and Sankaracharya are termed Sixth Rounders, allegorically. Thence again
the concealed wisdom of the remark, pronounced at the time "evasive" -- that a few drops of rain do
not make the Monsoon, though they presage it."
And now the truth of the remark made in "Esoteric Buddhism" by its author will be fully apparent: -"It is impossible, when the complicated facts of an entirely unfamiliar science are being presented to
untrained minds for the first time, to put them forward with all their appropriate qualifications . . . and
abnormal developments. . . . We must be content to take the broad rules first and deal with the
exceptions afterwards, and especially is this the case with study, in connection with which the
traditional methods of teaching, generally followed, aim at impressing every fresh idea on the memory
by provoking the perplexity it at last relieves."
As the author of the remark was himself, as he says, "an untrained mind" in Occultism, his own
inferences, and his better knowledge of modern astronomical speculations than of archaic doctrines
led him quite naturally, and as unconsciously to himself, to commit a few mistakes of detail rather
than of any "broad rule." One such will now be noticed. It is a trifling one, still it is calculated to lead
many a beginner into erroneous conceptions. But as the mistaken notions of the earlier editions were
corrected in the annotations of the fifth edition, so the sixth may be revised and perfected. There were
several reasons

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 163 LIKE QUESTIONS, LIKE ANSWERS.

for such mistakes. (1) They were due to the necessity under which the teachers laboured of giving
what were considered as "evasive answers": the questions being too persistently pressed to be left
unnoticed, while, on the other hand, they could only be partially answered. (2) This position
notwithstanding, the confession that "half a loaf is better than no bread" was but too often
misunderstood and hardly appreciated as it ought to have been. As a result thereof gratuitous
speculations were sometimes indulged in by the European lay-chelas. Among such were (a) the
"Mystery of the Eighth Sphere" in its relation to the Moon; and (b) the erroneous statement that two of
the superior Globes of the terrestrial chain were two of our well-known planets: "besides the Earth . . .
there are only two other worlds of our chain which are visible. . . . Mars and Mercury. . . ." (Esoteric
Buddhism; p. 136.)
This was a great mistake. But the blame for it is to be attached as much to the vagueness and
incompleteness of the Master's answer as to the question of the learner itself, which was equally vague
and indefinite.
It was asked: "What planets, of those known to ordinary science, besides Mercury, belong to our
system of worlds?" Now if by "System of Worlds" our terrestrial chain or "string" was intended in the
mind of the querist, instead of the "Solar System of Worlds," as it should have been, then of course
the answer was likely to be misunderstood. For the reply was: "Mars, etc., and four other planets of
which astronomy knows nothing. Neither A, B, nor YZ are known nor can they be seen through

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physical means however perfected." This is plain: (a) Astronomy as yet knows nothing in reality of
the planets, neither the ancient ones, nor those discovered in modern times. (b) No companion planets
from A to Z, i.e., no upper globes of any chain in the Solar System, can be seen.* As to Mars,
Mercury, and "the four other planets," they bear
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* With the exception of course of all the planets which come fourth in number, as our earth, the moon,

etc., etc. Copies of all the letters ever received or sent, with the exception of a few private ones -- "in

which there was no teaching" the Master says -- are with the writer. As it was her duty, in the

beginning, to answer and explain certain points not touched upon, it is more than likely that

notwithstanding the many annotations on these copies, the writer, in her ignorance of English and her

fear of saying too much, may have bungled the information given. She takes the whole blame for it

upon herself in any and every case. But it is impossible for her to allow students to remain any longer

under erroneous impressions, or to believe that the fault lies with the esoteric system.


[[Vol. 1, Page]] 164 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.


a relation to Earth of which no master or high Occultist will ever speak, much less explain the nature.*

Let it now be distinctly stated, then, that the theory broached is impossible, with or without the

additional evidence furnished by modern Astronomy. Physical Science can supply corroborative,

though still very uncertain, evidence, but only as regards heavenly bodies on the same plane of
materiality as our objective Universe. Mars and Mercury, Venus and Jupiter, like every hitherto
discovered planet (or those still to be discovered), are all, per se, the representatives on our plane of
such chains. As distinctly stated in one of the numerous letters of Mr. Sinnett's "Teacher," "there are
other and innumerable Manvantaric chains of globes which bear intelligent Beings both in and outside
our solar system." But neither Mars nor Mercury belong to our chain. They are, along with the other
planets, septenary Units in the great host of "chains" of our system, and all are as visible as their upper
globes are invisible.
If it is still argued that certain expressions in the Teacher's letters were liable to mislead, the answer
comes: -- Amen; so it was. The author of "Esoteric Buddhism" understood it well when he wrote that
such are "the traditional modes of teaching . . . by provoking the perplexity" . . . they do, or do not
relieve -- as the case may be. At all events, if it is urged that this might have been explained earlier,
and the true nature of the planets given out as they now are, the answer comes that: "it was not found
expedient to do so at the time, as it would have opened the way to a series of additional questions
which could never be answered on account of their esoteric nature, and thus would only become
embarrassing." It had been declared from the first and has been repeatedly asserted since that (1st) no
Theosophist, not even as an accepted chela -- let alone lay students -- could expect to have the secret
teachings explained to him thoroughly and completely, before he had irretrievably pledged himself to
the Brotherhood and passed through at least one initiation, because no figures and numbers could be
given to the public, for figures and numbers are the key to the esoteric system. (2.) That

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[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* In this same letter the impossibility is distinctly stated: -- . . . "Try to understand that you are putting

me questions pertaining to the highest initiation; that I can give you (only) a general view, but that I

dare not nor will I enter upon details . . ." wrote one of the Teachers to the author of "Esoteric

Buddhism."


[[Vol. 1, Page]] 165 AN AUTHORITATIVE LETTER.


what was revealed was merely the esoteric lining of that which is contained in almost all the exoteric

Scriptures of the world-religions -- pre-eminently in the Brahmanas, and the Upanishads of the Vedas

and even in the Puranas. It was a small portion of what is divulged far more fully now in the present

volumes; and even this is very incomplete and fragmentary.

When the present work was commenced, the writer, feeling sure that the speculation about Mars and

Mercury was a mistake, applied to the Teachers by letter for explanation and an authoritative version.

Both came in due time, and verbatim extracts from these are now given.

". . . . . It is quite correct that Mars is in a state of obscuration at present, and Mercury just beginning
to get out of it. You might add that Venus is in her last Round. . . . . . . . . . . If neither Mercury nor
Venus have satellites, it is because of the reasons . . . (vide footnote supra, where those reasons are
given), and also because Mars has two satellites to which he has no right. . . . . Phobos, the supposed
INNER satellite, is no satellite at all. As remarked long ago by Laplace and now by Faye (see
COMPTES RENDUS, Tome XC., p. 569), Phobos keeps a too short periodic time, and therefore
there 'must exist some defect in the mother idea of the theory' as Faye justly observes. . . . . Again,
both (Mars and Mercury) are septenary chains, as independent of the Earth's sidereal lords and
superiors as you are independent of the 'principles' of Daumling (Tom Thumb) -- which were perhaps
his six brothers, with or without night-caps. . . . . . . . . . 'Gratification of curiosity is the end of
knowledge for some men,' was said by Bacon, who was as right in postulating this truism, as those
who were familiar with it before him were right in hedging off WISDOM from Knowledge, and
tracing limits to that which is to be given out at one time. . . . Remember: -'. . . . . . . . . . . knowledge dwells
In heads replete with thoughts of other men,
Wisdom in minds attentive to their own. . . .'
You can never impress it too profoundly on the minds of those to whom you impart some of the
esoteric teachings. . ."
Again, here are more extracts from another letter written by the same authority. This time it is in
answer to some objections laid before the Teachers. They are based upon extremely scientific, and as

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[[Vol. 1, Page]] 166 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

futile, reasonings about the advisability of trying to reconcile the Esoteric theories with the
speculations of Modern Science, and were written by a young Theosophist as a warning against the
"Secret Doctrine" and in reference to the same subject. He had declared that if there were such
companion Earths "they must be only a wee bit less material than our globe." How then was it that
they could not be seen? The answer was: -". . . . Were psychic and spiritual teachings more fully understood, it would become next to impossible
to even imagine such an incongruity. Unless less trouble is taken to reconcile the irreconcileable -that is to say, the metaphysical and spiritual sciences with physical or natural philosophy, 'natural'
being a synonym to them (men of science) of that matter which falls under the perception of their
corporeal senses -- no progress can be really achieved. Our Globe, as taught from the first, is at the
bottom of the arc of descent, where the matter of our perceptions exhibits itself in its grossest form. . .
. . . . Hence it only stands to reason that the globes which overshadow our Earth must be on different
and superior planes. In short, as Globes, they are in CO-ADUNITION but not IN
CONSUBSTANTIALITY WITH OUR EARTH and thus pertain to quite another state of
consciousness. Our planet (like all those we see) is adapted to the peculiar state of its human stock,
that state which enables us to see with our naked eye the sidereal bodies which are co-essential with
our terrene plane and substance, just as their respective inhabitants, the Jovians, Martians and others
can perceive our little world: because our planes of consciousness, differing as they do in degree but
being the same in kind, are on the same layer of differentiated matter. . . . . What I wrote was 'The
minor Pralaya concerns only our little STRINGS OF GLOBES.' (We called chains 'Strings' in those
days of lip-confusion.) . . . 'To such a string our Earth belongs.' This ought to have shown plainly that
the other planets were also 'strings' or CHAINS. . . If he (meaning the objector) would perceive even
the dim silhouette of one of such 'planets' on the higher planes, he has to first throw off even the thin
clouds of the astral matter that stands between him and the next plane. . . . ."
It becomes patent why we could not perceive, even with the help of the best earthly telescopes, that
which is outside our world of matter. Those alone, whom we call adepts, who know how to direct
their mental vision and to transfer their consciousness -- physical and psychic both --

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 167 PRICELESS ADVICE, NEGLECTED.

to other planes of being, are able to speak with authority on such subjects. And they tell us plainly: -"Lead the life necessary for the acquisition of such knowledge and powers, and Wisdom will come to
you naturally. Whenever your are able to attune your consciousness to any of the seven chords of
'Universal Consciousness,' those chords that run along the sounding-board of Kosmos, vibrating from
one Eternity to another; when you have studied thoroughly 'the music of the Spheres,' then only will
you become quite free to share your knowledge with those with whom it is safe to do so. Meanwhile,
be prudent. Do not give out the great Truths that are the inheritance of the future Races, to our
present generation. Do not attempt to unveil the secret of being and non-being to those unable to see

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the hidden meaning of Apollo's HEPTACHORD -- the lyre of the radiant god, in each of the seven
strings of which dwelleth the Spirit, Soul and Astral body of the Kosmos, whose shell only has now
fallen into the hands of Modern Science. . . . . . Be prudent, we say, prudent and wise, and above all
take care what those who learn from you believe in; lest by deceiving themselves they deceive others .
. . . . for such is the fate of every truth with which men are, as yet, unfamiliar. . . . Let rather the
planetary chains and other super- and sub-cosmic mysteries remain a dreaml and for those who can
neither see, nor yet believe that others can. . . ."
It is to be regretted that few of us have followed the wise advice; and that many a priceless pearl,
many a jewel of wisdom, has been cast to an enemy unable to understand its value and who has turned
round and rent us.
" 'Let us imagine,' wrote the same Master to his two 'lay chelas,' as he called the author of 'Esoteric
Buddhism' and another gentleman, his co-student for some time -- 'let us imagine THAT OUR
EARTH IS ONE OF A GROUP OF SEVEN PLANETS OR MAN-BEARING WORLDS. . . . . . (The
SEVEN planets are the sacred planets of antiquity, and are all septenary.) Now the life-impulse
reaches A, or rather that which is destined to become A, and which so far is but cosmic dust (a "laya
centre") . . etc.' "
In these early letters, in which the terms had to be invented and words coined, the "Rings" very often
became "Rounds," and the "Rounds" life-cycles, and vice versa. To a correspondent who called a
"Round" a "World-Ring," the Teacher wrote: "I believe this will lead to a further confusion. A Round
we are agreed to call the passage

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 168 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

of a monad from Globe A to Globe G or Z. . . The 'World-Ring' is correct. . . Advise Mr. . . . strongly,
to agree upon a nomenclature before going any further. . . "
Notwithstanding this agreement, many mistakes, owing to this confusion, crept into the earliest
teachings. The Races even were occasionally mixed up with the "Rounds" and "Rings," and led to
similar mistakes in "Man." From the first the Master had written -"Not being permitted to give you the whole truth, or divulge the number of isolated fractions . . . I am
unable to satisfy you."
This in answer to the questions, "If we are right, then the total existence prior to the man-period is
637," etc., etc. To all the queries relating to figures, the reply was, "Try to solve the problem of 777
incarnations. . . . Though I am obliged to withhold information . . . yet if you should work out the
problem by yourself, it will be my duty to tell you so."
But they never were so worked out, and the results were -- never-ceasing perplexity and mistakes.

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Even the teaching about the Septenary constitution of the sidereal bodies and of the macrocosm -from which the septenary division of the microcosm, or Man -- has until now been among the most
esoteric. In olden times it used to be divulged only at the Initiation and along with the most sacred
figures of the cycles. Now, as stated in one of the Theosophical journals,* the revelation of the whole
system of Cosmogony had not been contemplated, nor even thought for one moment possible, at a
time when a few bits of information were sparingly given out in answer to letters written by the author
of "Esoteric Buddhism," in which he put forward a multiplicity of questions. Among these were
questions on such problems as no MASTER, however high and independent he might be, would have
the right to answer, thus divulging to the world the most time-honoured and archaic of the mysteries
of the ancient college-temples. Hence only a few of the doctrines were revealed in their broad
outlines, while details were constantly withheld, and all the efforts made to elicit more information
about them were systematically eluded from the beginning. This is perfectly natural. Of the four
Vidyas -- out of the seven branches of Knowledge mentioned in the Puranas -- namely, "YajnaVidya" (the performance of religious rites in order to
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* "Lucifer," May, 1888.


[[Vol. 1, Page]] 169 THE SEVEN BRANCHES OF THE TREE OF KNOWLEDGE.


produce certain results); "Maha-Vidya," the great (Magic) knowledge, now degenerated into Tantrika

worship; "Guhya-Vidya," the science of Mantras and their true rhythm or chanting, of mystical

incantations, etc. -- it is only the last one, "Atma-Vidya," or the true Spiritual and Divine wisdom,

which can throw absolute and final light upon the teachings of the three first named. Without the help

of Atma-Vidya, the other three remain no better than surface sciences, geometrical magnitudes having

length and breadth, but no thickness. They are like the soul, limbs, and mind of a sleeping man:

capable of mechanical motions, of chaotic dreams and even sleep-walking, of producing visible

effects, but stimulated by instinctual not intellectual causes, least of all by fully conscious spiritual

impulses. A good deal can be given out and explained from the three first-named sciences. But unless

the key to their teachings is furnished by Atma-Vidya, they will remain for ever like the fragments of

a mangled text-book, like the adumbrations of great truths, dimly perceived by the most spiritual, but
distorted out of all proportion by those who would nail every shadow to the wall.
Then, again, another great perplexity was created in the minds of students by the incomplete
exposition of the doctrine of the evolution of the Monads. To be fully realised, both this process and
that of the birth of the Globes must be examined far more from their metaphysical aspect than from
what one might call a statistical standpoint, involving figures and numbers which are rarely permitted
to be broadly used. Unfortunately, there are few who are inclined to handle these doctrines only
metaphysically. Even the best of the Western writers upon our doctrine declares in his work that "on
pure metaphysics of that sort we are not now engaged," when speaking of the evolution of the Monads
("Esoteric Buddhism," p. 46). And in such case, as the Teacher remarks in a letter to him, "Why this
preaching of our doctrines, all this uphill work and swimming in adversum flumen? Why should the
West . . . learn . . . from the East . . . that which can never meet the requirements of the special tastes
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of the aesthetics?" And he draws his correspondent's attention "to the formidable difficulties
encountered by us (the Adepts) in every attempt we make to explain our metaphysics to the Western
mind."
And well he may; for outside of metaphysics no occult philosophy, no esotericism is possible. It is
like trying to explain the aspirations and affections, the love and hatred, the most private and sacred
workings in

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 170 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

the soul and mind of the living man, by an anatomical description of the chest and brain of his dead
body.
Let us now examine two tenets mentioned above and hardly alluded to in "Esoteric Buddhism," and
supplement them as far as lies in our power.
--------------------[[This page continued in next section]]

Next Section

Contents


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The Secret Doctrine by H. P. Blavatsky -- Vol. 1

Theosophical University Press Online Edition

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 170 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

[[This page continued from previous section]]
ADDITIONAL FACTS AND EXPLANATIONS CONCERNING
THE GLOBES AND THE MONADS.
Two statements made in "Esoteric Buddhism" must be noticed and the author's opinions quoted. On p.
47 (fifth edition) it is said: -" . . . the spiritual monads . . . do not fully complete their mineral existence on Globe A, then complete
it on Globe B, and so on. They pass several times round the whole circle as minerals, and then again
several times round as vegetables, and several times as animals. We purposely refrain for the present
from going into figures," etc., etc.
This was a wise course to adopt in view of the great secrecy maintained with regard to figures and
numbers. This reticence is now partially relinquished; but it would perhaps have been better had the
real numbers concerning Rounds and evolutional gyrations been either entirely divulged at the time,
or as entirely withheld. Mr. Sinnett understood this difficulty well when saying (p. 140) that: "For
reasons which are not easy for the outsider to divine, the possessors of occult knowledge are
especially reluctant to give out facts relating to Cosmogony, though it is hard for the uninitiated to
understand why they should be withheld."
That there were such reasons is evident. Nevertheless, it is to this reticence that most of the confused
ideas of some Eastern as well as Western pupils are due. The difficulties in the way of the acceptance
of the two particular tenets under consideration seemed great, just because of the absence of any data
to go upon. But there it was. For the figures belonging to the Occult calculations cannot be given -- as
the Masters have many times declared -- outside the circle of pledged chelas, and not even these can
break the rules.
To make things plainer, without touching upon the mathematical aspects of the doctrine, the teaching
given may be expanded and some obscure

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 171 THE MYSTERY OF THE MOON, UNVEILED.

points solved. As the evolution of the Globes and that of the Monads are so closely interblended, we
will make of the two teachings one. In reference to the Monads, the reader is asked to bear in mind
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that Eastern philosophy rejects the Western theological dogma of a newly-created soul for every baby
born, as being as unphilosophical as it is impossible in the economy of Nature. There must be a
limited number of Monads evolving and growing more and more perfect through their assimilation of
many successive personalities, in every new Manvantara. This is absolutely necessary in view of the
doctrines of Rebirth, Karma, and the gradual return of the human Monad to its source -- absolute
Deity. Thus, although the hosts of more or less progressed Monads are almost incalculable, they are
still finite, as is everything in this Universe of differentiation and finiteness.
As shown in the double diagram of the human "principles" and the ascending Globes of the worldchains, there is an eternal concatenation of causes and effects, and a perfect analogy which runs
through, and links together, all the lines of evolution. One begets the other -- globes as personalities.
But, let us begin at the beginning.
The general outline of the process by which the successive planetary chains are formed has just been
given. To prevent future misconceptions, some further details may be offered which will also throw
light on the history of humanity on our own chain, the progeny of that of the Moon.
In the diagrams on p. 172, Fig. 1 represents the "lunar-chain" of seven planets at the outset of its
seventh or last Round; while Fig. 2 represents the "earth-chain" which will be, but is not yet in
existence. The seven Globes of each chain are distinguished in their cyclic order by the letters A to G,
the Globes of the Earth-chain being further marked by a cross -- + -- the symbol of the Earth.
Now, it must be remembered that the Monads cycling round any septenary chain are divided into
seven classes or hierarchies according to their respective stages of evolution, consciousness, and
merit. Let us follow, then, the order of their appearance on planet A, in the first Round. The timespaces between the appearances of these hierarchies on any one Globe are so adjusted that when Class
7, the last, appears on Globe A, Class 1, the first, has just passed on to Globe B, and so on, step by
step, all round the chain.
Again, in the Seventh Round on the Lunar chain, when Class 7, the

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 172 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

last, quits Globe A, that Globe, instead of falling asleep, as it had done in previous Rounds, begins to
die (to go into its planetary pralaya);* and in dying it transfers successively, as just said, its
"principles," or life-elements and energy, etc., one after the other to a new "laya-centre," which
commences the formation of Globe A of the Earth Chain. A similar process takes place for each of the
Globes of the "lunar chain" one after the other, each forming a fresh Globe of the "earth-chain." Our
Moon was the fourth Globe of the series, and was

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on the same plane of perception as our Earth. But Globe A of the lunar chain is not fully "dead" till
the first Monads of the first class have passed from Globe G or Z, the last of the "lunar chain," into the
Nirvana
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* Occultism divides the periods of Rest (Pralaya) into several kinds; there is the individual pralaya of

each Globe, as humanity and life pass on to the next; seven minor Pralayas in each Round; the

planetary Pralaya, when seven Rounds are completed; the Solar Pralaya, when the whole system is at

an end; and finally the Universal Maha -- or Brahma -- Pralaya at the close of the "Age of Brahma."

These are the three chief pralayas or "destruction periods." There are many other minor ones, but with

these we are not concerned at present.


[[Vol. 1, Page]] 173 THE EARTH, THE CHILD OF THE MOON.


which awaits them between the two chains; and similarly for all the other Globes as stated, each

giving birth to the corresponding globe of the "earth-chain."

Further, when Globe A of the new chain is ready, the first class or Hierarchy of Monads from the

Lunar chain incarnate upon it in the lowest kingdom, and so on successively. The result of this is, that

it is only the first class of Monads which attains the human state of development during the first

Round, since the second class, on each planet, arriving later, has not time to reach that stage. Thus the
Monads of Class 2 reach the incipient human stage only in the Second Round, and so on up to the
middle of the Fourth Round. But at this point -- and on this Fourth Round in which the human stage
will be fully developed -- the "Door" into the human kingdom closes; and henceforward the number of
"human" Monads, i.e., Monads in the human stage of development, is complete. For the Monads
which had not reached the human stage by this point will, owing to the evolution of humanity itself,
find themselves so far behind that they will reach the human stage only at the close of the seventh and
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last Round. They will, therefore, not be men on this chain, but will form the humanity of a future
Manvantara and be rewarded by becoming "Men" on a higher chain altogether, thus receiving their
Karmic compensation. To this there is but one solitary exception, for very good reasons, of which we
shall speak farther on. But this accounts for the difference in the races.
It thus becomes apparent how perfect is the analogy between the processes of Nature in the Kosmos
and in the individual man. The latter lives through his life-cycle, and dies. His "higher principles,"
corresponding in the development of a planetary chain to the cycling Monads, pass into Devachan,
which corresponds to the "Nirvana" and states of rest intervening between two chains. The Man's
lower "principles" are disintegrated in time and are used by Nature again for the formation of new
human principles, and the same process takes place in the disintegration and formation of Worlds.
Analogy is thus the surest guide to the comprehension of the Occult teachings.
This is one of the "seven mysteries of the Moon," and it is now revealed. The seven "mysteries" are
called by the Japanese Yamaboosis, the mystics of the Lao-Tze sect and the ascetic monks of Kioto,
the Dzenodoo -- the "seven jewels." Only the Japanese and the Chinese

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 174 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

Buddhist ascetics and Initiates are, if possible, even more reticent in giving out their "Knowledge"
than are the Hindus.
But the reader must not be allowed to lose sight of the Monads, and must be enlightened as to their
nature, as far as permitted, without trespassing upon the highest mysteries, of which the writer does
not in any way pretend to know the last or final word.
The Monadic Host may be roughly divided into three great classes: -1. The most developed Monads (the Lunar Gods or "Spirits," called, in India, the Pitris), whose
function it is to pass in the first Round through the whole triple cycle of the mineral, vegetable, and
animal kingdoms in their most ethereal, filmy, and rudimentary forms, in order to clo the themselves
in, and assimilate, the nature of the newly formed chain. They are those who first reach the human
form (if there can be any form in the realm of the almost subjective) on Globe A in the first Round. It
is they, therefore, who lead and represent the human element during the second and third Rounds, and
finally evolve their shadows at the beginning of the Fourth Round for the second class, or those who
come behind them.
2. Those Monads that are the first to reach the human stage during the three and a half Rounds, and to
become men.*
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* We are forced to use here the misleading word "Men," and this is a clear proof of how little any

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European language is adapted to express these subtle distinctions.

It stands to reason that these "Men" did not resemble the men of to-day, either in form or nature. Why

then, it may be asked, call them "Men" at all? Because there is no other term in any Western language

which approximately conveys the idea intended. The word "Men" at least indicates that these beings

were "MANUS," thinking entities, however they differed in form and intellection from ourselves. But

in reality they were, in respect of spirituality and intellection, rather "gods" than "Men."

The same difficulty of language is met with in describing the "stages" through which the Monad

passes. Metaphysically speaking, it is of course an absurdity to talk of the "development" of a Monad,

or to say that it becomes "Man." But any attempt to preserve metaphysical accuracy of language in the
use of such a tongue as the English would necessitate at least three extra volumes of this work, and
would entail an amount of verbal repetition which would be wearisome in the extreme. It stands to
reason that a MONAD cannot either progress or develop, or even be affected by the changes of states
it passes through. It is not of this world or plane, and may be compared only to an indestructible star
of divine light and fire, thrown down on to our [[Footnote continued on next page]]

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 175 THE CLASSIFICATION OF THE MONADS.

3. The laggards; the Monads which are retarded, and which will not reach, by reason of Karmic
impediments, the human stage at all during this cycle or Round, save one exception which will be
spoken of elsewhere as already promised.
Now the evolution of the external form or body round the astral is produced by the terrestrial forces,
just as in the case of the lower kingdoms; but the evolution of the internal or real MAN is purely
spiritual. It is now no more a passage of the impersonal Monad through many and various forms of
matter -- endowed at best with instinct and consciousness on quite a different plane -- as in the case of
external evolution, but a journey of the "pilgrim-soul" through various states of not only matter but
Self-consciousness and self-perception, or of perception from apperception. (See "Gods, Monads and
Atoms.")
The MONAD emerges from its state of spiritual and intellectual unconsciousness; and, skipping the
first two planes -- too near the ABSOLUTE to permit of any correlation with anything on a lower
plane -- it gets direct into the plane of Mentality. But there is no plane in the whole universe with a
wider margin, or a wider field of action in its almost endless gradations of perceptive and
apperceptive qualities, than this plane, which has in its turn an appropriate smaller plane for every
"form," from the "mineral" monad up to the time when that monad blossoms forth by evolution into
the DIVINE MONAD. But all the time it is still one and the same Monad, differing only in its
incarnations, throughout its ever succeeding cycles of partial or total obscuration of spirit, or the
partial or total obscuration of matter -- two polar antitheses -- as it ascends into the realms of mental
spirituality, or descends into the depths of materiality.
To return to "Esoteric Buddhism." It is there stated with regard to the enormous period intervening

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between the mineral epoch on Globe A, and the man-epoch,* that: "The full development of the
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

[[Footnote continued from previous page]] Earth as a plank of salvation for the personalities in which

it indwells. It is for the latter to cling to it; and thus partaking of its divine nature, obtain immortality.

Left to itself the Monad will cling to no one; but, like the "plank," be drifted away to another

incarnation by the unresting current of evolution.

* The term "Man epoch" is here used because of the necessity of giving a name to that fourth kingdom

which follows the animal. But in truth the "Man" on Globe A during the First Round is no Man, but

only his prototype or dimensionless image from the astral regions.


[[Vol. 1, Page]] 176 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.


mineral epoch on Globe A, prepares the way for the vegetable development, and, as soon as this

begins, the mineral life-impulse overflows into Globe B. Then, when the vegetable development on

Globe A is complete and the animal development begins, the vegetable life-impulse overflows to

Globe B, and the mineral impulse passes on to Globe C. Then finally comes the human life-impulse

on Globe A." (Page 49.)
And so it goes on for three Rounds, when it slackens, and finally stops at the threshold of our Globe,
at the Fourth Round; because the human period (of the true physical men to be), the seventh, is now
reached. This is evident, for as said, " . . . there are processes of evolution which precede the mineral
kingdom, and thus a wave of evolution, indeed several waves of evolution, precede the mineral wave
in its progress round the spheres" (ibid).
And now we have to quote from another article, "The Mineral Monad" in "Five Years of Theosophy,"
p. 273 et seq.
"There are seven kingdoms. The first group comprises three degrees of elementals, or nascent centres
of forces -- from the first stage of differentiation of (from) Mulaprakriti (or rather Pradhana,
primordial homogeneous matter) to its third degree -- i.e., from full unconsciousness to semiperception; the second or higher group embraces the kingdoms from vegetable to man; the mineral
kingdom thus forming the central or turning point in the degrees of the "Monadic Essence,"
considered as an evoluting energy. Three stages (sub-physical) on the elemental side; the mineral
kingdom; three stages on the objective physical* side -- these are the (first or preliminary) seven links
of the evolutionary chain."
"Preliminary" because they are preparatory, and though belonging in fact to the natural, they yet
would be more correctly described as sub-natural evolution. This process makes a halt in its stages at
the Third, at the threshold of the Fourth stage, when it becomes, on the plane of the natural evolution,
the first really manward stage, thus forming with the three elemental kingdoms, the ten, the

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Sephirothal number. It is at this point that begins: -"A descent of spirit into matter equivalent to an ascent in physical
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* "Physical" here means differentiated for cosmical purposes and work; that "physical side,"

nevertheless, if objective to the apperception of beings from other planes, is yet quite subjective to us

on our plane.


[[Vol. 1, Page]] 177 AS ABOVE, SO BELOW, IS THE LAW.


evolution; a re-ascent from the deepest depths of materiality (the mineral) towards its status quo ante,

with a corresponding dissipation of concrete organism -- up to Nirvana, the vanishing point of

differentiated matter." ("Five Years of Theosophy," p. 276.)

Therefore it becomes evident why that which is pertinently called in Esoteric Buddhism "Wave of

Evolution," and mineral-, vegetable-, animal- and man-"impulse," stops at the door of our Globe, at its

Fourth cycle or Round. It is at this point that the Cosmic Monad (Buddhi) will be wedded to and

become the vehicle of the Atmic Ray, i.e., it (Buddhi) will awaken to an apperception of it (Atman);

and thus enter on the first step of a new septenary ladder of evolution, which will lead it eventually to

the tenth (counting from the lowest upwards) of the Sephirothal tree, the Crown.
Everything in the Universe follows analogy. "As above, so below"; Man is the microcosm of the
Universe. That which takes place on the spiritual plane repeats itself on the Cosmic plane. Concretion
follows the lines of abstraction; corresponding to the highest must be the lowest; the material to the
spiritual. Thus, corresponding to the Sephirothal Crown (or upper triad) there are the three elemental
Kingdoms, which precede the Mineral (see diagram on p. 277 in Five Years of Theosophy), and
which, using the language of the Kabalists, answer in the Cosmic differentiation to the worlds of Form
and Matter from the Super-Spiritual to the Archetypal.
Now what is a "Monad?" And what relation does it bear to an Atom? The following reply is based
upon the explanations given in answer to these questions in the above-cited article: "The Mineral
Monad," written by the author.
"None whatever," is answered to the second question, "to the atom or molecule as existing in the
scientific conception at present. It can neither be compared with the microscopic organism, once
classed among polygastric infusoria, and now regarded as vegetable, and classed among Algae; nor is
it quite the Monas of the Peripatetics. Physically or constitutionally the mineral monad differs, of
course, from the human monad, which is neither physical nor can its constitution be rendered by
chemical symbols and elements." In short, as the spiritual Monad is One, Universal, Boundless and
Impartite, whose rays, nevertheless, form what we, in our ignorance, call the "Individual Monads" of
men,

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[[Vol. 1, Page]] 178 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

so the Mineral Monad -- being at the opposite point of the circle -- is also One -- and from it proceed
the countless physical atoms, which Science is beginning to regard as individualized.
Otherwise how could one account for and explain mathematically the evolutionary and spiral progress
of the Four Kingdoms? The "Monad" is the combination of the last two "principles" in man, the 6th
and the 7th, and, properly speaking, the term "human monad" applies only to the dual soul (AtmaBuddhi), not to its highest spiritual vivifying Principle, Atma, alone. But since the Spiritual Soul, if
divorced from the latter (Atma) could have no existence, no being, it has thus been called . . . . Now
the Monadic, or rather Cosmic, Essence (if such a term be permitted) in the mineral, vegetable, and
animal, though the same throughout the series of cycles from the lowest elemental up to the Deva
Kingdom, yet differs in the scale of progression. It would be very misleading to imagine a Monad as a
separate Entity trailing its slow way in a distinct path through the lower Kingdoms, and after an
incalculable series of transformations flowering into a human being; in short, that the Monad of a
Humboldt dates back to the Monad of an atom of horneblende. Instead of saying a "Mineral Monad,"
the more correct phraseology in physical Science, which differentiates every atom, would of course
have been to call it "the Monad manifesting in that form of Prakriti called the Mineral Kingdom." The
atom, as represented in the ordinary scientific hypothesis, is not a particle of something, animated by a
psychic something, destined after aeons to blossom as a man. But it is a concrete manifestation of the
Universal Energy which itself has not yet become individualized; a sequential manifestation of the
one Universal Monas. The ocean (of matter) does not divide into its potential and constituent drops
until the sweep of the life-impulse reaches the evolutionary stage of man-birth. The tendency towards
segregation into individual Monads is gradual, and in the higher animals comes almost to the point.
The Peripatetics applied the word Monas to the whole Kosmos, in the pantheistic sense; and the
Occultists, while accepting this thought for convenience sake, distinguish the progressive stages of the
evolution of the concrete from the abstract by terms of which the "Mineral, Vegetable, Animal, (etc.),
Monad" are examples. The term merely means that the tidal wave of spiritual evolution is passing
through that arc of its circuit. The "Monadic

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 179 THE LUNAR MONADS.

Essence" begins to imperceptibly differentiate towards individual consciousness in the Vegetable
Kingdom. As the Monads are uncompounded things, as correctly defined by Leibnitz, it is the
spiritual essence which vivifies them in their degrees of differentiation, which properly constitutes the
Monad -- not the atomic aggregation, which is only the vehicle and the substance through which thrill
the lower and the higher degrees of intelligence.
Leibnitz conceived of the Monads as elementary and indestructible units endowed with the power of
giving and receiving with respect to other units, and thus of determining all spiritual and physical
phenomena. It is he who invented the term apperception, which together with nerve- (not perception,

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but rather) -- sensation, expresses the state of the Monadic consciousness through all the Kingdoms up
to Man.
Thus it may be wrong on strictly metaphysical lines to call Atma-Buddhi a MONAD, since in the
materialistic view it is dual and therefore compound. But as Matter is Spirit, and vice versa; and since
the Universe and the Deity which informs it are unthinkable apart from each other; so in the case of
Atma-Buddhi. The latter being the vehicle of the former, Buddhi stands in the same relation to Atma,
as Adam-Kadmon, the Kabalistic Logos, does to En-Soph, or Mulaprakriti to Parabrahm.
A few words more of the Moon.
What, it may be asked, are the "Lunar Monads," just spoken of? The description of the seven classes
of Pitris will come later, but now some general explanations may be given. It must be plain to
everyone that they are Monads, who, having ended their life-cycle on the lunar chain, which is
inferior to the terrestrial chain, have incarnated on this one. But there are some further details which
may be added, though they border too closely on forbidden ground to be treated of fully. The last
word of the mystery is divulged only to the adepts, but it may be stated that our satellite is only the
gross body of its invisible principles. Seeing then that there are 7 Earths, so there are 7 Moons, the last
one alone being visible; the same for the Sun, whose visible body is called a Maya, a reflection, just as
man's body is. "The real Sun and the real Moon are as invisible as the real man," says an occult
maxim.
And it may be remarked en passant that those ancients were not so foolish after all who first started
the idea of "the seven moons." For though

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 180 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

this conception is now taken solely as an astronomical measure of time, in a very materialised form,
yet underlying the husk there can still be recognised the traces of a profoundly philosophical idea.
In reality the Moon is only the satellite of the Earth in one respect, viz., that physically the Moon
revolves round the Earth. But in every other respect it is the Earth which is the satellite of the Moon,
and not vice versa. Startling as the statement may seem it is not without confirmation from scientific
knowledge. It is evidenced by the tides, by the cyclic changes in many forms of disease which
coincide with the lunar phases; it can be traced in the growth of plants, and is very marked in the
phenomena of human gestation and conception. The importance of the Moon and its influence on the
Earth were recognized in every ancient religion, notably the Jewish, and have been remarked by many
observers of psychical and physical phenomena. But, so far as Science knows, the Earth's action on
the Moon is confined to the physical attraction, which causes her to circle in her orbit. And should an
objector insist that this fact alone is sufficient evidence that the Moon is truly the Earth's satellite on
other planes of action, one may reply by asking whether a mother, who walks round and round her
child's cradle keeping watch over the infant, is the subordinate of her child or dependent upon it;
though in one sense she is its satellite, yet she is certainly older and more fully developed than the

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child she watches.
It is, then, the Moon that plays the largest and most important part, as well in the formation of the
Earth itself, as in the peopling thereof with human beings. The "Lunar Monads" or Pitris, the ancestors
of man, become in reality man himself. They are the "Monads" who enter on the cycle of evolution on
Globe A, and who, passing round the chain of planets, evolve the human form as has just been shown.
At the beginning of the human stage of the Fourth Round on this Globe, they "ooze out" their astral
doubles from the "ape-like" forms which they had evolved in Round III. And it is this subtle, finer
form, which serves as the model round which Nature builds physical man. These "Monads" or "divine
sparks" are thus the "Lunar" ancestors, the Pitris themselves. For these "Lunar Spirits" have to become
"Men" in order that their "Monads" may reach a higher plane of activity and self-consciousness, i.e.,
the plane of the Manasa-Putras, those who

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 181 A TRIPLE EVOLUTION IN NATURE.

endow the "senseless" shells, created and informed by the Pitris, with "mind" in the latter part of the
Third Root-Race.
In the same way the "Monads" or Egos of the men of the seventh Round of our Earth, after our own
Globes A, B, C, D, et seq., parting with their life-energy, will have informed and thereby called to life
other laya-centres destined to live and act on a still higher plane of being -- in the same way will the
Terrene "Ancestors" create those who will become their superiors.
It now becomes plain that there exists in Nature a triple evolutionary scheme, for the formation of the
three periodical Upadhis; or rather three separate schemes of evolution, which in our system are
inextricably interwoven and interblended at every point. These are the Monadic (or spiritual), the
intellectual, and the physical evolutions. These three are the finite aspects or the reflections on the
field of Cosmic Illusion of ATMA, the seventh, the ONE REALITY.
1. The Monadic is, as the name implies, concerned with the growth and development into still higher
phases of activity of the Monad in conjunction with: -2. The Intellectual, represented by the Manasa-Dhyanis (the Solar Devas, or the Agnishwatta Pitris)
the "givers of intelligence and consciousness"* to man and: -3. The Physical, represented by the Chhayas of the lunar Pitris, round which Nature has concreted the
present physical body. This body serves as the vehicle for the "growth" (to use a misleading word)
and the transformations through Manas and -- owing to the accumulation of experiences -- of the
finite into the INFINITE, of the transient into the Eternal and Absolute.
Each of these three systems has its own laws, and is ruled and guided by different sets of the highest
Dhyanis or "Logoi." Each is represented in the constitution of man, the Microcosm of the great
Macrocosm; and it is the union of these three streams in him which makes him the complex being he
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now is.
"Nature," the physical evolutionary Power, could never evolve intelligence unaided -- she can only
create "senseless forms," as will be seen in our "ANTHROPOGENESIS." The "Lunar Monads"
cannot progress, for they have not yet had sufficient touch with the forms
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* Vide CONCLUSION in Part II. of this Book.


[[Vol. 1, Page]] 182 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.


created by "Nature" to allow of their accumulating experiences through its means. It is the ManasaDhyanis who fill up the gap, and they represent the evolutionary power of Intelligence and Mind, the

link between "Spirit" and "Matter" -- in this Round.

Also it must be borne in mind that the Monads which enter upon the evolutionary cycle upon Globe

A, in the first Round, are in very different stages of development. Hence the matter becomes

somewhat complicated. . . . Let us recapitulate.

The most developed Monads (the lunar) reach the human germ-stage in the first Round; become

terrestrial, though very ethereal human beings towards the end of the Third Round, remaining on it

(the globe) through the "obscuration" period as the seed for future mankind in the Fourth Round, and

thus become the pioneers of Humanity at the beginning of this, the Fourth Round. Others reach the

Human stage only during later Rounds, i.e., in the second, third, or first half of the Fourth Round. And

finally the most retarded of all, i.e., those still occupying animal forms after the middle turning-point
of the Fourth Round -- will not become men at all during this Manwantara. They will reach to the
verge of humanity only at the close of the seventh Round to be, in their turn, ushered into a new chain
after pralaya -- by older pioneers, the progenitors of humanity, or the Seed-Humanity (Sishta), viz.,
the men who will be at the head of all at the end of these Rounds.
The student hardly needs any further explanation on the part played by the fourth Globe and the fourth
Round in the scheme of evolution.
From the preceding diagrams, which are applicable, mutatis mutandis, to Rounds, Globes or Races, it
will be seen that the fourth member of a series occupies a unique position. Unlike the others, the
Fourth has no "sister" Globe on the same plane as itself, and it thus forms the fulcrum of the "balance"
represented by the whole chain. It is the sphere of final evolutionary adjustments, the world of Karmic
scales, the Hall of Justice, where the balance is struck which determines the future course of the
Monad during the remainder of its incarnations in the cycle. And therefore it is, that, after this central
turning-point has been passed in the Great Cycle, -- i.e., after the middle point of the Fourth Race in
the Fourth Round on our Globe -- no more Monads can enter the human kingdom. The door is closed
for this Cycle and the balance struck. For were it otherwise -- had there been a new soul

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[[Vol. 1, Page]] 183 MAN, THE OLDEST SON OF THE EARTH.

created for each of the countless milliards of human beings that have passed away, and had there been
no reincarnation -- it would become difficult indeed to provide room for the disembodied "Spirits;"
nor could the origin and cause of suffering ever be accounted for. It is the ignorance of the occult
tenets and the enforcement of false conceptions under the guise of religious education, which have
created materialism and atheism as a protest against the asserted divine order of things.
The only exceptions to the rule just stated are the "dumb races," whose Monads are already within the
human stage, in virtue of the fact that these "animals" are later than, and even half descended from
man, their last descendants being the anthropoid and other apes. These "human presentments" are in
truth only the distorted copies of the early humanity. But this will receive full attention in the next
Book.
As the Commentary, broadly rendered, says: -1. "Every form on earth, and every speck (atom) in Space strives in its efforts towards self-formation
to follow the model placed for it in the ' HEAVENLY MAN.' . . . Its (the atom's) involution and
evolution, its external and internal growth and development, have all one and the same object -- man;
man, as the highest physical and ultimate form on this earth; the MONAD, in its absolute totality and
awakened condition -- as the culmination of the divine incarnations on Earth."
2. "The Dhyanis (Pitris) are those who have evolved their BHUTA (doubles) from themselves, which
RUPA (form) has become the vehicle of monads (seventh and sixth principles) that had completed
their cycle of transmigration in the three preceding Kalpas (Rounds). Then, they (the astral doubles)
became the men of the first Human Race of the Round. But they were not complete, and were
senseless."
This will be explained in the Books that follow. Meanwhile man -- or rather his Monad -- has existed
on the earth from the very beginning of this Round. But, up to our own Fifth Race, the external shapes
which covered those divine astral doubles changed and consolidated with every sub-race; the form
and physical structure of the fauna changing at the same time, as they had to be adapted to the everchanging conditions of life on this globe during the geological periods of its formative cycle. And thus
shall they go on changing with every

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 184 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

Root Race and every chief sub-race down to the last one of the Seventh in this Round.
3. "The inner, now concealed, man, was then (in the beginnings) the external man. The progeny of the
Dhyanis (Pitris), he was 'the son like unto his father.' Like the lotus, whose external shape assumes
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gradually the form of the model within itself, so did the form of man in the beginning evolve from
within without. After the cycle in which man began to procreate his species after the fashion of the
present animal kingdom, it became the reverse. The human foetus follows now in its transformations
all the forms that the physical frame of man had assumed throughout the three Kalpas (Rounds)
during the tentative efforts at Plastic formation around the monad by senseless, because imperfect,
matter, in her blind wanderings. In the present age, the physical embryo is a plant, a reptile, an
animal, before it finally becomes man, evolving within himself his own ethereal counterpart, in his
turn. In the beginning it was that counterpart (astral man) which, being senseless, got entangled in
the meshes of matter."
But this "man" belongs to the fourth Round. As shown, the MONAD had passed through, journeyed
and been imprisoned in, every transitional form throughout every kingdom of nature during the three
preceding Rounds. But the monad which becomes human is not the Man. In this Round -- with the
exception of the highest mammals after man, the anthropoids destined to die out in this our race, when
their monads will be liberated and pass into the astral human forms (or the highest elementals) of the
Sixth* and the Seventh Races, and then into lowest human forms in the fifth Round -- no units of
either of the kingdoms are animated any longer by monads destined to become human in their next
stage, but only by the lower Elementals of their respective realms.**
The last human Monad incarnated before the beginning of the 5th
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* Nature never repeats herself, therefore the anthropoids of our day have not existed at any time since

the middle of the Miocene period; when, like all cross breeds, they began to show a tendency, more

and more marked as time went on, to return to the type of their first parent, the black and yellow

gigantic Lemuro-Atlantean. To search for the "Missing Link" is useless. To the scientists of the

closing sixth Root-race, millions and millions of years hence, our modern races, or rather their fossils,

will appear as those of small insignificant apes -- an extinct species of the genus homo.

** These "Elementals" will become human Monads, in their turn, only at the next great planetary

Manvantara.


[[Vol. 1, Page]] 185 THE MAN, OR THE APE; WHICH THE FIRST?


Root-Race.* The cycle of metempsychosis for the human monad is closed, for we are in the Fourth

Round and the Fifth Root-Race. The reader will have to bear in mind -- at any rate one who has made

himself acquainted with "Esoteric Buddhism" -- that the Stanzas which follow in this Book and Book

II speak of the evolution in our Fourth Round only. The latter is the cycle of the turning-point, after
which, matter,
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* Such anthropoids form an exception because they were not intended by Nature, but are the direct

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product and creation of "senseless" man. The Hindus give a divine origin to the apes and monkeys

because the men of the Third Race were gods from another plane who had become "senseless"

mortals. This subject had already been touched upon in "Isis Unveiled" twelve years ago as plainly as

was then possible. On pp. 278-279, the reader is referred "to the Brahmins, if he would know the

reason of the regard they have for the monkeys. For then he (the reader) would perhaps learn -- were

the Brahman to judge him worthy of an explanation -- that the Hindu sees in the ape but what Manu

desired he should: the transformation of species most directly connected with that of the human

family, a bastard branch engrafted on their own stock before the final perfection of the latter. He

might learn, further, that in the eyes of the educated 'hea then' the spiritual or inner man is one thing,
and his terrestrial physical casket another. That physical nature, the great combination of physical
correlations of forces, ever creeping onward towards perfection, has to avail herself of the material at
hand; she models and remodels as she proceeds, and finishing her crowning work in man, presents
him alone as a fit tabernacle for the overshadowing of the divine Spirit."
Moreover, a German scientific work is mentioned in a footnote on the same page. It says that a
Hanoverian scientist had recently published a Book entitled "Ueber die Auflosung der Arten durch
Naturliche Zucht-wahl," in which he shows, with great ingenuity, that Darwin was wholly mistaken in
tracing man back to the ape. On the contrary, he maintains that it is the ape which is evolved from
man. He shows that, in the beginning, mankind were morally and physically the types and prototypes
of our present Race, and of our human dignity, by their beauty of form, regularity of feature, cranial
development, nobility of sentiments, heroic impulses, and grandeur of ideal conception. This is a
purely Brahmanic, Buddhistic and Kabalistic philosophy. The Book is copiously illustrated with
diagrams, tables, etc. It asserts that the gradual debasement and degradation of man, morally and
physically, can be readily traced throughout the ethnological transformation down to our time. And, as
one portion has already degenerated into apes, so the civilized man of the present day will at last,
under the action of the inevitable law of necessity, be also succeeded by like descendants. If we may
judge of the future by the actual Present, it certainly does seem possible that so unspiritual and
materialistic a body should end as Simia rather than as Seraphs. But though the apes descend from
man, it is certainly not the fact that the human Monad, which has once reached the level of humanity,
ever incarnates again in the form of an animal.

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 186 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

having reached its lowest depths, begins to strive onward and to get spiritualized with every new Race
and with every fresh cycle. Therefore the student must take care not to see contradiction where there
is none, as in "Esoteric Buddhism" Rounds are spoken of in general, while here only the Fourth, or
our present Round, is meant. Then it was the work of formation; now it is that of reformation and
evolutionary perfection.
Finally, to close this chapter anent various, but unavoidable misconceptions, we must refer to a
statement in "Esoteric Buddhism" which has produced a very fatal impression upon the minds of
many Theosophists. One unfortunate sentence from the work just referred to is constantly brought
forward to prove the materialism of the doctrine. On p. 48, 5th Edition, the Author, referring to the
progress of organisms on the Globes, says that "the mineral kingdom will no more develop the
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vegetable . . . than the Earth was able to develop man from the ape, till it received an impulse."
Whether this sentence renders literally the thought of the author, or is simply (as we believe it is) a
lapsus calami, may remain an open question.
It is really with surprise that we have ascertained the fact that "Esoteric Buddhism" was so little
understood by some Theosophists, as to have led them into the belief that it thoroughly supported
Darwinian evolution, and especially the theory of the descent of man from a pithecoid ancestor. As
one member writes: "I suppose you realise that three-fourths of Theosophists and even outsiders
imagine that, as far as the evolution of man is concerned, Darwinism and Theosophy kiss one
another." Nothing of the kind was ever realised, nor is there any great warrant for it, so far as we
know, in "Esoteric Buddhism." It has been repeatedly stated that evolution as taught by Manu and
Kapila was the groundwork of the modern teachings, but neither Occultism nor Theosophy has ever
supported the wild theories of the present Darwinists -- least of all the descent of man from an ape. Of
this, more hereafter. But one has only to turn to p. 47 of "Esoteric Buddhism," 5th edition, to find
there the statement that "Man belongs to a kingdom distinctly separate from that of the animals." With
such a plain and unequivocal statement before him, it is very strange that any careful student should
have been so misled unless he is prepared to charge the author with a gross contradiction.

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 187 AN ERRONEOUS OPINION.

Every Round repeats on a higher scale the evolutionary work of the preceding Round. With the
exception of some higher anthropoids, as just mentioned, the Monadic inflow, or inner evolution, is at
an end till the next Manvantara. It can never be too often repeated, that the full-blown human Monads
have to be first disposed of, before the new crop of candidates appears on this Globe at the beginning
of the next cycle. Thus there is a lull; and this is why, during the Fourth Round, man appears on Earth
earlier than any animal creation, as will be described.
But it is still urged that the author of "Esoteric Buddhism" has "preached Darwinism" all along.
Certain passages would undoubtedly seem to lend countenance to this inference. Besides which the
Occultists themselves are ready to concede partial correctness to the Darwinian hypothesis, in later
details, bye-laws of Evolution, and after the midway point of the Fourth Race. Of that which has taken
place, physical science can really know nothing, for such matters lie entirely outside of its sphere of
investigation. But what the Occultists have never admitted, nor will they ever admit, is that man was
an ape in this or in any other Round; or that he ever could be one, however much he may have been
"ape-like." This is vouched for by the very authority from whom the author of "Esoteric Buddhism"
got his information.
Thus to those who confront the Occultists with these lines from the above-named volume: "It is
enough to show that we may as reasonably -- and that we must, if we would talk about these matters
at all -- conceive a life-impulse giving birth to mineral form, as of the same sort of impulse concerned
to raise a race of apes into a race of rudimentary men." To those who bring this passage forward as
showing "decided Darwinism," the Occultists answer by pointing to the explanation of the Master
(Mr. Sinnett's "teacher") which would contradict these lines, were they written in the spirit attri buted
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to them. A copy of this letter was sent to the writer, together with others, two years ago (1886), with
additional marginal remarks, to quote from, in the "Secret Doctrine." It begins by considering the
difficulty experienced by the Western student, in reconciling some facts, previously given, with the
evolution of man from the animal, i.e., from the mineral, vegetable and animal kingdoms, and advises
the student to hold to the doctrine of analogy and correspondences. Then it touches upon the mystery
of the Devas,

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 188 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

and even Gods, having to pass through states which it was agreed to refer to as "Inmetallization,
Inherbation, Inzoonization and finally Incarnation," and explains this by hinting at the necessity of
failures even in the ethereal races of Dhyan Chohans. Concerning this it says:
"Still, as these 'failures' are too far progressed and spiritualized to be thrown back forcibly from
Dhyan Chohanship into the vortex of a new primordial evolution through the lower kingdoms. . . . ."
After which only a hint is given about the mystery contained in the allegory of the fallen Asuras,
which will be expanded and explained in Book II. When Karma has reached them at the stage of
human evolution, "they will have to drink it to the last drop in the bitter cup of retri bution. Then they
become an active force and commingle with the Elementals, the progressed entities of the pure animal
kingdom, to develop little by little the full type of humanity."
These Dhyan Chohans, as we see, do not pass through the three kingdoms as do the lower Pitris; nor
do they incarnate in man until the Third Root Race. Thus, as the teaching stands:
"Man in the First Round and First Race on Globe D, our Earth, was an ethereal being (a Lunar
Dhyani, as man), non-intelligent but superspiritual; and correspondingly, on the law of analogy, in
the First Race of the Fourth Round. In each of the subsequent races and sub-races . . . he grows more
and more into an encased or incarnate being, but still preponderatingly ethereal. . . . He is sexless,
and, like the animal and vegetable he develops monstrous bodies correspondential with his coarser
surroundings.
"II. Round. He (Man) is still gigantic and ethereal but growing firmer and more condensed in body, a
more physical man. Yet still less intelligent than spiritual (1), for mind is a slower and more difficult
evolution than is the physical frame . . .
"III. Round. He has now a perfectly concrete or compacted body, at first the form of a giant-ape, and
now more intelligent, or rather cunning, than spiritual. For, on the downward arc, he has now
reached a point where his primordial spirituality is eclipsed and overshadowed by nascent mentality
(2). In the last half of the Third Round his gigantic stature decreases, and his body improves in
texture, and he becomes a more rational being, though still more an ape than a

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[[Vol. 1, Page]] 189 A MASTER'S LETTER.

Deva. . . . (All this is almost exactly repeated in the third Root-Race of the Fourth Round.)
"IV. Round. Intellect has an enormous development in this Round. The (hitherto) dumb races acquire
our (present) human speech on this globe, on which, from the Fourth Race, language is perfected and
knowledge increases. At this half-way point of the Fourth Round (as of the Fourth Root, or Atlantean,
race) humanity passes the axial point of the minor Manvantara cycle . . . . the world teeming with the
results of intellectual activity and spiritual decrease . . . ."
This is from the au thentic letter; what follows are the later remarks and additional explanations traced
by the same hand in the form of footnotes.
(1.) " . . . The original letter contained general teaching -- a 'bird's eye view' -- and particularized
nothing. . . . To speak of 'physical man' while limiting the statement to the early Rounds would be
drifting back to the miraculous and instantaneous 'coats of skin.' . . . The first 'Nature,' the first 'body,'
the first 'mind' on the first plane of perception, on the first Globe in the first Round, is what was
meant. For Karma and evolution have -' . . . centred in our make such strange extremes!
From different Natures* marvellously mixed . . .'
(2.) "Restore: he has now reached the point (by analogy, and as the Third Root Race in the Fourth
Round) where his ("the angel"-man's) primordial spirituality is eclipsed and overshadowed by nascent
human mentality, and you have the true version on your thumb-nail. . . ."
These are the words of the Teacher -- text, words and sentences in brackets, and explanatory
footnotes. It stands to reason that there must be an enormous difference in such terms as "objectivity"
and "subjectivity," "materiality" and "spirituality," when the same terms are applied to different planes
of being and perception. All this must be taken in its relative sense. And therefore there is little to be
wondered at, if, left to his own speculations, an author, however eager to learn, yet quite
inexperienced in these abstruse teachings, has fallen
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* The Natures of the seven hierarchies or classes of Pitris and Dhyan Chohans which compose our

nature and Bodies are here meant.


[[Vol. 1, Page]] 190 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.


into an error. Neither was the difference between the "Rounds" and the "Races" sufficiently defined in

the letters received, nor was there anything of the kind required before, as the ordinary Eastern

disciple would have found out the difference in a moment. Moreover, to quote from a letter of the


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Master's (188-), "the teachings were imparted under protest. . . . They were, so to say, smuggled goods
. . . and when I remained face to face with only one correspondent, the other, Mr. . . . ., had so far
tossed all the cards into confusion, that little remained to be said without trespassing upon law."
Theosophists, "whom it may concern," will understand what is meant.
The outcome of all this is that nothing had ever been said in the "letters" to warrant the assurance that
the Occult doctrine has ever taught, or any Adept believed in, the preposterous modern theory of the
descent of man from a common ancestor with the ape -- an anthropoid of the actual animal kind,
unless metaphorically. To this day the world is more full of "ape-like men" than the woods are of
"men-like apes." The ape is sacred in India because its origin is well known to the Initiates, though
concealed under a thick veil of allegory. Hanuman is the son of Pavana (Vayu, "the god of the wind")
by Anjana, a monster called Kesari, though his genealogy varies. The reader who bears this in mind
will find in Book II. passim, the whole explanation of this ingenious allegory. The "Men" of the Third
Race (who separated) were "Gods" by their spirituality and purity, though senseless, and as yet
destitute of mind, as men.
These "Men" of the Third Race -- the ancestors of the Atlanteans -- were just such ape-like,
intellectually senseless giants as were those beings, who, during the Third Round, represented
Humanity. Morally irresponsible, it was these third Race "men" who, through promiscuous connection
with animal species lower than themselves, created that missing link which became ages later (in the
tertiary period only) the remote ancestor of the real ape as we find it now in the pithecoid family.*
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* And if this is found clashing with that other statement which shows the animal later than man, then

the reader is asked to bear in mind that the placental mammal only is meant. In those days there were

animals of which zoology does not even dream in our own; and the modes of reproduction were not

identical with the notions which modern physiology has upon the subject. It is not altogether

convenient to touch upon such questions in public, but there is no contradiction or impossibility in this

whatever.


[[Vol. 1, Page]] 191 THE PRELIMINARY CREATION OF MAN.


Thus the earlier teachings, however unsatisfactory, vague and fragmentary, did not teach the evolution

of "man" from the "ape." Nor does the author of "Esoteric Buddhism" assert it anywhere in his work

in so many words; but, owing to his inclination towards modern science, he uses language which

might perhaps justify such an inference. The man who preceded the Fourth, the Atlantean race,

however much he may have looked physically like a "gigantic ape" -- "the counterfeit of man who

hath not the life of a man" -- was still a thinking and already a speaking man. The "LemuroAtlantean" was a highly civilized race, and if one accepts tradition, which is better history than the
speculative fiction which now passes under that name, he was higher than we are with all our sciences
and the degraded civilization of the day: at any rate, the Lemuro-Atlantean of the closing Third Race
was so.

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And now we may return to the Stanzas.
------[[This page continued in next section]]

Next Section
Contents

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The Secret Doctrine by H. P. Blavatsky, Vol 1, bk 1, sec 6c

The Secret Doctrine by H. P. Blavatsky -- Vol. 1

Theosophical University Press Online Edition

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 191 THE PRELIMINARY CREATION OF MAN.

[[This page continued from previous section]]
STANZA VI. -- Continued.
5. AT THE FOURTH (Round, or revolution of life and being around "the seven smaller wheels") (a),
THE SONS ARE TOLD TO CREATE THEIR IMAGES. ONE THIRD REFUSES. TWO (thirds)
OBEY.
The full meaning of this sloka can be fully comprehended only after reading the detailed additional
explanations in the "Anthropogenesis" and its commentaries, in Book II. Between this Sloka and the
last, Sloka 4 in this same Stanza, extend long ages; and there now gleams the dawn and sunrise of
another aeon. The drama enacted on our planet is at the beginning of its fourth act, but for a clearer
comprehension of the whole play the reader will have to turn back before he can proceed onward. For
this verse belongs to the general Cosmogony given in the archaic volumes, whereas Book II. will give
a detailed account of the "Creation" or rather the formation, of the first human beings, followed by the
second humanity, and then by the third; or, as they are called, "the first, second, and the third RootRaces." As the solid Earth began by being a ball of liquid fire, of fiery dust and its protoplasmic
phantom, so did man.

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 192 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

(a) That which is meant by the qualification the "Fourth" is explained as the "fourth Round" only on
the authority of the Commentaries. It can equally mean fourth "Eternity" as "Fourth Round," or even
the fourth (our) Globe. For, as will repeatedly be shown, it is the fourth Sphere on the fourth or lowest
plane of material life. And it so happens that we are in the Fourth Round, at the middle point of which
the perfect equilibrium between Spirit and Matter had to take place.* Says the Commentary explaining
the verse: -"The holy youths (the gods) refused to multiply and create species after their likeness, after their kind.
They are not fit forms (rupas) for us. They have to grow. They refuse to enter the chhayas (shadows or
images) of their inferiors. Thus had selfish feeling prevailed from the beginning, even among the gods,
and they fell under the eye of the Karmic Lipikas."
They had to suffer for it in later births. How the punishment reached the gods will be seen in the
second volume.

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------STANZA VI. -- Continued.
6. THE CURSE IS PRONOUNCED (a): THEY WILL BE BORN IN THE FOURTH (Race),

SUFFER AND CAUSE SUFFERING (b). THIS IS THE FIRST WAR (c).
(a) It is a universal tradition that, before the physiological "Fall," propagation of one's kind, whether
human or animal, took place through the WILL of the Creators, or of their progeny. It was the Fall of
Spirit into generation, not the Fall of mortal man. It has already been stated that, to become a SelfConscious Spirit, the latter must pass through every cycle of being, culminating in its highest point on
earth in Man.
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* It was, as we shall see, at this period -- during the highest point of civilization and knowledge, as

also of human intellectuality, of the fourth, Atlantean Race -- that, owing to the final crisis of

physiologico-spiritual adjustment of the races, humanity branched off into its two diametrically

opposite paths: the RIGHT- and the LEFT-hand paths of knowledge or of Vidya. "Thus were the

germs of the White and the Black Magic sown in those days. The seeds lay latent for some time, to

sprout only during the early period of the Fifth (our Race)." (Commentary.)


[[Vol. 1, Page]] 193 THE FIRST CAUSE OF SIN.


Spirit per se is an unconscious negative ABSTRACTION. Its purity is inherent, not acquired by merit;

hence, as already shown, to become the highest Dhyan Chohan it is necessary for each Ego to attain to

full self-consciousness as a human, i.e., conscious Being, which is synthesized for us in Man. The

Jewish Kabalists arguing that no Spirit could belong to the divine hierarchy unless Ruach (Spirit) was

united to Nephesh (living Soul), only repeat the Eastern Esoteric teaching. "A Dhyani has to be an

Atma-Buddhi; once the Buddhi-Manas breaks loose from its immortal Atma of which it (Buddhi) is
the vehicle, Atman passes into NON-BEING, which is absolute Being." This means that the purely
Nirvanic state is a passage of Spirit back to the ideal abstraction of Be-ness which has no relation to
the plane on which our Universe is accomplishing its cycle.
(b) "The curse is pronounced" does not mean, in this instance, that any personal Being, god, or
superior Spirit, pronounced it, but simply that the cause which could but create bad results had been
generated, and that the effects of a Karmic cause could lead the "Beings" that counteracted the laws of
Nature, and thus impeded her legitimate progress, only to bad incarnations, hence to suffering.
(c) "There were many wars" refers to several struggles of adjustment, spiritual, cosmical, and
astronomical, but chiefly to the mystery of the evolution of man as he is now. Powers -- pure Essences - "that were told to create" is a sentence that relates to a mystery explained, as already said, elsewhere.
It is not only one of the most hidden secrets of Nature -- that of generation, over whose solution the
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Embryologists have vainly put their heads together -- but likewise a divine function that involves that
other religious, or rather dogmatic, mystery, the "Fall" of the Angels, as it is called. Satan and his
rebellious host would thus prove, when the meaning of the allegory is explained, to have refused to
create physical man, only to become the direct Saviours and the Creators of "divine Man." The
symbolical teaching is more than mystical and religious, it is purely scientific, as will be seen later on.
For, instead of remaining a mere blind, functioning medium, impelled and guided by fathomless
LAW, the "rebellious" Angel claimed and enforced his right of independent judgment and will, his

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 194 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

right of free-agency and responsibility, since man and angel are alike under Karmic Law.*
"And there was war in Heaven. . . . Michael and his angels fought against the Dragon; and the Dragon
fought and his angels, and prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in Heaven. And the
Dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the devil and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world."
The Kabalistic version of the same story is given in the Codex Nazareus, the scripture of the
Nazarenes, the real mystic Christians of John the Baptist and the Initiates of Christos. Bahak-Zivo, the
"Father of the Genii," is ordered to construct creatures (to create). But, as he is "ignorant of Orcus," he
fails to do so, and calls in Fetahil, a still purer spirit, to his aid, who fails still worse. This is a
repetition of the failure of the "Fathers," the lords of light who fail one after the other. (Book II, Sloka
17.)
We will now quote from our earlier Volumes: -"Then steps on the stage of creation the spirit** (of the Earth so-called, or the Soul, Psyche, which St.
James calls 'devilish') the lower portion the Anima Mundi or Astral Light. (See the close of this Sloka).
With the Nazarenes and the Gnostics this Spirit was
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* Explaining Kabalistic views, the author of the "New Aspects of Life" says of the Fallen Angels that,

"According to the symbolical teaching, Spirit, from being simply a functionary agent of God, became

volitional in its developed and developing action; and, substituting its own will for the Divine desire in

its regard, so fell. Hence the Kingdom and reign of Spirits and spiritual action, which flow from and

are the product of Spirit-volition, are outside, and contrasted with, and in contradiction to the Kingdom

of Souls and Divine action." So far, so good; but what does the Author mean by saying, "When man

was created, he was human in constitution, with human affections, human hopes and aspirations. From

this state he fell -- into the brute and savage"? This is diametrically opposite to our Eastern teaching,

and even to the Kabalistic notion so far as we understand it, and to the Bible itself. This looks like

Corporealism and Substantialism colouring positive philosophy, though it is rather hard to feel quite

sure of the Author's meaning (see p. 235). A FALL, however, "from the natural into the supernatural

and the animal" -- supernatural meaning the purely spiritual in this case -- means what we suggest.


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** On the authority of Irenaeus, of Justin Martyr and the "Codex" itself, Dunlap shows that the
Nazarenes regarded "Spirit" as a female and Evil Power in its connection with our Earth. (Dunlap:
"Sod," the Son of the Man, p. 52).

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 195 THE CODEX REPEATS THE ALLEGORY.

feminine. Thus the spirit of the Earth perceiving that for Fetahil,* the newest man (the latest), the
splendour was 'changed,' and that for splendour existed 'decrease and damage,' she awakes
Karabtanos,** 'who was frantic and without sense and judgment,' and says to him: -- 'Arise, see, the
splendour (light) of the newest man (Fetahil) has failed (to produce or create men), the decrease of this
splendour is visible. Rise up, come with thy MOTHER (the Spiritus) and free thee from limits by
which thou art held, and those more ample than the whole world.' After which follows the union of the
frantic and blind matter, guided by the insinuations of the spirit (not the Divine breath but the Astral
spirit, which by its double essence is already tainted with matter); and the offer of the MOTHER being
accepted, the Spiritus conceives "Seven Figures," and the seven stellars (planets) which represent also
the seven capital sins, the progeny of an astral soul separated from its divine source (spirit) and matter,
the blind demon of concupiscence. Seeing this, Fetahil extends his hand towards the abyss of matter,
and says: -- 'Let the Earth exist, just as the abode of the powers has existed.' Dipping his hand in the
chaos, which he condenses, he creates our planet.***"
"Then the Codex proceeds to tell how Bahak-Zivo was separated from the Spiritus, and the Genii or
angels from the rebels.**** Then Mano***** (the greatest), who dwells with the greatest FERHO,
call Kebar-Zivo (known also by the name of Nebat-Iavar bar Iufin Ifafin), Helm and Vine of the food
of life,****** he being the third life, and commiserating the rebellious and foolish Genii, on account
of the magnitude of their ambition, says: 'Lord of the Genii******* (AEons), see what the Genii, the
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* Fetahil is identical with the host of the Pitris who "created Man" as only a "shell." He was, with the

Nazarenes, the king of light, and the creator; but in this instance he is the unlucky Prometheus, who

fails to get hold of the Living Fire necessary for the formation of the divine Soul, as he is ignorant of

the secret name, the ineffable or incommunicable name of the Kabalists.

** The spirit of Matter and Concupiscence; "Kamarupa" minus "Manas," Mind.

*** See Franck's "Codex Nazaraeus," and Dunlap's "Sod, the Son of the Man."

**** Codex Nazaraeus, ii., 233.

***** This Mano of the Nazarenes strangely resembles the Hindu Manu, the Heavenly Man of the

"Rig Vedas."

****** "I am the true Vine, and my father is the husbandman." (John xv., 1.)


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******* With the Gnostics, Christ, as well as Michael who is identical with him in some respects, was
the "Chief of the AEons."

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 196 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

rebellious angels do, and about what they are consulting.* They say, 'Let us call for the world, and let
us call the 'powers' into existence." The Genii are the Principes, the "Sons of Light," but thou art the
"Messenger of Life."**
And in order to counteract the influence of the seven "badly disposed" principles, the progeny of
Spiritus, CABAR-ZIO, the mighty Lord of Splendor, produces seven other lives (the cardinal virtues)
who shine in their own form and light "from on high"*** and thus re-establish the balance between
good and evil, light and darkness.
Here one finds a repetition of the early allegorical, dual systems, as the Zoroastrian, and detects a
germ of the dogmatic and dualistic religions of the future, a germ which has grown into such a
luxuriant tree in ecclesiastical Christianity. It is already the outline of the two "Supremes" -- God and
Satan. But in the Stanzas no such idea exists.
Most of the Western Christian Kabalists -- pre-eminently Eliphas Levi -- in their desire to reconcile
the Occult Sciences with Church dogmas, did their best to make of the "Astral Light" only and
preeminently the Pleroma of early Church Fathers, the abode of the Hosts of the Fallen Angels, of the
"Archons" and "Powers." But the Astral Light, while only the lower aspect of the Absolute, is yet dual.
It is the Anima Mundi, and ought never to be viewed otherwise, except for Kabalistic purposes. The
difference which exists between its "light" and its "Living Fire" ought to be ever present in the mind of
the Seer and the "Psychic." The higher aspect, without which only creatures of matter from that Astral
Light can be produced, is this Living Fire, and it is the Seventh Principle. It is said in "Isis Unveiled,"
in a complete description of it: -"The Astral Light or Anima Mundi is dual and bisexual. The (ideal) male part of it is purely divine and
spiritual, it is the Wisdom, it is Spirit or Purusha; while the female portion (the Spiritus of the
Nazarenes) is tainted, in one sense, with matter, is indeed matter, and therefore is evil already. It is the
life-principle of every living creature, and furnishes the astral soul, the fluidic perisprit, to men,
animals, fowls of the air, and everything living. Animals have only the latent germ of the highest
immortal soul in them. . . . . This latter will develop
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* Codex Nazaraeus, i, 135.

** Ibid.

*** See the Cosmogony of Pherecydes.

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[[Vol. 1, Page]] 197 ILDA-BAOTH-JEHOVAH.


only after a series of countless evolutions; the doctrine of which evolution is contained in the

Kabalistic axiom: 'A stone becomes a plant; a plant, a beast; a beast, a man; a man, a spirit; and the

spirit, a god.'" (Vol. I., p. 301, note.)

The seven principles of the Eastern Initiates had not been explained when "Isis" was written, but only

the three Kabalistic Faces of the semi-exoteric Kabala.* But these contain the description of the
mystic natures of the first group of Dhyan Chohans in the regimen ignis, the region and "rule (or
government) of fire," which group is divided into three classes, synthesized by the first, which makes
four or the "Tetraktis." (See Comments on Stanza VII. Book I.) If one studies the Comments attentively
he will find the same progression in the angelic natures, viz., from the passive down to the active, the
last of these Beings being as near to the Ahamkara element (the region or plane wherein Egoship or
the feeling of I-am-ness is beginning to be defined) as the first ones are near to the undifferentiated
essence. The former are Arupa, incorporeal; the latter, Rupa, corporeal.
In Volume II. of Isis (p. 183 et seq.) the philosophical systems of the Gnostics and the primitive
Jewish Christians, the Nazarenes and the Ebionites, are fully considered. They show the views held in
those days -- outside the circle of Mosaic Jews -- about Jehovah. He was identified by all the Gnostics
with the evil, rather than with the good principle. For them, he was Ilda-Baoth, "the son of Darkness,"
whose mother, Sophia Achamoth, was the daughter of Sophia, the Divine Wisdom (the female Holy
Ghost of the early Christians) -- Akasa;** while Sophia Achamoth personified the lower Astral Light
or Ether. Ilda-Baoth,*** or Jehovah, is simply one of the Elohim, the seven
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* They are found, however, in the Chaldean Book of Numbers.

** The astral light stands in the same relation to Akasa and Anima Mundi, as Satan stands to the Deity.

They are one and the same thing seen from two aspects: the spiritual and the psychic -- the supere thereal or connecting link between matter and pure spirit, and the physical. See for the difference

between nous, the higher divine wisdom, and psyche, the lower and terrestrial (St. James iii. v. 15-17).

Vide "Demon est Deus inversus," Part II. of this volume.

*** Ilda-Baoth is a compound name made up of Ilda,


, "a child," and Baoth; both from


the egg, and

Baoth, "chaos," emptiness, void, or desolation; or the child born in the egg of

Chaos, like Brahma.


[[Vol. 1, Page]] 198 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.


creative Spirits, and one of the lower Sephiroth. He produces from himself seven other Gods, "Stellar
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Spirits" (or the lunar ancestors*), for they are all the same.** They are all in his own image (the
"Spirits of the Face"), and the reflections one of the other, and have become darker and more material
as they successively receded from their originator. They also inhabit seven regions disposed like a
ladder, as its rungs slope up and down the scale of spirit and matter.*** With Pagans and Christians,
with Hindus and Chaldeans, with the Greek as with the Roman Catholics -- with a slight variation of
the texts in their interpretations -- they all were the Genii of the seven planets, as of the seven
planetary spheres of our septenary chain, of which Earth is the lowest. (See Isis, Vol. II. p. 186.) This
connects the "Stellar" and "Lunar" Spirits with the higher planetary Angels and the Saptarishis (the
seven Rishis of the Stars) of the Hindus -- as subordinate Angels (Messengers) to these "Rishis," the
emanations, on the descending scale, of the former. Such, in the opinion of the philosophical Gnostics,
were the God and the Archangels now worshipped by the Christians! The "Fallen Angels" and the
legend of the "War in Heaven" is thus purely pagan in its origin and comes from India via Persia and
Chaldea. The only reference to it in the Christian canon is found in Revelations xii., as quoted a few
pages back.
Thus "SATAN," once he ceases to be viewed in the superstitious, dogmatic, unphilosophical spirit of
the Churches, grows into the grandiose image of one who made of terrestrial a divine MAN; who
gave him, throughout the long cycle of Maha-kalpa the law of the Spirit of Life, and made him free
from the Sin of Ignorance, hence of death. (See the Section On Satan in Part II. Vol. II.)
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* Jehovah's connection with the moon in the Kabala is well known to students.

** About the Nazarenes see Isis, Vol. II. p. 131 and 132; the true followers of the true Christos were

all Nazarenes and Christians, and were the opponents of the later Christians.

*** Vide supra, the diagram of the lunar ring of seven worlds, where, as in our or any other chain, the

upper worlds are spiritual, while the lowest, whether Moon, Earth, or any planet, is dark with matter.


[[Vol. 1, Page]] 199 THE SEVEN PLANES.


STANZA VI. -- Continued.

6. THE OLDER WHEELS ROTATED DOWNWARD AND UPWARD (a). . . . THE MOTHER'S

SPAWN FILLED THE WHOLE (Kosmos).* THERE WERE BATTLES FOUGHT BETWEEN THE

CREATORS AND THE DESTROYERS, AND BATTLES FOUGHT FOR SPACE; THE SEED

APPEARING AND REAPPEARING CONTINUOUSLY (b).**

(a) Here, having finished for the time being with our side-issues -- which, however they may break the

flow of the narrative, are necessary for the elucidation of the whole scheme -- the reader must return
once more to Cosmogony. The phrase "Older wheels" refers to the worlds or Globes of our chain as
they were during the "previous Rounds." The present Stanza, when explained esoterically, is found
embodied entirely in the Kabalistic works. Therein will be found the very history of the evolution of
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those countless Globes which evolve after a periodical Pralaya, rebuilt from old material into new
forms. The previous Globes disintegrate and reappear transformed and perfected for a new phase of
life. In the Kabala, worlds are compared to sparks which fly from under the hammer of the great
Architect -- LAW, the law which rules all the smaller Creators.
The following comparative diagram shows the identity between the two systems, the Kabalistic and
the Eastern. The three upper are the three higher planes of consciousness, revealed and explained in
both schools only to the Initiates, the lower ones represent the four lower planes -- the lowest being
our plane, or the visible Universe.
These seven planes correspond to the seven states of consciousness in man. It remains with him to
attune the three higher states in himself to the three higher planes in Kosmos. But before he can
attempt to attune, he must awaken the three "seats" to life and activity. And how many are capable of
bringing themselves to even a superficial comprehension of Atma-Vidya (Spirit-Knowledge), or what
is called by the Sufis, Rohanee! In Section the VIIth of this Book, in Sub-section 3,
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* The reader is reminded that Kosmos often means in our Stanzas only our own Solar System, not the

Infinite Universe.

** This is purely astronomical.


[[Vol. 1, Page]] 200 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.


the reader will find a still clearer explanation of the above in the Commentary upon Saptaparna -- the

man-plant. See also the Section of that name in Part II.


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[[Footnote(s) to diagram ------------------------------------------------- ]]

* The Arupa or "formless," there where form ceases to exist, on the objective plane.

The word "Archetypal" must not be taken here in the sense that the Platonists gave to it, i.e., the

world as it existed in the Mind of the Deity; but in that of a world made as a first model, to be followed

and improved upon by the worlds which succeed it physically -- though deteriorating in purity.

These are the four lower planes of Cosmic Consciousness, the three higher planes being inaccessible

to human intellect as developed at present. The seven states of human consciousness pertain to quite

another question.

------------(b) "The Seed appears and disappears continuously." Here "Seed" stands for "the World-germ,"
viewed by Science as material particles in a highly attenuated condition, but in Occult physics as

"Spiritual particles," i.e., supersensuous matter existing in a state of primeval


[[Vol. 1, Page]] 201 NO SHADOW, NO LIGHT.


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differentiation.* In theogony, every Seed is an ethereal organism, from which evolves later on a
celestial being, a God.
In the "beginning," that which is called in mystic phraseology "Cosmic Desire" evolves into absolute
Light. Now light without any shadow would be absolute light -- in other words, absolute darkness -- as
physical science seeks to prove. That shadow appears under the form of primordial matter, allegorized - if one likes -- in the shape of the Spirit of Creative Fire or Heat. If, rejecting the poetical form and
allegory, science chooses to see in this the primordial Fire-Mist, it is welcome to do so. Whether one
way or the other, whether Fohat or the famous FORCE of Science, nameless, and as difficult of
definition as our Fohat himself, that Something "caused the Universe to move with circular motion,"
as Plato has it; or, as the Occult teaching expresses it:
"The Central Sun causes Fohat to collect primordial dust in the form of balls, to impel them to move in
converging lines and finally to approach each other and aggregate." (Book of Dzyan) . . . . . "Being
scattered in Space, without order or system, the world-germs come into frequent collision until their
final aggregation, after which they become wanderers (Comets). Then the battles and struggles begin.
The older (bodies) attract the younger, while others repel them. Many perish, devoured by their
stronger companions. Those that escape become worlds."**
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* To see and appreciate the difference -- the immense gulf that separates terrestrial matter from the

finer grades of supersensuous matter -- every astronomer, every chemist and physicist ought to be a

psychometer, to say the least; he ought to be able to sense for himself that difference in which he now

refuses to believe. Mrs. Elizabeth Denton, one of the most learned, and also one of the most

materialistic and sceptical women of her age -- the wife of Professor Denton, the well-known

American geologist and the author of "The Soul of Things" -- was, nevertheless, one of the most

wonderful psychometers some years ago. This is what she described in one of her experiments; with a

particle of a meteorite placed on her forehead, in an envelope, the lady, not being aware of what it

contained, said:

"What a difference between that which we recognise as matter here and that which seems like matter

there! In the one, the elements are so coarse and so angular, I wonder that we can endure it all, much

more that we can desire to continue our present relations to it; in the other, all the elements are so

refined, they are so free from those great, rough angularities, which characterize the elements here,

that I can but regard that as by so much the more than this, the real existence." (Vol. III. p. 345-6.)

** When carefully analysed and reflected upon, this will be found as scientific as Science could make
it, even at our late period.

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 202 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

We have been assured that there exist several modern works of speculative fancy upon such struggles
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for life in sidereal heaven, especially in the German language. We rejoice to hear it, for ours is an
Occult teaching lost in the darkness of archaic ages. We have treated of it fully in "Isis Unveiled," and
the idea of Darwinian-like evolution, of struggle for life and supremacy, and of the "survival of the
fittest" among the Hosts above as the Hosts below, runs throughout both the volumes of our earlier
work, written in 1876 (See Index in "Isis Unveiled" at the words "Evolution" -- "Darwin" -- "Kapila" -"Battle of Life," etc. etc.) But the idea was not ours, it is that of antiquity.
Even the Puranic writers have ingeniously interwoven allegory with Cosmic facts and human events.
Any symbologist may discern the astro-cosmical allusion even though he be unable to grasp the whole
meaning. The great "Wars in Heaven," in the Puranas; the wars of the Titans, in Hesiod and other
classical writers; the "struggles," also in the Egyptian legend between Osiris and Typhon, and even
those in the Scandinavian legends, all refer to the same subject. Northern Mythology refers to it as the
battle of the Flames, the sons of Muspel who fought on the field of Wigred. All these relate to Heaven
and Earth, and have a double and often even a triple meaning, and esoteric application to things above
as to things below. They relate severally to astronomical, theogonical and human struggles; to the
adjustment of orbs, and the supremacy among nations and tribes. The "Struggle for Existence" and the
"Survival of the Fittest" reigned supreme from the moment that Kosmos manifested into being, and
could hardly escape the observant eye of the ancient Sages. Hence the incessant fights of Indra, the
god of the Firmament, with the Asuras -- degraded from high gods into Cosmic demons; and with
Vritri or Ah-hi; the battles fought between stars and constellations, between Moon and planets -- later
on incarnated as kings and mortals. Hence also the War in Heaven of Michael and his Host against the
Dragon (Jupiter and Lucifer-Venus), when a third of the stars of the rebellious host was hurled down
into Space, and "its place was found no more in Heaven." As said long ago -- "This is the basic and
fundamental stone of the secret cycles. It shows that the Brahmins and Tanaim . . . speculated on the
creation and development of the world quite in a Darwinian way, both anticipating him and his school
in the natural selection of species, the survival of the fittest,

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 203 THE BIRTH OF THE WORLDS.

and transformation. . . . There were old worlds that perished conquered by the new," etc., etc. ("Isis
Unveiled," Vol. II., p. 260.) The assertion that all the worlds (Stars, planets, etc.) -- as soon as a
nucleus of primordial substance in the laya (undifferentiated) state is informed by the freed principles,
of a just deceased sidereal body -- become first comets, and then Suns to cool down to inhabitable
worlds, is a teaching as old as the Rishis.
Thus the Secret Books distinctly teach, as we see, an astronomy that would not be rejected even by
modern speculation could the latter thoroughly understand its teachings.
For, archaic astronomy, and the ancient, physical and mathematical sciences, expressed views
identical with those of modern science, and many of far more momentous import. A "struggle for life"
as a "survival of the fittest" in the worlds above, as on our planet here below, are distinctly taught. This
teaching, however, although it would not be "entirely rejected" by Science, is sure to be repudiated as
an integral whole. For it avers that there are only seven Self-born primordial "gods" emanated from the
trinitarian ONE. In other words, it means that all the worlds or sidereal bodies (always on strict
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analogy) are formed one from the other, after the primordial manifestation at the beginning of the
"Great Age" is accomplished. The birth of the celestial bodies in Space is compared to a crowd or
multitude of "pilgrims" at the festival of the "Fires." Seven ascetics appear on the threshold of the
temple with seven lighted sticks of incense. At the light of these the first row of pilgrims light their
incense sticks. After which every ascetic begins whirling his stick around his head in space, and
furnishes the rest with fire. Thus with the heavenly bodies. A laya-centre is lighted and awakened into
life by the fires of another "pilgrim," after which the new "centre" rushes into space and becomes a
comet. It is only after losing its velocity, and hence its fiery tail, that the "Fiery Dragon" settles down
into quiet and steady life as a regular respectable citizen of the sidereal family. Therefore it is said: -Born in the unfathomable depths of Space, out of the homogeneous Element called the World-Soul,
every nucleus of Cosmic matter, suddenly launched into being, begins life under the most hostile
circumstances. Through a series of countless ages, it has to conquer

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 204 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

for itself a place in the infinitudes. It circles round and round between denser and already fixed bodies,
moving by jerks, and pulling towards some given point or centre that attracts it, trying to avoid, like a
ship drawn into a channel dotted with reefs and sunken rocks, other bodies that draw and repel it in
turn; many perish, their mass disintegrating through stronger masses, and, when born within a system,
chiefly within the insatiable stomachs of various Suns. (See Comm. to Stanza IV). Those which move
slower and are propelled into an elliptic course are doomed to annihilation sooner or later. Others
moving in parabolic curves generally escape destruction, owing to their velocity.
Some very critical readers will perhaps imagine that this teaching, as to the cometary stage passed
through by all heavenly bodies, is in contradiction with the statements just made as to the moon being
the mother of the earth. They will perhaps fancy that intuition is needed to harmonize the two. But no
intuition is in truth required. What does Science know of Comets, their genesis, growth, and ultimate
behaviour? Nothing -- absolutely nothing! And what is there so impossible that a laya centre -- a lump
of cosmic protoplasm, homogeneous and latent, when suddenly animated or fired up -- should rush
from its bed in Space and whirl throughout the abysmal depths in order to streng then its homogeneous
organism by an accumulation and addition of differentiated elements? And why should not such a
comet settle in life, live, and become an inhabited globe!
"The abodes of Fohat are many," it is said. "He places his four fiery (electro-positive) Sons in the
"Four circles"; these Circles are the Equator, the Ecliptic, and the two parallels of declination, or the
tropics -- to preside over the climates of which are placed the Four mystical Entities. Then again:
"Other seven (sons) are commissioned to preside over the seven hot, and seven cold lokas (the hells of
the orthodox Brahmins) at the two ends of the Egg of Matter (our Earth and its poles). The seven lokas
are also called the "Rings," elsewhere, and the "Circles." The ancients made the polar circles seven
instead of two, as Europeans do; for Mount Meru, which is the North Pole, is said to have seven gold
and seven silver steps leading to it.
The strange statement made in one of the Stanzas: "The Songs of Fohat and his Sons were radiant as
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the noon-tide Sun and the Moon combined;" and that the four Sons on the middle four-fold

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 205 SEEING SOUND, HEARING COLOURS.

Circle "saw their father's songs and heard his Solar-selenic radiance;" is explained in the Commentary
in these words: "The agitation of the Fohatic Forces at the two cold ends (North and South Poles) of
the Earth which resulted in a multicoloured radiance at night, have in them several of the properties of
Akasa (Ether) colour and sound as well." . . . . . . "Sound is the characteristic of Akasa (Ether): it
generates air, the property of which is Touch; which (by friction) becomes productive of Colour and
Light." . . . . . . (Vishnu Purana.)
Perhaps the above will be regarded as archaic nonsense, but it will be better comprehended, if the
reader remembers the Aurora Borealis and Australis, both of which take place at the very centres of
terrestrial electric and magnetic forces. The two poles are said to be the store-houses, the receptacles
and liberators, at the same time, of Cosmic and terrestrial Vitality (Electricity); from the surplus of
which the Earth, had it not been for these two natural "safety-valves," would have been rent to pieces
long ago. At the same time it is now a theory that has lately become an axiom, that the phenomenon of
polar lights is accompanied by, and productive of, strong sounds, like whistling, hissing, and cracking.
(But see Professor Trumholdt's works on the Aurora Borealis, and his correspondence regarding this
moot question.)
------STANZA VI. -- Continued.
7. MAKE THY CALCULATIONS, O LANOO, IF THOU WOULDST LEARN THE CORRECT

AGE OF THY SMALL WHEEL (chain). ITS FOURTH SPOKE IS OUR MOTHER (Earth) (a).
REACH THE FOURTH "FRUIT" OF THE FOURTH PATH OF KNOWLEDGE THAT LEADS TO
NIRVANA, AND THOU SHALT COMPREHEND, FOR THOU SHALT SEE (b).
(a) The "small wheel" is our chain of spheres, and the fourth spoke is our Earth, the fourth in the
chain. It is one of those on which the "hot (positive) breath of the Sun" has a direct effect.*
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* The seven fundamental transformations of the globes or heavenly spheres, or rather of their

constituent particles of matter, is described as follows: (1) The homogeneous; (2) the aeriform and

radiant (gaseous); (3) Curd-like (nebulous); (4) Atomic, Ethereal [[Footnote continued on next page]]


[[Vol. 1, Page]] 206 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.


To calculate its age, however, as the pupil is asked to do in the Stanza, is rather difficult, since we are

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not given the figures of the Great Kalpa, and are not allowed to publish those of our small Yugas,

except as to the approximate duration of these. "The older wheels rotated for one Eternity and one half

of an Eternity," it says. We know that by "Eternity" the seventh part of 311,040,000,000,000 years, or
an age of Brahma is meant. But what of that? We also know that, to begin with, if we take for our
basis the above figures, we have first of all to eliminate from the 100 years of Brahma (or
311,040,000,000,000 years) two years taken up by the Sandhyas (twilights), which leaves 98, as we
have to bring it to the mystical combination 14 x 7. But we have no knowledge at what time precisely
the evolution and formation of our little earth began. Therefore it is impossible to calculate its age,
unless the time of its birth is given -- which the TEACHERS refuse to do, so far. At the close of this
Book and in Book II., however, some chronological hints will be given. We must remember,
moreover, that the law of Analogy holds good for the worlds, as it does for man; and that as "The ONE
(Deity) becomes Two (Deva or Angel) and Two becomes Three (or man)," etc., etc., so we are taught
that the Curds (world-stuff) become wanderers, (Comets), these become stars, and the stars (the
centres of vortices) our sun and planets -- to put it briefly.*
(b) There are four grades of initiation mentioned in exoteric works, which are known respectively in
Sanskrit as "Srotapanna," "Sagardagan," "Anagamin," and "Arhan" -- the four paths to Nirvana, in
this, our fourth Round, bearing the same appellations. The Arhan, though he can see the Past, the
Present, and the Future, is not yet the highest Initiate; for the Adept himself, the initiated candidate,
becomes chela (pupil) to a higher Initiate. Three further higher grades have to be conquered by the
Arhan who would reach the apex of the ladder of Arhatship. There are those who have reached it even
in this fifth race of ours, but the faculties necessary for the attainment of these higher
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

[[Footnote continued from previous page]] (beginning of motion, hence of differentiation); (5)

Germinal, fiery, (differentiated, but composed of the germs only of the Elements, in their earliest

states, they having seven states, when completely developed on our earth); (6) Four-fold, vapoury (the

future Earth); (7) Cold and depending (on the Sun for life and light).

* This cannot be so very unscientific, since Descartes thought also that "the planets rotate on their axes

because they were once lucid stars, the centres of Vortices."


[[Vol. 1, Page]] 207 THE TREE FROM WHICH THE ADEPTS GROW.


grades will be fully developed in the average ascetic only at the end of this Root-Race, and in the Sixth

and Seventh. Thus there will always be Initiates and the Profane till the end of this minor Manvantara,

the present life-cycle. The Arhats of the "fire-mist" of the 7th rung are but one remove from the RootBase of their Hierarchy -- the highest on Earth, and our Terrestrial chain. This "Root-Base" has a name

which can only be translated by several compound words into English" -- "the ever-living-humanBanyan." This "Wondrous Being" descended from a "high region," they say, in the early part of the

Third Age, before the separation of the sexes of the Third Race.

This Third Race is sometimes called collectively "the Sons of Passive Yoga," i.e., it was produced
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unconsciously by the second Race, which, as it was intellectually inactive, is supposed to have been
constantly plunged in a kind of blank or abstract contemplation, as required by the conditions of the
Yoga state. In the first or earlier portion of the existence of this third race, while it was yet in its state
of purity, the "Sons of Wisdom," who, as will be seen, incarnated in this Third Race, produced by
Kriyasakti a progeny called the "Sons of Ad" or "of the Fire-Mist," the "Sons of Will and Yoga," etc.
They were a conscious production, as a portion of the race was already animated with the divine spark
of spiritual, superior intelligence. It was not a Race, this progeny. It was at first a wondrous Being,
called the "Initiator," and after him a group of semi-divine and semi-human beings. "Set apart" in
Archaic genesis for certain purposes, they are those in whom are said to have incarnated the highest
Dhyanis, "Munis and Rishis from previous Manvantaras" -- to form the nursery for future human
adepts, on this earth and during the present cycle. These "Sons of Will and Yoga" born, so to speak, in
an immaculate way, remained, it is explained, entirely apart from the rest of mankind.
The "BEING" just referred to, which has to remain nameless, is the Tree from which, in subsequent
ages, all the great historically known Sages and Hierophants, such as the Rishi Kapila, Hermes,
Enoch, Orpheus, etc., etc., have branched off. As objective man, he is the mysterious (to the profane -the ever invisible) yet ever present Personage about whom legends are rife in the East, especially
among the Occultists and the students of the Sacred Science. It is he who changes form, yet remains
ever the same. And it is he again who holds spiritual sway over the

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 208 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

initiated Adepts throughout the whole world. He is, as said, the "Nameless One" who has so many
names, and yet whose names and whose very nature are unknown. He is the "Initiator," called the
"GREAT SACRIFICE." For, sitting at the threshold of LIGHT, he looks into it from within the circle
of Darkness, which he will not cross; nor will he quit his post till the last day of this life-cycle. Why
does the solitary Watcher remain at his self-chosen post? Why does he sit by the fountain of primeval
Wisdom, of which he drinks no longer, as he has naught to learn which he does not know -- aye,
neither on this Earth, nor in its heaven? Because the lonely, sore-footed pilgrims on their way back to
their home are never sure to the last moment of not losing their way in this limitless desert of illusion
and matter called Earth-Life. Because he would fain show the way to that region of freedom and light,
from which he is a voluntary exile himself, to every prisoner who has succeeded in liberating himself
from the bonds of flesh and illusion. Because, in short, he has sacrificed himself for the sake of
mankind, though but a few Elect may profit by the GREAT SACRIFICE.
It is under the direct, silent guidance of this MAHA -- (great) -- GURU that all the other less divine
Teachers and instructors of mankind became, from the first awakening of human consciousness, the
guides of early Humanity. It is through these "Sons of God" that infant humanity got its first notions of
all the arts and sciences, as well as of spiritual knowledge; and it is they who have laid the first
foundation-stone of those ancient civilizations that puzzle so sorely our modern generation of students
and scholars.*
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

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* Let those who doubt this statement explain the mystery of the extraordinary knowledge possessed by

the ancients -- alleged to have developed from lower and animal-like savages, the cave-men of the

Palaeolithic age -- on any other equally reasonable grounds. Let them turn to such works as those of

Vitruvius Pollio of the Augustan age, on architecture, for instance, in which all the rules of proportion

are those taught anciently at initiations, if he would acquaint himself with the truly divine art, and

understand the deep esoteric significance hidden in every rule and law of proportion. No man

descended from a Palaeolithic cave-dweller could ever evolve such a science unaided, even in

millenniums of thought and intellectual evolution. It is the pupils of those incarnated Rishis and Devas

of the third Root Race, who handed their knowledge from one generation to another, to Egypt and

Greece with its now lost canon of proportion; as it is the Disciples of the Initiates of the 4th, the
Atlanteans, who handed it over to their Cyclopes, the "Sons of Cycles" or of the "Infinite," from whom
the name passed to the still later generations of Gnostic priests. "It is owing to the divine perfection
[[Footnote continued on next page]]

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 209 THE SACRED ISLAND.

Although these matters were barely hinted at in "Isis Unveiled," it will be well to remind the reader of
what was said in Vol. I., pp. 587 to 593, concerning a certain Sacred Island in Central Asia, and to
refer him for further details to the chapter in Book II. on "The Sons of God and the Sacred Island." A
few more explanations, however, though thrown out in a fragmentary form, may help the student to
obtain a glimpse into the present mystery.
To state at least one detail concerning these mysterious "Sons of God" in plain words. It is from them,
these Brahmaputras, that the high Dwijas, the initiated Brahmins of old justly claimed descent, while
the modern Brahmin would have the lowest castes believe literally that they issued direct from the
mouth of Brahma. This is the esoteric teaching, which adds moreover that, although these descendants
(spiritually of course) from the "sons of Will and Yoga," became in time divided into opposite sexes,
as their "Kriyasakti" progenitors did themselves, later on; yet even their degenerate descendants have
down to the present day retained a veneration and respect for the creative
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

[[Footnote continued from previous page]] of those architectural proportions that the Ancients could

build those wonders of all the subsequent ages, their Fanes, Pyramids, Cave-Temples, Cromlechs,

Cairns, Altars, proving they had the powers of machinery and a knowledge of mechanics to which

modern skill is like a child's play, and which that skill refers to itself as the 'works of hundred-handed

giants.'" (See "Book of God," Kenealy.) Modern architects may not altogether have neglected those

rules, but they have superadded enough empirical innovations to destroy those just proportions. It is

Vitruvius who gave to posterity the rules of construction of the Grecian temples erected to the

immortal gods; and the ten books of Marcus Vitruvius Pollio on Architecture, of one, in short, who

was an initiate, can only be studied esoterically. The Druidical circles, the Dolmen, the Temples of

India, Egypt and Greece, the Towers and the 127 towns in Europe which were found "Cyclopean in

origin" by the French Institute, are all the work of initiated Priest-Architects, the descendants of those

primarily taught by the "Sons of God," justly called "The Builders." This is what appreciative posterity

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says of those descendants. "They used neither mortar nor cement, nor steel nor iron to cut the stones
with; and yet they were so artfully wrought that in many places the joints are not seen, though many of
the stones, as in Peru, are 18 ft. thick, and in the walls of the fortress of Cuzco there are stones of a still
greater size." (Acosta, vi., 14.) "Again, the walls of Syene, built 5,400 years ago, when that spot was
exactly under the tropic, which it has now ceased to be, were so constructed that at noon, at the precise
moment of the solar solstice, the entire disc of the Sun was seen reflected on their surface -- a work
which the united skill of all the astronomers of Europe would not now be able to effect." -- (Kenealy,
"Book of God.")

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 210 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

function, and still regard it in the light of a religious ceremony, whereas the more civilized nations
consider it as a mere animal function. Compare the western views and practice in these matters with
the Institutions of Manu in regard to the laws of Grihasta and married life. The true Brahmin is thus
indeed "he whose seven forefa thers have drunk the juice of the moon-plant (Soma)," and who is a
"Trisuparna," for he has understood the secret of the Vedas.
And, to this day, such Brahmins know that, during its early beginnings, psychic and physical intellect
being dormant and consciousness still undeveloped, the spiritual conceptions of that race were quite
unconnected with its physical surroundings. That divine man dwelt in his animal -- though externally
human -- form; and, if there was instinct in him, no self-consciousness came to enlighten the darkness
of the latent fifth principle. When, moved by the law of Evolution, the Lords of Wisdom infused into
him the spark of consciousness, the first feeling it awoke to life and activity was a sense of solidarity,
of one-ness with his spiritual creators. As the child's first feeling is for its mother and nurse, so the first
aspirations of the awakening consciousness in primitive man were for those whose element he felt
within himself, and who yet were outside, and independent of him. DEVOTION arose out of that
feeling, and became the first and foremost motor in his nature; for it is the only one which is natural in
our heart, which is innate in us, and which we find alike in human babe and the young of the animal.
This feeling of irrepressible, instinctive aspiration in primitive man is beautifully, and one may say
intuitionally, described by Carlyle. "The great antique heart," he exclaims, "how like a child's in its
simplicity, like a man's in its earnest solemnity and depth! heaven lies over him wheresoever he goes
or stands on the earth; making all the earth a mystic temple to him, the earth's business all a kind of
worship. Glimpses of bright creatures flash in the common sunlight; angels yet hover, doing God's
messages among men . . . . . Wonder, miracle, encompass the man; he lives in an element of miracle* .
. . . A great law of duty, high as these two infinitudes (heaven and hell), dwarfing all else, annihilating
all else -- it was a reality, and it is one: the garment
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* That which was natural in the sight of primitive man has become only now miracle to us; and that

which was to him a miracle could never be expressed in our language.


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[[Vol. 1, Page]] 211 THE SONS OF WISDOM.


only of it is dead; the essence of it lives through all times and all eternity!"

It lives undeniably, and has settled in all its ineradicable strength and power in the Asiatic Aryan heart

from the Third Race direct through its first "mind-born" sons, -- the fruits of Kriyasakti. As time rolled

on the holy caste of Initiates produced but rarely, and from age to age, such perfect creatures: beings

apart, inwardly, though the same as those who produced them, outwardly.
While in the infancy of the third primitive race: -"A creature of a more exalted kind
Was wanting yet, and therefore was designed;
Conscious of thought, of more capacious breast
For empire formed and fit to rule the rest. . . . ."
It was called into being, a ready and perfect vehicle for the incarnating denizens of higher spheres,
who took forthwith their abodes in these forms born of Spiritual WILL and the natural divine power in
man. It was a child of pure Spirit, mentally unalloyed with any tincture of earthly element. Its physical
frame alone was of time and of life, as it drew its intelligence direct from above. It was the living tree
of divine wisdom; and may therefore be likened to the Mundane Tree of the Norse Legend, which
cannot wither and die until the last battle of life shall be fought, while its roots are gnawed all the time
by the dragon Nidhogg; for even so, the first and holy Son of Kriyasakti had his body gnawed by the
tooth of time, but the roots of his inner being remained for ever undecaying and strong, because they
grew and expanded in heaven not on earth. He was the first of the FIRST, and he was the seed of all
the others. There were other "Sons of Kriyasakti" produced by a second Spiritual effort, but the first
one has remained to this day the Seed of divine Knowledge, the One and the Supreme among the
terrestrial "Sons of Wisdom." Of this subject we can say no more, except to add that in every age -aye, even in our own -- there have been great intellects who have understood the problem correctly.
How comes our physical body to the state of perfection it is found in now? Through millions of years
of evolution, of course, yet never through, or from, animals, as taught by materialism. For, as Carlyle
says: -- ". . . The essence of our being, the mystery in us that calls itself 'I,' -- what words have we for
such things? -- it is a breath of Heaven,

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 212 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

the highest Being reveals himself in man. This body, these faculties, this life of ours, is it not all as a
vesture for the UNNAMED?"
The breath of heaven, or rather the breath of life, called in the Bible Nephesh, is in every animal, in
every animate speck as in every mineral atom. But none of these has, like man, the consciousness of
the nature of that highest Being,* as none has that divine harmony in its form which man possesses. It
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"There is but one temple in the universe, and that is the body of man. Nothing is holier than that high
form . . . . We touch heaven when we lay our hand on a human body!" "This sounds like a mere
flourish of rhetoric," adds Carlyle, "but it is not so. If well meditated it will turn out to be a scientific
fact; the expression . . . of the actual truth of the thing. We are the miracle of miracles, -- the great
inscrutable Mystery."
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* There is no nation in the world in which the feeling of devotion or of religious mysticism is more

developed and prominent than in the Hindu people. See what Max Muller says of this idiosyncracy

and national feature in his works. This is direct inheritance from the primitive conscious men of the

Third Race.

---------------------

Next Section

Contents


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The Secret Doctrine by H. P. Blavatsky -- Vol. 1


Theosophical University Press Online Edition


[[Vol. 1, Page]] 213 THE CREATIVE POWERS.


STANZA VII.

1. BEHOLD THE BEGINNING OF SENTIENT FORMLESS LIFE (a).
FIRST, THE DIVINE (vehicle) (b), THE ONE FROM THE MOTHER-SPIRIT (Atman); THEN THE
SPIRITUAL -- (Atma-Buddhi, Spirit-soul)* (c); (again) THE THREE FROM THE ONE (d), THE
FOUR FROM THE ONE (e), AND THE FIVE (f), FROM WHICH THE THREE, THE FIVE AND
THE SEVEN (g) -- THESE ARE THE THREE-FOLD AND THE FOUR-FOLD DOWNWARD; THE
"MIND-BORN SONS OF THE FIRST LORD (Avalokiteswara) THE SHINING SEVEN (the
"Builders").** IT IS THEY WHO ARE THOU, ME, HIM, O LANOO; THEY WHO WATCH OVER
THEE AND THY MOTHER, BHUMI (the Earth).
(a) The hierarchy of Creative Powers is divided into seven (or 4 and 3) esoteric, within the twelve
great Orders, recorded in the twelve signs of the Zodiac; the seven of the manifesting scale being
connected, moreover, with the Seven Planets. All this is subdivided into numberless groups of divine
Spiritual, semi-Spiritual, and ethereal Beings.
The Chief Hierarchies among these are hinted at in the great Quaternary, or the "four bodies and the
three faculties" of Brahma exoterically, and the Panchasyam, the five Brahmas, or the five DhyaniBuddhas in the Buddhist system.
The highest group is composed of the divine Flames, so-called, also spoken of as the "Fiery Lions" and
the "Lions of Life," whose esotericism is securely hidden in the Zodiacal sign of Leo. It is the nucleole
of the superior divine World (see Commentary in first pages of Addendum). They are the formless
Fiery Breaths, identical in one aspect with the upper Sephirothal TRIAD, which is placed by the
Kabalists in the "Archetypal World."
The same hierarchy, with the same numbers, is found in the Japanese system, in the "Beginnings" as
taught by both the Shinto and the Buddhist sects. In this system, Anthropogenesis precedes
Cosmogenesis, as the Divine merges into the human, and creates -[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* This relates to the Cosmic principles.

** The seven creative Rishis now connected with the constellation of the Great Bear


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[[Vol. 1, Page]] 214 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.


midway in its descent into matter -- the visible Universe. The legendary personages -- remarks

reverentially Omoie -- "having to be understood as the stereotyped embodiment of the higher (secret)

doctrine, and its sublime truths." To state it at full length, however, would occupy too much of our

space, but a few words on this old system cannot be out of place. The following is a short synopsis of

this Anthropo-Cosmogenesis, and it shows how closely the most separated notions echoed one and the
same Archaic teaching.
When all was as yet Chaos (Kon-ton) three spiritual Beings appeared on the stage of future creation:
(1) Ame no ani naka nushi no Kami, "Divine Monarch of the Central Heaven"; (2) Taka mi onosubi no
Kami, "Exalted, imperial Divine offspring of Heaven and the Earth"; and (3) Kamu mi musubi no
Kami, "Offspring of the Gods," simply.
These were without form or substance (our arupa triad), as neither the celestial nor the terrestrial
substance had yet differentiated, "nor had the essence of things been formed."
In the Zohar -- which, as now arranged and re-edited by Moses de Leon, with the help of Syrian and
Chaldean Christian Gnostics in the XIIth century, and corrected and revised still later by many
Christian hands, is only a little less exoteric than the Bible itself -- this divine "Vehicle" no longer
appears as it does in the "Chaldean Book of Numbers." True enough, Ain-Soph, the ABSOLUTE
ENDLESS NO-THING, uses also the form of the ONE, the manifested "Heavenly man" (the FIRST
CAUSE) as its chariot (Mercabah, in Hebrew; Vahan, in Sanskrit) or vehicle to descend into, and
manifest through, in the phenomenal world. But the Kabalists neither make it plain how the
ABSOLUTE can use anything, or exercise any attri bute whatever, since, as the Absolute, it is devoid
of attri butes; nor do they explain that in reality it is the First Cause (Plato's Logos) the original and
eternal IDEA, that manifests through Adam Kadmon, the Second Logos, so to speak. In the "Book of
Numbers" it is explained that EN (or Ain, Aior) is the only self-existent, whereas its "Depth" (Bythos
or Buthon of the Gnostics, called Propator) is only periodical. The latter is Brahm as differentiated
from Brahma or Parabrahm. It is the Depth, the Source of Light, or Propator, which is the
unmanifested Logos or the abstract Idea, and not Ain-Soph, whose ray uses Adam-Kadmon or the
manifested Logos (the objective Universe) "male and female" -- as a chariot through which to
manifest. But in the Zohar we read the following incongruity: "Senior

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 215 ONE PARENT FLAME, COUNTLESS FLAMES.

occultatus est et absconditus; Microprosopus manifestus est, et non manifestus." (Rosenroth; Liber
Mysterii, IV., 1.) This is a fallacy, since Microprosopus or the microcosm, can only exist during its
manifestations, and is destroyed during the Maha-Pralayas. Rosenroth's Kabala is no guide, but very
often a puzzle.
(b) As in the Japanese system, in the Egyptian, and every old cosmogony -- at this divine FLAME, The
"One," are lit the three descending groups. Having their potential being in the higher group, they now
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become distinct and separate Entities. These are called the "Virgins of Life," the "Great Illusion," etc.,
etc., and collectively the "Six-pointed Star." The latter is the symbol, in almost every religion, of the
Logos as the first emanation. It is that of Vishnu in India (the Chakra, or wheel), and the glyph of the
Tetragrammaton, the "He of the four letters" or -- metaphorically -- "the limbs of Microprosopos" in
the Kabala, which are ten and six respectively. The later Kabalists however, especially the Christian
mystics, have played sad havoc with this magnificent symbol.* For the "ten limbs" of the Heavenly
Man are the ten Sephiroth; but the first Heavenly Man is the unmanifested Spirit of the Universe, and
ought never to be degraded into Microprosopus -- the lesser Face or Countenance, the prototype of
man on the terrestrial plane.** Of this, however, later on. The six-pointed Star refers to the six Forces
or Powers of Nature, the six planes, principles, etc., etc., all synthesized by the seventh, or the central
point in the Star. All these, the upper and lower hierarchies included, emanate from the "Heavenly or
Celestial Virgin,"*** the great mother in all religions, the Androgyne, the
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* Indeed, the Microprosopus -- who is, philosophically speaking, quite distinct from the unmanifested

eternal Logos "one with the Father," -- has been finally brought, by centuries of incessant efforts, of

sophistry and paradoxes, to be considered as one with Jehovah, or the ONE living God (!), whereas

Jehovah is no better than Binah, a female Sephiroth. This fact cannot be too frequently impressed upon

the reader.

** The Microprosopus is, as just said, the Logos manifested, and of such there are many.

*** Sephira is the Crown, KETHER, in the abstract principle only, as a mathematical x (the unknown

quantity). On the plane of differentiated nature she is the female counterpart of Adam Kadmon -- the

first Androgyne. The Kabala teaches that the word "Fiat Lux" (Genesis ch. i.) referred to the formation

and evolution of the Sephiroth, and not to light as opposed to darkness. Rabbi Simeon says: "Oh com[[Footnote continued on next page]]


[[Vol. 1, Page]] 216 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.


Sephira-Adam-Kadmon. In its Unity, primordial light is the seventh, or highest, principle, Daiviprakriti, the light of the unmanifested Logos. But in its differentiation it becomes Fohat, or the "Seven

Sons." The former is symbolised by the Central point in the double-Triangle; the latter by the hexagon
itself, or the "six limbs" of the Microprosopus the Seventh being Malkuth, the "Bride" of the Christian
Kabalists, or our Earth. Hence the expressions:
"The first after the 'One' is divine Fire; the second, Fire and AEther; the third is composed of Fire,
AEther and Water; the fourth of Fire, AEther, Water, and Air."* The One is not concerned with Manbearing globes, but with the inner invisible Spheres. "The 'First-Born' are the LIFE, the heart and
pulse of the Universe; the Second are its MIND or Consciousness,"**
as said in the Commentary.

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(c) The second Order of Celestial Beings, those of Fire and AEther (corresponding to Spirit and Soul,
or the Atma-Buddhi) whose names are legion, are still formless, but more definitely "substantial."
They are the first differentiation in the Secondary Evolution or "Creation" -- a misleading word. As the
name shows, they are the prototypes of the incarnating Jivas or Monads, and are composed of the Fiery
Spirit of Life. It is through these that passes, like a pure solar beam, the ray which is furnished by them
with its future vehicle, the Divine Soul, Buddhi. These are directly concerned with the Hosts of the
higher world of our system. From these twofold Units emanate the threefold.
In the cosmogony of Japan, when, out of the chaotic mass, an egglike nucleus appears, having within
itself the germ and potency of all the universal as well as of all terrestrial life, it is the "three-fold" just
named, which differentiates. "The male aethereal" (Yo) principle
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

[[Footnote continued from previous page]] panions, companions, man as an emanation was both man

and woman, Adam Kadmon verily, and this is the sense of the words 'Let there be Light, and it was

Light.' And this is the two-fold man." (Auszuge aus dem Zohar, pp. 13-15.)

* See next footnote. These elements of Fire, Air, etc., are not our compound elements.

** This "Consciousness" has no relation to our consciousness. The consciousness of the "One

manifested," if not absolute, is still unconditioned. Mahat (the Universal Mind) is the first production

of the Brahma-Creator, but also of the Pradhana (undifferentiated matter).


[[Vol. 1, Page]] 217 TEACHINGS CONTRASTED.


ascends and the female grosser or more material principle (In) is precipitated into the Universe of

substance, when a separation occurs between the celestial and the terrestrial. From this the female, the

mother, the first rudimentary objective being is born. It is ethereal, without form or sex, and yet it is

from this and the mother that the Seven Divine Spirits are born, from whom will emanate the seven

creations, just as in the Codex Nazaraeus from Karabtanos and the Mother Spiritus the seven evilly
disposed (material) spirits are born. It would be too long to give here the Japanese names, but once
translated they stand in this order: -(1.) The "Invisible Celibate," which is the creative logos of the noncreating "father," or the creative
potentiality of the latter made manifest.
(2.) "The Spirit (or the God) of the rayless depths" (of Chaos); which becomes differentiated matter, or
the world-stuff; also the mineral realm.
(3.) "The Spirit of the Vegetable Kingdom," of the "Abundant Vegetation."
(4.) This one is of dual nature, being at the same time "The Spirit of the Earth" and "the Spirit of the

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Sands," the former containing the potentiality of the male element, the latter that of the female element,
the two forming a combined nature.
These two were ONE; yet unconscious of being two.
In this duality were contained (a) the male, dark and muscular Being, Isu no gai no Kami; and (b) Eku
gai no Kami, the female, fair and weaker or more delicate Being. Then, the: -(5th and 6th.) Spirits who were androgynous or dual-sexed, and, finally: -(7.) The Seventh Spirit, the last emanated from the "mother," appears as the first divine human form
distinctly male and female. It was the seventh creation, as in the Puranas, wherein man is the seventh
creation of Brahma.
These, Tsanagi-Tsanami, descended into the Universe by the celestial Bridge (the milky way), and
"Tsanagi, perceiving far below a chaotic mass of cloud and water, thrust his jewelled spear into the
depths, and dry land appeared." Then the two separated to explore Onokoro, the newly-created islandworld; etc., etc. (Omoie).

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 218 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

Such are the Japanese exoteric fables, the rind that conceals the kernel of the same one truth of the
Secret Doctrine. Turning back to the esoteric explanations in every cosmogony: -(d) The Third order corresponds to the Atma-Buddhi-Manas: Spirit, Soul and Intellect, and is called the
"Triads."
(e) The Fourth are substantial Entities. This is the highest group among the Rupas (Atomic Forms*). It
is the nursery of the human, conscious, spiritual Souls. They are called the "Imperishable Jivas," and
constitute, through the order below their own, the first group of the first septenary** host -- the great
mystery of human conscious and
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* It is worthy of notice that, while rejecting as a superstition of Occultism, and religion too, the theory

of substantial and invisible Beings called Angels, Elementals, etc. -- without, of course, having ever

looked into the philosophy of these incorporeal Entities, or thought over them -- modern chemistry,

owing to observation and discovery, should have unconsciously been forced to adopt and recognize the

same ratio of progression and order in the evolution of chemical atoms as Occultism does, both for its

Dhyanis and Atoms -- analogy being its first law. As seen above, the very first group of the Rupa

Angels is quaternary, an element being added to each in descending order. So are the atoms, adopting

the phraseology of chemistry, monatomic, diatomic, and tetratomic, progressing downwards. Let it be

remembered that Fire, Water, and Air, or the "Elements of primary Creation" so-called, are not the


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compound Elements they are on Earth, but noumenal homogeneous Elements -- the Spirits thereof.
Then follow the septenary groups or hosts. Placed on parallel lines in a diagram with Atoms, the
Natures of those Beings would be seen to correspond in their downward scale of progression to
composite elements in a mathematically identical manner, as to analogy. This refers, of course, only to
diagrams made by the Occultists; for were the scale of Angelic Beings to be placed on a parallel line
with the scale of the chemical atoms of Science -- from the hypothetical Helium down to Uranium -they would of course be found to differ. For these have, as correspondents on the Astral plane, only the
four lowest orders -- the higher three principles in the atom, or rather molecule or chemical element,
being perceptible only to the initiated Dangma's eye. But then, if Chemistry desired to find itself on the
right path, it would have to correct its tabular arrangement by that of the Occultists -- which it may
refuse to do. In Esoteric Philosophy, every physical particle corresponds to and depends on its higher
noumenon -- the Being to whose essence it belongs; and above as below, the Spiritual evolves from the
Divine, the psycho-mental from the Spiritual -- tainted from its lower plane by the astral -- the whole
animate and (seemingly) inanimate Nature evolving on parallel lines, and drawing its attri butes from
above as well as from below.
** The number seven does not imply only seven Entities, but seven groups or Hosts, as explained
before. The highest group, the Asuras born in Brahma's first body -- [[Footnote continued on next
page]]

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 219 THE HIERARCHIES OF SPIRITS.

intellectual Being. For the latter are the field wherein lies concealed in its privation the germ that will
fall into generation. That germ will become the spiritual potency in the physical cell that guides the
development of the embryo, and which is the cause of the hereditary transmission of faculties and all
the inherent qualities in man. The Darwinian theory, however, of the transmission of acquired
faculties, is neither taught nor accepted in Occultism. Evolution, in it, proceeds on quite other lines; the
physical, according to esoteric teaching, evolving gradually from the spiritual, mental, and psychic.
This inner soul of the physical cell -- this "spiritual plasm" that dominates the germinal plasm -- is the
key that must open one day the gates of the terra incognita of the Biologist, now called the dark
mystery of Embryology. (See text and note infra.)
(f) The Fifth group is a very mysterious one, as it is connected with the Microcosmic Pentagon, the
five-pointed star representing man. In India and Egypt these Dhyanis were connected with the
Crocodile, and their abode is in Capricornus. These are convertible terms in Indian astrology, as this
(tenth) sign of the Zodiac is called Makara, loosely translated "crocodile." The word itself is occultly
interpreted in various ways, as will be shown further on. In Egypt the defunct man -- whose symbol is
the pentagram or the five-pointed star, the points of which represent the limbs of a man -- was shown
emblematically transformed into a crocodile: Sebakh or Sevekh "or seventh," as Mr. Gerald Massey
says, showing it as having been the type of intelligence, is a dragon in reality, not a crocodile. He is the
"Dragon of Wisdom" or Manas, the "Human Soul," Mind, the Intelligent principle, called in our
esoteric philosophy the "Fifth" principle.
Says the defunct "Osirified" in ch. lxxxviii., "Book of the Dead," or the Ritual, under the glyph of a
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mummiform god with a crocodile's head: -(1) "I am the god (crocodile) presiding at the fear . . . at the arrival of his Soul among men. I am the
god-crocodile brought for destruction" (an allusion to the destruction of divine spiritual purity
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

[[Footnote continued from previous page]] which turned into "Night" -- are septenary, i.e., divided like

the Pitris into seven classes, three of which are arupa (bodiless) and four with bodies. (See Vishnu

Purana, Book I.) They are in fact more truly our Pitris (ancestors) than the Pitris who projected the first

physical men. (See Book II.)


[[Vol. 1, Page]] 220 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.


when man acquires the knowledge of good and evil; also to the "fallen" gods, or angels of every

theogony).

(2) "I am the fish of the great Horus (as Mankara is the "crocodile," the vehicle of Varuna). I am

merged in Sekten."

This last sentence gives the corroboration of, and repeats the doctrine of, esoteric Buddhism, for it

alludes directly to the fifth principle (Manas), or the most spiritual part of its essence rather, which

merges into, is absorbed by, and made one with Atma-Buddhi after the death of man. For Se-khen is

the residence or loka of the god Khem (Horus-Osiris, or Father and Son), hence the "Devachan" of
Atma-Buddhi. In the Ritual of the Dead the defunct is shown entering into Sekhem with Horus-Thot
and "emerging from it as pure spirit" (lxiv., 29). Thus the defunct says (v. 130): "I see the forms of
(myself, as various) men transforming eternally . . . I know this (chapter). He who knows it . . . takes
all kinds of living forms." . . .
And in verse 35, addressing in magic formula that which is called, in Egyptian esotericism, the
"ancestral heart," or the re-incarnating principle, the permanent EGO, the defunct says: -"Oh my heart, my ancestral heart necessary for my transformations, . . . . . . do not separate thyself
from me before the guardian of the Scales. Thou art my personality within my breast, divine
companion watching over my fleshes (bodies). . . . . . ."
It is in Sekhem that lies concealed "the Mysterious Face," or the real man concealed under the false
personality, the triple-crocodile of Egypt, the symbol of the higher Trinity or human Triad, Atma,
Buddhi and Manas.* In all the ancient papyri the crocodile is called Sebek (Seventh), while the water is
the fifth principle esoterically; and, as already stated, Mr. Gerald Massey shows that the crocodile was
"the Seventh Soul, the supreme one of seven -- the Seer unseen." Even exoterically Sekhem is the
residence of the god Khem, and Khem is Horus avenging the death of his father Osiris, hence
punishing the Sins of man when he becomes a disembodied Soul. Thus the defunct

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[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* One of the explanations of the real though hidden meaning of this Egyptian religious glyph is easy.

The crocodile is the first to await and meet the devouring fires of the morning sun, and very soon came

to personify the solar heat. When the sun arose, it was like the arrival on earth and among men "of the

divine soul which informs the Gods." Hence the strange symbolism. The mummy donned the head of a

crocodile to show that it was a soul arriving from the earth.


[[Vol. 1, Page]] 221 CORRELATION OF BEINGS.


"Osirified" became the god Khem, who "gleans the field of Aanroo," i.e., he gleans either his reward or

punishment, as that field is the celestial locality (Devachan) where the defunct is given wheat, the food

of divine justice. The fifth group of the celestial Beings is supposed to contain in itself the dual

attri butes of both the spiritual and physical aspects of the Universe; the two poles, so to say, of Mahat

the Universal Intelligence, and the dual nature of man, the spiritual and the physical. Hence its number

Five, multiplied and made into ten, connecting it with Makara, the 10th sign of Zodiac.

(g) The sixth and seventh groups partake of the lower qualities of the Quaternary. They are conscious,
ethereal Entities, as invisible as Ether, which are shot out like the boughs of a tree from the first central
group of the four, and shoot out in their turn numberless side groups, the lower of which are the NatureSpirits, or Elementals of countless kinds and varieties; from the formless and unsubstantial -- the ideal
THOUGHTS of their creators -- down to the Atomic, though, to human perception, invisible
organisms. The latter are considered as the "Spirits of Atoms" for they are the first remove
(backwards) from the physical Atom -- sentient, if not intelligent creatures. They are all subject to
Karma, and have to work it out through every cycle. For, as the doctrine teaches, there are no such
privileged beings in the universe, whether in our or in other systems, in the outer or the inner worlds,*
as the angels of the Western Religion and the Judean. A Dhyan Chohan has to become one; he cannot
be born or appear suddenly on the plane of life as a full-blown angel. The Celestial Hierarchy of the
present Manvantara will find itself transferred in the next cycle of life into higher, superior worlds, and
will make room for a new hierarchy, composed of the elect ones of our mankind. Being is an endless
cycle within the one absolute eternity, wherein move numberless inner cycles finite and conditioned.
Gods, created as such, would evince no personal merit in being gods. Such a class of beings, perfect
only by virtue of the special immaculate nature inherent in them, in the face of suffering and struggling
humanity, and even of the lower creation, would be the
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* A world when called "a higher world" is not higher by reason of its location, but because it is

superior in quality or essence. Yet such a world is generally understood by the profane as "Heaven,"

and located above our heads.


[[Vol. 1, Page]] 222 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.


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symbol of an eternal injustice quite Satanic in character, an ever present crime. It is an anomaly and an

impossibility in Nature. Therefore the "Four" and the "Three" have to incarnate as all other beings

have. This sixth group, moreover, remains almost inseparable from man, who draws from it all but his

highest and lowest principles, or his spirit and body, the five middle human principles being the very
essence of those Dhyanis.* Alone, the Divine Ray (the Atman) proceeds directly from the One. When
asked how that can be? How is it possible to conceive that those "gods," or angels, can be at the same
time their own emanations and their personal selves? Is it in the same sense in the material world,
where the son is (in one way) his father, being his blood, the bone of his bone and the flesh of his
flesh? To this the teachers answer "Verily it is so." But one has to go deep into the mystery of BEING
before one can fully comprehend this truth.
------STANZA VII. -- Continued.
2. THE ONE RAY MULTIPLIES THE SMALLER RAYS. LIFE PRECEDES FORM, AND LIFE

SURVIVES THE LAST ATOM (of Form, Sthula-sarira, external body). THROUGH THE
COUNTLESS RAYS THE LIFE-RAY, THE ONE, LIKE A THREAD THROUGH MANY BEADS
(pearls) (a).
(a) This sloka expresses the conception -- a purely Vedantic one, as already explained elsewhere -- of a
life-thread, Sutratma, running through successive generations. How, then, can this be explained? By
resorting to a simile, to a familiar illustration, though necessarily imperfect, as all our available
analogies must be. Before resorting to it, however, I would ask whether it seems unnatural, least of all
"supernatural," to any one of us, when we consider that process known as the growth and development
of a foetus into a healthy baby weighing several pounds evolves from what? From the segmentation of
an infinitesimally small ovum and a spermatozoon; and afterwards we see that baby develop into a sixfoot man! This refers to the atomic and physical
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* Paracelsus calls them the Flagae; the Christians, the "Guardian Angels;" the Occultist, the

"Ancestors, the Pitris;" they are the sixfold Dhyan Chohans, having the six spiritual Elements in the

composition of their bodies -- in fact, men, minus the physical body.


[[Vol. 1, Page]] 223 THE MYSTERY OF BEING.


expansion from the microscopically small into something very large, from the -- to the naked eye -unseen, into the visible and objective. Science has provided for all this; and, I dare say, her theories,

embryological, biological, and physiological, are correct enough so far as exact observation of the

material goes. Nevertheless, the two chief difficulties of the science of embryology -- namely, what are

the forces at work in the formation of the foetus, and the cause of "hereditary transmission" of

likeness, physical, moral or mental -- have never been properly answered; nor will they ever be solved


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till the day when scientists condescend to accept the Occult theories.* But if this physical pheno[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* The materialists and the evolutionists of the Darwinian school would be ill-advised to accept the

newly worked-out theories of Professor Weissmann, the author of Beitrage zur Descendenzlehre, with

regard to one of the two mysteries of Embryology, as above specified, which he seems to have solved -as he thinks. For, when it is solved, Science will have stepped over into the domain of the truly occult,

and stepped for ever out of the realm of transformation, as taught by Darwin. The two are

irreconcileable, from the standpoint of materialism. Regarded from that of the Occultists, it solves all

these mysteries. Those who are not acquainted with the new discovery of Professor Weissman -- at one

time a fervent Darwinist -- ought to hasten to repair the deficiency. The German Embryologistphilosopher shows -- thus stepping over the heads of the Greek Hippocrates and Aristotle, right back

into the teachings of the old Aryans -- one infinitesimal cell, out of millions of others at work in the

formation of an organism, determining alone and unaided, by means of constant segmentation and

multiplication, the correct image of the future man (or animal) in its physical, mental, and psychic

characteristics. It is that cell which impresses on the face and form of the new individual the features of

the parents or of some distant ancestor; it is that cell again which transmits to him the intellectual and

mental idiosyncracies of his sires, and so on. This Plasm is the immortal portion of our bodies -simply through the process of successive assimilations. Darwin's theory, viewing the embryological

cell as an essence or the extract from all other cells, is set aside; it is incapable of accounting for

hereditary transmission. There are but two ways of explaining the mystery of heredity; either the
substance of the germinal cell is endowed with the faculty of crossing the whole cycle of
transformations that lead to the construction of a separate organism and then to the reproduction of
identical germinal cells; or, those germinal cells do not have their genesis at all in the body of the
individual, but proceed directly from the ancestral germinal cell passed from father to son through
long generations. It is the latter hypothesis that Weissmann accepted and has worked upon; and it is to
this cell that he traces the immortal portion of man. So far, so good; and when this almost correct
theory is accepted, how will Biologists explain the first appearance of this everlasting cell? Unless man
"grew" like the "immortal Topsy," and was not born at all, but fell from the clouds, how was that
embryological cell born in him?

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 224 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

menon astonishes no one, except in so far as it puzzles the Embryologists, why should our intellectual
and inner growth, the evolution of the human-spiritual to the Divine-Spiritual, be regarded as, or seem,
more impossible than the other? Now to the simile.
Complete the physical plasm, mentioned in the last foot-note, the "Germinal Cell" of man with all its
material potentialities, with the "spiritual plasm," so to say, or the fluid that contains the five lower
principles of the six-principled Dhyan -- and you have the secret, if you are spiritual enough to
understand it.
"When the seed of the animal man is cast into the soil of the animal woman, that seed cannot
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germinate unless it has been fructified by the five virtues (the fluid of, or the emanation from the
principles) of the six-fold Heavenly man. Wherefore the Microcosm is represented as a Pentagon,
within the Hexagon Star, the "Macrocosm." ("[[Anthropos]],") a work on Occult Embryology, Book
I.). Then: "The functions of Jiva on this Earth are of a five-fold character. In the mineral atom it is
connected with the lowest principles of the Spirits of the Earth (the six-fold Dhyanis); in the vegetable
particle, with their second -- the Prana (life); in the animal, with all these plus the third and the fourth;
in man, the germ must receive the fruition of all the five. Otherwise he will be born no higher than an
animal"; namely, a congenital idiot. Thus in man alone the Jiva is complete. As to his seventh
principle, it is but one of the Beams of the Universal Sun. Each rational creature receives only the
temporary loan of that which has to return to its source; while his physical body is shaped by the
lowest terrestrial lives, through physical, chemical, and physiological evolution. "The Blessed Ones
have nought to do with the purgations of matter." (Kabala, Chaldean Book of Numbers).
It comes to this: Mankind in its first prototypal, shadowy form, is the offspring of the Elohim of Life
(or Pitris); in its qualitative and physical aspect it is the direct progeny of the "Ancestors," the lowest
Dhyanis, or Spirits of the Earth; for its moral, psychic, and spiritual nature, it is indebted to a group of
divine Beings, the name and characteristics of which will be given in Book II. Collectively, men are
the handiwork of hosts of various spirits; distributively, the tabernacles of those hosts; and
occasionally and singly, the vehicles of some of them. In our present all-material Fifth Race, the
earthly Spirit of the

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 225 SPIRIT FALLING INTO MATTER.

Fourth is still strong in us; but we are approaching the time when the pendulum of evolution will direct
its swing decidedly upwards, bringing Humanity back on a parallel line with the primitive third RootRace in Spirituality. During its childhood, mankind was composed wholly of that Angelic Host, who
were the indwelling Spirits that animated the monstrous and gigantic tabernacles of clay of the Fourth
Race built by (as they are now also) and composed of countless myriads of lives.* This sentence will
be explained later on in the present Commentary. The "tabernacles" have improved in texture and
symmetry of form, growing and developing with the globe that bore them; but the physical
improvement took place at the expense of the spiritual inner man and nature. The three middle
principles in earth and man became with every race more material; the Soul stepping back to make
room for the physical intellect; the essence of elements becoming the material and composite elements
now known.
Man is not, nor could he ever be, the complete product of the "Lord God"; but he is the child of the
Elohim, so arbitrarily changed into the singular masculine gender. The first Dhyanis, commissioned to
"create" man in their image, could only throw off their shadows, like a delicate model for the Nature
Spirits of matter to work upon. (See Book II.) Man is, beyond any doubt, formed physically out of the
dust of the Earth, but his creators and fashioners were many. Nor can it be said that the "Lord God
breathed into his nostrils the breath of life," unless that God is identified with the "ONE LIFE,"
Omnipresent though invisible, and unless the same operation is attri buted to "God" on behalf of every
living Soul -- or Nephesch, which is the vital Soul, not the divine Spirit or Ruach, which ensures to
man alone a divine degree of immortality, that no animal, as such, could ever attain in this cycle of
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incarnation. It is the inadequate distinctions made by the Jews, and now by our Western
metaphysicians, who, not knowing of, and being unable to understand, hence to accept, more than a
triune man -- Spirit, Soul,
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* Science, dimly perceiving the truth, may find Bacteria and other infinitesimals in the human body,

and see in them but occasional and abnormal visitors to which diseases are attri buted. Occultism -which discerns a life in every atom and molecule, whether in a mineral or human body, in air, fire or

water -- affirms that our whole body is built of such lives, the smallest bacteria under the microscope

being to them in comparative size like an elephant to the tiniest infusoria.


[[Vol. 1, Page]] 226 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.


Body -- thus confuse the "breath of life" with immortal Spirit.* This applies also directly to the

Protestant theologians, who, in translating verse 8 of Ch. III. in the Fourth Gospel, have entirely

perverted the meaning. Indeed the verse is made to say "The wind bloweth where it listeth," instead of

"the Spirit goeth where it willeth," as in the original and also in the translation of the Greek Eastern

Church.

Thus the philosophy of psychic, spiritual, and mental relations with man's physical functions is in

almost inextricable confusion. Neither the old Aryan, nor the Egyptian psychology are now properly

understood. Nor can they be assimilated without accepting the esoteric septenary, or, at any rate, the
Vedantic quinquepartite division of the human inner principles. Failing which, it will be for ever
impossible to understand the metaphysical and purely psychic and even physiological relations
between the Dhyan-Chohans, or Angels, on the one plane, and humanity on the other. No Eastern
(Aryan) esoteric works are so far published, but we possess the Egyptian papyri which speak clearly
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* The learned and very philosophical author of "New Aspects of Life" would impress upon his reader

that the Nephesh chaiah (living soul), according to the Hebrews, "proceeded from, or was produced by,

the infusion of the Spirit or Breath of Life into the quickening body of man, and was to supersede and

take the place of that spirit in the thus constituted self, so that the spirit passed into, was lost sight of,

and disappeared in the living Soul." The human body, he thinks, ought to be viewed as a matrix in

which, and from which, the Soul (which he seems to place higher than the spirit) is developed -considered functionally and from the standpoint of activity, the Soul stands undeniably higher in this

finite and conditioned world of Maya -- the Soul, he says, "is ultimately produced from the animated

body of man." Thus the author identifies "Spirit" (Atma) simply with "the breath of life." The Eastern

Occultists will demur to this statement, for it is based on the erroneous conception that Prana and

Atma or Jivatma are one and the same thing. The author supports the argument by showing that with

the ancient Hebrews, Greeks and even Latins, Ruach, Pneuma and Spiritus -- with the Jews

undeniably, and with the Greeks and Romans very probably -- meant Wind; the Greek word Anemos

(wind) and the Latin Anima "Soul" having a suspicious relation.


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This is very far fetched. A legitimate battle-field for deciding this question is hardly to be found, since
Mr. Pratt seems to be a practical, matter-of-fact metaphysician, a kind of Kabalist-Positivist, and the
Eastern metaphysicians, especially the Vedantins, are all Idealists. The Occultists are also of the
extreme esoteric Vedantin school, and they call the One Life (Parabrahm), the Great Breath and the
Whirlwind; but they disconnect the seventh principle entirely from matter or any relation to, or
connection with it.

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 227 THE EGYPTIAN SYSTEM.

of the seven principles or the "Seven Souls of Man."* The Book of the Dead gives a complete list of
the "transformations" that every defunct undergoes, while divesting himself, one by one, of all those
principles -- materialised for the sake of clearness into ethereal entities or bodies. We must, moreover,
remind those who try to prove that the ancient Egyptians knew nothing of and did not teach
Reincarnation, that the "Soul" (the Ego or Self) of the defunct is said to be living in Eternity: it is
immortal, "co-eval with, and disappearing with the Solar boat," i.e., for the cycle of necessity. This
"Soul" emerges from the Tiaou (the realm of the cause of life) and joins the living on Earth by day, to
return to Tiaou every night. This expresses the periodical existences of the Ego. (Book of the Dead,
cvxliii.)
The shadow, the astral form, is annihilated, "devoured by the Uraeus" (cxlix., 51), the Manes will be
annihilated; the two twins (the 4th and 5th principles) will be scattered; but the Soul-bird, "the divine
Swallow -- and the Uraeus of Flame" (Manas and Atma-Buddhi) will live in the eternity, for they are
their mother's husbands.**
Like alone produces like. The Earth gives Man his body, the gods (Dhyanis) his five inner principles,
the psychic Shadow, of which those gods are often the animating principle. SPIRIT (Atman) is one -and indiscrete. It is not in the Tiaou.
For what is the Tiaou? The frequent allusion to it in the "Book of the Dead" contains a mystery. Tiaou
is the path of the Night Sun, the inferior hemisphere, or the infernal region of the Egyptians, placed by
them on the concealed side of the moon. The human being, in their
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* Vide in Part II., Book II., "The Seven Souls of Man," the divisions made respectively by Messrs.

Gerald Massey and Franz Lambert.

** Another suggestive analogy between the Aryan or Brahmanical and the Egyptian esotericism. The

former call the Pitris "the lunar ancestors" of men; and the Egyptians made of the Moon-God, TahtEsmun, the first human ancestor. This "moon-god" "expressed the Seven nature-powers that were prior

to himself, and were summed up in him as his seven souls, of which he was the manifestor as the

eighth one (hence the eighth sphere). The seven rays of the Chaldean Heptakis or Iao, on the Gnostic

stones indicate the same septenary of souls." . . . "The first form of the mystical SEVEN was seen to be


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figured in heaven, by the seven large stars of the Great Bear, the constellation assigned by the

Egyptians to the Mother of Time, and of the seven elemental powers." (See The Seven Souls, etc.) As
well known to every Hindu, this same constellation represents in India the Seven Rishis, and as such is
called Riksha, and Chitra-Sikhandinas.

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 228 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

esotericism, came out from the moon (a triple mystery -- astronomical, physiological, and psychical at
once); he crossed the whole cycle of existence and then returned to his birth-place before issuing from
it again. Thus the defunct is shown arriving in the West, receiving his judgment before Osiris,
resurrecting as the god Horus, and circling round the sidereal heavens, which is an allegorical
assimilation to Ra, the Sun; then having crossed the Noot (the celestial abyss), returning once more to
Tiaou: an assimilation to Osiris, who, as the God of life and reproduction, inhabits the moon. Plutarch
(Isis and Osiris, ch. xliii.) shows the Egyptians celebrating a festival called "The Ingress of Osiris into
the moon." In chapter xli. life is promised after death; and the renovation of life is placed under the
patronage of Osiris-Lunus, because the moon was the symbol of life-renewals or reincarnations, owing
to its growth, waning, dying, and reappearance every month. In the Dankmoe, (iv. 5) it is said: -- "Oh,
Osiris-Lunus! That renews to thee thy renewal." And Safekh says to Seti I. (Mariette's Abydos, plate
51), "Thou renewest thyself as the god Lunus when a babe." It is still better explained in a Louvre
papyrus (P. Pierret, "Etudes Egyptologiques"): "Couplings and conceptions abound when he (OsirisLunus) is seen in heaven on that day." Says Osiris: "Oh, sole radiant beam of the moon! I issue from
the circulating multitudes (of stars) . . . . . . Open me the Tiaou, for Osiris N. I will issue by day to do
what I have to do amongst the living" ("Book of the Dead," ch. ii.), -- i.e., to produce conceptions.
Osiris was "God manifest in generation," because the ancients knew, far better than the moderns, the
real occult influences of the lunar body upon the mysteries of conception.* Later on, when the moon
became connected with female goddesses** -- with Diana, Isis, Artemis,
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* In the oldest systems we find the Moon always male. Thus Soma is, with the Hindus, a kind of

sidereal Don Juan, a "King," and the father, albeit illegitimate, of Buddha -- Wisdom, which relates to

Occult Knowledge, a wisdom gathered through a thorough acquaintance with lunar mysteries

including those of sexual generation. (See "Holy of Holies.")

** If instead of being taught in Sunday Schools useless lessons from the Bible, the armies of the

ragged and the poor were taught Astrology -- so far, at any rate, as the occult properties of the Moon

and its hidden influences on generation are concerned, then there would be little need to fear increase

of the population nor to resort to the questionable literature of the Malthusians for its arrest. For it is

the Moon and her [[Footnote continued on next page]]


[[Vol. 1, Page]] 229 MANY STREAMS, BUT ONE SOURCE.


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Juno, etc., that connection was due to a thorough knowledge of physiology and female nature, physical
as much as psychic. But, primarily, the Sun and Moon were the only visible and, so to say, tangible
[by their effects] psychic and physiological deities -- the Father and the Son, while Space and air in
general, or that expanse of Heaven called Noot by the Egyptians, was the concealed Spirit or Breath of
the two. These "Father and Son" were interchangeable in their functions and worked harmoniously
together in their effects upon terrestrial nature and humanity; hence they were regarded as ONE,
though TWO in personified Entities. They were both males, and both had their distinct and also
collaborative work in the causative generation of Humanity. So much from the astronomical and
cosmic standpoints viewed and expressed in symbolical language -- which became in our last races
theological and dogmatic. But behind this veil of Cosmic and Astrological symbols, there were the
Occult mysteries of Anthropography and the primeval genesis of man. And in this, no knowledge of
symbols -- or even the key to the post-diluvian symbolical language of the Jews -- will, or can help,
save only with reference to that which was laid down in national scriptures for exoteric uses; the sum
of which, however cleverly veiled, was only the smallest portion of the real primitive history of each
people, often relating, moreover, -- as in the Hebrew Scriptures -- merely to the terrestrial human, not
divine life of that nation. That psychic and spiritual element belonged to MYSTERY and
INITIATION. There were things never recorded in scrolls, but, as in Central Asia, on rocks and in
subterranean crypts.
Nevertheless, there was a time when the whole world was "of one lip and of one knowledge," and Man
knew more of his origin than he does now, and thus knew that the Sun and Moon, however large a part
they do play in the constitution, growth and development of the human body, were not the direct
causative agents of his appearance on Earth;
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

[[Footnote continued from previous page]] conjunctions that regulate conceptions, and every astrologer

in India knows it. During the previous and the present races, at least at the beginning of this one, those

who indulged in marital relations during certain lunar phases that made those relations sterile were

regarded as sorcerers and sinners. But even now those sins of old, based on the Occult knowledge and

the abuse of it, would appear preferable to the crimes of to-day, which are perpetrated because of the

complete ignorance of, and disbelief in all such occult influences.


[[Vol. 1, Page]] 230 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.


these agents being, in truth, the living and intelligent Powers which the Occultists call Dhyan Chohans.

As to this, a very learned admirer of the Jewish Esotericism tells us that "the Kabala says expressly that

Elohim is a 'general abstraction'; what we call in mathematics 'a constant co-efficient' or a 'general

function' entering into all construction, not particular; that is, by the general ratio 1 to 31415, (the astroDhyanic and) Elohistic figures." To this the Eastern Occultist replies: Quite so, it is an abstraction to

our physical senses. To our spiritual perceptions, however, and to our inner spiritual eye, the Elohim or

Dhyanis are no more an abstraction than our soul and spirit are to us. Reject the one and you reject the
other -- since that which is the surviving Entity in us is partly the direct emanation from, and partly
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those celestial Entities themselves. One thing is sure; the Jews were perfectly acquainted with sorcery
and various maleficent forces; but, with the exception of some of their great prophets and seers like
Daniel and Ezekiel (Enoch belonging to a far distant race and not to any nation but to all, as a generic
character), they knew little of, nor would they deal with, the real divine Occultism, their national
character being averse to anything which had no direct bearing upon their own ethnical, tribal, and
individual benefits -- witness their own prophets, and the curses thundered by them against the "stiffnecked race." But even the Kabala plainly shows the direct relation between the Sephiroth, or Elohim,
and men.
Therefore, when it is proved to us that the Kabalistic identification of Jehovah with Binah, a female
Sephiroth, has still another, a sub-occult meaning in it, then and then only the Occultist will be ready to
pass the palm of perfection to the Kabalist. Until then, it is asserted that, as Jehovah is in the abstract
sense of a "one living God," a single number, a metaphysical figment, and a reality only when put in
his proper place as an emanation and a Sephiroth -- we have a right to maintain that the Zohar (as
witnessed by the BOOK OF NUMBERS, at any rate), gave out originally, before the Christian
Kabalists had disfigured it, and still gives out the same doctrine that we do; i.e., it makes Man emanate,
not from one Celestial MAN, but from a Septenary group of Celestial men or Angels, just as in
"Pymander, the Thought Divine."

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 231 THE DIFFERENTIATION OF THE "ONE."

STANZA VII. -- Continued.
(3) WHEN THE ONE BECOMES TWO -- THE "THREE-FOLD" APPEARS (a). THE THREE ARE
(linked into) ONE; AND IT IS OUR THREAD, O LANOO, THE HEART OF THE MAN-PLANT,
CALLED SAPTAPARNA (b).
(a) "When the ONE becomes two, the three-fold appears": to wit, when the One Eternal drops its
reflection into the region of Manifestation, that reflection, "the Ray," differentiates the "Water of
Space"; or, in the words of the "Book of the Dead"; "Chaos ceases, through the effulgence of the Ray
of Primordial light dissipating total darkness by the help of the great magic power of the WORD of the
(Central) Sun." Chaos becomes male-female, and Water, incubated through Light, and the "three-fold
being issues as its First-born." "Osiris-Ptah (or RA) creates his own limbs (like Brahma) by creating
the gods destined to personify his phases" during the Cycle (xvii., 4). The Egyptian Ra, issuing from
the DEEP, is the Divine Universal Soul in its manifested aspect, and so is Narayana, the Purusha,
"concealed in Akasa and present in Ether."
This is the metaphysical explanation, and refers to the very beginning of Evolution, or, as we should
rather say, of Theogony. The meaning of the Stanza when explained from another standpoint in its
reference to the mystery of man and his origin, is still more difficult to comprehend. In order to form a
clear conception of what is meant by the One becoming two, and then being transformed into the
"three-fold," the student has to make himself thoroughly acquainted with what we call "Rounds." If he
refers to "Esoteric Buddhism" -- the first attempt to sketch out an approximate outline of archaic
Cosmogony -- he will find that by a "Round" is meant the serial evolution of nascent material nature,
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of the seven globes of our chain* with their mineral,
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* Several inimical critics are anxious to prove that no seven principles of man nor septenary

constitution of our chain were taught in our earlier volume, "Isis Unveiled." Though in that work the

doctrine could only be hinted at, there are many passages, nevertheless, in which the septenary

constitution of both man and chain is openly mentioned. Speaking of the Elohim in Vol. II., page 420,

it is said: "They remain over the seventh heaven (or spiritual world), for it is they who, according to the

Kabalists, formed in succession the six material worlds, or rather, attempts at worlds that preceded our

own, which, they say, is the seventh." Our globe is, of course, upon the diagram representing the

"chain," the seventh and the lowest; though, [[Footnote continued on next page]]


[[Vol. 1, Page]] 232 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.


vegetable, and animal kingdoms (man being there included in the latter and standing at the head of it)

during the whole period of a life-cycle. The latter would be called by the Brahmins "a Day of Brahma."

It is, in short, one revolution of the "Wheel" (our planetary chain), which is composed of seven globes

(or seven separate "Wheels," in another sense this time). When evolution has run downward into
matter, from planet A to planet G, or Z, as the Western students call it, it is one Round. In the middle
of the Fourth revolution, which is our present "Round": "Evolution has reached its acme of physical
development, crowned its work with the perfect physical man, and, from this point, begins its work
spirit-ward." All this needs little repetition, as it is well explained in "Esoteric Buddhism." That which
was hardly touched upon, and of which the little that was said has misled many, is the origin of man,
and it is upon this that a little more light may now be thrown, just enough to make the Stanza more
comprehensible, as the process will be fully explained only in its legitimate place, in Book II.
Now every "Round" (on the descending scale) is but a repetition in a more concrete form of the Round
which preceded it, as every globe -- down to our fourth sphere (the actual earth) -- is a grosser and
more material copy of the more shadowy sphere which precedes it in their successive order, on the
three higher planes. (See diagram in Stanza VI. Comm. 6). On its way upwards on the ascending arc,
Evolution spiritualises and etherealises, so to speak, the general nature of all, bringing it on to a level
with the plane on which the twin globe on the opposite side is placed; the result being, that when the
seventh globe is reached (in whatever Round) the nature of everything that is evolving returns to the
condition it was in at its starting point -- plus, every time, a new and superior degree in the states of
consciousness. Thus it becomes clear that the "origin of man," so-called, on this our present
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

[[Footnote continued from previous page]] as the evolution on these globes is cyclic, it is the fourth in

descending the arc of matter. And again, on page 367, Vol. II., it is written: "In the Egyptian notions,

as in those of all other faiths founded on philosophy, man was not merely . . . an union of soul and

body; he was a trinity when spirit was added to it; and besides that doctrine made him consist of body,

astral form, or shadow, the animal soul, the higher soul, and terrestrial intelligence and a sixth


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principle, etc., etc. -- the seventh -- SPIRIT." So clearly are these principles mentioned, that even in the

Index, one finds on page 683: -- \"Six principles of man" -- the seventh being the synthesis of the six,

and not a principle but a ray of the Absolute ALL -- in strict truth.


[[Vol. 1, Page]] 233 WHAT INCARNATES IN ANIMAL MAN.

Round, or life-cycle on this planet, must occupy the same place in the same order -- save details based
on local conditions and time -- as in the preceding Round. Again, it must be explained and
remembered that, as the work of each Round is said to be apportioned to a different group of so-called
"Creators" or "Architects," so is that of every globe; i.e., it is under the supervision and guidance of
special "Builders" and "Watchers" -- the various Dhyan-Chohans.
The group of the hierarchy which is commissioned to "create"* men is a special group, then; yet it
evolved shadowy man in this cycle just as a higher and still more spiritual group evolved him in the
Third Round. But as it is the Sixth -- on the downward scale of Spirituality -- the last and seventh
being the terrestrial Spirits (elementals) which gradually form, build, and condense his physical body -this Sixth group evolves no more than the future man's shadowy form, a filmy, hardly visible
transparent copy of themselves. It becomes the task of the fifth Hierarchy -- the mysterious beings that
preside over the constellation Capricornus, Makara, or "Crocodile" in India as in Egypt -- to inform the
empty and ethereal animal form and make of it the Rational Man. This is one of those subjects upon
which very little may be said to the general public. It is a MYSTERY, truly, but only to him who is
prepared to reject the existence of intellectual and conscious spiritual Beings in the Universe, limiting
full Consciousness to man alone, and that only as a "function of the Brain." Many are those among the
Spiritual Entities, who have incarnated bodily in man, since the beginning of his appearance, and who,
for all that, still exist as independently as they did before, in the infinitudes of Space. . . .
To put it more clearly: the invisible Entity may be bodily present on earth without abandoning,
however, its status and functions in the supersensuous regions. If this needs explanation, we can do no
better than remind the reader of like cases in Spiritualism, though such cases are very rare, at least as
regards the nature of the Entity incarnating,**
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* Creation is an incorrect word to use, as no religion, not even the sect of the Visishta Adwaitees in

India -- one which anthropomorphises even Parabrahmam -- believes in creation out of nihil as

Christians and Jews do, but in evolution out of preexisting materials.

** The so-called "Spirits" that may occasionally possess themselves of the bodies of mediums are not

the Monads or Higher Principles of disembodied personalities. Such a "Spirit" can only be either an

Elementary, or -- a Nirmanakaya.


[[Vol. 1, Page]] 234 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.


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or taking temporary possession of a medium. Just as certain persons -- men and women, reverting to
parallel cases among living persons -- whether by virtue of a peculiar organization, or through the
power of acquired mystic knowledge, can be seen in their "double" in one place, while the body is
many miles away; so the same thing can occur in the case of superior Beings.
Man, philosophically considered, is, in his outward form, simply an animal, hardly more perfect than
his pithecoid-like ancestor of the third round. He is a living body, not a living being, since the
realisation of existence, the "Ego-Sum," necessitates self-consciousness, and an animal can only have
direct consciousness, or instinct. This was so well understood by the Ancients that the Kabalist even
made of soul and body two lives, independent of each other.* The soul, whose body vehicle is the
Astral, ethero-substantial envelope, could die and man be still living on earth -- i.e., the soul could free
itself from and quit the tabernacle for various reasons -- such as insanity, spiritual and physical
depravity, etc.** Therefore, that which living men (Initiates)
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* On p. 340-351 (Genesis of the Soul) in the "New Aspects of Life," the Author states the Kabalistic

teaching: "They held that, functionally, Spirit and Matter of corresponding opacity and density tended

to coalesce; and that the resultant created Spirits, in the disembodied state, were constituted on a scale

in which the differing opacities and transparencies of Elemental or uncreated Spirit were reproduced.

And that these Spirits in the disembodied state attracted, appropriated, digested and assimilated

Elemental Spirit and Elemental Matter whose condition was conformed to their own." "They therefore

taught that there was a wide difference in the condition of created Spirits; and that in the intimate

association between the Spirit-world and the world of Matter, the more opaque Spirits in the

disembodied state were drawn towards the more dense parts of the material world, and therefore

tended towards the centre of the Earth, where they found the conditions most suited to their state; while

the more transparent Spirits passed into the surrounding aura of the planet, the most rarified finding

their home in its satellite."

This relates exclusively to our Elementary Spirits, and has naught to do with either the Planetary,

Sidereal, Cosmic or Inter-Etheric Intelligent Forces or "Angels" as they are termed by the Roman

Church. The Jewish Kabalists, especially the practical Occultists who dealt with ceremonial magic,
busied themselves solely with the spirits of the Planets and the "Elementals" so-called. Therefore this
covers only a portion of the Esoteric Teaching.
** The possibility of the "Soul" (i.e., the eternal Spiritual Ego) dwelling in the unseen worlds, while its
body goes on living on Earth, is a pre-eminently occult doctrine, especially in Chinese and Buddhist
philosophy. See "Isis Unveiled," vol. i., [[Footnote continued on next page]]

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 235 DII SUNT DEMONES INVERSI.

can do, the Dhyanis, who have no physical body to hamper them, can do still better. This was the
belief of the Antediluvians, and it is fast becoming that of modern intellectual society, in Spiritualism,

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besides the Greek and Roman Churches, which teach the ubiquity of their angels. The Zoroastrians
regarded their Amshaspends as dual entities (Ferouers), applying this duality -- in esoteric philosophy,
at any rate -- to all the spiritual and invisible denizens of the numberless worlds in space which are
visible to our eye. In a note of Damascius (sixth century) on the Chaldean oracles, we have a triple
evidence of the universality of this doctrine, for he says: "In these oracles the seven Cosmocratores of
the world, ('The World-Pillars,') mentioned likewise by St. Paul, are double -- one set being
commissioned to rule the superior worlds the spiritual and the sidereal, and the other to guide and
watch over the worlds of matter." Such is also the opinion of Jamblichus, who makes an evident
distinction between the archangels and the "Archontes." (See "De Mysteriis," sec. ii., ch. 3.) The above
may be applied, of course, to the distinction made between the degrees or orders of spiritual beings,
and it is in this sense that the Roman Catholic Church tries to interpret and teach the difference; for
while the archangels are in her teaching divine and holy, their doubles are denounced by her as devils.*
But the word "ferouer" is not to be understood in this sense, for it means simply the reverse or the
opposite side of some attri bute or quality. Thus when the Occultist says that the "Demon is the lining
of God" (evil, the reverse of the medal), he does not mean two separate
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

[[Footnote continued from previous page]] p. 602, for an illustration. Many are the Soulless men

among us, for the occurrence is found to take place in wicked materialists as well as in persons "who

advance in holiness and never turn back." (See ibid and also "Isis," vol. ii., p. 369.)

* This identity between the Spirit and its material "double" (in man it is the reverse) explains still

better the confusion, alluded to already in this work, made in the names and individualities, as well as

the numbers, of the Rishis and the Prajapatis; especially between those of the Satyayuga and the

Mahabharatan period. It also throws additional light on what the Secret Doctrine teaches with regard to

the Root and the Seed Manus (see Book ii. "On the primitive Manus of humanity"). Not only those

progenitors of our mankind, but every human being, we are taught, has its prototype in the Spiritual

Spheres; which prototype is the highest essence of his seventh principle. Thus the seven Manus

become 14, the Root Manu being the Prime Cause, and the "Seed-Manu" its effect; and when the latter

reach from Satyayuga (the first stage) to the heroic period, these Manus or Rishis become 21 in

number.


[[Vol. 1, Page]] 236 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

actualities, but the two aspects or facets of the same Unity. Now the best man living would appear, side
by side with an Archangel -- as described in Theology -- a fiend. Hence a certain reason to depreciate a
lower "double," immersed far deeper in matter than its original. But there is still as little cause to
regard them as devils, and this is precisely what the Roman Catholics maintain against all reason and
logic.
(b) The concluding sentence of this sloka shows how archaic is the belief and the doctrine that man is
seven-fold in his constitution. The thread of being which animates man and passes through all his
personalities, or rebirths on this Earth (an allusion to Sutratma), the thread on which moreover all his
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"Spirits" are strung -- is spun from the essence of the "threefold," the "fourfold" and the "fivefold";
which contain all the preceding. Panchasikha, agreeably to Bhagavata Purana (V. XX. 25-28), is one
of the seven Kumaras who go to Sveta-Dvipa to worship Vishnu. We shall see further on, what
connection there is between the "celibate" and chaste sons of Brahma, who refuse "to multiply," and
terrestrial mortals. Meanwhile it is evident that "the Man-Plant," Saptaparna, thus refers to the seven
principles, and man is compared to the seven-leaved plant of this name* so sacred among Buddhists.
For further details as to Saptaparna and the importance of the number seven in occultism, as well as in
symbology, the reader is referred to Part II., Book II., on Symbolism: Sections on "Saptaparna," "The
Septenary in the Vedas," etc. etc.
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* The Egyptian allegory in the "Book of the Dead" already mentioned, the hymn that relates to the

reward "of the Soul," is as suggestive of our Septenary Doctrine as it is poetical. The deceased is

allotted a piece of land in the field of Aanroo, wherein the Manes, the deified shades of the dead,

glean, as the harvest they have sown by their actions in life, the corn seven cubits high, which grows in

a territory divided into 14 and 7 portions. This corn is the food on which they live and prosper, or that

will kill them, in Amenti, the realm of which the Aanroo field is a domain. For, as said in the hymn,

(see chap. xxxii. 9) the deceased is either destroyed therein, or becomes pure spirit for the Eternity, in

consequence of the "Seven times seventy-seven lives" passed or to be passed on Earth. The idea of the

corn reaped as the "fruit of our actions" is very graphic.


[[Vol. 1, Page]] 237 THE IMMORTAL ROOT.


STANZA VII. -- Continued.

4. IT IS THE ROOT THAT NEVER DIES, THE THREE-TONGUED FLAME OF THE FOUR

WICKS* (a) . . . THE WICKS ARE THE SPARKS, THAT DRAW FROM THE THREE-TONGUED
FLAME (their upper triad) SHOT OUT BY THE SEVEN, THEIR FLAME; THE BEAMS AND
SPARKS OF ONE MOON REFLECTED IN THE RUNNING WAVES OF ALL THE RIVERS OF
THE EARTH ("Bhumi," or "Prithivi")** (b).
(a) The "Three-tongued flame" that never dies is the immortal spiritual triad -- the Atma-Buddhi and
Manas -- the fruition of the latter assimilated by the first two after every terrestrial life. The "four
wicks" that go out and are extinguished, are the four lower principles, including the body.
"I am the three-wicked Flame and my wicks are immortal," says the defunct. "I enter into the domain
of Sekhem (the God whose arm sows the seed of action produced by the disembodied soul) and I enter
the region of the Flames who have destroyed their adversaries," i.e., got rid of the sin-creating "four
wicks." (See chap. i., vii., "Book of the Dead," and the "Mysteries of Ro-stan.")
(b) Just as milliards of bright sparks dance on the waters of an ocean above which one and the same
moon is shining, so our evanescent personalities -- the illusive envelopes of the immortal MONADhttp://www.theosociety.org/pasadena/sd/sd1-1-11.htm (21 von 22) [06.05.2003 03:31:18]


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EGO -- twinkle and dance on the waves of Maya. They last and appear, as the thousands of sparks
produced by the moon-beams, only so long as the Queen of the Night radiates her lustre on the running
waters of life: the period of a Manvantara; and then they disappear, the beams -- symbols of our eternal
Spiritual Egos -- alone surviving, re-merged in, and being, as they were before, one with the MotherSource.
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* The three-tongued flame of the four wicks corresponds to the four unities and the three Binaries of

the Sephirothal tree (see Commentary on Stanza VI.).

** Useless to repeat again that the terms given here are Sanskrit translations; for the original terms,

unknown and unheard of in Europe, would only puzzle the reader more, and serve no useful purpose.


Next Section

Contents


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The Secret Doctrine by H. P. Blavatsky -- Vol. 1


Theosophical University Press Online Edition

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 238 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

STANZA VII. -- Continued.
(5) THE SPARK HANGS FROM THE FLAME BY THE FINEST THREAD OF FOHAT. IT
JOURNEYS THROUGH THE SEVEN WORLDS OF MAYA (a). IT STOPS IN THE FIRST
(Kingdom), AND IS A METAL AND A STONE; IT PASSES INTO THE SECOND (Kingdom), AND
BEHOLD -- A PLANT; THE PLANT WHIRLS THROUGH SEVEN FORMS AND BECOMES A
SACRED ANIMAL; (the first shadow of the physical man) (b).
FROM THE COMBINED ATTRIBUTES OF THESE, MANU (man), THE THINKER, IS FORMED.
WHO FORMS HIM? THE SEVEN LIVES; AND THE ONE LIFE (c). WHO COMPLETES HIM?
THE FIVEFOLD LHA. AND WHO PERFECTS THE LAST BODY? FISH, SIN, AND SOMA (the
moon) (d).
(a) The phrase "through the seven Worlds of Maya" refers here to the seven globes of the planetary
chain and the seven rounds, or the 49 stations of active existence that are before the "Spark" or Monad,
at the beginning of every "Great Life-Cycle" or Manvantara. The "thread of Fohat" is the thread of life
before referred to.
This relates to the greatest problem of philosophy -- the physical and substantial nature of life, the
independent nature of which is denied by modern science because that science is unable to
comprehend it. The reincarnationists and believers in Karma alone dimly perceive that the whole secret
of Life is in the unbroken series of its manifestations: whether in, or apart from, the physical body.
Because if -"Life, like a dome of many-coloured glass,
Stains the white radiance of Eternity" -yet it is itself part and parcel of that Eternity; for life alone can understand life.
What is that "Spark" which "hangs from the flame?" It is JIVA, the MONAD in conjunction with
MANAS, or rather its aroma -- that which remains from each personality, when worthy, and hangs
from Atma-Buddhi, the Flame, by the thread of life. In whatever way interpreted, and into whatever
number of principles the human being is divided, it may easily be shown that this doctrine is supported
by all the ancient

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[[Vol. 1, Page]] 239 CHALDEAN METAPHYSICS.

religions, from the Vedic to the Egyptian, from the Zoroastrian to the Jewish. In the case of the lastmentioned, the Kabalistic works offer abundant proof of this statement. The entire system of the
Kabalistic numerals is based on the divine septenary hanging from the Triad (thus forming the Decade)
and its permutations 7, 5, 4, and 3, which, finally, all merge into the ONE itself: an endless and
boundless Circle.
"The Deity (the ever Invisible Presence)," says the Zohar, "manifests itself through the ten Sephiroth
which are its radiating witnesses. The Deity is like the Sea from which outflows a stream called
WISDOM, the waters of which fall into a lake named Intelligence. From the basin, like seven
channels, issue the Seven Sephiroth. . . . . For ten equal seven: the Decade contains four Unities and
three Binaries." The ten Sephiroth correspond to the limbs of MAN. "When I framed Adam Kadmon,"
the Elohim are made to say, "the Spirit of the Eternal shot out of his Body like a sheet of lightning that
radiated at once on the billows of the Seven millions of skies, and my ten splendours were his limbs."
But neither the Head nor the shoulders of Adam-Kadmon can be seen; therefore we read in the Sephra
Dzenioutha (the "Book of the Concealed Mystery"): -"In the beginning of Time, after the Elohim (the "Sons of Light and Life," or the "Builders") had
shaped out of the eternal Essence the Heavens and the Earth, they formed the worlds six by six, the
seventh being Malkuth, which is our Earth (see Mantuan Codex) on its plane, and the lowest on all the
other planes of conscious existence. The Chaldean Book of Numbers contains a detailed explanation of
all this. "The first triad of the body of Adam Kadmon (the three upper planes of the seven*) cannot be
seen before the soul stands in the presence of the Ancient of Days." The Sephiroth of this upper triad
are: -- "1, Kether (the Crown) represented by the brow of Macroprosopos; 2, Chochmah (Wisdom, a
male Principle) by his right shoulder; and 3, Binah (Intelligence, a female Principle) by the left
shoulder." Then come the seven limbs (or Sephiroth) on the planes of manifestation, the totality of
these four planes being represented by Microprosopus (the
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* The formation of the "living Soul" or man, would render the idea more clearly. "A Living Soul" is a

synonym of man in the Bible. These are our seven "Principles."


[[Vol. 1, Page]] 240 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.


lesser Face) or Tetragrammaton, the "four-lettered" Mystery. "The seven manifested and the three

concealed limbs are the Body of the Deity."

Thus our Earth, Malkuth, is both the Seventh and the Fourth world, the former when counting from the

first globe above, the latter if reckoned by the planes. It is generated by the sixth globe or Sephiroth

called Yezod, "foundation," or as said in the Book of Numbers "by Yezod, He (Adam Kadmon)

fecundates the primitive Heva" (Eve or our Earth). Rendered in mystic language this is the explanation

why Malkuth, called "the inferior Mother," Matrona, Queen, and the Kingdom of the Foundation, is

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shown as the Bride of Tetragrammaton or Microprosopus (the 2nd Logos) the Heavenly Man. When
free from all impurity she will become united with the Spiritual Logos, i.e., in the 7th Race of the 7th
Round -- after the regeneration, on the day of "SABBATH." For the "seventh day" has again an occult
significance undreamt of by our theologians.
"When Matronitha, the Mother, is separated and brought face to face with the King, in the excellence
of the Sabbath, all things become one body," says verse 746, in chapter xxii. of "Ha Idra Zuta
Kadisha." "Becomes one body" means that all is reabsorbed once more into the one element, the spirits
of men becoming Nirvanees and the elements of everything else becoming again what they were
before -- protyle or undifferentiated substance. "Sabbath" means rest or Nirvana. It is not the seventh
day after six days but a period the duration of which equals that of the seven "days" or any period made
up of seven parts. Thus a pralaya is equal in duration to the manwantara, or a night of Brahma is equal
to this "day." If the Christians will follow Jewish customs they ought to adopt the spirit and not the
dead letter thereof: i.e., to work one week of seven days and rest seven days. That the word "Sabbath"
had a mystic significance is shown in the contempt shown by Jesus for the Sabbath day, and by what is
said in Luke xviii. 12. Sabbath is there taken for the whole week. (See Greek text where the week is
called Sabbath. "I fast twice in the Sabbath.") Paul, an Initiate, knew it well when referring to the
eternal rest and felicity in heaven, as Sabbath; "and their happiness will be eternal, for they will ever be
(one) with the Lord and will enjoy an eternal Sabbath." (Hebrew iv. 2.)

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 241 THE TRUE AND THE FALSE KABALA.

The difference between the two systems, taking the Kabala as contained in the Chaldean Book of
Numbers, not as misrepresented by its now disfigured copy, the Kabala of the Christian mystics --the
Kabala and the archaic esoteric Vidya, is very small indeed, being confined to unimportant
divergences of form and expression. Thus Eastern occultism refers to our earth as the fourth world, the
lowest of the chain, above which run upward on both its sides the six globes, three on each side. The
Zohar, on the other hand, calls the earth the lower, or the Seventh, adding that upon the six depend all
things which are in it, "Microprosopus." The "smaller face," smaller because manifested and finite, "is
formed of six Sephiroth," says the same work. "Seven kings come and die in the thrice-destroyed
world" -- (Malkuth our earth, destroyed after each of the three rounds which it has gone through).
"And their reign (of the seven kings) will be broken up." (Book of Numbers, 1. viii., 3.) This relates to
the Seven Races, five of which have already appeared, and two more have still to appear in this Round.
The Shinto allegorical accounts of Cosmogony and the origin of man in Japan hint at the same belief.
Captain C. Pfoundes studied for nearly nine years in the monasteries of Japan the religion underlying
the various sects of the land. . . . . . "The Shinto idea of creation," he says, "is as follows: Out of chaos
(Konton) the earth (in) was the sediment precipitated, and the Heavens (yo) the ethereal essences
which ascended: Maa (jin) appeared between the two. The first man was called Kuni-to ko tatchi-nomikoto, and five other names were given to him, and then the human race appeared, male and female.
Isanagi and Isanami begat Tenshoko doijin, the first of the five gods of the Earth." These "gods" are
simply our five races, Isanagi and Isanami being the two kinds of the "ancestors," the two preceding
races which give birth to animal and to rational man.
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It will be shown (Vol. II. Pt. II.) that the number seven, as well as the doctrine of the septenary
constitution of man, was pre-eminent in all the secret systems. It plays as important a part in Western
Kabala as in Eastern Occultism. Eliphas Levi calls the number seven "the key to the Mosaic creation
and the symbols of every religion." He shows the Kabala following faithfully even the septenary
division of man, as the diagram he gives in his "Clef des Grands Mysteres" is septenary. This

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 242 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

may be seen at a glance on page 389, "Une prophetic et diverses pensees de Paracelse," however
cleverly the correct thought is veiled. One needs also only to look at the diagram (Plate VII. in Mr.
Mathers' Kabala) "the formation of the Soul"* from the same "Key of the Great Mysteries" by Levi to
find the same, though with a different interpretation.
Thus it stands with both the Kabalistic and the Occult names attached: --

[[Footnote(s) to diagram]] -------------------------------------------------

* Nephesch is the "breath of (animal) life" breathed into Adam, the man of dust; it is consequently the

Vital Spark, the informing element. Without Manas, or what is miscalled in Levi's diagram Nephesch


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instead of Manas, "the reasoning Soul," or mind, Atma-Buddhi are irrational on this plane and cannot

act. It is Buddhi which is the plastic mediator, not Manas, "the intelligent medium between the upper

Triad and the lower Quaternary." But there are many such strange and curious transformations to be

found in the Kabalistic works -- a convincing proof that its literature has become a sad jumble. We do

not accept the classification except in this one particular, in order to show the points of agreement.


[[Vol. 1, Page]] 243 OCCULT AND KABALISTIC DOCTRINES.

We will now give in tabular form what the very cautious Eliphas Levi says in explanation of his
diagram, and what the Esoteric Doctrine teaches -- and compare the two. Levi, too, makes a distinction
between Kabalistic and Occult Pneumatics. (See "Histoire de la Magic," pp. 388, 389.)
[[first column]]
Says Eliphas Levi, the Kabalist: -KABALISTIC PNEUMATICS.
1. The Soul (or EGO) is a clothed light; and this light is triple.
2. Neschamah -- "pure Spirit."
3. Ruach -- the Soul or Spirit.
4. Nephesch -- plastic mediator.**
5. The garment of the Soul is the rind (body) of the image (astral Soul).
6. The image is double, because it reflects the good as the bad.
7. Imago, body.
------OCCULT PNEUMATICS.
As given by Eliphas Levi.

1. Nephesh is immortal because it renews its life by the destruction of forms.
[But Nephesh, the "breath of
[[first column continued on next page]]
[[second column]]
Say the Theosophists: -ESOTERIC PNEUMATICS.

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1. Ditto, for it is Atma-Buddhi-Manas.
2. Ditto.*
3. Spiritual Soul.
4. Mediator between Spirit and its Man, the Seat of Reason, the Mind, in man.
5. Correct.
6. Too uselessly apocalyptic. Why not say that the astral reflects the good as well as the bad man;
man, who is ever tending to the upper triangle, or else disappears with the Quaternary.
7. Ditto, the earthly image.
------OCCULT PNEUMATICS.
As given by the Occultists.

1. Manas is immortal, because after every new incarnation it adds to Atma-Buddhi something of itself,
and
[[second column continued on next page]]
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* Eliphas Levi has, whether purposely or otherwise, confused the numbers: with us his No. 2 is No. 1.

(Spirit); and by making of Nephesch both the plastic mediator and Life, he thus makes in reality only

six principles, because he repeats the first two.

** Esotericism teaches the same. But Manas is not Nephesch; nor is the latter the astral, but the 4th

principle, if also the 2nd prana, for Nephesch is the "breath of life" in man, as in beast or insect, of

physical, material life, which has no spirituality in it.


[[Vol. 1, Page]] 244 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.


[[first column continued from last page]]

life," is a misnomer and a useless puzzle to the student.]

2. Ruach progresses by the evolution of ideas (! ?).

3. Neschamah is progressive without oblivion and destruction.

4. The soul has three dwellings.

5. These dwellings are: the plane of the mortals: the Superior Eden; and the Inferior Eden.
6. The image (man) is a sphinx that offers the riddle of birth.
7. The fatal image (the astral) endows Nephesch with its aptitudes; but Ruach is able to substitute for
this (vitiated) Nephesch the image

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[[first column continued on next page]]
[[second column continued from last page]]
thus, assimilating itself to the Monad, shares its immortality.
2. Buddhi becomes conscious by the accretions it gets from Manas after every new incarnation and the
death of man.
3. Atma neither progresses, forgets, nor remembers. It does not belong to this plane: it is but the ray of
light eternal which shines upon and through the darkness of matter -- when the latter is willing.
4. The Soul (collectively, as the upper Triad) lives on three planes, besides its fourth, the terrestrial
sphere; and it exists eternally on the highest of the three.
5. These dwellings are: Earth for the physical man, or the animal Soul; Kama-loka (Hades, the Limbo)
for the disembodied man, or his Shell; Devachan for the higher Triad.
6. Correct.
7. The astral through Kama (desire) is ever drawing Manas down into the sphere of material passions
and desires. But if the better man
[[second column continued on next page]]

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 245 OCCULTISTS AND KABALISTS DIFFER.

[[first column continued from last page]]
conquered in accordance with the inspirations of Neschamah.
------[[second column continued from last page]]
or Manas tries to escape the fatal attraction and turns its aspirations to Atma -- Spirit -- then Buddhi

(Ruach) conquers, and carries Manas with it to the realm of eternal Spirit.
------It is very evident that the French Kabalist either did not know sufficiently the real tenet, or distorted it
to suit himself and his object. Thus he says again, treating upon the same subject, and we, Occultists,

answer the late Kabalist and his admirers: -[[first column]]
1. The body is the mould of Nephesch; Nephesch the mould of Ruach; Ruach the mould of the
garments of Neschamah.
2. Light (the Soul) personifies in clothing itself (with a body); and personality endures only when the
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garment is perfect.
3. The angels aspire to become men; a perfect man, a man-god is above all the angels.
4. Every 14,000 years the soul rejuvenates and rests in the jubilean sleep of oblivion.
[[second column]]
1. The body follows the whims, good or bad, of Manas; Manas tries to follow the light of Buddhi, but
often fails. Buddhi is the mould of the "garments" of Atma, because Atma is no body, or shape, or
anything, and because Buddhi is its vehicle only figuratively.
2. The Monad becomes a personal ego when it incarnates; and something remains of that personality
through Manas, when the latter is perfect enough to assimilate Buddhi.
3. Correct.
4. Within a period, "a great age" or a day of Brahrna, 14 Manus reign; after which comes Pralaya when
all the Souls rest in Nirvana. (Souls = Egos).

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 246 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

Such are the distorted copies of the esoteric doctrine in the Kabala. But see also "The Primeval Manus
of Humanity" in Book II.
To return to Stanza VII.
(b) The well-known Kabalistic aphorism runs: -- "A stone becomes a plant; a plant, a beast; the beast, a
man; a man a spirit; and the spirit a god." The "spark" animates all the kingdoms in turn before it
enters into and informs divine man, between whom and his predecessor, animal man, there is all the
difference in the world. Genesis begins its anthropology at the wrong end (evidently for a blind) and
lands nowhere.* Had it begun as it ought, one would have found in it, first, the celestial Logos, the
"Heavenly Man," which evolves as a Compound Unit of Logoi, out of whom after their pralayic sleep -a sleep that gathers the cyphers scattered on the Mayavic plane into One, as the separate globules of
quicksilver on a plate blend into one mass -- the Logoi appear in their totality as the first "male and
female" or Adam Kadmon, the "Fiat Lux" of the Bible, as we have already seen. But this
transformation did not take place on our Earth, nor on any material plane, but in the Spacial Depths of
the first differentiation of the eternal Root-matter. On our nascent globe things proceed differently. The
Monad or Jiva, as said in "Isis Unveiled," vol. i., p. 302, is, first of all, shot down by the law of
Evolution into the lowest form of matter -- the mineral. After a sevenfold gyration encased in the stone
(or that which will become mineral and stone in the Fourth Round), it creeps out of it, say, as a lichen.
Passing thence, through all the forms of vegetable matter, into what is termed animal matter, it has
now reached the point in which it has become the germ, so to speak, of the
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* The introductory chapters of Genesis were never meant to represent even a remote allegory of the

creation of our Earth. They embrace a metaphysical conception of some indefinite period in the

eternity, when successive attempts were being made by the law of evolution at the formation of

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universes. The idea is plainly stated in the Zohar: "There were old worlds, which perished as soon as

they came into existence, were formless, and were called Sparks. Thus, the smith, when hammering

the iron, lets the sparks fly in all directions. The sparks are the primordial worlds, which could not

continue because the Sacred Aged (Sephira) had not as yet assumed its form (of androgyne, or opposite

sexes) of King and Queen (Sephira and Kadmon), and the Master was not yet at his work." See Zohar,

"Idra Suta," Book iii., p. 292, b. The Supreme consulting with the Architect of the world -- his Logos -about creation. ("Isis Unveiled," vol. ii., p. 421.)


[[Vol. 1, Page]] 247 SPIRIT ALONE IS HELPLESS ON EARTH.

animal, that will become the physical man. All this, up to the Third Round, is formless, as matter, and
senseless, as consciousness. For the Monad or Jiva per se cannot be even called spirit: it is a ray, a
breath of the ABSOLUTE, or the Absoluteness rather, and the Absolute Homogeneity, having no
relations with the conditioned and relative finiteness, is unconscious on our plane. Therefore, besides
the material which will be needed for its future human form, the monad requires (a) a spiritual model,
or prototype, for that material to shape itself into; and (b) an intelligent consciousness to guide its
evolution and progress, neither of which is possessed by the homogeneous monad, or by senseless
though living matter. The Adam of dust requires the Soul of Life to be breathed into him: the two
middle principles, which are the sentient life of the irrational animal and the Human Soul, for the
former is irrational without the latter. It is only when, from a potential androgyne, man has become
separated into male and female, that he will be endowed with this conscious, rational, individual Soul,
(Manas) "the principle, or the intelligence, of the Elohim," to receive which, he has to eat of the fruit
of Knowledge from the Tree of Good and Evil. How is he to obtain all this? The Occult doctrine
teaches that while the monad is cycling on downward into matter, these very Elohim -- or Pitris, the
lower Dhyan-Chohans -- are evolving pari passu with it on a higher and more spiritual plane,
descending also relatively into matter on their own plane of consciousness, when, after having reached
a certain point, they will meet the incarnating senseless monad, encased in the lowest matter, and
blending the two potencies, Spirit and Matter, the union will produce that terrestrial symbol of the
"Heavenly Man" in space -- PERFECT MAN. In the Sankhya philosophy, Purusha (spirit) is spoken of
as something impotent unless he mounts on the shoulders of Prakriti (matter), which, left alone, is -senseless. But in the secret philosophy they are viewed as graduated. Though one and the same thing in
their origin, Spirit and Matter, when once they are on the plane of differentiation, begin each of them
their evolutionary progress in contrary directions -- Spirit falling gradually into matter, and the latter
ascending to its original condition, that of a pure spiritual substance. Both are inseparable, yet ever
separated. In polarity, on the physical plane, two like poles will always repel each other, while the
negative and the positive are mutually attracted, so do Spirit and Matter stand to each other -- the two
poles of the same homogeneous substance, the root-principle of the universe.

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 248 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

Therefore, when the hour strikes for Purusha to mount on Prakriti's shoulders for the formation of the
Perfect Man -- rudimentary man of the first 2 1/2 Races being only the first, gradually evolving into

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the most perfect of mammals -- the Celestial "Ancestors" (Entities from preceding worlds, called in
India the Sishta) step in on this our plane, as the Pitris had stepped in before them for the formation of
the physical or animal-man, and incarnate in the latter. Thus the two processes -- for the two creations:
the animal and the divine man -- differ greatly. The Pitris shoot out from their ethereal bodies, still
more ethereal and shadowy similitudes of themselves, or what we should now call "doubles," or "astral
forms," in their own likeness.* This furnishes the Monad with its first dwelling, and blind matter with
a model around and upon which to build henceforth. But Man is still incomplete. From Swayambhuva
Manu (in Manu, Book I.), from whom descended the seven primitive Manus or Prajapati, each of
whom gave birth to a primitive race of men, down to the Codex Nazareus, in which Karabtanos or
Fetahil (blind concupiscent matter) begets on his Mother, "Spiritus," seven figures, each of which
stands as the progenitor of one of the primaeval seven races -- this doctrine has left its impress on
every Archaic Scripture.
"Who forms Manu (the Man) and who forms his body? The LIFE and the LIVES. Sin** and the
MOON." Here Manu stands for the spiritual, heavenly man, the real and non-dying EGO in us, which
is the direct emanation of the "One Life" or the Absolute Deity. As to our outward physical bodies, the
house of the tabernacle of the Soul, the Doctrine teaches a strange lesson; so strange that unless
thoroughly explained and as rightly comprehended, it is only the exact Science of the future that is
destined to vindicate the theory fully.
It has been stated before now that Occultism does not accept anything inorganic in the Kosmos. The
expression employed by Science, "inorganic substance," means simply that the latent life slumbering
in the molecules of so-called "inert matter" is incognizable. ALL IS LIFE, and every atom of even
mineral dust is a LIFE, though beyond our comprehension and perception, because it is outside the
range of the
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* Read in Isis, vol. ii., pp. 297-303, the doctrine of the Codex Nazaraeus -- every tenet of our teaching

is found there under a different form and allegory.

** The word "Sin" is curious, but has a particular Occult relation to the Moon, besides being its

Chaldean equivalent.


[[Vol. 1, Page]] 249 MATTER, LIFE AND SUBSTANCE.


laws known to those who reject Occultism. "The very Atoms," says Tyndall, "seem instinct with a

desire for life." Whence, then, we would ask, comes the tendency "to run into organic form"? Is it in

any way explicable except according to the teachings of Occult Science?

"The worlds, to the profane," says a Commentary, "are built up of the known Elements. To the

conception of an Arhat, these Elements are themselves collectively a divine Life; distributively, on the

plane of manifestations, the numberless and countless crores of lives.* Fire alone is ONE, on the

plane of the One

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[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* Is Pasteur unconsciously taking the first step toward Occult Science in declaring that, if he dared

express his full idea upon this subject, he would say that the Organic cells are endowed with a vital

potency that does not cease its activity with the cessation of a current of Oxygen towards them, and

does not, on that account, break off its relations with life itself, which is supported by the influence of

that gas? "I would add," goes on Pasteur, "that the evolution of the germ is accomplished by means of

complicated phenomena, among which we must class processes of fermentation"; and life, according

to Claude Bernard and Pasteur, is nothing else than a process of fermentation. That there exist in

Nature Beings or Lives that can live and thrive without air, even on our globe, was demonstrated by

the same men of science. Pasteur found that many of the lower lives, such as Vibriones, and some

microbes and bacteria, could exist without air, which, on the contrary, killed them. They derived the

oxygen necessary for their multiplication from the various substances that surround them. He calls

them AErobes, living on the tissues of our matter when the latter has ceased to form a part of an

integral and living whole (then called very unscientifically by science "dead matter"), and Anaerobes.

The one kind binds oxygen, and contri butes vastly to the destruction of animal life and vegetable

tissues, furnishing to the atmosphere materials which enter later on into the constitution of other
organisms; the other destroys, or rather annihilates finally, the so-called organic substance; ultimate
decay being impossible without their participation. Certain germ-cells, such as those of yeast, develop
and multiply in air, but when deprived of it, they will adapt themselves to life without air and become
ferments, absorbing oxygen from substances coming in contact with them, and thereby ruining the
latter. The cells in fruit, when lacking free oxygen, act as ferments and stimulate fermentation.
"Therefore the vegetable cell manifests in this case its life as an anaerobic being. Why, then, should an
organic cell form in this case an exception"? asks Professor Bogolubof. Pasteur shows that in the
substance of our tissues and organs, the cell, not finding sufficient oxygen for itself, stimulates
fermentation in the same way as the fruit-cell, and Claude Bernard thought that Pasteur's idea of the
formation of ferments found its application and corroboration in the fact that Urea increases in the
blood during strangulation: LIFE therefore is everywhere in the Universe, and, Occultism teaches us, it
is also in the atom. Also see infra, at the close of this Section.

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 250 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

Reality: on that of manifested, hence illusive, being, its particles are fiery lives which live and have
their being at the expense of every other life that they consume. Therefore they are named the
"DEVOURERS." . . . "Every visible thing in this Universe was built by such LIVES, front conscious
and divine primordial man down to the unconscious agents that construct matter." . . . "From the ONE
LIFE formless and Uncreate, proceeds the Universe of lives. First was manifested from the Deep
(Chaos) cold luminous fire (gaseous light?) which formed the curds in Space." (Irresolvable nebulae,
perhaps?). . . . . . ." . . . These fought, and a great heat was developed by the encountering and
collision, which produced rotation. Then came the first manifested MATERIAL, Fire, the hot flames,
the wanderers in heaven (comets); heat generates moist vapour; that forms solid water (?); then dry
mist, then liquid mist, watery, that puts out the luminous brightness of the pilgrims (comets?) and
forms solid watery wheels (MATTER globes). Bhumi (the Earth) appears with six sisters.* These
produce by their continuous motion the inferior fire, heat, and an aqueous mist, which yields the third
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World-Element -- WATER; and from the breath of all (atmospheric) AIR is born. These four are the
four lives of the first four periods (Rounds) of Manvantara. The three last will follow."
This means that every new Round develops one of the Compound Elements, as now known to Science,
-- which rejects the primitive nomenclature, preferring to subdivide them into constituents. If Nature is
the "Ever-becoming" on the manifested plane, then those Elements are to be regarded in the same
light: they have to evolve, progress, and increase to the Manvantaric end. Thus the First Round, we are
taught, developed but one Element, and a nature and humanity in what may be called one aspect of
Nature -- called by some, very unscientifically, though it may be so de facto, "One-dimensional
Space."
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* It is a Vedic teaching that "there are three Earths corresponding to three Heavens, and our Earth (the

fourth) is called Bhumi." This is the explanation given by our exoteric Western Orientalists. But the

esoteric meaning and allusion to it in the Vedas is that it refers to our planetary chain, three "Earths" on

the descending arc, and three "heavens" which are the three Earths or globes also, only far more

ethereal, on the ascending or spiritual arc: by the first three we descend into matter, by the other three

we ascend into Spirit; the lower one, Bhumi, our Earth, forming the turning point, so to say, and

containing potentially as much of Spirit as it does of Matter. We shall treat of this hereafter.


[[Vol. 1, Page]] 251 THE FOUR DIMENSIONS OF SPACE.


The Second Round brought forth and developed two Elements -- Fire and Earth -- and its humanity,

adapted to this condition of Nature, if we can give the name Humanity to beings living under

conditions unknown to men, was -- to use again a familiar phrase in a strictly figurative sense (the only

way in which it can be used correctly) -- "a two-dimensional species." The processes of natural

development which we are now considering will at once elucidate and discredit the fashion of
speculating on the attri butes of the two, three, and four or more "dimensional Space;" but in passing, it
is worth while to point out the real significance of the sound but incomplete intuition that has prompted
-- among Spiritualists and Theosophists, and several great men of Science, for the matter of that* -- the
use of the modern expression, "the fourth dimension of Space." To begin with, of course, the
superficial absurdity of assuming that Space itself is measurable in any direction is of little
consequence. The familiar phrase can only be an abbreviation of the fuller form -- the "Fourth
dimension of MATTER in Space."** But it is an unhappy phrase even thus expanded, because while it
is perfectly true that the progress of evolution may be destined to introduce us to new characteristics of
matter, those with which we are already familiar are really more numerous than the three dimensions.
The faculties, or what is perhaps the best available term, the characteristics of matter, must clearly bear
a direct relation always to the senses of man. Matter has extension, colour, motion (molecular motion),
taste, and smell, corresponding to the existing senses of man, and by the time that it fully develops the
next characteristic -- let us call it for the moment PERMEABILITY -- this will correspond to the next
sense of man -- let us call it "NORMAL CLAIRVOYANCE;" thus, when some bold thinkers have
been thirsting for a fourth dimension to explain the passage of matter through matter, and the
production of knots upon an endless cord, what they were really in want of, was a sixth characteristic
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of matter. The three dimensions belong really but to one attri bute or characteristic of matter -extension; and
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* Professor Zollner's theory has been more than welcomed by several Scientists --who are Spiritualists - Professors Butlerof and Wagner, of St. Petersburg, for instance.

** "The giving reality to abstractions is the error of Realism. Space and Time are frequently viewed as

separated from all the concrete experiences of the mind, instead of being generalizations of these in

certain aspects." (Bain, Logic, Part II., p. 389.)


[[Vol. 1, Page]] 252 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.


popular common sense justly rebels against the idea that under any condition of things there can be

more than three of such dimensions as length, breadth, and thickness. These terms, and the term

"dimension" itself, all belong to one plane of thought, to one stage of evolution, to one characteristic of

matter. So long as there are foot-rules within the resources of Kosmos, to apply to matter, so long will

they be able to measure it three ways and no more; and from the time the idea of measurement first

occupied a place in the human understanding, it has been possible to apply measurement in three

directions and no more. But these considerations do not militate in any way against the certainty that in

the progress of time -- as the faculties of humanity are multiplied -- so will the characteristics of matter
be multiplied also. Meanwhile, the expression is far more incorrect than even the familiar one of the
"Sun rising or setting."
We now return to the consideration of material evolution through the Rounds. Matter in the second
Round, it has been stated, may be figuratively referred to as two-dimensional. But here another caveat
must be entered. That loose and figurative expression may be regarded -- in one plane of thought, as
we have just seen -- as equivalent to the second characteristic of matter corresponding to the second
perceptive faculty or sense of man. But these two linked scales of evolution are concerned with the
processes going on within the limits of a single Round. The succession of primary aspects of Nature
with which the succession of Rounds is concerned, has to do, as already indicated, with the
development of the "Elements" (in the Occult sense) -- Fire, Air, Water,* Earth. We are only in the
fourth Round, and our catalogue so far stops short. The centres of consciousness (destined to develop
into humanity as we know it) of the third Round arrived at a perception of the third Element Water.**
Those of the fourth Round have added
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* The order in which these Elements are placed above is the correct one for esoteric purposes and in

the Secret Teachings. Milton was right when he spoke of the "Powers of Fire, Air, Water, Earth"; the

Earth, such as we know it now, had no existence before the 4th Round, hundreds of million years ago,

the commencement of our geological Earth. The globe was "fiery, cool and radiant as its ethereal men

and animals during the first Round," says the Commentary, uttering a contradiction or paradox in the

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opinion of our present Science; "luminous and more dense and heavy during the second Round; watery

during the Third!" Thus are the elements reversed.

** If we had to frame our conclusions according to the data furnished to us by the [[Footnote

continued on next page]]


[[Vol. 1, Page]] 253 THE GREAT ARCHAEUS.

earth as a state of matter to their stock as well as the three other elements in their present
transformation. In short, none of the so-called elements were, in the three preceding Rounds, as they
are now. For all we know, FIRE may have been pure AKASA, the first Matter of the Magnum Opus of
the Creators and "Builders," that Astral Light which the paradoxical Eliphas Levi calls in one breath
"the body of the Holy Ghost," and in the next "Baphomet," the "Androgyne Goat of Mendes"*; AIR,
simply
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

[[Footnote continued from previous page]] geologists, then we would say that there was no real water -even during the Carboniferous period. We are told that gigantic masses of carbon, which existed

formerly spread in the atmosphere as Carbonic Acid, were absorbed by plants, while a large proportion

of that gas was mixed in the water. Now, if this be so, and we have to believe that all the Carbonic

Acid which went to compose those plants that formed bituminous coal, lignite, etc., and went towards

the formation of limestone, and so on, that all this was at that period in the atmosphere in gaseous

form, then, there must have been seas and oceans of liquid carbonic acid? But how then could the

carboniferous period be preceded by the Devonian and Silurian ages -- those of Fishes and Molluscs -on that assumption? Barometric pressure, moreover, must have exceeded several hundred times the

pressure of our present atmosphere. How could organisms, even so simple as those of certain fishes

and molluscs, stand that? There is a curious work by Blanchard, on the Origin of Life, wherein he

shows some strange contradictions and confusions in the theories of his colleagues, and which we

recommend to the reader's attention.

* Eliphas Levi shows it very truly "a force in Nature," by means of which "a single man who can

master it . . . might throw the world into confusion and transform its face"; for it is the "great Arcanum

of transcendent Magic." Quoting the words of the great Western Kabalist in their translated form (see

The Mysteries of Magic, by A. E. Waite), we may explain them perhaps the better by the occasional
addition of a word or two to show the difference between Western and Eastern explanations of the
same subject. The Author says of the great Magic Agent -- "This ambient and all-penetrating fluid, this
ray detached from the (Central or 'Spiritual') Sun's splendour . . . fixed by the weight of the atmosphere
(?!) and the power of central attraction . . . the Astral Light, this electromagnetic ether, this vital and
luminous caloric, is represented on ancient monuments by the girdle of Isis which twines round two
poles and in ancient theogonies by the serpent devouring its own tail, emblem of prudence and of
Saturn" -- emblem of infinity, immortality, and Kronos -- "Time" -- not the god Saturn or the planet.
"It is the winged dragon of Medea, the double serpent of the caduceus, and the tempter of Genesis; but
it is also the brazen snake of Moses encircling the Tau lastly, it is the devil of exoteric dogmatism, and
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is really the blind force (it is not blind, and Levi knew it), which souls must conquer in order to detach
themselves from the chains of Earth; 'for if they should not,' they will be absorbed by the same power
which first produced them and will return to the central and eternal fire." This great archaeus is now
discovered by, and only for one man -- Mr. J. W. Keeley, of [[Footnote continued on next page]]

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 254 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

Nitrogen, "the breath of the Supporters of the Heavenly Dome," as the Mohammedan mystics call it;
WATER, that primordial fluid which was required, according to Moses, to make a living soul with.
And this may account for the flagrant discrepancies and unscientific statements found in Genesis.
Separate the first from the second chapter; read the former as a scripture of the Elohists, and the latter
as that of the far younger Jehovists; still one finds, if one reads between the lines, the same order in
which things created appear -- namely, Fire (light), Air, Water, and MAN (or the Earth). For the
sentence: "In the beginning God created Heaven and Earth" is a mistranslation; it is not "Heaven and
Earth," but the duplex or dual Heaven, the upper and the lower Heavens, or the separation of
primordial substance that was light in its upper and dark in its lower portions -- or the manifested
Universe -- in its duality of the invisible (to the senses) and the visible to our perceptions. God divided
the light from the Darkness (v. 4); and then made the firmament, air (5), "a firmament in the midst of
the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters," (6), i.e., "the waters which were under the
firmament (our manifested visible Universe) from the waters above the firmament," or the (to us)
invisible planes of being. In the second chapter (the Jehovistic), plants and herbs are created before
water, just as in the first, light is produced before the Sun. "God made the Earth and the Heavens and
every plant of the field before it was in the Earth and every herb of the field before it grew; for the
Elohim ('gods') had not caused it to rain upon the earth, etc." (v. 5) -- an absurdity unless the esoteric
explanation is accepted. The plants were created before they were in the earth -- for there was no earth
then such as it is now; and the herb of the field was in existence before it grew as it does now in the
fourth Round.
Discussing and explaining the nature of the invisible Elements and the "primordial fire" mentioned
above, Eliphas Levi calls it invariably the "Astral Light." It is the "grand Agent Magique" with him;
undeniably it is so, but -- only so far as Black Magic is concerned, and
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

[[Footnote continued from previous page]] Philadelphia. For others, however, it is discovered, yet must

remain almost useless. "So far shalt thou go. . . ."

All the above is as practical as it is correct, save one error, which we will explain in the text further on.

Eliphas Levi commits a great blunder in always identifying the Astral Light with what we call Akasa.

What it really is will be given in Part II. of Vol. II.


[[Vol. 1, Page]] 255 BUT WHY SLANDER THE INDIAN HIEROPHANTS?


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on the lowest planes of what we call Ether, the noumenon of which is Akasa; and even this would be

held incorrect by orthodox Occultists. The "Astral Light" is simply the older "sidereal Light" of
Paracelsus; and to say that "everything which exists has been evolved from it, and it preserves and
reproduces all forms," as he writes, is to enunciate truth only in the second proposition. The first is
erroneous; for if all that exists was evolved through (or via) it, it is not the astral light. The latter is not
the container of all things but only the reflector, at best, of this all. Eliphas Levi writes: -"The great Magic agent is the fourth emanation of the life principle (we say -- it is the first in the inner,
and the second in the outer (our) Universe), of which the Sun is the third form . . . for the day-star (the
sun) is only the reflection and material shadow of the Central Sun of truth, which illuminates the
intellectual (invisible) world of Spirit and which itself is but a gleam borrowed from the ABSOLUTE."
So far he is right enough. But when the great authority of the Western Kabalists adds that nevertheless,
"it is not the immortal Spirit as the Indian Hierophants have imagined" -- we answer that he slanders
the said Hierophants, as they have said nothing of the kind; while even the Puranic exoteric writings
flatly contradict the assertion. No Hindu has ever mistaken Prakriti -- the Astral Light being only
above the lowest plane of Prakriti, the material Kosmos -- for the "immortal Spirit." Prakriti is ever
called Maya, illusion, and is doomed to disappear with the rest, the gods included, at the hour of the
Pralaya; for it is shown that Akasa is not even the Ether, least of all then, we imagine, can it be the
Astral Light. Those unable to penetrate beyond the dead letter of the Puranas, have occasionally
confused Akasa with Prakriti, with Ether, and even with the visible Sky! It is true also that those who
have invariably translated the term Akasa by "Ether" (Wilson, for instance), finding it called "the
material cause of sound" possessing, moreover, this one single property (Vishnu Purana), have
ignorantly imagined it to be "material," in the physical sense. True, again, that if the characteristics are
accepted literally, then, since nothing material or physical, and therefore conditioned and temporary
can be immortal -- according to metaphysics and philosophy -- it would follow that Akasa is neither
infinite nor immortal. But all this is erroneous, since both the words Pradhana

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 256 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

(primeval matter) and sound, as a property, have been misunderstood; the former term (Pradhana)
being certainly synonymous with Mulaprakriti and Akasa, and the latter (sound) with the Verbum, the
Word or the Logos. This is easy to demonstrate; for it is shown in the following sentences in Vishnu
Purana: "In the beginning there was neither day nor night, nor sky, nor earth, nor darkness, nor light. . .
. . Save only ONE, unapprehensible by intellect, or that which is Brahma and Pums (Spirit) and
Pradhana (primordial matter)." . . . . (Book I., ch. ii.).
Now, what is Pradhana, if it is not Mulaprakriti, the root of all, in another aspect? For Pradhana,
though said further on to merge into the Deity as everything else does, in order to leave the ONE
absolute during the Pralaya, yet is held as infinite and immortal. The Commentator describes the Deity
as: "One Pradhanika Brahma Spirit: THAT, was," and interprets the compound term as a substantive,
not as a derivative word used attri butively, i.e., like something conjoined with Pradhana.* Hence
Pradhana even in the Puranas is an aspect of Parabrahmam, not an evolution, and must be the same as

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the Vedantic Mulaprakriti. "Prakriti in its primary state is Akasa," says a Vedantin scholar (see "Five
Years of Theosophy," p. 169). It is almost abstract Nature.
Akasa, then, is Pradhana in another form, and as such cannot be Ether, the ever-invisible agent, courted
even by physical Science. Nor is it Astral Light. It is, as said, the noumenon of the seven-fold
differentiated Prakriti** -- the ever immaculate "Mother" of the fatherless Son, who becomes "Father"
on the lower manifested plane. For MAHAT is the first product of Pradhana, or Akasa, and Mahat -Universal intelligence "whose characteristic property is Buddhi" -- is no other than the Logos, for he is
called "Eswara" Brahma, Bhava, etc. (See Linga Purana, sec. lxx. 12 et seq.; and Vayu Purana, but
especially the former Purana -- prior, section viii., 67-74). He is, in short, the "Creator" or the divine
mind in creative operation, "the cause of all things." He is
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* The student has to note, moreover, that the Purana is a dualistic system, not evolutionary, and that, in

this respect, far more will be found, from an esoteric standpoint, in Sankhya, and even in the Manavadharma-Sastra, however much the latter differs from the former.

** In the Sankhya philosophy, the seven Prakritis or "productive productions" are Mahat, Ahamkara,

and the five tanmatras. See "Sankhya-karika," III., and the Commentary thereon.


[[Vol. 1, Page]] 257 AKASA IS NOT ETHER.


the "first-born" of whom the Puranas tell us that "Mahat and matter are the inner and outer boundaries

of the Universe," or, in our language, the negative and the positive poles of dual nature (abstract and

concrete), for the Purana adds: "In this manner -- as were the seven forms (principles) of Prakriti

reckoned from Mahat to Earth -- so at the time of pralaya (pratyahara) these seven successively reenter into each other. The egg of Brahma (Sarva-mandala) is dissolved with its seven zones (dwipa),

seven oceans, seven regions, etc." (Vishnu Purana, Book vi., ch. iv.)*

These are the reasons why the Occultists refuse to give the name of Astral Light to Akasa, or to call it

Ether. "In my Father's house are many mansions," may be contrasted with the occult saying, "In our

Mother's house there are seven mansions," or planes, the lowest of which is above and around us -- the
Astral Light.
The elements, whether simple or compound, could not have remained the same since the
commencement of the evolution of our chain. Everything in the Universe progresses steadily in the
Great Cycle, while incessantly going up and down in the smaller cycles. Nature is never stationary
during manvantara, as it is ever becoming,** not simply being; and mineral, vegetable, and human life
are always adapting their organisms to the then reigning Elements, and therefore those Elements were
then fitted for them, as they are now for the life of present humanity. It will only be in the next, or
fifth, Round that the fifth Element, Ether -- the gross body of Akasa, if it can be called even that -[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

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* No use to say so to the Hindus, who know their Puranas by heart, but very useful to remind our

Orientalists and those Westerns who regard Wilson's translations as authoritative, that in his English

translation of the Vishnu Purana he is guilty of the most ludicrous contradictions and errors. So on this

identical subject of the seven Prakritis or the seven zones of Brahma's egg, the two accounts differ

totally. In Vol. 1, page 40, the egg is said to be externally invested by seven envelopes -- Wilson

comments: "by Water, Air, Fire, Ether, and Ahamkara" (which last word does not exist in the Sanskrit

texts); and in vol. v., p. 198, of the same Vishnu Purana it is written, "in this manner were the seven

forms of nature (Prakriti) reckoned from Mahat to Earth" (?). Between Mahat or Maha-Buddhi and

"Water, etc.," the difference is very considerable.

** According to the great metaphysician Hegel also. For him Nature was a perpetual becoming. A
purely esoteric conception. Creation or Origin, in the Christian sense of the term, is absolutely
unthinkable. As the above-quoted thinker said: "God (the Universal Spirit) objectivises himself as
Nature, and again rises out of it."

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 258 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

will, by becoming a familiar fact of Nature to all men, as air is familiar to us now, cease to be as at
present hypothetical, and also an "agent" for so many things. And only during that Round will those
higher senses, the growth and development of which Akasa subserves, be susceptible of a complete
expansion. As already indicated, a partial familiarity with the characteristic of matter -- permeability -which should be developed concurrently with the sixth sense, may be expected to develop at the proper
period in this Round. But with the next element added to our resources in the next Round, permeability
will become so manifest a characteristic of matter, that the densest forms of this will seem to man's
perceptions as obstructive to him as a thick fog, and no more.
Let us return to the life-cycle now. Without entering at length upon the description given of the higher
LIVES, we must direct our attention at present simply to the earthly beings and the earth itself. The
latter, we are told, is built up for the first Round by the "Devourers" which disintegrate and
differentiate the germs of other lives in the Elements; pretty much, it must be supposed, as in the
present stage of the world, the aerobes do, when, undermining and loosening the chemical structure in
an organism, they transform animal matter and generate substances that vary in their constitutions.
Thus Occultism disposes of the so-called Azoic age of Science, for it shows that there never was a time
when the Earth was without life upon it. Wherever there is an atom of matter, a particle or a molecule,
even in its most gaseous condition, there is life in it, however latent and unconscious. "Whatsoever
quits the Laya State, becomes active life; it is drawn into the vortex of MOTION (the alchemical
solvent of Life); Spirit and Matter are the two States of the ONE, which is neither Spirit nor Matter,
both being the absolute life, latent." (Book of Dzyan, Comm. III., par. 18). . . . "Spirit is the first
differentiation of (and in) SPACE; and Matter the first differentiation of Spirit. That, which is neither
Spirit nor matter -- that is IT -- the Causeless CAUSE of Spirit and Matter, which are the Cause of
Kosmos. And THAT we call the ONE LIFE or the Intra-Cosmic Breath."
Once more we will say -- like must produce like. Absolute Life cannot produce an inorganic atom
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whether single or complex, and there is life

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 259 ATOMS ARE INVISIBLE LIVES.

even in laya just as a man in a profound cataleptic state -- to all appearance a corpse -- is still a living
being.
When the "Devourers" (in whom the men of science are invited to see, with some show of reason,
atoms of the Fire-Mist, if they will, as the Occultist will offer no objection to this); when the
"Devourers," we say, have differentiated "the fire-atoms" by a peculiar process of segmentation, the
latter become life-germs, which aggregate according to the laws of cohesion and affinity. Then the lifegerms produce lives of another kind, which work on the structure of our globes. * * * *
Thus, in the first Round, the globe, having been built by the primitive fire-lives, i.e., formed into a
sphere -- had no solidity, nor qualifications, save a cold brightness, nor form nor colour; it is only
towards the end of the First Round that it developed one Element which from its inorganic, so to say,
or simple Essence became now in our Round the fire we know throughout the system. The Earth was
in her first rupa, the essence of which is the Akasic principle named *** "that which is now known as,
and very erroneously termed, Astral Light, which Eliphas Levi calls "the imagination of Nature,"||
probably to avoid giving it its correct name, as others do.
"It is through and from the radiations of the seven bodies of the seven orders of Dhyanis, that the seven
discrete quantities (Elements), whose motion and harmonious Union produce the manifested Universe
of Matter, are born." (Commentary.)
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

|| Speaking of it in his Preface to the "History of Magic" Eliphas Levi says: "It is through this Force

that all the nervous centres secretly communicate with each other; from it -- that sympathy and

antipathy are born; from it -- that we have our dreams; and that the phenomena of second sight and

extra-natural visions take place. . . . . Astral Light, acting under the impulsion of powerful wills,

destroys, coagulates, separates, breaks, gathers in all things. . . . God created it on that day when he

said: Fiat Lux, and it is directed by the Egregores, i.e., the chiefs of the souls who are the spirits of

energy and action." Eliphas Levi ought to have added that the astral light, or primordial substance, if

matter at all, is that which, called Light, LUX, esoterically explained, is the body of those Spirits

themselves, and their very essence. Our physical light is the manifestation on our plane and the

reflected radiance of the Divine Light emanating from the collective body of those who are called the

"LIGHTS" and the "FLAMES." But no other Kabalist has ever had the talent of heaping up one

contradiction on the other, of making one paradox chase another in the same sentence and in such

flowing language, as Eliphas Levi. He leads his reader through the most lovely, gorgeously blooming

valleys, to strand him after all on a desert and barren rocky island.


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[[Vol. 1, Page]] 260 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

The Second Round brings into manifestation the second element AIR, that element, the purity of which
would ensure continuous life to him who would use it. There have been two occultists only in Europe
who have discovered and even partially applied it in practice, though its composition has always been
known among the highest Eastern Initiates. The ozone of the modern chemists is poison compared
with the real universal solvent which could never be thought of unless it existed in nature. "From the
second Round, Earth -- hitherto a foetus in the matrix of Space -- began its real existence: it had
developed individual sentient life, its second principle. The second corresponds to the sixth (principle);
the second is life continuous, the other, temporary."
The Third Round developed the third Principle -- WATER; while the Fourth transformed the gaseous
fluids and plastic form of our globe into the hard, crusted, grossly material sphere we are living on.
"Bhumi" has reached her fourth principle. To this it may be objected that the law of analogy, so much
insisted upon, is broken. Not at all. Earth will reach her true ultimate form -- (inversely in this to man) - her body shell -- only toward the end of the manvantara after the Seventh Round. Eugenius
Philale thes was right when he assured his readers on his word of honour that no one had yet seen the
Earth (i.e., MATTER in its essential form). Our globe is, so far, in its Kamarupic state -- the astral
body of desires of Ahamkara, dark Egotism, the progeny of Mahat, on the lower plane. . . .
It is not molecularly constituted matter -- least of all the human body (sthulasarira) -- that is the
grossest of all our "principles," but verily the middle principle, the real animal centre; whereas our
body is but its shell, the irresponsible factor and medium through which the beast in us acts all its life.
Every intellectual theosophist will understand my real meaning. Thus the idea that the human
tabernacle is built by countless lives, just in the same way as the rocky crust of our Earth was, has
nothing repulsive in it for the true mystic. Nor can Science oppose the occult teaching, for it is not
because the microscope will ever fail to detect the ultimate living atom or life, that it can reject the
doctrine.
(c) Science teaches us that the living as well as the dead organism of both man and animal are
swarming with bacteria of a hundred various

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 261 THE OCCULT CHEMISTRY.

kinds; that from without we are threatened with the invasion of microbes with every breath we draw,
and from within by leucomaines, aerobes, anaerobes, and what not. But Science never yet went so far
as to assert with the occult doctrine that our bodies, as well as those of animals, plants, and stones, are
themselves altogether built up of such beings; which, except larger species, no microscope can detect.
So far, as regards the purely animal and material portion of man, Science is on its way to discoveries
that will go far towards corroborating this theory. Chemistry and physiology are the two great
magicians of the future, who are destined to open the eyes of mankind to the great physical truths.
With every day, the identity between the animal and physical man, between the plant and man, and
even between the reptile and its nest, the rock, and man -- is more and more clearly shown. The
physical and chemical constituents of all being found to be identical, chemical science may well say
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that there is no difference between the matter which composes the ox and that which forms man. But
the Occult doctrine is far more explicit. It says: --- Not only the chemical compounds are the same, but
the same infinitesimal invisible lives compose the atoms of the bodies of the mountain and the daisy, of
man and the ant, of the elephant, and of the tree which shelters him from the sun. Each particle -whether you call it organic or inorganic -- is a life. Every atom and molecule in the Universe is both
life-giving and death-giving to that form, inasmuch as it builds by aggregation universes and the
ephemeral vehicles ready to receive the transmigrating soul, and as eternally destroys and changes the
forms and expels those souls from their temporary abodes. It creates and kills; it is self-generating and
self-destroying; it brings into being, and annihilates, that mystery of mysteries -- the living body of
man, animal, or plant, every second in time and space; and it generates equally life and death, beauty
and ugliness, good and bad, and even the agreeable and disagreeable, the beneficent and maleficent
sensations. It is that mysterious LIFE, represented collectively by countless myriads of lives, that
follows in its own sporadic way, the hitherto incomprehensible law of Atavism; that copies family
resemblances as well as those it finds impressed in the aura of the generators of every future human
being, a mystery, in short, that will receive fuller attention elsewhere. For the present, one instance
may be cited in illustration. Modern science begins to find out that ptomaine (the alkaloid poison
generated by decaying matter and corpses -- a life also) extracted

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 262 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

with the help of volatile ether, yields a smell as strong and equal to that of the freshest orangeblossoms; but that free from oxygen, these alkaloids yield either a most sickening, disgusting smell, or
the most agreeable aroma which recalls that of the most delicately scented flowers. And it is suspected
that such blossoms owe their agreeable smell to the poisonous ptomaine; the venomous essence of
certain mushrooms (fungi) being nearly identical with the venom of the cobra of India, the most deadly
of serpents.* Thus, having discovered the effects, Science has to find their PRIMARY CAUSES; and
this it can never do without the help of the old sciences, of alchemy, occult botany and physics. We are
taught that every physiological change, in addition to pathological phenomena; diseases -- nay, life
itself -- or rather the objective phenomena of life, produced by certain conditions and changes in the
tissues of the body which allow and force life to act in that body; that all this is due to those unseen
CREATORS and DESTROYERS that are called in such a loose and general way, microbes.** Such
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

*The French savants Arnaud, Gautier, and Villiers, have found in the saliva of living men the same

venomous alkaloid as in that of the toad, the salamander, the cobra, and the trigonocephalus of

Portugal. It is proven that venom of the deadliest kind, whether called ptomaine, or leucomaine, or

alkaloid, is generated by living men, animals, and plants. The same savant, Gautier, discovered an

alkaloid in the fresh meat of an ox and in its brains, and a venom which he calls Xanthocreatinine

similar to the substance extracted from the poisonous saliva of reptiles. It is the muscular tissues, as

being the most active organ in the animal economy, that are suspected of being the generators or

factors of venoms, having the same importance as carbonic acid and urea in the functions of life, which

venoms are the ultimate products of inner combustion. And though it is not yet fully determined

whether poisons can be generated by the animal system of living beings without the participation and


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interference of microbes, it is ascertained that the animal does produce venomous substances in its
physiological or living state.
** It might be supposed that these "fiery lives" and the microbes of science are identical. This is not
true. The "fiery lives" are the seventh and highest subdivision of the plane of matter, and correspond in
the individual with the One Life of the Universe, though only on that plane. The microbes of science
are the first and lowest sub-division on the second plane -- that of material prana (or life). The physical
body of man undergoes a complete change of structure every seven years, and its destruction and
preservation are due to the alternate function of the fiery lives as "destroyers" and "builders." They are
"builders" by sacrificing themselves in the form of vitality to restrain the destructive influence of the
microbes, and, by supplying the microbes with what is necessary, they compel them under that
restraint to build up the material body and its cells. They are "destroyers" also when that restraint is
[[Footnote continued on next page]]

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 263 PARACELSUS DIED TOO EARLY.

experimenters as Pasteur are the best friends and helpers of the Destroyers and the worst enemies of
the Creators -- if the latter were not at the same time destroyers too. However it may be, one thing is
sure in this: The knowledge of these primary causes and of the ultimate essence of every element, of its
lives, their functions, properties, and conditions of change -- constitutes the basis of MAGIC.
Paracelsus was, perhaps, the only Occultist in Europe, during the last centuries since the Christian era,
who was versed in this mystery. Had not a criminal hand put an end to his life, years before the time
allotted him by Nature, physiological Magic would have fewer secrets for the civilized world than it
now has.
(d) But what has the Moon to do in all this? we may be asked. What have "Fish, Sin and Moon" in the
apocalyptic saying of the Stanza to do in company with the "Life-microbes"? With the latter nothing,
except availing themselves of the tabernacle of clay prepared by them; with divine perfect man
everything, since "Fish, Sin and Moon" make conjointly the three symbols of the immortal Being.
This is all that can be given. Nor does the writer pretend to know more of this strange symbol than may
be inferred about it from exoteric religions; from the mystery perhaps, which underlies the Matsya
(fish)
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

[[Footnote continued from previous page]] removed and the microbes, unsupplied with vital

constructive energy, are left to run riot as destructive agents. Thus, during the first half of a man's life

(the first five periods of seven years each) the "fiery lives" are indirectly engaged in the process of

building up man's material body; life is on the ascending scale, and the force is used in construction

and increase. After this period is passed the age of retrogression commences, and, the work of the

"fiery lives" exhausting their strength, the work of destruction and decrease also commences.

An analogy between cosmic events in the descent of spirit into matter for the first half of a manvantara

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(planetary as human) and its ascent at the expense of matter in the second half, may here be traced.

These considerations have to do solely with the plane of matter, but the restraining influence of the

"fiery lives" on the lowest sub-division of the second plane -- the microbes -- is confirmed by the fact
mentioned in the foot-note on Pasteur (vide supra) that the cells of the organs, when they do not find
sufficient oxygen for themselves, adapt themselves to that condition and form ferments, which, by
absorbing oxygen from substances coming in contact with them, ruin the latter. Thus the process is
commenced by one cell robbing its neighbour of the source of its vitality when the supply is
insufficient; and the ruin so commenced steadily progresses.

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 264 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

Avatar of Vishnu, the Chaldean Oannes -- the Man-Fish, recorded in the imperishable sign of the
Zodiac, Pisces, and running throughout the two Testaments in the personages of Joshua "Son of the
Fish (Nun)" and Jesus; the allegorical "Sin" or Fall of Spirit into matter, and the Moon -- in so far as it
relates to the "Lunar" ancestors, the Pitris.
For the present it may be as well to remind the reader that while the Moon-goddesses were connected
in every mythology, especially the Grecian, with child-birth, because of the lunar influence on women
and conception, the occult and actual connection of our satellite with fecundation is to this day
unknown to physiology, which regards every popular practice in this reference as gross superstition.
As it is useless to discuss them in detail, we may only stop at present to discuss the lunar symbology
casually, to show that the said superstition belongs to the most ancient beliefs, and even to Judaism -the basis of Christianity. With the Israelites, the chief function of Jehovah was child-giving, and the
esotericism of the Bible, interpreted Kabalistically, shows undeniably the Holy of Holies in the temple
to be only the symbol of the womb. This is now proven beyond doubt and cavil, by the numerical
reading of the Bible in general, and of Genesis especially. This idea must certainly have been
borrowed by the Jews from the Egyptians and Indians, whose Holy of Holies was, and with the latter is
to this day, symbolised by the King's chamber in the Great Pyramid (see "Source of Measures") and
the Yoni symbols of exoteric Hinduism. To make the whole clearer and to show at the same time the
enormous difference in the spirit of interpretation and the original meaning of the same symbols
between the ancient Eastern Occultists and the Jewish Kabalists we refer the reader to Book II., "The
Holy of Holies."*
------STANZA VII. -- Continued.
6. FROM THE FIRST-BORN (primitive, or the first man) THE THREAD BETWEEN THE SILENT

WATCHER AND HIS SHADOW BECOMES MORE
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* Phallic worship has developed only with the loss of the keys to the true meaning of the symbols. It

was the last and most fatal turning point from the highway of truth and divine knowledge into the side

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path of fiction, raised into dogma through human falsification and hierarchic ambition.


[[Vol. 1, Page]] 265 MAN, THE SHADOW OF HIS PROTOTYPE.


STRONG AND RADIANT WITH EVERY CHANGE (re-incarnation) (a). THE MORNING SUNLIGHT HAS CHANGED INTO NOON-DAY GLORY . . . .

(a) This sentence: "The thread between the silent watcher and his shadow (man) becomes stronger" -with every re-incarnation -- is another psychological mystery, that will find its explanation in Book II.

For the present it will suffice to say that the "Watcher" and his "Shadows" -- the latter numbering as

many as there are re-incarnations for the monad -- are one. The Watcher, or the divine prototype, is at
the upper rung of the ladder of being; the shadow, at the lower. Withal, the Monad of every living
being, unless his moral turpitude breaks the connection and runs loose and "astray into the lunar path" -to use the Occult expression -- is an individual Dhyan Chohan, distinct from others, a kind of spiritual
individuality of its own, during one special Manvantara. Its Primary, the Spirit (Atman) is one, of
course, with Paramatma (the one Universal Spirit), but the vehicle (Vahan) it is enshrined in, the
Buddhi, is part and parcel of that Dhyan-Chohanic Essence; and it is in this that lies the mystery of that
ubiquity, which was discussed a few pages back. "My Father, that is in Heaven, and I -- are one," -says the Christian Scripture; in this, at any rate, it is the faithful echo of the esoteric tenet.
------STANZA VII. -- Continued.
7. THIS IS THY PRESENT WHEEL -- SAID THE FLAME TO THE SPARK. THOU ART

MYSELF, MY IMAGE AND MY SHADOW. I HAVE CLOTHED MYSELF IN THEE, AND THOU
ART MY VAHAN (vehicle) TO THE DAY, "BE WITH US," WHEN THOU SHALT RE-BECOME
MYSELF AND OTHERS, THYSELF AND ME (a), THEN THE BUILDERS, HAVING DONNED
THEIR FIRST CLOTHING, DESCEND ON RADIANT EARTH, AND REIGN OVER MEN -WHO ARE THEMSELVES (b).
(a) The day when "the spark will re-become the Flame (man will merge into his Dhyan Chohan)
myself and others, thyself and me," as the Stanza has it -- means this: In Paranirvana -- when Pralaya
will have reduced not only material and psychical bodies, but even the spiritual Ego(s) to their original
principle -- the Past, Present, and even Future

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 266 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

Humanities, like all things, will be one and the same. Everything will have re-entered the Great
Breath. In other words, everything will be "merged in Brahma" or the divine unity.
Is this annihilation, as some think? Or Atheism, as other critics -- the worshippers of a personal deity
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and believers in an unphilosophical paradise -- are inclined to suppose? Neither. It is worse than
useless to return to the question of implied atheism in that which is spirituality of a most refined
character. To see in Nirvana annihilation amounts to saying of a man plunged in a sound dreamless
sleep -- one that leaves no impression on the physical memory and brain, because the sleeper's Higher
Self is in its original state of absolute consciousness during those hours -- that he, too, is annihilated.
The latter simile answers only to one side of the question -- the most material; since re-absorption is
by no means such a "dreamless sleep," but, on the contrary, absolute existence, an unconditioned unity,
or a state, to describe which human language is absolutely and hopelessly inadequate. The only
approach to anything like a comprehensive conception of it can be attempted solely in the panoramic
visions of the soul, through spiritual ideations of the divine monad. Nor is the individuality -- nor even
the essence of the personality, if any be left behind -- lost, because re-absorbed. For, however limitless - from a human standpoint -- the paranirvanic state, it has yet a limit in Eternity. Once reached, the
same monad will re-emerge therefrom, as a still higher being, on a far higher plane, to recommence its
cycle of perfected activity. The human mind cannot in its present stage of development transcend,
scarcely reach this plane of thought. It totters here, on the brink of incomprehensible Absoluteness and
Eternity.
(b) The "Watchers" reign over man during the whole period of Satya Yuga and the smaller subsequent
yugas, down to the beginning of the Third Root Race; after which it is the Patriarchs, Heroes, and the
Manes (see Egyptian Dynasties enumerated by the priests to Solon), the incarnated Dhyanis of a lower
order, up to King Menes and the human kings of other nations; all were recorded carefully. In the
views of symbologists this Mythopoeic Age is of course only regarded as a fairy tale. But since
traditions and even Chronicles of such dynasties of divine Kings -- of gods reigning over men followed
by dynasties of Heroes or Giants -- exist in the annals of every nation, it is difficult to understand how
all the peoples under the sun, some of whom are separated by vast

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 267 EARTH, PEOPLED FROM HEAVEN.

oceans and belong to different hemispheres, such as the ancient Peruvians and Mexicans, as well as the
Chaldeans, could have worked out the same "fairy tales" in the same order of events.* However, as the
Secret Doctrine teaches history -- which, for being esoteric and traditional, is none the less more
reliable than profane history -- we are as entitled to our beliefs as anyone else, whether religionist or
sceptic. And that Doctrine says that the Dhyani-Buddhas of the two higher groups, namely, the
"Watchers" or the "Architects," furnished the many and various races with divine kings and leaders. It
is the latter who taught humanity their arts and sciences, and the former who revealed to the incarnated
Monads that had just shaken off their vehicles of the lower Kingdoms -- and who had, therefore, lost
every recollection of their divine origin -- the great spiritual truths of the transcendental worlds. (See
Book II., "Divine Dynasties.")
Thus, as expressed in the Stanza, the Watchers descended on Earth and reigned over men -- "who are
themselves." The reigning kings had finished their cycle on Earth and other worlds, in the preceding
Rounds. In the future manvantaras they will have risen to higher systems than our planetary world; and
it is the Elect of our Humanity, the Pioneers on the hard and difficult path of Progress, who will take
the places of their predecessors. The next great Manvantara will witness the men of our own life-cycle
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becoming the instructors and guides of a mankind whose Monads may now yet be imprisoned -- semiconscious -- in the most intellectual of the animal kingdom, while their lower principles will be
animating, perhaps, the highest specimens of the Vegetable world.
Thus proceed the cycles of the septenary evolution, in Septennial nature; the Spiritual or divine; the
psychic or semi-divine; the intellectual, the passional, the instinctual, or cognitional; the semicorporeal and the purely material or physical natures. All these evolve and progress cyclically, passing
from one into another, in a double, centrifugal and centripetal way, one in their ultimate essence, seven
in their aspects. The lowest, of course, is the one depending upon and subservient to
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* See the "Sacred Mysteries among the Mayas and the Quiches, 11,500 years ago," by Auguste le

Plongeon, who shows the identity between the Egyptian rites and beliefs and those of the people he

describes. The ancient hieratic alphabets of the Maya and the Egyptians are almost identical.


[[Vol. 1, Page]] 268 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.


our five physical senses.* Thus far, for individual, human, sentient, animal and vegetable life, each the

microcosm of its higher macrocosm. The same for the Universe, which manifests periodically, for

purposes of the collective progress of the countless lives, the outbreathings of the One Life; in order

that through the Ever-Becoming, every cosmic atom in this infinite Universe, passing from the

formless and the intangible, through the mixed natures of the semi-terrestrial, down to matter in full

generation, and then back again, reascending at each new period higher and nearer the final goal; that

each atom, we say, may reach through individual merits and efforts that plane where it re-becomes the

one unconditioned ALL. But between the Alpha and the Omega there is the weary "Road" hedged in

by thorns, that "goes down first, then -Winds up hill all the way
Yes, to the very end . . . . ."
Starting upon the long journey immaculate; descending more and more into sinful matter, and having
connected himself with every atom in manifested Space -- the Pilgrim, having struggled through and
suffered in every form of life and being, is only at the bottom of the valley of matter, and half through
his cycle, when he has identified himself with collective Humanity. This, he has made in his own
image. In order to progress upwards and homewards, the "God" has now to ascend the weary uphill
path of the Golgotha of Life. It is the martyrdom of self-conscious existence. Like Visvakarman he has
to sacrifice himself to himself in order to redeem all creatures, to resurrect from the many into the One
Life. Then he ascends into heaven indeed; where, plunged into the incomprehensible absolute Being
and Bliss of Paranirvana, he reigns unconditionally, and whence he will re-descend again at the next
"coming," which one portion of humanity expects in its dead-letter sense as the second advent, and the
other as the last "Kalki Avatar."
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

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* Which are in truth seven as shown later, on the authority of the oldest Upanishads.

---------------------

Next Section

Contents


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The Secret Doctrine by H. P. Blavatsky -- Vol. 1


Theosophical University Press Online Edition


[[Vol. 1, Page]] 269 THE FIRST CHAPTER OF CREATION.


SUMMING UP.
"The History of Creation and of this world from its beginning up to the present time is
composed of seven chapters. The seventh chapter is not yet written."
(T. Subba Row, Theosophist, 1881.)
THE first of these Seven chapters has been attempted and is now finished. However incomplete and
feeble as an exposition, it is, at any rate, an approximation -- using the word in a mathematical sense -to that which is the oldest basis for all the subsequent Cosmogonies. The attempt to render in a
European tongue the grand panorama of the ever periodically recurring Law -- impressed upon the
plastic minds of the first races endowed with Consciousness by those who reflected the same from the
Universal Mind -- is daring, for no human language, save the Sanskrit -- which is that of the Gods -can do so with any degree of adequacy. But the failures in this work must be forgiven for the sake of
the motive.
As a whole, neither the foregoing nor what follows can be found in full anywhere. It is not taught in
any of the six Indian schools of philosophy, for it pertains to their synthesis -- the seventh, which is
the Occult doctrine. It is not traced on any crumbling papyrus of Egypt, nor is it any longer graven on
Assyrian tile or granite wall. The Books of the Vedanta (the last word of human knowledge) give out
but the metaphysical aspect of this world-Cosmogony; and their priceless thesaurus, the Upanishads -Upa-ni-shad being a compound word meaning "the conquest of ignorance by the revelation of secret,
spiritual knowledge" -- require now the additional possession of a Master-key to enable the student to
get at their full meaning. The reason for this I venture to state here as I learned it from a Master.
The name, "Upanishads," is usually translated "esoteric doctrine." These treatises form part of the
Sruti or "revealed knowledge," Revelation, in short, and are generally attached to the Brahmana

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 270 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

portion of the Vedas,* as their third division. There are over 150 Upanishads enumerated by, and
known to, Orientalists, who credit the oldest with being written probably about 600 years B.C.; but of
genuine texts there does not exist a fifth of the number. The Upanishads are to the Vedas what the
Kabala is to the Jewish Bible. They treat of and expound the secret and mystic meaning of the Vedic
texts. They speak of the origin of the Universe, the nature of Deity, and of Spirit and Soul, as also of
the metaphysical connection of mind and matter. In a few words: They CONTAIN the beginning and

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the end of all human knowledge, but they have now ceased to REVEAL it, since the day of Buddha. If
it were otherwise, the Upanishads could not be called esoteric, since they are now openly attached to
the Sacred Brahmanical books, which have, in our present age, become accessible even to the
Mlechchhas (out-castes) and the European Orientalists. One thing in them -- and this in all the
Upanishads -- invariably and constantly points to their ancient origin, and proves (a) that they were
written, in some of their portions, before the caste system became the tyrannical institution which it
still is; and (b) that half of their contents have been eliminated, while some of them were rewritten and
abridged. "The great Teachers of the higher Knowledge and the Brahmans are continually represented
as going to Kshatriya (military caste) kings to become their pupils." As Cowell pertinently remarks,
the Upanishads "brea the an entirely different spirit" (from other Brahmanical writings), "a freedom of
thought unknown in any earlier work except in the Rig Veda hymns themselves." The second fact is
explained by a tradition recorded in one of the MSS. on Buddha's life. It says that the Upanishads
were originally attached to their Brahmanas after the beginning of a reform, which led to the
exclusiveness of the present caste system among the Brahmins, a few centuries after the invasion of
India by the "twice-born." They were complete in those days, and were used for the instruction of the
chelas who were preparing for their initiation.
[[Footnote(s) -------------------------------------------------]]

* "The Vedas have a distinct dual meaning -- one expressed by the literal sense of the words, the other

indicated by the metre and the swara -- intonation -- which are as the life of the Vedas. . . . Learned

pundits and philologists of course deny that swara has anything to do with philosophy or ancient

esoteric doctrines; but the mysterious connection between swara and light is one of its most profound

secrets." (T. Subba Row, Five Years of Theosophy, p. 154.)


[[Vol. 1, Page]] 271 OCCULTISM IN THE UPANISHADS.


This lasted so long as the Vedas and the Brahmanas remained in the sole and exclusive keeping of the

temple-Brahmins -- while no one else had the right to study or even read them outside of the sacred

caste. Then came Gautama, the Prince of Kapilavastu. After learning the whole of the Brahmanical

wisdom in the Rahasya or the Upanishads, and finding that the teachings differed little, if at all, from

those of the "Teachers of Life" inhabiting the snowy ranges of the Himalaya,* the Disciple of the

Brahmins, feeling indignant because the sacred wisdom was thus withheld from all but the Brahmins,

determined to save the whole world by popularizing it. Then it was that the Brahmins, seeing that their
sacred knowledge and Occult wisdom was falling into the hands of the "Mlechchhas," abridged the
texts of the Upanishads, originally containing thrice the matter of the Vedas and the Brahmanas
together, without altering, however, one word of the texts. They simply detached from the MSS. the
most important portions containing the last word of the Mystery of Being. The key to the Brahmanical
secret code remained henceforth with the initiates alone, and the Brahmins were thus in a position to
publicly deny the correctness of Buddha's teaching by appealing to their Upanishads, silenced for ever
on the chief questions. Such is the esoteric tradition beyond the Himalayas.
Sri Sankaracharya, the greatest Initiate living in the historical ages, wrote many a Bhashya on the
Upanishads. But his original treatises, as there are reasons to suppose, have not yet fallen into the
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hands of the Philistines, for they are too jealously preserved in his maths (monasteries, mathams). And
there are still weightier reasons to believe that the priceless Bhashyas (Commentaries) on the esoteric
doctrine of the Brahmins, by their greatest expounder, will remain for ages yet a dead letter to most of
the Hindus, except the Smartava Brahmins. This sect, founded by Sankaracharya, (which is still very
powerful in Southern India) is now almost the only one to produce students who have preserved
sufficient knowledge to comprehend the
[[Footnote(s) -------------------------------------------------]]

* Also called "the Sons of Wisdom," and of the "Fire-Mist" and the "Brothers of the Sun" in the

Chinese records. Si-dzang (Tibet) is mentioned in the MSS. of the sacred library of the province of FoKien, as the great seat of Occult learning from time immemorial, ages before Buddha. The Emperor

Yu, the "great" (2,207 years B.C.), a pious mystic and great adept, is said to have obtained his

knowledge from the "great teachers of the Snowy Range" in Si-dzang.


[[Vol. 1, Page]] 272 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.


dead letter of the Bhashyas. The reason of this is that they alone, I am informed, have occasionally real

Initiates at their head in their mathams, as for instance, in the "Sringa-giri," in the Western Ghats of

Mysore. On the other hand, there is no sect in that desperately exclusive caste of the Brahmins, more

exclusive than is the Smartava; and the reticence of its followers to say what they may know of the

Occult sciences and the esoteric doctrine, is only equalled by their pride and learning.

Therefore the writer of the present statement must be prepared beforeh and to meet with great

opposition and even the denial of such statements as are brought forward in this work. Not that any

claim to infallibility, or to perfect correctness in every detail of all that which is herein said, was ever
put forward. Facts are there, and they can hardly be denied. But, owing to the intrinsic difficulties of
the subjects treated, and the almost insurmountable limitations of the English tongue (as of all other
European languages) to express certain ideas, it is more than probable that the writer has failed to
present the explanations in the best and in the clearest form; yet all that could be done was done under
every adverse circumstance, and this is the utmost that can be expected of any writer.
Let us recapitulate and show, by the vastness of the subjects expounded, how difficult, if not
impossible, it is to do them full justice.
(1.) The Secret Doctrine is the accumulated Wisdom of the Ages, and its cosmogony alone is the most
stupendous and elaborate system: e.g., even in the exotericism of the Puranas. But such is the
mysterious power of Occult symbolism, that the facts which have actually occupied countless
generations of initiated seers and prophets to marshal, to set down and explain, in the bewildering
series of evolutionary progress, are all recorded on a few pages of geometrical signs and glyphs. The
flashing gaze of those seers has penetrated into the very kernel of matter, and recorded the soul of
things there, where an ordinary profane, however learned, would have perceived but the external work
of form. But modern science believes not in the "soul of things," and hence will reject the whole
system of ancient cosmogony. It is useless to say that the system in question is no fancy of one or
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several isolated individuals. That it is the uninterrupted record covering thousands of generations of
Seers whose respective experiences were made to test and to verify the

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 273 THE PITH AND MARROW OF OCCULTISM.

traditions passed orally by one early race to another, of the teachings of higher and exalted beings,
who watched over the childhood of Humanity. That for long ages, the "Wise Men" of the Fifth Race,
of the stock saved and rescued from the last cataclysm and shifting of continents, had passed their
lives in learning, not teaching. How did they do so? It is answered: by checking, testing, and verifying
in every department of nature the traditions of old by the independent visions of great adepts; i.e., men
who have developed and perfected their physical, mental, psychic, and spiritual organisations to the
utmost possible degree. No vision of one adept was accepted till it was checked and confirmed by the
visions -- so obtained as to stand as independent evidence -- of other adepts, and by centuries of
experiences.
(2.) The fundamental Law in that system, the central point from which all emerged, around and toward
which all gravitates, and upon which is hung the philosophy of the rest, is the One homogeneous
divine SUBSTANCE-PRINCIPLE, the one radical cause.
. . . "Some few, whose lamps shone brighter, have been led
From cause to cause to nature's secret head,
And found that one first Principle must be. . . ."
It is called "Substance-Principle," for it becomes "substance" on the plane of the manifested Universe,
an illusion, while it remains a "principle" in the beginningless and endless abstract, visible and
invisible SPACE. It is the omnipresent Reality: impersonal, because it contains all and everything. Its
impersonality is the fundamental conception of the System. It is latent in every atom in the Universe,
and is the Universe itself. (See in chapters on Symbolism, "Primordial Substance, and Divine
Thought.")
(3.) The Universe is the periodical manifestation of this unknown Absolute Essence. To call it
"essence," however, is to sin against the very spirit of the philosophy. For though the noun may be
derived in this case from the verb esse, "to be," yet IT cannot be identified with a being of any kind,
that can be conceived by human intellect. IT is best described as neither Spirit nor matter, but both.
"Parabrahmam and Mulaprakriti" are One, in reality, yet two in the Universal conception of the
manifested, even in the conception of the One Logos, its first manifestation, to which, as the able
lecturer in the "Notes on the Bhagavadgita" shows, IT appears from the objective standpoint of

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 274 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

the One Logos as Mulaprakriti and not as Parabrahmam; as its veil and not the one REALITY hidden
behind, which is unconditioned and absolute.
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(4.) The Universe is called, with everything in it, MAYA, because all is temporary therein, from the
ephemeral life of a fire-fly to that of the Sun. Compared to the eternal immutability of the ONE, and
the changelessness of that Principle, the Universe, with its evanescent ever-changing forms, must be
necessarily, in the mind of a philosopher, no better than a will-o'-the-wisp. Yet, the Universe is real
enough to the conscious beings in it, which are as unreal as it is itself.
(5.) Everything in the Universe, throughout all its kingdoms, is CONSCIOUS: i.e., endowed with a
consciousness of its own kind and on its own plane of perception. We men must remember that
because we do not perceive any signs -- which we can recognise -- of consciousness, say, in stones, we
have no right to say that no consciousness exists there. There is no such thing as either "dead" or
"blind" matter, as there is no "Blind" or "Unconscious" Law. These find no place among the
conceptions of Occult philosophy. The latter never stops at surface appearances, and for it the
noumenal essences have more reality than their objective counterparts; it resembles therein the
mediaeval Nominalists, for whom it was the Universals that were the realities and the particulars
which existed only in name and human fancy.
(6.) The Universe is worked and guided from within outwards. As above so it is below, as in heaven
so on earth; and man -- the microcosm and miniature copy of the macrocosm -- is the living witness to
this Universal Law, and to the mode of its action. We see that every external motion, act, gesture,
whether voluntary or mechanical, organic or mental, is produced and preceded by internal feeling or
emotion, will or volition, and thought or mind. As no outward motion or change, when normal, in
man's external body can take place unless provoked by an inward impulse, given through one of the
three functions named, so with the external or manifested Universe. The whole Kosmos is guided,
controlled, and animated by almost endless series of Hierarchies of sentient Beings, each having a
mission to perform, and who -- whether we give to them one name or another, and call them DhyanChohans or Angels -- are "messengers" in the sense only that they are the agents of Karmic and
Cosmic Laws. They vary infinitely in their

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 275 THE NATURE OF THE CELESTIAL MEN.

respective degrees of consciousness and intelligence; and to call them all pure Spirits without any of
the earthly alloy "which time is wont to prey upon" is only to indulge in poetical fancy. For each of
these Beings either was, or prepares to become, a man, if not in the present, then in a past or a coming
cycle (Manvantara). They are perfected, when not incipient, men; and differ morally from the
terrestrial human beings on their higher (less material) spheres, only in that they are devoid of the
feeling of personality and of the human emotional nature -- two purely earthly characteristics. The
former, or the "perfected," have become free from those feelings, because (a) they have no longer
fleshly bodies -- an ever-numbing weight on the Soul; and (b) the pure spiritual element being left
untrammelled and more free, they are less influenced by maya than man can ever be, unless he is an
adept who keeps his two personalities -- the spiritual and the physical -- entirely separated. The
incipient monads, having never had terrestrial bodies yet, can have no sense of personality or EGOism. That which is meant by "personality," being a limitation and a relation, or, as defined by
Coleridge, "individuality existing in itself but with a nature as a ground," the term cannot of course be
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applied to non-human entities; but, as a fact insisted upon by generations of Seers, none of these
Beings, high or low, have either individuality or personality as separate Entities, i.e., they have no
individuality in the sense in which a man says, "I am myself and no one else;" in other words, they are
conscious of no such distinct separateness as men and things have on earth. Individuality is the
characteristic of their respective hierarchies, not of their units; and these characteristics vary only with
the degree of the plane to which those hierarchies belong: the nearer to the region of Homogeneity and
the One Divine, the purer and the less accentuated that individuality in the Hierarchy. They are finite,
in all respects, with the exception of their higher principles -- the immortal sparks reflecting the
universal divine flame -- individualized and separated only on the spheres of Illusion by a
differentiation as illusive as the rest. They are "Living Ones," because they are the streams projected
on the Kosmic screen of illusion from the ABSOLUTE LIFE; beings in whom life cannot become
extinct, before the fire of ignorance is extinct in those who sense these "Lives." Having sprung into
being under the quickening influence of the uncreated beam, the reflection of the great Central Sun
that

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 276 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

radiates on the shores of the river of Life, it is the inner principle in them which belongs to the waters
of immortality, while its differentiated clothing is as perishable as man's body. Therefore Young was
right in saying that
"Angels are men of a superior kind"
and no more. They are neither "ministering" nor "protecting" angels; nor are they "Harbingers of the
Most High" still less the "Messengers of wrath" of any God such as man's fancy has created. To
appeal to their protection is as foolish as to believe that their sympathy may be secured by any kind of
propitiation; for they are, as much as man himself is, the slaves and creatures of immutable Karmic
and Kosmic law. The reason for it is evident. Having no elements of personality in their essence they
can have no personal qualities, such as attri buted by men, in their exoteric religions, to their
anthropomorphic God -- a jealous and exclusive God who rejoices and feels wrathful, is pleased with
sacrifice, and is more despotic in his vanity than any finite foolish man. Man, as shown in Book II.,
being a compound of the essences of all those celestial Hierarchies may succeed in making himself, as
such, superior, in one sense, to any hierarchy or class, or even combination of them. "Man can neither
propitiate nor comm and the Devas," it is said. But, by paralyzing his lower personality, and arriving
thereby at the full knowledge of the non-separateness of his higher SELF from the One absolute
SELF, man can, even during his terrestrial life, become as "One of Us." Thus it is, by eating of the
fruit of knowledge which dispels ignorance, that man becomes like one of the Elohim or the Dhyanis;
and once on their plane the Spirit of Solidarity and perfect Harmony, which reigns in every Hierarchy,
must extend over him and protect him in every particular.
The chief difficulty which prevents men of science from believing in divine as well as in nature Spirits
is their materialism. The main impediment before the Spiritualist which hinders him from believing in
the same, while preserving a blind belief in the "Spirits" of the Departed, is the general ignorance of
all, except some Occultists and Kabalists, about the true essence and nature of matter. It is on the
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acceptance or rejection of the theory of the Unity of all in Nature, in its ultimate Essence, that mainly
rests the belief or unbelief in the existence around us of other conscious beings besides the Spirits of
the Dead.

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 277 MANY BODIES BUT ONE SOUL.

It is on the right comprehension of the primeval Evolution of Spirit-Matter and its real essence that the
student has to depend for the further elucidation in his mind of the Occult Cosmogony, and for the
only sure clue which can guide his subsequent studies.
In sober truth, as just shown, every "Spirit" so-called is either a disembodied or a future man. As from
the highest Archangel (Dhyan Chohan) down to the last conscious "Builder" (the inferior class of
Spiritual Entities), all such are men, having lived aeons ago, in other Manvantaras, on this or other
Spheres; so the inferior, semi-intelligent and non-intelligent Elementals -- are all future men. That fact
alone -- that a Spirit is endowed with intelligence -- is a proof to the Occultist that that Being must
have been a man, and acquired his knowledge and intelligence throughout the human cycle. There is
but one indivisible and absolute Omniscience and Intelligence in the Universe, and this thrills
throughout every atom and infinitesimal point of the whole finite Kosmos which hath no bounds, and
which people call SPACE, considered independently of anything contained in it. But the first
differentiation of its reflection in the manifested World is purely Spiritual, and the Beings generated in
it are not endowed with a consciousness that has any relation to the one we conceive of. They can
have no human consciousness or Intelligence before they have acquired such, personally and
individually. This may be a mystery, yet it is a fact, in Esoteric philosophy, and a very apparent one
too.
The whole order of nature evinces a progressive march towards a higher life. There is design in the
action of the seemingly blindest forces. The whole process of evolution with its endless adaptations is
a proof of this. The immutable laws that weed out the weak and feeble species, to make room for the
strong, and which ensure the "survival of the fittest," though so cruel in their immediate action -- all
are working toward the grand end. The very fact that adaptations do occur, that the fittest do survive in
the struggle for existence, shows that what is called "unconscious Nature"* is in reality an aggregate
of forces mani[[Footnote(s) -------------------------------------------------]]

* Nature taken in its abstract sense, cannot be "unconscious," as it is the emanation from, and thus an

aspect (on the manifested plane) of the ABSOLUTE consciousness. Where is that daring man who

would presume to deny to vegetation and even to minerals a consciousness of their own. All he can

say is, that this consciousness is beyond his comprehension.


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pulated by semi-intelligent beings (Elementals) guided by High Planetary Spirits, (Dhyan Chohans),

whose collective aggregate forms the manifested verbum of the unmanifested LOGOS, and constitutes

at one and the same time the MIND of the Universe and its immutable LAW.
Three distinct representations of the Universe in its three distinct aspects are impressed upon our
thought by the esoteric philosophy: the PRE-EXISTING (evolved from) the EVER-EXISTING; and
the PHENOMENAL -- the world of illusion, the reflection, and shadow thereof. During the great
mystery and drama of life known as the Manvantara, real Kosmos is like the object placed behind the
white screen upon which are thrown the Chinese shadows, called forth by the magic lantern. The
actual figures and things remain invisible, while the wires of evolution are pulled by the unseen hands;
and men and things are thus but the reflections, on the white field, of the realities behind the snares of
Mahamaya, or the great Illusion. This was taught in every philosophy, in every religion, ante as well
as post diluvian, in India and Chaldea, by the Chinese as by the Grecian Sages. In the former countries
these three Universes were allegorized, in exoteric teachings, by the three trinities emanating from the
Central eternal germ and forming with it a Supreme Unity: the initial, the manifested, and the Creative
Triad, or the three in One. The last is but the symbol, in its concrete expression, of the first ideal two.
Hence Esoteric philosophy passes over the necessarianism of this purely metaphysical conception, and
calls the first one, only, the Ever Existing. This is the view of every one of the six great schools of
Indian philosophy -- the six principles of that unit body of WISDOM of which the "gnosis," the hidden
knowledge, is the seventh.
The writer hopes that, superficially handled as may be the comments on the Seven Stanzas, enough
has been given in this cosmogonic portion of the work to show Archaic teachings to be more scientific
(in the modern sense of the word) on their very face, than any other ancient Scriptures left to be
regarded and judged on their exoteric aspect. Since, however, as confessed before, this work withholds
far more than it gives out, the student is invited to use his own intuitions. Our chief care is to elucidate
that which has already been given out, and, to our regret, very incorrectly at times; to supplement the
knowledge hinted at -- whenever and wherever possible -- by addi-

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 279 HERMES, OR ARISTOTLE?

tional matter; and to bulwark our doctrines against the too strong attacks of modern Sectarianism, and
more especially against those of our latter-day Materialism, very often miscalled Science, whereas, in
reality, the words "Scientists" and "Sciolists" ought alone to bear the responsibility for the many
illogical theories offered to the world. In its great ignorance, the public, while blindly accepting
everything that emanates from "authorities," and feeling it to be its duty to regard every dictum
coming from a man of Science as a proven fact -- the public, we say, is taught to scoff at anything
brought forward from "hea then" sources. Therefore, as materialistic Scientists can be fought solely
with their own weapons -- those of controversy and argument -- an Addendum is added to every Book
contrasting our respective views and showing how even great authorities may often err. We believe
that this can be done effectually by showing the weak points of our opponents, and by proving their
too frequent sophisms -- made to pass for scientific dicta -- to be incorrect. We hold to Hermes and his
"Wisdom" -- in its universal character; they -- to Aristotle as against intuition and the experience of
the ages, fancying that Truth is the exclusive property of the Western world. Hence the disagreement.
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As Hermes says, "Knowledge differs much from sense; for sense is of things that surmount it, but
Knowledge (gyi) is the end of sense" -- i.e., of the illusion of our physical brain and its intellect; thus
emphasizing the contrast between the laboriously acquired knowledge of the senses and mind (manas),
and the intuitive omniscience of the Spiritual divine Soul -- Buddhi.
Whatever may be the destiny of these actual writings in a remote future, we hope to have proven so far
the following facts:
(1) The Secret Doctrine teaches no Atheism, except in the Hindu sense of the word nastika, or the
rejection of idols, including every anthropomorphic god. In this sense every Occultist is a Nastika.
(2) It admits a Logos or a collective "Creator" of the Universe; a Demi-urgos -- in the sense implied
when one speaks of an "Architect" as the "Creator" of an edifice, whereas that Architect has never
touched one stone of it, but, while furnishing the plan, left all the manual labour to the masons; in our
case the plan was furnished by the Ideation of the Universe, and the constructive labour was left to the
Hosts of intelligent Powers and Forces. But that Demiurgos is no

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 280 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

personal deity, -- i.e., an imperfect extra-cosmic god, -- but only the aggregate of the Dhyan-Chohans
and the other forces.
As to the latter -(3) They are dual in their character; being composed of (a) the irrational brute energy, inherent in
matter, and (b) the intelligent soul or cosmic consciousness which directs and guides that energy, and
which is the Dhyan-Chohanic thought reflecting the Ideation of the Universal mind. This results in a
perpetual series of physical manifestations and moral effects on Earth, during manvantaric periods, the
whole being subservient to Karma. As that process is not always perfect; and since, however many
proofs it may exhibit of a guiding intelligence behind the veil, it still shows gaps and flaws, and even
results very often in evident failures -- therefore, neither the collective Host (Demiurgos), nor any of
the working powers individually, are proper subjects for divine honours or worship. All are entitled to
the grateful reverence of Humanity, however, and man ought to be ever striving to help the divine
evolution of Ideas, by becoming to the best of his ability a co-worker with nature in the cyclic task.
The ever unknowable and incognizable Karana alone, the Causeless Cause of all causes, should have
its shrine and altar on the holy and ever untrodden ground of our heart -- invisible, intangible,
unmentioned, save through "the still small voice" of our spiritual consciousness. Those who worship
before it, ought to do so in the silence and the sanctified solitude of their Souls*; making their spirit
the sole mediator between them and the Universal Spirit, their good actions the only priests, and their
sinful intentions the only visible and objective sacrificial victims to the Presence. (See Part II., "On
the Hidden Deity.")
(4) Matter is Eternal. It is the Upadhi (the physical basis) for the One infinite Universal Mind to build

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thereon its ideations. Therefore, the Esotericists maintain that there is no inorganic or dead matter in
nature, the distinction between the two made by Science being as unfounded as it is arbitrary and
devoid of reason.
[[Footnote(s) -------------------------------------------------]]

* "When thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are . . . but enter into thine inner chamber

and having shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret." Matt. vi.). Our Father is within us "in

Secret," our 7th principle, in the "inner chamber" of our Soul perception. "The Kingdom of Heaven"

and of God "is within us" says Jesus, not outside. Why are Christians so absolutely blind to the selfevident meaning of the words of wisdom they delight in mechanically repeating?


[[Vol. 1, Page]] 281 MATTER IS THE SHADOW OF SPIRIT.


Whatever Science may think, however -- and exact Science is a fickle dame, as we all know by

experience -- Occultism knows and teaches differently, from time immemorial -- from Manu and

Hermes down to Paracelsus and his successors.

Thus Hermes, the thrice great Trismegistus, says: "Oh, my son, matter becomes; formerly it was; for

matter is the vehicle of becoming."* Becoming is the mode of activity of the uncreate deity. Having

been endowed with the germs of becoming, matter (objective) is brought into birth, for the creative

force fashions it according to the ideal forms. Matter not yet engendered had no form; it becomes

when it is put into operation." (The Definitions of Asclepios, p. 134, "Virgin of the World.")
"Everything is the product of one universal creative effort. . . . There is nothing dead, in Nature.
Everything is organic and living, and therefore the whole world appears to be a living organism."
(Paracelsus, "Philosophia ad Athenienes," F. Hartmann's translations, p. 44.)
(5.) The Universe was evolved out of its ideal plan, upheld through Eternity in the unconsciousness of
that which the Vedantins call Parabrahm. This is practically identical with the conclusions of the
highest Western Philosophy -- "the innate, eternal, and self-existing Ideas" of Plato, now reflected by
Von Hartmann. The "unknowable" of Herbert Spencer bears only a faint resemblance to that
transcendental Reality believed in by Occultists, often appearing merely a personification of a "force
behind phenomena" -- an infinite and eternal Energy
[[Footnote(s) -------------------------------------------------]]

* To this the late Mrs. (Dr.) Kingsford, the able translator and compiler of the Hermetic Fragments

(see "The Virgin of the World") remarks in a foot-note; "Dr. Menard observes that in Greek the same

word signifies to be born and to become. The idea here is that the material of the world is in its

essence eternal, but that before creation or 'becoming' it is in a passive and motionless condition. Thus

it 'was' before being put into operation; now it 'becomes,' that is, it is mobile and progressive." And

she adds the purely Vedantic doctrine of the Hermetic philosophy that "Creation is thus the period of

activity (Manvantara) of God, who, according to Hermetic thought (or which, according to the

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Vedantin) has two modes -- Activity or Existence, God evolved (Deus explicitus); and Passivity of

Being (Pralaya) God involved (Deus implicitus). Both modes are perfect and complete, as are the

waking and sleeping states of man. Fichte, the German philosopher, distinguished Being (Seyn) as
One, which we know only through existence (Dasein) as the Manifold. This view is thoroughly
Hermetic. The 'Ideal Forms' are the archetypal or formative ideas of the Neo-Platonists; the eternal and
subjective concepts of things subsisting in the divine mind prior to 'becoming'" (p. 134).

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 282 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

from which all things proceed, while the author of the "Philosophy of the Unconscious" has come (in
this respect only) as near to a solution of the great Mystery as mortal man can. Few were those,
whether in ancient or mediaeval philosophy, who have dared to approach the subject or even hint at it.
Paracelsus mentions it inferentially. His ideas are admirably synthesized by Dr. F. Hartmann, F.T.S.,
in his "Life of Paracelsus."
All the Christian Kabalists understood well the Eastern root idea: The active Power, the "Perpetual
motion of the great Breath" only awakens Kosmos at the dawn of every new Period, setting it into
motion by means of the two contrary Forces,* and thus causing it to become objective on the plane of
Illusion. In other words, that dual motion transfers Kosmos from the plane of the Eternal Ideal into
that of finite manifestation, or from the Noumenal to the Phenomenal plane. Everything that is, was,
and will be, eternally IS, even the countless forms, which are finite and perishable only in their
objective, not in their ideal Form. They existed as Ideas, in the Eternity,** and, when they pass away,
will exist as reflections. Neither the form of man, nor that of any animal, plant or stone has ever been
created, and it is only on this plane of ours that it commenced "becoming," i.e., objectivising into its
present materiality, or expanding from within outwards, from the most sublimated and supersensuous
essence into its grossest appearance. Therefore our human forms have existed in the Eternity as astral
or ethereal prototypes; according to which models, the Spiritual Beings (or Gods) whose duty it was to
bring them into objective being and terrestrial Life, evolved the protoplasmic forms of the future Egos
from their own essence. After which, when this human Upadhi, or basic mould was ready, the natural
terrestrial Forces began to work on those supersensuous moulds which contained, besides their own,
the elements of all the past vegetable and future animal forms of this globe in them. Therefore, man's
outward shell passed through every vegetable and animal body before it assumed the human shape. As
this will be fully
[[Footnote(s) -------------------------------------------------]]

* The centripetal and the centrifugal forces, which are male and female, positive and negative,

physical and spiritual, the two being the one Primordial Force.

** Occultism teaches that no form can be given to anything, either by nature or by man, whose ideal

type does not already exist on the subjective plane. More than this; that no such form or shape can

possibly enter man's consciousness, or evolve in his imagination, which does not exist in prototype, at

least as an approximation.


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[[Vol. 1, Page]] 283 PARACELSUS ANTICIPATED TYNDALL.


described in Book II., with the Commentaries thereupon, there is no need to say more of it here.
According to the Hermetico-Kabalistic philosophy of Paracelsus, it is Yliaster -- the ancestor of the
just-born Protyle, introduced by Mr. Crookes in chemistry -- or primordial Protomateria that evolved
out of itself the Kosmos.
"When Evolution took place the Yliaster divided itself. . . . melted and dissolved, developing from
within itself the Ideos or Chaos, called respectively Mysterium magnum, Iliados, Limbus Major, or
Primordial Matter. This Primordial essence is of a monistic nature, and manifests itself not only as
vital activity, a spiritual force, an invisible, incomprehensible, and indescribable power, but also as
vital matter of which the substance of living beings consists." In this Ideos of primordial matter, or the
proto-ilos -- which is the matrix of all created things -- is contained the substance from which
everything is formed. It is the Chaos . . . out of which the Macrocosm, and, later on, by evolution and
division in Mysteria Specialia,* each separate being, came into existence. "All things and all
elementary substances were contained in it in potentia but not in actu" -- which makes the translator,
Dr. F. Hartmann, justly observe that "it seems that Paracelsus anticipated the modern discovery of the
'potency of matter' three hundred years ago" (P. 42).
This Magnus Limbus, then, or Yliaster of Paracelsus, is simply our old friend "Father-Mother," within,
before it appeared in Space, of the second and other Stanzas. It is the universal matrix of Kosmos,
personified in the dual character of Macro- and Microcosm (or the Universe and our Globe)** by
Aditi-Prakriti, the Spiritual and the physical nature. For we find it explained in Paracelsus that "the
Magnus Limbus is the nursery out of which all creatures have grown, in the same sense as a tree
grows out of a small seed; with the difference, however, that the great Limbus takes its origin from the
Word, while the Limbus minor (the terrestrial seed or sperm) takes it from the earth.
[[Footnote(s) -------------------------------------------------]]

* This word is explained by Dr. Hartmann from the original texts of Paracelsus before him, as follows.

According to this great Rosicrucian: "Mysterium is everything out of which something may be

developed, which is only germinally contained in it. A seed is the 'Mysterium' of a plant, an egg that

of a living bird, etc."

** It is only the mediaeval Kabalists who, following the Jewish and one or two Neo-Platonists,

applied the term Microcosm to man. Ancient philosophy called the Earth the Microcosm of the

Macrocosm, and man the outcome of the two.


[[Vol. 1, Page]] 284 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.


The great Limbus is the seed out of which all beings have come, and the little Limbus is each ultimate

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being that reproduces its form, and that has itself been produced by the 'great.' The latter possesses all
the qualifications of the great one, in the same sense as a son has an organization similar to that of his
father." (See Comment. Book II. para. iii.) . . . "As Yliaster dissolved, Ares, the dividing,
differentiating, and individualising power (Fohat, another old friend,) . . . began to act. All production
took place in consequence of separation. There were produced out of the Ideos, the elements of Fire,
Water, Air and Earth, whose birth, however, did not take place in a material mode, or by simple
separation," but by spiritual and dynamical, not even complex, combinations -- e.g., mechanical
mixture as opposed to chemical combination -- just as fire may come out of a pebble, or a tree out of a
seed, although there is originally no fire in the pebble, nor a tree in the seed. Spirit is living, and Life
is Spirit, and Life and Spirit (Prakriti Purusha) (?) produce all things, but they are essentially one and
not two. . . . The elements too, have each one its own Yliaster, because all the activity of matter in
every form is only an effluvium of the same fount. But as from the seed grow the roots with their
fibres, and after that the stalk with its branches and leaves, and lastly the flowers and seeds; likewise
all beings were born from the elements, and consist of elementary substances out of which other forms
may come into existence, bearing the characteristics of their parents." ("This doctrine, preached 300
years ago," remarks the translator, "is identical with the one that has revolutionized modern thought,
after having been put into new shape and elaborated by Darwin. It was still more elaborated by Kapila
in the Sankhya philosophy") . . . . The elements as the mothers of all creatures are of an invisible,
spiritual nature, and have souls.* They all spring from the "Mysterium Magnum." (Philosophia ad
Athenienses.)
Compare this with Vishnu Purana.
"From Pradhana (primordial substance) presided over by Kshetrajna (embodied Spirit?) proceeds the
evolution of those qualities....... From the great Principle Mahat (Universal Intellect, or mind).....
proceeds
[[Footnote(s) -------------------------------------------------]]

* The Eastern Occultist says -- "are guided and informed by the Spiritual Beings" the Workmen in the

invisible worlds and behind the veil of Occult nature, or nature in Abscondito.


[[Vol. 1, Page]] 285 HERMES CHRISTIANIZED.


the origin of the subtle elements and from these the organs of sense (Book I., ii.).

Thus it may be shown that all the fundamental truths of nature were universal in antiquity, and that the

basic ideas upon spirit, matter, and the universe, or upon God, Substance, and man, were identical.

Taking the two most ancient religious philosophies on the globe, Hinduism and Hermetism, from the

scriptures of India and Egypt, the identity of the two is easily recognisable.

This becomes apparent to one who reads the latest translation and rendering of the "Hermetic

Fragments" just mentioned, by our late lamented friend, Dr. Anna Kingsford. Disfigured and tortured

as these have been in their passage through Sectarian Greek and Christian hands, the translator has

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most ably and intuitionally seized the weak points and tried to remedy them by means of explanations
and foot-notes. And she says:.......... The creation of the visible world by the 'working gods' or Titans,
as agents of the Supreme God,* is a thoroughly Hermetic idea, recognisable in all religious systems,
and in accordance with modern scientific research (?), which shows us everywhere the Divine power
operating through natural Forces."
"That Universal Being, that contains all, and which is all, put into motion the Soul and the World, all
that nature comprises, says Hermes. In the manifold unity of universal life, the innumerable
individualities distinguished by their variations, are, nevertheless, united in such a manner that the
whole is one, and that everything proceeds from Unity." (Asclepios, Part I.)
"God is not a mind, but the cause that the mind is; not a spirit, but the cause that the Spirit is; not light,
but the cause that the Light is." (Divine Pymander, Book IX., v. 64.)
The above shows plainly that "Divine Pymander," however much distorted in some passages by
Christian "smoothing," was nevertheless written by a philosopher, while most of the so-called
"hermetic Fragments" are the production of sectarian pagans with a tendency towards an
anthropomorphic Supreme Being. Yet both are the echo of the Esoteric philosophy and the Hindu
Puranas.
Compare two invocations, one to the Hermetic "Supreme All," the
[[Footnote(s) -------------------------------------------------]]

* A frequent expression in the said Fragments, to which we take exception. The Universal Mind is not

a Being or "God."


[[Vol. 1, Page]] 286 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.


other to the "Supreme All" of the later Aryans. Says a Hermetic Fragment cited by Suidas (see Mrs.

Kingsford's "The Virgin of the World"): "I adjure thee, Heaven, holy work of the great God; I adjure thee, Voice of the Father, uttered in the

beginning when the universal world was framed; I adjure thee by the word, only Son of the Father

who upholds all things; be favourable, be favourable."

This just preceded by the following: "Thus the Ideal Light was before the Ideal Light, and the

luminous Intelligence of Intelligence was always, and its unity was nothing else than the Spirit

enveloping the Universe. Out of whom is neither God nor Angels, nor any other essentials, for He (It?)

is the Lord of all things and the power and the Light; and all depends on Him (It) and is in Him (It),

etc." (Fragments of the writings of Hermes to Ammon.)

This is contradicted by the very same Trismegistos, who is made to say: "To speak of God is
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impossible. For corporeal cannot express the incorporeal. . . . . That which has not any body nor
appearance, nor form, nor matter, cannot be apprehended by sense. I understand, Tatios, I understand,
that which it is impossible to define -- that is God." (Physical Eclogues, Florilegium of Stobaeus.)
The contradiction between the two passages is evident; and this shows (a) that Hermes was a generic
nom-de-plume used by a series of generations of mystics of every shade, and (b) that a great
discernment has to be used before accepting a Fragment as esoteric teaching only because it is
undeniably ancient. Let us now compare the above with a like invocation in the Hindu Scriptures -undoubtedly as old, if not far older. Here it is Parasara, the Aryan "Hermes" who instructs Maitreya,
the Indian Asclepios, and calls upon Vishnu in his triple hypostasis.
"Glory to the unchangeable, holy, eternal Supreme Vishnu, of one universal nature, the mighty over
all; to him who is Hiranyagarbha, Hari, and Sankara (Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva), the creator, the
preserver, and the destroyer of the world; to Vasudeva, the liberator (of his worshippers); to him
whose essence is both single and manifold; who is both subtile and corporeal, indiscreet and discreet;
to Vishnu the cause of final emancipation, the cause of the creation, existence, the

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 287 ALONE THE ETERNAL IS REST.

end of the world; who is the root of the world, and who consists of the world." (Vish. Purana, Book L.)
This is a grand invocation, full of philosophical meaning underlying it; but, for the profane masses, as
suggestive as is the first of an anthropomorphic Being. We must respect the feeling that dictated both;
but we cannot help finding it in full disharmony with its inner meaning, even with that which is found
in the same Hermetic treatise where it is said:
"Reality is not upon the earth, my son, and it cannot be thereon. . . . Nothing on earth is real, there are
only appearances. . . He (man) is not real, my son, as man. The real consists solely in itself and
remains what it is. . . Man is transient, therefore he is not real, he is but appearance, and appearance is
the supreme illusion.
Tatios: Then the celestial bodies themselves are not real, my father, since they also vary?
Trismegistos: That which is subject to birth and to change is not real. . . . . There is in them a certain
falsity, seeing that they too are variable.......
Tatios: And what then is the primordial Reality?
Trismeg.: That which is one and alone, 0 Tatios; That which is not made of matter, nor in any body.
Which has neither colour nor form, which changes not nor is transmitted but which always is."
This is quite consistent with the Vedantic teaching. The leading thought is Occult; and many are the
passages in the Hermetic Fragments that belong bodily to the Secret Doctrine.
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The latter teaches that the whole universe is ruled by intelligent and semi-intelligent Forces and
Powers, as stated from the very beginning. Christian Theology admits and even enforces belief in
such, but makes an arbitrary division and refers to them as "Angels" and "Devils." Science denies the
existence of such, and ridicules the very idea. Spiritualists believe in the Spirits of the Dead, and,
outside these, deny entirely any other kind or class of invisible beings. The Occultists and Kabalists
are thus the only rational expounders of the ancient traditions, which have now culminated in
dogmatic faith on the one hand, and dogmatic denials on the other. For, both belief and unbelief
embrace but one small corner each of the infinite horizons of spiritual and physical manifestations;
and thus both are right from

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 288 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

their respective standpoints, and both are wrong in believing that they can circumscribe the whole
within their own special and narrow barriers; for -- they can never do so. In this respect Science,
Theology, and even Spiritualism show little more wisdom than the ostrich does, when it hides its head
in the sand at its feet, feeling sure that there can be thus nothing beyond its own point of observation
and the limited area occupied by its foolish head.
As the only works now extant upon the subject under consideration within reach of the profane of the
Western "civilized" races are the above-mentioned Hermetic Books, or rather Hermetic Fragments, we
may contrast them in the present case with the teachings of Esoteric philosophy. To quote for this
purpose from any other would be useless, since the public knows nothing of the Chaldean works
which are translated into Arabic and preserved by some Sufi initiates. Therefore the "Definitions of
Asclepios," as lately compiled and glossed by Mrs. A. Kingsford, F.T.S., some of which sayings are in
remarkable agreement with the Esoteric Eastern doctrine, have to be resorted to for comparison.
Though not a few passages show a strong impression of some later Christian hand, yet on the whole
the characteristics of the genii* and gods are those of eastern teachings, while concerning other things
there are passages which differ widely in our doctrines. The following are a few:-[[Footnote(s) -------------------------------------------------]]

* The Hermetic philosophers called Theoi, gods, Genii and Daimones (in the original texts), those

Entities whom we call Devas (gods), Dhyan Chohans, Chitkala (Kwan-yin, the Buddhists call them),

and by other names. The Daimones are -- in the Socratic sense, and even in the Oriental and Latin

theological sense -- the guardian spirits of the human race; "those who dwell in the neighbourhood of

the immortals, and thence watch over human affairs," as Hermes has it. In Esoteric parlance, they are

called Chitkala, some of which are those who have furnished man with his fourth and fifth Principles

from their own essence; and others the Pitris so-called. This will be explained when we come to the

production of the complete man. The root of the name is Chiti, "that by which the effects and

consequences of actions and kinds of knowledge are selected for the use of the soul," or conscience

the inner Voice in man. With the Yogis, the Chiti is a synonym of Mahat, the first and divine intellect;

but in Esoteric philosophy Mahat is the root of Chiti, its germ; and Chiti is a quality of Manas in

conjunction with Buddhi, a quality that attracts to itself by spiritual affinity a Chitkala when it

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develops sufficiently in man. This is why it is said that Chiti is a voice acquiring mystic life and
becoming Kwan-Yin.

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 289 A FEW OCCULT APHORISMS.

EXTRACTS FROM A PRIVATE COMMENTARY,* hitherto secret:-(xvii.) "The Initial Existence in the first twilight of the Maha-Manwantara (after the MAHAPRALAYA that follows every age of Brahma) is a CONSCIOUS SPIRITUAL QUALITY. In the
manifested WORLDS (solar systems) it is, in its OBJECTIVE SUBJECTIVITY, like the film from a
Divine Breath to the gaze of the entranced seer. It spreads as it issues from LAYA** throughout
infinity as a colourless spiritual fluid. It is on the SEVENTH PLANE, and in its SEVENTH STATE
in our planetary world.***
(xviii.) "It is Substance to OUR spiritual sight. It cannot be called so by men in their WAKING
STATE; therefore they have named it in their ignorance 'God-Spirit.'
(xix.) "It exists everywhere and forms the first UPADHI (foundation) on which our World (solar
system) is built. Outside the latter it is to be found in its pristine purity only between (the solar systems
or) the Stars of the Universe, the worlds already formed or forming; those in LAYA resting
meanwhile in its bosom. As its substance is of a different kind from that known on earth, the
inhabitants of the latter, seeing THROUGH IT, believe in their illusion and ignorance that it is empty
space. There is not one finger's breath (ANGULA) of void Space in the whole Boundless
(Universe).........
(xx.) "Matter or Substance is septenary within our World, as it is so beyond it. Moreover, each of its
states or principles is graduated into seven degrees of density. SURYA (the Sun), in its visible
reflection, exhibits the first, or lowest state of the seventh, the highest state of the Universal
PRESENCE, the pure of the pure, the first manifested Breath of the ever Unmanifested SAT (Beness). All the Central physical or objective Suns are in their substance the lowest state of the first
Principle of the BREATH. Nor are any of these any more than the REFLECTIONS of their
PRIMARIES which are concealed from the gaze of all but the Dhyan Chohans, whose Corporeal
substance belongs to the fifth division of the seventh Principle of the Mother substance, and is,
[[Footnote(s) -------------------------------------------------]]

* This (teaching) does not refer to Prakriti-Purusha beyond the boundaries of our small universe.

** The ultimate quiescent state: the Nirvana condition of the seventh Principle.

*** The teaching is all given from our plane of consciousness.


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[[Vol. 1, Page]] 290 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.


therefore, four degrees higher than the solar reflected substance. As there are seven Dhatu (principal

substances in the human body) so there are seven Forces in Man and in all Nature.

(xxi.) "The real substance of the concealed (Sun) is a nucleus of Mother substance.* It is the heart and

the matrix of all the living and existing Forces in our solar universe. It is the Kernel from which
proceed to spread on their cyclic journeys all the Powers that set in action the atoms in their
functional duties, and the focus within which they again meet in their SEVENTH ESSENCE every
eleventh year. He who tells thee he has seen the sun, laugh at him** as if he had said that the sun
moves really onward on his diurnal path . . . .
(xxiii). "It is on account of his septenary nature that the Sun is spoken of by the ancients as one who is
driven by seven horses equal to the metres of the Vedas; or, again, that, though he is identified with
the SEVEN "Gaina" (classes of being) in his orb, he is distinct from them,*** as he is, indeed; as also
that he has SEVEN RAYS, as indeed he has . . . .
(xxv.) "The Seven Beings in the Sun are the Seven Holy Ones, Self-born from the inherent power in the
matrix of Mother substance. It is they who send the Seven Principal Forces, called rays, which at the
beginning of Pralaya will centre into seven new Suns for the next Manvantara. The energy from which
they spring into conscious existence in every Sun, is what some people call Vishnu (see foot-note
below), which is the Breath of the ABSOLUTENESS.
We call it the One manifested life -- itself a reflection of the Absolute.........
(xxvi.) "The latter must never be mentioned in words or speech LEST IT SHOULD TAKE AWAY
SOME OF OUR SPIRITUAL ENERGIES THAT ASPIRE towards ITS state, gravitating ever
onward unto IT spiritually, as the whole physical universe gravitates towards ITS manifested centre -cosmically.
(xxvii.) "The former -- the Initial existence -- which may be called while in
[[Footnote(s) -------------------------------------------------]]

* Or the "dream of Science," the primeval really homogeneous matter, which no mortal can make

objective in this Race or Round either.

** "Vishnu in the form of the Solar active energy, neither ever rises nor sets, and is at once, the

sevenfold Sun and distinct from it," says Vishnu Purana (Book II., Chap. 1 1).

*** "In the same manner as a man approaches a mirror placed upon a stand, beholds in it his own

image, so the energy or reflection of Vishnu (the Sun) is never disjoined but remains in the Sun as in a

mirror that is there stationed" ("Vishnu Purana").


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[[Vol. 1, Page]] 291 OCCULT APHORISMS.


this state of being the ONE LIFE, is, as explained, a FILM for creative or formative Purposes. It
manifests in seven states, which, with their septenary sub-divisions, are the FORTY-NINE Fires*
mentioned in sacred books . . . . . .
(xxix.) "The first is the . . . . 'Mother' (prima MATERIA). Separating itself into its primary seven
states, it proceeds down cyclically; when** having consolidated itself in its LAST principle as
GROSS MATTER, it revolves around itself and informs, with the seventh emanation of the last, the
first and the lowest element (the Serpent biting its own tail). In a hierarchy, or order of being, the
seventh emanation of her last principle is: -(a) In the mineral, the spark that lies latent in it, and is called to its evanescent being by the
POSITIVE awakening the NEGATIVE (and so forth) . . . .
(b) In the plant it is that vital and intelligent Force which informs the seed and develops it into the
blade of grass, or the root and sapling. It is the germ which becomes the UPADHI of the seven
principles of the thing it resides in, shooting them out as the latter grows and develops.
(c) In every animal it does the same. It is its life principle and vital power; its instinct and qualities; its
characteristics and special idiosyncrasies . . . .
(d) To man, it gives all that it bestows on all the rest of the manifested units in nature; but develops,
furthermore, the reflection of all its FORTY-NINE FIRES in him. Each of his seven principles is an
heir in full to, and a partaker of, the seven principles of the "great Mother." The breath of her first
principle is his spirit (Atma). Her second principle is BUDDHI (soul). We call it, erroneously, the
seventh. The third furnishes him with (a) the brain stuff on the physical plane, and (b) with the MIND
that moves it [which is the human soul. -- H. P. B.] -- according to his organic capacities.
(e) It is the guiding Force in the Cosmic and terrestrial elements. It resides in the Fire provoked out of
its latent into active being; for the whole of the seven subdivisions of the * * * principle reside in the
terrestrial Fire. It whirls in the breeze, blows with the hurricane, and sets the air in motion, which
element participates in one of its principles also. Proceeding cyclically, it regulates the motion
[[Footnote(s) -------------------------------------------------]]

* In "Vishnu" and other Puranas.

** See the Hermetic "Nature," "Going down cyclically into matter when she meets 'heavenly man.' "


[[Vol. 1, Page]] 292 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.


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of the water, attracts and repels the waves* according to fixed laws of which its seventh principle is

the informing soul.

(f) Its four higher principles contain the germ that develops into the Cosmic Gods; its three lower ones

breed the lives of the Elements (Elementals).

(g) In our Solar world, the One Existence is Heaven and the Earth, the Root and the flower, the Action
and the Thought. It is in the Sun, and is as present in the glow-worm. Not an atom can escape it.
Therefore, the ancient Sages have wisely called it the manifested God in Nature. . . ."
It may be interesting, in this connection, to remind the reader of what Mr. Subba Row said of the
Forces -- mystically defined. See "Five Years of Theosophy" and "The Twelve Signs of the Zodiac."
Thus he says:
"Kanya (the sixth sign of the Zodiac, or Virgo) means a Virgin, and represents Sakti or Mahamaya.
The sign . . . is the 6th Rasi or division, and indicates that there are six primary forces in Nature
(synthesized by the Seventh)" . . . These Sakti stand as follows: (1.) PARASAKTI. Literally the great or Supreme Force or power. It means and includes the powers of
light and heat.
(2.) JNANASAKTI. . . . The power of intellect, of real Wisdom or Knowledge. It has two aspects:
The following are some of its manifestations when placed under the influence or control of material
conditions. (a) The power of the mind in interpreting our sensations. (b) Its power in recalling past
ideas (memory) and raising future expectation. (c) Its power as exhibited in what are called by modern
psychologists "the laws of association," which enables it to form persisting connections between
various groups of sensations and possibilities of sensations, and thus generate the notion or idea of an
external object. (d) Its power in connecting our ideas together by the mysterious link of memory, and
thus generating the notion of self or individuality; some of its manifestations when liberated from the
bonds of matter are -- (a) Clairvoyance, (b) Psychometry.
(3.) ITCHASAKTI -- the power of the Will. Its most ordinary manifesta[[Footnote(s) -------------------------------------------------]]

* The writers of the above knew perfectly well the physical cause of the tides, of the waves, etc. It is

the informing Spirit of the whole Cosmic solar body that is meant here, and which is referred to

whenever such expressions are used from the mystic point of view.


[[Vol. 1, Page]] 293 THE SEVEN POWERS.


tion is the generation of certain nerve currents which set in motion such muscles as are required for the

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accomplishment of the desired object.

(4.) KRIYASAKTI. The mysterious power of thought which enables it to produce external,

perceptible, phenomenal results by its own inherent energy. The ancients held that any idea will
manifest itself externally if one's attention is deeply concentrated upon it. Similarly an intense volition
will be followed by the desired result.
A Yogi generally performs his wonders by means of Itchasakti and Kriyasakti.
(5.) KUNDALINI SAKTI. The power or Force which moves in a curved path. It is the Universal lifePrinciple manifesting everywhere in nature. This force includes the two great forces of attraction and
repulsion. Electricity and magnetism are but manifestations of it. This is the power which brings about
that "continuous adjustment of internal relations to external relations" which is the essence of life
according to Herbert Spencer, and that "continuous adjustment of external relations to internal
relations" which is the basis of transmigration of souls, punar janman (re-birth) in the doctrines of the
ancient Hindu philosophers. A Yogi must thoroughly subjugate this power before he can attain
Moksham. . . .
(6.) MANTRIKA-SAKTI. The force or power of letters, speech or music. The Mantra Shastra has for
its subject-matter this force in all its manifestations......... The influence of melody is one of its
ordinary manifestations. The power of the ineffable name is the crown of this Sakti.
Modern Science has but partly investigated the first, second and fifth of the forces above named, but is
altogether in the dark as regards the remaining powers. The six forces are in their unity represented by
the "Daiviprakriti" (the Seventh, the light of the LOGOS).
The above is quoted to show the real Hindu ideas on the same. It is all esoteric, though not covering
the tenth part of what might be said. For one, the six names of the Six Forces mentioned are those of
the six Hierarchies of Dhyan Chohans synthesized by their Primary, the seventh, who personify the
Fifth Principle of Cosmic Nature, or of the "Mother" in its Mystical Sense. The enumeration alone of
the yogi Powers would require ten volumes. Each of these Forces has a living Conscious Entity at its
head, of which entity it is an emanation.

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 294 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

But let us compare with the commentary just cited the words of Hermes, the "thrice great":-"The creation of Life by the Sun is as continuous as his light; nothing arrests or limits it. Around him,
like an army of Satellites, are innumerable choirs of genii. These dwell in the neighbourhood of the
Immortals, and thence watch over human things. They fulfil the will of the gods (Karma) by means of
storms, tempests, transitions of fire and earthquakes; likewise by famines and wars, for the
punishment of impiety.* . . . It is the sun who preserves and nourishes all creatures; and even as the
Ideal World which environs the sensible world fills this last with the plenitude and universal variety of
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forms, so also the Sun, enfolding all in his light, accomplishes everywhere the birth and development
of creatures." . . . "Under his orders is the choir of Genii, or rather the choirs, for there are many and
diverse, and their number corresponds to that of the stars. Every star has its genii, good and evil by
nature, or rather by their operation, for operation is the essence of the genii. . . . All these Genii
preside over mundane affairs,** they shake and overthrow the constitution of States and of
individuals; they imprint their likeness on our Souls, they are present in our nerves, our marrow, our
veins, our arteries, and our very brain-substance . . . at the moment when each of us receives life and
being, he is taken in charge by the genii (Elementals) who preside over births,*** and who are classed
beneath the astral powers (Superhuman astral Spirits.) They change perpetually, not always
identically, but revolving in circles.**** They permeate by the body two parts of the Soul, that it may
receive from each the impress of his own energy. But the reasonable part of the Soul is not subject to
the genii; it is designed
[[Footnote(s) -------------------------------------------------]]

* See Stanzas III. and IV. and the Commentaries thereupon, especially the Comments on Stanza IV.

"the Lipika and the four Maharajas," the agents of Karma.

** And "Gods" or Dhyanis, too, not only the genii or "guided Forces."

*** The meaning of this is that as man is composed of all the Great Elements: Fire, Air, Water, Earth

and Ether -- the ELEMENTALS which belong respectively to these Elements feel attracted to man by

reason of their co-essence. That element which predominates in a certain constitution will be the

ruling element throughout life. For instance, if man has a preponderance of the Earthly, gnomic

element, the gnomes will lead him towards assimilating metals -- money and wealth, and so on.

"Animal man is the son of the animal elements out of which his Soul (life) was born, and animals are

the mirrors of man," says Paracelsus (De Fundamento Sapientiae). Paracelsus was cautious, and

wanted the Bible to agree with what he said, and therefore did not say all.

**** Cyclic progress in development.


[[Vol. 1, Page]] 295 UNIVERSAL ILLUSION.


for the reception of (the) God,* who enlightens it with a sunny ray. Those who are thus illumined are
few in number, and from them the genii abstain: for neither genii nor Gods have any power in the
presence of a single ray of God.** But all other men, both soul and body, are directed by genii, to
whom they cleave, and whose operations they affect........... The genii have then the control of
mundane things and our bodies serve them as instruments...........
The above, save a few sectarian points, represents that which was a universal belief common to all
nations till about a century or so back. It is still as orthodox in its broad outlines and features among
pagans and Christians alike, if one excepts a handful of materialists and men of Science.
For whether one calls the genii of Hermes and his "Gods," "Powers of Darkness" and "Angels," as in
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the Greek and Latin Churches; or "Spirits of the Dead," as in Spiritualism or, again, Bhoots and Devas,
Shaitan or Djin, as they are still called in India and Mussulman countries -- they are all one and the
same thing -- ILLUSION. Let not this, however, be misunderstood in the sense into which the great
philosophical doctrine of the Vedantists has been lately perverted by Western schools.
All that which is, emanates from the ABSOLUTE, which, from this qualification alone, stands as the
one and only reality -- hence, everything extraneous to this Absolute, the generative and causative
Element, must be an illusion, most undeniably. But this is only so from the purely metaphysical view.
A man who regards himself as mentally sane, and is so regarded by his neighbours, calls the visions of
an insane brother -- whose hallucinations make the victim either happy or supremely wretched, as the
case may be -- illusions and fancies likewise. But, where is that madman for whom the hideous
shadows in his deranged mind, his illusions, are not, for the time being, as actual and as real as the
things which his physician or keeper may see? Everything is relative in this Universe, everything is an
illusion. But
[[Footnote(s) -------------------------------------------------]]

* The God in man and often the incarnation of a God, a highly Spiritual Dhyan Chohan in him,

besides the presence of his own seventh Principle.

** Now, what "god" is meant here? Not God "the Father," the anthropomorphic fiction; for that god is

the Elohim collectively, and has no being apart from the Host. Besides, such a god is finite and

imperfect. It is the high Initiates and Adepts who are meant here by those men "few in number." And

it is precisely those men who believe in "gods" and know no "God," but one Universal unrelated and

unconditioned Deity.


[[Vol. 1, Page]] 296 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.


the experience of any plane is an actuality for the percipient being, whose consciousness is on that

plane; though the said experience, regarded from the purely metaphysical standpoint, may be

conceived to have no objective reality. But it is not against metaphysicians, but against physicists and

materialists that Esoteric teachings have to fight, and for these Vital Force, Light, Sound, Electricity,

even to the objectively pulling force of magnetism, have no objective being, and are said to exist
merely as "modes of motion," "sensations and affections of matter."
Neither the Occultists generally, nor the Theosophists, reject, as erroneously believed by some, the
views and theories of the modern scientists, only because these views are opposed to Theosophy. The
first rule of our Society is to render unto Caesar what is Caesar's. The Theosophists, therefore, are the
first to recognize the intrinsic value of science. But when its high priests resolve consciousness into a
secretion from the grey matter of the brain, and everything else in nature into a mode of motion, we
protest against the doctrine as being unphilosophical, self-contradictory, and simply absurd, from a
scientific point of view, as much and even more than from the occult aspect of the esoteric knowledge.
For truly the astral light of the derided Kabalists has strange and weird secrets for him who can see in
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it; and the mysteries concealed within its incessantly disturbed waves are there, the whole body of
Materialists and scoffers notwithstanding.* These secrets, along with
[[Footnote(s) -------------------------------------------------]]

* The astral light of the Kabalists is very incorrectly translated by some "AEther;" the latter is

confused with the hypothetical Ether of Science, and both are referred to by some theosophists as

synonymous with Akasa. This is a great mistake.

"A characteristic of Akasa will serve to show how inadequately it is represented by Ether," writes the

author of Rational Refutations, thus unconsciously helping Occultism. "In dimension it is infinite; it is

not made up of parts; and colour, taste, smell, and tangibility do not appertain to it. So far forth it

corresponds exactly to time, space, Isvara, ("The Lord," but rather creative potency and soul -- anima

mundi). Its speciality, as compared therewith, consists in its being the material cause of sound. Except

for its being so, one might take it to be one with vacuity" (p. 120.)

It is vacuity, no doubt, especially for Rationalists. At any rate Akasa is sure to produce vacuity in the

brain of a materialist. Nevertheless, though Akasa is not that Ether of Science, not even the Ether of

the Occultist, who defines the latter as one of the principles of Akasa only, it is as certainly, together

with its primary, the cause of sound, only a physical and spiritual, not a material cause by any means.

The relations [[fn continued]]


[[Vol. 1, Page]] 297 NOTHING NEW UNDER THE SUN.

many other mysteries, will remain non-existent to the materialists of our age, in the same way as
America was a non-existent myth for Europeans during the early part of the mediaeval ages, whereas
Scandinavians and Norwegians had actually reached and settled in that very old "New World" several
centuries before. But, as a Columbus was born to re-discover, and to force the Old World to believe in
Antipodal countries, so will there be born scientists who will discover the marvels now claimed by
Occultists to exist in the regions of Ether, with their varied and multiform denizens and conscious
Entities. Then, nolens volens, Science will have to accept the old "Superstition," as it has several
others. And having been once forced to accept it -- judging from past experience -- its learned
professors will, in all probability, as in the case of MESMERISM and Magnetism, now re-baptised
Hypnotism, father the thing and reject its name. The choice of the new appellation will depend, in its
turn, on the "modes of motion," the new name for the older "automatic physical processes among the
nerve fibrils of the (Scientific) brain" of Moleschott; as also, very likely, upon the last meal of the
namer; since, according to the Founder of the new Hylo-Idealistic Scheme, "Cerebration is generically
the same as chylification."* Thus, were one to believe this preposterous proposition, the new name of
the archaic thing would have to take its chance, on the inspiration of the namer's liver, and then only
would these truths have a chance of becoming scientific!
But TRUTH, however distasteful to the generally blind majorities, has always had her champions,
ready to die for her, and it is not the Occultists who will protest against its adoption by Science under
whatever new name. But, until absolutely forced on the notice and acceptance of Scientists, many an
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Occult truth will be tabooed, as the phenomena of the Spiritualists and other psychic manifestations
were, to be finally appropriated by its ex-traducers without the least acknowledgment or thanks.
Nitrogen has added considerably to chemical knowledge, but its discoverer, Paracelsus, is to this day
called a "quack."
[[Footnote(s) -------------------------------------------------]]

[[fn back]] of Ether to Akasa may be defined by applying to both Akasa and Ether the words said of

the god in the Vedas, "So himself was indeed (his own) son," one being the progeny of the other and

yet itself. This may be a difficult riddle to the profane, but very easy to understand for any Hindu -though not even a mystic.

* National Reformer, January 9th, 1887. Article "Phreno-Kosmo-Biology," by Dr. Lewins.


[[Vol. 1, Page]] 298 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.


How profoundly true are the words of H. T. Buckle, in his admirable "History of Civilization" (Vol. I.,

p. 256), when he says: "Owing to circumstances still unknown (Karmic provision, H.P.B.) there appear from time to time

great thinkers, who, devoting their lives to a single purpose, are able to anticipate the progress of

mankind, and to produce a religion or a philosophy by which important effects are eventually brought

about. But if we look into history we shall clearly see that, although the origin of a new opinion may

be thus due to a single man, the result which the new opinion produces will depend on the condition of

the people among whom it is propagated. If either a religion or a philosophy is too much in advance of

a nation it can do no present service but must bide its time* until the minds of men are ripe for its
reception. . . . Every science, every creed has had its martyrs. According to the ordinary course of
affairs, a few generations pass away, and then there comes a period when these very truths are looked
upon as commonplace facts, and a little later there comes another period in which they are declared
to be necessary, and even the dullest intellect wonders how they could ever have been denied."
It is barely possible that the minds of the present generations are not quite ripe for the reception of
Occult truths. Such will be the retrospect furnished to the advanced thinkers of the Sixth Root Race of
the history of the acceptance of Esoteric Philosophy -- fully and unconditionally. Meanwhile the
generations of our Fifth Race will continue to be led away by prejudice and preconceptions. Occult
Sciences will have the finger of scorn pointed at them from every street corner, and everyone will seek
to ridicule and crush them in the name, and for the greater glory, of Materialism and its so-called
Science. The Addendum which completes the present Book shows, however, in an anticipatory answer
to several of the forthcoming Scientific objections, the true and mutual positions of the defendant and
plaintiff. The Theosophists and Occultists stand arraigned by public opinion, which still holds high the
banner of the inductive Sciences. The latter have, then, to be examined; and it must be shown how far
their achievements and discoveries in the realm of natural laws are opposed, not so much to our
claims, as to the facts in nature. The hour has now struck to ascertain whether the

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[[Footnote(s)]]-------------------------------------------------

* This is Cyclic law, but this law itself is often defied by human stubbornness.


[[Vol. 1, Page]] 299 MEN WELCOME ERROR, AND CRUCIFY THE TRUTH.


walls of the modern Jericho are so impregnable that no blast of the Occult trumpet is ever likely to

make them crumble.

The so-called Forces, with Light and Electricity heading them, and the constitution of the Solar orb

must be carefully examined; as also Gravitation and the Nebular theories. The Natures of Ether and of

other Elements must be discussed: thus contrasting scientific with other Occult teachings, while

revealing some of the hitherto secret tenets of the latter. (Vide Addendum.)

Some fifteen years ago, the writer was the first to repeat, after the Kabalists, the wise Commandments

in the Esoteric Catechism. "Close thy mouth, lest thou shouldst speak of this (the mystery), and thy

heart, lest thou shouldst think aloud; and if thy heart has escaped thee, bring it back to its place, for

such is the object of our alliance." (Sepher Jezireh, Book of Creation.) And again: -- "This is a secret

which gives death: close thy mouth lest thou shouldst reveal it to the vulgar; compress thy brain lest
something should escape from it and fall outside." (Rules of Initiation.)
A few years later, a corner of the Veil of Isis had to be lifted; and now another and a larger rent is
made. . . .
But old and time-honoured errors -- such as become with every day more glaring and self-evident -stand arrayed in battle-order now, as they did then. Marshalled by blind conservatism, conceit and
prejudice, they are constantly on the watch, ready to strangle every truth, which, awakening from its
age-long sleep, happens to knock for admission. Such has been the case ever since man became an
animal. That this proves in every case moral death to the revealers, who bring to light any of these old,
old truths, is as certain as that it gives LIFE and REGENERATION to those who are fit to profit even
by the little that is now revealed to them.
---------------------


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