BOOK I. -- PART III. SCIENCE AND THE SECRET DOCTRINE CONTRASTED

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[[Vol. 1, Page 475]]

BOOK I. -- PART III.
ADDENDA.

SCIENCE AND THE SECRET
DOCTRINE CONTRASTED.
"The knowledge of this nether world -Say, friend, what is it, false or true?
The false, what mortal cares to know?
The true, what mortal ever knew?"

[[Vol. 1, Page 476]]

CONTENTS.
-------------PAGE
I. REASONS FOR THESE ADDENDA ... 477
II.MODERN PHYSICISTS ARE PLAYING AT BLIND MAN'S BUFF ... 482
III. "AN LUMEN SIT CORPUS, NEC NON" ... 483
IV. IS GRAVITATION A LAW? ... 490
V. THE THEORIES OF ROTATION IN SCIENCE ... 500
VI. THE MASKS OF SCIENCE ... 506
VII. AN ATTACK ON THE SCIENTIFIC THEORY OF FORCE BY A MAN OF SCIENCE ... 523
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VIII. LIFE, FORCE, OR GRAVITY? ... 529
IX. THE SOLAR THEORY ... 540
X. THE COMING FORCE ... 554
XI. ON THE ELEMENTS AND ATOMS ... 566
XII. ANCIENT THOUGHT IN MODERN DRESS ... 579
XIII. THE MODERN NEBULAR THEORY ... 588
XIV. FORCES -- MODES OF MOTION OR INTELLIGENCES? ... 601
XV. GODS, MONADS, AND ATOMS ... 610
XVI. CYCLIC EVOLUTION AND KARMA ... 634
XVII. THE ZODIAC AND ITS ANTIQUITY ... 647
XVIII. SUMMARY OF THE MUTUAL POSITION ... 668

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 477 MUTUAL POSITION DEFINED.

ADDENDA TO BOOK I.
-------------I.
REASONS FOR THESE ADDENDA.
MANY of the doctrines contained in the foregoing Seven Stanzas and Commentaries having been
studied and critically examined by some Western Theosophists, certain of the occult teachings have
been found wanting from the ordinary stand-point of modern scientific knowledge. They seemed to
encounter insuperable difficulties in the way of their acceptance, and to require reconsideration in
view of scientific criticism. Some friends have already been tempted to regret the necessity of so often
calling in question the assertions of modern Science. It appeared to them -- and I here repeat only their
arguments -- that "to run counter to the teachings of its most eminent exponents, was to court a
premature discomfiture in the eyes of the Western World."
It is, therefore, desirable to define once and for all the position which the writer, who does not agree in
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this with her friends, intends to maintain. So far as Science remains what in the words of Prof. Huxley
it is, viz., "organized common sense"; so far as its inferences are drawn from accurate premises -- its
generalizations resting on a purely inductive basis -- every Theosophist and Occultist welcomes
respectfully and with due admiration its contri butions to the domain of cosmological law. There can
be no possible conflict between the teachings of occult and so-called exact Science, where the
conclusions of the latter are grounded on a substratum of unassailable fact. It is only when its more
ardent exponents, over-stepping the limits of observed phenomena in order to penetrate into the
arcana of Being, attempt to wrench the formation of Kosmos and its living Forces from Spirit, and
attri bute all to blind matter, that the Occultists claim the right to dispute and call in question their
theories. Science cannot, owing to the very nature of things, unveil the mystery of the universe around
us. Science can, it is true, collect, classify, and generalize upon phenomena; but the occultist, arguing
from admitted metaphysical data, declares that the daring explorer, who would probe the inmost
secrets of Nature, must transcend the narrow limitations of sense, and transfer his consciousness into
the region of noumena and the sphere of primal causes. To effect this, he must develop faculties
which are absolutely

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 478 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

dormant -- save in a few rare and exceptional cases -- in the constitution of the off-shoots of our
present Fifth Root-race in Europe and America. He can in no other conceivable manner collect the
facts on which to base his speculations. Is this not apparent on the principles of Inductive Logic and
Metaphysics alike?
On the other hand, whatever the writer may do, she will never be able to satisfy both Truth and
Science. To offer the reader a systematic and uninterrupted version of the Archaic Stanzas is
impossible. A gap of 43 verses or Slokas has to be left between the 7th (already given) and the 51st,
which is the subject of Book II., though the latter are made to run from 1 et seq. for easier reading and
reference. The appearance of man on Earth alone occupies as many stanzas, which describe minutely
his primal evolution from the human Dhyan Chohans; the state of the globe at that time, etc., etc. A
great number of names referring to chemical substances and other compounds, which have now
ceased to combine together, and are therefore unknown to the later offshoots of our Fifth Race,
occupy a considerable space. As they are simply untranslateable, and would remain in every case
inexplicable, they are omitted, along with those which cannot be made public. Nevertheless, even the
little that is given will irritate any follower and defender of dogmatic materialistic Science who
happens to read this.
Before proceeding to other Stanzas, it is proposed, therefore, to defend those already given. They are
not in perfect accord or harmony with modern Science -- this we all know. Had they been, however,
as much in agreement with the views of modern knowledge as a lecture by Sir W. Thomson, they
would have been rejected all the same. For they teach belief in conscious Powers and Spiritual
Entities; in terrestrial, semi-intelligent, and highly intellectual Forces on other planes*; and in Beings
that dwell around us in spheres imperceptible, whether through telescope or microscope. Hence the
necessity of examining the beliefs of materialistic Science: of comparing its views about the
"Elements" with the opinions of the ancients, and of analysing the physical Forces as they exist in
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modern perception before the Occultists admit themselves to be in the wrong. We shall touch upon the
constitution of the Sun and planets, and the occult characteristics of what are called Devas and Genii,
and are now termed by Science, Force, or "modes of motion," and see whether esoteric belief is
defensible or not (Vide infra, "Gods, Monads, and Atoms)". Notwithstanding the efforts made to the
contrary, an unprejudiced mind will discover
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* Their intellection, of course, being of quite a different nature to any we can conceive of on Earth.

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 479 DUAL NATURE OF THE SUN.

under Newton's "agent, material or immaterial" (of his third letter to Bentley), the agent which causes
gravity, and, in his personal working God, one finds just as much of the metaphysical devas and genii,
as in Kepler's angelus rector conducting each planet, and the species immateriata by which the
celestial bodies were carried along in their courses, according to that astronomer.
We shall have, in Book II., to openly approach dangerous subjects. We must bravely face Science and
declare, in the teeth of materialistic learning, of Idealism, Hylo-Idealism, Positivism and all-denying
modern Psychology, that the true Occultist believes in "Lords of Light;" that he believes in a Sun,
which, far from being simply "a lamp of day" moving in accordance with physical law, and far from
being merely one of those Suns, which according to Richter -- ". . . . are Sun-flowers of a higher light"
-- is, like milliards of other Suns, the dwelling or the vehicle of a god, and a host of gods.
In this question, of course, it is the Occultists who will be worsted. They will be considered on the
prima facie aspect of the dispute to be ignoramuses, and labelled with more than one of the usual
epithets given to those whom the superficially judging public, itself ignorant of the great underlying
truths in nature, accuses of believing in mediaeval superstitions. Let it be so. Submitting beforeh and to
every criticism in order to go on with their task, they only claim the privilege of showing that the
physicists are as much at loggerheads among themselves in their speculations, as the latter are with
the teachings of Occultism.
The Sun is matter, and the Sun is Spirit. Our ancestors -- the "hea then," -- along with their modern
successors, the Parsis -- were, and are, wise enough in their generation to see in it the symbol of
Divinity, and at the same time to sense within, concealed by the physical Symbol, the bright God of
Spiritual and terrestrial Light. Such belief is now regarded as a superstition only by rank materialism,
which denies Deity, Spirit, Soul, and admits no intelligence outside the mind of man. But if too much
of wrong superstition bred by "Churchianity" -- as Lawrence Oliphant calls it -- "renders a man a
fool," too much scepticism makes him mad. We prefer the charge of folly in believing too much, to
that of a madness which denies everything, as do Materialism and Idealism. Hence, the Occultists are
fully prepared to receive their dues from Materialism, and to meet the adverse criticism which will be
poured on this work, not for writing it, but for believing in that which it contains.
Therefore the discoveries, hypotheses, and unavoidable objections which will be brought forward by
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the scientific critics must be anticipated and disposed of. It has also to be shown how far the

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 480 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

occult teachings depart from real science, and whether the ancient or the modern theories are the most
logically and philosophically correct. The unity and mutual relations of all parts of Kosmos were
known to the ancients, before they became evident to modern astronomers and philosophers. And if
even the external and visible portions of the Universe and their mutual relations cannot be explained
in any other terms than those used by the adherents of the mechanical theory of the Universe in
physical science, it follows that no materialist, who denies that the Soul of Kosmos (which appertains
to metaphysical philosophy) exists, has the right to trespass upon that metaphysical domain. That
physical science is trying to, and actually does, encroach upon it, is only one more proof that "might is
right," and no more.
Another good reason for these Addenda is this. Since only a certain portion of the Secret teachings
can be given out in the present age, if they were published without any explanations or commentary,
the doctrines would never be understood even by theosophists. Therefore they must be contrasted with
the speculations of modern science. Archaic axioms must be placed side by side with modern
hypotheses and comparison left to the sagacious reader.
On the question of the "Seven Governors," as Hermes calls the "Seven Builders," the Spirits which
guide the operations of nature, the animated atoms of which are the shadows, in their world, of their
Primaries in the astral realms -- this work will, of course, besides the men of Science, have every
materialist against it. But this opposition can, at most, be only temporary. People have laughed at
everything and scouted every unpopular idea at first, and then ended by accepting it. Materialism and
scepticism are evils that must remain in the world as long as man has not quitted his present gross
form to don the one he had during the first and second races of this Round. Unless scepticism and our
present natural ignorance are equilibrated by intuition and a natural spirituality, every being afflicted
with such feelings will see in himself no better than a bundle of flesh, bones, and muscles, with an
empty garret inside him which serves the purpose of storing his sensations and feelings. Sir Humphry
Davy was a great scientist, as deeply versed in physics as any theorist of our day, yet he loathed
materialism. "I heard with disgust," he says, "in the dissecting-rooms, the plan of the physiologist, of
the gradual secretion of matter, and its becoming endued with irritability, ripening into sensibility, and
acquiring such organs as were necessary, by its own inherent forces, and at last rising into intellectual
existence." Nevertheless, physiologists are not the most to be blamed for speaking of that only which
they can see and estimate on the evidence of their physical senses. Astronomers

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 481 THE SONS OF LIGHT.

and physicists are, we consider, far more illogical in their materialistic views than even physiologists,
and this has to be proved. Milton's --

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. . . . . . . . . . . . "Light
Ethereal, first of things, quintessence pure,"
has become with the materialists only -. . . . . . Prime cheerer, light,
Of all material beings, first and best.
For the occultists it is both Spirit and Matter. Behind the "mode of motion," now regarded as "the
property of matter" and nothing more, they perceive the radiant noumenon. It is the "Spirit of Light,"
the first born of the Eternal pure Element, whose energy (or emanation) is stored in the Sun, the great
Life-Giver of the physical world, as the hidden Concealed Spiritual Sun is the Light- and Life-Giver
of the Spiritual and Psychic Realms. Bacon was one of the first to strike the key-note of materialism,
not only by his inductive method (renovated from ill-digested Aristotle), but by the general tenor of
his writings. He inverts the order of mental Evolution when saying that "the first Creation of God was
the light of the sense; the last was the light of the reason; and his Sabbath work ever since is the
illumination of the Spirit." It is just the reverse. The light of Spirit is the eternal Sabbath of the mystic
or occultist, and he pays little attention to that of mere sense. That which is meant by the allegorical
sentence, "Fiat Lux" is,-- when esoterically rendered -- "Let there be the 'Sons of Light,' " or the
noumena of all phenomena. Thus the Roman Catholics rightly interpret the passage as referring to
Angels, and wrongly as meaning Powers created by an anthropomorphic God, whom they personify in
the ever thundering and punishing Jehovah.
These beings are the "Sons of Light," because they emanate from, and are self-generated in, that
infinite Ocean of Light, whose one pole is pure Spirit lost in the absoluteness of Non-Being, and the
other, the matter in which it condenses, crystallizing into a more and more gross type as it descends
into manifestation. Therefore matter, though it is, in one sense, but the illusive dregs of that Light
whose limbs are the Creative Forces, yet has in it the full presence of the Soul thereof, of that
Principle, which none -- not even the "Sons of Light," evolved from its ABSOLUTE DARKNESS -will ever know. The idea is as beautifully, as it is truthfully, expressed by Milton, who hails the holy
Light, which is the -". . . . . Offspring of Heaven, first-born,
And of th' Eternal co-eternal beam;
. . . . . Since God is light,
And never but in unapproached Light
Dwelt from Eternity,. dwelt then in thee
Bright effluence, of bright essence increate."

Next Section
Contents

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

Theosophical University Press Online Edition

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 482 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

II.
MODERN PHYSICISTS ARE PLAYING AT BLIND MAN'S BUFF.
AND now Occultism puts to Science the question: "Is light a body, or is it not?" Whatever the answer
of the latter, the former is prepared to show that, to this day, the most eminent physicists know neither
one way nor the other. To know what is light, and whether it is an actual substance or a mere
undulation of the "ethereal medium," Science has first to learn what are in reality Matter, Atom, Ether,
Force. Now, the truth is, that it knows nothing of any of these, and admits it. It has not even agreed
what to believe in, as dozens of hypotheses emanating from various and very eminent Scientists on
the same subject, are antagonistic to each other and often self-contradictory. Thus their learned
speculations may, with a stretch of good-will, be accepted as "working hypotheses" in a secondary
sense, as Stallo puts it. But being radically inconsistent with each other, they must finally end by
mutually destroying themselves. As declared by the author of "Concepts of Modern Physics": -"It must not be forgotten that the several departments of Science are simply arbitrary
divisions of labour. In these several departments the same physical object may be
considered under different aspects. The physicist may study its molecular relations,
while the chemist determines its atomic constitution. But when they both deal with the
same element or agent, it cannot have one set of properties in physics, and another set
contradictory of them, in chemistry. If the physicist and chemist alike assume the
existence of ultimate atoms absolutely invariable in bulk and weight, the atom cannot
be a cube or oblate spheroid for physical, and a sphere for chemical purposes. A group
of constant atoms cannot be an aggregate of extended and absolutely inert and
impenetrable masses in a crucible or retort, and a system of mere centres of force as
part of a magnet or of a Clamond battery. The universal Ether cannot be soft and
mobile to please the chemist, and rigid-elastic to satisfy the physicist; it cannot be
continuous at the comm and of Sir William Thomson and discontinuous on the
suggestion of Cauchy or Fresnel."*
The eminent physicist, G. A. Hirn, may likewise be quoted saying the same in the 43rd
Volume of the Memoires de l'Academie Royale de Belgique, which we translate from
the French, as cited: "When one sees the assurance with which are to-day affirmed
doctrines which attri bute the collectivity, the universality of the phenomena to the
motions alone of the atom, one has a right to expect to find likewise unanimity on the
qualities described to this unique being, the foundation of all that exists. Now, from the
first examination of the particular systems proposed, one feels the strangest deception;
one perceives that the atom of the chemist, the atom of the physicist, that of the
metaphysician, and that of the mathematician . . . . have absolutely nothing in common
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but the name! The inevitable result is the existing
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* "Concepts of Modern Physics," p. xi-xii., Introd. to the 2nd Edit.

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 483 NO AGREEMENT AMONG SCIENTISTS.

subdivision of our sciences, each of which, in its own little pigeon-hole, constructs an
atom which satisfies the requirements of the phenomena it studies, without troubling
itself in the least about the requirements proper to the phenomena of the neighbouring
pigeon-hole. The metaphysician banishes the principles of attraction and repulsion as
dreams; the mathematician, who analyses the laws of elasticity and those of the
propagation of light, admits them implicitly, without even naming them. . . . The
chemist cannot explain the grouping of the atoms, in his often complicated molecules,
without attri buting to his atoms specific distinguishing qualities; for the physicist and
the metaphysician, partisans of the modern doctrines, the atom is, on the contrary,
always and everywhere the same. What am I saying? THERE IS NO AGREEMENT
EVEN IN ONE AND THE SAME SCIENCE AS TO THE PROPERTIES OF THE
ATOM. Each constructs an atom to suit his own fancy, in order to explain some special
phenomenon with which he is particularly concerned."*
The above is the photographically correct image of modern Science and physics. The "pre-requisite of
that incessant play of the 'scientific imagination,' " which is so often found in Professor Tyndall's
eloquent discourses, is vivid indeed, as shown by Stallo, and for contradictory variety leaves far
behind it any "phantasies" of occultism. However it may be, if physical theories are confessedly "mere
formal, explanatory, didactic devices," and if "atomism is only a symbolical graphic system,"** then
the occultist can hardly be regarded as assuming too much, when he places alongside of these devices
and "symbolical systems" of modern Science, the symbols and devices of Archaic teachings.
-------------[[This page continued in next section]]
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* "Recherches experimentales sur la relation qui existe entre la resistance de Pair et sa temperature,"
p. 68.
** From the criticism of "Concepts of Modern Physics" in Nature. See Stallo's work, p. xvi. of
Introduction.

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

Theosophical University Press Online Edition

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 483 NO AGREEMENT AMONG SCIENTISTS.

[[This page continued from previous section]]
III.
"AN LUMEN SIT CORPUS, NEC NON?"
MOST decidedly Light is not a body, we are told. Physical Sciences say Light is a Force, a vibration,
the undulation of ether. It is the property or quality of matter, or even an affection thereof -- never a
body!
Just so. For this discovery, the knowledge -- whatever it may be worth -- that light or caloric is not a
motion of material particles, Science is chiefly indebted, if not solely, to Sir W. Grove. It was he who
was the first in a lecture at the London Institution, in 1842, to show that

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 484 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

"light, heat, etc., etc.* are affections of matter itself, and not a distinct ethereal, 'imponderable,' fluid,
(a state of matter now) permeating it." (See "Correlation of the Physical Forces," Preface). Yet,
perhaps, for some physicists -- as for Oersted, a very eminent Scientist -- FORCE and FORCES were
tacitly "Spirit (and hence Spirits) in Nature." What several rather mystical Scientists taught was that
light, heat, magnetism, electricity and gravity, etc., were not the final causes of the visible
phenomena, including planetary motion, but themselves the Secondary effects of other Causes, for
which Science in our day cares very little, but in which Occultism believes, for the Occultists have
exhibited proofs of the validity of their claims in every age. And in what age were there no Occultists
and no ADEPTS?
Sir Isaac Newton held to the Pythagorean corpuscular theory, and was also inclined to admit its
consequences; which made the Count de Maistre hope, at one time, that Newton would ultimately
lead Science back to the recognition of the fact that Forces and the Celestial bodies were propelled
and guided by Intelligences (Soirees, vol. ii.). But de Maistre counted without his host. The innermost
thoughts and ideas of Newton were perverted, and of his great mathematical learning only the mere
physical husk was turned to account. Had poor Sir Isaac foreseen to what use his successors and
followers would apply his " gravity,"** that pious and religious man would surely have quietly eaten
his apple, and never breathed a word about any mechanical ideas connected with its fall.
Great contempt is shown for metaphysics generally and for ontohttp://www.theosociety.org/pasadena/sd/sd1-3-03.htm (1 von 7) [06.05.2003 03:33:09]

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

* Mr. Robert Ward, discussing the questions of Heat and Light in the November Journal of Science,
1881, shows us how utterly ignorant is Science about one of the commonest facts of nature -- the heat
of the sun. He says: -- "The question of the temperature of the sun has been the subject of
investigation with many scientists: Newton, one of the first investigators of this problem, tried to
determine it, and after him all the scientists who have been occupied with calorimetry have followed
his example. All have believed themselves successful, and have formulated their results with great
confidence. The following, in the chronological order of the publication of the results, are the
temperatures (in centigrade degrees) found by each of them: Newton, 1,699,300 deg.; Pouillet, 1,461
deg.; Tollner, 102,200 deg.; Secchi, 5,344,840 deg.; Ericsson, 2,726,700 deg.; Fizeau, 7,500 deg.;
Waterston, 9,000,000 deg.; Spoeren, 27,000 deg.; Deville, 9,500 deg.; Soret, 5,801,846 deg.; Vicaire,
1,500 deg.; Rosetti, 20,000 deg. The difference is as 1,400 deg. against 9,000,000 deg., or no less than
8,998,600 deg.!! There probably does not exist in science a more astonishing contradiction than that
revealed in these figures. And yet without doubt if an Occultist were to give out an estimate, each of
these gentlemen would vehemently protest in the name of 'EXACT' Science at the rejection of his
special result." (From the Theosophist.)
** According to one atheistic idealist -- Dr. Lewins -- "When Sir Isaac, in 1687 . . . . showed mass and
atom acted upon . . . . by innate activity . . . . he effectually disposed of Spirit, Anima, or Divinity, as
supererogatory."

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 485 THE METAPHYSICS OF PHYSICAL SCIENCE.

logical metaphysics especially. But we see, whenever the Occultists are bold enough to raise their
diminished heads, that materialistic, physical science is honey-combed with metaphysics;* that its
most fundamental principles, while inseparably wedded to transcendentalism, are nevertheless, in
order to show modern science divorced from such "dreams," tortured and often ignored in the maze of
contradictory theories and hypotheses. A very good corroboration of this charge lies in the fact that
Science finds itself absolutely compelled to accept the "hypothetical" Ether and to try to explain it on
the materialistic grounds of atomo-mechanical laws. This attempt has led directly to the most fatal
discrepancies and radical inconsistencies between the assumed nature of Ether and its physical
actions. A second proof is found in the many contradictory statements about the atom -- the most
metaphysical object in creation.
Now, what does the modern science of physics know of AEther, the first concept of which belongs
undeniably to ancient philosophers, the Greeks having borrowed it from the Aryans, and the origin of
modern AEther being found in, and disfigured from, AKASA? This disfigurement
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* Stallo's above-cited work, "Concepts of Modern Physics," a volume which has called forth the
liveliest protests and criticisms, is recommended to anyone inclined to doubt this statement. "The

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professed antagonism of Science to metaphysics," he writes, "has led the majority of scientific
specialists to assume that the methods and results of empirical research are wholly independent of the
control of the laws of thought. They either silently ignore, or openly repudiate, the simplest canons of
logic, including the laws of non-contradiction and . . . resent with the utmost vehemence, every
application of the rule of consistency to their hypotheses and theories . . . . and they regard an
examination (of these) . . . . in the light of these laws as an impertinent intrusion of 'a priori principles
and methods' into the domains of empirical science. Persons of this cast of mind find no difficulty in
holding that atoms are absolutely inert, and at the same time asserting that these atoms are perfectly
elastic; or in maintaining that the physical universe, in its last analysis, resolves itself into 'dead'
matter and motion, and yet denying that all physical energy is in reality kinetic; or in proclaiming that
all phenomenal differences in the objective world are ultimately due to the various motions of
absolutely simple material units, and, nevertheless, repudiating the proposition that these units are
equal" . . . . (p. xix.) "The blindness of eminent physicists to some of the most obvious consequences
of their own theories is marvellous . . . . When Prof. Tait, in conjunction with Prof. Stewart,
announces that 'matter is simply passive' (The Unseen Universe, sec. 104), and then, in connection
with Sir W. Thomson, declares that 'matter has an innate power of resisting external influences'
(Treat. on Nat. Phil., Vol. I., sec. 216), it is hardly impertinent to inquire how these statements are to
be reconciled. When Prof. Du Bois Reymond . . . . insists upon the necessity of reducing all the
processes of nature to motions of a substantial, indifferent substratum, wholly destitute of quality
('Ueber die Grenzen des Naturerkennens,' p. 5), having declared shortly before in the same lecture
that 'resolution of all changes in the material world into motions of atoms caused by their constant
central forces would be the completion of natural science,' we are in a perplexity from which we have
to be relieved." (Pref. xliii.)

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 486 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

is claimed to be a modification and refinement of the idea of Lucretius. Let us then examine the
modern concept from several scientific volumes containing the admissions of the physicists
themselves.
The existence of Ether is accepted by physical astronomy, in ordinary physics, and in chemistry.
Astronomers, who first began by regarding it as a fluid of extreme tenuity and mobility, offering no
sensible resistance to the motions of celestial bodies, never gave a thought to its continuity or
discontinuity. "Its main function in modern astronomy has been to serve as a basis for hydrodynamical
theories of gravitation. In physics this fluid appeared for some time in several roles in connection with
the 'imponderables'" -- so cruelly put to death by Sir W. Grove. Some physicists have even identified
the ether of space with those "imponderables." Then came their Kinetic theories; and from the date of
the dynamical theory of heat, it was chosen in optics as a substratum for luminous undulations. Then,
in order to explain the dispersion and polarization of light, physicists had to resort once more to their
"scientific imagination" and forthwith endowed the Ether with (a) atomic or molecular structure, and
(b) with an enormous elasticity, "so that its resistance to deformation far exceeded that of the most
rigid elastic bodies" (Stallo). This necessitated the theory of the essential discontinuity of matter,
hence of Ether. After having accepted this discontinuity, in order to account for dispersion and
polarization, theoretical impossibilities were discovered with regard to such dispersions. Cauchy's
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"scientific imagination" saw in atoms "material points without extension," and he proposed, in order
to obviate the most formidable obstacles to the undulatory theory (namely, some well-known
mechanical theorems which stood in the way), to assume that the ethereal medium of propagation,
instead of being continuous, should consist of particles separated by sensible distances. Fresnel
rendered the same service to the phenomena of polarization. E. B. Hunt upset the theories of both
(Silliman's Journal, vol. viii., p. 364 et seq.) There are now men of Science who proclaim them
"materially fallacious," while others -- the "atomo-mechanicalists" -- cling to to them with desperate
tenacity. The supposition of an atomic or molecular constitution of ether is upset, moreover, by
thermodynamics, for Clerk Maxwell showed that such a medium would be simply gas.* The
hypothesis of "finite intervals" is thus proven of no avail as a supplement to the undulatory theory.
Besides, eclipses fail to reveal any such variation of colour as supposed by Cauchy (on the assumption
that the chromatic rays are propagated with different velocities).
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

*See Clerk Maxwell's "Treatise on Electricity of Magnetism" and compare with Cauchy's "Memoire
sur la Dispersion de la lumiere."

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 487 SCIENTIFIC IMAGINATION.

Astronomy has pointed out more than one phenomenon absolutely at variance with this doctrine.
Thus, while in one department of physics the atomo-molecular constitution of the ether is accepted in
order to account for one set of special phenomena, in another department such a constitution is found
quite subversive of a number of well-ascertained facts, Hirn's charges being thus justified (vide
supra). Chemistry deemed it impossible to concede enormous elasticity to the ether without depriving
it of other properties, upon the assumption of which the construction of its modern theories depended.
This ended in a final transformation of ether. The exigencies of the atomo-mechanical theory have led
distinguished mathematicians and physicists to attempt to substitute for the traditional atoms of
matter, peculiar forms of vortical motion in a "universal homogeneous, incompressible, and
continuous material medium," or AEther. (See Stallo.)
The present writer, claiming no great scientific education, but only a tolerable acquaintance with
modern theories, and a better one with Occult Sciences, picks up weapons against the detractors of the
esoteric teaching in the very arsenal of modern Science. The glaring contradictions, the mutuallydestructive hypotheses of world-renowned Scientists, their mutual accusations, denunciations and
disputes, show plainly that, whether accepted or not, the Occult theories have as much right to a
hearing as any of the so-called learned and academical hypotheses. Thus whether the followers of the
Royal Society choose to accept ether as a continuous or a discontinuous fluid matters little, and is
indifferent to the present purpose. It simply points to one certainty: Official Science knows nothing to
this day of the constitution of ether. Let Science call it matter, if it likes; only neither as akasa nor as
the one sacred AEther of the Greeks, is it to be found in any of the states of matter known to modern
physics. It is MATTER on quite another plane of perception and being, and it can neither be analyzed
by scientific apparatus, appreciated, nor even conceived by "scientific imagination," unless the
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possessors thereof study the Occult Sciences. That which follows proves this statement.
It is clearly demonstrated by Stallo as regards the crucial problems of modern physics (as was done by
De Quatrefages and several others in those of anthropology, biology, etc., etc.) that, in their efforts to
support their individual hypotheses and systems, the majority of the eminent and learned materialists
very often utter the greatest fallacies. Let us take the following case. Most of them reject actio in
distans (one of the fundamental principles in the question of AEther or Akasa in Occultism), while, as
Stallo justly observes, there is no physical action,

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 488 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

"which, on close examination, does not resolve itself into actio in distans"; and he proves it.
Now, metaphysical arguments, according to Professor Lodge (Nature, vol. xxvii., p. 304), are
"unconscious appeals to experience." And he adds that if such an experience is not conceivable, then
it does not exist, etc. In his own words: -- ". . . If a highly-developed mind or set of minds, find a
doctrine about some comparatively simple and fundamental matter absolutely unthinkable, it is an
evidence . . . that the unthinkable state of things has no existence, etc."
And thereupon, toward the end of his lecture, Professor Lodge indicates that the explanation of
cohesion, as well as of gravity, "is to be looked for in the vortex-atom theory of Sir William
Thomson" (Stallo).
It is needless to stop to inquire whether it is to this vortex-theory, also, that we have to look for the
dropping down on earth of the first life-germ by a passing meteor or comet (Sir W. Thomson's
hypothesis). But Mr. Lodge might be reminded of the wise criticism on his lecture in the same
"Concepts of Modern Physics." Noticing the above-quoted declaration by the London Professor, the
author asks "whether . . . the elements of the vortex-theory are familiar, or even possible, facts of
experience? For, if they are not, clearly that theory is obnoxious to the same criticism which is said to
invalidate the assumption of ACTIO IN DISTANS" (p. xxiv). And then the able critic shows clearly
what the Ether is not, nor can ever be, notwithstanding all scientific claims to the contrary. And thus
he opens widely, if unconsciously, the entrance door to our occult teachings. For, as he says: -"The medium in which the vortex-movements arise is, according to Professor Lodge's
own express statement (NATURE, vol. xxvii., p. 305), 'a perfectly homogeneous,
incompressible, continuous body, incapable of being resolved into simple elements or
atoms: it is, in fact, continuous, not molecular.' And after making this statement
Professor Lodge adds: 'There is no other body of which we can say this, and hence the
Properties of the aether must be somewhat DIFFERENT from those of ordinary matter.'
It appears, then, that the whole vortex-atom theory, which is offered to us as a substitute
for the 'metaphysical theory' of actio in distans, rests upon the hypothesis of the
existence of a material medium which is utterly unknown to experience, and which has
properties somewhat different* from those of ordinary matter. Hence this theory,

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instead of being, as is claimed, a reduction of an unfamiliar fact of experience to a
familiar fact, is,
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* "Somewhat different!" exclaims Stallo. "The real import of this 'somewhat' is, that the medium in
question is not, in any intelligible sense, material at all, having none of the properties of matter." All
the properties of matter depend upon differences and changes, and the "hypothetical" aether here
defined is not only destitute of differences, but incapable of difference and change -- (in the physical
sense let us add). This proves that if aether is "matter" it is so only as something visible, tangible and
existing, for spiritual senses alone; that it is a Being indeed -- but not of our plane: Pater AEther, or
Akasa.

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 489 THE PHYSICAL "PHANTOM."

on the contrary, a reduction of a fact which is perfectly familiar, to a fact which is not
only unfamiliar, but wholly unknown, unobserved and unobservable. Furthermore, the
alleged vortical motion of, or rather in, the assumed ethereal medium is . . . impossible,
because "motion in a perfectly homogeneous, incompressible, and therefore continuous
fluid, is not sensible motion." . . . . It is manifest, therefore, that wherever the vortexatom theory may lead us, it certainly does not lead us anywhere in the region of physics,
or in the domain of verae causae.* And I may add that, inasmuch as the hypothetical
undifferentiated** and undifferentiable medium is clearly an involuntary re-ification of
the old ontological concept pure being, the theory under discussion has all the attri butes
of an inapprehensible metaphysical phantom."
A "phantom" indeed, which can be made apprehensible only by Occultism. From such scientific
metaphysics to Occultism there is hardly one step. Those physicists who hold the view that the atomic
constitution of matter is consistent with its penetrability, need not go far out of their way to be able to
account for the greatest phenomena of Occultism, now so derided by physical scientists and
materialists. Cauchy's "material points without extension" are Leibnitz's monads, and at the same time
the materials out of which the "Gods" and other invisible powers clo the themselves in bodies (vide
infra, "Gods, Monads and Atoms"). The disintegration and reintegration of "material" particles
without extension as a chief factor in phenomenal manifestations ought to suggest themselves very
easily as a clear possibility, at any rate to those few scientific minds which accept M. Cauchy's views.
For, disposing of that property of matter which they call impenetrability by simply regarding the
atoms as "material points exerting on each other attractions and repulsions which vary with the
distances that separate them" -- the French theorist explains that: "From this it follows that, if it
pleased the author of nature*** simply to modify the laws according to which the atoms attract or
repel each other, we might instantly see the hardest bodies penetrating each other, the smallest
particles of matter occupying immense spaces, or the largest masses reducing themselves to the
smallest volumes, the entire universe concentrating itself, as it were, in a single point." (Sept lecons de
physique Generale, p. 38 et seq., ed. Moigno.)

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And that "point," invisible on our plane of perception and matter, is quite visible to the eye of the
adept who can follow and see it present on other planes.
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* Verae causae for physical science are mayavic or illusionary causes to the Occultist, and vice versa.
** Very much "differentiated," on the contrary, since the day it left its laya condition.
*** For the Occultists who say that the author of nature is nature itself, something indistinct and
inseparable from the Deity, it follows that those who are conversant with the occult laws of nature,
and know how to change and provoke new conditions in ether, may -- not modify the laws, but work
and do the same in accordance with those immutable laws.

Next Section
Contents

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

Theosophical University Press Online Edition

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 490 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

IV.
IS GRAVITATION A LAW?
THE corpuscular theory has been unceremoniously put aside; but gravitation -- the principle that all
bodies attract each other with a force proportional directly to their masses, and inversely to the squares
of the distances between them -- survives to this day and reigns, supreme as ever, in the alleged
ethereal waves of Space. As a hypothesis, it had been threatened with death for its inadequacy to
embrace all the facts presented to it; as a physical law, it is the King of the late and once all-potent
"Imponderables." "It is little short of blasphemy . . . . an insult to Newton's grand memory to doubt it, .
. . ." is the exclamation of an American reviewer of "Isis Unveiled." Well; what is finally that invisible
and intangible God in whom we should believe on blind faith? Astronomers who see in gravitation an
easy-going solution for many things, and an universal force which allows them to calculate thereby
planetary motions, care little about the Cause of Attraction. They call Gravity a law, a cause in itself.
We call the forces acting under that name effects, and very secondary effects, too. One day it will be
found that the scientific hypothesis does not answer after all; and then it will follow the corpuscular
theory of light and be consigned to rest for many scientific aeons in the archives of all exploded
speculations. Has not Newton himself expressed grave doubts about the Nature of Force and the
corporeality of the "Agents," as they were then called? So has Cuvier, another scientific light shining
in the night of research. He warns his readers, in the Revolution du Globe, about the doubtful nature of
the so-called Forces, saying that "it is not so sure whether those agents were not Spiritual Powers after
all (des agents spirituels). At the outset of his "Principia," Sir Isaac Newton took the greatest care to
impress upon his school that he did not use the word "attraction" with regard to the mutual action of
bodies in a physical sense. To him it was, he said, a purely mathematical conception involving no
consideration of real and primary physical causes. In one of the passages of his "Principia" (Defin. 8,
B. I. Prop. 69, "Scholium"), he tells us plainly that, physically considered, attractions are rather
impulses. In section XI. (Introduction) he expresses the opinion that "there is some subtle spirit by the
force and action of which all movements of matter are determined" (see Mod. Mater., by Rev. W. F.
Wilkinson); and in his third Letter to Bentley he says: "It is inconceivable that inanimate brute matter
should, without the mediation of something else which is not material, operate upon and affect other
matter, without mutual contact, as it must do if gravi-

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 491 GRAVITY OR WHAT?

tation, in the sense of Epicurus, be essential and inherent in it. . . . That gravity should be innate,
inherent and essential to matter, so that one body may act upon another at a distance, through a
vacuum, without the mediation of anything else by and through which their action may be conveyed
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from one to another, is to me so great an absurdity that I believe no man, who has in philosophical
matters a competent faculty of thinking, can ever fall into it. Gravity must be caused by an agent acting
constantly according to certain laws; but whether this agent be material or immaterial I have left to the
consideration of my readers."
At this, even Newton's contemporaries got frightened -- at the apparent return of occult causes into the
domain of physics. Leibnitz called his principle of attraction "an incorporeal and inexplicable power."
The supposition of an attractive faculty and a perfect void was characterized by Bernoulli as
"revolting," the principle of actio in distans finding thus no more favour then than it does now. Euler,
on the other hand, thought the action of gravity was due to either a Spirit or some subtle medium. And
yet Newton knew of, if he did not accept, the Ether of the Ancients. He regarded the intermediate
space between the sidereal bodies as vacuum. Therefore he believed in "subtle spirit" and Spirits as we
do, guiding the so-called attraction. The above-quoted words of the great man have produced poor
results. The "absurdity" has now become a dogma in the case of pure materialism, which repeats, "No
matter without force, no force without matter; matter and force are inseparable, eternal and
indestructible (true); there can be no independent force, since all force is an inherent and necessary
property of matter (false); consequently, there is no immaterial creative power." Oh, poor Sir Isaac!
If, leaving aside all the other eminent men of Science who shared in the same opinion as Euler and
Leibnitz, the Occultists claim as their authorities and supporters only Sir Isaac Newton and Cuvier, as
above cited, they need fear little from modern Science, and may loudly and proudly proclaim their
beliefs. But, the hesitation and doubts of the two before cited authorities, and of many others, too,
whom we could name, did not in the least prevent scientific speculation from wool-gathering on the
fields of brute matter just as before. First it was matter and an imponderable fluid distinct from it; then
came the imponderable fluid so much criticised by Grove; and AEther, which was at first
discontinuous and then became continuous; after which came the "mechanical" Forces. These have
now settled in life as "modes of motion" and the aether has become more mysterious and problematical
than ever. More than one man of Science objects to such crude materialistic views. But then since the
days of Plato, who repeatedly asks his readers not to confuse incorporeal Elements with

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 492 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

their PRINCIPLES -- transcendental or spiritual Elements; from those of the great Alchemists, who,
like Paracelsus, made a great difference between phenomenon and its cause, or the Noumenon; and
Grove, who, though he sees "no reason to divest universally diffused matter of the functions common
to all matter," yet uses the term Forces where his critics, "who do not attach to the word any idea of a
specific action," say Force -- from those days to this nothing has proved competent to stem the tide of
brutal materialism. Gravitation is the sole cause, the acting God, and matter is its prophet, said the men
of science only a few years ago.
They have changed their views several times since then. But do the men of Science understand the
innermost thought of Newton, one of the most spiritual-minded and religious men of his day, any
better now than they did then? It is certainly to be doubted. Newton is credited with having given the
death-blow to the Elemental Vortices of Descartes (the idea of Anaxagoras, resurrected, by-the-bye),
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though the last modern "vortical atoms" of Sir W. Thomson do not, in truth, differ much from the
former. Nevertheless, when his disciple Forbes wrote in the Preface to the chief work of his Master a
sentence declaring that "attraction was the cause of the System," Newton was the first to solemnly
protest. That which in the mind of the great mathematician assumed the shadowy, but firmly rooted
image of God, as the noumenon of all,* was called more philosophically by the ancient (and modern)
philosophers and Occultists -- "Gods," or the creative fashioning Powers. The modes of expression
may have been different, and the ideas more or less philosophically enunciated by all sacred and
profane Antiquity; but the fundamental thought was the same.** For Pythagoras the Forces were
Spiritual Entities, Gods inde[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* "Attraction," Le Couturier, a materialist, writes, "has now become for the public that which it was for
Newton himself -- a simple word, an idea" (Panorama des Mondes), since its cause is unknown.
Herschell virtually says the same, when remarking, that whenever studying the motion of the heavenly
bodies, and the phenomena of attraction, he feels penetrated at every moment with the idea of "the
existence of causes that act for us under a veil, disguising their direct action." (Musee des Sciences,
August, 1856.)
** If we are taken to task for believing in operating "Gods" and "Spirits" while rejecting a personal
God, we answer to the Theists and Monotheists: "Admit that your Jehovah is one of the Elohim, and
we are ready to recognise him. Make of him, as you do, the Infinite, the ONE and the Eternal God, and
we will never accept him in this character." Of tribal Gods there were many; the One Universal Deity
is a principle, an abstract Root-Idea which has nought to do with the unclean work of finite Form. We
do not worship the Gods, we only honour Them, as beings superior to ourselves. In this we obey the
Mosaic injunction, while Christians disobey their Bible -- Missionaries foremost of all. "Thou shalt not
revile the gods," says one of them -- (Jehovah) -- in Exodus xxii. 28); but at the same time in verse 20
it is commanded, "He that sacrificeth to any God, save unto the Lord, he shall be utterly destroyed."
Now in the [[Footnote continued on next page]]

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 493 THE TRIPLE SIDEREAL FORCE.

pendent of planets and Matter as we see and know them on Earth, who are the rulers of the Sidereal
Heaven. Plato represented the planets as moved by an intrinsic Rector, one with his dwelling, like "A
boatman in his boat." As for Aristotle, he called those rulers "immaterial substances;"* though as one
who had never been initiated, he rejected the gods as Entities (See Vossius, Vol. II., p. 528). But this
did not prevent him from recognising the fact that the stars and planets "were not inanimate masses but
acting and living bodies indeed. . . . . . ." As if "sidereal spirits were the divine portion of their
phenomena, [[ta theoitera pon phaneron]]" (De Caelo. I. 9).
If we look for corroboration in more modern and Scientific times, we find Tycho Brahe recognising in
the stars a triple force, divine, spiritual and vital. Kepler, putting together the Pythagorean sentence,
"The Sun, guardian of Jupiter," and the verses of David, "He placed his throne in the Sun," and "The
Lord is the Sun," etc., said that he understood perfectly how the Pythagoreans could believe that all the
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globes disseminated through Space were rational Intelligences, facultates ratiocinativae, circulating
around the Sun, "in which resides a pure Spirit of fire; the source of the general harmony" (De
Motibus planetarum harmonicis, p. 248).
When an Occultist speaks of Fohat -- the energising and guiding intelligence in the Universal Electric
or Vital Fluid, -- he is laughed at. Withal, as now shown, neither the nature of electricity, nor of Life
nor even of Light, are to this day understood. The Occultist sees in the manifestation of every force in
Nature, the action of the quality, or the special characteristic of its noumenon; which noumenon is a
distinct and intelligent Individuality on the other side of the manifested mechanical Universe. Now the
Occultist does not deny -- on the contrary he will support the claim -- that light, heat, electricity and so
on are affections (not properties or qualities) of matter. To put it more clearly: matter is the condition -the necessary basis or vehicle, a sine qua non -- for the manifestation of these forces, or agents, on this
plane.
But in order to gain the point the Occultists have to examine the credentials of the law of gravity, first
of all, of "Gravitation, the King
[[Footnote(s)]] ------------------------------------------------[[Footnote continued from previous page]] original texts it is not "god" but Elohim, -- and we
challenge contradiction -- and Jehovah is one of the Elohim, as proved by his own words in Genesis
iii. 22, when "the Lord God said: Behold the Man has become as one of us," etc. Hence both those who
worship and sacrifice to the Elohim, the angels, and to Jehovah, those who revile the gods of their
fellow-men, are far greater transgressors than the Occultists or any Theosophist. Meanwhile many of
the latter prefer believing in some one "Lord" or other, and are quite welcome to do as they like.
* To liken the "immateriate species to wooden iron," and laugh at Spiller referring to them as
"incorporeal matter" does not solve the mystery (See "Concepts of Modern Physics," p. 165 et infra).

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 494 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

and Ruler of Matter," under every form. To do so effectually, the hypothesis in its earliest appearance
has to be recalled to mind. To begin with, is it Newton who was the first to discover it? The
Athenaeum of Jan. 26, 1867, has some curious information upon this subject. It says that "positive
evidence can be adduced that Newton derived all his knowledge of gravitation and its laws from
Boehme, with whom gravitation or ATTRACTION is the first property of Nature." . . . For with him
"his (Boehme's) system, shows us the inside of things, while modern physical science is content with
looking at the outside." Then again, "the science of electricity, which was not yet in existence when he
(Boehme) wrote, is there anticipated (in his writings); and not only does Boehme describe all the now
known phenomena of that force, but he even gives us the origin, generation, and birth of electricity,
itself, etc."
Thus Newton, whose profound mind read easily between the lines, and fathomed the spiritual thought
of the great Seer in its mystic rendering, owes his great discovery to Jacob Boehme, the nursling of the
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genii (Nirmanakayas) who watched over and guided him, of whom the author of the article in question
so truly remarks, that "every new scientific discovery goes to prove his profound and intuitive insight
into the most secret workings of nature." And having discovered gravity, Newton, in order to render
possible the action of attraction in space, had, so to speak, to annihilate every physical obstacle
capable of impeding its free action; ether among others, though he had more than a presentiment of its
existence. Advocating the corpuscular theory, he made an absolute vacuum between the heavenly
bodies. . . . Whatever may have been his suspicions and inner convictions about Ether; however many
friends he may have unbosomed himself to -- as in the case of his correspondence with Bentley -- his
teachings never showed that he had any such belief. If he was "persuaded that the power of attraction
could not be exerted by matter across a vacuum,"* how is it that so late as 1860, French astronomers
(Le Couturier, for instance), combated "the disastrous results of the theory of vacuum established by
the great man?"** Professor Winchell writes, "These passages (letter to Bentley) show what were his
views respecting the nature of the interplanetary medium of communication. Though declaring that the
heavens 'are void of sensible matter,' he elsewhere excepted 'perhaps
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* World-Life. Prof. Winchell, LL.D (pp. 49 and 50).
** "Il n'est plus possible aujourd'hui, de soutenir comme Newton, que les corps celestes se mouvent au
milieu du VIDE immense des espaces. . . . Parmi les consequences de la theorie du vide etablie par ce
grand homme, il ne reste plus debout que le mot 'attraction,' et nous verrons le jour ou ce dernier mot
disparaitra du vocabulaire scientifique." ("Panorama des mondes," pp. 47 and 53.)

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 495 NEWTON THEN AND NEWTON NOW.

some very thin vapours, streams, and effluvia, arising from the atmospheres of the earth, planets, and
comets, and from such an exceedingly rare ethereal medium as we have elsewhere described."
(Newton, Optics, III., query 28, 1704; quoted in "World-Life.")
This only shows that even such great men as Newton have not always the courage of their opinions.
Dr. T. S. Hunt "called attention to some long-neglected passages in Newton's works, from which it
appears that a belief in such universal, intercosmical medium gradually took root in his mind." (Ibid.)
But such attention was never called to the said passages before Nov. 28, 1881, when Dr. Hunt read his
"Celestial Chemistry, from the time of Newton." "Till then the idea was universal, even among the men
of Science, that Newton had, while advocating the corpuscular theory, preached a void," as Le
Couturier says. The passages had been "long neglected," no doubt because they contradicted and
clashed with the preconceived pet theories of the day, till finally the undulatory theory imperiously
required the presence of an "ethereal medium" to explain it. This is the whole secret.
Anyhow, it is from that theory of Newton's of a universal void -- taught, if not believed in by himself, -that dates the immense scorn now shown by modern for ancient physics. The old sages had maintained
that "Nature abhorred vacuum," and the greatest mathematicians of the world (read of the Western
races) had discovered the antiquated "fallacy" and exposed it. And now modern science vindicates,
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however ungracefully, archaic knowledge, having, moreover, to vindicate Newton's character and
powers of observation at this late hour, after having neglected for one century and a half to pay any
attention to such very important passages -- perchance, because it was wiser not to attract any notice to
them. Better late than never.
And now Father AEther is re-welcomed with open arms; and wedded to gravitation; linked to it for
weal or woe, until the day when it, or both, shall be replaced by something else. Three hundred years
ago it was plenum everywhere, then it became one dismal vacuity; later still the sidereal ocean-beds,
dried up by science, rolled onward once more their ethereal waves. Recede ut procedes must become
the motto of exact Science -- "exact," chiefly, in finding itself inexact every leap-year.
But we will not quarrel with the great men. They had to go back to the earliest "Gods of Pythagoras
and old Kanada" for the very backbone and marrow of their correlations and "newest" discoveries, and
this may well afford good hope to the Occultists, for their minor gods. For we believe in Le Couturier's
prophecy about gravitation. We know the day is approaching when an absolute reform will be
demanded in the present modes of Science by the scientists themselves -- as was done by Sir W.
Grove, F.R.S. Till that day there is nothing to be done. For if gravitation

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 496 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

were dethroned to-morrow, the day after the Scientists would discover some other new mode of
mechanical motion.* Rough and up-hill is the path of true Science, and its days are full of vexation of
Spirit. But in the face of its "thousand" contradictory hypotheses to explain physical phenomena, there
never was yet a better one than that of "motion" -- however paradoxically interpreted by materialism.
As may be found on the first pages of Book I., Occultists have nothing surely against motion** the
GREAT BREATH of Mr. Herbert Spencer's "UNKNOWN." But, believing that everything on Earth is
the shadow of something in space -- they believe in smaller "Breaths," which, living, intelligent and
independent of all but Law, blow in every direction during Manvantaric periods. These Science will
reject. But whatever replaces attraction, alias gravitation, the result will be the same. Science will be
as far from the solution of its difficulties as it is now, unless it comes to some compromise with
Occultism and even with Alchemy -- which supposition will be regarded as an impertinence, but
remains a fact, nevertheless. As Faye says: "Il manque quelque chose aux geologues pour faire la
geologie de la Lune, c'est d'etre astronomes. A la verite il manque aussi quelquechose aux astronomes
pour aborder avec fruit cette etude, c'est d'etre geologues." But he might have added, with still more
pointedness, "Ce qui manque a tous les deux, c'est l'intuition du mystique."
Let us remember Sir William Grove's wise "concluding remarks," on the ultimate structure of matter,
or the minutiae of molecular actions, which, he thought, man will never know.
"Much harm has already been done by attempting hypothetically to dissect matter and to
discuss the shapes, sizes, and numbers of atoms, and their atmospheres of heat, ether, or
electricity. . . . . Whether the regarding electricity, light, magnetism, etc., as simply
motions of ordinary matter, be or be not admissible, certain it is that all past theories
have resolved, and all existing theories do resolve, the action of these forces into motion.
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Whether it be that, on account of our familiarity with motion, we refer other affections
to it, as to a language which is most easily construed, and most capable of
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* When read in a fair and unprejudiced spirit, Sir Isaac Newton's works are an ever ready witness to
show how he must have hesitated between gravitation and attraction, impulse and some other unknown
cause to explain the regular course of the planetary motion. But see Treatise on Colour (Vol. III.,
question 31.) We are told by Herschell that Newton left with his successors the duty of drawing all the
scientific conclusions from his discovery. How modern Science abused the privilege of building its
newest theories upon the law of gravitation, may be realised when one remembers how profoundly
religious was that great man.
** The materialistic notion that because, in physics real or sensible motion is impossible in pure space
or vacuum, therefore, the eternal MOTION of and in Cosmos (regarded as infinite Space) is a fiction -only shows once more that such words as "pure space," "pure Being," "the Absolute," etc., of Eastern
metaphysics have never been understood in the West.

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 497 NEW BOTTLES FOR OLD WINE.

explaining them, or whether it be that it is in reality the only mode in which our minds
as contra-distinguished from our senses, are able to conceive material agencies, certain
it is that since the period at which the mystic notions of spiritual or preternatural powers
were applied to account for physical phenomena, all hypotheses framed to explain them
have resolved them into MOTION."
And then the learned gentleman states a purely occult tenet: -"The term perpetual motion, which I have not infrequently used in these pages, is itself
equivocal. If the doctrines here advanced be well founded, all motion is, in one sense,
perpetual. In masses, whose motion is stopped by mutual concussion, heat or motion of
the particles is generated; and thus the motion continues, so that if we could venture to
extend such thoughts to the universe, we should assume the same amount of motion
affecting the same amount of matter for ever."*
Thus, supposing attraction or gravitation should be given up in favour of the Sun being a huge magnet - which is a theory already accepted by some physicists -- a magnet that acts on the planets as
attraction is now supposed to do, whereto, or how much farther would it lead the astronomers from
where they are now? Not an inch farther. Kepler came to this "curious hypothesis" nearly 300 years
ago. He had not discovered the theory of attraction and repulsion in Kosmos, for it was known from
the days of Empedocles, the two opposite forces being called by him "hate" and "love" -- which comes
to the same thing. But Kepler gave a pretty fair description of cosmic magnetism. That such
magnetism exists in nature, is as certain as that gravitation does not; not at any rate, in the way in
which it is taught by Science, which never took into consideration the different modes in which the
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dual Force -- that Occultism calls attraction and repulsion -- may act within our solar system, the
earth's atmosphere, and beyond in the Kosmos.** This was proven by Newton himself; for there are
many phenomena in our
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* "Correl. Phys. Forces," p. 173. This is precisely what Occultism maintains, and on the same
principle that "where force is made to oppose force, and produce static equilibrium, the balance of preexisting equilibrium is affected, and fresh motion is started equivalent to that which is withdrawn into
a state of abeyance." This process finds intervals in the pralaya, but is eternal and ceaseless as the
"Breath," even when the manifested Kosmos rests.
** "Trans-solar space," writes the great Humboldt, "does not hitherto show any phenomenon
analogous to our solar system. It is a peculiarity of our System, that matter should have condensed
within it in nebulous rings, the nuclei of which condense into earths and moons. I say again,
heretofore, nothing of the kind has ever been observed beyond our planetary system." (See Revue
Germanique of the 31st Dec. 1860, art. "Lettres et conversations d'Alexandre Humboldt.") True, that
since 1860 the nebular theory has sprung up, and being better known, a few identical phenomena were
supposed to be observed beyond the solar system. Yet the great man is quite right; and no earths or
moons can be found -- except in appearance -- beyond, or of the same order of matter as found in our
system. Such is the Occult teaching.

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 498 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

Solar system, which he confessed his inability to explain by the law of gravitation. "Such were the
uniformity in the directions of planetary movements, the nearly circular forms of the orbits, and their
remarkable conformity to one plane" (Prof. Winchell). And if there is one single exception, then the
law of gravitation has no right to be referred to as an universal law. "These adjustments," we are told,
"Newton, in his general Scholium, pronounces to be 'the work of an intelligent and all-powerful
Being.' " Intelligent that "Being" may be; as to "all-powerful" there would be every reason to doubt the
claim. A poor "God" he, who would work upon minor details and leave the most important to
secondary forces! The poverty of the argument and logic in this case, is surpassed only by that of
Laplace, who, seeking very correctly to substitute motion for Newton's "all-powerful Being," and
ignorant of the true nature of that eternal motion, saw in it a blind physical law. "Might not those
arrangements be an effect of the laws of motion?" he asks, forgetting, as all our modern Scientists do,
that this law and this motion are a vicious circle, so long as the nature of both remains unexplained.
His famous answer to Napoleon: "Dieu est devenu une hypothese inutile," would be correctly stated
only by one who adhered to the philosophy of the Vedantins. It becomes a pure fallacy, if we exclude
the interference of operating, intelligent, powerful (never "all-powerful") Beings, who are called
"gods."
But we would ask the critics of the mediaeval astronomers why should Kepler be denounced as most
unscientific, for offering just the same solution as Newton did -- only showing himself more sincere,
more consistent and even more logical. Where may be the difference between Newton's "all-powerful
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Being" and Kepler's Rectores, his sidereal and Cosmic Forces, or Angels? Kepler is again criticised for
his "curious hypothesis which made use of a vortical movement within the solar system;" for his
theories in general, for his favouring Empedocles' idea of attraction and repulsion, and "Solar
magnetism" in particular. Yet several modern men of Science, as will be shown -- Hunt (if Metcalfe is
to be excluded), Dr. Richardson, etc. -- favour the idea very seriously. He is half excused, however, on
the plea that "to the time of Kepler no interaction between masses of matter had been distinctly
recognized which was generically different from magnetism" (World-Life). Is it distinctly recognised
now? Does Prof. Winchell claim for Science any serious knowledge whatever of the natures of either
electricity or magnetism -- except that both seem to be the effects of some result arising from an
undetermined cause.
The ideas of Kepler, weeded from their theological tendencies, are purely occult. He saw that:

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 499 CHRONIC NEGATION.

(I.) The Sun is a great Magnet.* This is what some eminent modern scientists and also the Occultists
believe in.
(II.) The Solar substance is immaterial.** (See "Isis Unveiled," Vol. I. pp. 270 to 271.)
(III.) He provided, for the constant motion and restoration of the Sun's energy and planetary motion,
the perpetual care of a spirit, or spirits. The whole of Antiquity believed in this idea. The Occultists do
not use the word Spirit, but say Creative Forces, which they endow with intelligence. But we may call
them spirits also.
This theory is tabooed a great deal more on account of the "Spirit" that is given room in it, than of
anything else. Herschell, the elder, believed in it likewise, and so do several modern scientists also.
Nevertheless Professor Winchell declares that "a hypothesis more fanciful, and less in accord with the
requirements of physical principles, has not been offered in ancient or modern times." (World-Life, p.
554.)
The same was said, once upon a time, of the universal Ether, and now it is not only accepted perforce
but advocated as the only possible theory to explain away certain mysteries.
Grove's ideas, when he first enunciated them in London about 1840, were called as unscientific as the
above; nevertheless, his views on the correlation of forces are now universally accepted. It would, very
likely, require one more conversant with science than is the writer, to combat with any success some of
the now prevailing ideas about gravitation and other similar "solutions" of Cosmic Mysteries. But, let
us recall a few objections that came from recognized men of Science; from astronomers and physicists
of eminence, who rejected the theory of rotation, as well as that of gravitation. Thus one reads in the
French Encyclopaedia that "Science agrees, in the face of all its representatives, that it is impossible to
explain the physical origin of the rotatory motion of the solar system."

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If the question is asked, "what causes rotation?" we are answered: "It is the centrifugal Force." "And
this force, what is it that produces it?" "The force of rotation," is the grave answer. (Godefroy,
Cosmogonie de la Revelation.***) It will be well, perhaps, to examine both these theories as being
directly or indirectly connected.
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* But see Astronomie du Moyen Age, by Delambre.
** In the sense, of course, of matter existing in states unknown to Science.
*** We shall be taken to task for contradiction. It will be said that while we deny God, we admit Souls
and operative Spirits, and quote from Roman Catholic bigoted writers in support of our argument. To
this we reply: "We deny the anthropomorphic god of the Monotheists, but never the Divine Principle
in nature. We combat Protestants and Roman Catholics on a number of dogmatic theological beliefs of
human and sectarian origin. We agree with them in their belief in Spirits and intelligent operative
powers, though we do not worship "Angels" as the Roman Latinists do."

Next Section
Contents

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

Theosophical University Press Online Edition

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 500 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

V.
THE THEORIES OF ROTATION IN SCIENCE.
CONSIDERING that "final cause is pronounced a chimera, and the first Great Cause is remanded to
the Sphere of the Unknown," as a reverend gentleman justly complains, the number of hypotheses put
forward, a nebula in itself, is most remarkable. The profane student is perplexed, and does not know in
which of the theories of exact science he has to believe. Here we have hypotheses enough for every
taste and power of brain. They are all extracted from a number of scientific volumes.
CURRENT HYPOTHESES EXPLAINING THE ORIGIN OF ROTATION.
Rotation has originated either -(a) By the collision of nebular masses wandering aimlessly in space; or by attraction, "in cases where
no actual impact takes place."
(b) "By the tangential action of currents of nebulous matter (in the case of an amorphous nebula)
descending from higher to lower levels,* or simply by the action of the central gravity of the mass."**
"It is a fundamental principle in physics that no rotation could be generated in such a mass by the
action of its own parts. As well attempt to change the course of a steamer by pulling at the deck
railing," remarks to this Prof. Winchell in "World-Life."
HYPOTHESES OF THE ORIGIN OF THE SEVEN PLANETS AND COMETS.
(a) We owe the birth of the Planets (1) to an explosion of the Sun -- a parturition of its central
mass;*** or (2) to some kind of disruption of the nebular rings.
(b) "The Comets are strangers to our planetary system" (La Place). "The Comets are undeniably
generated in our Solar system" (Faye).
(c) The "fixed stars are motionless" says one authority. . . . "All the stars are actually in motion"
answers another authority. . . "Undoubtedly every star is in motion" (Wolf).
(d) "For over 350,000,000 years, the slow and majestic movement of the Sun around its axis has never
for a moment ceased" (Panorama des Mondes, Le Couturier.)

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

* The terms "high" and "low" being only relative to the position of the observer in Space, any use of
those terms tending to convey the impression that they stand for abstract realities, is necessarily
fallacious.
** Jacob Ennis, "The Origin of the Stars," p. 221 et seq.
*** If such is the case, how does Science explain the comparatively small size of the planets nearest
the Sun? The theory of meteoric aggregation is only a step farther from truth than the nebular
conception, and has not even the quality of the latter -- its metaphysical element.

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 501 CONTRADICTORY HYPOTHESES.

(e) And "the Sun having Alcyone in the Pleiades for the centre of its orbit, consumes 180,000,000 of
years in completing its revolution" (Maedler). And also,
(f) That, "the Sun has existed no more than 15,000,000 of years, and will emit heat for no longer than
10,000,000 years more" (Sir W. Thomson's lecture on "the latent dynamical theory regarding the
probable origin, total amount of heat, and duration of the Sun," 1887).
A few years ago this eminent Scientist was telling the world that the time required for the earth to cool
from incipient incrustation to its present state, could not exceed 80,000,000 years*; (Thomson and
Tait, Natural Philosophy.) If the encrusted age of the world is only 40 millions, or the half of the
duration once allowed, and the Sun's age only 15 millions, have we to understand that the earth was at
one time independent of the Sun?
Since the ages of the Sun, planets, and the Earth, as stated in the many scientific hypotheses of the
astronomers and physicists, are given elsewhere (infra), we have said enough to show the
disagreement between the ministers of modern Science. Whether we accept the fifteen million years of
Sir W. Thomson or the thousand millions of Mr. Huxley, for the rotational evolution of our solar
system, it will always come to this; by accepting self-generated rotation for the heavenly bodies
composed of inert matter and yet moved by their own internal motion, for millions of years, this
teaching of Science amounts to -(a) An evident denial of that fundamental physical law, which states that "a body in motion tends
constantly to inertia, (i.e., to continue in the same state of motion or rest), unless it is stimulated into
further action by a superior active force."
(b.) To an original impulse, which culminates in an unalterable motion, within a resisting ether that
NEWTON had declared incompatible with that motion.
(c.) Universal gravity, which, we are taught, always tends to a centre in rectilinear descent -- alone the
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cause of the revolution of the whole solar system, which is performing an eternal double gyration,
each body around its axis and orbit. Another occasional version is: -(d.) A magnet in the Sun; or, the said revolution due to a magnetic force, which acts, just as gravitation
does, in a straight line -- varying inversely as the square of the distance. (Coulomb's Law.)
(e.) The whole acting under invariable and changeless laws, which are, nevertheless, often shown
variable, as during some well-known freaks
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* And even on these figures Bischof disagrees with Thomson, and calculates that 350 million years
would be required for the earth to cool from a temperature of 20,000 degrees to 200 degrees
centigrade. This is, also, the opinion of Helmholtz.

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 502 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

of planets and other bodies, as also when the Comets approach to or recede from the Sun.
(f.) A MOTOR FORCE always proportionate to the mass it is acting upon; but independent of the
specific nature of that mass, to which it is proportionate; which amounts to saying, as Le Couturier
does, that, "without that Force independent from and of quite another nature than the said mass, the
latter, were it as huge as Saturn, or as tiny as Ceres, would always fall with the same rapidity" (Musee
des Sciences, 15 August, 1857). A mass, furthermore, which derives its weight from the body on
which it weighs.
Thus neither Laplace's perceptions of a solar atmospheric fluid, which would extend beyond the orbits
of the planets, nor Le Couturier's electricity, nor Foucault's heat (Panorama des Mondes, p. 55), nor
this, nor the other, can ever help any of the numerous hypotheses about the origin and permanency of
rotation to escape from this squirrel's wheel, any more than the theory of gravity itself. This mystery is
the Procrustean bed of physical Science. If matter is, as now taught, passive, the simplest movement
cannot be said to be an essential property of matter -- if the latter is simply an inert mass. How, then,
can such a complicated movement, compound and multiple, harmonious and equilibrated, lasting in
the eternities for millions and millions of years, be attri buted simply to its own inherent Force, unless
the latter is an intelligence? A physical will is something new -- a conception that the ancients would
have never entertained, indeed!*
"We talk of the weight of the heavenly bodies," says an astronomer; "but since it is recognised that
weight decreases in proportion to the distance from the centre, it becomes evident that, at a certain
distance, that weight must be forcibly reduced to Zero? Were there any attraction there would be
equilibrium . . . . And since the modern school recognizes neither a beneath nor an above in universal
space, it is not clear what should cause the Earth to fall, were there even no gravitation, nor attraction."
(Cosmographie.)

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Methinks the Count de Maistre was right in solving the question in his own theological way. He cuts
the Gordian knot by saying: -- "The
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* For over a century all distinction between body and force is made away with. "Force is but the
property of a body in motion," say the physicists; and "life -- the property of our animal organs -- is
but the result of their molecular arrangement," answer the physiologists. "In the bosom of that
aggregate which is named planet," teaches Littre, "are developed all the forces immanent to matter . . .
i.e., that matter possesses in itself and through itself the forces that are proper to it . . . and which are
primary, not secondary. Such forces are the property of weight, the property of electricity, of
terrestrial magnetism, the property of life. . . . Every planet can develop life . . . as earth, for instance,
which had not always mankind on it, and now bears (produit) men" . . . (Revue des Deux Mondes, July
15, 1860.)

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 503 SCIENTIFIC ABERRATIONS.

planets rotate because they are made to rotate . . . . . and the modern physical system of the universe is
a physical impossibility." (Soirees.) For did not Herschell say the same thing when he remarked that
there is a will needed to impart a circular motion, and another will to restrain it? (Discours, 165.) This
shows and explains how a retarded planet is cunning enough to calculate so well its time as to hit off
its arrival at the fixed minute. For, if Science sometimes succeeds with its great ingenuity in
explaining some of such stoppages, retrograde motions, angles outside the orbits, &c., &c., by
appearances resulting from the inequality of their progress and ours in the course of our mutual and
respective orbits, we still know that there are others, and "very real and considerable deviations,"
according to Herschell, "which cannot be explained except by the mutual and irregular action of those
planets and by the perturbing influence of the Sun."
We understand, however, that there are, besides those little and accidental perturbations, continuous
perturbations called "secular" -- because of the extreme slowness with which the irregularity increases
and affects the relations of the elliptic movement -- and that these perturbations can be corrected.
From Newton, who found that this world needed repairing very often, down to Reynaud, all say the
same. In his Ciel et Terre (p. 28), the latter speaks of -". . . . . The orbits described by the planets as being very far from immutable; on the contrary, subject
to a perpetual mutation in their position and form," -- all prove gravitation and the peripatetic laws to
be as negligent as they are quick to repair their mistakes. The charge as it stands seems to be that "they
(the orbits) are alternately widening and narrowing, their great axis leng thens and diminishes, or
oscillates at the same time from right to left around the Sun, the plane itself, in which they are situated,
raising and lowering itself periodically while pivoting around itself with a kind of tremor. . . ."
To this, De Mirville, who believes in intelligent "workmen" ruling invisibly the solar system -- as we
do -- observes very wittily* . . . . . "Voila certes, a voyage which has little in it of mechanical rigour;
at the utmost, one could compare it to a steamer, pulled to and fro and tossed on the waves, retarded or
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accelerated, all and each of which impediments might put off its arrival indefinitely, were there not the
intelligences of a pilot and engineers to catch up the time lost, and to repair the damages. . . . ."
The law of gravity, however, seems to be becoming an obsolete law in starry heaven. At any rate those
long-haired sidereal radicals, called comets, appear to be very poor respecters of the majesty of that
law,
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* Deuxieme memoire, "Manifestations Historiques," p. 272.

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 504 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

and to beard it quite impudently. Nevertheless, and though presenting in nearly every respect
"phenomena not yet fully understood," comets and meteors are credited by the believers in modern
Science with obeying the same laws and consisting of the same matter, "as the Suns, stars and
nebulae," and even "the earth and its inhabitants." (Laing's "Modern Science and Modern Thought.")
This is what one might call taking things on trust, aye, even to blind faith. But exact Science is not to
be questioned, and he who rejects the hypotheses imagined by her students -- gravitation, for instance -would be regarded as an ignorant fool for it; yet we are told by the just cited author a queer legend
from the scientific annals. "The comet of 1811 had a tail 120 millions of miles in length and 25
millions of miles in diameter at the widest part, while the diameter of the nucleus was about 127,000
miles, more than ten times that of the earth." He tells us, "in order that bodies of this magnitude,
passing near the earth, should not affect its motion or change the length of the year by even a single
second, their actual substance must be inconceivably rare. . . ." It must be so indeed, yet: -". . . . . The extreme tenuity of a comet's mass is also proved by the phenomenon of the tail, which, as
the comet approaches the sun, is thrown out sometimes to a length of 90 millions of miles in a few
hours. And what is remarkable, THIS TAIL IS THROWN OUT AGAINST THE FORCE OF
GRAVITY by some repulsive force, probably electrical, so that it always points away from the Sun
(!!!) And yet, thin as the matter of comets must be, IT OBEYS THE COMMON LAW OF GRAVITY
(!?), and whether the comet revolves in an orbit within that of the outer planets, or shoots off into the
abysses of Space, and returns only after hundreds of years, its path is, at each instant, regulated by the
same force as that which causes an apple to fall to the ground." (Ibid, p. 17.)
Science is like Caesar's wife, and must not be suspected -- this is evident. But it can be respectfully
criticised, nevertheless. At all events, it may be reminded that "the apple" is a dangerous fruit. For the
second time in the history of mankind, it may become the cause of the FALL -- this time, of "exact"
Science. A comet whose tail defies the law of gravity right in the Sun's face can hardly be credited
with obeying that law.
In a series of scientific works on Astronomy and the nebular theory, written between 1865 and 1866,

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the present writer, a poor tyro in Science, has counted in a few hours, no less than thirty-nine
contradictory hypotheses offered as explanations for the self-generated, primitive rotatory motion of
the heavenly bodies. The writer is no astronomer, no mathematician, no scientist; but was obliged to
examine these errors in defence of Occultism, in general, and what is still more

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 505 THE PARADOXES OF SCIENCE.

important, in order to support the occult teachings concerning astronomy and Cosmology. Occultists
were threatened with terrible penalties for questioning scientific truths. But now they feel braver -Science is less secure in its "impregnable" position than they were led to expect, and many of its
strongholds are built on very shifting sands.
Thus, even this poor and unscientific examination of it was useful, and it was certainly very
instructive. We have learned a good many things, in fact, having studied with particular care especially
those astronomical data that would be the most likely to clash with our heterodox and "superstitious"
beliefs.
So, for instance, we have found there, concerning gravitation, the axial and orbital motions, that
synchronous movement having been once overcome, in the early stage -- it was enough to originate a
rotatory motion till the end of Manvantara. We have also come to know in all the aforesaid
combinations of possibilities with regard to incipient rotation -- most complicated in every case, -some of the causes to which it may have been due, as well as some others to which it ought and should
have been due, but, in some way or other, was not. Among other things, we were informed that
incipient rotation may be provoked with equal ease in a mass in igneous fusion, and in one that is
characterised by glacial opacity ("Heaven and Earth"). That gravitation is a law which nothing can
overcome, but which, nevertheless, is overcome in and out of season by the most ordinary celestial or
terrestrial bodies -- the tails of impudent comets, for instance. That we owe the universe to the holy
creative Trinity, called Inert Matter, Senseless Force and Blind Chance. Of the real essence and nature
of any of these three, Science knows nothing, but this is a trifling detail. Ergo, we are told that, when a
mass of cosmic or nebular matter -- whose nature is unknown (entirely so), and which may be in a
state of fusion (Laplace), or dark and cold (Thomson), for "this intervention of heat is itself a pure
hypothesis" (Faye) -- decides to exhibit its mechanical energy under the form of rotation, it acts in this
wise. It (the mass) either bursts into spontaneous conflagration, or it remains inert, tenebrous, and
frigid, both states being equally capable of sending it, without any adequate cause, spinning through
space for millions of years. Its movements may be retrograde and they may be direct, about a hundred
various reasons being offered for both motions, in about as many hypotheses. Anyhow, joining the
maze of stars, whose origin belongs to the same miraculous and spontaneous order -- for "the nebular
theory does not profess to discover the origin of things, but only a stadium in material history"
(Winchell: World-Life) -- those millions of suns, planets, and satellites, composed of inert matter, will
whirl on in most impressive and majestic symmetry around the firmament, moved

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and guided only, their inertia notwithstanding, "by their own internal motion."
Shall we wonder after this if learned mystics, pious Roman Catholics, and even such learned
astronomers as were Chaubard and Godefroy,* have preferred the Kabala and the ancient systems to
the modern dreary and contradictory exposition of the Universe? The Zohar makes a distinction, at
any rate, between "the hajaschar ("the light Forces"), the hachoser ("Reflected Lights"), and the
simple phenomenal exteriority of their spiritual types." (See Kabala Denudata, II, 67.)
The question of "gravity" may now be dismissed, and other hypotheses examined. That physical
Science knows nothing of "Forces" is clear. We may close the argument, however, by calling to our
help one more man of Science -- Professor Jaumes, Member of the Academy of Medicine at
Montpellier. Says this learned man, speaking of Forces: -"A cause is that which is essentially acting in the genealogy of phenomena, in every production as in
every modification. I said that activity (or Force) was invisible. . . . To suppose it corporeal and
residing in the properties of matter would be a gratuitous hypothesis. . . To reduce all the causes to
God. . . . would amount to embarrassing oneself with a hypothesis hostile to many verities. But to
speak of a plurality of forces proceeding from the Deity and possessing inherent powers of their own,
is not unreasonable. . . . and I am disposed to admit phenomena produced by intermediate agents
called Forces or Secondary Agents. The distinction of Forces is the principle of the division of
Sciences; so many real and separate forces, so many mother-Sciences. . . . No: Forces are not
suppositions and abstractions, but realities, and the only acting realities whose attri butes can be
determined with the help of direct observation and induction." ("Sur la distinction des Forces,"
published in the Memoires de l'Academie des Sciences de Montpellier, Vol. II., fasc. I., 1854.)
-------------[[This page continued in next section]]
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* L'Univers explique par la Reveation, and Cosmogonie de la Revelation. But see De Mirville's
Deuxieme Memoire. The author, a terrible enemy of Occultism, was yet one who wrote great truths.

Next Section
Contents

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

Theosophical University Press Online Edition

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 506 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

[[This page continued from previous section]]
VI.
THE MASKS OF SCIENCE.
PHYSICS OR METAPHYSICS?
IF there is anything on earth like progress, Science will some day have to give up, nolens volens, such
monstrous ideas as her physical, self-guiding laws -- void of soul and Spirit, -- and then turn to the
occult teachings.

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 507 ACADEMICAL MISNOMERS.

It has done so already, however altered are the title-page and revised editions of the Scientific
Catechism. It is now over half a century since, in comparing modern with ancient thought, it has been
found that, however different our philosophy may appear from that of our ancestors, it is, nevertheless,
composed only of additions and subtractions taken from the old philosophy and transmitted drop by
drop through the filter of antecedents.
This fact was well known to Faraday, and other eminent men of Science. Atoms, Ether, evolution
itself -- all comes to modern Science from ancient notions, all is based on the conceptions of the
archaic nations. "Conceptions" for the profane, under the shape of allegories; plain truths taught during
the Initiations to the elect, which truths have been partially divulged through Greek writers and have
descended to us. This does not mean that Occultism has ever had the same views on matter, atoms and
ether as found in the exotericism of the classical Greek writers. Yet, if we believe Mr. Tyndall, even
Faraday was an Aristotelean, and an Agnostic more than a materialist. In his "Faraday, as a
Discoverer" (p. 123) the author shows the great physicist using "old reflections of Aristotle" which are
"concisely found in some of his works." Faraday, Boscovitch, and all others, however, who see, in the
atoms and molecules, "centres of force," and in the corresponding element force, an ENTITY BY
ITSELF, are far nearer the truth, perchance, than those, who, denouncing them, denounce at the same
time the "old corpuscular Pythagorean theory" (one, by the way, which has never passed to posterity
as the great philosopher really taught it), on the ground of its "delusion that the conceptual elements of
matter can be grasped as separate and real entities."
The chief and most fatal mistake and fallacy made by Science, in the view of the Occultists, lies in the

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idea of the possibility of such a thing as inorganic, or dead matter, in nature. Is anything dead or
inorganic capable of transformation or change? Occultism asks. And is there anything under the sun
which remains immutable or changeless?
This fallacy is nowhere better illustrated than in the scientific work of a German savant, Professor
Philip Spiller (Der Weltae ther als Kosmische Kraft). In this cosmological treatise, the author attempts
to prove that "no material constituent of a body, no atom, is in itself originally endowed with force, but
that every such atom is absolutely dead,* and without any power to act at a distance" (p. 4).
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* Something dead implies that it had been at some time living. When, at what period of cosmogony?
Occultism says that in all cases when matter appears inert, it is the most active. A wooden or a stone
block is motionless and impenetrable to all intents and purposes. Nevertheless, and de facto, its
particles are in ceaseless eternal vibration which is so rapid that to the physical eye the body seems
absolutely devoid of motion; [[Footnote continued on next page]]

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 508 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

This statement, however, does not prevent Spiller from enunciating an occult doctrine and principle.
He asserts the independent substantiality of force, and shows it as an "incorporeal stuff"
(unkoerperlicher stoff) or substance. Now substance is not matter in metaphysics, and for argument's
sake it may be granted that it is a wrong expression to use. But this is due to the poverty of European
languages, and especially to that of scientific terms. Then this "stuff" is identified and connected by
Spiller with the aether. Expressed in occult language it might be said with more correctness that this
"force-substance" is the ever-active phenomenal positive aether -- prakriti; while the omnipresent all
pervading ether is the noumenon of the former, the substratum of all, or Akasa. Nevertheless, Stallo
falls foul of Spiller, as he does of the materialists. He is accused of "utter disregard of the fundamental
correlation of force and matter" (of neither of which Science knows anything certain). For this
"hypostasized half-concept" is, in the view of all other physicists, not only imponderable, but destitute
of cohesive, chemical, thermal, electric, and magnetic forces -- of all of which forces -- according to
occultism -- aether is the source and cause.
Therefore Spiller, with all his mistakes, exhibits more intuition than any other modern Scientist, with
the exception of Dr. Richardson, perhaps, the theorist on the "nerve force," or Nervous Ether, also on
"Sun Force and Earth Force."* For AETHER, in Esotericism, is the very quintessence of all possible
energy, and it is certainly to this universal agent (composed of many agents) that all the manifestations
of energy in the material, psychic and spiritual worlds are due.
What are Electricity and Light, in fact? How can Science know that one is a fluid and the other a
"mode of motion"? Why is it not made clear why a difference should be made between them, since
both are considered force-correlations. Electricity is a fluid, we are told, immaterial and non-molecular
(though Helmholtz thinks otherwise), and the proof of it is that we can bottle it up, accumulate and
store it away. Then, it must be simply matter, and no peculiar "fluid." Nor is it only "a mode of
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motion," for motion could hardly be stored in a Leyden jar. As for light, it is a still more extraordinary
"mode of motion;" since, "marvellous as it may appear, light (also) can actually be stored up for use,"
as demonstrated by Professor Grove nearly half a century ago.
"Take an engraving which has been kept for some days in the dark, expose it to full sunshine -- that is,
insulate it for 15 minutes; lay it on
[[Footnote(s)]] ------------------------------------------------[[Footnote continued from previous page]] and the spacial distance between those particles in their
vibratory motion is -- considered from another plane of being and perception -- as great as that which
separates snow flakes or drops of rain. But to physical science this will be an absurdity.
* See "Popular Science Review," Vol. V., pp. 329-34.

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 509 THE FIXING OF LIGHT.

sensitive paper in a dark place, and at the end of 24 hours it will have left an impression of itself on the
sensitive paper, the whites coming out as blacks. . . . There seems to be no limit for the reproduction of
engravings, etc., etc. . . . ."
What is it that remains fixed, nailed, so to say, on the paper? It is a Force certainly, that fixed the
thing, but what is that thing, the residue of which remains on the paper?
Our learned men will get out of this through some scientific technicality; but what is it that is
intercepted, so as to imprison a certain quantity of it on glass, paper, or wood? Is it "Motion" or is it
"Force"? Or shall we be told that what remains behind is the effect only of the force or Motion? Then
what is this Force? Force or energy is a quality; but every quality must belong to a something, or a
somebody. In Physics, Force is defined as "that which changes or tends to change any physical relation
between bodies, whether mechanical, thermal, chemical, electrical, magnetic, etc." But it is not that
"Force" or that "Motion" which remains behind on the paper, when the Force or Motion has ceased to
act; and yet something, which our physical senses cannot perceive, has been left there to become a
cause in its turn and produce effects. What is it? It is not matter, as defined by Science -- i.e., matter in
any of its known states. An Alchemist would say it was a spiritual secretion -- and would be laughed
at. But yet, when the physicist said that Electricity, stored up, was a fluid, or that light fixed on paper
is still Sunlight -- this is Science.* In the opinion of an experienced Occultist, one who has verified the
whole series of Nidanas, of causes and effects that finally project their last effect on to this our plane
of manifestations; one who has traced matter back to its noumenon, the explanation of the physicist is
like calling anger, or its effects -- the exclamation provoked by it -- a secretion or a fluid, and man, the
cause of it -- its material conductor. But, as Grove prophetically remarked, that day is fast approaching
when it will be confessed that the "forces" we know of are but the phenomenal manifestations of
realities we know nothing about, -- but which were known to the ancients and -- by them worshipped.

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He made one still more suggestive remark, however, which ought to have become the motto of
Science, but has not. Sir W. Grove said that "SCIENCE SHOULD HAVE NEITHER DESIRES NOR
PREJUDICES. TRUTH SHOULD BE HER SOLE AIM."
Meanwhile, in our days, Scientists are more self-opinionated and bigoted than even the clergy. For
they minister to, if they do not actually worship,
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* The newest Authorities have rejected these explanations as "exploded theories," and have now
deified "Motion" as their sole Idol. But, surely, they and their idol will one day share the fate of their
predecessors.

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 510 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

"Force-Matter," which is their Unknown God. And how unknown it is may be inferred from the many
confessions of the most eminent physicists and biologists, with Faraday at their head. Not only, he
said, could he never presume to pronounce whether Force was a property or function of Matter, but he
actually did not know what was meant by the word matter.
There was a time, he added, when he believed he knew something of matter. But the more he lived,
and the more carefully he studied it, the more he became convinced of his utter ignorance of the
nature of matter.* (See Buckwell's "Electric Science.")
The Occultists are often misunderstood because, for lack of better terms, they apply to the essence of
Force under certain aspects the descriptive epithet of substance. Now the names for the varieties of
"substance" on different planes of perception and being are legion. Eastern Occultism has a special
appellation for each kind; but Science -- like England, in the recollection of a witty Frenchman,
blessed with thirty-six religions and only one fish-sauce -- has but one name for all, namely,
"Substance." Moreover, neither the orthodox physicists nor their critics seem to be very certain of their
premises, and are as apt to confuse the effects as they do the causes. It is incorrect, for instance, to say,
as Stallo does, that "matter can no more be realized or conceived as mere spacial presence than as a
concretion of forces," or that "force is nothing without mass, and mass is nothing without force" -- for
one is the noumenon and the other the phenomenon. Again; Schelling, when saying that "It is a mere
delusion of the phantasy that something, we know not what, remains after we have denuded an object
of all the predicates belonging to it"** -- could never have applied the remark to the realm of
transcendental metaphysics. It is true that pure force is nothing in the world of physics; it is ALL in the
domain of Spirit. Says Stallo: "If we reduce the mass upon which a given force, however small, acts to
its limit zero -- or, mathematically expressed, until it becomes infinitely small -- the consequence is
that the velocity of the resulting motion is infinitely great, and that the 'thing' . . . is at any given
moment neither here nor there, but everywhere -- that there is no
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

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* This ominous confession was made, we believe, at a Scientific Congress at Swansea. Faraday held a
similar opinion, however, as stated by Tyndall: "What do we know of the atom apart from its force?
You imagine a nucleus which may be called a and surround it by forces which may be called m; to my
mind the a or nucleus vanishes and the substance consists of the powers m. And, indeed, what notion
can we form of the nucleus independent of its powers? What thought remains on which to hang the
imagination of an a independent of the acknowledged forces?"
** Schelling, "Ideen," etc., p. 18.

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 511 WHAT IS FORCE?

real presence; it is impossible, therefore, to construct matter by a synthesis of forces" (p. 161).
This may be true in the phenomenal world, inasmuch as the illusive reflection of the one reality of the
supersensual world may appear true to the dwarfed conceptions of a materialist. It is absolutely
incorrect when the argument is applied to things, in what the Kabalists call the supermundane spheres.
Inertia, so called, "is force" according to Newton (Princ. Def. iii.), and for the student of Esoteric
Sciences the greatest of the occult forces. A body may be considered divorced from its relations with
other bodies -- which, according to physical and mechanical sciences, give rise to its attri butes -- only
conceptually, only on this plane of illusion. In fact, it can never be so detached: death itself being
unable to detach it from its relation with the Universal forces, of which the one FORCE or LIFE is the
synthesis: but simply continues such inter-relation on another plane. But what, if Stallo is right, can
Dr. James Croll mean when, in speaking "On the Transformation of Gravity" (Philosophical
Magazine, Vol. II., p. 252), he brings forward the views advocated by Faraday, Waterston, and others?
For he says very plainly that gravity -". . . . . is a force pervading Space external to bodies, and that, on the mutual approach of the bodies,
the force is not increased, as is generally supposed, but the bodies merely pass into a place where the
force exists with greater intensity. . . . ."
No one will deny that a force (whether gravity, electricity, or any other force) which exists outside of
the bodies and in open space -- be it ether or vacuum -- must be something, and not a pure nothing,
when conceived apart from a mass? Otherwise it could hardly exist in one place with a greater and in
another with reduced "intensity." G. A. Hirn declares the same in his Theorie Mecanique de l'Univers.
He tries to demonstrate that the atom of the chemists is not an entity of pure convention, or simply an
explicative device, but that it exists really, that its volume is unalterable, and that consequently it is not
elastic (!!). "Force, therefore, is not in the atom; it is in the space which separates the atoms from each
other."
The above-cited views, expressed by two men of Science of great eminence in their respective
countries, show that it is not in the least unscientific to speak of the substantiality of the so-called
Forces. Subject to some future specific name, this force is substance of some kind, and can be nothing
else; and perhaps one day Science will be the first to re-adopt the derided name of phlogiston.
Whatever may be the future name given to it, to maintain that force does not reside in the atoms, but
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only in "space between them," may be scientific enough; nevertheless it is not true. To the mind of an
Occultist it is like saying

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 512 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

that water does not reside in the drops of which the ocean is composed, but only in the space between
those drops!
The objection made that there are two distinct schools of physicists, by one of which "the force is
assumed to be an independent substantial entity, which is NOT a property of matter nor is it
essentially related to matter,"* is hardly likely to help the profane to any clearer understanding. It is,
on the contrary, still more calculated to throw the question into greater confusion than ever. For Force
is, then, neither this nor the other. By viewing it as "an independent substantial entity," the theory
extends the right hand of fellowship to Occultism, while the strange contradictory idea that it is not
related to matter "otherwise than by its power to act upon it,"** leads physical science to the most
absurd contradictory hypotheses. Whether "force" or "motion," (Occultism, seeing no difference
between the two, never attempts to separate them) it cannot act for the adherents of the atomomechanical theory one way, and for those of the rival school in another way. Nor can the atoms be, in
one case, absolutely uniform in size and weight, and in another, vary in their weight (Avogadro's law).
For, in the words of the same able critic,
. . . "While the absolute equality of the primordial units of mass is thus an essential part
of the very foundations of the mechanical theory, the whole modern Science of
chemistry is based upon a principle directly subversive of it -- a principle of which it has
recently been said that 'it holds the same place in chemistry that the law of gravitation
does in astronomy.'*** This principle is known as the law of Avogadro or
Ampere."****
This shows that either modern chemistry or modern physics is entirely wrong in its respective
fundamental principles. For if the assumption of atoms of different specific gravities on the basis of
the atomic theory in physics is deemed absurd, and chemistry meets, nevertheless, on its opposite basis
(in the question of the formation and transformation of chemical compounds) with "unfailing
experimental verification,"
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* "Concepts of Modern Physics," xxxi., Introductory to the 2nd edition.
** Loc. cit.
*** J. P. Cooke, The New Chemistry, p. 13.
**** "It imports that equal volumes of all substances, when in the gaseous state, and under like

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conditions of pressure and temperature, contain the same number of molecules -- whence it follows
that the weights of the molecules are proportional to the specific gravities of the gases; that therefore,
these being different, the weights of the molecules are different also; and inasmuch as the molecules of
certain elementary substances are monatomic (consist of but one atom each) while the molecules of
various other substances contain the same number of atoms, that the ultimate atoms of such substances
are of different weights" (Concepts of Modern Physics, p. 34). As shown further on in the same
volume, this cardinal principle of modern theoretical chemistry is in utter and irreconcilable conflict
with the first proposition of the atomo-mechanical theory -- namely, the absolute equality of the
primordial units of mass.

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 513 THEY AGREE TO DISAGREE.

then it becomes apparent that it is the atomo-mechanical theory which is untenable. The explanations
of the latter, that "the differences of weight are only differences of density, and differences of density
are differences of distance between the particles contained in a given space," are not really valid,
because, before a physicist can argue in his defence that, "as in the atom there is no multiplicity of
particles and no void space: hence differences of density or weight are impossible in the case of
atoms," he must first know what an atom is, in reality, and that he cannot know. He must bring it under
the observation of at least one of his physical senses -- and that he cannot do: for the simple reason
that no one has ever seen, smelt, heard, touched or tasted an "atom." The atom belongs wholly to the
domain of metaphysics. It is an entified abstraction -- at any rate for physical Science -- and has
nought to do with physics, strictly speaking, as it can never be brought to the test of retort or balance.
The mechanical conception, therefore, becomes a jumble of the most conflicting theories and
dilemmas, in the minds of the many Scientists who disagree on this, as on other subjects; the evolution
of which the Eastern Occultist, who follows this scientific strife, beholds in the greatest bewilderment.
To conclude on the question of gravity. How can Science presume to know anything certain of it?
How can it maintain its position and its hypotheses against those of the Occultists, who see in gravity
only sympathy and antipathy, or attraction and repulsion, caused by physical polarity on our terrestrial
plane, and by spiritual causes outside of its influence? How can they disagree with the Occultists
before they agree among themselves? Indeed one hears of the conservation of energy, and in the same
breath of the perfect hardness and inelasticity of the atoms; of the Kinetic theory of gases being
identical with "potential energy," so called; and, at the same time, of the elementary units of mass
being absolutely hard and inelastic! An Occultist opens a scientific work and reads as follows: -"Physical atomism derives all the qualitative properties of matter from the forms of atomic motion.
The atoms themselves remain as elements utterly devoid of property." (Wundt, "Die Theorie der
Materie," p. 381.)
And further:
"Chemistry in its ultimate form must be atomic mechanics." (Nazesmann, "Thermochemie," p. 150.)
And a moment after he is told that:
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"Gases consist of atoms which behave like solid, perfectly elastic spheres." (Kroenig, Clausius,
Maxwell, etc., Philosophical Magazine, Vol. XIX., p. 18.)
Finally, to crown all, Sir W. Thomson is found declaring that:
"We are forbidden by the modern theory of the conservation of

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 514 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

energy to assume inelasticity, or anything short of perfect elasticity of the ultimate molecules whether
of ultra mundane or mundane matter." (!!!) ("Philosophical Magazine," p. 321, loc. cit.)
But what do the men of true Science say to all this? By the "men of true Science" we mean those who
care too much for truth and too little for their personal vanity to dogmatise on anything, as the
majority do. There are several among them -- perhaps more than dare publish openly their secret
conclusions for fear of the cry "Stone him to death!" -- men, whose intuitions have made them span
the abyss that lies between the terrestrial aspect of matter, and the -- to us, on our plane of illusion -subjective, i.e., TRANSCENDENTALLY OBJECTIVE SUBSTANCE, and led them to proclaim the
existence of the latter. Matter, to the Occultist, it must be remembered, is that totality of existences in
the Kosmos, which falls within any of the planes of possible perception. We are but too well aware
that the orthodox theories of sound, heat and light, are against the occult doctrines. But, it is not
enough for the men of Science, or their defenders, to say that they do not deny dynamic power to light
and heat; and urge as a proof the fact that Mr. Crookes' radiometer has unsettled no views. If they
would fathom the ultimate nature of these Forces, they have first to admit their substantial nature,
however supersensuous. Neither do the Occultists deny the correctness of the vibratory theory.* Only
they limit its functions to our Earth -- declaring its inadequacy on other planes than ours, since
"Masters" in the Occult Sciences perceive the CAUSES that produce ethereal vibrations. Were all
these only the fictions of the alchemists, or dreams of the Mystics, such men as Paracelsus,
Philale thes, Van Helmont, and so many others, would have to be regarded as worse than visionaries:
they would become impostors and deliberate mystificators.
The Occultists are taken to task for calling the Cause of light, heat, sound, cohesion, magnetism, etc.,
etc., a substance.** Mr. Clerk Maxwell has stated that the pressure of strong sunlight on a square mile
is about 3 1/4 lbs. It is, they are told, "the energy of the myriad ether waves;" and when they call it a
"substance" impinging on that area, their explanation is proclaimed unscientific.
There is no justification for such an accusation. In no way -- as stated
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* Referring to the Aura, one of the Masters says in the "Occult World," "How could you make
yourself understood by, comm and in fact, those semi-intelligent forces, whose means of

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communication with us are not through spoken words but through sounds and colours in correlation
between the vibrations of the two." It is this "correlation" that is unknown to modern Science, yet was
many times explained by the Alchemists.
** The "substance" of the Occultist, however, is to the most refined substance of the physicist, what
radiant matter is to the leather of the Chemist's boots.

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 515 THE MYSTIC RAYS.

more than once before now -- do the Occultists dispute the explanations of Science, as affording a
solution of the immediate objective agencies at work. Science only errs in believing that, because it
has detected in vibratory waves the proximate cause of these phenomena, it has, therefore, revealed
ALL that lies beyond the threshold of Sense. It merely traces the sequence of phenomena on a plane of
effects, illusory projections from the region that Occultism has long since penetrated. And the latter
maintains that those etheric tremors, are not, as asserted by Science, set up by the vibrations of the
molecules of known bodies -- the matter of our terrestrial objective consciousness, -- but that we must
seek for the ultimate causes of light, heat, etc., etc., in MATTER existing in super-sensuous states -states, however, as fully objective to the spiritual eye of man, as a horse or a tree is to the ordinary
mortal. Light and heat are the ghost or shadow of matter in motion. Such states can be perceived by
the SEER or the Adept during the hours of trance, under the Sushumna ray -- the first of the Seven
Mystic rays of the Sun.*
Thus, we put forward the Occult teaching which maintains the reality of a supersubstantial and
supersensible essence of that Akasa (not ether, which is only an aspect of the latter), the nature of
which cannot be inferred from its remoter manifestations -- its merely phenomenal phalanx of effects -on this terrene plane. Science, on the contrary, informs us that heat can never be regarded as matter in
any conceivable state.** We are also told that the two great obstacles to the fluid (?) theory of heat
undoubtedly are: -[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* The names of the Seven Rays -- which are, Sushumna, Harikesa, Viswakarman, Viswatryarchas,
Sannaddha, Sarvavasu and Swaraj -- are all mystical, and each has its distinct application in a distinct
state of consciousness, for occult purposes. The Sushumna, which, as said in the Nirukta (11, 6), is
only to light up the moon, is the ray nevertheless cherished by the initiated Yogis. The totality of the
Seven Rays spread through the Solar system constitute, so to say, the physical Upadhi (basis) of the
Ether of Science; in which Upadhi, light, heat, electricity, etc., etc., -- the forces of orthodox science -correlate to produce their terrestrial effects. As psychic and spiritual effects, they emanate from, and
have their origin in, the supra-solar Upadhi, in the ether of the Occultist -- or Akasa.
** To cite a most impartial critic, one whose authority no one can call in question, as a reminder to
Western Dogmatists, that the question cannot be in any way considered as settled: "There is no
fundamental difference between light and heat . . . each is merely a metamorphosis of the other. . . .
Heat is light in complete repose. Light is heat in rapid motion. Directly light is combined with a body,
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it becomes heat; but when it is thrown off from that body it again becomes light." (Leslie's Fluid
Theory of Light and Heat.) "Whether this is true or false we cannot tell, and many years, perhaps
many generations, will have to elapse before we shall be able to tell." (Buckle's History of Civilization,
Vol. III., p. 384.)

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 516 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

(1.) The production of heat by friction -- excitation of molecular motions.
(2.) The conversion of heat into mechanical motion.
The answer given is: There are fluids of various kinds. Electricity is called a fluid, and so was heat
quite recently, but it was on the supposition that heat was some imponderable substance. This was
during the supreme and autocratic reign of matter. When the latter was dethroned, and MOTION was
proclaimed the sole sovereign ruler of the Universe, heat became "a mode of motion." We need not
despair: it may become something else to-morrow. Like the Universe itself, Science is ever becoming,
and can never say, "I am that I am." On the other hand, Occult Science has its changeless traditions
from prehistoric times. It may err in particulars; it can never become guilty of a mistake in questions
of Universal laws, simply because that Science, justly referred to by philosophy as the "divine," was
born on higher planes, and was brought on Earth by beings who were wiser than man will be, even in
the seventh Race of his Seventh Round. And that Science maintains that Forces are not what modern
learning would have them; e.g., Magnetism is not a "mode of motion"; and, in this particular case, at
least, exact "modern Science" is sure to come to grief some day. Nothing, at the first blush, can appear
more ridiculous, more outrageously absurd than to say, for instance: "the Hindu initiated Yogi knows
really ten times more than the greatest European physicist of the ultimate nature and constitution of
light -- both solar and lunar." Yet why is the Sushumna ray believed to be that ray which furnishes the
moon with its borrowed light? Why is it "the ray cherished by the initiated Yogi?" Why is the moon
held as the deity of the mind, by those Yogis? We say, because light, or rather all its occult properties,
every combination and correlation of it with other forces, mental, psychic, and spiritual, were perfectly
known to the old adepts.
Therefore, although, in its knowledge of the ultimate constitution of matter, or in the so-called ultimate
analysis as opposed to the proximate in chemistry, occult science may be less well-informed as to the
behaviour of compound elements in various cases of physical correlations: still, it is immeasurably
higher in its knowledge of the ultimate occult states of matter, and of the true nature of matter, than all
the physicists and chemists of our modern day put together.
Now, if we state the truth openly and in full sincerity, namely, that the ancient Initiates had a far wider
knowledge of physics -- as a Science of Nature -- than our Academies of Science, all taken together,
possess, the statement will be characterized as an impertinence and an absurdity; for physical sciences
are considered to have been carried in our age to the apex of perfection. Hence, the twitting query -"Can

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[[Vol. 1, Page]] 517 THE CAUSES AND THE EFFECTS.

the Occultists meet successfully the two points, namely (a) the production of heat by friction -excitation of molecular motions; and (b) the conversion of heat into mechanical force, if they hold to
the old "exploded" theory of heat being a substance or a fluid?"
To answer the question, it must first be observed that the Occult Sciences do not regard either
electricity or any of the forces supposed to be generated by it, as matter, in any of the states known to
physical Science; to put it more clearly, none of these "forces," so-called, are either solids, gases, or
fluids. If it did not look pedantic, an Occultist would even object to electricity being called a fluid -- as
it is an effect and not a cause. But its noumenon, he would say, is a conscious cause. The same in the
cases of "Force" and the "Atom." Let us see what an eminent Academician, Butlerof, the chemist, had
to say about these two abstractions.
-------------"What is Force?" argues this great man of Science, "what is it from a strictly scientific stand-point, and
as warranted by the law of conservation of energy? Conceptions of Force are resumed by our
conceptions of this, that, or another mode of motion." Force is thus simply the passage of one state of
motion into another state of the same: of electricity, into heat and light, of heat into sound or some
mechanical function, and so on.* The first time electric fluid was produced by man on earth it must
have been by friction; hence, as well-known, it is heat that produces it by disturbing its laya state,**
and electricity exists no more on earth per se than heat or light, or any other force. They are all
correlations, as science says. "When a given quantity of heat, assisted by a steam engine, is
transformed into mechanical work, we speak of steam power (or force). When a falling body strikes an
obstacle in its way, thereby generating heat and sound -- we call it the power of collision. When
electricity decomposes water or heats a platinum wire, we speak of the force of the electric fluid.
When the rays of the sun are intercepted by the thermometer bulb and its quicksilver expands, we
speak of the calorific energy of the sun. In short, when one state of a determined quantity of motion
ceases, another state of motion equivalent to the preceding takes its place, and the result of such a
transformation or correlation is -- force. In all cases where such a transformation, or the passage of one
state of motion into another, is entirely absent, there no force is possible. Let us admit for a moment an
absolutely homogeneous state of the Universe, and our conception of force falls down to nought."
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* On the plane of manifestation and illusionary matter it may be so; not that it is nothing more, for it is
vastly more.
** Neutral, or zero.

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"Therefore it becomes evident that the force, which materialism considers as the cause of the diversity
that surrounds us, is in sober reality only an effect, a result of that diversity. From such point of view
force is not the cause of motion, but a result, while the cause of that force, or forces, is not the
substance or matter, but motion itself. Matter thus must be laid aside and with it the basic principle of
materialism, which has become unnecessary, as force brought down to a state of motion can give no
idea of the substance. If force is the result of motion, then it becomes incomprehensible why that
motion should become witness to matter and not to Spirit or a Spiritual essence. True, our reason
cannot conceive of a motion minus something moving (and our reason is right); but the nature or esse
of that something moving remains to Science entirely unknown; and the Spiritualist, in such case, has
as much right to attri bute it to a "Spirit," as a Materialist to creative and all-potential matter. A
Materialist has no special privileges in this instance, nor can he claim any. The law of the conservation
of energy, as thus seen, is shown to be illegitimate in its pretensions and claims in this case. The "great
dogma" -- no force without matter and no matter without force -- falls to the ground, and loses entirely
the solemn significance with which materialism has tried to invest it. The conception of force still
gives no idea of matter and compels us in no way to see in it "the origin of all origins." ("Scientific
Letters," Professor Butlerof.)
We are assured that real science is not materialistic; and our own conviction tells us that it cannot be
so, when its learning is real. There is a good reason for it, well defined by some physicists and
chemists themselves. Natural sciences cannot go hand in hand with materialism. To be at the height of
their calling, men of science have to reject the very possibility of materialistic doctrines having aught
to do with the atomic theory; and we find that Lange, Butlerof, Du Bois Reymond, -- the latter
probably unconsciously -- and several others, have proved it. And it is, furthermore, demonstrated by
the fact, that Kanada in India, and Leucippus, Democritus, and after them Epicurus -- the earliest
atomists in Europe -- while propagating their doctrine of definite proportions, believed in Gods or
supersensuous entities, at the same time. Their ideas upon matter thus differed from those now
prevalent. We must be allowed to make our statement clearer in a short synopsis of the ancient and
modern views of philosophy upon atoms, and thus prove that the atomic theory kills Materialism.
From the standpoint of Materialism, which reduces the beginnings of all to matter, the Universe
consists, in its fullness, of atoms and vacuity. Even leaving aside the axiom -- now absolutely
demonstrated by telescope and microscope -- taught by the ancients, that nature abhors

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vacuum, what is an atom? "It is, we are answered by Science," writes Professor Butlerof, "the limited
division of substance, the indivisible particle of matter. To admit the divisibility of the atom, amounts
to an admission of an infinite divisibility of substance, which is equivalent to reducing substance to
nihil, a nothingness. Owing to a feeling of self-preservation alone, materialism cannot admit infinite
divisibility; otherwise, it would have to bid farewell for ever to its basic principle and thus sign its own
death-warrant." Buchner, for instance, like a true dogmatist in materialism, declares that "to accept
infinite divisibility is absurd, and amounts to doubting the very existence of matter." The Atom is
indivisible then, saith Materialism? Very well.

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"See now what a curious contradiction this fundamental principle of the materialists is
leading them into," writes Butlerof. "The atom is indivisible, and at the same time we
know it to be elastic. An attempt to deprive it of elasticity is unthinkable; it would
amount to an absurdity. Absolutely non-elastic atoms could never exhibit a single one of
those numerous phenomena that are attri buted to their correlations. Without any
elasticity, the atoms could not manifest their energy, and the substance of the
materialists would remain weeded of every force. Therefore, if the Universe is
composed of atoms, then those atoms must be elastic. It is here that we meet with an
insuperable obstacle. For, what are the conditions requisite for the manifestation of
elasticity? An elastic ball, when striking against an obstacle, is flattened and contracts,
which it would be impossible for it to do, were not that ball to consist of particles, the
relative position of which experiences at the time of the blow a temporary change. This
may be said of elasticity in general; no elasticity is possible without change with respect
to the position of the compound particles of an elastic body. This means that the elastic
body is changeful and consists of particles, or, in other words, that elasticity can pertain
only to those bodies that are divisible. And the atom is elastic."
This is sufficient to show how absurd are the simultaneous admissions of the non-divisibility and
elasticity of the atom. The atom is elastic, ergo, the atom is divisible, and must consist of particles, or
of sub-atoms. And these sub-atoms? They are either non-elastic, and in such case they represent no
dynamic importance, or, they are elastic also; and in that case, they, too, are subject to divisibility.
And thus ad infinitum. But infinite divisibility of atoms resolves matter into simple centres of force,
i.e., precludes the possibility of conceiving matter as an objective substance.
This vicious circle is fatal to materialism. It finds itself caught in its own nets, and no issue is possible
for it out of the dilemma. If it says that the atom is indivisible, then it will have mechanics asking it the
awkward question: "How does the Universe move in this case, and how do its forces correlate? A
world built on absolutely non-elastic atoms, is like an engine without steam, it is doomed to eternal
inertia."*
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* "Scientific Letters," Butlerof.

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Accept the explanations and teachings of Occultism, and, the blind inertia of physical Science being
replaced by the intelligent active Powers behind the veil of matter, motion and inertia become
subservient to those Powers. It is on the doctrine of the illusive nature of matter, and the infinite
divisibility of the atom, that the whole science of Occultism is built. It opens limitless horizons to
substance informed by the divine breath of its soul in every possible state of tenuity, states still
undreamt of by the most spiritually disposed chemists and physicists.
The above views were enunciated by an Academician, the greatest chemist in Russia, and a recognised
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authority even in Europe -- the late Professor Butlerof. True, he was defending the phenomena of the
Spiritualists, the materializations, so called, in which he believed as Professors Zollner, and Hare did,
as Mr. A. Russell Wallace, Mr. W. Crookes, and many another Fellow of the Royal Society, do still,
whether openly or secretly. But his argument with regard to the nature of the essence that acts behind
the physical phenomena of light, heat, electricity, etc., is no less scientific and authoritative for all that,
and apply admirably to the case in hand. Science has no right to deny to the Occultists their claim to a
more profound knowledge of the so-called Forces; which, they say, are only the effects of causes
generated by Powers, substantial, yet supersensuous, and beyond any kind of matter with which they
(the Scientists) have hitherto become acquainted. The most science can do is to assume the attitude of
agnosticism and to maintain it. Then it can say: "Your case is no more proven than is ours; but we
confess to knowing nothing in reality either about Force or matter, or that which lies at the bottom of
the so-called correlations of Forces. Therefore, time alone can prove who is right and who is wrong.
Let us wait patiently, and meanwhile show courtesy instead of scoffing at each other."
But to do this requires a boundless love of truth and the surrender of that prestige -- however false -- of
infallibility, which the men of Science have acquired among the ignorant and flippant, though
cultured, masses of the profane. To blend the two sciences, the archaic and the modern, requires first
of all the abandonment of the actual materialistic lines. It necessitates a kind of religious mysticism
and even the study of old magic, which our Academicians will never take up. The necessity is easily
explained. Just as in old alchemical works the real meaning of the substances and elements meant are
concealed under the most ridiculous metaphors, so are the physical, psychic, and spiritual natures of
the Elements (say of fire) concealed in the Vedas, and especially in the Puranas, under allegories
comprehensible only to the Initiates. Had they no meaning, then indeed all those long legends and
allegories about the sacredness of the three types of fire, and the forty-nine original fires --

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 521 CHEMICAL GODS.

personified by the Sons of Daksha's daughters and the Rishis, their husbands, "who with the first son
of Brahma and his three descendants constitute the forty-nine fires" -- would be idiotic verbiage and
no more. But it is not so. Every fire has a distinct function and meaning in the worlds of the physical
and the spiritual. It has, moreover, in its essential nature a corresponding relation to one of the human
psychic faculties, besides its well determined chemical and physical potencies when coming in contact
with the terrestrially differentiated matter. Science has no speculations to offer upon fire per se;
Occultism and ancient religious science have. This is shown even in the meagre and purposely veiled
phraseology of the Puranas, where (as in the Vayu Purana) many of the qualities of the personified
fires are explained. Thus, Pavaka is electric, or Vaidyuta, fire; Pavamana, the fire produced by friction,
(or Nirmathya): and Suchi is solar (or Saura) fire* -- all these three being the sons of Abhimanin, the
Agni (fire), eldest son of Brahma and of Swaha. Pavaka, moreover, is made parent to Kavyavahana,
the fire of the Pitris: Suchi to Havyavahana -- the fire of the gods; and Pavamana, to Saharaksha, the
fire of the Asuras. Now all this shows that the writers of the Puranas were perfectly conversant with
the "Forces" of Science and their correlations; moreover, with the various qualities of the latter in their
bearing upon those psychic and physical phenomena which receive no credit and are unknown to
physical science now. Very naturally, when an Orientalist, -- especially one with materialistic
tendencies -- reads that these are only appellations of fire employed in the invocations and rituals, he
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calls this "Tantrika superstition and mystification"; and he becomes more careful to avoid errors in
spelling, than to give attention to the secret meaning attached to the personifications, or to seek their
explanation in the physical correlations of forces, so far as known. So little credit, indeed, is given to
the ancient Aryans for knowledge, that even such glaring passages as in Book I. chap. ii, Vishnu
Purana, are left without any notice. Nevertheless, what can this sentence mean? -- "Then Ether, air,
light, water, and earth, severally united with the properties of sound and other qualities, existed as
distinguishable according to their properties, . . . . but possessing many and various energies and being
unconnected, they could not, without combination, create living beings, not having blended with each
other. . . . Having combined . . . they assumed through mutual association, the character of one mass of
entire unity; and directed by Spirit . . ." etc. This means, of course, that the writers were perfectly
acquainted with correlation and were well posted about the origin of Kosmos from the "undiscrete
Principle" -- Avyaktanugrahena, as applied
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* Called the "drinker of waters," solar heat causing water to evaporate.

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 522 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

to Parabrahmam and Mulaprakriti conjointly, and not to "Avyakta, either First Cause, or matter," as
Wilson gives it. The old Initiates knew of no "miraculous creation," but taught the evolution of atoms
(on our physical plane), and their first differentiation from laya into the protyle, as Mr. Crookes has
suggestively named matter, or primordial substance beyond the zero-line: -- there where we place
Mulaprakriti, the "root-Principle" of the world stuff and of all in the world.
This can be easily demonstrated. Take, for instance, the newly-published catechism of the
Visishtadwaita Vedantins, an orthodox and exoteric system, yet fully enunciated and taught in the XIth
century (its founder, Ramanujacharya, being born in A.D. 1017), at a time when European "Science"
still believed in the squareness and flatness of the Earth, of Cosmas-Indicopleustes of the VIth century.
It teaches that before evolution began, Prakriti (Nature) was in a condition of laya or absolute
homogeneity, as "matter exists in two conditions, the sukshma, or latent and undifferentiated, and the
sthula or differentiated condition." Then it became anu, atomic. It teaches of Sudda-satwa -- "a
substance not subject to the qualities of matter, from which it is quite different," and adds that out of
that substance the bodies of the inhabitants of Vaikuntaloka (the heaven of Vishnu), the gods, are
formed. That every particle or atom of Prakriti contains Jiva (divine life), and is the sarira (body) of
that Jiva which it contains, while every Jiva is in its turn the sarira of the supreme spirit, as
"Parabrahm pervades every Jiva, as well as every particle of matter." Dualistic and anthropomorphic
as may be the philosophy of the Visishtadwaita, when compared with that of the Adwaita -- the nondualists, -- it is yet supremely higher in logic and philosophy than the cosmogony accepted by either
Christianity, or its great opponent, modern Science. The followers of one of the greatest minds that
ever appeared on Earth, the Adwaita Vedantins are called Atheists, because they regard all save
Parabrahm, the secondless, or Absolute Reality -- as an illusion. Yet the wisest Initiates came from
their ranks, as also the greatest Yogis. The Upanishads show that they most assuredly knew not only
what is the causal substance in the effects of friction, and that their forefa thers were acquainted with
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the conversion of heat into mechanical force, but that they were acquainted with the noumena of every
spiritual as well as of every cosmic phenomenon.
Truly the young Brahmin who graduates in the universities and colleges of India with the highest
honours; who starts in life as an M.A. and an LL.B., with a tail initialed from Alpha to Omega after
his name, and a contempt for his national gods proportioned to the honours received in his education
in physical sciences; truly he has but to read in the light of the latter, and with an eye to the correlation
of

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 523 SUGGESTIVE ALLEGORIES.

physical Forces, certain passages in his Puranas, if he would learn how much more his ancestors knew
than he will ever know -- unless he becomes an occultist. Let him turn to the allegory of Pururavas and
the celestial Gandharva,* who furnished the former with a vessel full of heavenly fire. The primeval
mode of obtaining fire by friction has its scientific explanation in the Vedas, and is pregnant with
meaning for him who reads between the lines. The Tretagni (sacred triad of fires) obtained by the
attrition of sticks made of the wood of the Aswattha tree (the Bo-tree, of Wisdom and Knowledge) -sticks "as many finger-breaths long as there are syllables in the gayatri" must have a secret meaning,
or else the writers of the Vedas and Puranas were no sacred writers but mystificators. That it has such
a meaning, the Hindu Occultists are a proof, and they alone are able to enlighten Science, as to why
and how, "the fire, that was primevally one, was made threefold (treta) in our present Manvantara, by
the Son of Ila (Vach), the primeval woman after the Deluge, the wife and daughter of Vaivasvata
Manu. The allegory is suggestive, in whatever Purana it may be read and studied.
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* The Gandharva of the Veda is the deity who knows and reveals the secrets of heaven and divine
truths to mortals. Cosmically -- the Gandharvas are the aggregate powers of the solar-fire, and
constitute its Forces; psychically -- the intelligence residing in the Sushumna, Solar ray, the highest of
the seven rays; mystically -- the occult force in the Soma (the moon, or lunar plant) and the drink made
of it; physically -- the phenomenal, and spiritually -- the noumenal causes of Sound and the "Voice of
Nature." Hence, they are called the 6,333 "heavenly Singers" and musicians of Indra's loka who
personify (even in number) the various and manifold sounds in Nature, both above and below. In the
latter allegories they are said to have mystic power over women, and to be fond of them. The esoteric
meaning is plain. They are one of the forms, if not the prototypes, of Enoch's angels, the Sons of God,
who saw that the daughters of men were fair (Gen. vi.) who married them, and taught the daughters of
the Earth the secrets of Heaven.
-------------[[This page continued in next section]]

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Next Section
Contents

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

Theosophical University Press Online Edition

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 523 SUGGESTIVE ALLEGORIES.

[[This page continued from previous section]]
VII.
AN ATTACK ON THE SCIENTIFIC THEORY OF FORCE
BY A MAN OF SCIENCE.
THE wise words of several (English) men of Science have now to be quoted in our favour. Ostracised
for "principle's sake" by the few, they are tacitly approved of by the many. That one of them preaches
almost Occult doctrines, in some things identical with, and often amounting to a public recognition of
our "Fohat and his seven Sons" --

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 524 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

the Occult Gandharva of the Vedas -- will be recognised by every Occultist, and even by some
profane readers.
If the latter open Volume V. of the Popular Science Review (pp. 329-334), they will find in it an
article on "Sun Force and Earth Force," by Dr. B. W. Richardson, F.R.S., which reads as follows: -"At this moment, when the theory of mere motion as the origin of all varieties of force
is again becoming the prevailing thought, it were almost heresy to re-open a debate,
which for a period appears, by general consent, to be virtually closed; but I accept the
risk, and shall state, therefore, what were the precise views of the immortal heretic,
whose name I have whispered to the readers, (Samuel Metcalfe), respecting Sun Force.
Starting with the argument on which nearly all physicists are agreed, that there exist in
nature two agencies -- matter which is ponderable, visible, and tangible, and a
something which is imponderable, invisible, and appreciable only by its influence on
matter -- Metcalfe maintains that the imponderable and active agency which he calls
'caloric' is not a mere form of motion, not a vibration amongst the particles of
ponderable matter, but itself a material substance flowing from the Sun through Space,*
filling the voids between the particles of solid bodies, and conveying by sensation the
property called heat. The nature of caloric, or Sun-Force, is contended for by him on the
following grounds: -"(i.) That it may be added to, and abstracted from other bodies and measured with
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mathematical precision.
"(ii.) That it augments the volume of bodies, which are again reduced in size by its
abstraction.
"(iii.) That it modifies the forms, properties, and conditions of all other bodies.
"(iv.) That it passes by radiation through the most perfect vacuum** that can be
formed, in which it produces the same effects on the thermometer as in the atmosphere.
"(v.) That it exerts mechanical and chemical forces which nothing can restrain, as in
volcanoes, the explosion of gunpowder, and other fulminating compounds.
"(vi.) That it operates in a sensible manner on the nervous system, producing intense
pain; and when in excess, disorganization of the tissues.
"As against the vibratory theory, Metcalfe further argues that if caloric were a mere
property or quality, it could not augment the volume of other bodies; for this purpose it
must itself have volume, it must occupy space, and it must, therefore, be a material
agent. If caloric were only the effect of vibratory motion amongst the particles of
ponderable matter, it could not radiate from hot bodies without the simultaneous
transition of the vibrating particles; but the fact stands out that heat can radiate from
material ponderable substance without
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* Not only "through space," but filling every point of our solar system, for it is the physical residue, so
to say, of Ether, its lining on our plane; Ether having to serve other cosmic and terrestrial purposes
besides being the "agent" for transmitting light. It is the astral fluid or "Light" of the Kabalists, and
the "Seven rays" of Sun-Vishnu.
** What need, then, of etheric waves for the transmission of light, heat, etc., if this substance can pass
through vacuum?

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 525 DR. RICHARDSON'S HERESY.

loss of weight of such substance. . . . With this view as to the material nature of caloric
or sun-force; with the impression firmly fixed on his mind that 'everything in Nature is
composed of two descriptions of matter, the one essentially active and ethereal, the
other passive and motionless,'* Metcalfe based the hypothesis that the Sun-force, or
caloric, is a Self-active principle. For its own particles, he holds, it has repulsion; for the
particles of all ponderable matter it has affinity; it attracts the particles of ponderable
matter with forces which vary inversely as the squares of the distance. It thus acts
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through ponderable matter. If universal space were filled with caloric, sun-force, alone
(without ponderable matter), caloric would also be inactive and would constitute a
boundless Ocean of powerless or quiescent ether, because it would then have nothing
on which to act, while ponderable matter, however inactive of itself, has 'certain
properties by which it modifies and controls the actions of caloric, both of which are
governed by immutable laws that have their origin in the mutual relations and specific
properties of each.'
"And he lays down a law which he believes is absolute, and which is thus expressed: -" 'By the attraction of caloric for ponderable matter, it unites and holds together all
things; by its self-repulsive energy it separates and expands all things.' "
This, of course, is almost the occult explanation of cohesion. Dr. Richardson continues: -"As I have already said, the tendency of modern teaching is to rest upon the hypothesis .
. . that heat is motion, or, as it would, perhaps, be better stated, a specific force or form
of motion.**
"But this hypothesis, popular as it is, is not one that ought to be accepted to the
exclusion of the simpler views of the material nature of sun-force, and of its influence
in modifying the conditions of matter. We do not yet know sufficient to be
dogmatic."***
. . . "The hypothesis of Metcalfe respecting sun-force and earth-force is not only very
simple, but most fascinating. . . . Here are two elements in the Universe, the one is
ponderable matter . . . The second element is the all-pervading Ether, solar-fire. It is
without weight, substance, form, or colour; it is matter infinitely divisible, and its
particles repel each other; its rarity
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* And how can it be otherwise? Gross ponderable matter is the body, the Shell of matter or Substance,
the female passive principle; and this Fohatic force is the second principle, prana -- the male and the
active? On our globe this Substance is the second principle of the septenary Element -- Earth; in the
atmosphere, it is that of air, which is the cosmic gross body; in the Sun it becomes the Solar body and
that of the Seven rays; in sidereal space it corresponds with another principle, and so on. The whole is
a homogeneous Unity alone, the parts are all differentiations.
** Or the reverberation, and for sound, repercussion on our plane of that which is a perpetual motion
of that Substance on higher planes. Our world and senses are victims of Maya, ceaselessly.
*** An honest admission, that.

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[[Vol. 1, Page]] 526 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

is such that we have no word, except ether,* by which to express it. It pervades and fills
space, but alone it too is quiescent -- dead.** We bring together the two elements, the
inert matter, the self-repulsive Ether (?) and thereupon dead (?) ponderable matter is
vivified"; [Ponderable matter may be inert but never dead -- this is Occult Law. -H.P.B.] . . . "through the particles of the ponderable substance the ether [Ether's second
principle. -- H.P.B.] penetrates, and, so penetrating, it combines with the ponderable
particles and holds them in mass, holds them together in bond of union; they are
dissolved in the Ether."
"This distribution of solid ponderable matter through ether extends, according to the
theory before us, to everything that exists at this moment. The ether is all-pervading.
The human body itself is charged with the ether [Say astral light. -- H.P.B.]; its minute
particles are held together by it; the plant is in the same condition; the most solid earth,
rock, adamant, crystal, metal, all are the same. But there are differences in the capacities
of different kinds of ponderable matter to receive sun-force, and upon this depends the
various changing conditions of matter; the solid, the liquid, the gaseous condition. Solid
bodies have attracted caloric in excess over fluid bodies, and hence their firm cohesion;
when a portion of molten zinc is poured upon a plate of solid zinc, the molten zinc
becomes as solid because there is a rush of caloric from the liquid to the solid, and in
the equalization the particles, previously loose or liquid, are more closely brought
together. . . . Metcalfe himself, dwelling on the above-named phenomena, and
accounting for them by the unity of principle of action, which has already been
explained, sums up his argument in very clear terms, in a comment on the densities of
various bodies. 'Hardness and softness' (he says), 'solidity and liquidity, are not essential
conditions of bodies, but depend on the relative proportions of ethereal and ponderable
matter of which they are composed. The most elastic gas may be reduced to the liquid
form by the abstraction of caloric, and again converted into a firm solid, the particles of
which would cling together with a force proportional to their augmented affinity for
caloric. On the other hand, by adding a sufficient quantity of the same principle to the
densest metals, their attraction for it is diminished when they are expanded into the
gaseous state, and their cohesion is destroyed.' "
Having thus quoted at length the heterodox views of the great "heretic" -- views that need only a little
alteration of terms here and there, the same eminent scientist -- an original and liberal thinker,
undeniably -- proceeds to sum up those views, and continues: -[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* Yet it is not Ether, but only one of the principles of Ether, the latter being itself one of the principles
of Akasa.
** And so does prana (Jiva) pervade the whole living body of man; but alone, without having an atom
to act upon, it would be quiescent -- dead; i.e., would be in laya, or as Mr. Crookes has it, "locked in
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protyle." It is the action of Fohat upon a compound or even a simple body that produces life. When a
body dies it passes into the same polarity as its male energy and repels therefore the active agent,
which, losing hold of the whole, fastens on the parts or molecules, this action being called chemical.
Vishnu, the Preserver, transforms himself into Rudra-Siva, the Destroyer -- a correlation seemingly
unknown to Science.

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 527 WE DISAGREE.

"I shall not dwell at great length on this unity of sun-force and earth, which this theory
implies. But I may add that out of it, or out of the hypothesis of mere motion as force,
and of virtue without substance, we may gather, as the nearest possible approach to the
truth on this, the most complex and profound of all subjects, the following inferences: -"(a) Space, inter-stellary, inter-planetary, inter-material, inter-organic, is not a vacuum,
but is filled with a subtle fluid or gas, which for want of a better term* we may still call,
as the ancients did, Aith-ur -- Solar fire, AETHER. This fluid, unchangeable in
composition, indestructible, invisible,** pervades everything and all [ponderable. -- H.
P. B.] matter,*** the pebble in the running brook, the tree overhanging, the man
looking on, is charged with the ether in various degree; the pebble less than the tree, the
tree less than man. All in the planet is in like manner so charged! A world is built up in
ethereal fluid, and moving through a sea of it.
"(b) The Ether, whatever its nature is, is from the sun and from the suns**** the suns
are the generators of it, the store-houses of it, the diffusers of it.*****
"(c.) Without the ether there could be no motion; without it particles of ponderable
matter could not glide over each other; without it there could be no impulse to excite
those particles into action.
"(d.) Ether determines the constitution of bodies. Were there no ether there could be no
change of constitution in substance; water, for instance, could only exist as a substance,
compact and insoluble beyond any conception we could form of it. It could never even
be ice, never flint, never vapour, except for ether.
"(e.) Ether connects sun with planet, planet with planet, man with planet, man with
man. Without ether there could be no communication in the Universe; no light, no heat,
no phenomenon of motion."
Thus we find that Ether and elastic atoms are, in the alleged mechanical conception of the Universe,
the Spirit and Soul of Kosmos, and that the theory -- put it any way and under whatever disguise -always leaves a more widely opened issue for men of
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

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* Verily, unless the occult terms of the Kabalists are adopted!
** "Unchangeable" only during Manvantaric periods, after which it merges once more into
Mulaprakriti; "invisible" for ever, in its own essence, but seen in its reflected coruscations, called the
Astral light by the modern Kabalists. Yet, conscious and grand Beings clothed in that same Essence
move in it.
*** One has to add (ponderable), to distinguish it from that Ether which is matter still, though a
substratum.
**** The Occult Sciences reverse the statement, and say that it is the sun, and all the suns that are
from it, which emanate at the Manvantaric dawn from the Central Sun.
***** Here, we decidedly beg to differ with the learned gentleman. Let us remember that this AEther,
whether Akasa is meant by the term, or its lower principle, Ether -- is septenary. Akasa is Aditi in the
allegory, and the mother of Marttanda (the sun), the Deva-matri -- "Mother of the gods." In the solar
system, the sun is her Buddhi and Vahan, the Vehicle, hence the 6th principle; in Kosmos all the suns
are the Kama rupa of Akasa and so is ours. It is only when regarded as an individual Entity in his own
Kingdom that Surya (the sun) is the 7th principle of the great body of matter.

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 528 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

Science to speculate beyond the line drawn by modern materialism -- or call it agnosticism rather, to
be more correct* -- than the majority avails itself of. Atoms, Ether, or both, modern speculation
cannot get out of the circle of ancient thought; and the latter was soaked through with archaic
occultism. Undulatory or corpuscular theory -- it is all one. It is speculation from the aspects of
phenomena, not from the knowledge of the essential nature of the cause and causes. When modern
Science has explained to its audience the late achievements of Bunsen and Kirchoff, and shown the
seven colours, the "primary" of a ray which is decomposed in a fixed order on a screen; and described
the respective lengths of luminous waves, what has it proved? It has justified its reputation for
exactness in mathematical achievement by measuring even the length of a luminous wave -- "varying
from about seven hundred and sixty millionths of a millimetre at the red end of the spectrum to about
three hundred and ninety-three millionths of a millimetre at the violet end." But when the exactness of
the calculation with regard to the effect on the light-wave is thus vindicated, Science is forced to admit
that the force (which is the supposed cause) is believed to produce "inconceivably minute
undulations" in some medium -- "generally regarded as identical with the ethereal medium"** -- and
that medium itself is still only -- a "hypothetical agent!"
Auguste Comte's pessimism with respect to the impossibility of knowing some day the chemical
composition of the sun, has not been belied thirty years later by Kirchoff, as claimed. The
spectroscope has helped us to see that the elements, with which the modern chemist is familiar, must
in all probability be present in the sun's outward robes -- not in the sun itself; and, taking these
"robes," the solar cosmic veil, for the sun itself, the physicists have declared its luminosity to be due
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to combustion and flame, and have mistaken the vital principle of that luminary for a purely material
thing, and called it "chromosphere."*** We have hypotheses and theories only so far, not law -- by
any means.
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* Brutal but frank materialism is more honest than Janus-faced agnosticism in our days. Monism is the
Pecksniff of modern philosophy, turning a pharisaical face to psychology and idealism, and its natural
face of a Roman Augur, swelling his cheek with his tongue -- to Materialism. The Monists are worse
than the Materialists; because, while looking at the Universe and psycho-spiritual man from the same
negative stand-point, the latter put their case far less plausibly than sceptics of Mr. Tyndall's or even
Mr. Huxley's stamp. Herbert Spencer, Bain and Lewes are more dangerous to universal truths than
Buchner.
** "Geology," by Professor A. Winchell.
*** See Five Years of Theosophy -- Articles: "Do the Adepts deny the nebular theory?" and "Is the
Sun merely a cooling mass?" -- for the true Occult teaching.

Next Section
Contents

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

Theosophical University Press Online Edition

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 529 MYSTERIOUS SUN FLUID.

VIII.
LIFE, FORCE, OR GRAVITY.
THE imponderable fluids have had their day; "mechanical Forces" are less talked about; Science has
put on a new face for this last quarter of a century; but gravitation has remained, owing its life to new
combinations after the old ones had nearly killed it. It may answer scientific hypotheses very well, but
the question is whether it answers as well to truth, and represents a fact in nature. Attraction by itself
is not sufficient to explain merely planetary motion; how can it presume to explain the rotatory motion
in the infinitudes of Space? Attraction alone will never fill all the gaps, unless a special impulse is
admitted for every sidereal body, and the rotation of every planet with its satellites is shown to be due
to some one cause combined with attraction. And even then, says an astronomer ("Philosophie
Naturelle," art. 142), Science would have to name that cause.
Occultism has named it for ages, and so have all the ancient philosophers; but then all such beliefs are
now proclaimed exploded superstitions. The "extra cosmic" God has killed every possibility of belief
in intra cosmic intelligent Forces, yet who, or what is the original pusher in that motion? "When we
have learned the cause, unique et speciale, that pushes, we will be ready to combine it with the one
which attracts," says Francoeur ("Astronomie," p. 342). And again -- "Attraction between the celestial
bodies is only repulsion: it is the Sun that drives them incessantly onward; for otherwise, their motion
would stop."
If ever this theory of the Sun-Force being the primal cause of all life on earth and motion in heaven is
accepted, and if that other far bolder one of Herschell -- about certain organisms in the Sun -- is
accepted even as a provisional hypothesis, then will our teachings be vindicated, and esoteric allegory
shown to have anticipated Modern Science by millions of years, probably, for these are the Archaic
teachings. Marttanda (the Sun) watches and threatens -- without abandoning the central position to
which his Mother, Aditi, relegated him -- his seven brothers, the planets; "he pursues them, turning
slowly around himself . . . and follows them from afar, moving in the same direction that they do, on
the path that encircles their houses" -- or the orbit. (See Comment to Stanza IV., Book I.) It is the Sunfluids or Emanations that impart all motion and awaken all into life, in the Solar System. It is
attraction and repulsion, but not as understood by modern physics and according to the law of gravity;
but in harmony with the laws of Manvantaric motion de-

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 530 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

signed from the early Sandhya, the Dawn of the rebuilding and higher reformation of the System.
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These laws are immutable; but the motion of all the bodies, which motion is diverse and alters with
every minor Kalpa -- is regulated by the Movers, the Intelligences within the Cosmic Soul. Are we so
very wrong in believing all this? Well, here is a modern and a great man of Science who, speaking of
vital electricity, uses language far more akin to Occultism than to modern materialistic thought. We
refer the sceptical reader to an article on "The Source of Heat in the Sun," by Robert Hunt , F.R.S., (in
"Popular Science Review," Vol. IV., p. 148), who, speaking of the luminous envelope of the Sun and
its "peculiar curdy appearance," says: -"Arago proposed that this envelope should be called the Photosphere, a name now
generally adopted. By the elder Herschell, the surface of this photosphere was
compared to mother-of-pearl. . . . . It resembles the Ocean on a tranquil summer-day,
when its surface is slightly crisped by a gentle breeze. . . . Mr. Nasmyth has discovered
a more remarkable condition than any that had previously been suspected . . . objects
which are peculiarly lens-shaped . . . . like 'willow leaves . . . . different in size . . . . .
not arranged in any order crossing each other in all directions . . . . . with an irregular
motion among themselves . . . . . . . They are seen approaching to and receding from
each other, and sometimes assuming new angular positions, so that the appearance . . . .
. has been compared to a dense shoal of fish, which, indeed, they resemble in shape. . . .
The size of these objects gives a grand idea of the gigantic scale upon which physical
(?) operations are carried out in the Sun. They cannot be less than 1,000 miles in length,
and from two to three hundred miles in breadth. The most probable conjecture which
has been offered respecting those leaf or lens-like objects, is that the photosphere* is an
immense ocean of gaseous matter (what kind of "matter?") . . . in a state of intense
(apparent) incandescence, and that they are perspective projections of the sheets of
flame. . . ."
Solar "flames" seen through telescopes are reflections, says Occultism. But see what Occultists have
to say to this in Book I.
"Whatever they may be (those sheets of flame), it is evident they are the immediate
sources of solar heat and light. Here we have a surrounding envelope of photogenic
matter,** which pendulates with mighty energies, and by communicating its motion to
the ethereal medium in stellar space, produces heat and light in far distant worlds. We
have said that those forms have been compared to certain organisms, and Herschell
says, 'Though it would be too daring to speak of such organizations as partaking of life
[why not?],*** yet we do not know that vital action is competent to develop heat, light,
and electricity.' . . . Can it be that there is truth in this fine thought? May the pulsing of
vital matter
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* And the central mass, too, as will be found, or rather the centre of the reflection.
** That "matter" is just like the reflection in a mirror of the flame from a "photogenic" lamp-wick.

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*** See "Five Years of Theosophy," p. 258 -- answer to this speculation of Herschell's.

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 531 SUN-FORCE AND EARTH-FORCE.

in the central Sun of our System be the source of all that life which crowds the earth,
and without doubt overspreads the other planets, to which the Sun is the mighty
Minister?" . . .
Occultism answers these queries in the affirmative; and Science will find this to be the case, one day.
Again, on p. 156, Mr. Hunt writes: -"But regarding Life -- Vital Force -- as a power far more exalted than either light, heat,
or electricity, and indeed capable of exerting a controlling power over them all" (this is
absolutely occult). . . . . "we are certainly disposed to view with satisfaction that
speculation which supposes the photosphere to be the primary seat of vital power, and
to regard with a poetic pleasure that hypothesis which refers the Solar energies to Life."
Thus, we have an important scientific corroboration for one of our fundamental dogmas -- namely,
that (a) the Sun is the store-house of Vital Force, which is the Noumenon of Electricity; and (b) that it
is from its mysterious, never-to-be-fathomed depths, that issue those life currents which thrill through
Space, as through the organisms of every living thing on Earth. For see what another eminent
physician says, who calls this (our life-fluid) "nervous Ether." Change a few sentences in the article,
extracts from which now follow, and you have another quasi-Occult treatise on Life Force. This once,
it is again Dr. B. W. Richardson, F.R.S., who gives his views in the "Popular Science Review," Vol.
X., p. 380-3, on "Nervous Ether," as he has on "Sun-Force" and "Earth-Force": -"The idea attempted to be conveyed by the theory is, that between the molecules of the
matter, solid or fluid, of which the nervous organisms, and, indeed, of which all the
organic parts of a body are composed, there exists a refined subtle medium, vaporous or
gaseous, which holds the molecules in a condition for motion upon each other, and for
arrangement and rearrangement of form; a medium by and through which all motion is
conveyed; by and through which the one organ or part of the body is held in
communion with the other parts, by which and through which the outer living world
communicates with the living man: a medium, which, being present, enables the
phenomena of life to be demonstrated, and which, being universally absent, leaves the
body actually dead. . . . . ."
And the whole Solar System falls into Pralaya -- the author might have added. But let us read further:
. . . "I use the word Ether in its general sense as meaning a very light, vaporous or
gaseous matter; I use it, in short, as the astronomer uses it when he speaks of the Ether
of Space, by which he means a subtle but material medium. . . . . When I speak of a
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nervous Ether, I do not convey that the ether is existent in nervous structure only: I
believe truly that it is a special part of the nervous organization; but, as nerves pass into
all structures that have capacities for movement and sensibilities, so the nervous ether
passes into all such parts; and as the nervous ether is, according to my view, a direct
product from blood, so we may look upon it as a part of the atmosphere of the blood.

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 532 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

. . . The evidence in favour of the existence of an elastic medium pervading the nervous
matter and capable of being influenced by simple pressure is all-convincing. . . . In
nervous structure there is, unquestionably, a true nervous fluid, as our predecessors
taught* The precise chemical (?)** composition of this fluid is not yet well known; the
physical characters of it have been little studied. Whether it moves in currents, we do
not know; whether it circulates, we do not know; whether it is formed in the centres and
passes from them to the nerves, or whether it is formed everywhere where blood enters
nerve, we do not know. The exact uses of the fluid we do not consequently know. It
occurs to my mind, however, that the veritable fluid of nervous matter is not of itself
sufficient to act as the subtle medium that connects the outer with the inner universe of
man and animal. I think -- and this is the modification I suggest to the older theory -there must be another form of matter present during life; a matter which exists in the
condition of vapour or gas, which pervades the whole nervous organism, surrounds as
an enveloping atmosphere*** each molecule of nervous structure, and is the medium of
all motion, communicated to and from the nervous centres. . . . When it is once fairly
presented to the mind that during life there is in the animal body a finely diffused form
of matter, a vapour filling every part -- and even stored in some parts; a matter
constantly renewed by the vital chemistry; a matter as easily disposed of as the breath,
after it has served its purpose -- a new flood of light breaks on the Intelligence ." . . . .
A new flood of light is certainly thrown on the wisdom of ancient and mediaeval Occultism and its
votaries. For Paracelsus wrote the same thing more than three hundred years ago, namely, in the
sixteenth century, as follows: -"The whole of the Microcosm is potentially contained in the Liquor Vitae, a nerve fluid . . . in which
is contained the nature, quality, character, and essence of beings." . . . (De Generatione Hominis). . . .
"The Archaeus or Liquor Vitae is an essence that is equally distributed in all parts of the human body.
. . . The Spiritus Vitae takes its origin from the Spiritus Mundi. Being an emanation of the latter, it
contains the elements of all cosmic influences, and is therefore the cause by which the action of the
stars (cosmic forces) upon the invisible body of man (his vital lingasharira) may be explained." (De
Viribus Membrorum. See "Life of Paracelsus" by Franz Hartmann, M.D., F.T.S.)
Had Dr. Richardson studied all the secret works of Paracelsus, he would not have been obliged to
confess so often -- "we do not know" . . . . "it is not known to us" . . . . etc., etc. Nor would he have
ever pronounced the following sentence, recanting the best portions of his independent rediscovery, in
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[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* Paracelsus for one, who called it liquor vitae, and Archaeus.
** Rather alchemical -- "composition."
*** "This vital force . . . radiates around man like a luminous sphere" . . . says Paracelsus in
Paragranum.

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 533 PANTHEISM OR MONOTHEISM.

"It may be urged that in this line of thought is included no more than the theory of the
existence of the ether . . . . supposed to pervade space. . . . . It may be said that this
universal ether pervades all the organism of the animal body as from without, and as
part of every organization. This view would be Pantheism physically discovered if it
were true (!!) It fails to be true because it would destroy the individuality of every
individual sense. . . . ."
We fail to see it, and we know it is not so. Pantheism may be "physically rediscovered." It was known,
seen, and felt by the whole of antiquity. Pantheism manifests itself in the vast expanse of the starry
heavens, in the breathing of the seas and oceans and the quiver of life of the smallest blade of grass.
Philosophy rejects one finite and imperfect God in the universe, as the anthropomorphic deity of the
monotheist is represented by his followers. It repudiates in its name of Philo-Theo-Sophia the
grotesque idea that Infinite, Absolute Deity should, or rather could, have any, whether direct or
indirect, relation to finite illusive evolutions of matter, and therefore cannot imagine a universe
outside that Deity, or the latter absent from the smallest speck of animate or inanimate substance.*
Why either the Ether of Space, or "nervous Ether" should "destroy the individuality of every sense"
seems incomprehensible for one acquainted with the real nature of that "nervous ether" under its
Sanskrit, or rather esoteric and Kabalistic name. Dr. Richardson agrees that -"If we did not individually produce the medium of communication between ourselves
and the outer world, if it were produced from without and adapted to one kind of
vibration alone, there were fewer senses required than we possess: for, taking two
illustrations only -- ether of light is not adapted for sound, and yet we hear as well as
see; while air, the medium of motion of sound, is not the medium of light, and yet we
see and hear."
This is not so. The opinion that "Pantheism fails to be true because it would destroy the individuality
of every individual sense" shows that all the conclusions of the learned doctor are based on the
modern physical theories, though he would fain reform them. But he will find it impossible to do this
unless he allows the existence of spiritual senses to replace the gradual atrophy of the physical. "We
see and hear," in accordance (of course in Dr. Richardson's mind) with the explanations of the

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phenomena of sight and hearing, by that same materialistic
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* This does not mean that every bush, tree or stone is God or a god; but only that every speck of the
manifested material of Kosmos belongs to and is the substance of "God," however low it may have
fallen in its cyclic gyration through the Eternities of the ever becoming,; and also that every such
speck individually, and Kosmos collectively, is an aspect and a reminder of that universal One Soul -which philosophy refuses to call God, thus limiting the eternal and ever-present root and essence.

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 534 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

science which postulates that we cannot see and hear otherwise. The Occultists and mystics know
better. The Vedic Aryans were as familiar with the mysteries of sound and colour as our physiologists
are on the physical plane, but they had mastered the secrets of both on planes inaccessible to the
materialist. They knew of a double set of senses; spiritual and material. In a man who is deprived of
one or more senses, the remaining become the more developed: e.g., the blind man will recover his
sight through the senses of touch, of hearing, etc., and he who is deaf will be able to hear through
sight, by seeing audibly the words uttered by the lips and mouth of the speaker. But these are cases
that belong to the world of matter still. The spiritual senses, those that act on a higher plane of
consciousness are rejected a priori by physiology because the latter is ignorant of the sacred science.
It limits the action of ether to vibrations, and, dividing it from air -- though air is simply differentiated
and compound ether -- makes it assume functions to fit in with the special theories of the physiologist.
But there is more real science in the teachings of the Upanishads when these are correctly understood,
than the Orientalists, who do not understand them at all, are ready to admit. Mental as well as physical
correlations of the seven senses (seven on the physical and seven on the mental planes) are clearly
explained and defined in the Vedas, and especially in the Upanishad called Anugita: "The
indestructible and the destructible, such is the double manifestation of the Self. Of these the
indestructible is the existent (the true essence or nature of Self, the underlying principles). The
manifestation as an individual (or entity) is called the destructible." Thus speaks the ASCETIC in
Anugita; and also: "Every one who is twice-born (initiated) knows such is the teaching of the ancients.
. . . . Space is the first entity. . . . . Now Space (Akasa, or the noumenon of Ether) has one quality . . .
and that is sound only . . . and the qualities of sound are Shadga, Rishabha, Gandhara, Madhyama,
Panchama, and beyond these five Nishada and Dhaivata"; (the Hindu gamut). These seven notes of
the scale are the principles of sound. (Vide ch. xxxvi. of Anugita.) The qualities of every Element, as
of every sense, are septenary, and to judge and dogmatize on them from their manifestation (likewise
sevenfold in itself) on the material or objective plane above is quite arbitrary. For it is only by the
SELF emancipating itself from these (seven) causes of illusion that one acquires the knowledge
(secret wisdom) of the qualities of objects of sense on their dual plane of manifestation -- the visible
and the invisible. Thus it is said: -"State this wonderful mystery . . . . . Hear the assignment of causes exhaustively. The nose, and the
tongue, and the eye, and the

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[[Vol. 1, Page]] 535 THE SEVEN PHYSICAL SENSES.

skin, and the ear as the fifth (organ of sense) Mind and Understanding,* these seven (senses) should
be understood to be the causes of (the knowledge of their) qualities. Smell, and taste, and colour,
sound, and touch as the fifth, the object of the mental operation, and the object of the Understanding
(the highest spiritual sense or perception), these seven are causes of action. He who smells, he who
eats, he who sees, he who speaks, and he who hears as the fifth, he who thinks, and he who
understands, these seven should be regarded as the causes of the agents.** These (the agents) being
possessed of qualities (sattwa, rajas, tamas), enjoy their own qualities, agreeable and disagreeable"
(Anugita).
Then one reads in the Bhagavadgita (chap. vii.) the Deity (or Krishna) saying: -". . . . Only some know me truly. Earth, Water, Fire, Air, Space (or Akasa, AEther), Mind,
Understanding and Egoism (or the perception of all the former on the illusive plane). . . This is a
lower form of my nature. Know (that there is) another (form of my) nature, and higher than this,
which is animate, O you of mighty arms! and by which this Universe is upheld. . . . All this is woven
upon me, like numbers of pearls upon a thread (Mundakopanishad, p. 298). . . . I am the taste in the
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* The division of the physical senses into five, comes to us from great antiquity. But while adopting
the number, no modern philosopher has asked himself how these senses could exist, i.e., be perceived
and used in a self-conscious way, unless there was the sixth sense, mental perception to register and
record them; and (this for the Metaphysicians and Occultists) the SEVENTH to preserve the spiritual
fruition and remembrance thereof, as in a Book of Life which belongs to Karma. The ancients divided
the senses into five, simply because their teachers (the Initiates) stopped at the hearing, as being that
sense which developed in the physical plane (got dwarfed rather, limited to this plane) only at the
beginning of the Fifth Race. (The Fourth Race already had begun to lose the spiritual condition, so
pre-eminently developed in the Third Race.)
** The modern commentators, failing to comprehend the subtle meaning of the ancient Scholiasts,
take this sentence, "causes of the agents," to mean "that the powers of smelling, etc., when attri buted
to the Self, make him appear as an agent, as an active principle" (!), which is entirely fanciful. These
"seven" are understood to be the causes of the Agents, because "the objects are causes, as their
enjoyment causes an impression." It means esoterically that they, these seven senses, are caused by
the AGENTS, which are the "deities," for what does, or can, the sentence which follows this one
mean? "Thus," it is said, "these seven (senses) are the causes of emancipation" (i.e., when these causes
are made ineffectual). "And among the learned (the wise Initiates) who understand the qualities which
are in the position (in the nature, rather) of the deities, each in its place," means simply that the
"learned" understand the nature of the noumenoi of the various phenomena; and that "qualities," in
this instance, mean the qualities of the high planetary or Elementary gods or Intelligences, which rule
the elements and their products, and not at all "the senses," as the modern commentator thinks. For the
"learned do not suppose their senses to have aught to do with them, any more than with their SELF."
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(Vide pp. 278 and 279 of the VIII. Vol. of "The Sacred Books of the East." Anugita.)

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 536 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

water, O son of Kunti! I am the light of the sun and moon. I am . . . sound ('i.e., the Occult essence
which underlies all these and the other qualities of the various things mentioned,' Transl.), in space . . .
the fragrant smell in the earth, refulgence in the fire . . . etc., etc."
Truly, then, one should study Occult philosophy before one begins to verify and seek the mysteries of
nature on its surface alone, as he alone "who knows the truth about the qualities of nature, who
understands the creation of all entities . . . is emancipated" from error. Says the "preceptor":
"Accurately understanding the great tree of which the unperceived (Occult nature, the root of all) is
the sprout from the seed (Parabrahmam) which consists of the understanding (Mahat, or the universal
intelligent Soul) as its trunk, the branches of which are the great egoism,* in the holes of which are
the sprouts, namely, the senses, of which the great (Occult, or invisible) elements are the flowerbunches,** the gross elements (the gross objective matter), the smaller boughs, which are always
possessed of leaves, always possessed of flowers . . . . which is eternal and the seed of which is the
Brahman (the deity); and cutting it with that excellent sword -- knowledge (secret wisdom) -- one
attains immortality and casts off birth and death."
This is the Tree of Life, the Asvattha tree, only after the cutting of which the slave of life and death,
MAN, can be emancipated.
But the men of Science know nought, nor will they hear of the "Sword of Knowledge" used by the
adepts and ascetics. Hence the one-sided remarks of the most liberal among them, based on and
flowing from undue importance given to the arbitrary divisions and classification of physical science.
Occultism heeds them very little, and nature still less. The whole range of physical phenomena
proceed from the Primary of Ether -- Akasa, as dual-natured Akasa proceeds from undifferentiated
Chaos, so-called, the latter being the primary aspect of Mulaprakriti, the root-matter and the first
abstract Idea one can form of Parabrahmam. Modern Science may divide its hypothetically conceived
ether in as many ways as it likes; the real AEther of Space will remain as it is throughout. It has its
seven principles, as all the rest of nature has, and where there was no Ether there would be no sound,
as it is the vibrating sound-board in nature in all of its seven differentiations. This is the first mystery
the Initiates of old have learned. Our present normal physical senses were (from our present point of
view) abnormal in those days of slow and progressive downward evolution and fall into matter. And
there was a day when all that which in our modern times is regarded as phenomena, so puzzling to the
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* Ahamkara, I suppose, that Egoship (or Ahamship) which leads to every error.
** The elements are the five tanmatras of earth, water, fire, air and ether, the producers of the grosser
elements.

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[[Vol. 1, Page]] 537 WHAT IS NERVOUS ETHER?

physiologists now compelled to believe in them -- such as thought transference, clairvoyance,
clairaudience, etc.; in short, all that which is called now "wonderful and abnormal" -- all that and
much more belonged to the senses and faculties common to all humanity. We are, however, cycling
back and cycling forward; i.e., having lost in spirituality that which we acquired in physical
development until almost the end of the Fourth Race, we (mankind) are as gradually and
imperceptibly losing now in the physical all that we regain once more in the spiritual re-evolution.
This process must go on until the period which will bring the Sixth Root-Race on a parallel line with
the spirituality of the Second, long extinct mankind.
But this will hardly be understood at present. We must return to Dr. Richardson's hopeful though
somewhat incorrect hypothesis about "nervous ether." Under the misleading translation of the word as
"Space" (Akasa), it has just been shown in the ancient Hindu system as the "first born" of the One,
having but one quality, SOUND (which is septenary). In esoteric language this "One" is the "Father"
Deity, and "Sound" is synonymous with Logos (Verbum, or the Son). Whether consciously or
otherwise, it must be the latter; and Dr. Richardson, while preaching an Occult doctrine -- chooses the
lowest form of the septenary nature of that "SOUND" and speculates upon it, adding: -"The theory, I offer, is that the nervous Ether is an animal product. In different classes
of animals it may differ in physical quality so as to be adapted to the special wants of
the animal, but essentially it plays one part in all animals, and is produced, in all, in the
same way. . . ."
Herein lies the nucleus of error leading to all the resultant mistaken views. This "Nervous Ether" is the
lowest principle of the Primordial Essence which is Life. It is animal vitality diffused in all nature and
acting according to the conditions it finds for its activity. It is not an "animal product," but the living
animal, the living flower or plant are its products. The animal tissues only absorb it according to their
more or less morbid or healthy state -- as do physical materials and structures (in their primogenial
State -- nota bene) -- and henceforward, from the moment of the birth of the Entity, are regulated,
streng thened, and fed by it. It descends in a larger supply to vegetation in the Sushumna sun-ray which
lights and feeds the moon, and it is through her beams that it pours its light upon, and penetrates man
and animal, more during their sleep and rest, than when they are in full activity. Therefore Dr.
Richardson errs again in stating that: -"The nervous ether is not, according to my idea of it, in itself active, nor an excitant of
animal motion in the sense of a force; but it is essential as supplying the conditions by
which the motion is rendered possible." (It is just the reverse.) . . . . "It is the conductor
of all vibrations of heat, of light, of sound, of electrical action, of mechanical

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friction.* It holds the nervous system throughout in perfect tension, during states of life
(true). By exercise it is disposed of (rather generated) . . . and when demand for it is
greater than the supply, its deficiency is indicated by nervous collapse or exhaustion.**
It accumulates in the nervous centres during sleep, bringing them, if I may so speak, to
their due tone, and therewith raising the muscles to awakening and renewed life. . . ."
Just so; this is quite correct, and as comprehensible. Therefore, "The body fully renewed by it,
presents capacity for motion, fulness of form, life. The body bereft of it presents inertia, the
configuration of shrunken death, the evidence of having lost something physical that was in it when it
lived."
Modern Science denies the existence of a "vital principle." This extract is a clear proof of its grand
mistake. But this "physical something," that we call life-fluid -- the Liquor Vitae of Paracelsus -- has
not deserted the body, as Dr. Richardson thinks. It has only changed its state from activity to
passivity, and become latent owing to the too morbid state of the tissues, on which it has no more
hold. Once the rigor mortis absolute, the "Liquor Vitae" will re-awaken into action, and begin its work
on the atoms chemically. Brahma-Vishnu -- the creator and the Preserver of Life -- will have
transformed himself into Siva the Destroyer.
Lastly he writes on p. 387: -"The nervous Ether may be poisoned; it may, I mean, have diffused through it, by simple gaseous
diffusion, other gases or vapours derived from without; it may derive from within products of
substances swallowed and ingested, or gases of decomposition produced during disease in the body
itself."
And the learned gentleman might have added on the same Occult principle: "That the 'nervous Ether'
of one person can be poisoned by the 'nervous Ether' of another person or his auric emanations. But
see what Paracelsus said of 'Nervous Ether'": -"The Archaeus is of a magnetic nature, and attracts or repels other sympathetic or antipa thetic forces
belonging to the same plane. The less power of resistance for astral influences a person possesses, the
more will he be subject to such influences. The vital force is not enclosed in man, but radiates (within)
and around him like a luminous sphere (aura) and it may be made to act at a distance. . . . It may
poison the essence of life (blood) and cause diseases, or it may purify it after
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* The conductor in the sense of Upadhi -- a material or physical basis; but, as the second principle of
the universal Soul and Vital Force in Nature, it is intelligently guided by the fifth principle thereof.
** And too great an exuberance of it in the nervous system leads as often to disease and death. If it
were the animal system which generated it, such would not be the case, surely. Hence, the latter
emergency shows its independence of the system, and connection with the Sun-Force, as Metcalfe and
Professor Hunt explain it.
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[[Vol. 1, Page]] 539 THE LIFE-PRINCIPLE.

it has been made impure, and restore the health" (Paragranum; "Life of Paracelsus," by Dr. F.
Hartmann.)
That the two, Archaeus and "nervous Ether," are identical, is shown by the English Scientist, who says
that the tension of it generally may be too high or too low; that it may be so "owing to local changes
in the nervous matter it invests." . . . "Under sharp excitation it may vibrate as if in a storm and plunge
every muscle under cerebral or spinal control into uncontrolled motion --unconscious convulsions."
This is called nervous excitation, but no one, except Occultists, knows the reason of such nervous
perturbation or explains the primary causes of it. The "principle of Life" may kill when too exuberant,
as also when there is too little of it. But this principle on the manifested (or our) plane is but the effect
and the result of the intelligent action of the "Host" -- collectively, Principle -- the manifesting LIFE
and LIGHT. It is itself subordinate to, and emanates from the ever-invisible, eternal and Absolute
ONE LIFE in a descending and a re-ascending scale of hierarchic degrees -- a true septenary ladder,
with SOUND (or the Logos) at the upper end and the Vidyadharas* (the inferior Pitris) at the lower.
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* In a recent work on the Symbolism in Buddhism and Christianity (in Buddhism and Roman
Catholicism, rather, many later rituals and dogmas in Northern Buddhism in its popular exoteric form,
being identical with those of the Latin Church) some curious facts are to be found. The author of this
volume, with more pretensions than erudition, has indiscriminately crammed into his work ancient
and modern Buddhist teachings, and sorely confused Lamaism with Buddhism. On page 404 of this
volume, called "Buddhism in Christendom, or Jesus the Essene," our pseudo-Orientalist devotes
himself to criticizing the "Seven Principles" of the Esoteric Buddhists, and attempts to ridicule them.
On page 405, the closing page, he speaks enthusiastically of the Vidyadharas, "the seven great legions
of dead men made wise." Now, these "Vidyadharas," whom some Orientalists call "demi-gods," are in
fact, exoterically, a kind of Siddhas, "affluent in devotion," and, esoterically, they are identical with
the seven classes of Pitris, one class of which endow man in the Third Race with Self-Consciousness
by incarnating in the human shells. The "Hymn to the Sun," at the end of his queer volume of mosaic,
which endows Buddhism with a personal god (!!), is an unfortunate thrust at the very proofs so
elaborately collected by the unlucky author.
Theosophists are fully aware that Mr. Rhys Davids has expressed his opinion on their beliefs likewise.
He said that the theories propounded by the author of Esoteric Buddhism "were not Buddhism, and
were not Esoteric." The remark is the result of (a) the unfortunate mistake of writing "Buddhism"
instead of "Budhaism," or Budhism, i.e., of connecting the system with Gautama's religion instead of
with the Secret Wisdom taught by Krishna, Sankaracharya, and by many others, as much as by
Buddha; and (b) of the impossibility of Mr. Rhys Davids knowing anything of true esoteric teachings.
But he is, at all events, the greatest Pali and Buddhist scholar of the day, and whatever he may say is
entitled to respectful hearing. But when one who knows no more of exoteric Buddhism on scientific
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and materialistic lines, than he knows of esoteric philosophy, defames those whom he honours with
his spite, and assumes with the Theosophists the airs of a profound scholar, one can only smile and -heartily laugh at him.

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 540 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

Of course, the Occultists are fully aware of the fact that the Vitalist "fallacy," so derided by Vogt and
Huxley, is, nevertheless, still countenanced in very high scientific quarters, and, therefore, they are
happy to feel that they do not stand alone. Thus, Professor de Quatrefages writes: -"It is very true we do not know what life is; but no more do we know what the force is that set the
stars in motion. . . . . Living beings are heavy, and therefore subject to gravitation; they are the seat of
numerous and various physico-chemical phenomena which are indispensable to their existence, and
which must be referred to the action of etherodynamy (electricity, heat, etc.). But these phenomena
are here manifested under the influence of another force. . . . . Life is not antagonistic to the inanimate
forces, but it governs and rules their action by its laws."*
-------------[[This page continued in next section]]
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* "The Human Species," p. 11.

Next Section
Contents

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

Theosophical University Press Online Edition

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 540 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

[[This page continued from previous section]]
------IX.
THE SOLAR THEORY.
A SHORT ANALYSIS OF THE COMPOUND AND SINGLE ELEMENTS OF SCIENCE AS
AGAINST THE OCCULT TEACHINGS. HOW FAR SCIENTIFIC IS THIS THEORY, AS
GENERALLY ACCEPTED.
IN his reply to Dr. Gull's attack on the theory of vitality (connected inseparably with the Elements of
the ancients in the Occult philosophy), Professor Beale, the great physiologist, has a few words as
suggestive as they are beautiful: -"There is a mystery in life -- a mystery which has never been fathomed, and which appears greater, the
more deeply the phenomena of life are studied and contemplated. In living centres -- far more central
than the centres seen by the highest magnifying powers, in centres of living matter, where the eye
cannot penetrate, but towards which the understanding may tend -- proceed changes of the nature of
which the most advanced physicists and chemists fail to afford us the conception: nor is there the
slightest reason to think that the nature of these changes will ever be ascertained by physical
investigation, inasmuch as they are certainly of an order or nature totally distinct from that to which
any other phenomenon known to us can be relegated."
This "mystery," or the origin of the LIFE ESSENCE, Occultism locates in the same centre as the
nucleus of prima materia (for they are one) of our Solar system.

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 541 THE HEART OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM.

"The Sun is the heart of the Solar World (System) and its brain is hidden behind the (visible) Sun.
From thence, sensation is radiated into every nerve-centre of the great body, and the waves of the lifeessence flow into each artery and vein. . . . The planets are its limbs and pulses. . . ." (Commentary.)
It was stated elsewhere (in the Theosophist) that Occult philosophy denies that the Sun is a globe in
combustion, but defines it simply as a world, a glowing sphere, the real Sun being hidden behind, and
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the visible being only its reflection, its shell. The Nasmyth willow leaves, mistaken by Sir J. Herschell
for "Solar inhabitants," are the reservoirs of solar vital energy, "the vital electricity that feeds the
whole system. . . . . The Sun in abscondito being thus the storehouse of our little Kosmos, selfgenerating its vital fluid, and ever receiving as much as it gives out," and the visible Sun only a
window cut into the real Solar palace and presence, which reflects, however, faithfully the interior
work.
Thus, there is a regular circulation of the vital fluid throughout our system, of which the Sun is the
heart -- the same as the circulation of the blood in the human body -- during the manvantaric solar
period, or life; the Sun contracting as rhythmically at every return of it, as the human heart does. Only,
instead of performing the round in a second or so, it takes the solar blood ten of its years, and a whole
year to pass through its auricles and ventricles before it washes the lungs and passes thence to the
great veins and arteries of the system.
This, Science will not deny, since Astronomy knows of the fixed cycle of eleven years when the
number of solar spots increases,* which is due to the contraction of the Solar HEART. The universe
(our world in this case) breathes, just as man and every living creature, plant, and even mineral does
upon the earth; and as our globe itself breathes every twenty-four hours. The dark region is not due "to
the absorption exerted by the vapours issuing from the bosom of the sun and interposed between the
observer and the photosphere," as Father Secchi would have it ("Le Soleil" II., 184), nor are the spots
formed "by the matter (heated gaseous matter) which the irruption projects upon the solar disc" (ibid).
It is similar to the regular and healthy pulsation of the heart, as the life fluid passes through its hollow
muscles. Could the human heart be made luminous, and the living and throbbing organ be made
visible, so as to have it reflected upon a screen, such as
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* Not only does it not deny the occurrence, though attri buting it to a wrong cause, as always, each
theory contradicting every other, (see the theories of Secchi, of Faye, and of Young), the spots
depending on the superficial accumulation of vapours cooler than the photosphere (?), etc., etc., but
we have men of science who astrologize upon the spots. Professor Jevons attri butes all the great
periodical commercial crises to the influence of the Sun spots every eleventh cyclic year. (See his
"Investigations into Currency and Finance.") This is worthy of praise and encouragement surely.

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 542 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

used by the astronomers in their lectures -- say for the moon -- then every one would see the Sun-spot
phenomenon repeated every second -- due to its contraction and the rushing of the blood.
It is said in a work on Geology that it is the dream of Science that "all the recognized chemical
elements will one day be found but modifications of a single material element." ("World-Life," p. 48.)
Occult philosophy has taught this since the existence of human speech and languages, adding only, on
the principle of the immutable law of analogy -- "as it is above, so it is below" -- that other axiom, that
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there is neither Spirit nor matter, in reality, but only numberless aspects of the One ever-hidden IS (or
Sat). The homogeneous primordial Element is simple and single only on the terrestrial plane of
consciousness and sensation, since matter, after all, is nothing else than the sequence of our own states
of consciousness, and Spirit an idea of psychic intuition. Even on the next higher plane, that single
element which is defined on our earth by current science, as the ultimate undecomposable constituent
of some kind of matter, would be pronounced in the world of a higher spiritual perception as
something very complex indeed. Our purest water would be found to yield, instead of its two declared
simple elements of oxygen and hydrogen, many other constituents, undreamt of by our terrestrial
modern chemistry. As in the realm of matter, so in the realm of Spirit, the shadow of that which is
cognized on the plane of objectivity exists on that of pure subjectivity. The speck of the perfectly
homogeneous substance, the sarcode of the Haeckelian monera, is now viewed as the archebiosis of
terrestrial existence (Mr. Huxley's "protoplasm")*; and Bathybius Haeckelii has to be traced to its preterrestrial archebiosis. This is first perceived by the astronomers at its third stage of evolution, and in
the "secondary creation," so-called. But the students of Esoteric philosophy understand too well the
secret meaning of the stanza: "Brahma has essentially the aspect of prakriti, both evolved and
unevolved . . . . Spirit, O twice-born, (Initiate) is the leading aspect of Brahma. The next is a two-fold
aspect -- of Prakriti and Purusha, both evolved and unevolved; and time is the last! Anu is one of the
names of Brahma (as distinct from Brahma neuter), and it means "atom": Aniyamsam aniyasam, "the
most atomic of the atomic," the "immutable and imperishable (achyuta) Purushottama."
Surely, then, the elements now known to us -- be their number whatever it may -- as they are
understood and defined at present, are not,
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* Unfortunately, as these pages are being written the "archebiosis of terrestrial existence" has turned,
under a somewhat stricter chemical analysis, into a simple precipitate of sulphate of lime -- hence
from the scientific standpoint not even an organic substance!!! Sic transit gloria mundi!

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 543 THE QUINTESSENCE OF KOSMOS.

nor can they be, the primordial elements. Those were formed from "the curds of the cold radiant
mother" and "the fire-seed of the hot Father" who "are one," or, to express it in the plainer language of
modern science, those elements had their genesis in the depths of the primordial fire-mist -- the masses
of incandescent vapour of the irresolvable nebulae; for as Professor Newcomb shows (in his "Popular
Astronomy," on page 444), resolvable nebulae are not a class of proper nebulae.
More than half of those which were at first mistaken for nebulae -- he thinks -- are what he calls
"starry clusters." The elements now known, have arrived at their state of permanency in this 4th
Round and 5th Race. They have a short period of rest before they are propelled once more on their
upward spiritual evolution; when the "living fire of Orcus" will dissociate the most irresolvable and
scatter them into the primordial ONE -- again.
Meanwhile the Occultist goes further, as has been shown in the Commentaries on the Seven Stanzas.
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Hence he can hardly hope for any help or recognition from science, which will reject both his
"aniyamsam aniyasam" (the absolutely spiritual atom) and his Manasaputras -- "mind-born men." By
resolving the "single material element" into one absolute irresolvable element -- Spirit, or "Rootmatter," thus placing it at once outside the reach and province of physical philosophy -- he has, of
course but little in common with the orthodox men of science. He maintains that Spirit and Matter are
two FACETS of the unknowable UNITY, their apparently contrasted aspects depending, (a) on the
various degrees of differentiation of the latter, and (b) on the grades of consciousness attained by man
himself. This is, however, metaphysics, and has little to do with physics -- however great in its own
terrestrial limitation that physical philosophy may now be.
Nevertheless, once that Science admits, if not the actual existence, at any rate, the possibility of the
existence, of a Universe with its numberless forms, conditions, and aspects built out of a "single
Substance,"* it has
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* In his "World-Life" -- page 48 -- in the appended foot notes, Professor Winchell says: -- "It is
generally admitted that at excessively high temperatures matter exists in a state of dissociation -- that
is, no chemical combination can exist;" and would appeal, to prove the unity of matter, to the
spectrum, which in every case of homogeneity will show a bright line, whereas in the case of several
molecular arrangements existing -- in the nebulae say, or a star -- "the spectrum should consist of two
or three bright lines!" This would be no proof either way to the physicist-Occultist, who maintains that
beyond a certain limit of visible matter, no spectrum, no telescope and no microscope are of any use.
The unity of matter, of that which is real cosmic matter to the Alchemist, or "Adam's Earth" as the
Kabalists call it, can hardly be proved or disproved, by either the French savant Dumas, who suggests
"the composite nature of the "elements" on certain relations of atomic weights," or even by Mr.
Crookes's "radiant matter," though his experiments may seem [[Footnote continued on next page]]

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 544 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

to go further. Unless it also admits the possibility of One Element, or the ONE LIFE of the Occultists.
It will have to hang up that "single substance," especially if limited to only the solar nebulae, like the
coffin of Mahomet, in mid air, though minus the attractive magnet that sustains that coffin.
Fortunately for the speculative physicists, if unable to state with any degree of precision what the
nebular theory does imply, we have, thanks to Professor Winchell, and several disagreeing
astronomers, been able to learn what it does not imply.* (Vide Supra.)
Unfortunately, this is far from clearing even the most simple of the problems that have vexed, and still
do vex, the men of learning in their research after truth. We have to proceed with our inquiries,
starting with the earliest hypotheses of modern science, if we would discover where and why it sins.
Perchance it may be found that Stallo is right, after all. That the blunders, contradictions, and fallacies
made by the most eminent men of learning are simply due to their abnormal attitude. They are, and
want to remain materialistic quand meme, and yet "the general principles of the atomo-mechanical
theory -- the basis of modern physics -- are substantially identical with the cardinal doctrines of
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ontological metaphysics." Thus, "the fundamental errors of ontology become apparent in proportion to
the advance of physical Science." (Int. p. VI., "Concepts of Modern Physics.") Science is
honeycombed with metaphysical conceptions, but the Scientists will not admit the charge and fight
desperately to put atomo-mechanical masks on purely incorporeal and spiritual laws in nature, on our
plane -- refusing to admit their substantiality even on other planes, the bare existence of which they
reject a priori.
It is easy to show, however, how Scientists, wedded to their materialistic views, have endeavoured,
ever since the day of Newton, to put false masks on fact and truth. But their task is becoming with
every year more difficult; and with every year also, Chemistry, above all the other sciences,
approaches nearer and nearer the realm of the Occult in nature. It is assimilating the very truths taught
by the Occult Sciences
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

[[Footnote continued from previous page]] "to be best understood on the hypothesis of the
homogeneity of the elements of matter, and the continuity of the states of matter." For all this does not
go beyond MATERIAL matter, so to say, even in what is shown by the spectrum, that modern "eye of
Siva" of physical experiments. It is of this matter only, that H. St. Claire Deville could say that "when
bodies, deemed to be simple, combine with one another, they vanish, they are individually
annihilated"; simply because he could not follow those bodies in their further transformation in the
world of spiritual cosmic matter. Verily modern science will never be able to dig deep enough into the
cosmological formations to find the roots of the world-stuff or matter, unless she works on the same
lines of thought as the medieval alchemist did.
* "World-Life," Ibid.

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 545 THE ORIGINAL BASE.

for ages, but hitherto bitterly derided. "Matter is eternal," says the Esoteric Doctrine. But the matter
the Occultists conceive of in its laya, or zero state, is not the matter of modern science; not even in its
most rarefied gaseous state. Mr. Crookes' "radiant matter" would appear matter of the grossest kind in
the realm of the beginnings, as it becomes pure spirit before it has returned back even to its first point
of differentiation. Therefore, when the adept or alchemist adds that, though matter is eternal, for it is
PRADHANA, yet atoms are born at every new manvantara, or reconstruction of the universe, it is no
such contradiction as a materialist, who believes in nothing beyond the atom, might think. There is a
difference between manifested and unmanifested matter, between pradhana, the beginningless and
endless cause, and prakriti, or the manifested effect. Says the sloka; -"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, and is not, a
mere process."*
That which in modern phraseology is respectively referred to as Spirit and Matter, is ONE in eternity
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as the perpetual cause, and it is neither Spirit nor matter, but IT -- rendered in Sanskrit TAD ("that"), -all that is, was, or will be, all that the imagination of man is capable of conceiving. Even the exoteric
Pantheism of Hinduism renders it as no monotheistic philosophy ever did, for in superb phraseology
its cosmogony begins with the well-known words: -"There was neither day nor night, neither heaven nor earth, neither darkness nor light. And there was
not ought else apprehensible by the senses or by the mental faculties. There was then one Brahma,
essentially prakriti (Nature) and Spirit. For the two aspects of Vishnu which are other than his
supreme essential aspect are prakriti and Spirit, and Brahman. When these two other ASPECTS of his
no longer subsist, but are dissolved, then that aspect whence form and the rest, i.e., creation, proceed
anew, is denominated time, O twice-born."
It is that which is dissolved, or the illusionary dual aspect of That, the essence of which is eternally
ONE, that we call eternal matter or Substance (Vide in Part II., "Primordial Substance and Divine
Thought"), formless, sexless, inconceivable, even to our sixth sense or mind,** in which, therefore, we
refuse to see that which Monotheists call a personal, anthropomorphic God.
How are these two propositions -- "that matter is eternal," and "the atom periodical, and not eternal" -viewed by modern exact Science? The materialistic physicist will criticize and laugh them to scorn.
The
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* Book I. ch. II. Vishnu Purana, Fitzedward Hall's Translation.
** Vide preceding Section IX., "Life, Force, and Gravity," quotation from Anugita.

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 546 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

liberal and progressive man of Science, however, the true and earnest scientific searcher after truth -e.g., the eminent chemist, Mr. Crookes, will corroborate the probability of the two statements. For,
hardly has the echo of his lecture on the "Genesis of the Elements" died away --the lecture which,
delivered by him before the Chemical Section of the British Association, at the last Birmingham
meeting, so startled every evolutionist who heard or read it -- than there came another one in March
last, 1888. Once more the President of the Chemical Society brings before the world of Science and
the public the fruits of some new discoveries in the realm of atoms, and these discoveries justify the
occult teachings in every way. They are more startling even than the statements made by him in the
first lecture (quoted later) and deserve well the attention of every Occultist, Theosophist, and
Metaphysician. This is what he says in his "Elements and Meta-Elements," thus justifying Stallo's
charges and prevision with the fearlessness of a scientific mind which loves science for truth's sake,
regardless of any consequences to his own glory and reputation. We quote his own words:
Permit me, gentlemen, now to draw your attention for a short time to a subject which
concerns the fundamental principles of chemistry, a subject which may lead us to admit
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the possible existence of bodies which, though neither compounds nor mixtures, are not
elements in the strictest sense of the word -- bodies which I venture to call "metaelements." To explain my meaning it is necessary for me to revert to our conception of
an element. What is the criterion of an element? Where are we to draw the line between
distinct existence and identity? No one doubts that oxygen, sodium, chlorine, sulphur
are separate elements; and when we come to such groups as chlorine, bromine, iodine,
&c., we still feel no doubt, although were degrees of "elementicity" admissible -- and to
that we may ultimately have to come -- it might be allowed that chlorine approximates
much more closely to bromine than to oxygen, sodium, or sulphur. Again, nickel and
cobalt are near to each other, very near, though no one questions their claim to rank as
distinct elements. Still I cannot help asking what would have been the prevalent opinion
among chemists had the respective solutions of these bodies and their compounds
presented identical colours, instead of colours which, approximately speaking, are
mutually complementary. Would their distinct nature have even now been recognised?
When we pass further and come to the so-called rare earths the ground is less secure
under our feet. Perhaps we may admit scandium, ytterbium, and others of the like sort to
elemental rank; but what are we to say in the case of praseo- and neo-dymium, between
which there may be said to exist no well-marked chemical difference, their chief claim
to separate individuality being slight differences in basicity and crystallizing powers,
though their physical distinctions, as shown by spectrum observations, are very strongly
marked? Even here we may imagine the disposition of the majority of chemists would
incline toward the side of leniency, so that they would admit these two bodies within the
charmed circle. Whether in so doing they would be able to appeal to any broad principle
is an open question. If we admit these candidates

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 547 OCCULT CHEMISTRY.

how in justice are we to exclude the series of elemental bodies or meta-elements made
known to us by Kruss and Nilson? Here the spectral differences are well marked, while
my own researches on didymium show also a slight difference in basicity between some
at least of these doubtful bodies. In the same category must be included the numerous
separate bodies into which it is probable that yttrium, erbium, samarium, and other
"elements" -- commonly so-called -- have been and are being split up. Where then are
we to draw the line? The different groupings shade off so imperceptibly the one into the
other that it is impossible to erect a definite boundary between any two adjacent bodies
and to say that the body on this side of the line is an element, while the one on the other
side is non-elementary, or merely something which simulates or approximates to an
element. Wherever an apparently reasonable line might be drawn it would no doubt be
easy at once to assign most bodies to their proper side, as in all cases of classification
the real difficulty comes in when the border-line is approached. Slight chemical
differences, of course, are admitted, and, up to a certain point, so are well-marked
physical differences. What are we to say, however, when the only chemical difference is
an almost imperceptible tendency for the one body -- of a couple or of a group -- to
precipitate before the other? Again, there are cases where the chemical differences reach
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the vanishing point, although well-marked physical differences still remain. Here we
stumble on a new difficulty: in such obscurities what is chemical and what is physical?
Are we not entitled to call a slight tendency of a nascent amorphous precipitate to fall
down in advance of another a "physical difference?" And may we not call coloured
reactions depending on the amount of some particular acid present and varying,
according to the concentration of the solution and to the solvent employed, "chemical
differences?" I do not see how we can deny elementary character to a body which
differs from another by well-marked colour, or spectrum-reactions, while we accord it
to another body whose only claim is a very minute difference in basic powers. Having
once opened the door wide enough to admit some spectrum differences, we have to
inquire how minute a difference qualifies the candidate to pass? I will give instances
from my own experience of some of these doubtful candidates.
And here the great chemist gives several cases of the very extraordinary behaviour of molecules and
earths, apparently the same, and which yet, when examined very closely, were found to exhibit
differences which, however imperceptible, still show that none of them are simple bodies, and that the
60 or 70 elements accepted in chemistry, can no longer cover the ground. Their name, apparently, is
legion, but as the so-called "periodic theory" stands in the way of an unlimited multiplication of
elements, Mr. Crookes is obliged to find some means of reconciling the new discovery with the old
theory. "That theory," he says: -"Has received such abundant verification that we cannot lightly accept any
interpretation of phenomena which fails to be in accordance with it. But if we suppose
the elements reinforced by a vast number of bodies slightly differing from each other in
their properties, and forming, if I may use the expression,

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 548 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

aggregations of nebulae where we formerly saw, or believed we saw, separate stars, the
periodic arrangement can no longer be definitely grasped. No longer, that is, if we retain
our usual conception of an element. Let us, then, modify this conception. For "element"
read "elementary group" -- such elementary groups taking the place of the old elements
in the periodic scheme -- and the difficulty falls away. In defining an element, let us
take not an external boundary, but an internal type. Let us say, e.g., the smallest
ponderable quantity of yttrium is an assemblage of ultimate atoms almost infinitely
more like each other than they are to the atoms of any other approximating element. It
does not necessarily follow that the atoms shall all be absolutely alike among
themselves. The atomic weight which we ascribed to yttrium, therefore, merely
represents a mean value around which the actual weights of the individual atoms of the
"element" range within certain limits. But if my conjecture is tenable, could we separate
atom from atom, we should find them varying within narrow limits on each side of the
mean. The very process of fractionation implies the existence of such differences in
certain bodies."

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Thus fact and truth have once more forced the hand of "exact" Science, and compelled it to enlarge its
views and change its terms which, masking the multitude, reduced them to one body -- like the
Septenary Elohim and their hosts transformed by the materialistic religionists into one Jehovah.
Replace the chemical terms "Molecule," "atom," "particle," etc., by the words "Hosts," "Monads,"
"Devas," etc., and one might think the genesis of gods, the primeval evolution of manvantaric
intelligent Forces, was being described. But the learned lecturer adds something still more suggestive
to his descriptive remarks; whether consciously or unconsciously, who knoweth? For he says the
following: -"Until lately such bodies passed muster as elements. They had definite properties,
chemical and physical; they had recognised atomic weights. If we take a pure dilute
solution of such a body, yttrium for instance, and if we add to it an excess of strong
ammonia, we obtain a precipitate which appears perfectly homogeneous. But if instead
we add very dilute ammonia in quantity sufficient only to precipitate one-half of the
base present, we obtain no immediate precipitate. If we stir up the whole thoroughly so
as to insure a uniform mixture of the solution and the ammonia, and set the vessel aside
for an hour, carefully excluding dust, we may still find the liquid clear and bright,
without any vestige of turbidity. After three or four hours, however, an opalescence will
declare itself, and the next morning a precipitate will have appeared. Now let us ask
ourselves, What can be the meaning of this phenomenon? The quantity of precipitant
added was insufficient to throw down more than half the yttria present, therefore a
process akin to selection has been going on for several hours. The precipitation has
evidently not been effected at random, those molecules of the base being decomposed
which happened to come in contact with a corresponding molecule of ammonia, for we
have taken care that the liquids should be uniformly mixed, so that one molecule of the
original salt would not be more exposed to decomposition

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 549 MONADS AND ATOMS.

than any other. If, further, we consider the time which elapses before the appearance of
a precipitate, we cannot avoid coming to the conclusion that the action which has been
going on for the first few hours is of a selective character. The problem is not why a
precipitate is produced, but what determines or directs some atoms to fall down and
others to remain in solution. Out of the multitude of atoms present, what power is it that
directs each atom to choose the proper path? We may picture to ourselves some
directive force passing the atoms one by one in review, selecting one for precipitation
and another for solution till all have been adjusted."
The italics in the above passage are ours. Well may a man of science ask himself, "What power is it
that directs each atom," and what is it that its character should be selective? Theists would solve the
question by answering "God"; and would solve nothing philosophically. Occultism answers on its own
pantheistic grounds, and refers the reader to a subsequent section, "Gods, Monads, and Atoms." The
learned lecturer sees in it that which is his chief concern: the finger-posts and the traces of a path
which may lead to the discovery, and the full and complete demonstration of an homogeneous element
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in nature. He remarks: -"In order that such a selection can be effected there evidently must be some slight
differences between which it is possible to select, and this difference almost certainly
must be one of basicity, so slight as to be imperceptible by any test at present known,
but susceptible of being nursed and encouraged to a point when the difference can be
appreciated by ordinary tests."
Occultism, which knows of the existence and presence in Nature of the One eternal element at the first
differentiation of which the roots of the tree of life are periodically struck, needs no scientific proofs.
It says: -- Ancient Wisdom has solved the problem ages ago. Aye; earnest, as well as mocking reader,
Science is slowly but as surely approaching our domains of the Occult. It is forced by its own
discoveries to adopt nolens volens our phraseology and symbols. Chemical Science is now compelled,
by the very force of things, to accept even our illustration of the evolution of the gods and atoms, so
suggestively and undeniably figured in the caduceus of Mercury, the God of Wisdom, and in the
allegorical language of the Archaic Sages. Says a commentary in the esoteric doctrine: -. . . . The trunk of the ASVATTHA (the tree of Life and Being, the ROD of the caduceus) grows from
and descends at every Beginning (every new manvantara) from the two dark wings of the Swan
(HANSA) of Life. The two Serpents, the ever-living and its illusion (Spirit and matter) whose two
heads grow from the one head between the wings, descend along the trunk, interlaced in close
embrace. The two tails join on earth (the manifested Universe) into one, and this is the great illusion,
O Lanoo!"

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 550 THE SECRET DOCTRINE

Every one knows what the caduceus is, already modified by the Greeks. The original symbol -- with
the triple head of the serpent -- became altered into a rod with a knob, and the two lower heads were
separated, thus disfiguring somewhat the original meaning. Yet it is as good an illustration as can be
for our purpose, this laya rod entwined by two serpents. Verily the wonderful powers of the magic
caduceus were sung by all the ancient poets, with a very good reason for those who understood the
secret meaning.

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Now what says the learned President of the Chemical Society of Great Britain, in that same lecture,
which has any reference to, or bearing upon, our above-mentioned doctrine. Very little; only this -and nothing more: -"In the Birmingham address already referred to I asked my audience to picture the
action of two forces on the original protyle --- one being time, accompanied by a
lowering of temperature; the other, swinging to and fro like a mighty pendulum, having
periodic cycles of ebb and swell, rest and activity, being intimately connected with the
imponderable matter, essence, or source of energy we call electricity. Now, a simile like
this effects its object if it fixes in the mind the particular fact it is intended to emphasize,
but it must not be expected necessarily to run parallel with all the facts. Besides the
lowering of temperature with the periodic ebb and flow of electricity, positive or
negative, requisite to confer on the newly-born elements their particular atomicity, it is
evident that a third factor must be taken into account. Nature does not act on a flat
plane; she demands space for her cosmogenic operations, and if we introduce space as
the third factor, all appears clear. Instead of a pendulum, which, though to a certain
extent a good illustration, is impossible as a fact, let us seek some more satisfactory way
of representing what I conceive may have taken place. Let us suppose the zigzag
diagram not drawn upon a plane, but projected in space of three dimensions. What
figure can we best select to meet all the conditions involved? Many of the facts can be
well explained by supposing the projection in space of Professor Emerson Reynolds'
zigzag curve to be a spiral. This figure is, however, inadmissible, inasmuch as the curve
has to pass through a point neutral as to electricity and chemical energy twice in each
cycle. We must, therefore, adopt some other figure. A figure of eight (8), or lemniscate,
will foreshorten into a zigzag just as well as a spiral, and it fulfils every condition of the
problem."
A lemniscate for the evolution downward, from Spirit into matter;

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[[Vol. 1, Page]] 551 THE CADUCEUS OF LIFE.

another form of a spiral, perhaps, in its reinvolutionary path onward, from matter into Spirit, and the
necessary gradual and final reabsorption into the laya state, that which Science calls in her own way
"the point neutral as to electricity" etc., or the zero point. Such are the Occult facts and statement.
They may be left with the greatest security and confidence to Science, to be justified some day. Let us
hear some more, however, about this primordial genetic type of the symbolical caduceus.
"Such a figure will result from three very simple simultaneous motions. First, a simple
oscillation backwards and forwards (suppose east and west); secondly, a simple
oscillation at right angles to the former (suppose north and south) of half the periodic
time -- i.e., twice as fast; and thirdly, a motion at right angles to these two (suppose
downwards), which, in its simplest form, would be with unvarying velocity. If we
project this figure in space we find on examination that the points of the curves, where
chlorine, bromine, and iodine are formed, come close under each other; so also will
sulphur, selenium, and tellurium; again, phosphorus, arsenic, and antimony; and in like
manner other series of analogous bodies. It may be asked whether this scheme explains
how and why the elements appear in this order? Let us imagine a cyclical translation in
space, each evolution witnessing the genesis of the group of elements which I
previously represented as produced during one complete vibration of the pendulum. Let
us suppose that one cycle has thus been completed, the centre of the unknown creative
force in its mighty journey through space having scattered along its track the primitive
atoms -- the seeds, if I may use the expression -- which presently are to coalesce and
develop into the groupings now known as lithium, beryllium, boron, carbon, nitrogen,
oxygen, fluorine, sodium, magnesium, aluminium, silicon, phosphorus, sulphur, and
chlorine. What is most probably the form of track now pursued? Were it strictly
confined to the same plane of temperature and time, the next elementary groupings to
appear would again have been those of lithium, and the original cycle would have been
eternally repeated, producing again and again the same 14 elements. The conditions,
however, are not quite the same. Space and electricity are as at first, but temperature has
altered, and thus, instead of the atoms of lithium being supplemented with atoms in all
respects analogous with themselves, the atomic groupings which come into being when
the second cycle commences form, not lithium, but its lineal descendant, potassium.
Suppose, therefore, the vis generatrix travelling to and fro in cycles along a lemniscate
path, as above suggested, while simultaneously temperature is declining and time is
flowing on -- variations which I have endeavoured to represent by the downward sink -each coil of the lemniscate track crosses the same vertical line at lower and lower
points. Projected in space, the curve shows a central line neutral as far as electricity is
concerned, and neutral in chemical properties -- positive electricity on the north,
negative on the south. Dominant atomicities are governed by the distance east and west
from the neutral centre line, monatomic elements being one remove from it, diatomic
two removes, and so on. In every successive coil the same law holds good."
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[[Vol. 1, Page]] 552 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

ophy, that, at the hour of the Pralaya, the two aspects of the unknowable deity, "the Swan in darkness"
-- Prakriti and Purusha, nature or matter in all its forms and Spirit -- "no longer subsist but are
(absolutely) dissolved," we learn the conclusive scientific opinion of the great English chemist, who
caps his proofs by saying: -- "We have now traced the formation of the chemical elements from knots
and voids in a primitive, formless fluid. We have shown the possibility, nay, the probability that the
atoms are not eternal in existence, but share with all other created beings the attri butes of decay and
death."
Occultism says amen to this, as the Scientific "possibility" and "probability" are for it facts
demonstrated beyond the necessity of further proof or any extraneous physical evidence. Nevertheless,
it repeats with as much assurance as ever: "MATTER IS ETERNAL, becoming atomic (its aspect)
only periodically." This is as sure as that the other proposition, which is almost unanimously accepted
by astronomers and physicists -- namely, that the wear and tear of the body of the Universe is steadily
going on, and that it will finally lead to the extinction of the Solar fires and the destruction of the
Universe -- is quite erroneous on the lines traced by Men of Science. There will be, as there ever were
in time and eternity, periodical dissolutions of the manifested Universe, but (a) a partial pralaya after
every "Day of Brahma;" and (b) an Universal pralaya -- the MAHA-PRALAYA -- only after the lapse
of every Brahma's age. But the scientific causes for such dissolution, as brought forward by exact
Science, have nothing to do with the true causes. However that may be, Occultism is once more
justified by Science, for Mr. Crookes said: -"We have shown, from arguments drawn from the chemical laboratory, that in matter
which has responded to every test of an element, there are minute shades of difference
which may admit of selection. We have seen that the time-honoured distinction between
elements and compounds no longer keeps pace with the developments of chemical
science, but must be modified to include a vast array of intermediate bodies -- "metaelements." We have shown how the objections of Clerk-Maxwell, weighty as they are,
may be met; and finally, we have adduced reasons for believing that primitive matter
was formed by the act of a generative force, throwing off at intervals of time atoms
endowed with varying quantities of primitive forms of energy. If we may hazard any
conjectures as to the source of energy embodied in a chemical atom, we may, I think,
premise that the heat radiations propagated outwards through the ether from the
ponderable matter of the universe, by some process of nature not yet known to us, are
transformed at the confines of the universe into the primary -- the essential -- motions of
chemical atoms, which, the instant they are formed, gravitate inwards, and thus restore
to the universe the energy which otherwise would be lost to it through radiant heat. If
this conjecture be well founded, Sir William Thomson's startling prediction of the final
decrepitude of the universe through the dissipation of its energy falls to the ground. In
this

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[[Vol. 1, Page]] 553 TRUE SIGNS OF THE TIMES.

fashion, gentlemen, it seems to me that the question of the elements may be
provisionally treated. Our slender knowledge of these first mysteries is extending
steadily, surely, though slowly."
By a strong and curious coincidence even our "septenary" doctrine seems to force the hand of Science.
If we understand rightly, Chemistry speaks of fourteen groupings of primitive atoms -- lithium,
beryllium, boron, carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, fluorine, sodium, magnesium, aluminium, silicon,
phosphorus, sulphur and chlorine; and Mr. Crookes, speaking of the "dominant atomicities,"
enumerates seven groups of these, for he says: -"As the mighty focus of creative energy goes round, we see it in successive cycles
sowing in one tract of space seeds of lithium, potassium, rubidium, and caesium; in
another tract, chlorine, bromine, and iodine; in a third, sodium, copper, silver, and gold;
in a fourth, sulphur, selenium, and tellurium; in a fifth, beryllium, calcium, strontium,
and barium; in a sixth, magnesium, zinc, cadmium, and mercury; in a seventh,
phosphorus, arsenic, antimony, and bismuth" -- which makes seven groupings on the
one hand. And after showing "in other tracts the other elements -- namely, aluminium,
gallium, indium, and thallium; silicon, germanium, and tin; carbon, titanium, and
zirconium."
He adds: "While a natural position near the neutral axis is found for the three groups of elements
relegated by Professor Mendeleeff to a sort of Hospital for Incurables -- his eighth family." It might be
interesting to compare these "seven of the eighth family of 'incurables'" with the allegories concerning
the seven primitive sons of "Mother, Infinite Space," or Aditi, and the eighth son rejected by her.
Many a strange coincidence may thus be found between "those intermediate links . . . named 'metaelements or elementoids and those whom occult science names their noumenoi,' the intelligent minds
and rulers of those groupings of Monads and Atoms. But this would lead us too far. Let us be content
with finding the confession of the fact that "this deviation from absolute homogeneity should mark the
constitution of these molecules or aggregations of matter which we designate elements and will
perhaps be clearer if we return in imagination to the earliest dawn of our material universe, and, face
to face with the Great Secret, try to consider the processes of elemental evolution." Thus finally
Science, in the person of its highest representatives, in order to make itself clearer to the profane,
adopts the phraseology of such old adepts as Roger Bacon, and returns to the "protyle." All this is
hopeful and suggestive of the "signs of the times."
Indeed these "signs" are many and multiply daily; but none are more important than those just quoted.
For now the chasm between the occult "superstitious and unscientific" teachings and "exact" science is
completely bridged, and one, at least, of the few eminent chemists of the day is in the realm of the
infinite possibilities of occultism. Every new

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step he will take will bring him nearer and nearer to that mysterious centre, from which radiate the
innumerable paths that lead down Spirit into matter, and which transform the gods and the living
monads into man and sentient nature.
But we have something more to say on this subject in the following section.
------[[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]] 554 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

[[This page continued from previous section]]
X.
THE COMING FORCE.
ITS POSSIBILITIES AND IMPOSSIBILITIES.
Shall we say that Force is "moving matter," or "matter in motion," and a manifestation of energy; or
that matter and force are the phenomenal differentiated aspects of the one primary, undifferentiated
Cosmic Substance?
This query is made with regard to that Stanza which treats of FOHAT and his "Seven brothers or
Sons," in other words, of the cause and the effects of Cosmic Electricity, the latter called, in Occult
parlance, the seven primary forces of Electricity, whose purely phenomenal, and hence grossest effects
are alone cognizable by physicists on the cosmic and especially on the terrestrial plane. These include,
among other things, Sound, Light, Colour, etc., etc. Now what does physical Science tell us of these
"Forces"? SOUND, it says, is a sensation produced by the impact of atmospheric molecules on the
tympanum, which, by setting up delicate tremors in the auditory apparatus, thus communicate
themselves to the brain. LIGHT is the sensation caused by the impact of inconceivably minute
vibrations of ether on the retina of the eye.
So, too, we say. But this is simply the effect produced in our atmosphere and its immediate
surroundings, all, in fact, which falls within the range of our terrestrial consciousness. Jupiter Pluvius
sent his symbol in drops of rain, of water composed, as is believed, of two "elements," which
chemistry dissociates and recombines. The compound molecules are in its power, but their atoms still
elude its grasp. Occultism sees in all these Forces and manifestations a ladder, the lower rungs of
which belong to exoteric physics, and the higher are traced to a living, intelligent, invisible Power,
which is, as a rule, the unconcerned, and exceptionally, the conscious cause of the sense-born
phenomenon designated as this or another natural law.

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 555 DIVINE, INFERNAL, OR TERRESTRIAL FORCE?

We say and maintain that SOUND, for one thing, is a tremendous Occult power; that it is a stupendous
force, of which the electricity generated by a million of Niagaras could never counteract the smallest
potentiality when directed with occult knowledge. Sound may be produced of such a nature that the

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pyramid of Cheops would be raised in the air, or that a dying man, nay, one at his last breath, would be
revived and filled with new energy and vigour.
For Sound generates, or rather attracts together, the elements that produce an ozone, the fabrication of
which is beyond chemistry, but within the limits of Alchemy. It may even resurrect a man or an
animal whose astral "vital body" has not been irreparably separated from the physical body by the
severance of the magnetic or odic chord. As one saved thrice from death by that power, the writer
ought to be credited with knowing personally something about it.
And if all this appears too unscientific to be even noticed, let Science explain to what mechanical and
physical laws known to it, is due the recently produced phenomena of the so-called "Keely motor?"
What is it that acts as the formidable generator of invisible but tremendous force, of that power which
is not only capable of driving an engine of 25 horse-power, but has even been employed to lift the
machinery bodily? Yet this is done simply by drawing a fiddle-bow across a tuning fork, as has been
repeatedly proven. For the etheric Force, discovered by the well-known (in America and now in
Europe) John Worrell Keely, of Philadelphia, is no hallucination. Notwithstanding his failure to utilize
it, a failure prognosticated and maintained by some Occultists from the first, the phenomena exhibited
by the discoverer during the last few years have been wonderful, almost miraculous, not in the sense
of the supernatural* but of the superhuman. Had Keely been permitted to succeed, he might have
reduced a whole army to atoms in the space of a few seconds as easily as he reduced a dead ox to the
same condition.
The reader is now asked to give a serious attention to that newly-discovered potency which the
discoverer has named "Inter-Etheric Force and Forces."
In the humble opinion of the Occultists, as of his immediate friends,
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* The word "supernatural" implies above or outside of nature. Nature and Space are one. Now Space
for the metaphysician exists outside of any act of sensation, and is a purely subjective representation;
materialism, which would connect it forcibly with one or the other datum of sensation,
notwithstanding. For our senses, it is fairly subjective when independent of anything within it. How
then can any phenomenon, or anything else, step outside of or be performed beyond that which has no
limits? But when spacial extension becomes simply conceptual, and is thought of in an idea connected
with certain actions, as by the materialists and the physicists, then again they have hardly a right to
define and claim that which can or cannot be produced by Forces generated within even limited
spaces, as they have not even an approximate idea of what those forces are.

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 556 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

Mr. Keely, of Philadelphia, was, and still is, at the threshold of some of the greatest secrets of the
Universe; of that chiefly on which is built the whole mystery of physical Forces, and the esoteric
significance of the "Mundane Egg" symbolism. Occult philosophy, viewing the manifested and the
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unmanifested Kosmos as a UNITY, symbolizes the ideal conception of the former by that "Golden
Egg" with two poles in it. It is the positive pole that acts in the manifested world of matter, while the
negative is lost in the unknowable absoluteness of SAT -- "Be-ness."* Whether this agrees with the
philosophy of Mr. Keely, we cannot tell, nor does it really much matter. Nevertheless, his ideas about
the ethero-material construction of the Universe look strangely like our own, being in this respect
nearly identical. This is what we find him saying in an able pamphlet compiled by Mrs. BloomfieldMoore, an American lady of wealth and position, whose incessant efforts in the pursuit of truth can
never be too highly appreciated: -- "Mr. Keely, in explanation of the working of his engine, says: 'In
the conception of any machine heretofore constructed, the medium for inducing a neutral centre has
never been found. If it had, the difficulties of perpetual-motion seekers would have ended, and this
problem would have become an established and operating fact. It would only require an introductory
impulse of a few pounds, on such a device, to cause it to run for centuries. In the conception of my
vibratory engine, I did not seek to attain perpetual motion; but a circuit is formed that actually has a
neutral centre, which is in a condition to be vivified by my vibratory ether, and, while under operation
by said substance, is really a machine that is virtually independent of the mass (or globe),** and it is
the wonderful velocity of the vibratory circuit which makes it so. Still, with all its perfection, it
requires to be fed with the vibratory ether to make it an independent motor . . . ."
"All structures require a foundation in strength according to the weight of the mass they have to carry,
but the foundations of the universe rest on a vacuous point far more minute than a molecule; in fact, to
express this truth properly, on an inter-etheric point, which requires an infinite mind to understand it.
To look down into the depths of an etheric centre is precisely the same as it would be to search into the
broad space of heaven's ether to find the end, with this difference: that one is the positive field, while
the other is the negative field . . . ."
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* It is not correct, when speaking of idealism, to show it based upon "the old ontological assumptions
that things or entities exist independently of each other, and otherwise than as terms of relations"
(Stallo). At any rate, it is incorrect to say so of idealism in Eastern philosophy and its cognition, for it
is just the reverse.
** Independent, in a certain sense, but not disconnected with it.

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 557 AN UNCONSCIOUS OCCULTIST.

This, as easily seen, is precisely the Eastern doctrine. His inter-etheric point is the laya-point of the
Occultists, which, however, does not require "an infinite mind to understand it," but only a specific
intuition and ability to trace its hiding-place in this world of matter. Of course, the laya centre cannot
be produced, but an inter-etheric vacuum can -- as proved in the production of bell-sounds in space.
Mr. Keely speaks as an unconscious Occultist, nevertheless, when he remarks in his theory of
planetary suspension: -"As regards planetary volume, we would ask in a scientific point of view, How can the
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immense difference of volume in the planets exist without disorganising the harmonious
action that has always characterised them? I can only answer this question properly by
entering into a progressive analysis, starting on the rotating etheric centres that were
fixed by the Creator* with their attractive or accumulative power. If you ask what power
it is that gives to each etheric atom its inconceivable velocity of rotation (or introductory
impulse), I must answer that no finite mind will ever be able to conceive what it is. The
philosophy of accumulation is the only proof that such a power has been given. The
area, if we can so speak, of such an atom, presents to the attractive or magnetic, the
elective or propulsive, all the receptive force and all the antagonistic force that
characterises a planet of the largest magnitude; consequently, as the accumulation goes
on, the perfect equation remains the same. When this minute centre has once been fixed,
the power to rend it from its position would necessarily have to be so great as to
displace the most immense planet that exists. When this atomic neutral centre is
displaced, the planet must go with it. The neutral centre carries the full load of any
accumulation from the start, and remains the same, for ever balanced in the eternal
space."
Mr. Keely illustrates his idea of "a neutral centre" in this way: -"We will imagine that, after an accumulation of a planet of any diameter, say, 20,000
miles, more or less, for the size has nothing to do with the problem; there should be a
displacement of all the material, with the exception of a crust 5,000 miles thick, leaving
an intervening void between this crust and a centre of the size of an ordinary billiard
ball, it would then require a force as great to move this small central mass as it would to
move the shell of 5,000 miles thickness. Moreover, this small central mass would carry
the load of this crust for ever, keeping it equidistant; and there could be no opposing
power, however great, that could bring them together. The imagination staggers in
contemplating the immense load which bears upon this point of centre, where weight
ceases. . . . This is what we understand by a neutral centre."
And what Occultists understand by a "laya centre."
The above is pronounced "unscientific" by many. But so is everything that is not sanctioned and kept
on strictly orthodox lines by physical science. Unless the explanation given by the inventor himself is
accepted -- and his explanations, being, as observed, quite orthodox from
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* "By Fohat, more likely," would be an Occultist's reply.

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 558 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

the spiritual and the Occult stand-points, if not from that of materialistic speculative (called exact)
Science, are therefore ours in this particular -- what can science answer to facts already seen which it
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is no longer possible for anyone to deny? Occult philosophy divulges few of its most important vital
mysteries. It drops them like precious pearls, one by one, far and wide apart, and only when forced to
do so by the evolutionary tidal wave that carries on humanity slowly, silently, but steadily toward the
dawn of the Sixth-Race mankind. For once out of the safe custody of their legitimate heirs and
keepers, those mysteries cease to be occult: they fall into the public domain and have to run the risk of
becoming in the hands of the selfish -- of the Cains of the human race -- curses more often than
blessings. Nevertheless, whenever such individuals as the discoverer of Etheric Force -- John Worrell
Keely -- men with peculiar psychic and mental capacities* are born, they are generally and more
frequently helped than allowed to go unassisted; groping on their way, though, if left to their own
resources, falling very soon victims to martyrdom and unscrupulous speculators. Only they are helped
on the condition that they should not become, whether consciously or unconsciously, an additional
peril to their age: a danger to the poor, now offered in daily holocaust by the less wealthy to the very
wealthy.** This necessitates a short digression and an explanation.
Some twelve years back, during the Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition, the writer, in answering the
earnest queries of a theosophist, one of the earliest admirers of Mr. Keely, repeated to him what she
had heard in quarters, information from which she could never doubt.
It had been stated that the inventor of the "Self-Motor" was what is called, in the jargon of the
Kabalists, a "natural-born magician." That he was and would remain unconscious of the full range of
his powers, and would work out merely those which he had found out and ascertained in his own
nature -- firstly, because, attri buting them to a wrong source, he could never give them full sway; and
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* The reason for such psychic capacities is given farther on.
** The above was written two years ago, at a time when hopes of success for the "Keely Motor" were
at their highest. What was then said by the writer proved true, in every word, and now only a few
remarks are added to it with regard to the failure of his expectations, so far, which has now been
admitted by the discoverer himself. Though, however, the word failure is here used the reader should
understand it in a relative sense, for as Mrs. Bloomfield-Moore explains: "What Mr. Keely does admit
is that, baffled in applying vibratory force to mechanics, upon his first and second lines of
experimental research, he was obliged either to confess a commercial failure, or to try a third departure
from his base or principle; seeking success through another channel."
. . And this "channel" is on the physical plane.

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 559 THE FIRST-BORN OF ETHER.

secondly, because it was beyond his power to pass to others that which was a capacity inherent in his
special nature. Hence the whole secret could not be made over permanently to anyone for practical
purposes or use.*
Individuals born with such a capacity are not very rare. That they are not heard of more frequently is
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due to the fact that they live and die, in almost every case, in utter ignorance of being possessed of
abnormal powers at all. Mr. Keely possesses powers which are called "abnormal" just because they
happen in our day to be as little known as blood circulation was before Harvey's time. Blood existed,
and it behaved as it does at present in the first man born from woman; and so does that principle in
man which can control and guide etheric vibratory force. At any rate it exists in all those mortals
whose inner selves are primordially connected, by reason of their direct descent, with that group of
Dhyan-Chohans who are called "the first-born of Ether." Mankind, psychically considered, is divided
into various groups, each of which is connected with one of the Dhyanic groups that first formed
psychic man; (see paragraphs 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 in the Commentary to Stanza VII.) Mr. Keely being greatly
favoured in this respect, and moreover, besides his psychic temperament, being intellectually a genius
in mechanics, may thus achieve most wonderful results. He has achieved some already -- more than
any mortal man, not initiated into the final mysteries, has achieved in this age up to the present day.
What he has done is certainly quite sufficient "to demolish with the hammer of Science the idols of
Science" -- the idols of matter with the feet of clay -- as his friends justly predict and say of him. Nor
would the writer for a moment think of contradicting Mrs. Bloomfield-Moore, when in her paper on
"Psychic Force and Etheric Force," she states that Mr. Keely, as a philosopher, "is great enough in
soul, wise enough in mind, and sublime enough in courage to overcome all difficulties, and to stand at
last before the world as the greatest discoverer and inventor in the world."
And again she writes: -- "Should Keely do no more than lead scientists from the dreary realms where
they are groping into the open field of elemental force, where gravity and cohesion are disturbed in
their haunts and diverted to use; where, from unity of origin, emanates infinite energy in diversified
forms, he will achieve immortal fame. Should he demonstrate, to the destruction of materialism, that
the universe is animated by a mysterious principle to which matter, however perfectly organized, is
absolutely subservient, he will be a greater spiritual benefactor to our race than the modern world has
yet found in any man. Should he be able to substitute, in the treatment of disease,
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* We learn that these remarks are not applicable to Mr. Keely's latest discovery; time alone can show
the exact limit of his achievements.

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 560 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

the finer forces of nature for the grossly material agencies which have sent more human beings to their
graves than war, pestilence and famine combined, he will merit and receive the gratitude of mankind.
All this and more will he do, if he and those who have watched his progress, day by day for years, are
not too sanguine in their expectations."
Writing in the T. P. S. ("Theosophical Publication Society") series (No. 9), the same lady, in her
pamphlet, "Keely's Secrets," brings forward a passage from an article, written a few years ago by the
writer of the present volume, in her journal, the Theosophist, in these words: -"The author of No. 5 of the pamphlets issued by the Theosophical Publication Society,
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'What is Matter and What is Force,' says therein, 'The men of science have just found
out "a fourth state of matter," whereas the Occultists have penetrated years ago beyond
the sixth, and therefore do not infer, but know of, the existence of the seventh, the last.'
This knowledge comprises one of the secrets of Keely's so-called 'compound secret.' It
is already known to many that his secret includes 'the augmentation of energy,' the
insulation of the ether, and the adaptation of dynaspheric force to machinery."
It is just because Keely's discovery would lead to a knowledge of one of the most occult secrets, a
secret which can never be allowed to fall into the hands of the masses, that his failure to push his
discoveries to their logical end seems certain to Occultists. But of this more presently. Even in its
limitations this discovery may prove of the greatest benefit. For: -"Step by step, with a patient perseverance which some day the world will honour, this
man of genius has made his researches, overcoming the colossal difficulties which again
and again raised up in his path what seemed to be (to all but himself) insurmountable
barriers to further progress: but never has the world's index finger so pointed to an hour
when all is making ready for the advent of the new form of force that mankind is
waiting for. Nature, always reluctant to yield her secrets, is listening to the demands
made upon her by her master, necessity. The coal mines of the world cannot long afford
the increasing drain made upon them. Steam has reached its utmost limits of power, and
does not fulfil the requirements of the age. It knows that its days are numbered.
Electricity holds back, with bated breath, dependent upon the approach of her sister
colleague. Air ships are riding at anchor, as it were, waiting for the force which is to
make aerial navigation something more than a dream. As easily as men communicate
with their offices from their homes by means of the telephone, so will the inhabitants of
separate continents talk across the ocean. Imagination is palsied when seeking to foresee
the grand results of this marvellous discovery, when once it is applied to art and
mechanics. In taking the throne which it will force steam to abdicate, dynaspheric force
will rule the world with a power so mighty in the interests of civilization, that no finite
mind can conjecture the results. Laurence Oliphant, in his preface to 'Scientific
Religion,' says: 'A new moral future is dawning upon the human race -- one, certainly,
of which it stands much in need.' In no way could this

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 561 ETHERIC WAVES.

new moral future be so widely, so universally, commenced as by the utilizing of
dynaspheric force to beneficial purposes in life. . . . ."
The Occultists are ready to admit all this with the eloquent writer. Molecular vibration is, undeniably,
"Keely's legitimate field of research," and the discoveries made by him will prove wonderful -- yet
only in his hands and through himself. The world so far will get but that with which it can be safely
entrusted. The truth of this assertion has, perhaps, not yet quite dawned upon the discoverer himself,
since he writes that he is absolutely certain that he will accomplish all that he has promised, and will
then give it out to the world; but it must dawn upon him, and at no very far distant date. And what he
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says in reference to his work is a good proof of it: -"In considering the operation of my engine, the visitor, in order to have even an
approximate conception of its modus operandi, must discard all thought of engines that
are operated upon the principle of pressure and exhaustion, by the expansion of steam
or other analogous gas which impinges upon an a butment, such as the piston of a steamengine. My engine has neither piston nor eccentrics, nor is there one grain of pressure
exerted in the engine, whatever may be the size or capacity of it.
"My system, in every part and detail, both in the developing of my power and in every
branch of its utilization, is based and founded on sympathetic vibration. In no other way
would it be possible to awaken or develop my force, and equally impossible would it be
to operate my engine upon any other principle. . . . . . .This, however, is the true system;
and henceforth all my operations will be conducted in this manner -- that is to say, my
power will be generated, my engines run, my cannon operated, through a wire.
"It has been only after years of incessant labour, and the making of almost innumerable
experiments, involving not only the construction of a great many most peculiar
mechanical structures, and the closest investigation and study of the phenomenal
properties of the substance 'ether,' per se, produced, that I have been able to dispense
with complicated mechanism, and to obtain, as I claim, mastery over the subtle and
strange force with which I am dealing."
The passages underlined by us, are those which bear directly on the occult side of the application of
the vibratory force, or what Mr. Keely calls "sympathetic vibration." The "wire" is already a step
below, or downward from the pure etheric plane into the terrestrial. The discoverer has produced
marvels -- the word "miracle" is not too strong -- when acting through the inter-etheric Force alone,
the fifth and sixth principles of Akasa. From a "generator" six feet long, he has come down to one "no
larger than an old-fashioned silver watch;" and this by itself is a miracle of mechanical (but not
spiritual) genius. But, as well expressed by his great patroness and defender, Mrs. Bloomfield-Moore,
"the two forms of force which he has been experimenting with, and the phenomena attending them,
are the very antithesis of each other." One was generated and acted upon by and

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 562 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

through himself. No one, who should have repeated the thing done by himself, could have produced
the same results. It was "Keely's ether" that acted truly, while "Smith's or Brown's" ether would have
remained for ever barren of results. For Keely's difficulty has hitherto been to produce a machine
which would develop and regulate the "force" without the intervention of any "will power" or personal
influence, whether conscious or unconscious of the operator. In this he has failed, so far as others were
concerned, for no one but himself could operate on his "machines." Occultly this was a far more
advanced achievement than the "success" which he anticipates from his "wire," but the results
obtained from the fifth and sixth planes of the etheric (or Astral) Force, will never be permitted to
serve for purposes of commerce and traffic. That Keely's organism is directly connected with the
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production of the marvellous results is proven by the following statement emanating from one who
knows the great discoverer intimately.
At one time the shareholders of the "Keely Motor Co." put a man in his workshop for the express
purpose of discovering his secret. After six months of close watching, he said to J. W. Keely one day:
"I know how it is done, now." They had been setting up a machine together, and Keely was
manipulating the stop-cock which turned the force on and off. "Try it, then," was the answer. The man
turned the cock, and nothing came. "Let me see you do it again," the man said to Keely. The latter
complied, and the machinery operated at once. Again the other tried, but without success. Then Keely
put his hand on his shoulder and told him to try once more. He did so, with the result of an
instantaneous production of the current. This fact, if true, settles the question.
We are told that Mr. Keely defines electricity "as a certain form of atomic vibration." In this he is quite
right; but this is electricity on the terrestrial plane, and through terrestrial correlations. He estimates -Molecular vibrations at 100,000,000 per second.
Inter-molecular vibrations at 300,000,000 per second
Atomic vibrations at 900,000,000 per second
Inter-atomic vibrations at 2,700,000,000 per second
AEtheric vibrations at 8,100,000,000 pper second
Inter-AEtheric vibrations at 24,300,000,000 per second
This proves our point. There are no vibrations that could be counted or even estimated at an
approximate rate beyond "the realm of the fourth son of Fohat," using an occult phraseology, or that
motion which corresponds to the formation of Mr. Crookes' radiant matter, or lightly called some
years ago the "fourth state of matter" -- on this our plane.

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 563 A PREMATURE DISCOVERY.

If the question is asked why Mr. Keely was not allowed to pass a certain limit, the answer is easy;
because that which he has unconsciously discovered, is the terrible sidereal Force, known to, and
named by the Atlanteans MASH-MAK, and by the Aryan Rishis in their Ashtar Vidya by a name that
we do not like to give. It is the vril of Bulwer Lytton's "Coming Race," and of the coming races of our
mankind. The name vril may be a fiction; the Force itself is a fact doubted as little in India as the
existence itself of their Rishis, since it is mentioned in all the secret works.
It is this vibratory Force, which, when aimed at an army from an Agni Rath fixed on a flying vessel, a
balloon, according to the instructions found in Ashtar Vidya, reduced to ashes 100,000 men and
elephants, as easily as it would a dead rat. It is allegorised in the Vishnu Purana, in the Ramayana and
other works, in the fable about the sage Kapila whose glance made a mountain of ashes of King
Sagara's 60,000 sons, and which is explained in the esoteric works, and referred to as the Kapilaksha -"Kapila's Eye."

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And is it this Satanic Force that our generations were to be allowed to add to their stock of Anarchist's
baby-toys, known as melenite, dynamite clock-works, explosive oranges, "flower baskets," and such
other innocent names? Is it this destructive agency, which, once in the hands of some modern Attila,
e.g., a blood-thirsty anarchist, would reduce Europe in a few days to its primitive chaotic state with no
man left alive to tell the tale -- is this force to become the common property of all men alike?
What Mr. Keely has already done is grand and wonderful in the extreme; there is enough work before
him in the demonstration of his new system to "humble the pride of those scientists who are
materialistic, by revealing those mysteries which lie behind the world of matter," without revealing it
nolens volens to all. For surely Psychists and Spiritualists -- of whom there are a good number in the
European armies -- would be the first to experience personally the fruits of such mysteries revealed.
Thousands of them would find themselves (and perhaps with the populations of whole countries to
keep them company) in blue Ether very soon, were such a Force to be even entirely discovered, let
alone made publicly known. The discovery in its completeness is by several thousand -- or shall we
say hundred thousand? -- years too premature. It will be at its appointed place and time only when the
great roaring flood of starvation, misery, and underpaid labour ebbs back again -- as it will when
happily at last the just demands of the many are attended to; when the proletariat exists but in name,
and the pitiful cry for bread, that rings throughout the world unheeded, has died away. This may be
hastened by the spread of learning,

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and by new openings for work and emigration, with better prospects than exist now, and on some new
continent that may appear. Then only will "Keely's Motor and Force," as originally contemplated by
himself and friends, be in demand, because it will be more needed by the poor than by the wealthy.
Meanwhile the force discovered by him will work through wires, and this, if he succeeds, will be quite
sufficient in the present generation to make of him the greatest discoverer of this age.
What Mr. Keely says of Sound and Colour is also correct from the Occult stand-point. Hear him talk
as though he were the nursling of the "Gods-revealers," and had gazed all his life into the depths of
Father-Mother AEther.
In comparing the tenuity of the atmosphere with that of the etheric flows, obtained by him from his
invention for breaking up the molecules of air by vibration, Keely says that: -. . . "It is as platina to hydrogen gas. Molecular separation of air brings us to the first subdivision only; inter-molecular, to the second; atomic, to the third; inter-atomic, to the
fourth; etheric, to the fifth; and inter-etheric, to the sixth sub-division, or positive
association with luminiferous ether.* In my introductory argument I have contended that
this is the vibratory envelope of all atoms. In my definition of atom I do not confine
myself to the sixth sub-division where this luminiferous ether is developed in its crude
form as far as my researches prove.** I think this idea will be pronounced by the
physicists of the present day, a wild freak of the imagination. Possibly, in time, a light
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may fall upon this theory that will bring its simplicity forward for scientific research. At
present I can only compare it to some planet in a dark space, where the light of the sun
of science has not yet reached it. . ."
"I assume that sound, like odour, is a real substance of unknown and wonderful tenuity,
emanating from a body where it has been induced by percussion and throwing out
absolute corpuscles of matter, inter-atomic particles, with velocity of 1,120 feet per
second; in vacuo 20,000. The substance which is thus disseminated is a part and parcel
of the mass agitated, and, if kept under this agitation continuously, would, in the course
of a certain cycle of time, become thoroughly absorbed by the atmosphere; or, more
truly, would pass through the atmosphere to an elevated point of tenuity corresponding
to the condition of sub-division that governs its liberation from its parent body." . . .
"The sounds from vibratory forks, set so as to produce etheric chords, while
disseminating their tones (compound), permeate most thoroughly all substances that
come under the range of their atomic bombardment. The clapping of a bell in vacuo
liberates these atoms with the same velocity and volume as one in the open air; and were
the agitation of the bell kept up continuously for a few millions of centuries it would
[[Footnote(s)]] ------------------------------------------------* This also is the division, made by the Occultists, under other names.

** Quite so, since there is the seventh beyond, which begins the same enumeration, from the first to
the last, on another and higher plane.

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thoroughly return to its primitive element; and, if the chamber were hermetically sealed,
and strong enough, the vacuous volume surrounding the bell would be brought to a
pressure of many thousands of pounds to the square inch, by the tenuous substance
evolved. In my estimation, sound truly defined is the disturbance of atomic equilibrium,
rupturing actual atomic corpuscles; and the substance thus liberated must certainly be a
certain order of etheric flow. Under these conditions, is it unreasonable to suppose that,
if this flow were kept up, and the body thus robbed of its element, it would in time
disappear entirely? All bodies are formed primitively from this highly tenuous ether,
animal, vegetable, and mineral, and they are only returned to their high gaseous
condition when brought under a state of differential equilibrium." . . .
"As regards odour, we can only get some definite idea of its extreme and wondrous
tenuity by taking into consideration that a large area of atmosphere can be impregnated
for a long series of years from a single grain of musk; which, if weighed after that long
interval, will be found to be not appreciably diminished. The great paradox attending the
flow of odorous particles is that they can be held under confinement in a glass vessel!
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Here is a substance of much higher tenuity than the glass that holds it, and yet it cannot
escape. It is as a sieve with its meshes large enough to pass marbles, and yet holding
fine sand which cannot pass through; in fact, a molecular vessel holding an atomic
substance. This is a problem that would confound those who stop to recognize it. But
infinitely tenuous as odour is, it holds a very crude relation to the substance of subdivision that governs a magnetic flow (a flow of sympathy, if you please to call it so).
This sub-division comes next to sound, but is above sound. The action of the flow of a
magnet coincides somewhat to the receiving and distributing portion of the human
brain, giving off at all times a depreciating ratio of the amount received. It is a grand
illustration of the control of mind over matter, which gradually depreciates the physical
till dissolution takes place. The magnet on the same ratio gradually loses its power and
becomes inert. If the relations that exist between mind and matter could be equated and
so held, we would live on in our physical state eternally, as there would be no physical
depreciation. But this physical depreciation leads, at its terminus, to the source of a
much higher development -- viz., the liberation of the pure ether from the crude
molecular; which, in my estimation, is to be much desired." -- (From Mrs. BloomfieldMoore's paper, "The New Philosophy.")
It may be remarked that, save a few small divergencies, no Adept nor Alchemist could have explained
the above any better, in the light of modern Science, however much the latter may protest against the
novel views. This is, in all its fundamental principles, if not details, Occultism pure and simple, yet
withal, modern natural philosophy as well.
This "New Force," or whatever Science may call it, the effects of which are undeniable -- admitted by
more than one naturalist and physicist who has visited Mr. Keely's laboratory and witnessed
personally its tremendous effects -- what is it? Is it a "mode of motion," also, "in Vacuo," since there is
no matter to generate it except Sound -- another "mode of motion," no doubt, a sensation caused like

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colour by vibrations? Fully as we believe in these vibrations as the proximate -- the immediate -- cause
of such sensations, we as absolutely reject the one-sided scientific theory that there is no factor to be
considered as external to us, other than etheric or atmospheric vibrations.*
There is a transcendental set of causes put in motion -- so to speak -- in the occurrence of these
phenomena, which, not being in relation to our narrow range of cognition, can only be traced to their
source and their nature, and understood by the Spiritual faculties of the Adept. They are, as Asclepios
puts it to the King, "incorporeal corporealities" -- such as "appear in the mirror," and "abstract forms"
that we see, hear, and smell, in our dreams, and visions. What have the "modes of motion," light, and
ether to do with these? Yet we see, hear, and smell, and touch them, ergo they are as much realities to
us in our dreams, as any other thing on this plane of Maya.
-------

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[[This page continued in next section]]
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* In this case the American "Substantialists" are not wrong (though too anthropomorphic and material
in their views to be accepted by the Occultists) when arguing through Mrs. M. S. Organ, M.D., that
"there must be positive entitative properties in objects which have a constitutional relation to the
nerves of animal sensations, or there can be no perception. No impression of any kind can be made
upon brain, nerve, or mind -- no stimulus to action -- unless there is an actual and direct
communication of a substantial force." ("Substantial" as far as it appears in the usual sense of the word
in this universe of illusion and MAYA, of course; not so in reality.) "That force may be the most
refined and sublimated immaterial Entity (?). Yet it must exist; for no sense, element, or faculty of the
human being can have a perception, or be stimulated into action, without some substantial force
coming in contact with it. This is the fundamental law pervading the whole organic and mental world.
In the true philosophical sense there is no such thing as independent action: for every force or
substance is correlated to some other force or substance. We can with just as much truth and reason
assert that no substance possesses any inherent gustatory property or any olfactory property -- that
taste and odour are simply sensations caused by vibrations; and hence mere illusions of animal
perceptions. . . ."

Next Section
Contents

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

Theosophical University Press Online Edition

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 566 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

[[This page continued from previous section]]
XI.
ON THE ELEMENTS AND ATOMS.
FROM THE STAND-POINT OF SCIENCE AND THAT OF OCCULTISM.
WHEN the Occultist speaks of "Elements," and of human Beings who lived during those geological
ages, the duration of which it is found as impossible to determine, according to the opinion of one of
the best

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 567 METAPHYSICAL CHEMISTRY.

English geologists*, as the nature of matter, it is because he knows what he is talking about. When he
says "Man" and Elements, he neither means "man" in his present physiological and anthropological
form, nor the elemental atoms, those hypothetical conceptions, the entitative abstractions of matter in
its highly attenuated state, as existing at present in scientific minds; nor, again, the compound
Elements of antiquity. In Occultism the word Element means "rudiment" in every case. When we say
"Elementary Man," we mean either the proemial, incipient sketch of man, in its unfinished and
undeveloped condition, hence in that form which now lies latent in physical man during his life-time,
and takes shape only occasionally and under certain conditions; or that form which for a time survives
the material body, and which is better known as an "Elementary."** With regard to "Element," when
the term is used metaphysically, it means, in distinction to the mortal, the incipient divine man; and, in
its physical usage, inchoate matter in its first undifferentiated condition, or in the laya state, which is
the eternal and the normal condition of substance, differentiating only periodically, and is during that
differentiation in an abnormal state -- in other words, a transitory illusion of the senses.
As to the "elemental atoms," so called, the Occultists refer to them by that name with a meaning
analogous to that which is given by the Hindu to Brahma when he calls him ANU, the "Atom." Every
elemental atom, in search of which more than one Chemist has followed the path indicated by the
Alchemists, is, in their firm belief (when not knowledge), a SOUL; not necessarily a disembodied soul,
but a jiva, as the Hindus call it, a centre of POTENTIAL VITALITY, with latent intelligence in it, and,
in the case of compound Souls -- an intelligent active EXISTENCE, from the highest to the lowest
order, a form composed of more or less differentiations. It requires a metaphysician -- and an Eastern
metaphysician -- to understand our meaning. All those atom-Souls are differentiations from the ONE,
and in the same relation to it as the divine Soul -- the Buddhi -- to its informing and inseparable Spirit,
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or Atman.
Modern physics, while borrowing from the ancients their atomic theory, forgot one point, the most
important of the doctrine; hence they got only the husks and will never be able to get at the kernel.
They left behind, in the adoption of physical atoms, the suggestive fact that
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* In answer to a friend, that eminent geologist writes: . . . ."I can only say, in reply to your letter, that it
is at present, and perhaps always will be, IMPOSSIBLE to reduce, even approximately, geological
time into years, or even into millenniums." (Signed William Pengelly, F.R.S.)
** Plato speaking of the irrational, turbulent Elements "composed of fire, air, water, and earth," means
Elementary Daemons. (See Timaeus.)

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 568 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

from Anaxagoras down to Epicurus, the Roman Lucretius, and finally even to Galileo, all those
Philosophers believed more or less in ANIMATED atoms, not in invisible specks of so-called "brute"
matter. Rotatory motion was generated in their views, by larger (read, more divine and pure) atoms
forcing downwards other atoms; the lighter ones being thrust simultaneously upward. The esoteric
meaning of this is the ever cyclic curve downward and upward of differentiated elements through
intercyclic phases of existence, until each reaches again its starting point or birthplace. The idea was
metaphysical as well as physical; the hidden interpretation embracing "gods" or souls, in the shape of
atoms, as the causes of all the effects produced on Earth by the secretions from the divine bodies.* No
ancient philosopher, not even the Jewish Kabalists, ever dissociated Spirit from matter or vice versa.
Everything originated in the ONE, and, proceeding from the one, must finally return to the One. "Light
becomes heat, and consolidates into fiery particles; which, from being ignited, become cold, hard
particles, round and smooth. And this is called Soul, imprisoned in its robe of matter;"** Atoms and
Souls having been synonymous in the language of the Initiates. The "whirling Souls," Gilgoolem, a
doctrine in which so many learned Jews have believed (See Mackenzie's Royal Masonic Cyclopaedia),
had no other meaning esoterically. The learned Jewish Initiates never meant by the "Promised land"
Palestine alone, but the same Nirvana as the learned Buddhist and Brahmin do -- the bosom of the
ETERNAL ONE, symbolized by that of Abraham, and by Palestine as its substitute on Earth.*** The
passage of the SOUL-ATOM "through the Seven Planetary Chambers" had the same metaphysical and
also physical meaning. It had the latter when it was said to dissolve into Ether (See Isis Unveiled, Vol.
I., p. 297.) Even Epicurus, the model Atheist and materialist, knew and believed so much in the ancient
Wisdom, that he taught that the
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* Plato uses the words "secretions" of turbulent Elements (Timaeus).
** Valentinus' Esoteric Treatise on the Doctrine of Gilgul.
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*** Surely no educated Jew ever believed the literal sense of this allegory -- namely, that "the bodies
of Jews deposited in foreign lands contain within them a principle of Soul which cannot rest, until by a
process called the "whirling of the Soul" the immortal particle reaches once more the sacred Soil of the
"Promised land." The meaning is evident to an occultist. The process was supposed to be accomplished
by a kind of metempsychosis, the psychic spark being conveyed through bird, beast, fish, and the most
minute insect. (See Royal Masonic Cyclo. Mackenzie.) The Allegory relates to the atoms of the body,
which have each to pass through every form before all reach the final state, which is the first starting
point of the departure of every atom -- its primitive laya State. But the primitive meaning of
Gilgoolem, or "Revolution of Souls," was the idea of the re-incarnating Souls or Egos. "All the Souls
go into the gilgoolah," into a cyclic or revolving process; i.e., they all proceed on the cyclic path of rebirths. Some Kabalists interpret this doctrine to mean only a kind of purgatory for the souls of the
wicked. But this is not so.

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 569 PANTHEISM VERSUS MATERIALISM.

Soul (entirely distinct from immortal Spirit when the former is enshrined latent in it, as it is in every
atomic speck), was composed of a fine, tender essence, formed from the smoothest, roundest, and
finest atoms.
And this shows that the ancient Initiates, who were followed more or less closely by all profane
antiquity, meant by the term "ATOM," a Soul, a Genius or Angel, the first-born of the ever-concealed
CAUSE of all causes; and in this sense their teachings become comprehensible. They claimed, as do
their successors, the existence of Gods and Genii, angels or "demons," not outside, or independent of,
the Universal Plenum, but within it. Only this Plenum, during the life-cycles, is infinite. They admitted
and taught a good deal of that which modern Science teaches now --namely, the existence of a
primordial "World-stuff or Cosmic Substance," from which worlds are formed, ever and eternally
homogeneous, except during its periodic existence, when it differentiates its universal diffusion
throughout infinite space; and the gradual formation of sidereal bodies from it. They taught the
revolution of the Heavens, the Earth's rotation, the Heliocentric System, and the Atomic Vortices -Atoms -- in reality Souls and intelligences. But those "Atomists" were spiritual, most transcendental,
and philosophical Pantheists. It is not they who would have ever conceived, or dreamt that monstrous
contrasted progeny, the nightmare of our modern civilized Race; namely -- inanimate material, selfguiding atoms, on the one hand, and an extra-Cosmic God on the other.
It may be useful to show what, in the teachings of the old Initiates, the Monad was, and what its origin.
Modern exact Science, as soon as it began to grow out of its teens, perceived the great, and, to it,
hitherto esoteric axiom, that nothing -- whether in the spiritual, psychic, or physical realm of being -could come into existence out of nothing. There is no cause in the manifested universe without its
adequate effects, whether in space or time; nor can there be an effect without its primal cause, which
itself owes its existence to a still higher one -- the final and absolute cause having to remain to man for
ever an incomprehensible CAUSELESS CAUSE. But even this is no solution, and must be viewed, if
at all, from the highest philosophical and metaphysical standpoints, otherwise the problem had better
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be left unapproached. It is an abstraction, on the verge of which human reason -- however trained to
metaphysical subtleties -- trembles, threatening to collapse. This may be demonstrated to any
European who would undertake to solve the problem of existence by the articles of faith of the true
Vedantin, for instance. Let him read and study the sublime teachings on the subject of Soul and Spirit,
of

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 570 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

Sankaracharya (Viveka Chudamani)*, and the reader will realize what is now said.
While the Christian is taught that the human soul is a breath of God -- being created by him for
sempiternal existence, i.e., having a beginning, but no end (and therefore never to be called eternal) -the Occult teaching says, "Nothing is created, but is only transformed. Nothing can manifest itself in
this universe -- from a globe down to a vague, rapid thought -- that was not in the universe already;
everything on the subjective plane is an eternal IS; as everything on the objective plane is an ever
becoming -- because transitory."
The monad -- a truly "indivisible thing," as defined by Good, who did not give it the sense we now do -is here rendered as the Atma in conjunction with Buddhi and the higher Manas. This trinity is one and
eternal, the latter being absorbed in the former at the termination of all conditioned and illusive life.
The monad, then, can be traced through the course of its pilgrimage and its changes of transitory
vehicles only from the incipient stage of the manifested Universe. In Pralaya, or the intermediate
period between two manvantaras, it loses its name, as it loses it when the real ONE self of man merges
into Brahm in cases of high Samadhi (the Turiya state) or final Nirvana; "when the disciple" in the
words of Sankara, "having attained that primeval consciousness, absolute bliss, of which the nature is
truth, which is without form and action, abandons this illusive body that has been assumed by the atma
just as an actor (abandons) the dress (put on)." For Buddhi (the Anandamaya sheath) is but a mirror
which reflects absolute bliss; and, moreover, that reflection itself is yet not free from ignorance, and is
not the Supreme Spirit, being subject to conditions, being a spiritual modification of Prakriti, and an
effect; Atma alone is the one real and eternal substratum of all -- the essence and absolute knowledge -the Kshetragna.** It is called in the Esoteric philosophy "the One Witness,"
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* Translated for the Theosophist, by Mohini M. Chatterji as "Crest Jewel of Wisdom," 1886. (See
Theosophist, July and August numbers).
** Now that the revised version of the gospels has been published and the most glaring mistranslations
of the old versions are corrected, one will understand better the words in St. John v., vi., and vii.: "It is
the Spirit that beareth witness because the Spirit is the truth." The words that follow in the
mistranslated version about the "three witnesses," -- hitherto supposed to stand for "the Father, the
Word, and the Holy Ghost" -- show the real meaning of the writer (St. John) very clearly, thus still
more forcibly identifying his teaching in this respect with that of Sankaracharya. For what can the
sentence, "there are three who bear witness: the Spirit and the Water and the Blood" -- mean, if they
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bear no relation to, or connection with, the more philosophical statement of the great Vedanta teacher,
who, speaking of the sheaths (the principles in man) Jiva, Vignanamaya, etc., which are, in their
physical manifestation, "water and blood" or life, adds that atma (spirit) alone is what remains after the
[[Footnote continued on next page]]

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 571 THE DIAMOND HEART.

and, while it rests in Devachan, is referred to as "the Three Witnesses to Karma."
Atma (our seventh principle) being identical with the universal Spirit, and man being one with it in his
essence, what is then the Monad proper? It is that homogeneous spark which radiates in millions of
rays from the primeval "Seven;" -- of which seven further on. It is the EMANATING spark from the
UNCREATED Ray -- a mystery. In the esoteric, and even exoteric Buddhism of the North, Adi
Buddha (Chogi dangpoi sangye), the One unknown, without beginning or end, identical with
Parabrahm and Ain-Soph, emits a bright ray from its darkness.
This is the Logos (the first), or Vajradhara, the Supreme Buddha (also called Dorjechang). As the Lord
of all Mysteries he cannot manifest, but sends into the world of manifestation his heart -- the "diamond
heart," Vajrasattva (Dorjesempa). This is the second logos of creation, from whom emanate the seven
(in the exoteric blind the five) Dhyani Buddhas, called the Anupadaka, "the parentless." These
Buddhas are the primeval monads from the world of incorporeal being, the Arupa world, wherein the
Intelligences (on that plane only) have neither shape nor name, in the exoteric system, but have their
distinct seven names in esoteric philosophy. These Dhyani Buddhas emanate, or create from
themselves, by virtue of Dhyana, celestial Selves -- the super-human Bodhisattvas. These incarnating
at the beginning of every human cycle on earth as mortal men, become occasionally, owing to their
personal merit, Bodhisattvas among the Sons of Humanity, after which they may re-appear as Manushi
(human) Buddhas. The Anupadaka (or Dhyani-Buddhas) are thus identical with the Brahminical
Manasaputra, "mind-born sons" -- whether of Brahma or either of the other two Trimurtian
Hypostases, hence identical also with the Rishis and Prajapatis. Thus, a passage is found in Anugita,
which, read esoterically, shows plainly, though under another imagery, the same idea and system. It
says: "Whatever entities there are in this world, moveable or immoveable, they are the very first to be
dissolved (at pralaya); and next the developments produced from the elements (from which the visible
Universe is fashioned); and, after these developments (evolved entities), all the elements. Such is the
upperward gradation among entities. Gods, Men, Gandharvas, Pisachas, Asuras, Rakshasas, all have
been created by Svabhava (Prakriti, or plastic nature), not by actions, nor by a cause" -- i.e., not by any
physical cause.
"These Brahmanas (the Rishi Prajapati?), the creators of the world, are born here (on earth) again and
again. Whatever is produced from
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

[[Footnote continued from previous page]] subtraction of the sheaths and that it is the ONLY witness,
or synthesized unity. The less spiritual and philosophical school, solely with an eye to a trinity made
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three witnesses out of "one," thus connecting it more with earth than with heaven.

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them is dissolved in due time in those very five great elements (the five, or rather seven, Dhyani
Buddhas, also called "Elements" of Mankind), like billows in the ocean. These great elements are in
every way beyond the elements that make up the world (the gross elements). And he who is released
even from these five elements (the tanmatras)* goes to the highest goal." "The Lord Prajapati
(Brahma) created all this by the mind only," i.e., by Dhyana, or abstract meditation and mystic powers
like the Dhyani Buddhas (vide supra). Evidently then, these "Brahmanas" are identical with the
Bodhisattvas (the terrestrial) of the heavenly Dhyani Buddhas. Both, as primordial, intelligent
"Elements," become the creators or the emanators of the monads destined to become human in that
cycle; after which they evolve themselves, or, so to say, expand into their own selves as Bodhisattvas
or Brahmanas, in heaven and earth, to become at last simple men --"the creators of the world are born
here, on earth again and again" -- truly. In the Northern Buddhist system, or the popular exoteric
religion, it is taught that every Buddha, while preaching the good law on earth, manifests himself
simultaneously in three worlds: in the formless, as Dhyani Buddha, in the World of forms, as a
Bodhisattva, and in the world of desire, the lowest (or our world) as a man. Esoterically the teaching
differs: The divine, purely Adi-Buddhic monad manifests as the universal Buddhi (the Maha-buddhi or
Mahat in Hindu philosophies) the spiritual, omniscient and omnipotent root of divine intelligence, the
highest anima mundi or the Logos. This descends "like a flame spreading from the eternal Fire,
immoveable, without increase or decrease, ever the same to the end" of the cycle of existence, and
becomes universal life on the Mundane Plane. From this Plane of conscious Life shoot out, like seven
fiery tongues, the Sons of Light (the logoi of Life); then the Dhyani-Buddhas of contemplation: the
concrete forms of their formless Fathers -- the Seven Sons of Light, still themselves, to whom may be
applied the Brahmanical mystic phrase: "Thou art 'THAT' -- Brahm." It is from these Dhyani-Buddhas
that emanate their chhayas (Shadows) the Bodhisattvas of the celestial realms, the prototypes of the
super-terrestrial Bodhisattvas, and of the terrestrial Buddhas, and finally of men. The "Seven Sons of
Light" are also called "Stars."
The star under which a human Entity is born, says the Occult teaching, will remain for ever its star,
throughout the whole cycle of its incarnations in one Manvantara. But this is not his astrological star.
The latter is concerned and connected with the personality, the former with
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* The Tanmatras are literally the type or rudiment of an element devoid of qualities; but esoterically,
they are the primeval noumenoi of that which becomes in the progress of evolution a Cosmic element
in the sense given to the term in antiquity, not in that of physics. They are the logoi, the seven
emanations or rays of the logos.

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 573 THE CREST-JEWEL OF WISDOM.

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the INDIVIDUALITY. The "Angel" of that Star, or the Dhyani-Buddha will be either the guiding or
simply the presiding "Angel," so to say, in every new rebirth of the monad, which is part of his own
essence, though his vehicle, man, may remain for ever ignorant of this fact. The adepts have each their
Dhyani-Buddha, their elder "twin Soul," and they know it, calling it "Father-Soul," and "Father-Fire."
It is only at the last and supreme initiation, however, that they learn it when placed face to face with
the bright "Image." How much has Bulwer Lytton known of this mystic fact when describing, in one of
his highest inspirational moods, Zanoni face to face with his Augoeides?
The Logos, or both the unmanifested and the manifested WORD, is called by the Hindus, Iswara, "the
Lord," though the Occultists give it another name. Iswara, say the Vedantins, is the highest
consciousness in nature. "This highest consciousness," answer the Occultists, "is only a synthetic unit
in the world of the manifested Logos -- or on the plane of illusion; for it is the sum total of DhyanChohanic consciousnesses." "Oh, wise man, remove the conception that not-Spirit is Spirit," says
Sankaracharya. Atma is not-Spirit in its final Parabrahmic state, Iswara or Logos is Spirit; or, as
Occultism explains, it is a compound unity of manifested living Spirits, the parent-source and nursery
of all the mundane and terrestrial monads, plus their divine reflection, which emanate from, and return
into, the Logos, each in the culmination of its time. There are seven chief groups of such Dhyan
Chohans, which groups will be found and recognised in every religion, for they are the primeval
SEVEN Rays. Humanity, occultism teaches us, is divided into seven distinct groups and their subdivisions, mental, spiritual, and physical.* The monad, then, viewed as ONE, is above the seventh
principle (in Kosmos and man), and as a triad, it is the direct radiant progeny of the said compound
UNIT, not the breath (and special creation out of nihil) of "God," as that unit is called; for such an idea
is quite unphilosophical, and degrades Deity, dragging it down to a finite, attri butive condition. As
well expressed by the translator of the "Crest-Jewel of Wisdom" -- though Iswara is "God"
"unchanged in the profoundest depths of pralayas and in the intensest activity of the manvantaras" . . .,
still "beyond (him) is
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* Hence the seven chief planets, the spheres of the indwelling seven spirits, under each of which is
born one of the human groups which is guided and influenced thereby. There are only seven planets
(specially connected with earth), and twelve houses, but the possible combinations of their aspects are
countless. As each planet can stand to each of the others in twelve different aspects, their combinations
must, therefore, be almost infinite; as infinite, in fact, as the spiritual, psychic, mental, and physical
capacities in the numberless varieties of the genus homo, each of which varieties is born under one of
the seven planets and one of the said countless planetary combinations. See Theosophist, for August,
1886.

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 574 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

'ATMA,' round whose pavilion is the darkness of eternal MAYA."* The "triads" born under the same
Parent-planet, or rather the radiations of one and the same Planetary Spirit (Dhyani Buddha) are, in all
their after lives and rebirths, sister, or "twin-souls," on this Earth.**

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This was known to every high Initiate in every age and in every country: "I and my Father are one,"
said Jesus (John x. 30).*** When He is made to say, elsewhere (xx. 17): "I ascend to my Father and
your Father," it meant that which has just been stated. It was simply to show that the group of his
disciples and followers attracted to Him belonged to the same Dhyani Buddha, "Star," or "Father,"
again of the same planetary realm and division as He did. It is the knowledge of this occult doctrine
that found expression in the review of "The Idyll of the White Lotus," when Mr. T. Subba Row wrote:
"Every Buddha meets at his last initiation all the great adepts who reached Buddhahood during the
preceding ages . . . every class of adepts has its own bond of spiritual communion which knits them
together. . . . . The only possible and effectual way of entering into such brotherhood . . . . is by
bringing oneself within the influence of the Spiritual light which radiates from one's own Logos. I may
further point out here . . . . that such communion is only possible between persons whose souls derive
their life and sustenance from the same divine RAY, and that, as seven distinct rays radiate from the
'Central Spiritual Sun,' all adepts and Dhyan Chohans are divisible into seven classes, each of which is
guided, controlled, and overshadowed by one of the seven forms or manifestations of the divine
Wisdom." ("Theosophist," Aug., 1886.)
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* The now universal error of attri buting to the ancients the knowledge of only seven planets, simply
because they mentioned no others, is based on the same general ignorance of their occult doctrines.
The question is not whether they were, or were not, aware of the existence of the later discovered
planets; but whether the reverence paid by them to the four exoteric and three secret great gods -- the
star-angels, had not some special reason. The writer ventures to say there was such a reason, and it is
this. Had they known of as many planets as we do now (and this question can hardly be decided at
present, either way), they would have still connected with their religious worship only the seven,
because these seven are directly and specially connected with our earth, or, using esoteric phraseology,
with our septenary ring of spheres. (See supra.)
** It is the same, only still more metaphysical idea, as that of the Christian Trinity -- "Three in One" -i.e., the Universal "over-Spirit," manifesting on the two higher planes, those of Buddhi and Mahat; and
these are the three hypostases, metaphysical, but never personal.
*** The identity, and at the same time the illusive differentiation of the Angel-Monad and the HumanMonad is shown by the following sentences: "My Father is greater than I" (John xiv. 26) ; "Glorify
your Father who is in Heaven" (Matt. v. 16); "The righteous will shine in the kingdom of their Father"
(not our Father) (Matt. xiii. 43) "Know ye not ye are a temple of God, and that the Spirit of God
dwelleth in you? (I Cor. iii. 16); "I ascend to my Father," etc., etc.

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 575 WHAT ARE THE SEVEN PLANETS?

It is then the "Seven Sons of Light" -- called after their planets and (by the rabble) often identified with
them -- namely Saturn, Jupiter, Mercury, Mars, Venus, and -- presumably for the modern critic, who
goes no deeper than the surface of old religions* -- the Sun and Moon, which are, according to the
Occult teachings, our heavenly Parents, or "Father," synthetically. Hence, as already remarked,
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polytheism is really more philosophical and correct, as to fact and nature, than anthropomorphic
monotheism. Saturn, Jupiter, Mercury, and Venus, the four exoteric planets, and the three others,
which must remain unnamed, were the heavenly bodies in direct astral and psychic communication
with the Earth, its Guides, and Watchers -- morally and physically; the visible orbs furnishing our
Humanity with its outward and inward characteristics, and their "Regents" or Rectors with our Monads
and spiritual faculties. In order to avoid creating new misconceptions, let it be stated that among the
three secret orbs (or star-angels) neither Uranus nor Neptune entered; not only because they were
unknown under these names to the ancient Sages, but because they, as all other planets, however many
there may be, are the gods and guardians of other septenary chains of globes within our systems.
Nor do the two last discovered great planets depend entirely on the Sun like the rest of the planets.
Otherwise, how explain the fact that Neptune receives 900 times less light than our Earth, and Uranus
390 times less, and that their satellites show a peculiarity of inverse rotation found in no other planets
of the Solar System. At any rate, what we say applies to Uranus, though recently the fact begins again
to be disputed.
This subject will, of course, be considered mere vagary by all those who confuse the universal order of
being with their own systems of classification. Here, however, simple facts from Occult teachings are
stated, to be either accepted or rejected, as the case may be. There are details which, on account of
their great metaphysical abstractions, cannot be entered upon. Hence, we merely state that only seven
of our planets are as intimately related to our globe, as the Sun is to all
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* These are planets accepted for purposes of judicial astrology only. The astrotheogonical division
differed from this one. The Sun, being a central star and no planet, stands in more occult and
mysterious relations with its seven planets of our globe than is generally known. The Sun was,
therefore, considered the great Father of all the Seven "Fathers," which accounts for the variations
found between seven and eight great gods of the Chaldean and other countries. Neither the earth nor
the moon -- its satellite -- nor yet stars, for another reason -- were anything else than substitutes for
esoteric purposes. Yet, even with the Sun and the Moon thrown out of the calculation, the ancients
seem to have known of seven planets. How many more are known to us, so far, if we throw out the
Earth and Moon? Seven, and no more: Seven primary or principal planets, the rest planetoids rather
than planets.

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 576 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

the bodies subject to him in his system. Of these bodies the poor little number of primary and
secondary planets known to astronomy, looks wretched enough, in truth.* Therefore, it stands to
reason that there are a great number of planets, small and large, that have not been discovered yet, but
of the existence of which ancient astronomers -- all of them initiated adepts -- must have certainly been
aware. But, as their relation to the gods was sacred, it had to remain arcane, as also the names of
various other planets and stars.

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Besides which, even the Roman Catholic theology speaks of "seventy planets that preside over the
destinies of the nations of this globe"; and, save the erroneous application, there is more truth in this
tradition than in exact modern astronomy. The seventy planets are connected with the seventy elders of
the people of Israel (Numb. 11, 16) because the regents of these planets are meant, not the orbs
themselves; and the word seventy is a play and a blind upon the 7 x 7 of the subdivisions. Each people
and nation, as said already, has its direct Watcher, Guardian and Father in Heaven -- a Planetary Spirit.
We are willing to leave their own national God, Jehovah, to the descendants of Israel, the worshippers
of Sabaoth or SATURN; for, indeed, the monads of the people chosen by him are his own, and the
Bible has never made a secret of it. Only the text of the English (Protestant) Bible is, in disagreement,
as usual, with those of the Septuagint and the Vulgate. Thus, while in the former one reads (in Deuter.
xxxii., 8 and 9) "When the MOST HIGH (not Jehovah) divided to the nations their inheritance . . . he
set the bounds of the people according to the number of the children of Israel," in the Septuagint the
text reads "according to the number of the Angels" (Planet-Angels), which is more concordant with
truth and fact. Moreover, all the texts agree that "the Lord's (Jehovah) portion is his people; Jacob is
the lot of his inheritance" (Deut. xxxii. 9); and this settles the question. The "Lord" Jehovah took for
his portion Israel -- what have other nations to do with that particular national Deity? Let then, the
"angel Gabriel" watch over Iran and "Mikael-Jehovah" over the Hebrews. These are not the gods of
other nations, and it is difficult to see why Christians
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* When one remembers that under the powerful telescope of Sir W. Herschell, that eminent
astronomer, gauging merely that portion of heaven in the equatorial plane, the approximate centre of
which is occupied by our Earth -- saw pass in one quarter of an hour, 16,000 stars; and applying this
calculation to the totality of the "Milky Way" he found in it no less than 18 (eighteen) millions of
SUNS -- one wonders no longer that Laplace, in conversation with Napoleon I. should have called God
a HYPOTHESIS -- perfectly useless to speculate upon for exact physical Science, at any rate. Occult
metaphysics and transcendental philosophy will alone be able to lift the smallest corner of the
impenetrable veil in this direction.

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 577 CYCLIC FALL OF THE GODS.

should have selected a god against whose commandments Jesus was the first one to rise in rebellion.
The Planetary origin of the Monad (Soul) and of its faculties was taught by the Gnostics. On its way to
the Earth, as on its way back from the Earth, each soul born in, and from, the "Boundless Light,"* had
to pass through the seven planetary regions both ways. The pure Dhyani and Devas of the oldest
religions had become, in course of time, with the Zoroastrians, the Seven Daevas, the ministers of
Ahriman, "each chained to his planet" (see Origen's Copy of the Chart); with the Brahmins, the Asuras
and some of its Rishis -- good, bad and indifferent; and among the Egyptian Gnostics it was Thoth or
(Hermes) who was the chief of the seven whose names are given by Origen as Adonai, genius of the
Sun; Tao, of the Moon; Eloi, of Jupiter; Sabao, of Mars; Orai, of Venus; Astaphai, of Mercury; and
Ildabaoth (Jehovah), of Saturn. Finally, the Pistis-Sophia, which the greatest modern authority on
exoteric Gnostic beliefs, the late Mr. C. W. King, refers to as "that precious monument of Gnosticism,"
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-- this old document echoes, while distorting it to sectarian purposes, the archaic belief of the ages. The
Astral Rulers of the Spheres (the planets) create the monads (the Souls) from their own substance out
of the "tears of their eyes, and the sweat of their torments," endowing the monads with a spark of the
Divine Light, which is their substance. It will be shown in Book II. why these "Lords of the Zodiac
and Spheres" have been transformed by sectarian theology into the rebellious angels of the Christians,
who took them from the Seven Devs of the Magi, without understanding the significance of the
allegory. (Vide Part II., "On the Seven Souls," and Section xv. in this Part, "GODS, MONADS AND
ATOMS").
As usual, that which is and was from its beginning divine, pure, and spiritual in its earliest unity,
became, by reason of its differentiation by the distorted prism of man's conceptions, human and
impure, as reflecting man's own sinful nature. Thus, in time, the planet Saturn became reviled by the
worshippers of other "gods." The nations born under Saturn -- the Jewish, for instance -- with whom he
had become Jehovah, after having been held as a son of Saturn, or Ilda-Baoth, by the Ophites, and in
the book of Jasher -- were eternally fighting with those born under Jupiter, Mercury, or any other
planet, except Saturn-Jehovah; genealogies and prophecies notwithstanding, Jesus the initiate (or
Jehoshua) -- the type from whom the "historical" Jesus was
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* C. W. King, identifies it with "that summum bonum of Oriental aspiration, the Buddhist Nirvana,"
perfect repose, the Epicurean Indolentia, which looks flippant enough in its expression, though not
quite untrue.

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 578 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

copied -- was not of pure Jewish blood, and thus recognised no Jehovah; nor did he worship any
planetary god beside his own "Father," whom he knew, and with whom he communed as every high
initiate does, "Spirit to Spirit and Soul to Soul." This can hardly be taken exception to, unless the critic
explains to every one's satisfaction the strange sentences put in the mouth of Jesus by the author of the
Fourth Gospel (chapter viii.) during his disputes with the Pharisees.
"I know ye are Abraham's seed* . . . I speak the things which I have seen with my Father; and ye do the
things which ye heard from your Father. . . . . Ye do the works of your Father. . . . . Ye are of your
Father, the Devil. . . . . He was a murderer from the beginning, and stood not in the truth, because there
is no truth in him. When one speaketh a lie he speaketh of his own; for his father also is a liar and the
father thereof," etc., etc.
That "Father" of the Pharisees was Jehovah, because identical with Cain, Saturn, Vulcan, etc. -- the
planet under which they were born, and the God whom they worshipped. Evidently there must be an
occult meaning sought in these words and admonitions, however mistranslated, since they are
pronounced by one who threatened with hell-fire anyone who says simply raca (fool) to his brother
(Matthew v., 22). And evidently, again, the planets are not merely spheres, twinkling in Space, and
made to shine for no purpose, but the domains of various beings with whom the profane are so far
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unacquainted; nevertheless, having a mysterious, unbroken, and powerful connection with men and
globes. Every heavenly body is the temple of a god, and these gods themselves are the temples of
GOD, the Unknown "Not Spirit." There is nothing profane in the Universe. All Nature is a consecrated
place, as Young says: -"Each of these Stars is a religious house." . . . .
Thus can all exoteric religions be shown the falsified copies of the esoteric teaching. It is the
priesthood which has to be held responsible for the reaction in favour of materialism of our day. It is
by worshiping and enforcing on the masses the worship of the shells -- personified for purposes of
allegory -- of pagan ideals, that the latest exoteric religion has made of Western lands a Pandemonium,
in which the higher classes worship the golden calf, and the lower and ignorant masses are made to
worship an idol with feet of clay.
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* Abraham and Saturn are identical in astro-symbology, and he is the forefa ther of the Jehovistic Jews.

Next Section
Contents

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

Theosophical University Press Online Edition

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 579 ANTIQUITY OUR GREAT MASTER.

XII.
ANCIENT THOUGHT IN MODERN DRESS.
MODERN SCIENCE IS ANCIENT THOUGHT DISTORTED, and no more. We have seen, however,
WHAT INTUITIONAL SCIENTISTS THINK, and are busy about; and now the reader may be given
a few more proofs of the fact that more than one F.R.S. is unconsciously approaching the derided
Secret Sciences.
With regard to cosmogony and primeval matter, modern speculations are undeniably ancient thought,
improved by contradictory theories of recent origin. But the whole foundation belongs to Grecian and
Indian Archaic astronomy and physics, in those days always called philosophy. In all the Aryan and
Greek speculations, one meets with the conception of an all-pervading, unorganized, and
homogeneous matter, or Chaos, re-named by modern scientists "Nebular condition of the world-stuff."
What Anaxagoras called "Chaos" in his Homoiomeria is now called "primitive fluid" by Sir W.
Thomson. The Hindu and Greek Atomists -- Kanada, Leucippus, Democritus, Epicurus, Lucretius,
etc., etc., are now reflected as in a clear mirror, in the supporters of the atomic theory of our modern
days, beginning with Leibnitz's Monads, and ending with the "Vortical Atoms" of Sir W. Thomson.*
True, the corpuscular theory of old is rejected, and the undulatory theory has taken its place. But the
question is, whether the latter is so firmly established as not to be liable to be dethroned as was its
predecessor? Light from its metaphysical aspect was fully treated of in "Isis Unveiled": -"Light is the first begotten, and the first emanation of the Supreme, and Light is Life,
says the Evangelist and the Kabalist. Both are electricity -- the life principle, the anima
mundi, pervading the universe, the electric vivifier of all things. Light is the great
Protean magician, and under the divine will of the architect,** or rather the architects,
the "Builders" (called One collectively), its multifarious, omnipotent waves gave birth to
every form as well as to every living being. From its swelling electric bosom, spring
matter and spirit. Within its beams lie the beginnings of all physical and chemical
action, and of all cosmic and spiritual phenomena; it vitalizes and disorganizes; it gives
life and produces death, and from its primordial point gradually emerged into existence
the myriads of worlds, visible and invisible celestial bodies. It was at the ray of this First
mother, one in three, that "God," according to
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* The Elemental Vortices inaugurated by the Mind have not been improved by their modern
transformation.

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** I have been often taken to task for using expressions in Isis denoting belief in a personal and
anthropomorphic God. This is not my idea. Kabalistically speaking, the "Architect" is the generic
name for the Sephiroth, the Builders of the Universe, as the "Universal Mind" represents the
collectivity of the Dhyan Chohanic Minds.

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 580 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

Plato, lighted a fire which we now call the sun,"* and which is not the cause of either
light or heat, but merely the focus, or, as we might say, the lens, by which the rays of the
primordial light become materialised, are concentrate upon our Solar System, and
produce all the correlations of forces."
This is the Ether, as just explained in the views of Metcalfe, repeated by Dr. Richardson, save the
submission of the former to some details of the modern undulatory theory. We do not say that we deny
the theory, but assert only that it needs completion and re-arrangement. But the Occultists are by no
means the only heretics in this respect; for Mr. Robert Hunt, F.R.S., remarks, in his Researches on
Light in its Chemical Relations, that: -. . . . "the undulatory theory does not account for the results of his experiments. Sir
David Brewster, in his Treatise on Optics, showing 'that the colours of vegetable life
arise . . . . from a specific attraction which the particles of these bodies exercise over the
differently-coloured rays of light,' and that 'it is by the light of the sun that the coloured
juices of plants are elaborated, that the colours of bodies are changed, etc. . . . .' remarks
that it is not easy to allow 'that such effects can be produced by the mere vibration of an
ethereal medium.' And he is forced, he says, 'by this class of facts, to reason as if light
was material (?).' Professor Josiah P. Cooke, of Harvard University, says that he 'cannot
agree . . . . with those who regard the wave-theory of light as an established principle of
science.'** Herschell's doctrine, that the intensity of light, in effect of each undulation,
'is inversely as the square of the distance from the luminous body,' if correct, damages a
good deal, if it does not kill the undulatory theory. That he is right, was proved
repeatedly by experiments with photometers; and though it begins to be much doubted,
the undulatory theory is still alive." ("Isis Unveiled.")
To this remark of Sir W. Brewster -- "forced to reason as if light was material" -- there is a good deal
to reply. Light, in one sense, is certainly as material as electricity itself is. And if electricity is not
material, if it is only "a mode of motion," how is it that it can be stored up in Faure's accumulators?
Helmholtz says that electricity must be as atomic as matter; and Mr. W. Crookes, F.R.S., supported the
view in his address to the Chemical Section of the British Association, of which he was President (at
Birmingham, 1886). This is what Helmholtz says (in his Faraday Lectures, 1881): -"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."

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Here we have to repeat that which was already said in Section IX: there is but one science that can
henceforth direct modern research into the one path which will lead to the discovery of the whole,
hitherto
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* "Timaeus."
** Modern Chemistry.

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 581 A CHASE AFTER THE PRIMAL MATTER.

occult, truth, and it is the youngest of all -- chemistry, as it now stands reformed. There is no other, not
excluding astronomy, that can so unerringly guide scientific intuition, as chemistry can. Two proofs of
it are to be found in the world of Science -- two great chemists, each among the greatest in his own
country, and these are Mr. Crookes and the late Professor Butlerof: one, a thorough believer in
abnormal phenomena; the other, as fervid a Spiritualist as he was great in natural Sciences. It becomes
evident that while pondering over the ultimate divisibility of matter, and in the hitherto fruitless chase
after the element of negative atomic weight, the scientifically trained mind of the chemist must feel
irresistibly drawn towards those ever-shrouded worlds, to the mysterious beyond, whose measureless
depths seem to close against the approach of the too materialistic hand that would fain draw aside its
veil. "It is the unknown and the ever unknowable," warns the Monist-Agnostic. Not so; answers the
persevering chemist: -- "We are on the track and are not daunted, and fain would we enter the
mysterious region which ignorance tickets unknown."*
A few lines at the very close of his lecture on the Genesis of the Elements -- two or three sentences -showed the eminent Scientist to be on the royal road to the greatest discoveries. He has been
overshadowing for some time "the original protyle," and came to the conclusion that "he who grasps
the Key will be permitted to unlock some of the deepest mysteries of creation." The protyle, as that
great chemist explains: -". . . is a word analogous to protoplasm, to express the idea of the original primal matter
existing before the evolution of the chemical elements. The word I have ventured to use
for this purpose is compounded of [[pro]] (earlier than) and [[hyle]] (the stuff of which
things are made). The word is scarcely a new coinage, for 600 years ago Roger Bacon
wrote in his Arte Chymiae, "The elements are made out of [[hyle]] and every element is
converted into the nature of another element."
The Knowledge of Roger Bacon did not come to this wonderful old magician** by inspiration, but
because he studied ancient works on
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* Mr. Crookes' "Presidential Address" at Birmingham. "There is but one unknown -- the ultimate
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substratum of Spirit (Space). That which is not the Absolute and the One is, in virtue of that very
differentiation, however far removed from the physical senses, always accessible to the spiritual
human mind, which is a coruscation of the undifferentiable Integral." -- (Practical Lessons on the
Occult.)
** Thus, what the writer of the present work said ten years ago in "Isis Unveiled" (Vol. I.) was
prophetic, it seems. These are the words: "Many of these mystics, by following what they were taught
by some treatises, secretly preserved from one generation to another, achieved discoveries which
would not be despised even in our modern days of exact sciences. Roger Bacon, the friar, was laughed
at as a quack, and is now generally numbered among 'pretenders' to magic art; but his discoveries were
nevertheless accepted, and are now used by those who ridicule him the most. Roger Bacon belonged
by right, if not by fact, to that Brotherhood which includes all those who [[Footnote continued on next
page]]

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 582 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

magic and alchemy, having a key to the real meaning of words. But see what Mr. Crookes says of
protyle, next neighbour to the unconscious Mulaprakriti of the Occultists: -. . . . . "Let us start at the moment when the first element came into existence. Before this
time, matter, as we know it, was not. It is equally impossible to conceive of matter
without energy, as of energy without matter; from one point of view both are convertible
terms. Before the birth of atoms, all those forms of energy, which become evident when
matter acts upon matter, could not have existed* -- they were locked up in the protyle as
latent potentialities only. Coincident with the creation of atoms, all those attri butes and
properties, which form the means of discriminating one chemical element from another,
start into existence fully endowed with energy." (Presidential Address, p. 16.)
With every respect due to the great knowledge of the lecturer, the Occultist would put it otherwise.
They would say that no atom is ever "created," for the atoms are eternal within the bosom of the One
Atom, -- "the atom of atoms" -- viewed during Manvantara as the Jagad-Yoni the material causative
womb of the world. Pradhana (unmodified matter), that which is the first form of Prakriti, or material
visible, as well as invisible nature, and Purusha, spirit, are eternally one; and they are Nirupadhi,
(without adventitious qualities or attri butes) only during Pralaya, and when beyond any of the planes
of consciousness of existence. The atom, as known to modern science, is inseparable from Purusha,
which is spirit, but is now called "Energy" in Science. The protyle atom has not been comminuted or
subtilized: it has simply passed into that plane, which is no plane, but the eternal state of everything
beyond the planes of illusion. Both Purusha and Pradhana are immutable and unconsumable, or
Aparinamin and Avyaya, in eternity; and both during the Mayavic periods may be referred to as Vyaya
and Parinamin, or that which can expand, pass away and disappear, and is "modifiable." In this sense
Purusha, must of course, be held distinct in our conceptions from Parabrahmam. Nevertheless that,
which is called "energy" or "force" in Science and has been explained as a dual Force by Metcalfe, is
never, in fact, and cannot be energy alone; for it is the substance of the world, its soul, the allpermeant "Sarvaga," in conjunction with Kala "time." The three are the trinity in one, during
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Manvantara, the all-potential Unity, which acts on the plane of illusion (Maya) as three distinct things.
In Orphic
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

[[Footnote continued from previous page]] study the occult sciences. Living in the thirteenth century,
almost a contemporary, therefore, of Albertus Magnus and Thomas Aquinas, his discoveries -- such as
gunpowder and optical glasses, and his mechanical achievements -- were considered by everyone as so
many miracles. He was accused of having made a compact with the Evil One."
* Just so; "those forms of energy . . . which become evident . . ." in the laboratory of the chemist and
physicist; but there are other forms of energy wedded to other forms of matter, -- which are
supersensuous, yet known to the adepts.

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 583 ALL-POTENTIAL UNITY.

philosophy in Greece they were called Phanes, Chaos, and Chronos -- the triad of the Occult
philosophers of that period.
But see how closely Mr. Crookes brushes by the "Unknowable," and what "potentialities" there are for
the acceptance of Occult truths in his discoveries. He continues, speaking of the evolution of atoms: -". . . . Let us pause at the end of the first complete vibration and examine the result. We
have already found the elements of water, ammonia, carbonic acid, the atmosphere,
plant and animal life, phosphorus for the brain, salt for the seas, clay for the solid earth .
. . phosphates and silicates sufficient for a world and inhabitants not so very different
from what we enjoy at the present day. True the human inhabitants would have to live in
a state of more than Arcadian simplicity, and the absence of calcic phosphate would be
awkward as far as the bone is concerned* . . . At the lower end of our curve . . . we see a
great hiatus . . . This oasis, and the blanks which precede and follow it, may be referred
with much probability to the particular way in which our Earth developed into a member
of our solar system. If this be so, it may be that on our Earth only these blanks occur,
and not generally throughout the universe."
This justifies several assertions in the Occult works.
Firstly, "that neither stars nor the sun can be said to be constituted of those terrestrial elements with
which the chemist is familiar, though they are all present in the sun's outward robes -- and a host more
of elements so far unknown to science."
Secondly, that our globe has its own special laboratory on the far-away outskirts of its atmosphere,
crossing which, every atom and molecule change and differentiate from their primordial nature.

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And Thirdly, that though no element present on our earth could ever be possibly found wanting in the
sun, there are many others which have either not reached, or not as yet been discovered on, our globe.
"Some may be missing in certain stars and heavenly bodies in the process of formation; or, though
present in them, these elements, on account of their present state, may not respond as yet to the usual
scientific tests."** Mr. Crookes speaks of an element of still lower atomic weight than hydrogen, an
element purely hypothetical as far as our earth is concerned . . . though existing in abundance in the
chromosphere of the Sun -- the helium. Occult Science adds that not one of the elements regarded by
chemistry as such really deserves the name.
Again we find Mr. Crookes speaking with approbation of "Dr. Carnelly's weighty argument in favour
of the compound nature of the so-called elements, from their analogy to the compound radicles! "
Hitherto,
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* It is just the existence of such worlds in other planes of consciousness that is claimed by the
Occultist. The secret science teaches that the primitive race was boneless. (See Book II.); and that
there are (to us) invisible worlds, peopled as our own, besides the populations of Dhyan Chohans.
** "Five Years of Theosophy," p. 258 et seq.

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 584 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

alchemy alone succeeded within the historical periods, and in the so-called civilized countries, in
obtaining a real element, or a particle of homogeneous matter, the Mysterium Magnum of Paracelsus.
But then it was before Lord Bacon's day.*
". . . Let us now turn to the upper portion of the scheme. With hydrogen of atomic
weight = 1, there is little room for other elements, save, perhaps, for hypothetical
Helium. But what if we get 'through the looking-glass,' and cross the zero line in search
of new principles -- what shall we find on the other side of zero? Dr. Carnelly asks for
an element of negative atomic weight; here is ample room and verge enough for a
shadow series of such unsubstantialities. Helmholtz says that electricity is probably as
atomic as matter; is electricity one of the negative elements, and the luminiferous ether
another? Matter, as we now know it, does not here exist; the forms of energy which are
apparent in the motions of matter are as yet only latent possibilities. A substance of
negative weight is not inconceivable.** But can we form a clear conception of a body
which combines with other bodies in proportions expressible by negative qualities?"***
"A genesis of the elements such as is here sketched out would not be confined to our
little solar system, but would probably follow the same general sequence of events in
every centre of energy now visible as a star."
"Before the birth of atoms to gravitate towards one another, no pressure could be
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exercised; but at the outskirts of the fire-mist sphere, within which all is protyle -- at the
shell on which the tremendous forces involved in the birth of a chemical element exert
full sway -- the fierce heat would be accompanied by gravitation sufficient to keep the
newly-born elements from flying off into space. As temperature increases, expansion
and molecular motion increase, molecules tend to fly asunder, and their chemical
affinities become deadened; but the enormous pressure of the gravitation of the mass of
atomic matter, outside what I may for brevity call the birth-shell, would counteract the
action of heat."
"Beyond the birth-shell would be a space in which no chemical action could take place,
owing to the temperature there being above what is called the dissociation-point for
compounds. In this space the lion and the lamb would lie down together; phosphorus
and oxygen would mix without union; hydrogen and chlorine would show no tendency
to closer bonds; and even fluorine, that
[[Footnote(s)]] ------------------------------------------------* Says Mr. Crookes in the same address: "The first riddle which we encounter in chemistry is: 'What
are the elements?' Of the attempts hitherto made to define or explain an element, none satisfy the
demands of the human intellect. The text books tell us that an element is 'a body which has not been
decomposed ''that it is 'a something to which we can add, but from which we can take nothing,' or 'a
body which increases in weight with every chemical change.' Such definitions are doubly
unsatisfactory: they are provisional, and may cease to-morrow to be applicable in any given case. They
take their stand, not on any attri bute of the things to be defined, but on the limitations of human power:
they are confessions of intellectual impotence."
** And the lecturer quotes Sir George Airy, who says (in Faraday's Life and Letters Vol. II., p. 354),
"I can easily conceive that there are plenty of bodies about us not subject to this intermutual action,
and therefore not subject to the law of gravitation."
*** The Vedantic philosophy conceives of such; but then it is not physics, but metaphysics, called by
Mr. Tyndall "poetry" and "fiction."

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 585 THE "SEVENTH" IN CHEMISTRY.

energetic gas which chemists have only isolated within the last month or two, would
float about free and uncombined."
"Outside this space of free atomic matter would be another shell, in which the formed
chemical elements would have cooled down to the combination point, and the sequence
of events so graphically described by Mr. Mattieu Williams in "The Fuel of the Sun"
would now take place, culminating in the solid earth and the commencement of
geological time" (p. 19).

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This is, in a strictly scientific, but beautiful language, the description of the evolution of the
differentiated Universe in the secret teachings. The learned gentleman closes his address in words,
every sentence of which is like a flash of light from beyond the dark veil of materiality, hitherto
thrown upon the exact sciences, and a step forward towards the Sanctum Sanctorum of the Occult.
(Vide XV., "Gods, Monads, and Atoms.") Thus he says: -"We have glanced at the difficulty of defining an element; we have noticed, too, the
revolt of many leading physicists and chemists against the ordinary acceptation of the
term element; we have weighed the improbability of their eternal existence,* or their
origination by chance. As a remaining alternative, we have suggested their origin by a
process of evolution like that of the heavenly bodies according to Laplace, and the
plants and animals of our globe according to Lamarck, Darwin, and Wallace.** In the
general array of the elements, as known to us, we have seen a striking approximation to
that of the organic world.*** In lack of direct evidence of the decomposition of any
element, we have sought and found indirect evidence . . . . We have next glanced at the
view of the genesis of the elements; and lastly we have reviewed a scheme of their
origin suggested by Professor Reynold's method of illustrating the periodic
classification**** . . . Summing up all the above considerations we cannot,
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* In the form they are now, we conceive?
** And to Kapila and Manu -- especially and originally.
*** Here is a scientific corroboration of the eternal law of correspondences and analogy.
**** This method of illustrating the periodic law in the classification of elements is, in the words of
Mr. Crookes, proposed by Professor Emerson Reynolds, of Dublin University, who . . . . "points out
that in each period, the general properties of the elements vary from one to another, with approximate
regularity until we reach the seventh member, which is in more or less striking contrast with the first
element of the same period, as well as with the first of the next. Thus chlorine, the seventh member of
Mendeleef's third period, contrasts sharply with both sodium, the first member of the same series, and
with potassium, the first member of the next series; whilst on the other hand, sodium and potassium
are closely analogous. The six elements, whose atomic weights intervene between sodium and
potassium, vary in properties, step by step, until chlorine, the contrast to sodium, is reached. But from
chlorine to potassium, the analogue of sodium, there is a change in properties per saltum. . . . . If we
thus recognise a contrast in properties -- more or less decided -- between the first and the last members
of each series, we can scarcely help admitting the existence of a point of mean variation within each
system. In general the fourth element of each series possesses the property we might expect a
transition-element to exhibit. . . . . Thus for the purpose of graphic translation, Professor Reynolds
considers that the fourth member of a period -- silicon, for example -- may be placed at the apex of a
symmetrical [[Footnote continued on next page]]

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[[Vol. 1, Page]] 586 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

indeed, venture to assert positively that our so-called elements have been evolved from
one primordial matter; but we may contend that the balance of evidence, I think, fairly
weighs in favour of this speculation."
Thus inductive Science, in its Branches of Astronomy, Physics, and Chemistry, while advancing
timidly towards the conquest of Nature's secrets in her final effects on our terrestrial plane, recedes to
the days of Anaxagoras and the Chaldees in its discoveries of (a) the origin of our phenomenal world,
and (b) the modes of formation of the bodies that compose the universe. And having to turn back for
their cosmogonical hypotheses to the beliefs of the earliest philosophers, and the systems of the latter -systems that were all based on the teachings of a universal secret doctrine with regard to the primeval
matter with its properties, functions, and laws, -- have we not the right to hope that the day is not far
off when Science will show a better appreciation of the wisdom of the ancients than it has hitherto
done?
No doubt Occult philosophy could learn a good deal from exact modern science; but the latter, on the
other hand, might profit by ancient learning in more than one way, and chiefly in Cosmogony. For
[[Footnote(s)]] ------------------------------------------------[[Footnote continued from previous page]] curve, which shall represent for that particular period, the
direction in which the properties of the series of elements vary with rising atomic weights.
Now, the writer humbly confesses complete ignorance of modern chemistry and its mysteries. But she
is pretty well acquainted with the Occult doctrine with regard to correspondences of types and
antitypes in nature, and perfect analogy as a fundamental law in Occultism. Hence she ventures a
remark which will strike every Occultist, however it may be derided by orthodox Science. This
method of illustrating the periodic law in the behaviour of elements, whether or not still a hypothesis
in chemistry, is a law in Occult Sciences. Every well-read Occultist knows that the seventh and fourth
members -- whether in a septenary chain of worlds, the septenary hierarchy of angels, or in the
constitution of man, animal, plant, or mineral atom -- that the seventh and fourth members, we say, in
the geometrically and mathematically uniform workings of the immutable laws of Nature, always play
a distinct and specific part in the septenary system. From the stars twinkling high in heaven, to the
sparks flying asunder from the rude fire built by the savage in his forest; from the hierarchies and the
essential constitution of the Dhyan Chohans -- organized for diviner apprehensions and a loftier range
of perception than the greatest Western psychologist ever dreamed of, down to Nature's classification
of species among the humblest insects; finally from worlds to atoms, everything in the universe, from
great to small, proceeds in its spiritual and physical evolution, cyclically and septennially, showing its
seventh and fourth number (the latter the turning point) behaving in the same way as shown in that
periodic law of atoms. Nature never proceeds per saltum. Therefore, when Mr. Crookes remarks to
this that he does not "wish to infer that the gaps in Mendeleef's table, and in this graphic representation
of it (the diagram showing the evolution of atoms) necessarily mean that there are elements actually
existing to fill up the gaps; these gaps may only mean that at the birth of the elements there was an
easy potentiality of the formation of an element which would fit into the place" -- an Occultist would

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respectfully remark to him that the latter hypothesis can only hold good, if the septenary arrangement
of atoms is not interfered with. This is the one law, and an infallible method that must always lead to
success, one who follows it.

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 587 PURANAS VERSUS ROYAL SOCIETY.

instance, the mystical signification, alchemical and transcendental, of the many imponderable
substances that fill interplanetary space, and which, interpenetrating each, are the direct cause, at the
lower end, of the production of natural phenomena manifesting through vibration (so-called). The
knowledge of the real (not the hypothetical) nature of Ether, or rather of the Akasa, and other
mysteries, in short, can alone lead to the knowledge of Forces. It is that substance against which the
materialistic school of the physicists rebels with such fury, especially in France,* and which exact
Science has to advocate notwithstanding. They cannot make away with it without incurring the risk,
like a modern Samson, of pulling down the pillars of the Temple of Science, and getting buried under
its roof.
The theories built upon the rejection of Force outside and independent of Matter pure and simple, have
been all shown fallacious. They do not, and cannot, cover the ground, and many of the scientific data
are thus proved unscientific. "Ether produced Sound" is said in the Puranas, and the statement is
laughed at. It is the vibrations in the air, we are corrected. And what is air? Could it exist if there were
no etheric medium in Space to buoy up its molecules? The case stands simply thus. Materialism
cannot admit the existence of anything outside matter, because with the acceptance of an imponderable
Force -- the source and head of all the physical Forces -- other intelligent Forces would have to be
admitted virtually, and that would lead Science very far. For it would have to accept as a sequel the
presence in Man of a still more spiritual power -- entirely independent, for once, of any kind of matter
physicists know anything about. Hence, apart from an hypothetical ether of Space and gross physical
bodies, the whole Sidereal and unseen Space is, in the sight of the materialists, one boundless void in
nature -- blind, unintelligent, useless.
And now the next question is: What is that Cosmic Substance, and how far can one go to suspect its
nature or to wrench from it its secrets, and thus feel justified in giving it a NAME? How far,
especially, has modern Science gone in the direction of those secrets, and what it is doing to solve
them. The latest hobby of Science, the "Nebular Theory," may afford us some answer to this question.
Let us then examine the credentials of the NEBULAR THEORY.
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* A group of electricians has just protested against the new theory of Clausius, the famous professor of
the University of Bonn. The character of the protest is shown in the signature, which has "Jules
Bourdin, in the name of the group of Electricians, which had the honour of being introduced to
Professor Clausius in 1881, and whose war-cry (cri de ralliement) is A bas l'Ether" -- down with ether,
even; they want Universal Void, you see!

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Next Section
Contents

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

Theosophical University Press Online Edition

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 588 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

XIII.
SCIENTIFIC AND ESOTERIC EVIDENCE FOR, AND OBJECTIONS TO, THE MODERN
NEBULAR THEORY.
OF late Esoteric Cosmogony has been frequently opposed by the phantom of this theory and its
ensuing hypotheses. "Can this most scientific teaching be denied by your adepts?" it is asked. "Not
entirely," is the reply, "but the admissions of the men of Science themselves kill it; and there remains
nothing for the adepts to deny."
To make of Science an integral whole necessitates, indeed, the study of spiritual and psychic, as well
as physical Nature. Otherwise it will ever be like the anatomy of man, discussed of old by the profane
from the point of view of his shell-side and in ignorance of the interior work. Even Plato, the greatest
philosopher of his country, became guilty, before his initiation, of such statements as that liquids pass
into the stomach through the lungs. Without metaphysics, as Mr. H. J. Slack says, real science is
inadmissible.
The nebulae exist; yet the nebular theory is wrong. A nebula exists in a state of entire elemental
dissociation. It is gaseous and -- something else besides, which can hardly be connected with gases, as
known to physical science; and it is self-luminous. But that is all. The sixty-two "coincidences"
enumerated by Professor Stephen Alexander,* confirming the nebular theory, may all be explained by
esoteric science; though, as this is not an astronomical work, the refutations are not attempted at
present. Laplace and Faye come nearer to the correct theory than any; but of the speculations of
Laplace there remains little in the present theory except its general features. Nevertheless, "there is in
Laplace's theory," says John Stuart Mill, "nothing hypothetical; it is an example of legitimate
reasoning from present effect to its past cause; it assumes nothing more than that objects which really
exist, obey the laws which are known to be obeyed by all terrestrial objects resembling them." (System
of Logic, p. 229).
This from such an eminent logician as Mill was, would be valuable, if it could only be proved that
"terrestrial objects resembling . . ." celestial objects at such a distance as the nebulae are -- resemble
those objects in reality, not alone in appearance.
Another of the fallacies from the Occult stand-point, which are embodied in the modern theory as it
now stands, is the hypothesis that the planets were all detached from the Sun; that they are bone of
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

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* "Smithsonian Contri butions," xxi., Art. 1, pp. 79-97.

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 589 "SO FAR SHALT THOU GO . . . ."

his bone, and flesh of his flesh; whereas, the Sun and planets are only co-uterine brothers, having had
the same nebular origin, only in a different mode from that postulated by modern astronomy.
The many objections raised against the homogeneity of original diffuse matter, on the ground of the
uniformity in the composition of the fixed stars, by some opponents of the modern nebular theory, do
not affect the question of that homogeneity at all, but only the said theory. Our solar nebula may not
be completely homogeneous, or, rather, it may fail to reveal itself as such to the astronomers, and yet
be de facto homogeneous. The stars do differ in their constituent materials and even exhibit elements
quite unknown on earth; nevertheless, this does not affect the point that primeval matter -- i.e., as it
appeared even in its first differentiation from its laya condition* -- is yet to this day homogeneous, at
immense distances, in the depths of infinitude, and likewise at points not far removed from the
outskirts of our solar system.
Finally, there does not exist one single fact brought forward by the learned objectors against the
"nebular theory," (false as it is, and hence, illogically enough, fatal to the hypothesis of the
homogeneity of matter,) that can withstand criticism. One error leads into another. A false premise
will naturally lead to a false conclusion, although an inadmissible inference does not necessarily
affect the validity of the major proposition of the syllogism. Thus, one may leave every side-issue and
inference from the evidence of spectra, and lines, as simply provisional for the present, and abandon
all matters of detail to physical science. The duty of the Occultist lies with the Soul and Spirit of
Cosmic Space, not merely with its illusive appearance and behaviour. That of official physical science
is to analyze and study its shell -- the Ultima Thule of the Universe and man, in the opinion of
Materialism.
With the latter, Occultism has nought to do. It is only with the theories of such men of learning as
Kepler, Kant, Oersted, and Sir W. Herschell, who believed in a Spiritual world, that Occult
Cosmogony might treat, and attempt a satisfactory compromise. But the views of those physicists
differed vastly from the latest modern speculations. Kant and Herschell had in their mind's eye
speculations upon the origin and the final destiny, as well as the present aspect, of the Universe, from
a far more philosophical and psychic standpoint; whereas modern Cosmology and Astronomy now
repudiate anything like research into the mysteries of being. The result is what might be expected:
complete failure and inextricable contradictions in the thousand and one varieties of so-called
scientific theories, and in this theory as in all others.
The nebular hypothesis, involving the theory of the existence of a
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* Beyond the zero-line of action.

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[[Vol. 1, Page]] 590 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

primeval matter, diffused in a nebulous condition, is of no modern date in astronomy as everyone
knows. Anaximenes, of the Ionian school, had already taught that the sidereal bodies were formed
through the progressive condensation of a primordial pregenetic matter, which had almost a negative
weight, and was spread out through Space in an extremely sublimated condition.
Tycho Brahe, who viewed the Milky Way as an ethereal substance, thought the new star that appeared
in Cassiopoeia, in 1572, had been formed out of that matter. ("Progymnasmata" p. 795.) Kepler
believed the star of 1606 had been likewise formed out of the ethereal substance that fills the universe
("De stella nova in pede Serpentarii," p. 115). He attri buted to that same ether the apparition of a
luminous ring around the moon, during the total eclipse of the sun observed at Naples in 1605.
("Hypotheses Cosmogoniques," C. Wolf.) Still later, in 1714, -- the existence of a self-luminous matter
was recognised by Halley ("Philosophical Transactions"). Finally, the journal of this name published
in 1811 the famous hypothesis on the transformation of the nebulae into stars, by the eminent
astronomer, Sir W. Herschell (See "Philosophical Transactions," of 1811, p. 269, et seq.), after which
the nebular theory was accepted by the Royal Academies.
In "Five years of Theosophy," on p. 245, an article headed "Do the Adepts deny the Nebular Theory?"
may be read. The answer there given is "No; they do not deny its general propositions, nor the
approximative truth of the scientific hypotheses. They only deny the completeness of the present, as
well as the entire error of the many so-called "exploded" old theories, which, during the last century,
have followed each other in such rapid succession."
This was proclaimed at the time "an evasive answer." Such disrespect to official science, it was
argued, must be justified by the presentation, to replace the orthodox speculation, of another theory
more complete than theirs, and having a firmer ground to stand upon. To this there is but one reply; it
is useless to give out isolated theories with regard to things embodied in a whole and consecutive
system, which, when separated from the main body of the teaching, would necessarily lose their vital
coherence and thus do no good when studied independently. To be able to appreciate and accept the
occult views on the nebular theory, one has to study the whole esoteric cosmogonical system. And the
time has hardly arrived for the astronomers to be asked to accept Fohat and the divine Builders. Even
the undeniably correct surmises of Sir W. Herschell], that had nothing "supernatural" in them, about
the sun being called "globe of fire" (perhaps) metaphorically, and his early speculations about the
nature of that which is now called the Nasmyth willow-leaf theory -- caused that most eminent of all
astro-

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 591 FORCES ARE EMANATIONS.

nomers to be smiled at by other, far less eminent colleagues, who saw and now see in his ideas only
"imaginative and fanciful theories." Before the whole esoteric system could be given out and

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appreciated by the astronomers, they would have to return to some of those "antiquated ideas," not
only to those of Herschell, but to the dreams of the oldest Hindu astronomers, and to abandon their
own theories, none the less "fanciful" because they have appeared in one case nearly 80 years and in
the other many thousands of years later. Foremost of all they would have to repudiate the ideas on the
Sun's solidity and incandescence; the sun "glowing" most undeniably, but not "burning." Then it is
stated, with regard to Sir W. Herschell's view that those "objects," as he called the "willow leaves,"
are the immediate sources of the solar light and heat. And though the esoteric teaching does not
regard these as he did -- namely, organisms as partaking of the nature of life," for the Solar "Beings"
will hardly place themselves within telescopic focus -- yet it asserts that the whole Universe is full of
such "organisms," conscious and active according to the proximity or distance of their planes to, or
from, our plane of consciousness; and that finally the great astronomer was right in saying that "we do
not know that vital action is competent to develop at once heat, light, and electricity" while
speculating on those supposed "organisms." For, at the risk of being laughed at by the whole world of
physicists, the Occultists maintain that all the "Forces" of the Scientists have their origin in the Vital
Principle, the ONE LIFE collectively of our Solar system -- that "life" being a portion, or rather one
of the aspects of the One Universal LIFE.
We may, therefore, as in the article under consideration, wherein, on the authority of the Adepts, it
was maintained that it is "sufficient to make a resume of what the solar physicists do not know," -- we
may, we maintain, define our position with regard to the modern nebular theory and its evident
incorrectness, by simply pointing out facts diametrically opposed to it in its present form. And to
begin with, what does it teach?
Summarizing the aforesaid hypotheses, it becomes plain that Laplace's theory -- now made quite
unrecognisable, moreover -- was an unfortunate one. He postulates in the first place Cosmic matter,
existing in a state of diffuse nebulosity "so fine that its presence could hardly have been suspected."
No attempt is made by him to penetrate into the arcana of being, except as regards the immediate
evolution of our small solar system.
Consequently, whether one accepts or rejects his theory in its bearing upon the immediate
cosmological problems presented for solution, he can only be said to have thrown back the mystery a
little further. To the eternal query -- "Whence matter itself; whence the evolutionary impetus

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 592 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

determining its cyclic aggregations and dissolutions; whence the exquisite symmetry and order into
which the primeval atoms arrange and group themselves?" -- no answer is attempted by Laplace. All
we are confronted with, is a sketch of the probable broad principles on which the actual process is
assumed to be based. Well, and what is this now celebrated note on the said process? What has he
given so wonderfully new and original, that its ground-work, at any rate, should have served as a basis
for the modern nebular theory? This is what one gathers from various astronomical works.
Laplace thought that, consequent on the condensation of the atoms of the primeval nebula, according
to the "Law" of gravity, the now gaseous, or perhaps, partially liquid mass, acquired a rotatory
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motion. As the velocity of this rotation increased, it assumed the form of a thin disc; finally, the
centrifugal force overpowering that of cohesion, huge rings were detached from the edge of the
whirling incandescent masses, contracting necessarily by gravitation (as accepted) into spheroidal
bodies, which would necessarily still continue to preserve the same orbit occupied previously by the
outer zone from which they were separated. ("Laplace conceived that the external and internal zones
of the ring would rotate with the same angular velocity, which would be the case with a solid ring; but
the principle of equal areas requires the inner zones to rotate more rapidly than the outer.")* The
velocity of the outer edge of each nascent planet, he said, exceeding that of the inner, there results a
rotation on its axis. The more dense bodies would be thrown off last; and finally, during the
preliminary state of their formation, the newly-segregated orbs in their turn throw off one or more
satellites . . . In formulating the history of the rupture and planetation of rings, Laplace says:
"Almost always each ring of vapours must have broken up into numerous masses,
which, moving with a nearly uniform velocity, must have continued to circulate at the
same distance around the Sun. These masses must have taken a spheroidal form with a
motion of rotation in the same direction as their revolution, since the inner molecules
(those nearer to the Sun) would have less actual velocity than the exterior ones. They
must then have formed as many planets in a state of vapour. But, if one of them was
sufficiently powerful to unite successively, by its attraction, all the others around its
centre, the ring of vapours must have been thus transformed into a single spheroidal
mass of vapours circulating around the Sun with a rotation in the same direction as its
revolution. The latter case has been the more common, but the solar system presents us
the first case, in the four small planets which move between Jupiter and Mars."
While few will be found to deny "the magnificent audacity of this
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* "World-Life." Prof. Winchell points to a good many mistakes of Laplace in his work; but as a
geologist he is not infallible himself in his "astronomical speculations."

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 593 UNANSWERABLE QUERIES.

hypothesis," it is impossible not to recognise the insurmountable difficulties with which it is attended.
Why, for instance, do we find that the satellites of Neptune and Uranus display a retrograde motion;
that, in spite of its closer proximity to the Sun, Venus is less dense than the Earth? Similarly, the more
distant Uranus is more dense than Saturn? How is it that so many variations in the inclination of their
axes and orbits are present in the supposed progeny of the central orb; that such startling variations in
the size of the planets is noticeable; that the Satellites of Jupiter are more dense by .288 than their
primary -- that the phenomena of meteoric and cometic systems still remain unaccounted for? To
quote the words of a Master: "They (the Occultists) find that the centrifugal theory of Western birth is
unable to cover all the ground. That, unaided, it can neither account for every oblate spheroid, nor
explain away such evident difficulties as are presented by the relative density of some planets. How,
indeed, can any calculation of centrifugal force explain to us, for instance, why Mercury, whose
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rotation is, we are told, only about one-third that of the Earth, and its density only about one-fourth
greater than the Earth, should have a polar compression more than ten times as great as the latter?
And again, why Jupiter, whose equatorial rotation is said to be 'twenty-seven times greater, and its
density only about one-fifth that of the earth' should have its polar compression seventeen times
greater than that of the earth? Or why Saturn, with an equatorial velocity fifty-five times greater than
Mercury for centripetal force to contend with, should have its polar compression only three times
greater than Mercury's? To crown the above contradictions, we are asked to believe in the Central
Forces, as taught by Modern Science, even when told that the equatorial matter of the Sun, with more
than four times the centrifugal velocity of the Earth's equatorial surface, and only about one-fourth
part of the gravitation of the equatorial matter, has not manifested any tendency to bulge at the Solar
equator, nor shown the least flattening of the poles of the Solar axis. In other and clearer words, the
Sun, with only one fourth of our Earth's density for the centrifugal force to work upon, has no polar
compression at all! We find this objection made by more than one astronomer, yet never explained
away satisfactorily so far as the 'Adepts' are aware."
"Therefore, do they (the Adepts) say, that the great men of science of the West, knowing . . . . . next to
nothing either about cometary matter, centrifugal and centripetal forces, the nature of the nebulae, or
the physical constitution of the Sun, the Stars, or even the Moon, are imprudent to speak as
confidently as they do about the 'central mass of the Sun' whirling out into space planets, comets, and
what not . . . ." "We maintain that it (the Sun) evolves out only the life-principle, the

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 594 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

Soul of those bodies, giving and receiving it back, in our solar system, as the 'Universal Life-Giver' . .
. . in infinitude and Eternity; that the solar system is as much the microcosm of the ONE Macrocosm
as man is the former when compared with his own little Solar Cosmos."*
The essential faculty possessed by all the cosmic and terrestrial elements, of generating within
themselves a regular and harmonious series of results, a concatenation of causes and effects, is an
irrefutable proof that they are either animated by an extra or intra INTELLIGENCE, or conceal such
within or behind the manifested veil. Occultism does not deny the certainty of the mechanical origin
of the Universe; it only claims the absolute necessity of mechanicians of some sort behind those
Elements (or within) -- a dogma with us. It is not the fortuitous assistance of the atoms of Lucretius,
who himself knew better, that built the Kosmos and all in it. Nature herself contradicts such a theory.
Celestial space, containing matter so attenuated as is Ether, cannot be called on, with or without
attraction, to explain the common motion of the sidereal hosts. Although the perfect accord of their
mutual revolution indicates clearly the presence of a mechanical cause in Nature, Newton, who of all
men had best right to trust to his deductions and views, was nevertheless forced to abandon the idea of
ever explaining, by the laws of known Nature and its Material forces, the original impulse given to the
millions of orbs. He recognised fully the limits that separate the action of natural Forces from that of
the INTELLIGENCES that set the immutable laws into order and action. And if a NEWTON had to
renounce such hope, which of the modern materialistic pigmies has the right of saying: "I know
better"?

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To become complete and comprehensible, a cosmogonical theory has to start with a primordial
Substance diffused throughout boundless Space, of an intellectual and divine Nature. That substance
must be the Soul and Spirit, the Synthesis and Seventh Principle of the manifested Kosmos, and, to
serve as a spiritual Upadhi to this, there must be the sixth, its vehicle -- primordial physical matter, so
to speak, though its nature must escape for ever our limited normal senses. It is easy for an
astronomer, if endowed with an imaginative faculty, to build a theory of the emergence of the
universe out of chaos, by simply applying to it the principles of mechanics. But such a universe will
always prove, with respect to its scientific human creator, a Frankenstein's monster; it will lead him
into endless perplexities. The application of the mechanical laws only can never carry the speculator
beyond the objective world; nor will it unveil to men the origin and final destiny of Kosmos. This is
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* "Five Years of Theosophy," pp. 249-50. Art. "Do the Adepts deny the Nebular Theory?"

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 595 WHAT ARE THE NEBULAE?

whither the nebular theory has led Science. In sober fact and truth this theory is twin sister to that of
Ether, and both are the offsprings of necessity; one as indispensable to account for the transmission of
light, as the other to explain the problem of the origin of the solar systems. The question with them is,
how the same homogeneous matter* could, obeying the laws of Newton, give birth to bodies -- sun,
planets, and their satellites -- subject to conditions of identity of motion and formed of such
heterogeneous elements.
Has the nebular theory helped to solve the problem, even if applied solely to bodies considered as
inanimate and material? We say most decidedly not. What progress has it made since 1811, when Sir
W. Herschell's paper, first presenting facts based on observation and showing the existence of nebular
matter, made the "Sons" of the Royal Society "shout for joy"? Since then a still greater discovery has
permitted, through spectrum analysis, the verification and corroboration of Sir W. Herschell's
conjecture. Laplace demanded some kind of primitive "world stuff " to prove the idea of progressive
world-evolution and growth. Here it is, as offered two millenniums ago.
The "world stuff," now nebulae, was known from the highest antiquity. Anaxagoras taught that,
having differentiated, the subsequent commixture of heterogeneous substances remained motionless
and unorganized, until finally "the Mind" -- the collective body of Dhyan Chohans, we say -- began to
work upon and communicated to it motion and order (Aristotle's "Physica," viii, 1.) The theory is now
taken up in its first portion, that of any "Mind" interfering with it being rejected. Spectrum analysis
reveals the existence of nebulae formed entirely of gases and luminous vapours. Is this the primitive
nebular matter? The spectra reveal, it is said, the physical conditions of the matter which emits cosmic
light. The spectra of the resolvable and the irresolvable nebulae are shown to be entirely different, the
spectra of the latter showing their physical state to be that of glowing gas or vapour. The bright lines
of one nebula reveal the existence of hydrogen in it, and of other material substances known and
unknown. The same in the atmospheres of the Sun and stars. This leads to the direct inference that a
star is formed by the condensation of a nebula; hence that even the metals themselves on earth are
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[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* Had astronomers held simply, in their present state of knowledge, to the hypothesis of Laplace,
which was simply the formation of the planetary system, it might in time have resulted in something
like an approximate truth. But the two parts of the general problem, that of the formation of the
universe, or the formation of the suns and stars from the primitive matter, and then the development of
the planets around their sun, rest on quite different facts in nature and are even so viewed by Science
itself. They are at the opposite poles of being.

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 596 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

formed owing to the condensation of hydrogen or some other primitive matter, some ancestral cousin
to "helium," perhaps, or some yet unknown stuff? This does not clash with the occult teachings. And
this is the problem that chemistry is trying to solve; and it must succeed sooner or later in the task,
accepting nolens volens, when it does, the esoteric teaching. But when this does happen, it will kill the
nebular theory as it now stands.
Meanwhile Astronomy cannot accept in any way, if it is to be regarded as an exact science, the
present theory of the filiation of stars -- even if occultism does so in its own way, as it explains this
filiation differently -- because astronomy has not one single physical datum to show for it. Astronomy
could anticipate Chemistry in proving the existence of the fact, if it could show a planetary nebula
exhibiting a spectrum of three or four bright lines, gradually condensing and transforming into a star,
with a spectrum all covered with a number of dark lines. But "the question of the variability of the
nebula, even as to their form, is yet one of the mysteries of Astronomy. The data of observation
possessed so far are of too recent an origin, too uncertain to permit us to affirm anything."
(Cosmogonical Hypotheses of Wolf.)
Since the discovery of the spectroscope, its magic power has revealed to its adepts only one single
transformation of a star of this kind; and even that one showed directly the reverse of what is needed
as proof in favour of the nebular theory; namely -- a star transforming itself into a planetary nebula.
As told in The Observatory (Vol. I., p. 185), the temporary star which appeared in the constellation
Cygnus, in November, 1876, discovered by J. F. J. Schmidt, exhibited a spectrum broken by very
brilliant lines. Gradually, the continuous spectrum and most of the lines disappeared, leaving finally
one single brilliant line, which appeared to coincide with the green line of the nebula.
Though this metamorphosis is not irreconcileable with the hypothesis of the nebular origin of the
stars, nevertheless this single solitary case rests on no observation whatever, least of all on direct
observation. The occurrence may have been due to several other causes. Since astronomers are
inclined to think our planets are tending toward precipitation on the Sun, why should not that star have
blazed out owing to a collision of such precipitated planets, or, as many suggest, the appulse of a
comet? Anyhow, the only known instance of a star transformation since 1811 is not favourable to the
nebular theory. Moreover, on the question of this theory, as in all others, astronomers disagree.

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In our own age, it was Buffon, before Laplace ever thought of it, who, very much struck by the
identity of motion in the planets, was the first to propose the hypothesis of the planets and their
satellites originating in

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the bosom of the Sun. Forthwith, and for the purpose, he invented a special comet, supposed to have
torn out, by a powerful oblique blow, the quantity of matter necessary to their formation. Laplace
gave its dues to the "comet" in his "Exposition du Systeme du Monde." (Note VII.) But the idea was
seized and even improved upon by a conception of the alternate evolution from the Sun's central mass
of planets apparently without weight or influence on the motion of the visible planets -- and as
evidently without any more existence than the likeness of Moses in the moon.
But the modern theory is also a variation on the systems elaborated by Kant and Laplace. The idea of
both was that, at the origin of things, all that matter which now enters into the composition of the
planetary bodies was spread over all the space comprised in the solar system -- and even beyond. It
was a nebula of extremely small density, whose condensation gradually gave birth, by a mechanism
that has hitherto never been explained, to the various bodies of our systems. This is the original
nebular theory, an incomplete yet faithful repetition -- a short chapter out of the large volume of
universal esoteric cosmogony -- of the teachings in the Secret Doctrine. And both systems, Kant's and
Laplace's, differ greatly from the modern theory, redundant with conflicting sub-theories and fanciful
hypotheses.
"The essence of cometary matter and of that which composes the stars is totally different from any of
the chemical or physical characteristics with which Western Science is now acquainted. While the
spectroscope has shown the probable similarity (owing to the chemical action of terrestrial light upon
the intercepted rays) of earthly and sidereal substance, the chemical actions, peculiar to the variously
progressed orbs of space, have not been detected, nor proven to be identical with those observed on
our own planet" -- say the Teachers (op. cit.). Mr. Crookes says almost the same in the fragment
quoted from his lecture, "Elements and Meta-Elements."
"At the utmost," observes C. Wolf,* "could the nebular hypothesis show in its favour,
with W. Herschell, the existence of planetary nebulae in various degrees of
condensation, and of spiral nebulae, with nuclei of condensation on the branches and
centre.** But, in fact, the knowledge of the bond that unites the nebulae to the stars is
yet denied to us; and lacking as we do direct observation, we are even debarred from
establishing it even on the analogy of chemical composition."
It is evident that, even if the men of science, leaving aside the
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* Member of the Institute, Astronomer of the Observatory, Paris, "Cosmogonical Hypotheses."

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** But the spectra of these nebulae have never yet been ascertained. When they are found with bright
lines, then only may they be cited.

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 598 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

difficulty arising for them out of such undeniable variety and heterogeneity of matter in the
constitution of nebulae, did admit, with the ancients, that the origin of all the visible and invisible
heavenly bodies must be sought for in one primordial homogeneous world-stuff, in a kind of PREprotyle,* -- it is evident that this would not put an end to their perplexities. Unless they admit also that
our actual visible Universe is merely the Sthula-Sharira, the gross body, of the sevenfold Kosmos,
they will have to face another problem; especially if they risk maintaining that its now visible bodies
are the result of the condensation of that one and single primordial matter. For mere observation
shows them that the actions which produced the actual Universe are far more complex than could ever
be embraced in that theory.
First of all, there are two distinct classes of irresolvable nebulae, -- as Science itself teaches.
The telescope is unable to distinguish between the two, but the spectroscope can, and notices,
therefore, an essential difference between their physical constitutions.**
"Some of these," Wolf tells us, "have a spectrum of three or four bright lines, others a continuous
spectrum. The first are gaseous, the others formed of a pulverulent matter. The former must constitute
a veritable atmosphere: it is among these that the solar nebula of Laplace has to be placed. The latter
form an ensemble of particles that may be considered as independent, and the rotation of which obeys
the laws of
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* Mr. Crookes' "Protyle" must not be regarded as the primary stuff, out of which the Dhyan Chohans,
in accordance with the immutable laws of nature, wove our solar system. This protyle cannot even be
the first prima-materia of Kant, which that great mind saw used up in the formation of the worlds, and
thus existing no longer in a diffused state. It is a MEDIATE phase in the progressive differentiation of
cosmic substance from its normal undifferentiated state. Protyle is then the aspect assumed by matter
in its middle passage into full objectivity.
** "The question of the resolvability of the nebulae has been often presented in too affirmative a
manner and quite contrary to the ideas expressed by the illustrious experimenter with the spectra of
these constellations -- Mr. Huggins. Every nebula whose spectrum contains only bright lines is
gaseous, it is said, and hence is irresolvable; every nebula with a continuous spectrum must end by
resolving into stars with an instrument of sufficient power. This assumption is contrary at once to the
results obtained, and to spectroscopic theory. The Lyra nebula, the Dumb-bell nebula, the central
region of the nebula of Orion, appear resolvable, and show a spectrum of bright lines; the nebula of
Canis Venatici is not resolvable, and gives a continuous spectrum. Because, indeed, the spectroscope
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informs us of the physical state of the constituent matter of the stars, but affords us no notions of their
modes of aggregation. A nebula formed of gaseous globes (or even of nuclei, faintly luminous,
surrounded by a powerful atmosphere) would give a spectrum of lines and be still resolvable; such
seems to be the state of Huggins' region in the Orion nebula. A nebula formed of solid or fluidic
particles in a state of incandescence, a true cloud, will give a continuous spectrum but will be
irresolvable." (C. Wolf, Cosmogonical Hypotheses.)

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 599 THE NEBULAR THEORY A ROMANCE.

internal weight: such are the nebulae adopted by Kant and Faye. Observation allows us to place the
one as the other at the very origin of the planetary world. But when we try to go beyond and ascend to
the primitive chaos which has produced the totality of the heavenly bodies, we have first to account
for the actual existence of these two classes of nebulae. If the primitive chaos were a cold luminous
gas,* one could understand how the contraction resulting from attraction could have heated it and
made it luminous. We have to explain the condensation of this gas to the state of incandescent
particles, the presence of which is revealed to us in certain nebulae by the spectroscope. If the original
chaos was composed of such particles, how did certain of their portions pass into the gaseous state,
while others have preserved their primitive condition? . . . ."
Such is the synopsis of the objections and difficulties to the acceptance of the nebular theory brought
forward by the French savant, who concludes his interesting chapter by declaring that: -"The first part of the Cosmogonical problem, -- what is the primitive matter of chaos; and how did
that matter give birth to the sun and stars? -- thus remains to this day in THE DOMAIN OF
ROMANCE AND OF MERE IMAGINATION."**
If this is the last word of Science upon that subject, whither then should one turn in order to learn
what the nebular theory is supposed to teach? What, in fact, is this theory? What it is, no one seems to
know for a certainty. What it is not -- we learn from the erudite author of the "World-Life." He tells us
that: -(I.) It "is not a theory of the evolution of the Universe . . . but only and primarily a genetic explanation
of the phenomena of the solar system, and accessorily a co-ordination of the principal phenomena in
the stellar and nebular firmament, as far as human vision has been able to penetrate."
(II.) "That it does not regard the Comets as involved in that particular evolution which has produced
the solar system." (Esoteric doctrine does.)
(It does, because it, too, recognises the comets as forms of cosmic existence co-ordinated with earlier
stages of nebular evolution; and it actually assigns to them chiefly the formation of all worlds.)
(III.) "That it does not deny an antecedent history of the luminous fire mist" -- (the secondary stage of
evolution in the Secret Doctrine) . . . . "and makes no claim to having reached an absolute beginning."
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And even
[[Footnote(s)]] ------------------------------------------------* See Stanza III. about "Light, or the cold Flame," and Commentary Number 8, where it is explained
that the "mother" (Chaos) is a cold Fire, a cool Radiance, colourless, formless, devoid of every
quality. "Motion is the One Eternal is, and contains the potentialities of every quality in the
Manvantaric Worlds," it is said.
** Hypotheses Cosmogoniques, C. Wolf, 1886.

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 600 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

it allows that this "fire mist may have previously existed in a cold, nonluminous and invisible
condition" . . . .
(IV.) "And that finally: it does not profess to discover the ORIGIN of things, but only a stadium in
material history" . . . . leaving "the philosopher and theologian as free as they ever were to seek for
the origin of the modes of being."*
But this is not all. Even the greatest philosopher of England -- Mr. Herbert Spencer -- arrayed himself
against the fantastic theory by saying that (a) "The problem of existence is not resolved" by it; (b) the
nebular hypothesis "throws no light upon the origin of diffused matter," and (c) that "the nebular
hypothesis (as it now stands) implies a First Cause."**
The latter, we are afraid, is more than our modern physicists have bargained for. Thus, it seems that
the poor "hypothesis" can hardly expect to find help or corroboration even in the world of the
metaphysicians.
Considering all this, the Occultists believe they have a right to present their philosophy, however
misunderstood and ostracised it may be at present. And they maintain that this failure of the scientists
to discover the truth is entirely due to their materialism and contempt for transcendental sciences. Yet
although the scientific minds in our century are as far from the true and correct doctrine of Evolution
as ever, there may be still some hope left for the future, as we find another great scientist giving us a
faint glimmer of it.
In an article in Popular Science Review (Vol. XIV., p. 252) on "Recent Researches in Minute Life,"
we find Mr. H. J. Slack, F.C.S., Sec. R.M.S., saying: "There is an evident convergence of all sciences,
from physics to chemistry and physiology, toward some doctrine of evolution and development, of
which the facts of Darwinism will form part, but what ultimate aspect this doctrine will take, there is
little, if any, evidence to show, and perhaps it will not be shaped by the human mind until
metaphysical as well as physical inquiries are much more advanced."

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This is a happy forecast indeed. The day may come, then, when the "Natural Selection," as taught by
Mr. Darwin and Mr. Herbert Spencer, will form only a part, in its ultimate modification, of our
Eastern doctrine of Evolution, which will be Manu and Kapila esoterically explained.
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* "World-Life," p. 196.
** Westminster Review, XX., July 27, 1868.

Next Section
Contents

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

Theosophical University Press Online Edition

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 601 HERMES AND KANT.

XIV.
FORCES -- MODES OF MOTION OR INTELLIGENCES?
THIS is, then, the last word of physical science up to the present year, 1888. Mechanical laws will
never be able to prove the homogeneity of primeval matter, except inferentially and as a desperate
necessity, when there will remain no other issue -- as in the case of Ether. Modern Science is secure
only in its own domain and region; within the physical boundaries of our solar system, beyond which
everything, every particle of matter, is different from the matter it knows: which matter exists in states
of which Science can form no idea. That matter, which is truly homogeneous, is beyond human
perceptions, if perception is tied down merely to the five senses. We feel its effects through those
INTELLIGENCES which are the results of its primeval differentiation, whom we name DhyanChohans; called in the Hermetic works the "Seven Governors," those to whom Pymander, the
"Thought Divine," refers as the Building Powers, and whom Asklepios calls the "Supernal Gods."
That matter -- the real primordial substance, the noumenon of all the "matter" we know of, -- even
some of the astronomers have been led to believe in, and to despair of the possibility of ever
accounting for rotation, gravitation, and the origin of any mechanical physical laws -- unless these
Intelligences be admitted by Science. In the above-quoted work upon astronomy, by Wolf,* the author
endorses fully the theory of Kant, and the latter, if not in its general aspect, at any rate in some of its
features, reminds one strongly of certain esoteric teachings. Here we have the world's system reborn
from its ashes, through a nebula; the emanation from the bodies, dead and dissolved in Space -resultant of the incandescence of the solar centre reanimated by the combustible matter of the planets.
In this theory, generated and developed in the brain of a young man hardly twenty-five years of age,
who had never left his native place, a small town of Northern Prussia (Konigsberg) one can hardly fail
to recognise either an inspiring external power, or the reincarnation which the Occultists see in it. It
fills a gap which Newton, with all his genius, failed to bridge. And surely it is our primeval matter,
Akasa, that Kant had in view, when proposing to solve Newton's difficulty and his failure to explain,
by the natural forces, the primitive impulse imparted to the planets, by the postulation of a universally
pervading primordial substance. For, as he remarks in chapter viii., if it is once admitted that the
perfect harmony of the stars and planets and
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* "LES HYPOTHESES COSMOGONIQUES. Examen des Theories Scientifiques modernes sur
l'Origine des Mondes, suivi de la Traduction de la Theorie du Ciel de Kant."

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 602 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

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the coincidence of their orbital planes prove the existence of a natural cause, which would thus be the
primal cause, "that cause cannot really be the matter which fills to-day the heavenly spaces." It must
be that which filled space -- was space -- originally, whose motion in differentiated matter was the
origin of the actual movements of the sidereal bodies; and which, "in condensing itself in those very
bodies, thus abandoned the space that is found void to-day." In other words, it is that same matter of
which are now composed the planets, comets, and the Sun himself, which, having in the origin formed
itself into those bodies, has preserved its inherent quality of motion; which quality, now centred in
their nuclei, directs all motion. A very slight alteration of words is needed, and a few additions, to
make of this our Esoteric Doctrine.
The latter teaches that it is this original, primordial prima materia, divine and intelligent, the direct
emanation of the Universal Mind -- the Daiviprakriti (the divine light emanating from the Logos*) -which formed the nuclei of all the "self-moving" orbs in Kosmos. It is the informing, ever-present
moving-power and life-principle, the vital soul of the suns, moons, planets, and even of our Earth. The
former latent: the last one active -- the invisible Ruler and guide of the gross body attached to, and
connected with, its Soul, which is the spiritual emanation, after all, of these respective planetary
Spirits.
Another quite occult doctrine is the theory of Kant, that the matter of which the inhabitants and the
animals of other planets are formed is of a lighter and more subtle nature and of a more perfect
conformation in proportion to their distance from the Sun. The latter is too full of Vital Electricity, of
the physical, life-giving principle. Therefore, the men on Mars are more ethereal than we are, while
those of Venus are more gross, though far more intelligent, if less spiritual.
The last doctrine is not quite ours -- yet those Kantian theories are as metaphysical, and as
transcendental as any occult doctrines; and more than one man of Science would, if he but dared
speak his mind, accept them as Wolf does. From this Kantian mind and soul of the Suns and Stars to
the MAHAT (mind) and Prakriti of the Puranas, there is but a step. After all, the admission of this by
Science would be only the admission of a natural cause, whether it would or would not stretch its
belief to such metaphysical heights. But then Mahat, the MIND, is a "God," and physiology admits
"mind" only as a temporary function of the material brain, and no more.
The Satan of Materialism now laughs at all alike, and denies the visible as well as the invisible.
Seeing in light, heat, electricity, and even in the phenomenon of life, only properties inherent in
matter, it
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* Which "Light" we call Fohat.

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 603 THE VITAL PRINCIPLE.

laughs whenever life is called VITAL PRINCIPLE, and derides the idea of its being independent of
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and distinct from the organism.
But here again scientific opinions differ as in everything else, and there are several men of science
who accept views very similar to ours. Consider, for instance, what Dr. Richardson, F.R.S. (elsewhere
quoted at length) says of that "Vital principle," which he calls "nervous ether" ("Popular Science
Review," Vol. 10): -"I speak only of a veritable material agent, refined, it may be, to the world at large, but
actual and substantial: an agent having quality of weight and of volume, an agent
susceptible of chemical combination, and thereby of change of physical state and
condition, an agent passive in its action, moved always, that is to say, by influences
apart from itself,* obeying other influences, an agent possessing no initiative power, no
vis or energia naturae,** but still playing a most important, if not a primary part in the
production of the phenomena resulting from the action of the energeia upon visible
matter" (p. 379).
As Biology and Physiology now deny, in toto, the existence of a "vital principle," this extract,
together with de Quatrefages' admission, is a clear confirmation that there are men of science who
take the same views about "things occult" as theosophists and occultists do. These recognise a distinct
vital principle independent of the organism -- material, of course, as physical force cannot be
divorced from matter, but of a substance existing in a state unknown to Science. Life for them is
something more than the mere interaction of molecules and atoms. There is a vital principle without
which no molecular combinations could ever have resulted in a living organism, least of all in the socalled "inorganic" matter of our plane of consciousness.
By "molecular combinations" is meant, of course, those of the matter of our present illusive
perceptions, which matter energises only on this, our plane. And this is the chief point at issue.***
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* This is a mistake, which implies a material agent, distinct from the influences which move it, i.e.
blind matter and perhaps "God" again, whereas this ONE Life is the very God and Gods "Itself."
** The same error.
*** "Is the Jiva a myth, as science says, or is it not?" ask some Theosophists, wavering between
materialistic and idealistic Science. The difficulty of really grasping esoteric problems concerning the
"ultimate state of matter" is again the old crux of the objective and the subjective. What is matter? Is
the matter of our present objective consciousness anything but our SENSATIONS? True, the
sensations we receive come from without, but can we really (except in terms of phenomena) speak of
the "gross matter" of this plane as an entity apart from and independent of us? To all such arguments
Occultism answers: True, in reality matter is not independent of, or existent outside, our perceptions.
Man is an illusion: granted. But the existence and actuality of other, still more illusive, but not less
actual, entities than we are, is not a claim which is lessened, but rather streng thened by this doctrine
of Vedantic and even Kantian Idealism.

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[[Vol. 1, Page]] 604 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

Thus the Occultists are not alone in their beliefs. Nor are they so foolish, after all, in rejecting even the
"gravity" of modern Science along with other physical laws, and in accepting instead attraction and
repulsion. They see, moreover, in these two opposite Forces only the two aspects of the universal unit,
called "MANIFESTING MIND"; in which aspects, Occultism, through its great Seers, perceives an
innumerable Host of operative Beings: Cosmic Dhyan-Chohans, Entities, whose essence, in its dual
nature, is the Cause of all terrestrial phenomena. For that essence is co-substantial with the universal
Electric Ocean, which is LIFE; and being dual, as said -- positive and negative -- it is the emanations
of that duality that act now on earth under the name of "modes of motion"; even Force having now
become objectionable as a word, for fear it should lead someone, even in thought, to separate it from
matter! It is, as Occultism says, the dual effects of that dual essence, which have now been called
centripetal and centrifugal forces, negative and positive poles, or polarity, heat and cold, light and
darkness, etc., etc.
And it is maintained that even the Greek and Roman Catholic Christians, are wiser in believing, as
they do -- even if blindly connecting and tracing them all to an anthropomorphic god -- in Angels,
Archangels, Archons, Seraphs, and Morning Stars: in all those theological Deliciae humani generis, in
short, that rule the cosmic elements, than Science is, in disbelieving in them altogether, and
advocating its mechanical Forces. For these act very often with more than human intelligence and
pertinency. Nevertheless, that intelligence is denied and attri buted to blind chance. But, as De Maistre
was right in calling the law of gravitation merely a word which replaced "the thing unknown"
(Soirees), so are we right in applying the same remark to all the other Forces of Science. And if it is
objected that the Count was an ardent Roman Catholic, then we may cite Le Couturier, as ardent a
materialist, who said the same thing, as also did Herschell and many others. (Vide Musee des
Sciences, August, 1856.)
From Gods to men, from Worlds to atoms, from a star to a rush-light, from the Sun to the vital heat of
the meanest organic being -- the world of Form and Existence is an immense chain, whose links are
all connected. The law of Analogy is the first key to the world-problem, and these links have to be
studied co-ordinately in their occult relations to each other.
When, therefore, the Secret Doctrine -- postulating that conditioned or limited space (location) has no
real being except in this world of illusion, or, in other words, in our perceptive faculties -- teaches that
every one of the higher, as of the lower worlds, is interblended with our own objective world; that
millions of things and beings are, in point of

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 605 OCCULT AND PHYSICAL SCIENCES.

localization, around and in us, as we are around, with, and in them; it is no metaphysical figure of
speech, but a sober fact in Nature, however incomprehensible to our senses.
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But one has to understand the phraseology of Occultism before criticising what it asserts. For
example, the Doctrine refuses (as Science does, in one sense) to use the words "above" and "below,"
"higher" and "lower," in reference to invisible spheres, as being without meaning. Even the terms
"East" and "West" are merely conventional, necessary only to aid our human perceptions. For, though
the Earth has its two fixed points in the poles, North and South, yet both East and West are variable
relatively to our own position on the Earth's surface, and in consequence of its rotation from West to
East. Hence, when "other worlds" are mentioned -- whether better or worse, more spiritual or still
more material, though both invisible -- the Occultist does not locate these spheres either outside or
inside our Earth, as the theologians and the poets do; for their location is nowhere in the space known
to, and conceived by, the profane. They are, as it were, blended with our world -- interpenetrating it
and interpenetrated by it. There are millions and millions of worlds and firmaments visible to us; there
still greater numbers beyond those visible to the telescopes, and many of the latter kind do not belong
to our objective sphere of existence. Although as invisible as if they were millions of miles beyond
our solar system, they are yet with us, near us, within our own world, as objective and material to their
respective inhabitants as ours is to us. But, again, the relation of these worlds to ours is not that of a
series of egg-shaped boxes enclosed one within the other, like the toys called Chinese nests; each is
entirely under its own special laws and conditions, having no direct relation to our sphere. The
inhabitants of these, as already said, may be, for all we know, or feel, passing through and around us
as if through empty space, their very habitations and countries being interblended with ours, though
not disturbing our vision, because we have not yet the faculties necessary for discerning them. Yet by
their spiritual sight the Adepts, and even some seers and sensitives, are always able to discern,
whether in a greater or smaller degree, the presence and close proximity to us of Beings pertaining to
other spheres of life. Those of the (spiritually) higher worlds, communicate only with those terrestrial
mortals who ascend to them, through individual efforts, on to the higher plane they are occupying. . . .
"THE SONS OF Bhumi (EARTH) REGARD THE SONS OF Deva-lokas (ANGEL-SPHERES) AS
THEIR GODS; AND THE SONS OF LOWER KINGDOMS LOOK UP TO THE MEN OF Bhumi,
AS TO THEIR devas (GODS); MEN REMAINING UNAWARE OF IT IN THEIR BLINDNESS. . . .
THEY (men) TREMBLE

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 606 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

BEFORE THEM WHILE USING THEM (for magical purposes). . . . THE FIRST RACE OF MEN
WERE THE "Mind-born sons" OF THE FORMER. THEY (the pitris and devas) ARE OUR
PROGENITORS. . . . (Book II. of Commentary on the Book of DZYAN.)
"Educated people," so-called, deride the idea of Sylphs, Salamanders, Undines, and Gnomes; the men
of science regard as an insult any mention of such superstitions; and with a contempt of logic and
common good sense, that is often the prerogative of "accepted authority," they allow those, whom it is
their duty to instruct, to labour under the absurd impression that in the whole Kosmos, or at any rate in
our own atmosphere, there are no other conscious, intelligent beings, save ourselves.* Any other
humanity (composed of distinct human beings) than a mankind with two legs, two arms, and a head
with man's features on it, would not be called human; though the etymology of the word would seem
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to have little to do with the general appearance of a creature. Thus, while Science sternly rejects even
the possibility of there being such (to us, generally) invisible creatures, Society, while believing in it
all secretly, is made to deride the idea openly. It hails with mirth such works as the Count de Gabalis,
and fails to understand that open satire is the securest mask.
Nevertheless, such invisible worlds do exist. Inhabited as thickly as our own is, they are scattered
throughout apparent Space in immense number; some far more material than our own world, others
gradually etherealizing until they become formless and are as "Breaths." That our physical eye does
not see them, is no reason to disbelieve in them; physicists can see neither their ether, atoms, nor
"modes of motion," or Forces. Yet they accept and teach them.
If we find, even in the natural world with which we are acquainted, matter affording a partial analogy
in the difficult conception of such invisible worlds, there seems little difficulty in recognizing the
possibility of such a presence. The tail of a comet, which, though attracting our attention by virtue of
its luminosity, yet does not disturb or impede our vision of objects, which we perceive through and
beyond it, affords the first stepping-stone toward a proof of the same. The tail of a comet passes
rapidly across our horizon, and we should neither feel it, nor be cognizant of its passage, but for the
brilliant coruscation, often perceived only by a few interested in the phenomenon, while everyone else
remains ignorant of its presence and passage through, or across, a portion of our globe. This tail may,
or may not, be an integral portion of the being of the comet, but its tenuity sub[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* Even the question of the plurality of worlds inhabited by sentient creatures is rejected or approached
with the greatest caution! And yet see what the great astronomer, Camille Flammarion, says in his
"Pluralite des Mondes."

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 607 PLURALITY OF WORLDS.

serves our purpose as an illustration. Indeed, it is no question of superstition, but simply a result of
transcendental science, and of logic still more, to admit the existence of worlds formed of even far
more attenuated matter than the tail of a comet. By denying such a possibility, Science has played for
the last century into the hands of neither philosophy nor true religion, but simply into those of
theology. To be able to dispute the better the plurality of even material worlds, a belief thought by
many churchmen incompatible with the teachings and doctrines of the Bible,* Maxwell had to
calumniate the memory of Newton, and try to convince his public that the principles contained in the
Newtonian philosophy are those "which lie at the foundation of all atheistical systems." (Vide Vol. II.,
"Plurality of Worlds.")
"Dr. Whewell disputed the plurality of worlds by appeal to scientific evidence," writes Professor
Winchell.** And if even the habitability of physical worlds, of planets, and distant stars which shine
in myriads over our heads is so disputed, how little chance is there for the acceptance of invisible
worlds within the apparently transparent space of our own!

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But, if we can conceive of a world composed (for our senses) of matter still more attenuated than the
tail of a comet, hence of inhabitants in it who are as ethereal, in proportion to their globe, as we are in
comparison with our rocky, hard-crusted earth, no wonder if we do not perceive them, nor sense their
presence or even existence. Only, in what is the idea contrary to science? Cannot men and animals,
plants and rocks, be supposed to be endowed with quite a different set of senses from those we
possess? Cannot their organisms be born, developed, and exist, under other laws of being than those
that rule our little world? Is it absolutely necessary that every corporeal being should be clothed in
"coats of skin" like those that Adam and Eve were provided with in the legend of Genesis?
Corporeality, we are told, however, by more than one man of science, "may exist under very divergent
conditions."*** Do not we know through the
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* Nevertheless, it will be shown on the testimony of the Bible itself, and of such good Christian
theologians as Cardinal Wiseman, that this plurality is taught in both the Old and the New Testaments.
** See "The Plurality of the Worlds," wherein the list of many men of Science, who wrote to prove
the theory, is given.
*** Professor A. Winchell -- arguing upon the plurality of the worlds -- makes the following remarks:
"It is not at all improbable that substances of a refractory nature might be so mixed with other
substances, known or unknown to us, as to be capable of enduring vastly greater vicissitudes of heat
and cold than is possible with terrestrial organisms. The tissues of terrestrial animals are simply suited
to terrestrial conditions. Yet even here we find different types and species of animals adapted to the
trials of extremely dissimilar situations. . . . . . That an animal should be a quadruped or a [[Footnote
continued on next page]]

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 608 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

discoveries of that very all-denying science that we are surrounded by myriads of invisible lives? If
these microbes, bacteria and the tutti quanti of the infinitesimally small, are invisible to us by virtue of
their minuteness, cannot there be, at the other pole of it, beings as invisible owing to the quality of
their texture or matter -- to its tenuity, in fact? Conversely, as to the effects of cometary matter, have
we not another example of a half visible form of life and matter? The ray of sunlight entering our
apartment, reveals in its passage myriads of tiny beings living their little life and ceasing to be,
independent and heedless of whether they are perceived or not by our grosser materiality. And so
again, of the microbes and bacteria and such-like unseen beings in other elements. We passed them
by, during those long centuries of dreary ignorance, after the lamp of knowledge in the hea then and
highly philosophical systems had ceased to throw its bright light on the ages of intolerance and
bigotry during early Christianity; and we would fain pass them by again now.
And yet these lives surrounded us then as they do now. They have worked on, obedient to their own
laws, and it is only as they were gradually revealed by Science that we have begun to take cognisance
of them, as of the effects produced by them.
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[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

[[Footnote continued from previous page]] biped is something not depending on the necessities of
organization, or instinct, or intelligence. That an animal should possess just five senses is not a
necessity of percipient existence. There may be animals on the earth with neither smell nor taste.
There may be beings on other worlds, and even on this, who possess more numerous senses than we.
The possibility of this is apparent when we consider the high probability that other properties and
other modes of existence lie among the resources of the Kosmos, and even of terrestrial matter. There
are animals which subsist where rational man would perish -- in the soil, in the river, and the sea" . . .
(and why not human beings of different organizations, in such case?) . . . "Nor is incorporated rational
existence conditioned on warm blood, nor on any temperature which does not change the forms of
matter of which the organism may be composed. There may be intelligences corporealized after some
concept not involving the processes of injection, assimilation, and reproduction. Such bodies would
not require daily food and warmth. They might be lost in the abysses of the ocean, or laid up on a
stormy cliff through the tempests of an Arctic winter, or plunged in a volcano for a hundred years, and
yet retain consciousness and thought. It is conceivable. Why might not psychic natures be enshrined
in indestructible flint and platinum? These substances are no further from the nature of intelligence
than carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and lime. But, not to carry the thought to such an extreme (?), might
not high intelligences be embodied in frames as indifferent to external conditions as the sage of the
western plains, or the lichens of Labrador, the rotifers that remain dried for years, or the spores of
bacteria which pass living through boiling water. . . . These suggestions are made simply to remind
the reader how little can be argued respecting the necessary conditions of intelligent, organized
existence, from the standard of corporeal existence found upon the earth. Intelligence is, from its
nature, as universal and as uniform as the laws of the Universe. Bodies are merely the local fitting of
intelligence to particular modifications of universal matter or Force." (World-Life, or Comparative
Geology, pp. 496-498 et seq.)

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 609 THE GEOLOGY OF ENOCH.

How long has it taken the world, as it is now, to become what it is? If it can be said of cosmic dust
that some of it comes to the present day "which had never belonged to the earth before" ("WorldLife"), how much more logical to believe -- as the Occultists do -- that through the countless ages and
millions of years that have rolled away, since that dust aggregated and formed the globe we live in
around its nucleus of intelligent primeval substance -- many humanities, differing from our present
mankind, as greatly as the one which will evolve millions of years hence will differ from our races,
appeared but to disappear from the face of the earth, as our own will. Those primitive and far-distant
humanities, having, as geologists think, left no tangible relics of themselves, are denied. All trace of
them is swept away, and therefore they have never existed. Yet their relics -- a very few of them, truly
-- are to be found, and they have to be discovered by geological research. Though, even if they were
never to be met with, there is no reason to say that no men could have ever lived in those geological
times, to which the period of their presence on earth is assigned. For their organisms needed no warm
blood, no atmosphere, no feeding; the author of "World-Life" is right, and it is no such great extreme
to believe even as we do, that as there may be, on scientific hypotheses, "psychic natures enshrined in
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indestructible flint and platinum" to this day, so there were psychic natures enshrined in forms of
equal indestructible primeval matter -- the real forefa thers of our fifth race.
When we speak, therefore, as in Book II., of men who inhabited this globe 18,000,000 years back, we
have in the mind neither the men of our present races, nor the present atmospheric laws, thermal
conditions, etc. The Earth and mankind, like the Sun, Moon, and planets, have all their growth,
changes, developments, and gradual evolution in their life-periods; they are born, become infants,
then children, adolescents, grown-up bodies, grow old, and finally die. Why should not Mankind be
also under this universal law? Says Uriel to Enoch: "Behold, I have showed thee all things. Thou seest
the Sun, Moon, and those which conduct the stars of heaven, which cause all their operations,
seasons, and arrivals to return. . . . In the days of sinners the years shall be shortened . . . everything
done on Earth shall be subverted . . . the moon shall change its laws" . . . etc. (Ch. lxxix.)
The "days of Sinners" meant the days when matter would be in its full sway on Earth, and man would
have reached the apex of physical development in stature and animality. That came to pass during the
period of the Atlanteans, about the middle point of their Race (the 4th), which was drowned as
prophesied by Uriel. Since then man began decreasing in physical stature, strength, and years, as will
be shown in

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 610 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

Book II. But as we are in the mid-point of our sub-race of the Fifth Root Race -- the acme of
materiality in each -- therefore the animal propensities, though more refined, are not the less
developed for that: and they are so chiefly in civilized countries.
------[[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]] 610 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

[[This page continued from previous section]]
XV.
GODS, MONADS, AND ATOMS.
SOME years ago we remarked* that "the Esoteric Doctrine may well be called the 'thread-doctrine,'
since, like Sutratman, in the Vedanta philosophy,** it passes through and strings together all the
ancient philosophical religious systems, and reconciles and explains them all." We say now it does
more. It not only reconciles the various and apparently conflicting systems, but it checks the
discoveries of modern exact science, and shows some of them to be necessarily correct, since they are
found corroborated in the ancient records. All this will, no doubt, be regarded as terribly impertinent
and disrespectful, a veritable crime of lese-Science; nevertheless, it is a fact.
Science is, undeniably, ultra-materialistic in our days; but it finds, in one sense, its justification. Nature
behaving in actu ever esoterically, and being, as the Kabalists say, in abscondito, can only be judged
by the profane through her appearance, and that appearance is always deceitful on the physical plane.
On the other hand, the naturalists refuse to blend physics with metaphysics, the body with its
informing soul and spirit, which they prefer ignoring. This is a matter of choice with some, while the
minority strive very sensibly to enlarge the domain of physical science by trespassing on the forbidden
grounds of metaphysics, so distasteful to some materialists. These scientists are wise in their
generation. For all their wonderful discoveries would go for nothing, and remain for ever headless
bodies, unless they lift the veil of matter and strain their eyes to see beyond. Now that they have
studied nature in the length, breadth, and thickness of her physical frame, it is time to remove the
skeleton to the second plane and search within the unknown depths for the living and real entity, for its
SUB-stance -- the noumenon of evanescent matter.
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* "The Septenary Principle," art. in "Five Years of Theosophy," p. 197.
** The Atman or Spirit (the Spiritual SELF) passing like a thread through the five subtle bodies (or
principles, Koshas) is called "thread-soul," or Sutratman in Vedantic philosophy.

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 611 WHICH OF THE TWO IS BLIND?

It is only by acting on such lines that some of the truths, now called "exploded superstitions," will be
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discovered to be facts and the relics of ancient knowledge and wisdom.
One of such "degrading" beliefs -- in the opinion of the all-denying sceptic -- is found in the idea that
Kosmos, besides its objective planetary inhabitants, its humanities in other inhabited worlds, is full of
invisible, intelligent Existences. The so-called Arch-Angels, Angels and Spirits, of the West, copies of
their prototypes, the Dhyan-Chohans, the Devas and Pitris, of the East, are no real Beings but fictions.
On this point Materialistic Science is inexorable. To support its position, it upsets its own axiomatic
law of uniformity in the laws of nature, that of continuity, and all the logical sequence of analogies in
the evolution of being. The masses of the profane are asked, and made, to believe that the accumulated
testimony of History, which shows even the Atheists of old -- such as Epicurus and Democritus -believing in gods, was false; and that philosophers like Socrates and Plato, asserting their existence,
were mistaken enthusiasts and fools. If we hold our opinions merely on historical grounds, on the
authority of legions of the most eminent Sages, Neo-Platonists, Mystics of all the ages, from
Pythagoras down to the eminent Scientists and Professors of the present century, who, if they reject
"gods," believe in "spirits," shall we consider such authorities as weak-minded and foolish as any
Roman Catholic peasant, who believes in and prays to his once human Saint, or the Archangel, St.
Michael? But is there no difference between the belief of the peasant and that of the Western heirs to
the Rosicrucians and Alchemists of the Middle Ages? Is it the Van Helmonts, the Khunraths, the
Paracelsuses and Agrippas, from Roger Bacon down to St. Germain, who were all blind enthusiasts,
hysteriacs or cheats, or is it the handful of modern sceptics -- the "leaders of thought" -- who are struck
with the cecity of negation? The latter, we opine. It would be a miracle indeed, quite an abnormal fact
in the realm of probabilities and logic, were that handful of negators to be the sole custodians of truth,
while the million-strong hosts of believers in gods, angels, and spirits -- in Europe and America alone -namely, Greek and Latin Christians, Theosophists, Spiritualists, Mystics, etc., etc., should be no better
than deluded fanatics and hallucinated mediums, and often no higher than the victims of deceivers and
impostors! However varying in their external presentations and dogmas, beliefs in the Hosts of
invisible Intelligences of various grades have all the same foundation. Truth and error are mixed in all.
The exact extent, depth, breadth, and length of the mysteries of Nature are to be found only in Eastern
esoteric sciences. So vast and so profound are these that hardly a few, a very few of the highest
Initiates -- those whose very existence is known but to a small number of

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 612 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

Adepts -- are capable of assimilating the knowledge. Yet it is all there, and one by one facts and
processes in Nature's workshops are permitted to find their way into the exact Sciences, while
mysterious help is given to rare individuals in unravelling its arcana. It is at the close of great Cycles,
in connection with racial development, that such events generally take place. We are at the very close
of the cycle of 5,000 years of the present Aryan Kaliyuga; and between this time and 1897 there will
be a large rent made in the Veil of Nature, and materialistic science will receive a death-blow.
Without throwing any discredit upon time-honoured beliefs, in whatever direction, we are forced to
draw a marked line between blind faith, evolved by theologies, and knowledge due to the independent
researches of long generations of adepts; between, in short, faith and philosophy. There have been -- in
all ages -- undeniably learned and good men who, having been reared in sectarian beliefs, died in their
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crystallized convictions. For Protestants, the garden of Eden is the primeval point of departure in the
drama of Humanity, and the solemn tragedy on the summit of Calvary, the prelude to the hoped-for
Millennium. For Roman Catholics, Satan is at the foundation of Kosmos, Christ in its centre, and
Antichrist at its apex. For both, the Hierarchy of Being begins and ends within the narrow frames of
their respective theologies: one self-created personal God and an Empyrean ringing with the Hallelujas
of created angels; the rest, false gods, Satan and fiends.
Theophilosophy proceeds on broader lines. From the very beginning of AEons -- in time and space in
our Round and Globe -- the Mysteries of Nature (at any rate, those which it is lawful for our races to
know) were recorded by the pupils of those same now invisible "heavenly men," in geometrical figures
and symbols. The keys thereto passed from one generation of "wise men" to the other. Some of the
symbols, thus passed from the east to the west, were brought therefrom by Pythagoras, who was not
the inventor of his famous "Triangle." The latter figure, along with the plane cube and circle, are more
eloquent and scientific descriptions of the order of the evolution of the Universe, spiritual and psychic,
as well as physical, than volumes of descriptive Cosmogonies and revealed "Geneses." The ten points
inscribed within that "Pythagorean triangle" are worth all the theogonies and angelologies ever
emanated from the theological brain. For he who interprets them -- on their very face, and in the order
given -- will find in these seventeen points (the seven Mathematical Points hidden) the uninterrupted
series of the genealogies from the first Heavenly to terrestrial man. And, as they give the order of
Beings, so they reveal the order in which were evolved the Kosmos, our earth, and the primordial
elements by

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 613 THE MATHEMATICAL POINT.

which the latter was generated. Begotten in the invisible Depths, and in the womb of the same
"Mother" as its fellow-globes -- he who will master the mysteries of our Earth, will have mastered
those of all others.
Whatever ignorance, pride or fanaticism may suggest to the contrary, Esoteric Cosmology can be
shown inseparably connected with both philosophy and modern science. The gods of the ancients, the
monads -- from Pythagoras down to Leibnitz -- and the atoms of the present materialistic schools (as
borrowed by them from the theories of the old Greek Atomists) are only a compound unit, or a
graduated unity like the human frame, which begins with body and ends with spirit. In the occult
sciences they can be studied separately, but never mastered unless viewed in their mutual correlations
during their life-cycle, and as a Universal Unity during Pralayas.
La Pluche shows sincerity, but gives a poor idea of his philosophical capacities when declaring his
personal views on the Monad or the Mathematical Point. "A point," he says, "is enough to put all the
schools in the world in a combustion. But what need has man to know that point, since the creation of
such a small being is beyond his power? A fortiori, philosophy acts against probability when, from that
point which absorbs and disconcerts all her meditations, she presumes to pass on to the generation of
the world. . . ."
Philosophy, however, could never have formed its conception of a logical, universal, and absolute
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Deity if it had no Mathematical Point within the Circle to base its speculations upon. It is only the
manifested Point, lost to our senses after its pregenetic appearance in the infinitude and incognizability
of the Circle, that made a reconciliation between philosophy and theology possible -- on condition that
the latter should abandon its crude materialistic dogmas. And it is because it has so unwisely rejected
the Pythagorean Monad and geometrical figures, that Christian theology has evolved its self-created
human and personal God, the monstrous Head from whence flow in two streams the dogmas of
Salvation and Damnation. This is so true that even those clergymen who would be philosophers and
who were masons, have, in their arbitrary interpretations, fathered upon the ancient sages the queer
idea that "the Monad represented (with them) the throne of the Omnipotent Deity, placed in the centre
of the Empyrean to indicate T.G.A.O.T.U."* -- read "the Great Architect of the Universe." A curious
explanation this, more Masonic than strictly Pythagorean.
Nor did the "hierogram within a Circle, or equilateral Triangle,"
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* "Science of Numbers," by the Rev. G. Oliver (p. 36).

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 614 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

ever mean "the exemplification of the unity of the divine Essence"; for this was exemplified by the
plane of the boundless Circle. What it really meant was the triune co-equal Nature of the first
differentiated Substance, or the con-substantiality of the (manifested) Spirit, matter and the Universe -their "Son," who proceeds from the Point (the real, esoteric LOGOS) or the Pythagorean MONAD.
For the Greek Monas signifies "Unity" in its primary sense. Those unable to seize the difference
between the monad -- the Universal Unit -- and the Monads or the manifested Unity, as also between
the ever-hidden and the revealed LOGOS or the Word, ought never to meddle in philosophy, let alone
the Esoteric Sciences. It is needless to remind the educated reader of Kant's Thesis to demonstrate his
second Antinomy.* Those who have read and understood it will see clearly the line we draw between
the absolutely Ideal Universe and the invisible though manifested Kosmos. Our Gods and Monads are
not the Elements of extension itself, but only those of the invisible reality which is the basis of the
manifested Kosmos. Neither esoteric philosophy, nor Kant, nor Leibnitz would ever admit that
extension can be composed of simple or unextended parts. But theologian-philosophers will not grasp
this. The Circle and the Point, which latter retires into and merges with the former, after having
emanated the first three points and connected them with lines, thus forming the first noumenal basis of
the Second Triangle in the Manifested World, have ever been an insuperable obstacle to theological
flights into dogmatic Empyreans. On the authority of this Archaic Symbol, a male, personal god, the
Creator and Father of all, becomes a third-rate emanation, the Sephiroth standing fourth in descent,
and on the left hand of En-Soph (see the Kabalistic Tree of Life). Hence, the Monad is degraded into a
Vehicle -- a "throne"!
The Monad -- only the emanation and reflection of the Point (Logos) in the phenomenal World -becomes, as the apex of the manifested equilateral triangle, the "Father." The left side or line is the
Duad, the "Mother," regarded as the evil, counteracting principle (Plutarch, De Placitis Placitorum);
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the right side represents the Son ("his Mother's husband" in every Cosmogony, as one with the apex);
at the basic line is the Universal plane of productive Nature, unifying on the phenomenal plane FatherMo ther-Son, as these were unified in the apex, in the supersensuous World.** By mystic transmutation
they became the Quaternary -- the triangle became the TETRAKTIS.
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* See Kant's Critique de la Raison pure (Barni's transl., Vol. II., p. 54).
** In the Greek and Latin churches -- which regard marriage as one of the sacraments -- the officiating
priest during the marriage ceremony represents the apex of the triangle; the bride its left feminine side
and the bridegroom the right one, while the horizontal line is symbolised by the row of witness, the
bridesmaids and best-men. But behind [[Footnote continued on next page]]

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 615 SPACE, FORCE AND MATTER.

This transcendental application of geometry to Cosmic and divine theogony -- the Alpha and the
Omega of mystical conception -- became dwarfed after Pythagoras by Aristotle. By omitting the Point
and the Circle, and taking no account of the apex, he reduced the metaphysical value of the idea, and
thus limited the doctrine of magnitude to a simple TRIAD -- the line, the surface, and the body. His
modern heirs, who play at Idealism, have interpreted these three geometrical figures as Space, Force,
and Matter -- "the potencies of an interacting Unity."* Materialistic Science, perceiving but the basic
line of the manifested "triangle" -- the plane of matter -- translates it practically as (Father)-MATTER,
(Mother)-MATTER, and (Son)-MATTER, and theoretically as Matter, Force, and Correlation.
But to the average physicist, as remarked by a Kabalist, "Space, Force, Matter, are, what signs in
algebra are to the mathematician, merely conventional symbols;" or "Force as force, and Matter as
matter, are as absolutely unknowable as is the assumed empty space in which they are held to interact."
As symbols representing abstractions, "the physicist bases reasoned hypotheses of the origin of things .
. . . and sees three needs in what he terms creation: (a) a place wherein to create; (b) a medium by
which to create; (c) a material from which to create. And in giving a logical expression to this
hypothesis through the terms space, force, matter, he believes he has proved the existence of that
which each of these represents as he conceives it to be."**
The physicist who regards Space merely as a representation of our mind, or extension unrelated to
things in it, which Locke defined as capable of neither resistance nor motion; the paradoxical
materialist, who would have a void there, where he can see no matter, would reject with the utmost
contempt the proposition that "Space is a substantial though (apparently) an absolutely unknowable
living Entity." (New Aspects, p. 9.) Such is, nevertheless, the Kabalistic teaching, and it is that of
Archaic philosophy. Space is the real world, while our world is an artificial one. It is the One Unity
throughout its infinitude: in its bottomless depths as on its illusive surface; a surface studded with
countless phenomenal Universes, systems and mirage-like worlds. Nevertheless, to the Eastern
Occultist, who is an objective Idealist at the bottom, in the real world, which is a Unity of Forces,
there is "a connection of all matter in the plenum," as Leibnitz would say. This is symbolized in the
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Pythagorean Triangle.
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

[[Footnote continued from previous page]] the priest there is the altar with its mysterious containments
and symbolic meaning, inside of which no one but the consecrated priests ought to enter. In the early
days of Christianity the marriage ceremony was a mystery and a true symbol. Now, however, even the
churches have lost the true meaning of this symbolism.
* See Von Hartmann's and Herbert Spencer's works.
** "New Aspects of Life," by Henry Pratt, M.D.

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 616 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

It consists of ten points inscribed pyramid-like (from one to the last four) within its three lines, and it
symbolizes the Universe in the famous Pythagorean Decad. The upper single dot is a Monad, and
represents a Unit-Point, which is the Unity from whence all proceeds, and all is of the same essence
with it. While the ten dots within the triangle represent the phenomenal world, the three sides of the
equilateral triangle which enclose the pyramid of dots are the barriers of noumenal Matter, or
Substance, that separate it from the world of Thought. "Pythagoras considered a point to correspond in
proportion to unity; a line to 2; a superficies to 3; a solid to 4; and he defined a point as a Monad
having position, and the beginning of all things; a line was thought to correspond with duality, because
it was produced by the first motion from indivisible nature, and formed the junction of two points. A
superficies was compared to the number three because it is the first of all causes that are found in
figures; for a circle, which is the principal of all round figures, comprises a triad, in centre -- space -circumference. But a triangle, which is the first of all rectilineal figures, is included in a ternary, and
receives its form according to that number; and was considered by the Pythagoreans to be the creator
of all sublunary things. The four points at the base of the Pythagorean triangle correspond with a solid
or cube, which combines the principles of length, breadth, and thickness, for no solid can have less
than four extreme boundary points." (Pythag. Triangle, p. 19.)
It is argued that "the human mind cannot conceive an indivisible unit short of the annihilation of the
idea with its subject." This is an error, as the Pythagoreans have proved, and a number of Seers before
them, although there is a special training for it, and although the profane mind can hardly grasp it. But
there are such things as metama thematics and metageometry. Even mathematics pure and simple
proceed from the Universal to the particular, from the mathematical, hence indivisible Point, to solid
figures. The teaching originated in India, and was taught in Europe by Pythagoras, who, throwing a
veil over the Circle and the Point -- which no living man can define except as incomprehensible
abstractions -- laid the origin of the differentiated Cosmic matter in the basic or horizontal line of the
Triangle. Thus the latter became the earliest of geometrical figures. The author of "New Aspects of
Life" and of the Kabalistic Mysteries -- objects to the objectivization, so to speak, of the Pythagorean
conception and use of the equilateral triangle, and calls it a misnomer. His argument that a solid
equilateral body -- "one whose base, and each of its sides, form equal triangles -- must have four cohttp://www.theosociety.org/pasadena/sd/sd1-3-15.htm (6 von 22) [06.05.2003 03:34:01]

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equal sides or surfaces, while a triangular plane will as necessarily possess five," demonstrates on the
contrary the grandeur of the conception in all its esoteric application to the idea of

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 617 PHANTOMS OF THE MIND.

the pregenesis, and the genesis of Kosmos. Granted, that an ideal triangle, depicted by mathematical,
imaginary lines "can have no sides at all, being simply a phantom of the mind (if sides be imputed to
which, they must be the sides of the object it constructively represents)." But in such case most of the
scientific hypotheses are no better than "phantoms of the mind"; they are unverifiable, except on
inference, and have been adopted merely to answer scientific necessities. Furthermore, the ideal
triangle -- "as the abstract idea of a triangular body, and, therefore, as the type of an abstract idea" -accomplished and carried out to perfection the double symbolism intended. As an emblem applicable
to the objective idea, the simple triangle became a solid. When repeated in stone on the four cardinal
points, it assumed the shape of the Pyramid -- the symbol of the phenomenal merging into the
noumenal Universe of thought -- at the apex of the four triangles; and, as an "imaginary figure
constructed of three mathematical lines," it symbolized the subjective spheres -- those lines "enclosing
a mathematical space -- which is equal to nothing enclosing nothing." Because, to the senses and the
untrained consciousness of profane and scientist, everything beyond the line of differentiated matter -i.e., outside of, and beyond the realm of even the most spiritual substance -- has to remain for ever
equal to nothing. It is the AIN-SOPH -- the No-THING.
Yet these "phantoms of the mind" are in truth no greater abstractions than the abstract ideas in general
upon evolution and physical development -- e.g., Gravity, Matter, Force, etc. -- on which the exact
sciences are based. Our most eminent chemists and physicists are earnestly pursuing the not hopeless
attempt of finally tracing to its hiding-place the protyle, or the basic line of the Pythagorean triangle.
The latter is, as said, the grandest conception imaginable, as it symbolizes both the ideal and the visible
universes.* For if "the possible unit is only a possibility as an actuality of nature, as an individual of
any kind," and as every individual natural object is capable of division, and by division loses its unity,
or ceases to be a unit,** it is so only in the realm of exact sciences in a world as deceptive as it is
illusive. In the realm of the Esoteric sciences the unit divided ad infinitum, instead of losing its unity,
approaches with every division the planes of the only eternal REALITY. The eye of the SEER can
follow and behold it in all its pregenetic glory. This same idea of the reality of the subjective, and the
unreality of the objective universes, is found at the bottom of the Pythagorean and Platonic teachings -limited to the Elect alone; for
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* In the world of Form, having found its expression in the Pyramids, Symbolism has in them both a
triangle and a square, with their four co-equal triangles or surfaces, the four basic points, and the fifth -the apex.
** "New Aspects of Life."

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[[Vol. 1, Page]] 618 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

Porphyry, speaking of the Monad and the Duad, says that the former only was considered substantial
and real, "that most simple Being, the cause of all unity and the measure of all things."
But the Duad, although the origin of Evil, or Matter -- thence unreal in philosophy -- is still Substance
during Manvantara, and is often called the third monad, in Occultism, and the connecting line as
between two Points, . . . or Numbers which proceeded from THAT, "which was before all Numbers,"
as expressed by Rabbi Barahiel. And from this Duad proceeded all the Scintillas of the three upper and
the four lower worlds or planes -- which are in constant interaction and correspondence. This is a
teaching which the Kabala has in common with Eastern Occultism. For in the occult philosophy there
are the "ONE Cause" and the "Primal Cause," which latter thus becomes, paradoxically, the second, as
clearly expressed by the author of the "Qabbalah, from the philosophical writings of Ibn Gabirol," -"in the treatment of the Primal cause, two things must be considered, the Primal Cause per se, and the
relation and connection of the Primal Cause with the visible and unseen universe." Thus he shows the
early Hebrews following in the steps of the Oriental philosophy -- Chaldean, Persian, Hindu, Arabic,
etc. Their Primal Cause was designated at first "by the triadic Shaddai, the (triune) Almighty,
subsequently by the Tetragrammaton, YHVH, symbol of the Past, Present, and Future," and, let us
add, of the eternal IS, or the I AM. Moreover, in the Kabala the name YHVH (or Jehovah) expresses a
He and a She, male and female, two in one, or Hokhmah and Binah, and his, or rather their Shekinah
or synthesizing spirit (grace), which makes again of the Duad a Triad. This is demonstrated in the
Jewish Liturgy for Pentecost, and the prayer, "In the name of Unity, of the Holy and Blessed Hu (He),
and His Shekinah, the Hidden and Concealed Hu, blessed be YHVH (the Quaternary) for ever." "Ha is
said to be masculine and YAH feminine, together they make the
i.e., one YHVH. One, but
of a male-female nature. The Shekinah is always considered in the Qabbalah as feminine" (p. 175).
And so it is considered in the exoteric Puranas, for Shekinah is no more than Sakti -- the female double
or lining of any god, in such case. And so it was with the early Christians whose Holy Spirit was
feminine, as Sophia was with the Gnostics. But in the transcendental Chaldean Kabala or "Book of
Numbers," "Shekinah" is sexless, and the purest abstraction, a State, like Nirvana, not subject or object
or anything except an absolute PRESENCE.
Thus it is only in the anthropomorphised systems (such as the Kabala has now greatly become) that
Shekinah-Sakti is feminine. As such she becomes the Duad of Pythagoras, the two straight lines of the
symbol that can never meet, which therefore form no geometrical figure and are

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 619 THE MONAD OF LEIBNITZ.

the symbol of matter. Out of this Duad, when united in one basic line of the triangle on the lower plane
(the upper Triangle of the Sephirothal Tree), emerge the Elohim, or Deity in Cosmic Nature, with the
true Kabalists the lowest designation, translated in the Bible "God" (see the same work and page).*
Out of these issue the Scintillas.
The Scintillas are the "Souls," and these Souls appear in the three-fold form of Monads (units), atoms

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and gods -- according to our teaching. "Every atom becomes a visible complex unit (a molecule), and
once attracted into the sphere of terrestrial activity, the Monadic Essence, passing through the mineral,
vegetable, and animal kingdoms, becomes man." (Esot. Catechism.) Again, "God, Monad, and Atom
are the correspondences of Spirit, Mind, and Body (Atma, Manas and Sthula Sarira) in man." In their
septenary aggregation they are the "Heavenly Man" (see Kabala for the latter term); thus, terrestrial
man is the provisional reflection of the Heavenly. . . . . "The Monads (Jivas) are the Souls of the
Atoms, both are the fabric in which the Chohans (Dhyanis, gods) cloth themselves when a form is
needed." (Esot. Cat.)
This relates to Cosmic and sub-planetary Monads, not to the Super-Cosmic Monas (the Pythagorean
Monad) as called, in its synthetic character, by the Pantheistical Peripatetics. The Monads of the
present dissertation are treated from the standpoint of their individuality, as atomic Souls, before these
atoms descend into pure terrestrial form. For this descent into concrete matter marks the medial point
of their own individual pilgrimage. Here, losing in the mineral kingdom their individuality, they begin
to ascend through the seven states of terrestrial evolution to that point where a correspondence is
firmly established between the human and Deva (divine) consciousness. At present, however, we are
not concerned with their terrestrial metamorphoses and tribulations, but with their life and behaviour in
Space, on planes wherein the eye of the most intuitional chemist and physicist cannot reach them -unless, indeed, he develops in himself highly clairvoyant faculties.
It is well known that Leibnitz came several times very near the truth, but defined monadic evolution
incorrectly, which is not to be wondered at, since he was not an INITIATE, nor even a Mystic, only a
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* Such recent works as the Qabbalah of Mr. Isaac Myer and of Mr. S. L. MacGregor Mathers, fully
justify our attitude towards the Jehovistic Deity. It is not the transcendental, philosophical, and highly
metaphysical abstraction of the original Kabalistic thought -- Ain-Soph-Shekinah-Adam-Kadmon, and
all that follows -- that we oppose, but the crystallization of all these into the highly unphilosophical,
repulsive, and anthropomorphic Jehovah, the androgynous and finite deity for which eternity,
omnipotence, and omniscience are claimed. We do not war against the IDEAL REALITY, but the
hideous theological Shadow.

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 620 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

very intuitional philosopher. Yet no psycho-physicist ever came nearer than he has to the esoteric
general outline of evolution. This evolution -- viewed from its several standpoints -- i.e., as the
universal and the individualized Monad; and the chief aspects of the Evolving Energy, after
differentiation -- the purely Spiritual, the Intellectual, the Psychic and the Physical -- may be thus
formulated as an invariable law; a descent of Spirit into Matter, equivalent to an ascent in physical
evolution; a re-ascent from the depths of materiality towards its status quo ante, with a corresponding
dissipation of concrete form and substance up to the LAYA state, or what Science calls "the zeropoint," and beyond.

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These states -- once the spirit of Esoteric philosophy is grasped -- become absolutely necessary from
simple logical and analogical considerations. Physical Science having now ascertained, through its
department of Chemistry, the invariable law of this evolution of atoms -- from their "protylean" state
down to that of a physical and then a chemical particle (or molecule) -- cannot well reject the same as a
general law. And once it is forced by its enemies -- Metaphysics and Psychology* -- out of its alleged
impregnable strongholds, it will find it more difficult than it now appears to refuse room in the Spaces
of SPACE to Planetary Spirits (gods), Elementals, and even the Elementary Spooks or Ghosts, and
others. Already Figuier and Paul D'Assier, two Positivists and Materialists, have succumbed before
this logical necessity. Other and still greater Scientists will follow in that "intellectual FALL." They
will be driven out of their position not by spiritual, theosophical, or any other physical or even mental
phenomena, but simply by the enormous gaps and chasms that open daily and will still be opening
before them, as one discovery follows the other, until they are finally knocked off their feet by the
ninth wave of simple common sense.
Here is an example: Prof. W. Crookes' latest discovery of what he has named protyle. In the "Notes on
the Bhagavat Gita," by one of the best metaphysicians and Vedantic scholars in India,** the lecturer,
referring cautiously to "things occult" in that great Indian esoteric work, makes a remark as suggestive
as it is strictly correct. ". . . Into the details of the evolution of the solar system itself," he says, "it is not
necessary for me to enter. You may gather some idea as to the way in which the various elements start
into existence from these THREE principles into which MULAPRAKRITI is differentiated (the
Pythagorean triangle), by
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* Let not the word "psychology" cause the reader to carry his thought by an association of ideas to
modern "Psychologists," so-called, whose idealism is another name for uncompromising materialism,
and whose pretended Monism is no better than a mask to conceal the void of final annihilation -- even
of consciousness. Here Spiritual psychology is meant.
** T. Subba Row, see Theosophist for Feb., 1887.

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 621 THE CHEMISTRY OF THE FUTURE.

examining the lecture delivered by Professor Crookes a short time ago upon the so-called elements of
modern chemistry. This lecture will give you some idea of the way in which these Elements spring
from Vishwanara,* the most objective of these three principles, which seems to stand in the place of
the protyle mentioned in that lecture. Except in a few particulars, this lecture seems to give the
outlines of the theory of physical evolution on the plane of Vishwanara, and is, so far as I know, the
nearest approach made by modern investigators TO THE REAL OCCULT THEORY on the subject."
These words will be re-echoed and approved by every Eastern Occultist. Much from the lectures by
Prof. Crookes has already been quoted in XII. of these Addenda. Since then, there has been another
lecture delivered, as remarkable as the first one, on the "Genesis of the Elements,"** and also a third
one. Here we have almost a corroboration of the teachings of Esoteric philosophy concerning the mode
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of primeval evolution. It is, indeed, as near an approach, made by a great scholar and specialist in
chemistry,*** to the Secret Doctrine, as could be made apart from the application of the monads and
atoms to the dogmas of pure transcendental metaphysics, and their connection and correlation with
"Gods and intelligent Conscious Monads." But Chemistry is now on its ascending plane, thanks to one
of its highest European representatives. It is impossible for it to go back to that day when materialism
regarded its sub-elements as absolutely simple and homogeneous bodies, which it had raised, in its
blindness, to the rank of elements. The mask has been snatched off by too clever a hand for there to be
any fear of a new disguise. And after years of pseudology, of bastard molecules parading under the
name of elements, behind and beyond which there could be nought but void, a great professor of
chemistry asks once more: "What are these elements, whence do they come, what is their
signification? . . . . These elements perplex us in our researches, baffle us in our speculations, and
haunt us in our very dreams. They stretch like an unknown sea before us mocking -- mystifying, and
murmuring strange revelations and possibilities." (Gen. of Elem., p. 1.)
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* "Vishwanara is not merely the manifested objective world, but the one physical basis (the horizontal
line of the triangle) from which the whole objective world starts into existence." And this is the
Cosmic Duad, the androgynous Substance. Beyond only, is the true Protyle.
** By W. Crookes, F.R.S., V.P.C.S., delivered at the Royal Institution, London, on Friday, February
18th, 1887.
*** How true it is will be fully demonstrated only on that day when his discovery of radiant matter
will have resulted in a further elucidation with regard to the true source of light, and revolutionized all
the present speculations. Further familiarity with the northern streamers of the aurora borealis may
help the recognition of this truth.

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 622 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

Those who are heirs to primeval revelations have taught these "possibilities" in every century, but have
never found a fair hearing. The truths inspired to Kepler, Leibnitz, Gassendi, Swedenborg, etc., were
ever alloyed with their own speculations in one or another predetermined direction --hence distorted.
But now one of the great truths has dawned upon an eminent professor of modern exact science, and
he fearlessly proclaims as a fundamental axiom that Science has not made itself acquainted, so far,
with real simple elements. For Prof. Crookes tells his audience:
"If I venture to say that our commonly received elements are NOT simple and primordial, that they
have not arisen by chance or have not been created in a desultory and mechanical manner, but have
been evolved from simpler matters -- or perhaps, indeed, from one sole kind of matter -- I do but give
formal utterance to an idea which has been, so to speak, for some time 'in the air' of science. Chemists,
physicists, philosophers of the highest merit, declare explicitly their belief that the seventy (or
thereabouts) elements of our text-books are not the pillars of Hercules which we must never hope to
pass." . . . "Philosophers in the present as in the past -- men who certainly have not worked in the
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laboratory -- have reached the same view from another side." Thus Mr. Herbert Spencer records his
conviction that 'the chemical atoms are produced from the true or physical atoms by processes of
evolution under conditions which chemistry has not yet been able to produce.' . . . "And the poet has
forestalled the philosopher. Milton ('Paradise Lost,' Book V.) makes the Archangel Raphael say to
Adam, instinct with the evolutionary idea, that the Almighty had created
. . . 'One first matter, all
Indued with various forms, various degrees
Of substance.' "
Nevertheless, the idea would have remained crystallized "in the air of Science," and never have
descended into the thick atmosphere of materialism and profane mortals for years to come, perhaps,
had not Professor Crookes bravely and fearlessly reduced it to its simple elements, and thus publicly
forced it on Scientific notice. "An idea," says Plutarch, "is a being incorporeal, which has no
subsistence by itself, but gives figure and form unto shapeless matter, and becomes the cause of the
manifestation." (De Placit. Philos.) The revolution produced in old chemistry by Avogadro was the
first page in the Volume of New Chemistry. Mr. Crookes has now turned the second page, and is
boldly pointing to what may be the last. For once protyle accepted and recognized -- as invisible Ether
was, both being logical and scientific necessities -- Chemistry will have virtually ceased to live: it will
reappear in its reincarnation as New Alchemy, or METACHEMISTRY. The discoverer of

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 623 THE GENESIS OF ATOMS.

radiant matter will have vindicated in time the Archaic Aryan works on Occultism and even the Vedas
and Puranas. For what are the manifested "Mother," the "Father-Son-Husband" (Aditi and Daksha, a
form of Brahma, as Creators) and the "Son," -- the three "First-born" -- but simply Hydrogen, Oxygen,
and that which in its terrestrial manifestation is called nitrogen. Even the exoteric descriptions of the
"First Born" triad give all the characteristics of these three gases. Priestley, the "discoverer" of
Oxygen, or that which was known in the highest antiquity!
Yet all the ancient, mediaeval, and modern poets and philosophers have been anticipated even in the
exoteric Hindu books. Descartes' plenum of matter differentiated into particles; Leibnitz's Ethereal
Fluid and Kant's "primitive fluid" dissolved into its elements; Kepler's Solar Vortex and Systemic
Vortices; in short, from the Elemental Vortices inaugurated by the universal mind -- through
Anaxagoras, down to Galileo, Torricelli, and Swedenborg, and after them to the latest speculations by
European mystics -- all this is found in the Hindu hymns and Mantras to the "Gods, Monads, and
Atoms," in their fulness, for they are inseparable. In esoteric teachings, the most transcendental
conceptions of the universe and its mysteries, as the most (seemingly) materialistic speculations are
found reconciled, because those sciences embrace the whole scope of evolution from Spirit to matter.
As declared by an American Theosophist, "The Monads (of Leibnitz) may from one point of view be
called force, from another matter. To occult Science, force and matter are only two sides of the same
SUBSTANCE." ("Path," No. 10, p. 297.)
Let the reader remember these "Monads" of Leibnitz, every one of which is a living mirror of the
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universe, every monad reflecting every other, and compare this view and definition with certain
Sanskrit stanzas (Slokas) translated by Sir William Jones, in which it is said that the creative source of
the Divine Mind, . . . "Hidden in a veil of thick darkness, formed mirrors of the atoms of the world,
and cast reflection from its own face on every atom. . . . ."
When, therefore, Professor Crookes declares that "If we can show how the so-called chemical elements
might have been generated we shall be able to fill up a formidable gap in our knowledge of the
universe, . . ." the answer is ready. The theoretical knowledge is contained in the esoteric meaning of
every Hindu cosmogony in the Puranas; the practical demonstration thereof -- is in the hands of those
who will not be recognised in this century, save by the very few. The scientific possibilities of various
discoveries, that must inexorably lead exact Science into the acceptation of Eastern Occult views,
which contain all the requisite material for the filling of those "gaps," are, so far, at the mercy of
modern materialism. It is only by working in the direction

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 624 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

taken by Professor Crookes that there is any hope for the recognition of a few, hitherto Occult, truths.
Meanwhile, one thirsting to have a glimpse at a practical diagram of the evolution of primordial
matter, which, separating and differentiating under the impulse of cyclic law, divides itself into a
septenary gradation of SUBSTANCE (from a general view), can do no better than examine the plates
attached to Mr. Crookes' lecture: "Genesis of the Elements," and ponder well over some passages of
the text. In one place (p. 11) he says: -". . . . Our notions of a chemical element have expanded. Hitherto the molecule has been regarded as
an aggregate of two or more atoms, and no account has been taken of the architectural design on which
these atoms have been joined. We may consider that the structure of a chemical element is more
complicated than has hitherto been supposed. Between the molecules we are accustomed to deal with
in chemical reactions and ultimate atoms as first created, come smaller molecules or aggregates of
physical atoms; then sub-molecules differ one from the other, according to the position they occupied
in the yttrium edifice."
"Perhaps this hypothesis can be simplified if we imagine yttrium to be represented by a five-shilling
piece. By chemical fractionation I have divided it into five separate shillings, and find that these
shillings are not counterparts, but like the carbon atoms in the benzol ring, have the impress of their
position, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, stamped on them. . . . If I throw my shillings into the melting-pot or dissolve
them chemically, the mint stamp disappears and they all turn out to be silver." . . .
This will be the case with all the atoms and molecules when they have separated from their compound
forms and bodies -- when pralaya sets in. Reverse the case, and imagine the dawn of a new
manvantara. The pure "silver" of the absorbed material will once more separate into SUBSTANCE,
which will generate "Divine Essences" whose "principles"* are the primary elements, the subelements, the physical energies and subjective and objective matter; or, as these are epitomised -GODS, MONADS, and ATOMS. If leaving for one moment the metaphysical or transcendental side of
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the question, -- dropping out of the present consideration the supersensuous and intelligent beings and
entities believed in by the Kabalists and Christians -- we turn to the atomical theory of evolution, the
occult teachings are still found corroborated by exact Science and its confessions, as far, at least, as
regards the supposed "simple" elements, now suddenly
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* Corresponding on the cosmic scale with the Spirit, Soul-mind, Life, and the three Vehicles -- the
astral, the Mayavic and the physical bodies (of mankind) whatever division is made.

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 625 HERMES OR HUXLEY?

degraded into poor and distant relatives -- not even second cousins to the latter. For we are told by
Prof. Crookes that:
"Hitherto, it has been considered that if the atomic weight of a metal, determined by different
observers, setting out from different compounds, was always found to be constant . . . then such metal
must rightly take rank among the simple or elementary bodies. We learn . . . that this is no longer the
case. Again, we have here wheels within wheels. Gadolinium is not an element but a compound. . . We
have shown that yttrium is a complex of five or more new constituents. And who shall venture to
gainsay that each of these constituents, if attacked in some different manner, and if the result were
submitted to a test more delicate and searching than the radiant-matter test, might not be still further
divisible? Where, then, is the actual ultimate element? As we advance it recedes like the tantalizing
mirage lakes and groves seen by the tired and thirsty traveller in the desert. Are we in our quest for
truth to be thus deluded and baulked? The very idea of an element, as something absolutely primary
and ultimate, seems to be growing less and less distinct. . ." (p. 16).
On page 429 of Isis Unveiled, Vol. I., we said that "the mystery of first creation, which was ever the
despair of Science, is unfathomable unless they (the Scientists) accept the doctrine of Hermes. They
will have to follow in the footsteps of the Hermetists." Our prophecy begins to assert itself.
But between Hermes and Huxley there is a middle course and point. Let the men of Science only
throw a bridge half-way, and think seriously over the theories of Leibnitz. We have shown our theories
with regard to atomic evolution -- their last formation into compound chemical molecules being
produced within our terrestrial workshops in the earth's atmosphere and not elsewhere -- as strangely
agreeing with the evolution of atoms shown on Mr. Crookes' plates. Several times already it was stated
in this volume that Marttanda (the Sun) had evolved and aggregated, together with his smaller seven
Brothers, from his Mother's (Aditi's) bosom, that bosom being prima MATER-ia -- the lecturer's
primordial protyle. Esoteric doctrines teach the existence of "an antecedent form of energy having
periodic cycles of ebb and swell, rest and activity" (p. 21) -- and behold a great scholar in Science now
asking the world to accept this as one of the postulates. We have shown the "Mother," fiery and hot,
becoming gradually cool and radiant, and that same Scientist claims as his second postulate, a
scientific necessity, it would seem -- "an internal action akin to cooling, operating slowly in the
protyle." Occult Science teaches that "Mother" lies stretched in infinity (during Pralaya) as the great
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Deep, the "dry Waters of Space," according to the quaint expression in the Catechism, and becomes
wet

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 626 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

only after the separation and the moving over its face of Narayana, the "Spirit which is invisible
Flame, which never burns, but sets on fire all that it touches, and gives it life and generation."* And
now Science tells us that "the first-born element . . . most nearly allied to protyle" . . . would be
"hydrogen . . . which for some time would be the only existing form of matter" in the Universe. What
says Old Science? It answers: just so; but we would call hydrogen and oxygen (which instils the fire of
life into the "Mother" by incubation) in the pregenetic and even pre-geological ages -- the Spirit, the
noumenon of that which becomes in its grossest form oxygen and hydrogen and nitrogen on Earth -nitrogen being of no divine origin, but merely an earth-born cement to unite other gases and fluids, and
serve as a sponge to carry in itself the breath of LIFE -- pure air.** Before these gases and fluids
become what they are in our atmosphere, they are interstellar Ether; still earlier and on a deeper plane -something else, and so on in infinitum. The eminent and learned gentleman must pardon an Occultist
for quoting him at such length; but such is the penalty of a Fellow of the Royal Society who
approaches so near the precincts of the Sacred Adytum of Occult mysteries as virtually to overstep the
forbidden boundaries.
But it is time to leave modern physical science and turn to the psychological and metaphysical side of
the question. We would only remark that to the "two very reasonable postulates" required by the
eminent lecturer, "to get a glimpse of some few of the secrets so darkly hidden" behind "the door of the
Unknown" -- a third should be added*** -- lest no battering at it should avail; the postulate that
Leibnitz, in his speculations, stood on a firm groundwork of fact and truth. The admirable and
thoughtful synopsis of these speculations -- as given by John Theodore Merz in his "Leibnitz" -- shows
how nearly he has brushed the hidden secrets of esoteric Theogony in his Monadologie. And yet that
philosopher has hardly risen in his speculations above the first planes, the lower principles of the
Cosmic Great Body. His theory soars to no loftier heights than those of the manifested life, selfconsciousness and intelligence, leaving the regions of the earlier post-genetic mysteries untouched, as
his ethereal fluid is post-planetary.
But this third postulate will hardly be accepted by the modern men
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* "The Lord is a consuming fire." . . . "In him was life, and the life was the light of men."
** Which if separated ALCHEMICALLY would yield the Spirit of Life, and its Elixir.
*** Foremost of all, the postulate that there is no such thing in Nature as inorganic substances or
bodies. Stones, minerals, rocks, and even chemical "atoms" are simply organic units in profound
lethargy. Their coma has an end and their inertia becomes activity.

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[[Vol. 1, Page]] 627 LEIBNITZ AND OCCULTISM.

of Science; and, like Descartes, they will prefer keeping to the properties of external things, which, like
extension, are incapable of explaining the phenomenon of motion, rather than accept the latter as an
independent Force. They will never become anti-Cartesian in this generation; nor will they admit that
"this property of inertia is not a purely geometrical property, that it points to the existence of
something in external bodies which is not extension merely." This is Leibnitz's idea as analyzed by
Mertz, who adds that he called this something Force, and maintained that external things were
endowed with Force, and that in order to be the bearers of this force they must have a substance, for
they are not lifeless and inert masses, but the centres and bearers of form, a purely esoteric claim, since
force was with Leibnitz an active principle, the division between mind and matter disappearing by this
conclusion. But -"The mathematical and dynamical inquiries of Leibnitz would not have led to the same result in the
mind of a purely scientific inquirer. But Leibnitz was not a scientific man in the modern sense of the
word. Had he been so, he might have worked out the conception of energy, defined mathematically the
ideas of force and mechanical work, and arrived at the conclusion that even for purely scientific
purposes it is desirable to look upon force, not as a primary quantity, but as a quantity derived from
some other value."
But, luckily for truth -"Leibnitz was a philosopher; and as such he had certain primary principles, which biassed him in
favour of certain conclusions, and his discovery that external things were substances endowed with
force was at once used for the purpose of applying these principles. One of these principles was the
law of continuity, the conviction that all the world was connected, that there were no gaps and chasms
which could not be bridged over. The contrast of extended thinking substances was unbearable to him.
The definition of the extended substances had already become untenable: it was natural that a similar
inquiry was made into the definition of mind, the thinking substance. . ."
The divisions made by Leibnitz, however incomplete and faulty from the standpoint of Occultism,
show a spirit of metaphysical intuition to which no man of science, not Descartes -- not even Kant -has ever reached. With him there existed ever an infinite gradation of thought. Only a small portion of
the contents of our thoughts, he said, rises into the clearness of apperception, "into the light of perfect
consciousness." Many remain in a confused or obscure state, in the state of "perceptions;" but they are
there; . . . Descartes denied soul to the animal, Leibnitz endowed, as the Occultists do, "the whole
creation with mental life, this being, according to him, capable of infinite gradations." And

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 628 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

this, as Mertz justly observes, "at once widened the realm of mental life, destroying the contrast of
animate and inanimate matter; it did yet more -- it reacted on the conception of matter, of the extended
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substance. For it became evident that external or material things presented the property of extension to
our senses only, not to our thinking faculties. The mathematician, in order to calculate geometrical
figures, had been obliged to divide them into an infinite number of infinitely small parts, and the
physicist saw no limit to the divisibility of matter into atoms. The bulk through which external things
seemed to fill space was a property which they acquired only through the coarseness of our senses. . . .
Leibnitz followed these arguments to some extent, but he could not rest content in assuming that
matter was composed of a finite number of very small parts. His mathematical mind forced him to
carry out the argument in infinitum. And what became of the atoms then? They lost their extension and
they retained only their property of resistance; they were the centres of force. They were reduced to
mathematical points . . . but if their extension in space was nothing, so much fuller was their inner life.
Assuming that inner existence, such as that of the human mind, is a new dimension, not a geometrical
but a metaphysical dimension . . . having reduced the geometrical extension of the atoms to nothing,
Leibnitz endowed them with an infinite extension in the direction of their metaphysical dimension.
After having lost sight of them in the world of space, the mind has, as it were, to dive into a
metaphysical world to find and grasp the real essence of what appears in space merely as a
mathematical point. . . . As a cone stands on its point, or a perpendicular straight line cuts a horizontal
plane only in one mathematical point, but may extend infinitely in height and depth, so the essences of
things real have only a punctual existence in this physical world of space; but have an infinite depth of
inner life in the metaphysical world of thought . . . " (p. 144).
This is the spirit, the very root of occult doctrine and thought. The "Spirit-Matter" and "Matter-Spirit"
extend infinitely in depth, and like "the essence of things" of Leibnitz, our essence of things real is at
the seventh depth; while the unreal and gross matter of Science and the external world, is at the lowest
end of our perceptive senses. The Occultist knows the worth or worthlessness of the latter.
The student must now be shown the fundamental distinction between the system of Leibnitz* and that
of occult philosophy, on the question of the Monads, and this may be done with his Monadology
before us. It may be correctly stated that were Leibnitz' and Spinoza's systems
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* The real spelling of the name -- as spelt by himself -- is Leibniz. He was of Slavonian descent though
a German by birth.

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 629 SPINOZA AND LEIBNITZ.

reconciled, the essence and Spirit of esoteric philosophy would be made to appear. From the shock of
the two -- as opposed to the Cartesian system -- emerge the truths of the Archaic doctrine. Both
opposed the metaphysics of Descartes. His idea of the contrast of two substances -- Extension and
Thought -- radically differing from each other and mutually irreducible, was too arbitrary and too
unphilosophical for them. Thus Leibnitz made of the two Cartesian substances two attri butes of one
universal unity, in which he saw God. Spinoza recognised but one universal indivisible substance and
absolute ALL, like Parabrahmam. Leibnitz, on the contrary perceived the existence of a plurality of
substances. There was but ONE for Spinoza; for Leibnitz an infinitude of Beings, from, and in, the
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One. Hence, though both admitted but one real Entity, while Spinoza made it impersonal and
indivisible, Leibnitz divided his personal Deity into a number of divine and semi-divine Beings.
Spinoza was a subjective, Leibnitz an objective Pantheist, yet both were great philosophers in their
intuitive perceptions.
Now, if these two teachings were blended together and each corrected by the other, -- and foremost of
all the One Reality weeded of its personality -- there would remain as sum total a true spirit of esoteric
philosophy in them; the impersonal, attri buteless, absolute divine essence which is no "Being," but the
root of all being. Draw a deep line in your thought between that ever-incognizable essence, and the, as
invisible, yet comprehensible Presence (Mulaprakriti), or Schekinah, from beyond and through which
vibrates the Sound of the Verbum, and from which evolve the numberless hierarchies of intelligent
Egos, of conscious as of semi-conscious, perceptive and apperceptive Beings, whose essence is
spiritual Force, whose Substance is the Elements and whose Bodies (when needed) are the atoms -and our doctrine is there. For, says Leibnitz, "the primitive Element of every material body being
Force, which has none of the characteristics of (objective) matter -- it can be conceived but can never
be the object of any imaginative representation." That which was for him the primordial and ultimate
element in every body and object was thus not the material atoms, or molecules, necessarily more or
less extended, as those of Epicurus and Gassendi, but, as Mertz shows, immaterial and metaphysical
atoms, 'mathematical points'; or real souls, -- as explained by Henri Lachelier (Professeur agrege de
Philosophie), his French biographer. "That which exists outside of us in an absolute manner, are Souls
whose essence is force," (Monadologie, Introd.).
Thus, reality in the manifested world is composed of a unity of units, so to say, immaterial (from our
stand-point) and infinite. This Leibnitz calls "Monads," Eastern philosophy "Jivas" -- and Occultism
gives it, with the Kabalists and all the Christians, a variety of names.

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 630 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

They are with us, as with Leibnitz -- "the expression of the universe,"* and every physical point is but
the phenomenal expression of the noumenal, metaphysical point. His distinction between perception
and apperception, is the philosophical though dim expression of the Esoteric teachings. His "reduced
universes," of which "there are as many as there are Monads" -- is the chaotic representation of our
Septenary System with its divisions and sub-divisions.
As to the relation his Monads bear to our Dhyan-Chohans, Cosmic Spirits, Devas and Elementals, we
may reproduce briefly the opinion of a learned and thoughtful theosophist, Mr. H. A. Bjerregaard, on
the subject. In an excellent paper "On the Elementals, the Elementary Spirits, and the relationship
between them and Human Beings," read by him before the "Aryan Theosophical Society of New
York" (see PATH, Nos. 10 and 11, of Jan. and Feb. 1887), Mr. Bjerregaard formulates distinctly his
opinion. . . . . "To Spinoza, substance is dead and inactive, but to Leibnitz's penetrating mind
everything is living activity and active energy. In holding this view, he comes infinitely nearer the
Orient than any other thinker of his day, or after him. His discovery that an active energy forms the
essence of Substance is a principle that places him in direct relationship to the Seers of the East."

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And the lecturer proceeds to show that to Leibnitz atoms and elements are centres of force, or rather
"spiritual beings whose very nature is to act," for the elementary particles are not acting mechanically,
but from an internal principle. They are incorporeal spiritual units ("substantial," however, but not
immaterial in our sense) inaccessible to all changes from without, and indestructible by any external
force. Leibnitz's monads, adds the lecturer, "differ from atoms in the following particulars, which are
very important for us to remember, otherwise we shall not be able to see the difference between
elementals and mere matter." . . . . "Atoms are not distinguished from each other, they are qualitatively
alike; but one monad differs from every other monad qualitatively; and every one is a peculiar world to
itself. Not so with atoms; they are absolutely alike quantitatively and qualitatively, and possess no
individuality of their own.** Again, the atoms (molecules,
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* "Leibnitz's Dynamism," says Professor Lachelier, "would offer but little difficulty if, with him, the
Monad had remained a simple atom of blind force. But . . . ." One perfectly understands the perplexity
of modern materialism!
** Leibnitz was an absolute Idealist in maintaining that "material atoms are contrary to reason"
(Systeme nouveau, Erdmann, p. 126. col. 2). For him matter was a simple representation of the monad,
whether human or atomic. Monads, he thought (as we do), are everywhere. Thus the human soul is a
monad, and every cell in the human body has its monad, as every cell in animal, vegetable, and even in
the (so-called) inorganic bodies. His atoms are the molecules of modern Science, and his monads
those simple [[Footnote continued on next page]]

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 631 MAYA AND MAHAMAYA.

rather) of materialistic philosophy can be considered as extended and divisible, while the monads are
mere mathematical points and indivisible. Finally, and this is a point where these monads of Leibnitz
closely resemble the elementals of mystic philosophy -- these monads are representative Beings. Every
monad reflects every other. Every monad is a living mirror of the Universe within its own sphere. And
mark this, for upon it depends the power possessed by these monads, and upon this depends the work
they can do for us; in mirroring the world, the monads are not mere passive reflective agents, but
spontaneously self-active; they produce the images spontaneously, as the soul does a dream. In every
monad, therefore, the adept may read everything, even the future. Every monad or Elemental is a
looking-glass that can speak. . ."
It is at this point that Leibnitz's philosophy breaks down. There is no provision made, nor any
distinction established, between the "Elemental" monad and that of a high Planetary Spirit, or even the
human monad or Soul. He even goes so far as to sometimes doubt whether "God has ever made
anything but Monads or substances without extension." (Examen des Principes du P. Malebranche.)
He draws a distinction between Monads and Atoms,* because, as he repeatedly states, "bodies with all
their qualities are only phenomenal, like the rainbow. . . . Corpora omnia cum omnibus qualitatibus
suis non sunt aliud quam phenomena bene fundata, ut Iris" (Letter to Father Desbosses,
Correspondence, letter xviii.) -- but soon after he finds a provision for this in a substantial
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correspondence, a certain metaphysical bond between the monads -- vinculum substantiale. Esoteric
philosophy, teaching an objective Idealism -- though it regards the objective Universe and all in it as
Maya, temporary illusion -- draws a practical distinction between collective illusion, Mahamaya, from
the purely metaphysical stand-point, and the objective relations in it between various conscious Egos
so long as this illusion lasts. The adept, therefore, may read the future in an Elemental Monad, but he
has to draw for this object a great number of them, as each monad represents only a portion of the
Kingdom it belongs to. "It is not in the object, but in the modification of the cognition of the object
that the Monads are limited. They all go confusedly to the infinite, to the all, but they are all limited
and distinguished by the
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

[[Footnote continued from previous page]] atoms that materialistic Science takes on faith, though it
will never succeed in interviewing them -- except in imagination. But Leibnitz is rather contradictory
in his views about Monads. He speaks of his Metaphysical Points and Formal Atoms, at one time as
realities, occupying space; at another as pure Spiritual ideas; then again endows them with objectivity
and aggregates and positions in their co-relations.
* The atoms of Leibnitz have, in truth, nothing but the name in common with the atoms of the Greek
Materialists, or even the molecules of modern Science. He calls them formal atoms, and compares
them to the substantial forms of Aristotle. (See Systeme Nouveau, 3.)

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 632 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

degrees of distinct perceptions." ( 60, Monadologie.)* And as Leibnitz explains, "All the portions of
the Universe are distinctly represented in the Monads, but some are reflected in one monad, some in
another;" but a number of monads could represent simultaneously the thoughts of the two millions of
inhabitants of Paris.
But what say the Occult Sciences to this, and what do they add?
They say that what is called collectively Monads by Leibnitz -- roughly viewed, and leaving every
subdivision out of calculation, for the present** -- may be separated into three distinct Hosts, which,
counted from the highest planes, are, firstly, "gods," or conscious, spiritual Egos; the intelligent
architects, who work after the plan in the Divine Mind. Then come the Elementals, or Monads, who
form collectively and unconsciously the grand Universal Mirrors of everything connected with their
respective realms. Lastly, the atoms, or material molecules, which are informed in their turn by their
apperceptive monads, just as every cell in a human body is so informed. (See the closing pages of
Book I.) There are shoals of such informed atoms which, in their turn, inform the molecules; an
infinitude of monads, or Elementals proper, and countless spiritual Forces -- Monadless, for they are
pure incorporealities,*** except under certain laws, when they assume a form -- not necessarily
human. Whence the substance that clothes them -- the apparent organism they evolve around their
centres? The Formless ("Arupa") Radiations, existing in the harmony of Universal Will, and being
what we term the collective or the aggregate of Cosmic Will on the plane of the subjective Universe,
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unite together an infinitude of monads -- each the mirror of its own Universe -- and thus individualize
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* Leibnitz, like Aristotle, calls the created or emanated monads (the Elementals issued from Cosmic
Spirits or Gods) -- Entelechies, [[Entelecheia]] -- and "incorporeal automata." ( 18, Monadologie.)
** These three "rough divisions" correspond to spirit, mind (or soul), and body, in the human
constitution.
*** Brother C. H. A. Bjerregaard, in his lecture (already mentioned), warns his audience not to regard
the Sephiroth too much as individualities, but to avoid at the same time seeing in them abstractions.
"We shall never arrive at the truth," he says, "much less the power of associating with those celestials,
until we return to the simplicity and fearlessness of the primitive ages, when men mixed freely with the
gods, and the gods descended among men and guided them in truth and holiness" (No. 10, Path) . . . .
"There are several designations for 'angels' in the Bible which clearly show that beings like the
Elementals of the Kabala and the monads of Leibnitz, must be understood by that term rather than that
which is commonly understood. They are called 'morning stars,' 'flaming fires,' 'the mighty ones,' and
St. Paul sees them in his cosmogonic vision as 'Principalities and Powers.' Such names as these
preclude the idea of personality, and we find ourselves compelled to think of them as impersonal
Existences . . . as an influence, a spiritual substance, or conscious Force." (Path, No. 11, p. 322.)

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 633 THE WHEELS OF LIFE.

for the time being an independent mind, omniscient and universal; and by the same process of
magnetic aggregation they create for themselves objective, visible bodies, out of the interstellar atoms.
For atoms and Monads, associated or dissociated, simple or complex, are, from the moment of the first
differentiation, but the principles, corporeal, psychic and Spiritual, of the "Gods," -- themselves the
Radiations of primordial nature. Thus, to the eye of the Seer, the higher Planetary Powers appear under
two aspects: the subjective -- as influences, and the objective -- as mystic FORMS, which, under
Karmic law, become a Presence, Spirit and Matter being One, as repeatedly stated. Spirit is matter on
the seventh plane; matter is Spirit -- on the lowest point of its cyclic activity; and both -- are MAYA.
Atoms are called "Vibrations" in Occultism; also "Sound" -- collectively. This does not interfere with
Mr. Tyndall's scientific discovery. He traced, on the lower rung of the ladder of monadic being, the
whole course of the atmospheric vibrations -- and this constitutes the objective part of the process in
nature. He has traced and recorded the rapidity of their motion and transmission; the force of their
impact; their setting up vibrations in the tympanum and their transmission of these to the stolithes, etc.,
etc., till the vibration of the auditory nerve commences -- and a new phenomenon now takes place: the
subjective side of the process or the sensation of Sound. Does he perceive or see it? No; for his
speciality is to discover the behaviour of matter. But why should not a psychic see it, a spiritual seer,
whose inner Eye is opened, and who can see through the veil of matter? The waves and undulations of
Science are all produced by atoms propelling their molecules into activity from within. Atoms fill the
immensity of Space, and by their continuous vibration are that MOTION which keeps the wheels of
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Life perpetually going. It is that inner work that produces the natural phenomena called the correlation
of Forces. Only, at the origin of every such "force," there stands the conscious guiding noumenon
thereof -- Angel or God, Spirit or Demon -- ruling powers, yet the same.
As described by Seers -- those who can see the motion of the interstellar shoals, and follow them in
their evolution clairvoyantly -- they are dazzling, like specks of virgin snow in radiant sunlight. Their
velocity is swifter than thought, quicker than any mortal physical eye could follow, and, as well as can
be judged from the tremendous rapidity of their course, the motion is circular. . . . . Standing on an
open plain, on a mountain summit especially, and gazing into the vast vault above and the spacial
infinitudes around, the whole atmosphere seems ablaze with them, the air soaked through with these
dazzling coruscations. At times, the intensity of their motion produces flashes

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like the Northern lights during the Aurora Borealis. The sight is so marvellous, that, as the Seer gazes
into this inner world, and feels the scintillating points shoot past him, he is filled with awe at the
thought of other, still greater mysteries, that lie beyond, and within, this radiant ocean. . . . .
However imperfect and incomplete this explanation on "Gods, Monads and Atoms," it is hoped that
some students and theosophists, at least, will feel that there may be indeed a close relation between
materialistic Science, and Occultism, which is the complement and missing soul of the former.
------[[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]] 634 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

[[This page continued from previous section]]
XVI.
CYCLIC EVOLUTION AND KARMA.
IT is the Spiritual evolution of the inner, immortal man that forms the fundamental tenet in the Occult
Sciences. To realize even distantly such a process, the student has to believe (a) in the ONE Universal
Life, independent of matter (or what Science regards as matter); and (b) in the individual intelligences
that animate the various manifestations of this Principle. Mr. Huxley does not believe in "Vital
Force," others do. Dr. J. H. Hutchinson Sterling's work "Concerning Protoplasm" has made no small
havoc of this dogmatic negation. Professor Beale's decision is also in favour of a Vital Principle; and
Dr. B. W. Richardson's lectures on the "Nervous Ether," have been sufficiently quoted from. Thus,
opinions are divided.
The ONE LIFE is closely related to the one law which governs the World of Being -- KARMA.
Exoterically, this is simply and literally "action," or rather an "effect-producing cause." Esoterically it
is quite a different thing in its far-fetching moral effects. It is the unerring LAW OF RETRIBUTION.
To say to those ignorant of the real significance, characteristics and awful importance of this eternal
immutable law, that no theological definition of a personal deity can give an idea of this impersonal,
yet ever present and active Principle, is to speak in vain. Nor can it be called Providence. For
Providence, with the Theists (the Christian Protestants, at any rate), rejoices in a personal male
gender, while with the Roman Catholics it is a female potency, "Divine Providence tempers His
blessings to secure their better effects," Wogan tells us. Indeed "He" tempers them, which Karma -- a
sexless principle -- does not.
Throughout the first two Parts, it was shown that, at the first flutter

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of renascent life, Svabhavat, "the mutable radiance of the Immutable Darkness unconscious in
Eternity," passes, at every new rebirth of Kosmos, from an inactive state into one of intense activity;
that it differentiates, and then begins its work through that differentiation. This work is KARMA.
The Cycles are also subservient to the effects produced by this activity. "The one Cosmic atom
becomes seven atoms on the plane of matter, and each is transformed into a centre of energy; that
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same atom becomes seven rays on the plane of spirit, and the seven creative forces of nature, radiating
from the root-essence . . . . follow, one the right, the other the left path, separate till the end of the
Kalpa, and yet are in close embrace. What unites them? KARMA." The atoms emanated from the
Central Point emanate in their turn new centres of energy, which, under the potential breath of Fohat,
begin their work from within without, and multiply other minor centres. These, in the course of
evolution and involution, form in their turn the roots or developing causes of new effects, from worlds
and "man-bearing" globes, down to the genera, species, and classes of all the seven kingdoms* (of
which we know only four). For "the blessed workers have received the Thyan-kam, in the eternity"
(Book of "The Aphorisms of Tson-ka-pa").
"Thyan-kam" is the power or knowledge of guiding the impulses of cosmic energy in the right
direction.
The true Buddhist, recognising no "personal god," nor any "Father" and "Creator of Heaven and
Earth," still believes in an absolute consciousness, "Adi-Buddhi"; and the Buddhist philosopher knows
that there are Planetary Spirits, the "Dhyan Chohans." But though he admits of "spiritual lives," yet, as
they are temporary in eternity, even they, according to his philosophy, are "the maya of the day," the
illusion of a "day of Brahma," a short manvantara of 4,320,000,000 years. The "Yin-Sin" is not for the
speculations of men, for the Lord Buddha has strongly prohibited all such inquiry. If the Dhyan
Chohans and all the invisible Beings -- the Seven Centres and their direct Emanations, the minor
centres of Energy -- are the direct reflex of the ONE Light, yet men are far removed from these, since
the whole of the visible Kosmos consists of "self-produced beings, the creatures of Karma." Thus
regarding a personal God "as only a gigantic shadow thrown upon the void of space by the
imagination of ignorant men,"** they teach that only "two things are (objectively) eternal, namely
Akasa and Nirvana"; and that these are ONE in reality, and but a maya when divided. "Buddhists deny
creation and cannot conceive of a Creator." "Everything has come out of Akasa (or Svabhavat
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* Vide Stanza VI. (Book I.) and Commentary.
** Buddhist Catechism, by H. S. Olcott, President of the Theosophical Society.

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on our earth) in obedience to a law of motion inherent in it, and after a certain existence passes away.
Nothing ever came out of nothing." (Buddhist Catechism.)
If a Vedantic Brahmin of the Adwaita Sect, when asked whether he believes in the existence of God,
is always likely to answer, as Jacolliot was answered -- "I am myself 'God';" a Buddhist (a Sinhalese
especially) would simply laugh, and say in reply, "There is no God; no Creation." Yet the root
philosophy of both Adwaita and Buddhist scholars is identical, and both have the same respect for
animal life, for both believe that every creature on earth, however small and humble, "is an immortal
portion of the immortal matter" -- for matter with them has quite another significance than it has with
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either Christian or materialist -- and that every creature is subject to Karma.
The answer of the Brahmin is one which would suggest itself to every ancient philosopher, Kabalist,
and Gnostic of the early days. It contains the very spirit of the Delphic and Kabalistic commandments,
for esoteric philosophy solved, ages ago, the problem of what man was, is, and will be; of man's
origin, life-cycle -- interminable in its duration of successive incarnations or rebirths -- and finally of
his absorption into the source from which he started.
But it is not physical Science that we can ever ask to read man for us, as the riddle of the Past, or that
of the Future; since no philosopher is able to tell us even what man is, as he is known both to
physiology and psychology. In doubt whether man was "a god or beast," he is now connected with the
latter and derived from an animal. No doubt that the care of analyzing and classifying the human
being as a terrestrial animal may be left to Science, which occultists -- of all men -- regard with
veneration and respect. They recognize its ground and the wonderful work done by it, the progress
achieved in physiology, and even -- to a degree -- in biology. But man's inner, spiritual, psychic, or
even moral, nature cannot be left to the tender mercies of an ingrained materialism; for not even the
higher psychological philosophy of the West is able, in its present incompleteness and tendency
towards a decided agnosticism, to do justice to the inner; especially to his higher capacities and
perceptions, and those states of consciousness, across the road to which such authorities as Mill draw
a strong line, saying "So far, and no farther shalt thou go."
No Occultist would deny that man -- no less than the elephant and the microbe, the crocodile and the
lizard, the blade of grass or the crystal -- is, in his physical formation, the simple product of the
evolutionary forces of nature through a numberless series of transformations; but he puts the case
differently.
It is not against zoological and anthropological discoveries, based on

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the fossils of man and animal, that every mystic and believer in a divine soul inwardly revolts, but
only against the uncalled-for conclusions built on preconceived theories and made to fit in with
certain prejudices. Their premises may or may not be always true; and as some of these theories live
but a short life, the deductions therefrom must ever be one-sided with materialistic evolutionists. Yet
it is on the strength of such very ephemeral authority, that most of the men of science frequently
receive undue honours where they deserve them the least.*
To make the working of Karma, in the periodical renovations of the Universe, more evident and
intelligible to the student when he arrives at the origin and evolution of man, he has now to examine
with us the esoteric bearing of the Karmic Cycles upon Universal Ethics. The question is, do those
mysterious divisions of time, called Yugas and Kalpas by the Hindus, and so very graphically -[[Kuklos]] -- "cycle," ring or circle, by the Greeks, have any bearing upon, or any direct connection
with, human life? Even exoteric philosophy explains that these perpetual circles of time are ever
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returning on themselves, periodically, and
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* We refer those who would regard the statement as an impertinence or irreverence against accepted
Science, to Mr. James Hutchinson Stirling's work concerning "Protoplasm," which is a defence of a
vital Principle versus the Molecularists -- Huxley, Tyndall, Vogt, and Co. -- and request them to
examine whether it is true or not to say that the scientific premises may not be always correct, but that
they are accepted, nevertheless, to fill up a gap or a hole in some beloved materialistic hobby.
Speaking of protoplasm and the organs of man, as "viewed by Mr. Huxley," the author says:
"Probably then, in regard to any continuity in protoplasm of power, of form, or of substance, we have
seen lacunae enow. Nay, Mr. Huxley himself can be adduced in evidence on the same side. Not rarely
do we find in his essay admissions of PROBABILITY, where it is CERTAINTY that is alone in
place. He says, for example: 'It is more than probable that when the vegetable world is thoroughly
explored we shall find all plants in possession of the same powers.' When a conclusion is decidedly
announced, it is rather disappointing to be told, as here, that the premisses are still to collect' (!!) . . . .
. Again, here is a passage in which he is seen to cut his own 'basis' from beneath his own feet. After
telling us that all forms of protoplasm consist of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen 'in very
complex union,' he continues: 'To this complex combination, the nature of which has never been
determined with exactness (!!), the name of protein has been applied.' This, plainly, is an
identification, on Mr. Huxley's own part, of protoplasm and protein; and what is said of one, being
necessarily true of the other, it follows that he admits the nature of protoplasm never to have been
determined with exactness, and that even in his eyes the lis is still sub judice. This admission is
streng thened by the words, too, 'If we use this term -- protein -- with such caution as may properly
arise out of our comparative ignorance of the things for which it stands . . . etc., etc. (p. 33 and 34, in
reply to Mr. Huxley in "Yeast").
This is the eminent Huxley, the king of physiology and biology, who is proven playing at blind man's
buff with premisses and facts. What may not the "smaller fry" of science do after this!

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 638 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

intelligently in Space and Eternity. There are "Cycles of matter"* and there are "Cycles of Spiritual
evolution." Racial, national, and individual cycles. May not esoteric speculation allow us a still deeper
insight into the workings of these?
This idea is beautifully expressed in a very clever scientific work: -"The possibility of rising to a comprehension of a system of co-ordination so far
outreaching in time and space all reach of human observations, is a circumstance which
signalizes the power of man to transcend the limitations of changing and inconsistent
matter, and assert his superiority over all unstable and perishable forms of being. There
is a method in the succession of events, and in the relation of co-existent things, which
the mind of man seizes hold of; and by means of this as a clue, he runs back or forward
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over aeons of material history of which human experience can never testify. Events
germinate and unfold. They have a past which is connected with their present, and we
feel a well-justified confidence that a future is appointed which will be similarly
connected with the present and the past. This continuity and unity of history repeat
themselves before our eyes in all conceivable stages of progress. The phenomena
furnish us the grounds for the generalization of two laws which are truly principles of
scientific divination, by which alone the human mind penetrates the sealed records of
the past and the unopened pages of the future. The first of these is the law of evolution,
or, to phrase it for our purpose, the law of correlated successiveness or organized
history in the individual, illustrated in the changing phases of every single maturing
system of results. . . . These thoughts summon into our immediate presence the
measureless past and the measureless future of material history. They seem almost to
open vistas through infinity, and to endow the human intellect with an existence and a
vision exempt from the limitations of time and space and finite causation, and lift it up
toward a sublime apprehension of the Supreme Intelligence whose dwelling place is
Eternity." ("World-Life," p. 535 and 548.)
According to the teachings, Maya, or the illusive appearance of the marshalling of events and actions
on this earth, changes, varying with nations and places. But the chief features of one's life are always
in accordance with the "Constellation" one is born under, or, we should say, with the characteristics of
its animating principle or the deity that presides over it, whether we call it a Dhyan Chohan, as in
Asia, or an Archangel, as with the Greek and Latin churches. In ancient Symbolism it was always the
SUN (though the Spiritual, not the visible, Sun was meant), that was supposed to send forth the chief
Saviours and Avatars. Hence the connecting link between the Buddhas, the Avatars, and so many
other incarnations of the highest SEVEN. The closer the approach to one's Prototype, "in Heaven," the
better for the mortal whose personality was chosen, by his own personal deity (the seventh principle),
as its terrestrial abode. For, with every effort of will toward purification and unity
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* "The Cycles of Matter," a name given by Professor Winchell to an Essay of his written in 1860.

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with that "Self-god," one of the lower rays breaks and the spiritual entity of man is drawn higher and
ever higher to the ray that supersedes the first, until, from ray to ray, the inner man is drawn into the
one and highest beam of the Parent-SUN. Thus, "the events of humanity do run coordinately with the
number forms," since the single units of that humanity proceed one and all from the same source -- the
central and its shadow, the visible SUN. For the equinoxes and solstices, the periods and various
phases of the Solar course, astronomically and numerically expressed, are only the concrete symbols
of the eternally living verity, though they do seem abstract ideas to uninitiated mortals. And this
explains the extraordinary numerical coincidences with geometrical relations, as shown by several
authors.

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Yes; "our destiny is written in the stars!" Only, the closer the union between the mortal reflection
MAN and his celestial PROTOTYPE, the less dangerous the external conditions and subsequent
reincarnations -- which neither Buddhas nor Christs can escape. This is not superstition, least of all is
it Fatalism. The latter implies a blind course of some still blinder power, and man is a free agent
during his stay on earth. He cannot escape his ruling Destiny, but he has the choice of two paths that
lead him in that direction, and he can reach the goal of misery -- if such is decreed to him, either in the
snowy white robes of the Martyr, or in the soiled garments of a volunteer in the iniquitous course; for,
there are external and internal conditions which affect the determination of our will upon our actions,
and it is in our power to follow either of the two. Those who believe in Karma have to believe in
destiny, which, from birth to death, every man is weaving thread by thread around himself, as a spider
does his cobweb; and this destiny is guided either by the heavenly voice of the invisible prototype
outside of us, or by our more intimate astral, or inner man, who is but too often the evil genius of the
embodied entity called man. Both these lead on the outward man, but one of them must prevail; and
from the very beginning of the invisible affray the stern and implacable law of compensation steps in
and takes its course, faithfully following the fluctuations. When the last strand is woven, and man is
seemingly enwrapped in the net-work of his own doing, then he finds himself completely under the
empire of this self-made destiny. It then either fixes him like the inert shell against the immovable
rock, or carries him away like a feather in a whirlwind raised by his own actions, and this is -KARMA.
A materialist, treating upon the periodical creations of our globe, has expressed it in one sentence.
"The whole past of the Earth is nothing but an unfolded present." This was Buchner, who little
suspected that he was repeating an axiom of the Occultists. It is quite true also, as Burmeister (quoted
in "Force and matter") remarks, that

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"the historical investigation of the development of the Earth has proved that now and then rest upon
the same base; that the past has been developed in the same manner as the present rolls on; and that
the Forces which were in action ever remained the same."
The "Forces" -- their noumena rather -- are the same, of course; therefore, the phenomenal Forces
must be the same also. But how can any one feel so sure that the attri butes of matter have not altered
under the hand of Protean Evolution? How can any materialist assert with such confidence, as is done
by Rossmassler, that "this eternal conformity in the essence of phenomena renders it certain that fire
and water possessed at all times the same powers and ever will possess them?" Who are they "that
darken counsel with words without knowledge," and where were the Huxleys and Buchners when the
foundations of the earth were laid by the great Law? It is a fundamental principle of the Occult
philosophy, this same homogeneity of matter and immutability of natural laws, which are so much
insisted upon by materialism; but that unity rests upon the inseparability of Spirit from matter, and, if
the two are once divorced, the whole Kosmos would fall back into chaos and non-being. Therefore, it
is absolutely false, and but an additional demonstration of the great conceit of our age, to assert (as
men of science do) that all the great geological changes and terrible convulsions have been produced
by ordinary and known physical forces. For these forces were but the tools and final means for the
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accomplishment of certain purposes, acting periodically, and apparently mechanically, through an
inward impulse mixed up with, but beyond their material nature. There is a purpose in every important
act of Nature, whose acts are all cyclic and periodical. But spiritual Forces having been usually
confused with the purely physical, the former are denied by, and therefore, have to remain unknown
to Science, because left unexamined.*
"The history of the World begins with its general aim," says Hegel; "the realization of
the Idea of Spirit -- only in an implicit form (an sich), that is, as Nature; a hidden, most
profoundly hidden unconscious instinct, and the whole process of History . . . is
directed to rendering this unconscious impulse a conscious one. Thus appearing in the
form of merely natural existence, natural will -- that which has been called the
subjective side -- physical craving, instinct, passion, private interest, as also opinion and
subjective conception -- spontaneously present themselves at the very commencement.
This vast congeries of volitions, interests and activities constitute the instruments and
means of the WORLD
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* Men of science will say: We deny, because nothing of the kind has ever come within the scope of
our experience. But, as argued by Charles Richet, the physiologist: "So be it, but have you at least
demonstrated the contrary? . . . Do not, at any rate, deny a priori. Actual Science is not sufficiently
advanced to give you such right." ("La suggestion mentale et le calcul des probabilites.")

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 641 CYCLIC WHEELS WITHIN WHEELS.

SPIRIT for attaining its object; bringing it to consciousness and realising it. And this
aim is none other than finding itself -- coming to itself -- and contemplating itself in
concrete actuality. But that those manifestations of vitality on the part of individuals
and peoples, in which they seek and satisfy their own purposes, are at the same time the
means and instruments of a higher power, of a higher and broader purpose of which
they know nothing -- which they realise unconsciously -- might be made a matter of
question; rather has been questioned . . . on this point I announced my view at the very
outset, and asserted our hypothesis . . . and our belief that Reason governs the World
and has consequently governed its history. In relation to this independently universal
and substantial existence -- all else is subordinate, subservient to it, and the means for
its development."*
No metaphysician or theosophist could demur to these truths, which are all embodied in esoteric
teachings. There is a predestination in the geological life of our globe, as in the history, past and
future, of races and nations. This is closely connected with what we call Karma and Western
Pantheists, "Nemesis" and "Cycles." The law of evolution is now carrying us along the ascending arc
of our cycle, when the effects will be once more re-merged into, and re-become the (now neutralized)
causes, and all things affected by the former will have regained their original harmony. This will be
the cycle of our special "Round," a moment in the duration of the great cycle, or the Mahayuga.
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The fine philosophical remarks of Hegel are found to have their application in the teachings of Occult
Science, which shows nature ever acting with a given purpose, whose results are always dual. This
was stated in our first Occult volumes, in Isis Unveiled, p. 268, Vol. II., in the following words: -As our planet revolves once every year around the sun, and at the same time turns once
in every twenty-four hours upon its own axis, thus traversing minor circles within a
larger one, so is the work of the smaller cyclic periods accomplished and recommenced,
within the Great Saros.
The revolution of the physical world, according to the ancient doctrine, is attended by a
like revolution in the world of intellect -- the spiritual evolution of the world proceeding
in cycles, like the physical one.
Thus we see in history a regular alternation of ebb and flow in the tide of human
progress. The great kingdoms and empires of the world, after reaching the culmination
of their greatness, descend again, in accordance with the same law by which they
ascended; till, having reached the lowest point, humanity reasserts itself and mounts up
once more, the height of its attainment being, by this law of ascending progression by
cycles, somewhat higher than the point from which it had before descended.
But these cycles -- wheels within wheels, so comprehensively and ingeniously symbolized by the
various Manus and Rishis in India, and by the Kabiri in the West** -- do not affect all mankind at one
and the same
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* "On World History" in "Philosophy of History," p. 26. (Sibree's Eng. Transl.).
** This symbolism does not prevent these now seemingly mythic personages from [[Footnote
continued on next page]]

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 642 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

time -- as explained in the Racial division of Cycles (See sub-section 6.) Hence, as we see, the
difficulty of comprehending, and discriminating between them, with regard to their physical and
spiritual effects, without having thoroughly mastered their relations with, and action upon the
respective positions of nations and races, in their destiny and evolution. This system cannot be
comprehended if the spiritual action of these periods -- pre-ordained, so to say, by Karmic law --is
separated from their physical course. The calculations of the best astrologers would fail, or at any rate
remain imperfect, unless this dual action is thoroughly taken into consideration and dealt with upon
these lines. And this mastery can be achieved only through INITIATION.

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The Grand Cycle includes the progress of mankind from the appearance of primordial man of ethereal
form. It runs through the inner cycles of his (man's) progressive evolution from the ethereal down to
the semi-ethereal and purely physical: down to the redemption of man from his coat of skin and
matter, after which it continues running its course downward and then upward again, to meet at the
culmination of a Round, when the manvantaric "Serpent swallows its tail" and seven minor cycles are
passed. These are the great Racial Cycles which affect equally all the nations and tribes included in
that special Race; but there are minor and national as well as tribal cycles within those, which run
independently of each other. They are called in the Eastern esotericism the Karmic cycles. In the
West, since Pagan Wisdom has been repudiated as having grown from and been developed by the
dark powers supposed to be at constant war and in opposition to the little tribal Jehovah -- the full and
awful significance of the Greek NEMESIS (or Karma) has been entirely forgotten. Otherwise
Christians would have better realized the profound truth that Nemesis is without attri butes; that while
the dreaded goddess is absolute and immutable as a Principle, it is we ourselves -- nations and
individuals -- who propel her to action and give the impulse to its direction. KARMA-NEMESIS is
the creator of nations and mortals, but once created, it is they who make of her either a fury or a
rewarding Angel. Yea -"Wise are they who worship Nemesis"*
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

[[Footnote continued from previous page]] having ruled the earth once upon a time under the human
form of actual living, though truly divine and god-like man. The opinion of Colonel Vallancey (and
also of Count de Gobelin) that the names of the Kabiri appear to be all allegorical, and to have
signified no more (?) than an almanac of the vicissitudes of the seasons -- calculated for the operations
of agriculture" (Collect. de Reb. Hibern., No. 13, Praef. Sect. 5) is as absurd as his assertion that
OEon, Kronos, Saturn and Dagon are all one, namely, the "patriarch Adam." The Kabiri were the
instructors of mankind in agriculture, because they were the regents over the seasons and Cosmic
cycles. Hence it was they who regulated, as planetary Spirits or "Angels" (messengers), the mysteries
of the art of agriculture.
* Who dread Karma-Nemesis would be better.

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 643 KARMA-NEMESIS.

-- as the chorus tells Prometheus. And as unwise they, who believe that the goddess may be
propitiated by whatever sacrifices and prayers, or have her wheel diverted from the path it has once
taken. "The triform Fates and ever mindful Furies" are her attri butes only on earth, and begotten by
ourselves. There is no return from the paths she cycles over; yet those paths are of our own making,
for it is we, collectively or individually, who prepare them. Karma-Nemesis is the synonym of
PROVIDENCE, minus design, goodness, and every other finite attri bute and qualification, so
unphilosophically attri buted to the latter. An Occultist or a philosopher will not speak of the goodness
or cruelty of Providence; but, identifying it with Karma-Nemesis, he will teach that nevertheless it
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aye, even to his seventh rebirth. So long, in short, as the effect of his having thrown into perturbation
even the smallest atom in the Infinite World of harmony, has not been finally readjusted. For the only
decree of Karma -- an eternal and immutable decree -- is absolute Harmony in the world of matter as
it is in the world of Spirit. It is not, therefore, Karma that rewards or punishes, but it is we, who
reward or punish ourselves according to whether we work with, through and along with nature,
abiding by the laws on which that Harmony depends, or -- break them.
Nor would the ways of Karma be inscrutable were men to work in union and harmony, instead of
disunion and strife. For our ignorance of those ways -- which one portion of mankind calls the ways
of Providence, dark and intricate; while another sees in them the action of blind Fatalism; and a third,
simple chance, with neither gods nor devils to guide them -- would surely disappear, if we would but
attri bute all these to their correct cause. With right knowledge, or at any rate with a confident
conviction that our neighbours will no more work to hurt us than we would think of harming them, the
two-thirds of the World's evil would vanish into thin air. Were no man to hurt his brother, KarmaNemesis would have neither cause to work for, nor weapons to act through. It is the constant presence
in our midst of every element of strife and opposition, and the division of races, nations, tribes,
societies and individuals into Cains and Abels, wolves and lambs, that is the chief cause of the "ways
of Providence." We cut these numerous windings in our destinies daily with our own hands, while we
imagine that we are pursuing a track on the royal high road of respectability and duty, and then
complain of those ways being so intricate and so dark. We stand bewildered before the mystery of our
own making, and the riddles of life that we will not solve, and then accuse the great Sphinx of
devouring us. But verily there is not an accident in our lives,

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 644 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

not a misshapen day, or a misfortune, that could not be traced back to our own doings in this or in
another life. If one breaks the laws of Harmony, or, as a theosophical writer expresses it, "the laws of
life," one must be prepared to fall into the chaos one has oneself produced. For, according to the same
writer, "the only conclusion one can come to is that these laws of life are their own avengers; and
consequently that every avenging Angel is only a typified representation of their re-action."
Therefore, if any one is helpless before these immutable laws, it is not ourselves, the artificers of our
destinies, but rather those angels, the guardians of harmony. Karma-Nemesis is no more than the
(spiritual) dynamical effect of causes produced and forces awakened into activity by our own actions.
It is a law of occult dynamics that "a given amount of energy expended on the spiritual or astral plane
is productive of far greater results than the same amount expended on the physical objective plane of
existence."
This state will last till man's spiritual intuitions are fully opened, which will not happen before we
fairly cast off our thick coats of matter; until we begin acting from within, instead of ever following
impulses from without; namely, those produced by our physical senses and gross selfish body. Until
then the only palliative to the evils of life is union and harmony -- a Brotherhood IN ACTU, and
altruism not simply in name. The suppression of one single bad cause will suppress not one, but a
variety of bad effects. And if a Brotherhood or even a number of Brotherhoods may not be able to
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prevent nations from occasionally cutting each other's throats -- still unity in thought and action, and
philosophical research into the mysteries of being, will always prevent some, while trying to
comprehend that which has hitherto remained to them a riddle, from creating additional causes in a
world already so full of woe and evil. Knowledge of Karma gives the conviction that if -". . . . virtue in distress, and vice in triumph
Make atheists of mankind,"*
it is only because that mankind has ever shut its eyes to the great truth that man is himself his own
saviour as his own destroyer. That he need not accuse Heaven and the gods, Fates and Providence, of
the apparent injustice that reigns in the midst of humanity. But let him rather remember and repeat this
bit of Grecian wisdom, which warns man to forbear accusing That which -.................
"Just, though mysterious, leads us on unerring
Through ways unmark'd from guilt to punishment . . ."
-- which are now the ways and the high road on which move onward the great European nations. The
Western Aryans had, every nation
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* Dryden.

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 645 ANCIENT AND MODERN PROPHECIES.

and tribe, like their Eastern brethren of the Fifth Race, their Golden and their Iron ages, their period of
comparative irresponsibility, or the Satya age of purity, while now, several of them have reached their
Iron Age, the Kali-Yuga, an age BLACK WITH HORRORS. . . . .
It is true, on the other hand, that the exoteric cycles of every nation have been correctly made to be
derived from, and depend on, sidereal motions. The latter are inseparably blended with the destinies of
nations and men. But in their purely physical sense, Europe knows of no other cycles than the
astronomical, and makes its computations accordingly. Nor will it hear of any other than imaginary
circles or circuits in the starry heavens that gird them -"With centric and eccentric scribbled o'er
Cycle and epicycle, orb in orb . . ."
But with the pagans, with whom, as Coleridge has it -- ". . . . . Time, cyclical time, was their
abstraction of the Deity . ." that "Deity" manifesting co-ordinately with, and only through Karma, and
being that KARMA-NEMESIS itself, the cycles meant something more than a mere succession of
events, or a periodical space of time of more or less prolonged duration. For they were generally
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marked with recurrences of a more varied and intellectual character than are exhibited in the
periodical return of seasons or of certain constellations. Modern wisdom is satisfied with astronomical
computations and prophecies based on unerring mathematical laws. Ancient Wisdom added to the
cold shell of astronomy the vivifying elements of its soul and spirit -- ASTROLOGY. And, as the
sidereal motions do regulate and determine other events on Earth -- besides potatoes and the
periodical disease of that useful vegetable -- (a statement which, not being amenable to scientific
explanation, is merely derided, while accepted) -- those events have to be allowed to find themselves
predetermined by even simple astronomical computations. Believers in astrology will understand our
meaning, sceptics will laugh at the belief and mock the idea. Thus they shut their eyes, ostrich-like, to
their own fate. . . . . . .*
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* Not all, however, for there are men of Science awakening to truth. This is what we read: "Whatever
way we turn our eyes we encounter a mystery . . . . all in Nature for us is the unknown. . . Yet they are
numerous, those superficial minds for whom nothing can be produced by natural forces outside of
facts observed long ago, consecrated in books and grouped more or less skilfully with the help of
theories whose ephemeral duration ought, by this time, to have demonstrated their insufficiency, . . . .
I do not pretend to contest the possibility of invisible Beings, of a nature different from ours and
susceptible of moving matter to action. Profound philosophers have admitted it in all epochs as a
consequence of the great law of continuity which rules the Universe. That intellectual life, which we
see starting in some way from non-being (neant) and gradually reaching man, can it stop abruptly at
man to reappear only in the infinite, in the sovereign regulator of the world? This is little probable."
Therefore . . "I [[Footnote continued on next page]]

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 646 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

This because their little historical period, so called, allows them no margin for comparison. Sidereal
heaven is before them; and though their spiritual vision is still unopened and the atmospheric dust of
terrestrial origin seals their sight and chains it to the limits of physical systems, still they do not fail to
perceive the movements and note the behaviour of meteors and comets. They record the periodical
advents of those wanderers and "flaming messengers," and prophesy, in consequence, earthquakes,
meteoric showers, the apparition of certain stars, comets, etc., etc. Are they soothsayers for all that?
No, they are learned astronomers.
Why, then, should occultists and astrologers, as learned, be disbelieved, when they prophesy the
return of some cyclic event on the same mathematical principle? Why should the claim that they know
it be ridiculed? Their forefa thers and predecessors, having recorded the recurrence of such events in
their time and day, throughout a period embracing hundreds of thousands of years, the conjunction of
the same constellations must necessarily produce, if not quite the same, at any rate, similar effects.
Are the prophecies derided, because of the claim of the hundreds of thousands of years of observation,
and the millions of years of the human races? In its turn modern Science is laughed at for its far more
modest geological and anthropological figures, by those who hold to Biblical chronology. Thus
Karma adjusts even human laughter at the mutual expense of sects, learned societies, and individuals.
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Yet in the prognostication of such future events, at any rate, all foretold on the authority of cyclic
recurrences, there is no psychic phenomenon involved. It is neither prevision, nor prophecy; no more
than is the signalling of a comet or star, several years before its appearance. It is simply knowledge
and mathematically correct computations which enable the WISE MEN OF THE EAST to foretell,
for instance, that England is on the eve of such or another catastrophe; France, nearing such a point of
her cycle, and Europe in general threatened with, or rather, on the eve of, a cataclysm, which her own
cycle of racial Karma has led her to. The reliability of the information depends, of course, on the
acceptation or rejection of the claim for a tremendous period of historical observation. Eastern
Initiates maintain that they have preserved records of the racial development and of events of
universal import ever since the beginning of the Fourth Race -- that which preceded being traditional.
Moreover, those who believe in Seership and Occult
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

[[Footnote continued from previous page]] no more deny the existence of Spirits than I deny soul
while trying to explain certain facts without their hypothesis . . ." "The Non-Defined Forces,"
Historical and Experimental Researches, p. 3. The above is written by A. de Rochas, a well-known
man of science in France, his work being one of the signs of the time. (Paris: Masson, Boulevard St.
Germain, 1887.)

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 647 ASTROLOGY A SCIENCE.

powers will have no difficulty in crediting the general character, at least, of the information given,
even if traditional, once the latter is checked and corrected by the corroboration of clairvoyance and
esoteric knowledge. But in the present case no such metaphysical belief is claimed as our chief
dependence, but a proof is given on what, to every Occultist, is quite scientific evidence -- the records
preserved through the Zodiac for incalculable ages.
It is now amply proved that even horoscopes and judiciary astrology are not quite based on a fiction,
and that stars and constellations, consequently, have an occult and mysterious influence on, and
connection with, individuals. And if with the latter, why not with nations, races, and mankind in bulk?
This, again, is a claim made on the authority of the Zodiacal records. We shall examine then, if you
please, how far the Zodiac was known to the ancients, and how far it is forgotten by the moderns.
------[[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]] 647 ASTROLOGY A SCIENCE.

[[This page continued from previous section]]
XVII.
"THE ZODIAC AND ITS ANTIQUITY."
"ALL men are apt to have a high conceit of their own understanding, and to be tenacious of the
opinions they profess," said Jordan, justly adding to this -- "and yet almost all men are guided by the
understandings of others, not by their own; and may be said more truly to adopt, than to beget, their
opinions."
This becomes doubly true in the matter of scientific opinions upon hypotheses offered for
consideration -- the prejudice and preconceptions of "authorities," so called, often deciding upon
questions of the most vital importance for history. There are several such predetermined opinions
among our learned Orientalists, yet few are more unjust or illogical than the general error with regard
to the antiquity of the Zodiac. Thanks to the hobby of some German Orientalists, English and
American Sanskritists have accepted Professor Weber's opinion that the peoples of India had no idea
or knowledge of the Zodiac prior to the Macedonian invasion, and that it is from the Greeks that the
ancient Hindus imported it into their country. We are further told, by several other "authorities," that
no Eastern nation knew of the Zodiac before the Hellenes kindly acquainted their neighbours with
their invention. This, in the face of the Book of Job, declared, even by themselves, to be the oldest in
the Hebrew canon, certainly prior to Moses, and which speaks of the making "of Arcturus, Orion, and
Pleiades (Ash, Kesil, and

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 648 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

Cimah) and the chambers of the South" (ix. 9); of Scorpio and the Mazzaroths -- the TWELVE
SIGNS (xxxviii., 31, 32), which words, if they mean anything, imply knowledge of the Zodiac even
among the nomadic Arabic tribes. The Book of Job, they say, precedes Homer and Hesiod by at least
one thousand years -- the two Greek poets having themselves flourished some eight centuries before
the Christian era (!!). One who prefers, by the bye, to believe Plato, who shows Homer flourishing far
earlier, could point to a number of Zodiacal signs mentioned in the Iliad and the Odyssey, in the
Orphic poems, and elsewhere. But since the cock-and-bull hypothesis of some modern critics to the
effect that neither Orpheus, nor yet Homer and Hesiod, ever existed, it would seem time lost to
mention these Archaic authors at all. The Arabian Job will suffice; unless, indeed, his volume of
lamentations, along with the poems of the two Greeks, adding to them those of Linus, should now be

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also declared to be the patriotic forgery of the Jew Aristobulus. But if the Zodiac was known in the
days of Job, how could the civilized and philosophical Hindus have remained ignorant of it?
Risking the arrows of modern criticism -- rather blunted by misuse -- the reader may be made
acquainted with Bailly's learned opinion upon the subject. Inferred speculations may be shown to be
erroneous. Mathematical calculations stand on more secure grounds. Taking as a starting point several
astronomical references in Job, Bailly devised a very ingenious means of proving that the earliest
founders of the science of the Zodiac belonged to an antediluvian, primitive people. The fact that he
seems willing to see in Thoth, Seth, and in Fohi (of China), some of the Biblical patriarchs, does not
interfere with the validity of his proof as to the antiquity of the Zodiac.* Even accepting, for
argument's sake, his cautious 3700 years B.C. as the correct age of the science, this date proves in the
most irrefutable way that it was not the Greeks who invented the Zodiac, for the simple reason that
they did not yet exist as a nation thirty-seven centuries B.C. -- not as an historical race admitted by
the critics, at any rate. Bailly then calculated the period at which the constellations manifested the
atmospheric influence called by Job "sweet influences of the Pleiades"** (in Hebrew, Chimah, see
Job xxxviii. 31); of the Cesil (Orion); and that of the desert rains with reference to Scorpio, the eighth
constellation; and found that in presence the eternal conformity of those divisions of the zodiac and
names of the planets applied in the same order everywhere and always; and in presence of the
impossibility of attri buting it all to chance and coincidence,
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* Astronomie Antique.
** The Pleiades, as all know, are the seven stars beyond the Bull, which appear at the beginning of
spring. They have a very occult meaning in the Hindu esoteric philosophy, and are connected with
sound and other mystic principles in Nature.

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 649 THE ZODIAC IN THE BIBLE.

"which never creates such similarities," there must be allowed for the zodiac a great antiquity indeed.
(See Astronomie Antique, pp. 63 to 74.)
Again, if the Bible is supposed to be an authority on any matter (and there are some who still believe
so, whether from Christian or Kabalistical considerations), then the zodiac is clearly mentioned in II
Kings, xxiii. 5. Before the "book of the law" was "found" by Hilkiah, the high priest (xxii.), the signs
of the zodiac were known and worshipped. They were held in the same adoration as the sun and
moon, since the "priests, whom the kings of Judah had ordained to burn incense . . . unto Baal, to the
sun, moon, and to the planets, and to all the host of heaven," or the twelve signs or constellations, as
the marginal note in the English Bible explains (see II. Kings xxiii. 5), had followed the injunction for
centuries. They were stopped in their idolatry only by King Josiah, 624 years B.C.
The Old Testament is full of allusions to the twelve zodiacal signs, and the whole scheme is built
upon it -- heroes, personages, and events. Thus in the dream of Joseph, who saw eleven "stars"
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bowing to the twelfth, which was his "star," the zodiac is meant. The Roman Catholics have
discovered in it, moreover, a prophecy of Christ, who is that twelfth star, they say, and the eleven
apostles; the absence of the twelfth being also regarded as a prophetic allusion to the treachery of
Judas. The twelve sons of Jacob are again a reference to the same, as justly pointed out by
Villapandus (Temple de Jerusalem, Vol. II., p. 2nd part, chap. xxx). Sir James Malcolm, in his
History of Persia (ch. vii.), shows the Dabistan echoing all such traditions about the Zodiac. He traces
the invention of it to the palmy days of the golden age of Iran, remarking that one of the said
traditions maintains that the genii of the planets are represented under the same shapes and figures
they had assumed, when they showed themselves to several holy prophets, and have thus led to the
establishment of the rites based on the Zodiac.
Pythagoras, and after him Philo Judaeus, held the number 12 as very sacred. "The dodecahedron is a
PERFECT number." It is the one among the signs of the Zodiac, Philo adds, that the sun visits in
twelve months, and it is to honour that sign that Moses divided his nation into twelve tribes,
established the twelve cakes (Levit. xxiv., 5) of the shewbread, and placed twelve precious stones
around the ephod of the pontiffs. (See De Profugis.)
According to Seneca, Berosus taught prophecy of every future event and cataclysm by the Zodiac; and
the time fixed by him for the conflagration of the world (pralaya), and another for a deluge, is found
to answer to the time given in an ancient Egyptian papyrus. It comes at every renewal of the cycle of
the sidereal year of 25,868 years. The names of the Akkadian months were called by, and derived
from, the

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 650 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

names of the signs of the Zodiac, and the Akkadians themselves are far earlier than the Chaldaeans.
Mr. Proctor shows, in his Myths and Marvels of Astronomy, that the ancient astronomers had acquired
a system of the most accurate astronomy 2,400 years B.C.; the Hindus date their Kali Yug from a
great periodical conjunction of the planets thirty-one centuries B.C.; and, withal, it is the Greeks
belonging to the expedition of Alexander the Great, who were the instructors of the Aryan Hindus in
astronomy!
Whether the origin of the Zodiac is Aryan or Egyptian, it is still of an immense antiquity. Simplicius
(VIth cent. A.D.) writes that he had always heard that the Egyptians had kept astronomical
observations and records for the last 630,000 years. This statement appears to frighten Mr. G. Massey,
who remarks on this in his Natural Genesis (318) that "if we read this number of years by the month
which Euxodus said the Egyptians termed a year, that would still yield the length of two cycles of
precession (or 51,736 years)." Diogenes Laertius carried back the astronomical calculations of the
Egyptians to 48,863 years before Alexander the Great (Proem, 2). Martianus Capella corroborates the
same by telling posterity that the Egyptians had secretly studied astronomy for over 40,000 years,
before they imparted their knowledge to the world (Astronomy of the Ancients, Lewis, p. 264).
Several valuable quotations are made in the Natural Genesis with the view of supporting the author's

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theories, but they justify the teaching of the Secret Doctrine far more. For instance, Plutarch is quoted
from his Life of Sulla, saying: "One day when the sky was serene . . . a sound was heard in it . . . of a
trumpet, so loud, shrill and mournful, that it affrighted . . . the world. The Tuscan sages said that it
portended a new race of men, and a renovation of the world; for they affirmed that there were eight
several kinds of men, all being different in life and manners, and that Heaven had allotted each its
time, which was limited by the circuit of the great year" (25,868 years).
This reminds one strongly of our seven races of men, and of the eighth -- the "animal man" -descended from the later Third Race; as also of the successive submersions and destruction of the
continents which finally disposed of almost the entire bulk of that race.
"The Assyrians," says Iamblichus, "have not only preserved the memorials of seven and twenty
myriads of years (270,000 years) as Hipparchus says they have, but likewise of the whole
apocatastases and periods of the seven rulers of the world." (Proclus, in Timaeus, b. I.) This is the
calculation of the Esoteric Doctrine, as approximately as it can be. For 1,000,000 of years are allowed
for our present Root-race (the Fifth), and about 850,000 years since the submersion of the last large
island (part of the Continent), the Ruta of the Fourth Race, or the Atlanteans;

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 651 THE JEWISH PATRIARCHS ZODIACAL SIGNS.

while Daitya, a small island inhabited by a mixed race, was destroyed about 270,000 years ago, during
the glacial period or thereabouts (vide Book II.). But the Seven Rulers, or the seven great Dynasties of
the divine kings belong to the traditions of every great people of antiquity. Wherever twelve are
mentioned, these are invariably the 12 signs of the zodiac.
So patent is the fact, that the Roman Catholic writers -- especially among the French Ultramontanes -have tacitly agreed to connect the twelve Jewish Patriarchs with the signs of the Zodiac. This is done
in a kind of prophetico-mystic way, which would sound to pious and ignorant ears like a portentous
sign, a tacit divine recognition of the "chosen people of God," whose finger has purposely traced in
heaven, from the beginning of creation, the numbers of these patriarchs. For instance, these writers
(De Mirville among others) recognise curiously enough all the characteristics of the 12 signs of the
Zodiac, in the words addressed by the dying Jacob to his Sons, and in his definitions of the future of
each Tribe. (Vide Genesis, ch. xlix.) Moreover, the respective banners of the same tribes are claimed
to have exhibited the same symbols and the same names as the signs, repeated in the 12 stones of the
Urim and Thummim, and on the 12 wings of the cherub. Leaving the proof of exactitude in the alleged
correspondence to the said mystics, it is as follows: Man, or the Aquarius, is in the sphere of Reuben,
who is declared as "unstable as water" (the Vulgate has it, to be "rushing like water,"; Gemini, in the
strong fraternal association of Simeon and Levi; Leo, in that of Judah, "the strong Lion" of his tribe,
"the lion's whelp"; the Pisces, in Zabulon, who "shall dwell at the haven of the sea"; Taurus, in
Issachar, because he is "a strong ass couching down," etc., and therefore associated with the stables;
Virgo-Scorpio, in Dan, who is described as "a serpent, an adder in the path that biteth," etc.;
Capricornus in Naphtali, who is "a hind (a deer) let loose"; Cancer, in Benjamin, for he is
"ravenous"; Libra, the "Balance," in Asher, whose "bread shall be fat"; Saggitarius in Joseph, because
"his bow abode in strength." To make up for the twelfth sign, Virgo, made independent of Scorpio, is
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Dina, the only daughter of Jacob. (See Genesis xlix.) Tradition shows the alleged tribes carrying the
12 signs on their banners. But the Bible is, besides these, full of theo-cosmological and astronomical
symbols and personifications.
It remains to wonder, and query -- if the actual, living Patriarch's destiny was so indissolubly wound
up with the Zodiac -- how it is that after the loss of the ten tribes, ten signs out of the twelve have not
also miraculously disappeared from the sidereal fields? But this is of no great concern. Let us rather
busy ourselves with the history of the Zodiac itself.

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 652 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

Now the reader may be reminded of some opinions expressed on the subject by several of the highest
authorities in Science.
Newton believed the invention of the Zodiac could be traced as far back as the expedition of the
Argonauts; and Dulaure fixed its origin at 6,500 years B.C., just 2,496 years before the creation of the
World according to the Bible chronology.
Creuzer believes it very easy to show that most of the theogonies are intimately connected with
religious calendars, and point to the Zodiac as their prime origin -- if not identical with the Zodiac
known to us now, then something very analogous to it. He feels certain that the Zodiac and its mystic
relations are at the bottom of all the mythologies, under one form or the other, and that it had existed
in the old form for ages before; owing to some singular co-ordination of events, it was brought out in
the present defined astronomical garb. (Creuzer, Book III., page 930.)
Whether "the genii of the planets" (our Dhyan Chohans of supra-mundane spheres) showed
themselves to "holy prophets" or not, as claimed in the Dabistan, it would seem that great laymen and
warriors were favoured in the same way in days of old, when astrological magic and theophania went
hand in hand in Chaldea. For Xenophon, no ordinary man, narrates of Cyrus, that at the moment of his
death that king was giving ardent thanks to gods and heroes, for having so often instructed him
themselves about the signs in heaven, [[ev ouraniois semeiois]] (Cyropedie, "Ant. du Zodiaque.")
Unless the science of the zodiac is supposed to be of the highest antiquity and universality, how
account for its signs being traced in the oldest theogonies? Laplace is said to have felt struck with
amazement at the idea of the days of Mercury (Wednesday), Venus (Friday), Jupiter (Thursday),
Saturn (Saturday), and others being related to the days of the week in the same order and with the
same names in India as in Northern Europe. "Try, if you can, with the present system of
autochthonous civilizations, so much in fashion in our day, to explain how nations with no ancestry,
no traditions or birthplace in common, could have succeeded in inventing a kind of celestial
phantasmagoria, a veritable imbroglio of sidereal denominations, without sequence or object, having
no figurative relation with the constellations they represent, and still less, apparently, with the phases
of our terrestrial life they are made to signify," had there not been a general intention and a universal
cause and belief, at the root of all this? (Pneumatologie, Vol. IV., p. 61.) Most truly has Dupuis

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asserted the same: "Il est impossible de decouvrir le moindre trait de ressemblance entre les parties du
ciel et les figures que les astronomes y ont arbitrairement tracees, et de l'autre cote; le hazard est
impossible," he says. (Origine des Cultes, "Zodiaque.")

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 653 THE SIGN OF JONAS.

Most certainly chance is "impossible." There is no "chance" in Nature, wherein everything is
mathematically co-ordinate and mutually related in its units. "Chance," says Coleridge, "is but the
pseudonym of God (or Nature), for those particular cases which He does not choose to subscribe
openly with His sign manual." Replace the word "God" by that of Karma and it will become an
Eastern axiom. Therefore, the sidereal "prophecies" of the zodiac, as they are called by Christian
mystics, never point to any one particular event, however solemn and sacred it may be for some one
portion of humanity, but to ever-recurrent, periodical laws in nature, understood but by the Initiates of
the sidereal gods themselves.
No occultist, no astrologer of Eastern birth, will ever agree with Christian mystics, or even with
Kepler's mystical astronomy, his great science and erudition notwithstanding; simply because, if his
premises are quite correct, his deductions therefrom are one-sided and biassed by Christian
preconceptions. Where the latter finds a prophecy directly pointing at the Saviour, other nations see a
symbol of an eternal law decreed for the actual manvantara. Why see in the Pisces a direct reference
to Christ -- one of the several world-reformers, a Saviour but for his direct followers, but only a great
and glorious Initiate for all the rest -- when that constellation shines as a symbol of all the past,
present, and future Spiritual Saviours who dispense light and dispel mental darkness? Christian
symbologists have tried to prove that it was that of Ephraim (Joseph's son), the elect of Jacob, that
therefore, it was at the moment of the Sun entering into the sign of the Fish (Pisces) that "the Elect
Messiah, the [[Ichthus]] of the first Christians, had to be born. But, if Jesus of Nazareth was that
Messiah -- was he really born at that "moment," or was he made to be so born by the adaptation of
theologians, who sought only to make their preconceived ideas fit in with sidereal facts and popular
belief? Everyone knows that the real time and year of the birth of Jesus are totally unknown. And it is
the Jews, whose forefa thers have made the word Dag signify both "fish" and "Messiah," who, during
the forced development of their rabbinical language, are the first to deny this Christian claim. And
what of the further facts that Brahmins also connect their "Messiah," the eternal Avatar Vishnu, with a
fish and the Deluge, and that the Babylonians made of their Dag-On, equally a fish and a Messiah, the
Man-Fish and Prophet?
There are those learned iconoclasts among Egyptologists, who say that "when the Pharisees sought a
'sign from heaven' Jesus said, 'there shall no sign be given but the sign of Jonas' (Mat. xvi. 4). . . . .
The sign of Jonas is that of the Oan or fishman of Nineveh. . . . . Assuredly there was no other sign
than that of the Sun reborn in Pisces. The

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voice of the Secret Wisdom says those who are looking for signs can have no other than that of the
returning fish-man Ichthys, Oannes, or Jonas -- who could not be made flesh."
It would appear that Kepler maintained it as a positive fact that, at the moment of the "incarnation," all
the planets were in conjunction in the sign of Pisces, called by the Jews (the Kabalists) the
"constellation of the Messiah." "It is in this constellation," he averred, "that was placed the star of the
Magi." This statement, quoted by Dr. Sepp (Vie de notre Seigneur Jesus Christ, Vol. I. p. 9),
emboldened him to remark that "all the Jewish traditions while announcing that star, that many
nations have seen,"(!)* added that "it would absorb the seventy planets that preside over the destinies
of various nations on this globe."** "In virtue of those natural prophecies," explains Dr. Sepp, "it was
written in the stars of the firmament that the Messiah would be born in the lunar year of the world
4320, in that memorable year when the entire choir of the planets would be feasting its jubilee."
There was indeed a rage, at the beginning of the present century, for claiming from the Hindus
restoration of an alleged robbery from the Jews of their "gods," patriarchs, and chronology. It was
Wilford who had recognized Noah in Prithee and in Satyavrata, Enos in Dhruva, and even Assur in
Iswara. Yet, after being residents for so many years in India, some Orientalists, at least, ought to have
known that it was not the Hindus alone who had these figures, or who had divided their great age into
four minor ages. Nevertheless writers in the Asiatic Researches indulged in the most extravagant
speculations.
"Christian theologians think it their duty to write against the long periods of Hindu chronology,"
argues very pertinently S. A. Mackey, the Norwich "philosopher, astronomer, and shoemaker." "But
when a man of learning crucifies the names and numbers of the ancients, and wrings and twists them
into a form which means something quite foreign to the intention of the ancient authors; but which, so
mutilated, fits in with the birth of some maggot pre-existing in his own brain with so much exactness
that he pretends to be amazed at the discovery, I cannot think him quite so pardonable" (Key of
Urania).
This is intended to apply to Captain (later Colonel) Wilford, but the
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* Whether many nations have seen that identical star, or not, we all know that the sepulchres of "the
three Magi," who rejoice in the quite Teutonic names of Kaspar and Melchior, Balthazar being the
only exception, and the two having little of the Chaldean ring in them -- are shown by the priests in
the famous cathedral of Cologne, where the Magian bodies are not only supposed, but firmly believed
to have been buried.
** This tradition about the seventy planets that preside over the destinies of nations, is based on the
occult cosmogonical teaching that besides our own septenary chain of world-planets, there are many
more in the solar system.

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[[Vol. 1, Page]] 655 CHALDEO-JUDEAN GODS.

words may fit more than one of our modern Orientalists. The former was the first to crown his
unlucky speculations in Hindu chronology and the Puranas by connecting the 4,320,000 years with
biblical chronology, simply dwarfing the figures to 4,320 years (the supposed lunar year of the
Nativity), and Dr. Sepp has simply plagiarized the idea from this gallant officer. Moreover, he
persisted in seeing in them Jewish property, as well as a Christian prophecy, thus accusing the Aryans
of having helped themselves to Semitic revelation, whereas it was the reverse. The Jews, moreover,
need not be accused of despoiling the Hindus, of whose figures Ezra probably knew nothing. They
had evidently and undeniably borrowed them from the Chaldeans, along with their gods. Of the
432,000 years of the Chaldean divine Dynasties* they made 4,320 lunar years from the world's
creation to the Christian era; as to the Babylonian and Egyptian Gods, they transformed them as
quietly and modestly into Patriarchs. Every nation was more or less guilty of such refashioning and
adaptation of a Pantheon (common once to all) of universal, into national, tribal gods and Heroes. It
was their property in its new Pentateuchal garb, and no one of the Israelites has ever forced it upon
any other nation -- least of all upon Europeans.
Without stopping to notice this very unscientific chronology more than is necessary, we may make a
few remarks that may be found to the point. These figures of 4,320 lunar years of the world (in the
Bible the solar years are used) are not fanciful, as such, even if their application is quite erroneous; for
they are only the distorted echo of the primitive esoteric, and later on Brahminical doctrine concerning
the Yugas. A "Day" of Brahma equals 4,320,000,000 years, as also a "Night" of Brahma, or the
duration of Pralaya, after which a new SUN rises trium[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* Every scholar is aware, of course, that the Chaldeans claimed the same figures (432) or (432,000)
for their divine dynasties as the Hindus do for their Mahayuga, namely, 4,320,000. Therefore has Dr.
Sepp, of Munich, undertaken to support Kepler and Wilford in their charge that the Hindus had
borrowed them from the Christians, and the Chaldeans from the Jews, who, as claimed, expected their
Messiah in the lunar year of the world 4,320!!! As these figures, according to ancient writers, were
based by Berosus on the 120 Saroses -- each of the divisions meaning six neroses of 600 years each,
making a sum total of 432,000 years -- they do not thus appear peremptory. But the pious professor of
Munich undertook to explain them in the correct way. He claims to have solved the riddle by showing
that "the saros being composed according to Pliny of 222 synodial months, to wit, 18 years 6/10," the
calculator naturally fell back into the figures "given by Suidas," who affirmed that the 120 saroses
made 2,222 sacerdotal and cyclic years, which equalled 1,656 solar years." (Vie de Notre Seigneur
Jesus Christ, Vol. II., p. 417.)
Suidas said nothing of the kind, and, if he had, he would prove little, if anything, by it. The neroses
and saroses were the same thorn in the side of uninitiated ancient writers, as the apocalyptic 666 of
the "great Beast" is in that of the modern, and they have found their unlucky Newtons as the latter
figures have.

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[[Vol. 1, Page]] 656 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

phantly over a new manvantara, for the septenary chain it illuminates. The teaching had penetrated
into Palestine and Europe centuries before the Christian era (see Isis Unveiled II. 132), and was
present in the minds of the Mosaic Jews, who based upon it their small cycle, though it received full
expression only through the Christian chronologers of the Bible, who adopted it, as also the 25th of
December, the day on which all the solar gods were said to have been incarnated. What wonder, then,
that the Messiah was made to be born "the lunar year of the world 4,320?" The "Son of Righteousness
and Salvation" had once more arisen and had dispelled pralayic darkness of chaos and non-being on
the plane of our objective little globe and chain. Once the subject of the adoration was settled upon, it
was easy to make the supposed events of his birth, life, and death, fit in with the Zodiacal exigencies
and old traditions, though they had to be somewhat remodelled for the occasion.
Thus what Kepler said, as a great astronomer, becomes comprehensible. He recognised the grand and
universal importance of all such planetary conjunctions, "each of which" -- as he has well said -- "is a
climacteric year of Humanity."* The rare conjunction of Saturn, Jupiter, and Mars has its significance
and importance on account of its certain great results -- in India and China as much as it has in
Europe for the respective mystics of all those countries. And it is certainly no better now than a mere
assumption to maintain that nature had only Christ in view, when building her (to the profane)
fantastic and meaningless constellations. If it is claimed that it was no hazard that could lead the
archaic architects of the Zodiac, thousands of years ago, to mark with the asterisk (a) the figure of
Taurus, with no better or more valid proof of it being prophetic of the Verbum or Christ than that the
aleph of Taurus means "the ONE" and the FIRST, and that Christ was also the alpha or the ONE, then
this "proof" may be shown strangely invalidated in more than one way. To begin with, the Zodiac
existed before the Christian era, at all events; further, all the Sun-gods had been mystically connected
with that constellation (Taurus) -- Osiris, for instance -- and were all called by their respective
votaries "the First." Then the compilers of the mystical epithets given to the Christian Saviour, were
all more or less acquainted with
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* The reader has to bear in mind that the phrase "climacteric year" has more than the usual
significance, when used by Occultists and Mystics. It is not only a critical period, during which some
great change is periodically expected, whether in human or cosmic constitution, but it likewise
pertains to spiritual universal changes. The Europeans called every 63rd year "the grand climacteric,"
and perhaps justly supposed those years to be the years produced by multiplying 7 into the odd
numbers 3, 5, 7 and 9. But seven is the real scale of nature, in Occultism, and 7 has to be multiplied in
quite a different way and method, unknown as yet to European nations.

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 657 THE DRAGON AND THE BULL.

the significance of the Zodiacal signs; and it is easier to suppose that they should have arranged their
claims so as to answer the mystic signs, than that the latter should have shone as a prophecy for one
portion of humanity, for millions of years, taking no heed of the numberless generations that had gone
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before, and those to be born hereafter.
"It is not simple chance," we are told, "that has placed in certain spheres, on a throne, the head of that
bull (Taurus), trying to push away with the ansated cross on its horns, a Dragon; the more so, since
this constellation of Taurus was called 'the great city of God and the mother of revelations,' and also
'the interpreter of the divine voice,' the Apis pacis of Hermoutis, in Egypt, which (as the patristic
fathers would assure the world) preferred oracles that related to the birth of the Saviour"
(Pneumatologie, iv., 71).
To this theological assumption there are several answers. Firstly, the ansated Egyptian cross, or tau,
the Jaina cross, or Swastica, and the Christian cross have all the same meaning. Secondly, no peoples
or nations except the Christians gave the significance to the Dragon that is given to it now. The
serpent was the symbol of WISDOM; and the Bull (Taurus) the symbol of physical or terrestrial
generation. Thus the latter, pushing off the Dragon, or spiritual, Divine Wisdom, with the Tau, or
Cross -- which is esoterically "the foundation and framework of all construction" -- would have an
entirely phallic, physiological meaning, had it not still another significance unknown to our Biblical
scholars and symbologists. At any rate, it shows no special reference to the Verbum of St. John,
except, perhaps, in a general sense. The taurus (which, by the way, is no lamb, but a bull) was sacred
in every Cosmogony, with the Hindus as with the Zoroastrians, with the Chaldees as with the
Egyptians. So much, every schoolboy knows.
It may perhaps help to refresh the memory of our Theosophists by referring them to what was said of
the Virgin and the Dragon, and the universality of periodical births and re-births of World-Saviours -solar gods -- in Isis, II., 490, with reference to certain passages in Revelations.
In 1853, the savant known as Erard-Mollien read before the Institute of France a paper tending to
prove the antiquity of the Indian Zodiac, in the signs of which were found the root and philosophy of
all the most important religious festivals of that country, the origin of which religious ceremonies goes
back into the night of time at least 3,000 B.C., as the lecturer tried to demonstrate. The Zodiac of the
Hindus, he thought, was far anterior to the Zodiac of the Greeks, and differed from it in some
particulars vastly. In it one sees the Dragon on a tree, at the foot of which the "Virgin," Kanya-Durga,
one of the most ancient goddesses, is placed on a lion dragging after him the solar car. "This is the
reason why," he added, "this Virgin Durga is not the simple memento of

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 658 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

an astronomical fact, but verily the most ancient divinity of the Indian Olympus. She is evidently the
same of whom all the Sibylline books spoke, those works that have been the source of the inspiration
of Virgil; the virgin whose return was prophesied as a sign of universal renovation. . . . . And why," he
added, "when we see to this day, the months named after the deity-names of this solar Zodiac by the
Malayalim-speaking people of southern India -- why should that people have abandoned their
ancestral Zodiac to burden themselves with that of the Greeks? Everything proves, on the contrary,
that these zodiacal figures have been transmitted to the Greeks by the Chaldees, who got them from
the Brahmans." (See Recueil de l'Academie des Inscriptions, 1853.)
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But all this is very poor testimony. Let us remember, however, also that which was said and accepted
by the contemporaries of Volney, who, in his "Ruins of Empires," p. 360, remarks that as Aries was in
its fifteenth degree 1447 B.C., it follows that the first degree of "Libra" could not have coincided with
the Vernal equinox more lately than 15,194 years B.C., to which, if you add 1,790 years since Christ,
it appears that 16,984 years have elapsed since the origin of the Zodiac.
Dr. Schlegel, moreover, in his Uranographie Chinoise assigns to the Chinese Astronomical Sphere an
antiquity of 18,000 years. (Vide pp. 54, 196, et seq.)
Nevertheless, as opinions quoted without adequate proofs are of little avail, it may be more useful to
turn to scientific evidence. M. Bailly, the famous French astronomer of the last century, Member of
the Academy, etc., etc., asserts that the Hindu systems of astronomy are by far the oldest, and that
from them the Egyptians, Greeks, Romans, and even the Jews derived their knowledge. In support of
these views he says -"The astronomers who preceded the epoch 1,491 are, first, the Alexandrian Greeks; Hipparchus, who
flourished 125 years before our era, and Ptolemy, 260 years after Hipparchus. Following these were
the Arabs, who revived the study of astronomy in the ninth century. These were succeeded by the
Persians and the Tartars, to whom we owe the tables of Massireddin in 1269, and those of Ulug-beg in
1437. Such is the succession of events in Asia as known prior to the Indian epoch 1491. What, then, is
an epoch? It is the observation of the longitude of a star at a given moment, the place in the sky where
it was seen, and which serves as a point of reference, a starting-point from which to calculate both the
past and future positions of the star from its observed motion. But an epoch is useless unless the
motion of the star has been determined. A people, new to science and obliged to borrow a foreign
astronomy, finds no difficulty in fixing an epoch, since

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 659 BAILLY'S CONCLUSIONS.

the only observation needed is one which can be made at any moment. But what it needs above all,
what it is obliged to borrow, are those elements which depend on accurate determination, and which
require continuous observation; above all, those motions which depend on time, and which can only
be accurately determined by centuries of observation. These motions, then, must be borrowed from a
nation which has made such observations, and has behind it the labours of centuries. We conclude,
therefore, that a new people will not borrow the epochs of an ancient one, without also borrowing
from them the 'average motions.' Starting from this principle we shall find that the Hindu epochs 1491
and 3102 could not have been derived from those of either Ptolemy or Ulug-beg."
There remains the supposition that the Hindus, comparing their observations in 1491 with those
previously made by Ulug-beg and Ptolemy, used the intervals between these observations to
determine the "average motions." The date of Ulug-beg is too recent for such a determination; while
those of Ptolemy and Hipparchus were barely remote enough. But if the Hindu motions had been
determined from these comparisons, the epochs would be connected together. Starting from the
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epochs of Ulug-beg and Ptolemy we should arrive at all those of the Hindus. But this is not the case.
Hence foreign epochs were either unknown or useless to the Hindus.*
We may add to this another important consideration. When a nation is obliged to borrow from its
neighbours the methods or the average motions of its astronomical tables, it has even greater need to
borrow, besides these, the knowledge of the inequalities of the motions of the heavenly bodies, the
motions of the apogee, of the nodes, and of the inclination of the ecliptic; in short, all those elements
the determination of which requires the art of observing, some instrumental appliances, and great
industry. All these astronomical elements, differing more or less with the Greeks of Alexandria, the
Arabs, the Persians and the Tartars, exhibit no resemblance whatever with those of the Hindus. The
latter, therefore, borrowed nothing from their neighbours.
Condensing Bailly's remarks, he comes to the following conclusions: -If the Hindus did not borrow their epoch, they must have possessed a real one of their own, based on
their own observations; and this must be either the epoch of the year 1491 after, or that of the year
3102 before our era, the latter preceding by 4592 years the epoch 1491. We have to choose between
these two epochs and to decide which of them is based on observation. But before stating the
arguments which can and must
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* For a detailed scientific proof of this conclusion, see page 121 of Mr. Bailly's work, where the
subject is discussed technically.

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 660 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

decide the question, we may be permitted to make a few remarks to those who may be inclined to
believe that it is modern observations and calculations which have enabled the Hindus to determine
the past positions of the heavenly bodies. It is far from easy to determine the celestial movements with
sufficient accuracy to ascend the stream of time for 4592 years, and to describe the phenomena which
must have occurred at that period.
We possess to-day excellent instruments; exact observations have been made for some two or three
centuries, which already permit us to calculate with considerable accuracy the average motions of the
planets; we have the observations of the Chaldeans, of Hipparchus and of Ptolemy, which, owing to
their remoteness from the present time, permit us to fix these motions with greater certainty. Still we
cannot undertake to represent with invariable accuracy the observations throughout the long period
intervening between the Chaldeans and ourselves; and still less can we undertake to determine with
exactitude events occurring 4592 years before our day. Cassini and Maier have each determined the
secular motion of the moon, and they differ by 3m. 43s. This difference would give rise in forty-six
centuries to an uncertainty of nearly three degrees in the moon's place. Doubtless one of these
determinations is more accurate than the other; and it is for observations of very great antiquity to
decide between them. But in very remote periods, where observations are lacking, it follows that we
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are uncertain as to the phenomena. How, then, could the Hindus have calculated back from the year
1491 A.D. to the year 3102 before our era, if they were only recent students of astronomy?
The Orientals have never been what we are. However high an opinion of their knowledge we may
form from the examination of their Astronomy, we cannot suppose them ever to have possessed that
great array of instruments which distinguishes our modern observatories, and which is the product of
simultaneous progress in various arts, nor could they have possessed that genius for discovery, which
has hitherto seemed to belong exclusively to Europe, and which, supplying the place of time, causes
the rapid progress of science and of human intelligence. If the Asiatics have been powerful, learned
and wise, it is power and time which have produced their merit and success of all kinds. Power has
founded or destroyed their empires; now it has erected edifices imposing by their bulk, now it has
reduced them to venerable ruins; and while these vicissitudes alternated with each other, patience
accumulated knowledge; and prolonged experience produced wisdom. It is the antiquity of the nations
of the East which has erected their scientific fame.
If the Hindus possessed in 1491 a knowledge of the heavenly motions

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sufficiently accurate to enable them to calculate backwards for 4,592 years, it follows that they could
only have obtained this knowledge from very ancient observations. To grant them such knowledge,
while refusing them the observations from which it is derived, is to suppose an impossibility; it would
be equivalent to assuming that at the outset of their career they had already reaped the harvest of time
and experience. While on the other hand, if their epoch of 3102 is assumed to be real, it would follow
that the Hindus had simply kept pace with successive centuries down to the year 1491 of our era.
Thus, time itself was their teacher; they knew the motions of the heavenly bodies during these periods,
because they had seen them; and the duration of the Hindu people on earth is the cause of the fidelity
of its records and the accuracy of its calculations.
It would seem that the problem as to which of the two epochs of 3102 and 1491 is the real one ought
to be solved by one consideration, viz., that the ancients in general, and particularly the Hindus,
calculated, and therefore observed, eclipses only. Says Bailly: -Now, there was no eclipse of the sun at the moment of the epoch 1492; and no eclipse of the moon
either 14 days before or after that moment. Therefore the epoch 1491 is not based on an observation.
As regards the epoch 3102, the Brahmins of Tirvalour place it at sunrise on February 18th. The sun
was then in the first point of the Zodiac according to its true longitude. The other tables show that at
the preceding midnight the moon was in the same place, but according to its average longitude. The
Brahmins tell us also that this first point, the origin of their Zodiac, was, in the year 3102, 54 degrees
behind the equinox. It follows that the origin -- the first point of their Zodiac -- was therefore in the
sixth degree of Libra.
There occurred, therefore, about this time and place an average conjunction; "and indeed this
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conjunction is given in our best tables: La Caille's for the sun and Maier's for the moon." There was
no eclipse of the sun, the moon being too distant from her node; but fourteen days later, the moon
having approached the node, must have been eclipsed. Maier's tables, used without correction for
acceleration, give this eclipse; but they place it during the day when it could not have been observed
in India. Cassini's tables give it as occurring at night, which shows that Maier's motions are too rapid
for distant centuries, when the acceleration is not allowed for; and which also proves that in spite of
the improvement of our knowledge we can still be uncertain as to the actual aspect of the heavens in
past times.
Therefore we believe that as between the two Hindu epochs, the real one is the year 3102, because it
was accompanied by an eclipse which could be observed, and which must have served to determine it.
This

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is a first proof of the truth of the longitude assigned by the Hindus to the sun and the moon at this
instant; and this proof would perhaps be sufficient, were it not that this ancient determination becomes
of the greatest importance for the verification of the motions of these bodies, and must therefore be
borne out by every possible proof of its au thenticity.
We notice, first, that the Hindus seem to have combined two epochs together into the year 3102. The
Tirvalour Brahmins reckon primarily from the first moment of the Kali-Yug; but they have a second
epoch placed 2d. 3h. 32m. 30s. later. The latter is the true astronomical epoch, while the former seems
to be a civil era. But if this epoch of the Kali-Yug had no reality, and was the mere result of a
calculation, why should it be thus divided? Their calculated astronomical epoch would have become
that of the Kali-Yug, which would have been placed at the conjunction of the sun and the moon, as is
the case with the epochs of the three other tables. They must have had some reason for distinguishing
between the two; and this reason can only be due to the circumstances and the time of the epoch;
which therefore could not be the result of calculation. This is not all; starting from the solar epoch
determined by the rising of the sun on February 18th, 3102, and tracing back events 2d. 3h. 32m. 30s.,
we come to 2h. 27m. 30s. a.m. of February 16th, which is the instant of the beginning of Kali-Yuga. It
is curious that this age has not been made to commence at one of the four great divisions of the day. It
might be suspected that the epoch should be midnight, and that the 2h. 27m. 30s. are a meridian
correction. But whatever may have been the reason for fixing on this moment, it is plain that were this
epoch the result of calculation, it would have been just as easy to carry it back to midnight, so as to
make the epoch correspond to one of the chief divisions of the day, instead of placing it at a moment
fixed by the fraction of a day.
2nd. The Hindus assert that at the first moment of Kali-Yug there was a conjunction of all the planets;
and their tables show this conjunction while ours indicate that it might actually have occurred. Jupiter
and Mercury were in exactly the same degree of the ecliptic; Mars being 8 [[degrees]] and Saturn 17
[[degrees]] distant from it. It follows that about this time, or some fourteen days after the
commencement of Kali-Yug, the Hindus saw four planets emerge successively from the Sun's rays;
first Saturn, then Mars, then Jupiter and Mercury, and these planets appeared united in a somewhat
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small space. Although Venus was not among them, the taste for the marvellous caused it to be called a
general conjunction of all the planets. The testimony of the Brahmins here coincides with that of our
tables; and this evidence, the result of a tradition, must be founded on actual observation.

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 663 THE EYE OF TAURUS.

3rd. We may remark that this phenomenon was visible about a fortnight after the epoch, and exactly at
the time when the eclipse of the moon must have been observed, which served to fix the epoch. The
two observations mutually confirm each other; and whoever made the one must have made the other
also.
4th. We may believe also that the Hindus made at the same time a determination of the place of the
moon's node; this seems indicated by their calculation. They give the longitude of this point of the
lunar orbit for the time of their epoch, and to this they add as a constant 40m., which is the node's
motion in 12d. 14h. It is as if they stated that this determination was made 13 days after their epoch,
and that to make it correspond to that epoch, we must add the 40m. through which the node has
retrograded in the interval.
This observation is, therefore, of the same date as that of the lunar eclipse; thus giving three
observations, which are mutually confirmatory.
5th. It appears from the description of the Hindu Zodiac given by M. C. Gentil, that on it the places of
the stars named "The Eye of Taurus" and the "Wheat-ear of Virgo," can be determined for the
commencement of the Kali-Yug.
Now, comparing these places with the actual positions, reduced by our precession of the equinoxes to
the moment in question, we see that the point of origin of the Hindu Zodiac must lie between the fifth
and sixth degree of Libra. The Brahmins, therefore, were right in placing it in the sixth degree of that
sign, the more so since this small difference may be due to the proper motion of the stars which is
unknown.
Thus it was yet another observation which guided the Hindus in this fairly accurate determination of
the first point of their movable zodiac.
It does not seem possible to doubt the existence in antiquity of observations of this date. The Persians
say that four beautiful stars were placed as guardians at the four corners of the world. Now it so
happens that at the commencement of Kali Yug, 3000 or 3100 years before our era, the "Eye of the
Bull" and the "Heart of the Scorpion" were exactly at the equinoctial points, while the "Heart of the
Lion" and the "Southern Fish" were pretty near the solstitial points. An observation of the rising of the
Pleiades in the evening, seven days before the autumnal equinox, also belongs to the year 3000 before
our era. This and similar observations collected in Ptolemy's calendars, though he does not give their
authors, these observations, which are older than those of the Chaldeans, may well be the work of the
Hindus. They are well acquainted with the constellation of the Pleiades, and while we call it vulgarly
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the "Poussiniere" they name it: Pillaloo-codi -- the "Hen and chickens." This name has therefore,
passed from people to

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people, and comes to us from the most ancient nations of Asia. We see that the Hindus must have
observed the rising of the Pleiades, and have made use of it to regulate their years and their months;
for this constellation is also called Krittika. Now they have a month of the same name, and this
coincidence can only be due to the fact that this month was announced by the rising or setting of the
constellation in question. But what is even more decisive as showing that the Hindus observed the
stars, and in the same way that we do, marking their position by their longitude, is a fact mentioned by
Augustinus Riccius that, according to observations attri buted to Hermes, and made 1,985 years before
Ptolemy, the brilliant star in the Lyre and that in the Heart of the Hydra were each seven degrees in
advance of their respective positions as determined by Ptolemy.
This determination seems very extraordinary. The stars advance regularly with respect to the equinox;
and Ptolemy ought to have found the longitudes 28 degrees in excess of what they were 1985 years
before his time. Besides, there is a remarkable peculiarity about this fact; the same error or difference
being found in the positions of both stars; therefore the error was due to some cause affecting both
stars equally. It was to explain this peculiarity that the Arab Thebith imagined the stars to have an
oscillatory movement, causing them to advance and recede alternately.
This hypothesis was easily disproved; but the observations attri buted to Hermes remained
unexplained. Their explanation, however, is found in Hindu Astronomy. At the date fixed for these
observations, 1985 years before Ptolemy, the first point of the Hindu Zodiac was 35 degrees in
advance of the equinox; therefore the longitudes reckoned for this point are 35 degrees in excess of
those reckoned from the equinox. But after the lapse of 1985 years the stars would have advanced 28
degrees, and there would remain a difference of only 7 degrees between the longitudes of Hermes and
those of Ptolemy, and the difference would be the same for the two stars, since it is due to the
difference between the starting-points of the Hindu Zodiac and that of Ptolemy, which reckons from
the equinox. This explanation is so simple and natural that it must be true. We do not know whether
Hermes, so celebrated in antiquity, was a Hindu, but we see that the observations attri buted to him are
reckoned in the Hindu manner, and we conclude that they were made by the Hindus, who, therefore,
were able to make all the observations we have enumerated, and which we find noted in their tables.
6th. The observation of the year 3102, which seems to have fixed their epoch, was not a difficult one.
We see that the Hindus, having once determined the moon's daily motion of 13deg. 10m. 35sec., made

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use of it to divide the Zodiac into 27 constellations, related to the period of the moon, which takes
about 27 days to describe it.
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It was by this method that they determined the positions of the stars in this Zodiac; it was thus they
found that a certain star of the Lyre was in 8h. 24m., the Heart of the Hydra in 4d. 7h., longitudes
which are ascribed to Hermes, but which are calculated on the Hindu Zodiac. Similarly, they
discovered that the "Wheatear of Virgo" forms the commencement of their fifteenth constellation, and
the "Eye of Taurus" the end of the fourth; these stars being the one in 6d. 6h. 40m., the other in 1d.
23h. 20min. of the Hindu Zodiac. This being so, the eclipse of Moon which occurred 14 days after the
Kali Yug epoch, took place at a point between the "Wheat Ear" of Virgo and the star [[ ]] of the same
constellation. These stars are very approximately a constellation apart, the one beginning the fifteenth,
the other the sixteenth. Thus it would not be difficult to determine the moon's place by measuring her
distance from one of these stars; from this they deduced the position of the sun, which is opposite to
the moon, and then, knowing their average motions, they calculated that the moon was at the first
point of the Zodiac according to her average longitude at midnight on the 17th-18th February of the
year 3,102 before our era, and that the sun occupied the same place six hours later according to his
true longitude; an event which fixes the commencement of the Hindu year.
7th. The Hindus state that 20,400 years before the age of Kali Yug, the first point of their Zodiac
coincided with the vernal equinox, and that the sun and moon were in conjunction there. This epoch is
obviously fictitious;* but we may inquire from what point, from what epoch, the Hindus set out in
establishing it. Taking the Hindu values for the revolution of the sun and moon, viz., 365d. 6h. 12m.
30s., and 27d. 7h. 43m. 13s., we have -20,400 revolutions of the sun = 7,451,277d. 2h.
272,724 revolutions of the moon = 7,451,277d. 7h.
Such is the result obtained by starting from the Kali Yuga epoch; and the assertion of the Hindus, that
there was a conjunction at the time stated, is founded on their tables; but if, using the same elements,
we start from the era of the year 1491, or from another placed in the year 1282, of which we shall
speak later, there will always be a difference of almost one or two days. It is both just and natural, in
verifying the Hindu calculations, to take those among their elements which give the same result as
they had themselves arrived at, and to set out from that one among their epochs which enables us to
arrive at
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* Why it should be "fictitious" can never be made plain by European scientists.

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 666 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

the fictitious epoch in question. Hence, since to make this calculation they must have set out from
their real epoch, the one which was founded on an observation and not from any of those which were
derived by this very calculation from the former, it follows that their real epoch was that of the year
3102 before our era.

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8th. The Tiravalore Brahmins give the Moon's motion as 7d. 2h. 8m. on the movable Zodiac, and as
9d. 7h. 45m. 1s. as referred to the equinox in a great period of 1,600,984 days, or 4,386 years and 94
days. We believe this motion to have been determined by observation; and we must state at the outset
that this period is of an extent which renders it but ill suited to the calculation of the mean motions.
In their astronomical calculations the Hindus make use of periods of 248, 3,031, and 12,372 days; but,
apart from the fact that these periods, though much too short, do not present the inconvenience of the
former, they contain an exact number of revolutions of the moon referred to its apogee. They are in
reality mean motions. The great period of 1,600,984 is not a sum of accumulated revolutions; there is
no reason why it should contain 1,600,984 rather than 1,600,985 days. It would seem that observation
alone must have fixed the number of days and marked the beginning and end of the period. This
period ends on the 21st of May, 1282, of our era at 5h. 15m. 30s. at Benares. The moon was then in
apogee, according to the Hindus,
and her longitude was ... 7d. 13h. 45m. 1s.
Maier gives the longitude as ... 7d. 13h. 53m. 48s.
And places the apogee at ... ... 7d. 14h. 6m. 54s.
The determination of the moon's place by the Brahmins thus differs only by nine minutes from ours,
and that of the apogee by twenty-two minutes, and it is very evident that they could only have
obtained this agreement with our best tables and this exactitude in the celestial positions by
observation. If then, observation fixed the end of this period, there is every reason to believe that it
determined its commencement. But then this motion, determined directly, and from nature, would of
necessity be in close agreement with the true motions of the heavenly bodies.
And in fact the Hindu motion during this long period of 4,883 years, does not differ by a minute from
that of Cassini, and agrees equally with that of Maier. Thus two peoples, the Hindus and the
Europeans, placed at the two extremities of the world, and perhaps as distant by their institutions,
have obtained precisely the same results as regards the moon's motions; and an agreement which
would be inconceivable, if it were not based on the observation and mutual imitation of nature. We
must remark that the four tables of the Hindus are all copies of the same Astronomy. It cannot be
denied that the Siamese tables existed

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in 1687, when they were brought from India by M. de la Loubere. At that time the tables of Cassini
and Maier were not in existence, and thus the Hindus were already in possession of the exact motion
contained in these tables, while we did not yet possess it.* It must, therefore, be admitted that the
accuracy of this Hindu motion is the point of observation. It is exact throughout this period of 4,383
years, because it was taken from the sky itself -- and if observation determined its close, it fixed its
commencement also. It is the longest period which has been observed and of which the recollection is
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preserved in the annals of Astronomy. It has its origin in the epoch of the year 3102, B.C., and it is a
demonstrative proof of the reality of that epoch.
Bailly is referred to at such length, as he is one of the few scientific men who have tried to do full
justice to the Astronomy of the Aryans. From John Bentley down to Burgess' "Surya-Siddhanta," not
one astronomer has been fair enough to the most learned people of Antiquity. However distorted and
misunderstood the Hindu Symbology, no Occultist can fail to do it justice once that he knows
something of the Secret Sciences; nor will he turn away from their metaphysical and mystical
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* The following is an answer to those men of science who might suspect that our Astronomy was
carried to India and communicated to the Hindus by our Missionaries. 1st. Hindu astronomy has its
own peculiar forms, characterized by their originality; if it had been our astronomy translated, great
skill and knowledge would have been needed to disguise the theft. 2nd. When adopting the mean
movement of the moon, they would have adopted also the inclination of the ecliptic, the equation of
the sun's centre, the length of the year; these elements differ completely from ours, and are remarkably
accurate as applying to the epoch of 3102; while they would be exceedingly erroneous if they had
been calculated for last century. 3rd, finally, our missionaries could not have communicated to the
Hindus in 1687 the tables of Cassini, which were not then in existence; they could have known only
the mean motions of Tycho, Riccioli, Copernicus, Bouilland, Kepler, Longomontanus, and those of
the tables of Alphonso. I will now give a tabular view of these mean motions for 4383 years and 94
days: -Table. ------------- Mean Motion. --- Difference from Hindu.
Alphonso ..............9d 7h 2m 47s ... - 0h 42m 14s
Copernicus .......... 9d 6h 2m 13s .... - 1h 42m 48s
Tycho .................. 9d 7h 54m 40s .. + 0h 9m 39s
Kepler ................. 9d 6h 57m 35s .. - 0h 47m 26s
Longomontanus ... 9d 7h 2m 13s .... - 0h 42m 48s
Bouill and ............. 9d 6h 48m 8s .... - 0h 58m 53s
Riccioli ................ 9d 7h 53m 57s .. + 0h 8m 56s
Cassini ................ 9d 7h 44m 11s ... - 0h 0m 50s
Indian .................. 9d 7h 45m 1s
None of these mean motions, except Cassini's, agrees with that of the Hindus, who therefore, did not
borrow their mean motions, since their figures agree only with those of Cassini, whose tables were not
in existence in 1687. This mean motion of the moon belongs, therefore, to the Hindus, who could only
have obtained it by observation." -- Bailly's "Traite de l'Astronomie Indienne et Orientale."

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 668 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

interpretation of the Zodiac, even though the whole Pleiades of Royal Astronomical Societies rise in
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arms against their mathematical rendering of it. The descent and re-ascent of the Monad or Soul
cannot be disconnected from the Zodiacal signs, and it looks more natural, in the sense of the fitness
of things, to believe in a mysterious sympathy between the metaphysical soul and the bright
constellations, and in the influence of the latter on the former, than in the absurd notion that the
creators of Heaven and Earth have placed in heaven the types of twelve vicious Jews. And if, as the
author of The Gnostics asserts, the aim of all the Gnostic schools and the later Platonists "was to
accommodate the old faith to the influence of Buddhistic theosophy, the very essence of which was
that the innumerable gods of the Hindu mythology were but names for the ENERGIES of the First
Triad in its successive AVATARS or manifestations unto man," whither can we turn to trace these
theosophic ideas to their very root -- better than to old Indian wisdom? We say it again: archaic
Occultism would remain incomprehensible to all, if it were rendered otherwise than through the more
familiar channels of Buddhism and Hinduism. For the former is the emanation of the latter; and both
are children of one mother -- ancient Lemuro-Atlantean Wisdom.
------[[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]] 668 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

[[This page continued from previous section]]
XVIII.
SUMMARY OF THE MUTUAL POSITION.
THE reader has had the whole case presented to him from both sides, and it remains with him to
decide whether its summary stands in our favour or not. If there were such a thing as void, a vacuum
in Nature, one would find it produced, according to a physical law, in the minds of helpless admirers
of the "lights" of science, who pass their time in mutually destroying their teachings. If ever the theory
that "two lights make darkness" found its application it is in this case, when one half of the "lights"
imposes its Forces and "modes of motion" on the belief of the faithful, and the other half opposes the
very existence of the same. "Ether, Matter, Energy" -- the sacred hypostatical trinity, the three
principles of the truly unknown God of Science, called by them PHYSICAL NATURE!
Theology is taken to task and ridiculed for believing in the union of three persons in one Godhead -one God as to substance, three persons as to individuality; and we are laughed at for our belief in
unproved and unprovable doctrines, in Angels and Devils, Gods and Spirits. And,

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 669 THE EXACT SCIENCES OF -- NEGATION.

indeed, that which made the Scientists win the day over Theology in the Great "Conflict between
Religion and Science," was precisely the argument that neither the identity of that substance, nor the
triple individuality claimed, after having been conceived, invented, and worked out in the depths of
Theological Consciousness, could be proved by any Scientific inductive process of reasoning, least of
all on the evidence of our senses. Religion must perish, it is said, because it teaches mysteries.
Mystery is the negation of Common Sense, and Science repels it. According to Mr. Tyndall,
metaphysics is fiction, like poetry. The man of Science takes nothing on trust; rejects everything that
is not proven to him, while the Theologian accepts everything on blind faith. The Theosophist and the
Occultist, who take nothing on trust, not even exact Science, the Spiritualist who denies dogma but
believes in Spirits and in invisible but potential influences, all share in the same contempt. Very well,
then; what we have to do now, is to examine for the last time whether exact Science does not act
precisely in the same way as Theosophy, Spiritualism, and Theology do.
In a work by Mr. S. Laing, considered a standard book on Science, "Modern Science and Modern
Thought," the author of which, according to the laudatory review of the Times, "exhibits with much

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power and effect the immense discoveries of Science, and its numerous victories over old opinions,
whenever THEY HAVE THE RASHNESS TO CHALLENGE CONCLUSIONS WITH IT," one
reads in chapter III., "On Matter," as follows:
"WHAT IS THE MATERIAL UNIVERSE COMPOSED OF? ETHER, MATTER, ENERGY" . . . .
. is the answer.
We stop to ask, "What is Ether?" And Mr. Laing answers in the name of Science: -"Ether is not actually known to us BY ANY TEST OF WHICH THE SENSES CAN TAKE
COGNIZANCE, but is a sort of mathematical substance which WE ARE COMPELLED TO
ASSUME in order to account for the phenomena of light and heat."
And [[sic]] what is matter? Do you know more about it than you do about the "hypothetical" agent,
Ether?
"In perfect strictness, it is true that chemical investigations can tell us . . . . NOTHING DIRECTLY of
the composition of living matter, and . . . . it is also in strictness true, THAT WE KNOW NOTHING
about the composition of ANY (material) BODY WHATEVER AS IT IS." (Lecture on Protoplasm
by Mr. Huxley.)
And Energy? Surely you can define the third person of the Trinity of your Material universe?
"THE ENERGY IS THAT WHICH IS ONLY KNOWN TO US BY ITS EFFECTS." (Books on
Physics.)
Pray explain, for this is rather hazy.
"IN MECHANICS THERE IS ACTUAL AND POTENTIAL ENERGY: WORK

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 670 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

ACTUALLY PERFORMED, AND THE CAPACITY FOR PERFORMING IT. AS TO THE
NATURE OF MOLECULAR ENERGY OR FORCES, THE VARIOUS PHENOMENA WHICH
BODIES PRESENT SHOW THAT THEIR MOLECULES ARE UNDER THE INFLUENCE OF
TWO CONTRARY FORCES -- ONE WHICH TENDS TO BRING THEM TOGETHER, THE
OTHER TO SEPARATE THEM. . . . . THE FIRST IS MOLECULAR ATTRACTION, THE
SECOND FORCE IS DUE TO vis viva, OR MOVING FORCE." . . . . (Ganot's Physics.)
Just so: it is the nature of this moving force, the vis viva that we want to know. What is it? . . . . .
"WE DO NOT KNOW!" IS THE INVARIABLE ANSWER. "IT IS AN EMPTY SHADOW OF
MY IMAGINATION," explains Mr. Huxley in his Physical Basis of Life.
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Thus the whole structure of Modern Science is built on a kind of "mathematical abstraction," on a
Protean "Substance which eludes the senses," (Dubois Reymond,) and on effects, the shadowy and
illusive will-o'-the-wisps of a something entirely unknown to and beyond the reach of Science, "Selfmoving" atoms! Self-moving Suns, planets, and stars! But who, then, or what are they all, if they are
self-endowed with motion? Why then should you, physicists, laugh and deride our "Self-moving
ARCHAEUS"? Mystery is rejected and scorned by Science, and "MYSTERY is the fatality of Science,"
as Father Felix has truly said. . . . . Science cannot escape it!" The language of the French preacher is
ours, and we quote it in "Isis Unveiled" (Vide Vol. I. 338-9). Who -- he asks -- who of you, men of
Science:
". . . . has been able to penetrate the secret of the formation of a body, the generation of
a single atom? What is there, I will not say at the centre of a sun, but at the centre of an
atom? Who has sounded to the bottom the abyss in a grain of sand? The grain of sand,
gentlemen, has been studied four thousand years by science, she has turned and returned
it; she divides it and subdivides it; she torments it with her experiments; she vexes it
with her questions to snatch from it the final word as to its secret constitution; she asks
it, with an insatiable curiosity: 'Shall I divide thee infinitesimally?' Then suspended over
this abyss, science hesitates, she stumbles, she feels dazzled, she becomes dizzy, and in
despair says: I DO NOT KNOW."
"But if you are so fatally ignorant of the genesis and hidden nature of a grain of sand,
how should you have an intuition as to the generation of a single living being? Whence
in the living being does life come? Where does it commence? What is the life
principle?"*
Do the men of science deny all these charges? Not at all, for here is a confession of Tyndall, which
shows how powerless is science, even over the world of matter.
"The first marshalling of the atoms, on which all subsequent action depends,
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* "Le Mystere et la Science," Conferences, Pere Felix de Notre Dame; des Mousseaux: "Hauts Phen.
Magiques."

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 671 NO VOID POSSIBLE.

baffles a keener power than that of the microscope." "Through pure excess of
complexity, and long before observation can have any voice in the matter, the most
highly trained intellect, the most refined and disciplined imagination, retires in
bewilderment from the contemplation of the problem. We are struck dumb by an
astonishment which no microscope can relieve, doubting not only the power of our

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instrument, but even whether we ourselves possess the intellectual elements which will
ever enable us to grapple with the ultimate structural energies of nature."
How little is known of the material universe, indeed, has now been suspected for years, on the very
admissions of these men of science themselves. And now there are some materialists who would even
make away with Ether -- or whatever Science calls the infinite Substance, the noumenon of which the
Buddhists call Swabhavat -- as well as with atoms, too dangerous both on account of their ancient
philosophical and their present Christian and theological associations. From the earliest philosophers
whose records passed to posterity, down to our present age, which, if it denies "invisible Beings" in
Space, can never be so insane as to deny a plenum of some sort -- the fulness of the universe was an
accepted belief. And what it was said to contain, one learns from Hermes Trismegistus (in Mrs.
Kingsford's able rendering) -- who is made to say: -"Concerning the void . . . my judgment is that it does not exist, that it never existed, and that it never
will exist, for all the various parts of the universe are filled, as the earth also is complete and full of
bodies, differing in quality and in form, having their species and their magnitude, one larger, one
smaller, one solid, one tenuous. The larger . . . are easily perceived; the smaller . . . are difficult to
apprehend, or altogether invisible. We know only of their existence by the sensation of feeling,
wherefore many persons deny such entities to be bodies, and regard them as simply spaces,* but it is
impossible there should be such spaces. For if indeed there should be anything outside the universe . .
. then it would be a space occupied by intelligent beings analogous to its (the universe's) divinity . . . .
. . I speak of the genii, for I hold they dwell with us, and of the heroes who dwell above us, between
the earth and the highest airs; wherein are neither clouds nor any tempest" (p. 84).
And we "hold" it too. Only, as already remarked, no Eastern Initiate would speak of spheres "above
us, between the earth and the
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* Behold the work of Cycles and their periodical return! Those who denied such "Entities" (Forces) to
be bodies, and called them "Spaces," were the prototypes of our modern "Science-struck" public, and
their official teachers, who speak of the Forces of nature as the imponderable energy of matter and
modes of motion, and yet bold electricity (for one) as being as atomic as matter itself -- (Helmholtz).
Inconsistency and contradiction reign as much in official as in heterodox Science.

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 672 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

airs," even the highest, as there is no such division or measurement in occult speech, no "above" as no
"below," but an eternal "within," within two other withins, or the planes of subjectivity merging
gradually into that of terrestrial objectivity -- this being for man the last one, his own plane. This
necessary explanation may be closed here by giving, in the words of Hermes, the belief on this
particular point of the whole world of mystics: -"There are many orders of the gods; and in all there is an intelligent part. It is not to be
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supposed they do not come within the range of our senses; on the contrary, we perceive
them, better even than those which are called visible. . . There are then gods, superior to
all appearances; after them come the gods whose principle is spiritual; these gods being
sensible, in conformity with their double origin, manifest all things by a sensible nature,
each of them illuminating his works one by another.* The Supreme Being of Heaven, or
of all that is comprehended under this name, is Zeus, for it is by Heaven that Zeus gives
life to all things. The Supreme Being of the Sun is Light, for it is by the disk of the Sun
that we receive the benefit of the light. The thirty-six horoscopes of the fixed stars have
for supreme Being or Prince, him whose name is Pantomorphos, or having all forms,
because he gives divine forms to divers types. The seven planets, or wandering spheres,
have for Supreme Spirits Fortune and Destiny, who uphold the eternal stability of the
laws of nature throughout incessant transformation and perpetual agitation. The ether is
the instrument or medium by which all is produced."
This is quite philosophical and in accordance with the spirit of Eastern esotericism: for all the Forces,
such as Light, Heat, Electricity, etc., etc., are called the "Gods" -- esoterically.
It must be so, since the esoteric teachings in Egypt and India were identical. And, therefore, the
personification of Fohat synthesizing all the manifesting forces in nature is a legitimate result.
Moreover, as will be shown in the division that follows this one, the real and Occult forces in nature
only now begin to be known -- and even in this case, by heterodox, not orthodox, Science (See also
X., THE COMING FORCE), though their existence, in one instance at any rate, is corroborated, and
certified to by an immense number of educated people and even by some official men of science.
This sentence, moreover, in Stanza VI., "Fohat sets in motion the primordial World-germs, or the
aggregation of Cosmic atoms and matter, some one way, some another, in the opposite direction" -looks orthodox and Scientific enough. For there is, at all events, one fact in support of this position
fully recognized by Science, and it is this. The meteoric showers (periodical in November and
August) belong to
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* "Hermes here includes as gods the sensible Forces of nature, the elements and the phenomena of the
Universe," remarks Mrs. A. Kingsford in a foot-note explaining it very correctly. So does Eastern
philosophy.

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 673 THE ALIASES OF FOHAT.

a system moving in an elliptical orbit around the Sun. The aphelion of this ring is 1,732 millions of
miles beyond the orbit of Neptune, its plane is inclined to the Earth's orbit at an angle of 64
[[degrees]] 3', and the direction of the meteoric swarm moving round this orbit is contrary to that of
the Earth's revolution.

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This fact, recognized only in 1833, shows it to be the modern rediscovery of what was very anciently
known. Fohat turns with his two hands in contrary directions the "seed" and "the curds," or Cosmic
matter; is turning, in clearer language, particles in a highly attenuated condition, and nebulae.
Outside the boundaries of the solar system, it is other Suns, and especially the mysterious "central
Sun" (the "Abode of the invisible deity" as some reverend gentlemen have called it) that determines
the motion of bodies and their direction. That motion serves also to differentiate the homogeneous
matter, round and between the several bodies, into elements and sub-elements unknown to our earth,
which are regarded by modern Science as distinct individual elements, whereas they are merely
temporary appearances, changing with every small cycle within the Manvantara, some Esoteric works
calling them "Kalpic Masks."
Fohat is the key in Occultism which opens and unriddles the multiform symbols and respective
allegories in the so-called mythology of every nation; demonstrating the wonderful philosophy and
the deep insight into the mysteries of nature, in the Egyptian and Chaldean as well as in the Aryan
religions. Fohat, shown in his true character, proves how deeply versed were all those prehistoric
nations in every science of nature, now called physical and chemical branches of natural philosophy.
In India, Fohat is the scientific aspect of both Vishnu and Indra, the latter older and more important in
the Rig Veda than his sectarian successor; while in Egypt Fohat was known as Toum issued of Noot,*
or Osiris in his character of a primordial god, creator of heaven and of beings (see chapter xvii., "Book
of the Dead"). For Toum is spoken of as the Protean god who generates other gods and gives himself
the form he likes; the "master of life" "giving their vigour to the gods" (chapter lxxix.) He is the
overseer of the gods, and he "who creates spirits and gives them shape and life"; he is "the north wind
and the spirit of the west;" and finally the "Setting Sun of Life," or the vital electric force that leaves
the body at death, wherefore the defunct begs that Toum should give him the breath from his right
nostril (positive elec[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* "Oh Toum, Toum! issued from the great (female) which is in the bosom of the waters" (the great
Deep or Space) . . . "Thou, luminous through the two Lions" (the dual Force or power of the two solar
eyes, or the electro-positive and the electro-negative forces. (See Book of the Dead, III., and Egyptian
Pantheon, chapter ii.)

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 674 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

tricity) that he might live in his second form. Both the hieroglyph, and the text of chapter lxii. in the
"Book of the Dead," show the identity of Toum with Fohat. The former represents a man standing
erect with the hieroglyph of the breaths in his hands. The latter says: -"I open to the chief of An (Heliopolis), I am Toum. I cross the water spilt by Thot-Hapi,
the lord of the horizon, and am the divider of the earth" (Fohat divides Space and, with
his Sons, the earth into seven zones) . . . .

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. . . . "I cross the heavens, and am the two Lions. I am Ra, I am Aam, I ate my heir.* . . .
. I glide on the soil of the field of Aanroo,** given me by the master of limitless
eternity. I am the germ of eternity. I am Toum, to whom eternity is accorded. . . . "
The very words used by Fohat in the XIth Book, and the very titles given him. In the Egyptian Papyri
the whole Cosmogony of the Secret Doctrine is found scattered about in isolated sentences, even in
the "Book of Dead." Number seven is quite as much insisted upon and emphasized therein as in the
Book of Dzyan. "The Great Water (the Deep or Chaos) is said to be seven cubits deep" -- "cubits"
standing here of course for divisions, zones, and principles. Therein, "in the great mother, all the
Gods, and the seven great ones are born." (See chapter cviii., 4, Book of the Dead and Egyptian
Pantheon). Both Fohat and Toum are addressed as the "Great ones of the Seven Magic Forces," who,
"conquer the Serpent Apap" or Matter.
No student of occultism, however, ought to be betrayed, by the usual phraseology used in the
translations of Hermetic Works, into believing that the ancient Egyptians or Greeks spoke of, and
referred, monk-like, at every moment in conversation, to a Supreme Being, God, the "One Father and
Creator of all," etc., as found on every page of such translations. No such thing indeed; and those texts
are not the original Egyptian texts. They are Greek compilations, the earliest of which does not go
beyond the early period of Neo-Platonism. No Hermetic
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* An image expressing the succession of divine functions, the substitution from one form into another,
or the correlation of forces. Aam is the electro-positive force, devouring all others as Saturn devoured
his progeny.
** Aanroo is in the domain of Osiris, a field divided into fourteen sections "surrounded with an iron
enclosure, within which grows the corn of life seven cubits high," the Kama-loka of the Egyptians.
Those only of the dead, who know the names of the janitors of the "seven halls," will be admitted into
Amenti for ever; i.e., those who have passed through the seven races of each round -- otherwise they
will rest in the lower fields; "and it represents also the seven successive Devachans, or lokas. In
Amenti, one becomes pure spirit for the eternity (xxx. 4.); while in Aanroo "the soul of the spirit," or
the defunct, is devoured each time by Uraeus -- the Serpent, Son of the earth (in another sense the
primordial vital principles in the Sun), i.e., the Astral body of the deceased or the "Elementary" fades
out and disappears in the "Son of the earth," limited time. The soul quits the fields of Aanroo and goes
on earth under any shape it likes to assume. (See chapter xcix., Book of the Dead.)

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 675 THE GODS OF EGYPT.

work written by Egyptians (vide "Book of the Dead") would speak of the one universal God of the
Monotheistic systems -- the one Absolute cause of all, was as unnameable and unpronounceable in the
mind of the ancient philosopher of Egypt, as it is for ever Unknowable in the conception of Mr.
Herbert Spencer. As for the Egyptian in general, as M. Maspero well remarks, whenever he "arrived at
the notion of divine Unity, the God One was never 'God,' simply." And Lepage Renouf very justly
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observed that the word Nouter, nouti, "god" had never ceased being a generic name with the
Egyptians, nor has it ever become a personal pronoun. Every God was the "one living and unique
God" with them. Their "monotheism was purely geographical. If the Egyptian of Memphis proclaimed
the unity of Phtah to the exclusion of Ammon, the Thebeian Egyptian proclaimed the unity of Ammon
to the exclusion of Phtah," as we now see done in India in the case of the Saivas and the Vaishnavas.
"Ra, the 'One God' at Heliopolis is not the same as Osiris, the 'One God' at Abydos, and can be
worshipped side by side with him, without being absorbed by his neighbour. The one god is but the
god of the nome or the city, noutir, noutti, and does not exclude the existence of the one god of that
town or of the neighbouring nome. In short, whenever speaking of Egyptian Monotheism, one ought
to speak of the Gods 'One' of Egypt, and not of the one god" (Maspero, in the Guide au Musee de
Boulak.) It is by this feature, pre-eminently Egyptian, that the au thenticity of the various so-called
Hermetic Books, ought to be tested; and it is totally absent from the Greek fragments known as such.
This proves that a Greek Neo-Platonic, or even a Christian hand, had no small share in the editing of
such works. Of course the fundamental philosophy is there, and in many a place -- intact. But the style
has been altered and smoothed in a monotheistic direction, as much, if not more than that of the
Hebrew Genesis in its Greek and Latin translations. They may be Hermetic works, but not works
written by either of the two Hermes -- or rather, by Thot (Hermes) the directing intelligence of the
Universe (See ch. xciv., Book of the Dead), or by Thot, his terrestrial incarnation called Trismegistus,
of the Rosetta stone.
But all is doubt, negation, iconoclasm and brutal indifference, in our age of the hundred "isms" and no
religion. Every idol is broken save the Golden Calf.
Unfortunately, no nation or nations can escape their Karmic fate any more than units and individuals
do. History itself is dealt with by the so-called historians as unscrupulously as legendary lore. For this,
Augustin Thierry has made the amende honorable, if one may believe his biographers. He deplored
the erroneous principle that made them all (the would-be historiographers) lose their way, and each
presume to

[[Vol. 1, Page]] 676 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

correct tradition, "that vox populi which nine times out of ten is vox Dei;" and he finally admitted that
in legend alone rests real history; for "legend," he adds, "is living tradition, and three times out of
four it is truer than what we call History."*
While Materialists deny everything in the universe, save matter, Archaeologists are trying to dwarf
antiquity, and seek to destroy every claim to ancient Wisdom by tampering with Chronology. Our
present-day Orientalists and Historical writers are to ancient History that which the white ants are to
the buildings in India. More dangerous even than those Termites, the modern Archaeologists -- the
"authorities" of the future in the matter of Universal History -- are preparing for the History of past
nations the fate of certain edifices in tropical countries: "History will tumble down and break into
atoms in the lap of the twentieth century, devoured to its foundations by her annalists," said Michelet.
Very soon, indeed, under their combined efforts, it will share the fate of those ruined cities in both
Americas, which lie deeply buried under impassable virgin forests. Historical facts will remain as
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concealed from view by the inextricable jungles of modern hypotheses, denials and scepticism. But
very happily actual History repeats herself, for she proceeds, like everything else, in cycles; and dead
facts and events deliberately drowned in the sea of modern scepticism will ascend once more and
reappear on the surface. . . .
In our Book II. the very fact that a work with pretensions to philosophy, and which is an exposition of
the most abstruse problems, has to be commenced by tracing the evolution of mankind from what are
regarded as supernatural beings -- Spirits -- will arouse the most malevolent criticism. Believers in,
and the defenders of, the Secret Doctrine, however, will have to bear the accusation of madness and
worse, as philosophically as for long years already the writer has done. Whenever a Theosophist is
taxed with insanity, he ought to reply by quoting from Montesquieu's "Lettres Persanes." "By opening
so freely their lunatic asylums to their supposed madmen, men only seek to assure each other that they
are not themselves mad."

[[Footnote(s)]] ------------------------------* Revue des Deux Mondes, 1865, pp. 157 and 158.
END OF VOL. I.

Contents

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The Secret Doctrine by H. P. Blavatsky, Vol 2, Preliminary Notes

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

Theosophical University Press Online Edition

[[Vol. 2, Page xv]]

[[Eh eme didache ouk estin eme, alla tou pemphantos me.]]
"My doctrine is not mine, but his that sent me."
-- John vii. 16.

[[Vol. 2, Page xvi]]

MODERN science insists upon the doctrine of evolution; so do human reason and the
"Secret Doctrine," and the idea is corroborated by the ancient legends and myths, and
even by the Bible itself when it is read between the lines. We see a flower slowly
developing from a bud, and the bud from its seed. But whence the latter, with all its
predetermined programme of physical transformation, and its invisible, therefore
spiritual forces which gradually develop its form, colour, and odour? The word
evolution speaks for itself. The germ of the present human race must have preexisted in
the parent of this race, as the seed, in which lies hidden the flower of next summer, was
developed in the capsule of its parent flower; the parent may be but slightly different,
but it still differs from its future progeny. The antediluvian ancestors of the present
elephant and lizard were, perhaps, the mammoth and the plesiosaurus; why should not
the progenitors of our human race have been the "giants" of the Vedas, the Voluspa, and
the Book of Genesis? While it is positively absurd to believe the "transformation of
species" to have taken place according to some of the more materialistic views of the
evolutionists, it is but natural to think that each genus, beginning with the molluscs and
ending with man, had modified its own primordial and distinctive forms. -- "Isis
Unveiled," Vol. I., p. 153.

[[Vol. 2, Page 1]]

PRELIMINARY NOTES.
------ON THE ARCHAIC STANZAS, AND THE FOUR PRE-HISTORIC CONTINENTS.

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"Facies totius Universi, quamvis infinitis modis variet,
Manet tamen semper eadem." -- SPINOZA.
THE Stanzas, with the Commentaries thereon, in this Book, the second, are drawn from the same
Archaic Records as the Stanzas on Cosmogony in Book I. As far as possible a verbatim translation is
given; but some of the Stanzas were too obscure to be understood without explanation. Hence, as was
done in Book I., while they are first given in full as they stand, when taken verse by verse with their
Commentaries an attempt is made to make them clearer, by words added in brackets, in anticipation of
the fuller explanation of the Commentary.
As regards the evolution of mankind, the Secret Doctrine postulates three new propositions, which
stand in direct antagonism to modern science as well as to current religious dogmas: it teaches (a) the
simultaneous evolution of seven human groups on seven different portions of our globe; (b) the birth
of the astral, before the physical body: the former being a model for the latter; and (c) that man, in
this Round, preceded every mammalian -- the anthropoids included -- in the animal kingdom.*
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* See Genesis ch. ii., v. 19. Adam is formed in verse 7, and in verse 19 it is said: "Out of the ground
the Lord God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam
to see what he would call them." Thus man was created before the animals; for the animals mentioned
in chapter i. are the signs of the Zodiac, while the man, "male and female," is not man, but the Host of
the Sephiroth; FORCES, or Angels, "made in his (God's) image and after his likeness." The Adam,
man, is not made in that likeness, nor is it so asserted in the Bible. Moreover, the Second Adam
[[Footnote continued on next page]]

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

The Secret Doctrine is not alone in speaking of primeval MEN born simultaneously on the seven
divisions of our Globe. In the Divine "Pymander" of Hermes we find the same Seven primeval men*
evolving from Nature and "Heavenly Man," in the collective sense of the word, namely, from the
Creative Spirits; and in the fragments (collected by George Smith) of Chaldean tablets on which is
inscribed the Babylonian Legend of Creation, in the first column of the Cutha tablet, seven human
beings with the faces of ravens (black, swarthy complexions), whom "the (Seven) great gods created,"
are mentioned. Or, as explained in lines 16 and 18 -- "In the midst of the Earth they grew up and
became great . . . . Seven kings, brothers of the same family." These are the Seven Kings of Edom to
whom reference is made in the Kabala; the first race, which was imperfect, i.e., was born before the
"balance" (sexes) existed, and which was therefore destroyed. (Zohar, Siphrah Dzeniouta, Idrah Suta,
2928, La Kabbale, p. 205.) "Seven Kings, brethren, appeared and begat children, 6,000 in number
were their peoples" (Hibbert Lectures, p. 372). The god Nergas (death) destroyed them. "How did he
destroy them?" "By bringing into equilibrium (or balance) those who did not yet exist" (Siphrah
Dzeniouta). They were "destroyed," as a race, by being merged in their own progeny (by exudation);
that is to say, the sexless race reincarnated in the bisexual

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

[[Footnote continued from previous page]] is esoterically a septenary which represents seven men, or
rather groups of men. For the first Adam -- the Kadmon -- is the synthesis of the ten Sephiroth. Of
these, the upper triad remains in the Archetypal World as the future "Trinity," while the seven lower
Sephiroth create the manifested material world; and this septenate is the second Adam. Genesis, and
the mysteries upon which it was fabricated, came from Egypt. The "God" of the 1st chapter of Genesis
is the Logos, and the "Lord God" of the 2nd chapter the Creative Elohim -- the lower powers.
* Thus saith Pymander -- "This is the mystery that to this day was hidden. Nature being mingled with
the Heavenly man (Elohim, or Dhyanis), brought forth a wonder . . . . Seven men, all males and
females (Hermaphrodite) . . . according to the nature of the seven Governors" -- Book II. v. 29) -- or
the seven Hosts of the Pitris or Elohim, who projected or created him. This is very clear, but yet, see
the interpretations of even our modern theologians, men supposed to be intellectual and learned! In
the "Theological and philosophical works of Hermes Trismegistus, Christian (?) Neoplatonist," a
work compiled by John David Chambers, of Oriel College, Oxford, the translator wonders "for whom
these seven men are intended?" He solves the difficulty by concluding that, as "the original pattern
man (Adam Kadmon of ch. i. Genesis) was masculine-feminine, the seven may signify the succeeding
patriarchs named in Genesis" (p. 9) . . . A truly theological way of cutting the Gordian knot.

[[Vol. 2, Page]] 3 THE LEMNOS-BORN KABIRI.

(potentially); the latter in the Androgynes; these again in the sexual, the later third Race; (for further
explanation, vide infra). Were the tablets less mutilated, they would be found to contain word for
word the same account as given in the archaic records and in Hermes, at least as regards the
fundamental facts, if not as regards minute details; for Hermes is a good deal disfigured by
mistranslations.
It is quite certain that the seeming supernaturalism of these teachings, although allegorical, is so
diametrically opposed to the dead-letter statements of the Bible* as well as to the latest hypotheses of
science, that it will evoke passionate denial. The Occultists, however, know that the traditions of
Esoteric Philosophy must be the right ones, simply because they are the most logical, and reconcile
every difficulty. Besides, we have the Egyptian "Books of Thoth," and "Book of the Dead," and the
Hindu Puranas with the seven Manus, as well as the Chaldeo-Assyrian accounts, whose tiles mention
seven primitive men, or Adams, the real meaning of which name may be ascertained through the
Kabala. Those who know anything of the Samothracian mysteries will also remember that the generic
name of the Kabiri was the "Holy Fires," which created on seven localities of the island of Electria (or
Samothrace) the "Kabir born of the Holy Lemnos" (the island sacred to Vulcan).
According to Pindar (See "Philosophumena," Miller's edition, p. 98), this Kabir, whose name was
Adamas, was, in the traditions of Lemnos, the type of the primitive man born from the bosom of the
Earth. He was the Archetype of the first males in the order of generation, and was one of the seven
autochthonous ancestors or progenitors of mankind (ibid, p. 108). If, while coupling with this the fact
that Samothrace was colonised by the Phoenicians, and before them by the mysterious Pelasgians who
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came from the East, one remembers also the identity of the mystery gods of the Phoenicians,
Chaldeans, and Israelites, it will be easy to discover whence came also the confused account of the
Noachian deluge. It has become undeniable of late that the Jews, who obtained their primitive ideas
about creation from Moses, who had them from
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* As it is now asserted that the Chaldean tablets, which give the allegorical description of Creation,
the Fall, and the Flood, even to the legend of the Tower of Babel, were written "before the time of
Moses" (See G. Smith's "Chaldean Account of Genesis," p. 86), how can the Pentateuch be called a
revelation? It is simply another version of the same story.

[[Vol. 2, Page]] 4 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

the Egyptians, compiled their Genesis and first Cosmogonic traditions -- when these were rewritten by
Ezra and others -- from the Chaldeo-Akkadian account. It is, therefore, sufficient to examine the
Babylonian and Assyrian cuneiform and other inscriptions to find also therein, scattered here and
there, not only the original meaning of the name Adam, Admi, or Adami,* but also the creation of
seven Adams or roots of men, born of Mother Earth, physically, and of the divine fire of the
progenitors, spiritually or astrally. The Assyriologists, ignorant of the esoteric teachings, could hardly
be expected to pay any greater attention to the mysterious and ever-recurring number seven on the
Babylonian cylinders, than they paid to it on finding the same in Genesis and the Bible. Yet the
number of the ancestral spirits and their seven groups of human progeny are there, notwithstanding
the dilapidated condition of the fragments, as plainly as they are to be found in "Pymander" and in the
"Book of the Concealed Mystery" of the Kabala. In the latter Adam Kadmon is the Sephirothal TREE,
as also the "Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil." And that "Tree," says verse 32, "hath around it
seven columns," or palaces, of the seven creative Angels operating in the spheres of the seven planets
on our Globe. As Adam Kadmon is a collective name, so also is the name of the man Adam. Says
George Smith in his "Chaldean Account of Genesis:" -"The word Adam used in these legends for the first human being is evidently not a proper name, but
is only used as a term for mankind. Adam appears as a proper name in Genesis, but certainly in some
passages is only used in the same sense as the Assyrian word" (p. 86).
Moreover, neither the Chaldean nor the Biblical deluge (the stories of Xisuthrus and Noah) is based
on the universal or even on the Atlantean deluges, recorded in the Indian allegory of Vaivaswata
Manu. They are the exoteric allegories based on the esoteric mysteries of Samothrace. If the older
Chaldees knew the esoteric truth concealed in the Puranic legends, the other nations were aware only
of the Samothracian mystery, and allegorised it. They adapted it to their astronomical and
anthropological, or rather phallic, notions. Samothrace is known historically to have been famous in
antiquity for a deluge, which submerged the country and reached the top of the highest mountains; an
event which happened before the age of the Argonauts. It was overflowed very
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

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* Vide "Adam-Adami," in Part II. of this volume.

[[Vol. 2, Page]] 5 THE SECRETS OF KOUYUNJIK.

suddenly by the waters of the Euxine, regarded up to that time as a lake.* But the Israelites had,
moreover, another legend upon which to base their allegory: the "deluge," that transformed the present
Gobi Desert into a sea for the last time, some 10 or 12,000 years ago, and which drove many Noahs
and their families on to the surrounding mountains. As the Babylonian accounts are now only restored
from hundreds of thousands of broken fragments (the mound of Kouyunjik alone having yielded to
Layard's excavations over twenty thousand fragments of inscriptions), the proofs here cited are
comparatively scanty; yet such as they are, they corroborate almost every one of our teachings,
certainly three, at least. These are: -(1.) That the race which was the first to fall into generation was a dark Race (Zalmat Gaguadi), which
they call the Adami or dark Race, and that Sarku, or the light Race, remained pure for a long while
subsequently.
(2.) That the Babylonians recognised two principal Races at the time of the Fall, the Race of the Gods
(the Ethereal doubles of the Pitris), having preceded these two. This is Sir H. Rawlinson's opinion.
These "Races" are our second and third Root-races.
(3) That these seven Gods, each of whom created a man, or group of men, were "the gods imprisoned
or incarnated." These gods were: the god Zi; the god Ziku (noble life, Director of purity); the god
Mirku (noble crown) "Saviour from death of the gods" (later on) imprisoned, and the creator of "the
dark Race which his hand has made;" the god Libzu "wise among the gods"; the god Nissi . . . . and
the god Suhhab; and Hea or Sa, their synthesis, the god of wisdom and of the Deep, identified with
Oannes-Dagon, at the time of the fall, and called (collectively) the Demiurge, or Creator. (See
Chaldean Account Genesis, p. 82.)
There are two "Creations" so called, in the Babylonian fragments, and Genesis having adhered to this,
one finds its first two chapters distinguished as the Elohite and the Jehovite creations. Their proper
order, however, is not preserved in these or in any other exoteric accounts. Now these "Creations,"
according to the occult teachings, refer respectively to the formation of the primordial seven men by
the progenitors (the Pitris, or Elohim): and to that of the human groups after the fall.
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* See Pliny, 4, c. 12; Strabo, 10; Herodotus, 7, c. 108; Pausanias, 7, c. 4, etc.

[[Vol. 2, Page]] 6 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

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All this will be examined in the light of science and comparisons drawn from the scriptures of all the
ancient nations, the Bible included, as we proceed. Meanwhile, before we turn to the Anthropogenesis
of the prehistoric Races, it may be useful to agree upon the names to be given to the Continents on
which the four great Races, which preceded our Adamic Race, were born, lived, and died. Their
archaic and esoteric names were many, and varied with the language of the nationality which
mentioned them in its annals and scriptures. That which in the Vendidad, for instance, is referred to as
Airyanem Vaego (see Bund. 79, 12) wherein was born the original Zoroaster,* is called in the Puranic
literature "Sveta-Dwipa," "Mount Meru," the abode of Vishnu, etc., etc.; and in the Secret Doctrine is
simply named the land of the "Gods" under their chiefs the "Spirits of this Planet."
Therefore, in view of the possible, and even very probable confusion, that may arise, it is considered
more convenient to adopt, for each of the four Continents constantly referred to, a name more familiar
to the cultured reader. It is proposed, then, to call the first continent, or rather the first terra firma on
which the first Race was evolved by the divine progenitors: -I. "The Imperishable Sacred Land."
The reasons for this name are explained as follows: This "Sacred Land" -- of which more later on -- is
stated never to have shared the fate of the other continents; because it is the only one whose destiny it
is to last from the beginning to the end of the Manvantara throughout each Round. It is the cradle of
the first man and the dwelling of the last divine mortal, chosen as a Sishta for the future seed of
humanity. Of this mysterious and sacred land very little can be said, except, perhaps, according to a
poetical expression in one of the Commentaries, that the "pole-star has its watchful eye upon it, from
the dawn to the close of the twilight of 'a day' of the GREAT BREATH."**
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* By "original" we mean the "Amshaspend," called "Zarathustra, the lord and ruler of the Vara made
by Yima in that land." There were several Zarathustra or Zertusts, the Dabistan alone enumerating
thirteen; but these were all the reincarnations of the first one. The last Zoroaster was the founder of
the Fire temple of Azareksh and the writer of the works on the primeval sacred Magian religion
destroyed by Alexander.
** In India called "The Day of Brahma."

[[Vol. 2, Page]] 7 HYPERBOREAS AND LEMURIA.

II. The "HYPERBOREAN" will be the name chosen for the Second Continent, the land which
stretched out its promontories southward and westward from the North Pole to receive the Second
Race, and comprised the whole of what is now known as Northern Asia. Such was the name given by
the oldest Greeks to the far-off and mysterious region, whither their tradition made Apollo the
"Hyperborean" travel every year. Astronomically, Apollo is of course the Sun, who, abandoning his
Hellenic sanctuaries, loved to visit annually his far-away country, where the Sun was said never to set
for one half of the year. [[Eggus gar nuktos te kai ematos eisi keleuthoi]], says a verse in the Odyssey
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(x. 86).
But historically, or better, perhaps, ethnologically and geologically, the meaning is different. The land
of the Hyperboreans, the country that extended beyond Boreas, the frozen-hearted god of snows and
hurricanes, who loved to slumber heavily on the chain of Mount Riphaeus, was neither an ideal
country, as surmised by the mythologists, nor yet a land in the neighbourhood of Scythia and the
Danube.* It was a real Continent, a bona-fide land which knew no winter in those early days, nor have
its sorry remains more than one night and day during the year, even now. The nocturnal shadows
never fall upon it, said the Greeks; for it is the land of the Gods, the favourite abode of Apollo, the
god of light, and its inhabitants are his beloved priests and servants. This may be regarded as poetised
fiction now; but it was poetised truth then.
III. The third Continent, we propose to call "Lemuria." The name is an invention, or an idea, of Mr. P.
L. Sclater, who asserted, between 1850 and 1860, on zoological grounds the actual existence, in
prehistoric times, of a Continent which he showed to have extended from Madagascar to Ceylon and
Sumatra. It included some portions of what is now Africa; but otherwise this gigantic Continent,
which stretched from the Indian ocean to Australia, has now wholly disappeared beneath the waters of
the Pacific, leaving here and there only some of its highl and tops which are now islands. Mr. A. R.
Wallace, the naturalist, "extends the Australia of tertiary periods to New Guinea and the Solomon
Islands, and perhaps to Fiji;" and from its Marsupial types he infers "a connection with the Northern
Continent during the
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* See Volcker, "Mythological Geography," pp. 145 to 170.

[[Vol. 2, Page]] 8 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

Secondary period," writes Mr. C. Gould in "Mythical Monsters," p. 47. The subject is treated at length
elsewhere.*
IV. "Atlantis" is the Fourth Continent. It would be the first historical land, were the traditions of the
ancients to receive more attention than they have hitherto. The famous island of Plato of that name
was but a fragment of this great Continent. (See "Esoteric Buddhism.")
V. The Fifth Continent was America; but, as it is situated at the Antipodes, it is Europe and Asia
Minor, almost coeval with it, which are generally referred to by the Indo-Aryan Occultists as the fifth.
If their teaching followed the appearance of the Continents in their geological and geographical order,
then this classification would have to be altered. But as the sequence of the Continents is made to
follow the order of evolution of the Races, from the first to the fifth, our Aryan Root-race, Europe
must be called the fifth great Continent. The Secret Doctrine takes no account of islands and
peninsulas, nor does it follow the modern geographical distribution of land and sea. Since the day of
its earliest teachings and the destruction of the great Atlantis, the face of the earth has changed more

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than once. There was a time when the delta of Egypt and Northern Africa belonged to Europe, before
the formation of the Straits of Gibraltar, and a further upheaval of the continent, changed entirely the
face of the map of Europe. The last serious change occurred some 12,000 years ago,**
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* It is to be remarked, however, that Mr. Wallace does not accept Mr. Sclater's idea, and even opposes
it. Mr. Sclater supposes a land or continent formerly uniting Africa, Madagascar, and India (but not
Australia and India); and Mr. A. R. Wallace shows, in his "Geographical Distri bution of Animals" and
"Island Life," that the hypothesis of such a land is quite uncalled for on the alleged zoological
grounds. But he admits that a much closer proximity of India and Australia did certainly exist, and at a
time so very remote that it was "certainly pre-tertiary," and he adds in a private letter that "no name
has been given to this supposed land." Yet the land did exist, and was of course pre-tertiary, for
"Lemuria" (accepting this name for the third Continent) had perished before Atlantis had fully
developed; and the latter sunk and its chief portions had disappeared before the end of the Miocene
period.
** One more "coincidence" -"Now it is proved that in geologically recent times, this region of North Africa was in fact a peninsula
of Spain, and that its union with Africa (proper) was effected on the North by the rupture of Gibraltar,
and on the South by an upheaval to which the Sahara owes its existence. The shores of this former sea
of Sahara are still marked by the shells [[Footnote continued on next page]]

[[Vol. 2, Page]] 9 PRE-TERTIARY GIANTS.

and was followed by the submersion of Plato's little Atlantic island, which he calls Atlantis after its
parent continent. Geography was part of the mysteries, in days of old. Says the Zohar (iii., fol. 10a):
"These secrets (of land and sea) were divulged to the men of the secret science, but not to the
geographers."
The claim that physical man was originally a colossal pre-tertiary giant, and that he existed
18,000,000 years ago, must of course appear preposterous to admirers of, and believers in, modern
learning. The whole posse comitatis of biologists will turn away from the conception of this third race
Titan of the Secondary age, a being fit to fight as successfully with the then gigantic monsters of the
air, sea, and land, as his forefa thers -- the ethereal prototype of the Atlantean -- had little need to fear
that which could not hurt him. The modern anthropologist is quite welcome to laugh at our Titans, as
he laughs at the Biblical Adam, and as the theologian laughs at his pithecoid ancestor. The Occultists
and their severe critics may feel that they have pretty well mutually squared their accounts by this
time. Occult sciences claim less and give more, at all events, than either Darwinian Anthropology or
Biblical Theology.
Nor ought the Esoteric Chronology to frighten any one; for, with regard to figures, the greatest
authorities of the day are as fickle and as uncertain as the Mediterranean wave. As regards the
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duration of the geological periods alone, the learned men of the Royal Society are all hopelessly at
sea, and jump from one million to five hundred millions of years with the utmost ease, as will be seen
more than once during this comparison.
Take one instance for our present purpose -- the calculations of Mr. Croll. Whether, according to this
authority, 2,500,000 years represent the time since the beginning of the tertiary age, or the Eocene
period, as an American geologist makes him say;* or whether again Mr. Croll "allows fifteen millions
since the beginning of the Eocene period," as quoted by an English geologist,** both sets of figures
cover the claims
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

[[Footnote continued from previous page]] of the same Gastropoda that live on the shores of the
Mediterranean." (Prof. Oscar Schmidt, "Doctrine of Descent and Darwinism," p. 244.)
* A. Winchell, Professor of Geology, "World-Life," p. 369.
** Mr. Charles Gould, late Geological surveyor of Tasmania, in "Mythical Monsters," p. 84.

[[Vol. 2, Page]] 10 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

made by the Secret Doctrine.* For assigning as the latter does from four to five million years between
the incipient and the final evolution of the Fourth Root-Race, on the Lemuro-Atlantean Continents;
one million years for the Fifth, or Aryan Race, to the present date; and about 850,000 since the
submersion of the last large peninsula of the great Atlantis -- all this may have easily taken place
within the 15,000,000 years conceded by Mr. Croll to the Tertiary Age. But, chronologically
speaking, the duration of the period is of secondary importance, as we have, after all, certain
American scientists to fall back upon. These gentlemen, unmoved by the fact that their assertions are
called not only dubious but absurd, yet maintain that man existed so far back as in the Secondary Age.
They have found human footprints on rocks of that formation; and furthermore, M. de Quatrefages
finds no valid scientific reason why man should not have existed during the Secondary Age.
The "Ages" and periods in geology are, in sober truth, purely conventional terms, as they are still
hardly delineated, and, moreover,
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------

* Sir Charles Lyell, who is credited with having "happily invented the terms Eocene, Miocene, and
Pliocene," to mark the three divisions of the Tertiary age, ought really to have settled upon some
approximate age for his "Mind-offspring." Having left the duration of these periods, however, to the
speculations of specialists, the greatest confusion and perplexity are the result of that happy thought. It
seems like a hopeless task to quote one set of figures from one work, without the risk of finding it
contradicted by the same Author in an earlier or a subsequent volume. Sir W. Thomson, one of the

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most eminent among the modern authorities, has changed, about half-a-dozen times, his opinion upon
the age of the Sun and the date of the consolidation of the Earth's crust. In Thomson and Tait's
"Natural Philosophy," one finds only ten million years allowed, since the time when the temperature
of the Earth permitted vegetable life to appear on it; (App. D et seq. also Trans. Roy. Soc. Edin. xxiii,
Pt. 1, 157, 1862, where 847 is cancelled). Mr. Darwin gives Sir W. Thomson's estimate as "a
minimum of 98 and a maximum of 200 millions of years since the consolidation of the crust" (See Ch.
Gould). In the same work (Nat. Phil.) 80 millions are given from the time of incipient incrustation to
the present state of the world. And in his last lecture, as shown elsewhere, Sir W. Thomson declares
(1887) that the Sun is not older than 15 millions of years! Meanwhile, basing his arguments as to the
limits to the age of the Sun's heat, on figures previously established by Sir W. Thomson, Mr. Croll
allows 60 millions of years since the beginning of the Cambrian period. This is hopeful for the lovers
of exact knowledge. Thus, whatever figures are given by Occult Science, they are sure to be
corroborated by those of some one among the modern men of Science who are considered as
authorities.

[[Vol. 2, Page]] 11 THE TROPICS AT THE POLE.
no two geologists or naturalists agree as to the figures. Thus, there is a wide margin for choice offered
to the Occultist by the learned fraternity. Shall we take for one of our supports Mr. T. Mellard Reade?
This gentleman, in a paper on "Limestone as an Index of Geological Time," read by him in 1878
before the Royal Society, claims that the minimum time required for the formation of the sedimentary
strata and the elimination of the calcareous matter is in round numbers 600 million years (See
"Proceedings of Royal Society," London, Vol. XXVIII., p. 281); or shall we ask support for our
chronology from Mr. Darwin's works, wherein he demands for the organic transformations according
to his theory from 300 to 500 million years? Sir C. Lyell and Prof. Houghton were satisfied with
placing the beginning of the Cambrian Age at 200 and 240 millions of years back respectively.
Geologists and zoologists claim the maximum time, though Mr. Huxley, at one time, placed the
beginning of the incrustation of the earth 1,000 million years ago, and would not surrender a
millennium of it.
But the main point for us lies not in the agreement or disagreement of the Naturalists as to the
duration of geological periods, but rather in their perfect accord on one point, for a wonder, and this a
very important one. They all agree that during "The Miocene Age" -- whether one or ten million years
ago -- Greenl and and even Spitzbergen, the remnants of our Second or Hyperborean Continent, "had
almost a tropical climate." Now the pre-Homeric Greeks had preserved a vivid tradition of this "Land
of the Eternal Sun," whither their Apollo journeyed yearly. "During the Miocene Age, Greenl and (in
N. Lat. 70 degrees) developed an abundance of trees, such as the Yew, the Redwood, the Sequoia,
allied to the Californian species, Beeches, Planes, Willows, Oaks, Poplars and Walnuts, as well as a
Magnolia and a Zamia," says Science; in short Greenl and had Southern plants unknown to Northern
regions.
And now this natural question rises. If the Greeks knew, in the days of Homer, of a Hyperborean land,
i.e., a blessed land beyond the reach of Boreas, the god of winter and of the hurricane, an ideal region

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which the later Greeks and their classics have vainly tried to locate by searching for it beyond Scythia,
a country where nights were short and days long, and beyond that land a country where the sun never
set and the palm grew freely -- if they knew of all this, who then told them of it? In

[[Vol. 2, Page]] 12 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.

their day, and for ages previously, Greenl and must certainly have been already covered with perpetual
snows, with never-thawing ice, just as it is now. Everything tends to show that the land of the short
nights and the long days was Norway or Scandinavia, beyond which was the blessed land of eternal
light and summer; and to know of this, their tradition must have descended to the Greeks from some
people more ancient than themselves, who were acquainted with those climatic details of which the
Greeks themselves could know nothing. Even in our day, science suspects beyond the Polar seas, at
the very circle of the Arctic Pole, the existence of a sea which never freezes and a continent which is
ever green. The archaic teachings, and likewise the Puranas -- for one who understands the allegories
of the latter -- contain the same statements. Suffice, then, to us the strong probability that a people,
now unknown to history, lived during the Miocene period of modern science, at a time when
Greenl and was an almost tropical land.
------NOTE. The reader is requested to bear in mind that the first and the following sections are not strictly
consecutive in order of time. In the first Section the Stanzas which form the skeleton of the exposition
are given, and certain important points commented upon and explained. In the subsequent sections
various additional details are gathered, and a fuller explanation of the subject is attempted.

Next Section
Contents

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The Secret Doctrine by H. P. Blavatsky, Vol 2, Stanzas of Dzyan

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

Theosophical University Press Online Edition

[[Vol. 2, Page 13]]

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