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    "slug": "04-proem-1",
    "title": "PROEM ... 1",
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    "text": "## PROEM ... 1\n\n\nThe Secret Doctrine by H. P. Blavatsky, vol 1, Proem\n\n###### The Secret Doctrine by H. P. Blavatsky -- Vol. 1\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page 1]]\n\n#### PROEM\n\n-------\n\nPAGES FROM A PRE-HISTORIC PERIOD.\n\n**A**N Archaic Manuscript -- a collection of palm\nleaves made impermeable to water, fire, and air, by some specific\nunknown process -- is before the writer's eye. On the first page\nis an immaculate white disk within a dull black ground. On the\nfollowing page, the same disk, but with a central point. The first,\nthe student knows to represent Kosmos in Eternity, before the\nre-awakening of still slumbering Energy, the emanation of the\nWord in later systems. The point in the hitherto immaculate Disk,\nSpace and Eternity in Pralaya, denotes the dawn of differentiation.\nIt is the Point in the Mundane Egg (see Part II., \"The Mundane\nEgg\"), the germ within the latter which will become the Universe,\nthe ALL, the boundless, periodical Kosmos, this germ being latent\nand active, periodically and by turns. The one circle is divine\nUnity, from which all proceeds, whither all returns. Its circumference\n-- a forcibly limited symbol, in view of the limitation of the\nhuman mind -- indicates the abstract, ever incognisable PRESENCE,\nand its plane, the Universal Soul, although the two are one. Only\nthe face of the Disk being white and the ground all around black,\nshows clearly that its plane is the only knowledge, dim and hazy\nthough it still is, that is attainable by man. It is on this plane\nthat the Manvantaric manifestations begin; for it is in this SOUL\nthat slumbers, during the Pralaya, the Divine Thought,* wherein\nlies concealed the plan of every future Cosmogony and Theogony.\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* It is hardly necessary to remind the reader once more that the\nterm \"Divine Thought,\" like that of \"Universal\nMind,\" must not be regarded as even vaguely shadowing forth\nan intellectual process akin to that exhibited by man. The \"Unconscious,\"\naccording to von Hartmann, arrived at the vast creative, or rather\nEvolutionary Plan, \"by a clairvoyant wisdom superior to all\nconsciousness,\" which in the Vedantic language would mean\nabsolute Wisdom. Only those who realise how far Intuition soars\nabove the tardy processes of ratiocinative thought can form the\nfaintest conception of [[Footnote continued on next page]]\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 2 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\nIt is the ONE LIFE, eternal, invisible, yet Omnipresent, without\nbeginning or end, yet periodical in its regular manifestations,\nbetween which periods reigns the dark mystery of non-Being; unconscious,\nyet absolute Consciousness; unrealisable, yet the one self-existing\nreality; truly, \"a chaos to the sense, a Kosmos to the reason.\"\nIts one absolute attribute, which is ITSELF, eternal, ceaseless\nMotion, is called in esoteric parlance the \"Great Breath,\"*\nwhich is the perpetual motion of the universe, in the sense of\nlimitless, ever-present SPACE. That which is motionless cannot\nbe Divine. But then there is nothing in fact and reality absolutely\nmotionless within the universal soul.\n\nAlmost five centuries B.C. Leucippus, the instructor of Democritus,\nmaintained that Space was filled eternally with atoms actuated\nby a ceaseless motion, the latter generating in due course of\ntime, when those atoms aggregated, rotatory motion, through mutual\ncollisions producing lateral movements. Epicurus and Lucretius\ntaught the same, only adding to the lateral motion of the atoms\nthe idea of affinity -- an occult teaching.\n\nFrom the beginning of man's inheritance, from the first appearance\nof the architects of the globe he lives in, the unrevealed Deity\nwas recognised and considered under its only philosophical aspect\n-- universal motion, the thrill of the creative Breath in Nature.\nOccultism sums up the \"One Existence\" thus: \"Deity\nis an arcane, living (or moving) FIRE, and the eternal witnesses\nto this unseen Presence are Light, Heat, Moisture,\" -- this\ntrinity including, and being the cause of, every\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n[[Footnote continued from previous page]] that absolute Wisdom\nwhich transcends the ideas of Time and Space. Mind, as we know\nit, is resolvable into states of consciousness, of varying duration,\nintensity, complexity, etc. -- all, in the ultimate, resting on\nsensation, which is again Maya. Sensation, again, necessarily\npostulates limitation. The personal God of orthodox Theism perceives,\nthinks, and is affected by emotion; he repents and feels \"fierce\nanger.\" But the notion of such mental states clearly involves\nthe unthinkable postulate of the externality of the exciting stimuli,\nto say nothing of the impossibility of ascribing changelessness\nto a Being whose emotions fluctuate with events in the worlds\nhe presides over. The conceptions of a Personal God as changeless\nand infinite are thus unpsychological and, what is worse, unphilosophical.\n\n* Plato proves himself an Initiate, when saying in Cratylus that\n[[*theos*]] is derived from the verb [[*theein*]],\n\"to move,\" \"to run,\" as the first astronomers\nwho observed the motions of the heavenly bodies called the planets\n[[*theoi*]], the gods. (See Book II., \"Symbolism of\nthe Cross and Circle.\") Later, the word produced another\nterm, [[*aletheia*]] -- \"the breath of God.\"\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 3 PROEM.\n\nphenomenon in Nature.* Intra-Cosmic motion is eternal and ceaseless;\ncosmic motion (the visible, or that which is subject to perception)\nis finite and periodical. As an eternal abstraction it is the\nEVER-PRESENT; as a manifestation, it is finite both in the coming\ndirection and the opposite, the two being the alpha and omega\nof successive reconstructions. Kosmos -- the NOUMENON -- has nought\nto do with the causal relations of the phenomenal World. It is\nonly with reference to the intra-cosmic soul, the ideal Kosmos\nin the immutable Divine Thought, that we may say: \"It never\nhad a beginning nor will it have an end.\" With regard to\nits body or Cosmic organization, though it cannot be said that\nit had a first, or will ever have a last construction, yet at\neach new Manvantara, its organization may be regarded as the first\nand the last of its kind, as it evolutes every time on a higher\nplane . . . .\n\nA few years ago only, it was stated that: --\n\n\"The esoteric doctrine teaches, like Buddhism and Brahminism,\nand even the Kabala, that the one infinite and unknown Essence\nexists from all eternity, and in regular and harmonious successions\nis either passive or active. In the poetical phraseology of Manu\nthese conditions are called the \"Days\" and the \"Nights\"\nof Brahma. The latter is either \"awake\" or \"asleep.\"\nThe Svabhavikas, or philosophers of the oldest school of Buddhism\n(which still exists in Nepaul), speculate only upon the active\ncondition of this \"Essence,\" which they call Svabhavat,\nand deem it foolish to theorise upon the abstract and \"unknowable\"\npower in its passive condition. Hence they are called atheists\nby both Christian theologians and modern scientists, for neither\nof the\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* Nominalists, arguing with Berkeley that \"it is impossible\n. . . to form the abstract idea of motion distinct from the body\nmoving\" (\"*Prin. of Human Knowledge,*\"*\nIntrod*.,* par. *10), may put the question, \"What\nis that body, the producer of that motion? Is it a substance?\nThen you are believers in a Personal God?\" etc., etc. This\nwill be answered farther on, in the Addendum to this Book; meanwhile,\nwe claim our rights of Conceptionalists as against Roscelini's\nmaterialistic views of Realism and Nominalism. \"Has science,\"\nsays one of its ablest advocates, Edward Clodd, \"revealed\nanything that weakens or opposes itself to the ancient words in\nwhich the Essence of all religion, past, present, and to come,\nis given; to do justly, to love mercy, to walk humbly before thy\nGod?\" Provided we connote by the word God, *not the crude\nanthropomorphism which is still the backbone of our current theology,\nbut the symbolic conception of that which is Life and Motion of\nthe Universe*, to know which in physical order is to know\ntime past, present, and to come, in the existence of successions\nof phenomena; to know which, in the moral, is to know what has\nbeen, is, and will be, within human consciousness. (*See *\"*Science\nand the Emotions.*\"* A Discourse delivered at South\nPlace Chapel, Finsbury, London, Dec. *27*th, *1885.)\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 4 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\ntwo are able to understand the profound logic of their philosophy.\nThe former will allow of no other God than the personified secondary\npowers which have worked out the visible universe, and which became\nwith them the anthropomorphic God of the Christians -- the male\nJehovah, roaring amid thunder and lightning. In its turn, rationalistic\nscience greets the Buddhists and the Svabhavikas as the \"positivists\"\nof the archaic ages. If we take a one-sided view of the philosophy\nof the latter, our materialists may be right in their own way.\nThe Buddhists maintained that there is no Creator, but an infinitude\nof creative powers, which collectively form the one eternal substance,\nthe essence of which is inscrutable -- hence not a subject for\nspeculation for any true philosopher. Socrates invariably refused\nto argue upon the mystery of universal being, yet no one would\never have thought of charging him with atheism, except those who\nwere bent upon his destruction. Upon inaugurating an active period,\nsays the Secret Doctrine, an expansion of this Divine essence\nfrom without inwardly and from within outwardly, occurs in obedience\nto eternal and immutable law, and the phenomenal or visible universe\nis the ultimate result of the long chain of cosmical forces thus\nprogressively set in motion. In like manner, when the passive\ncondition is resumed, a contraction of the Divine essence takes\nplace, and the previous work of creation is gradually and progressively\nundone. The visible universe becomes disintegrated, its material\ndispersed; and 'darkness' solitary and alone, broods once more\nover the face of the 'deep.' To use a Metaphor from the Secret\nBooks, which will convey the idea still more clearly, an out-breathing\nof the 'unknown essence' produces the world; and an inhalation\ncauses it to disappear. This process has been going on from all\neternity, and our present universe is but one of an infinite series,\nwhich had no beginning and will have no end.\" -- (*See\n*\"*Isis Unveiled*\"*; also *\"*The\nDays and Nights of Brahma*\"* in Part II.*)\n\nThis passage will be explained, as far as it is possible, in the\npresent work. Though, as it now stands, it contains nothing new\nto the Orientalist, its esoteric interpretation may contain a\ngood deal which has hitherto remained entirely unknown to the\nWestern student.\n\nThe first illustration being a plain disc\nthe second one in the Archaic symbol shows ,\na disc with a point in it -- the first differentiation in the\nperiodical manifestations of the ever-eternal nature, sexless\nand infinite \"Aditi in THAT\" (Rig Veda), the point in\nthe disc, or potential Space within abstract Space. In its third\nstage the point is transformed into a diameter, thus\nIt now symbolises a divine immaculate Mother-Nature within the\nall-embracing absolute Infinitude.\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 5 PROEM.\n\nWhen the diameter line is crossed by a vertical one ,\nit becomes the mundane cross. Humanity has reached its third root-race;\nit is the sign for the origin of human life to begin. When the\ncircumference disappears and leaves only the\nit is a sign that the fall of man into matter is accomplished,\nand the FOURTH race begins. The Cross within a circle symbolises\npure Pantheism; when the Cross was left uninscribed, it became\nphallic. It had the same and yet other meanings as a TAU inscribed\nwithin a circle or as a\n\"Thor's hammer,\" the Jaina cross, so-called, or simply\nSvastica within a circle\n\nBy the third symbol -- the circle divided in two by the horizontal\nline of the diameter -- the first manifestation of creative (still\npassive, because feminine) Nature was meant. The first shadowy\nperception of man connected with procreation is feminine, because\nman knows his mother more than his father. Hence female deities\nwere more sacred than the male. Nature is therefore feminine,\nand, to a degree, objective and tangible, and the spirit Principle\nwhich fructifies it is concealed. By adding to the circle with\nthe horizontal line in it, a perpendicular line, the tau was formed\n-- -- -- the oldest form\nof the letter. It was the glyph of the third root-race to the\nday of its symbolical Fall -- *i.e.*, when the separation\nof sexes by natural evolution took place -- when the figure became\n, the circle, or sexless\nlife modified or separated -- a double glyph or symbol. With the\nraces of our Fifth Race it became in symbology the sacr', and\nin Hebrew n'cabvah, of the first-formed races;* then it changed\ninto the Egyptian (emblem\nof life), and still later into the sign of Venus,\nThen comes the Svastica (Thor's hammer, or the \"Hermetic\nCross\" now), entirely separated from its Circle, thus becoming\npurely phallic. The esoteric symbol of Kali Yuga is the five-pointed\nstar reversed, thus -- the\nsign of human sorcery, with its two points (horns) turned heavenward,\na position every\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* See that suggestive work, \"The Source of Measures,\"\nwhere the author explains the real meaning of the word \"sacr',\"\nfrom which \"sacred,\" \"sacrament,\" are derived,\nwhich have now become synonyms of \"holiness,\" though\npurely phallic!\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 6 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\nOccultist will recognise as one of the \"left-hand,\"\nand used in ceremonial magic.*\n\nIt is hoped that during the perusal of this work the erroneous\nideas of the public in general with regard to Pantheism will be\nmodified. It is wrong and unjust to regard the Buddhists and Advaitee\nOccultists as atheists. If not all of them philosophers, they\nare, at any rate, all logicians, their objections and arguments\nbeing based on strict reasoning. Indeed, if the Parabrahmam of\nthe Hindus may be taken as a representative of the hidden and\nnameless deities of other nations, this absolute Principle will\nbe found to be the prototype from which all the others were copied.\nParabrahm is not \"God,\" because It is not a God. \"It\nis that which is supreme, and not supreme (paravara),\" explains\nMandukya Upanishad (2.28). IT is \"Supreme\" as CAUSE,\nnot supreme as effect. Parabrahm is simply, as a \"Secondless\nReality,\" the all-inclusive Kosmos -- or, rather, the infinite\nCosmic Space -- in the highest spiritual sense, of course. Brahma\n(neuter) being the unchanging, pure, free, undecaying supreme\nRoot, \"the ONE true Existence, Paramarthika,\" and the\nabsolute Chit and Chaitanya (intelligence, consciousness) cannot\nbe a cogniser, \"for THAT can have no subject of cognition.\"\nCan the flame be called the essence of Fire? This Essence is \"the\nLIFE and LIGHT of the Universe, the visible fire and flame are\ndestruction, death, and evil.\" \"Fire and Flame destroy\nthe body of an Arhat, their essence makes him immortal.\"\n(*Bodhi-mur, Book II.*)* *\"The knowledge of\nthe absolute Spirit, like the effulgence of the sun, or like heat\nin fire, is naught else than the absolute Essence itself,\"\nsays Sankaracharya.** IT** -- is \"the Spirit\nof the Fire,\" not fire itself; therefore, \"the attributes\nof the latter, heat or flame, are not the attributes of the Spirit,\nbut of that of which that Spirit is the unconscious cause.\"\nIs not the above sentence the true key-note of later Rosicrucian\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* We are told by the Western mathematicians and some American\nKabalists, that in the Kabala also \"the value of the Jehovah\nname is that of the diameter of a circle.\" Add to this the\nfact that Jehovah is the third Sephiroth, *Binah, *a feminine\nword, and you have the key to the mystery. By certain Kabalistic\ntransformations this name, *androgynous *in the first chapters\nof Genesis, becomes in its transformations entirely masculine,\nCainite and phallic. The fact of choosing a deity among the pagan\ngods and making of it a special national God, to call upon it\nas the \"One living God,\" the \"God of Gods,\"\nand then proclaim this worship Monotheistic, does not change it\ninto the ONE Principle whose \"Unity admits not of multiplication,\nchange, or form,\" especially in the case of a priapic deity,\nas Jehovah now demonstrated to be.\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 7 PROEM.\n\nphilosophy? Parabrahm is, in short, the collective aggregate of\nKosmos in its infinity and eternity, the \"THAT\" and\n\"THIS\" to which distributive aggregates can not be applied.*\n\"In the beginning THIS was the Self, one only\"* *(*Aitareya\nUpanishad**)**; *the great Sankaracharya, explains\nthat \"THIS\" referred to the Universe (Jagat); the sense\nof the words, \"In the beginning,\" meaning before the\nreproduction of the phenomenal Universe.\n\nTherefore, when the Pantheists echo the Upanishads, which state,\nas in the Secret Doctrine, that \"this\" cannot create,\nthey do not deny a Creator, or rather a *collective aggregate\n*of creators, but only refuse, very logically, to attribute\n\"creation\" and especially formation, something finite\nto an Infinite Principle. With them, Parabrahmam is a passive\nbecause an Absolute Cause, the unconditioned *Mukta. *It\nis only limited Omniscience and Omnipotence that are refused to\nthe latter, because these are still attributes (as reflected in\nman's perceptions); and because Parabrahm, being the \"Supreme\nALL,\" the ever invisible spirit and Soul of Nature, changeless\nand eternal, can have no attributes; absoluteness very naturally\nprecluding any idea of the finite or conditioned from being connected\nwith it. And if the Vedantin postulates attributes as belonging\nsimply to its emanation, calling it \"Iswara *plus *Maya,\"\nand Avidya (Agnosticism and Nescience rather than ignorance),\nit is difficult to find any Atheism in this conception.** Since\nthere can be neither two INFINITES nor two ABSOLUTES in a Universe\nsupposed to be Boundless, this Self-Existence can hardly be conceived\nof as creating personally. In the sense and perceptions of finite\n\"Beings,\" THAT is Non-\"being,\" in the sense\nthat it is the one BE-NESS; for, in this ALL lies concealed its\ncoeternal and coeval emanation or inherent radiation, which, upon\nbecoming periodically Brahma (the male-female Potency) becomes\nor expands itself into the manifested Universe. Narayana moving\non the (abstract) waters of Space, is transformed into the Waters\nof concrete substance moved by him, who now becomes the manifested\nWORD or Logos.\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* See \"Vedanta Sara,\" by Major G. A. Jacob; as also\n\"The Aphorisms of S'andilya,\" translated by Cowell,\np. 42.\n\n** Nevertheless, prejudiced and rather fanatical Christian Orientalists\nwould like to prove this pure Atheism. For proof of this, see\nabout Major Jacob's \"Vedanta Sara.\" Yet, the whole Antiquity\nechoes this Vedantic thought: --\n\n\"Omnis enim per se divom natura necesse est\n\nImmortali aevo summa cum pace fruatur.\"\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 8 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\nThe orthodox Brahmins, those who rise the most against the Pantheists\nand Adwaitees, calling them Atheists, are forced, if Manu has\nany authority in this matter, to accept the death of Brahma, the\ncreator, at the expiration of every \"Age\" of this (creative)\ndeity (100 Divine years -- a period which in our years requires\nfifteen figures to express it). Yet, no philosopher among them\nwill view this \"death\" in any other sense than as a\ntemporary disappearance from the manifested plane of existence,\nor as a periodical rest.\n\nThe Occultists are, therefore, at one with the Adwaita Vedantin\nphilosophers as to the above tenet. They show the impossibility\nof accepting on philosophical grounds the idea of the absolute\nALL creating or even evolving the \"Golden Egg,\" into\nwhich it is said to enter in order to transform itself into Brahma\n-- the Creator, who expands himself later into gods and all the\nvisible Universe. They say that Absolute Unity cannot pass to\ninfinity; for infinity presupposes the limitless extension of\n*something, *and the duration of that \"something\";\nand the One All is like Space -- which is its only mental and\nphysical representation on this Earth, or our plane of existence\n-- neither an object of, nor a subject to, perception. If one\ncould suppose the Eternal Infinite All, the Omnipresent Unity,\ninstead of being in Eternity, becoming through periodical manifestation\na manifold Universe or a multiple personality, that Unity would\ncease to be one. Locke's idea that \"pure Space is capable\nof neither resistance nor Motion\" -- is incorrect. Space\nis neither a \"limitless void,\" nor a \"conditioned\nfulness,\" but both: being, on the plane of absolute abstraction,\nthe ever-incognisable Deity, which is void only to finite minds,*\nand on that of *mayavic *perception, the Plenum, the absolute\nContainer of all that is, whether manifested or unmanifested:\nit is, therefore, that ABSOLUTE ALL. There is no difference between\nthe Christian Apostle's \"In Him we live and move and have\nour being,\" and the Hindu Rishi's \"The Universe lives\nin, proceeds from, and will\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* The very names of the two chief deities, Brahma and Vishnu,\nought to have long ago suggested their esoteric meanings. For\nthe root of one, Brahmam, or Brahm, is derived by some from the\nword Brih, \"to grow\" or \"to expand\" (see *Calcutta\nReview, *vol. lxvi., p. 14); and of the other, Vishnu, from\nthe root Vis, \"to pervade,\" to enter in the nature of\nthe essence; Brahma-Vishnu being this infinite SPACE, of which\nthe gods, the Rishis, the Manus, and all in this universe are\nsimply the potencies, Vibhutayah.\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 9 PROEM.\n\nreturn to, Brahma (Brahma)\": for Brahma (neuter), the unmanifested,\nis that Universe *in abscondito, *and Brahma, the manifested,\nis the Logos, made male-female* in the symbolical orthodox dogmas.\nThe God of the Apostle-Initiate and of the Rishi being both the\nUnseen and the Visible SPACE. Space is called in the esoteric\nsymbolism \"the Seven-Skinned Eternal Mother-Father.\"\nIt is composed from its undifferentiated to its differentiated\nsurface of seven layers.\n\n\"What is that which was, is, and will be, whether there is\na Universe or not; whether there be gods or none?\" asks the\nesoteric Senzar Catechism. And the answer made is -- SPACE.\n\nIt is not the One Unknown ever-present God in Nature, or Nature\n*in abscondito, *that is rejected, but the God of human\ndogma and his *humanized *\"Word.\" In his infinite\nconceit and inherent pride and vanity, man shaped it himself with\nhis sacrilegious hand out of the material he found in his own\nsmall brain-fabric, and forced it upon mankind as a direct revelation\nfrom the one unrevealed SPACE.** The Occultist\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* See Manu's account of Brahma separating his body into male and\nfemale, the latter the female Vach, in whom he creates Viraj,\nand compare this with the esotericism of Chapters II., III., and\nIV. of Genesis.\n\n** Occultism is indeed in the air at the close of this our century.\nAmong many other works recently published, we would recommend\none especially to students of theoretical Occultism who would\nnot venture beyond the realm of our special human plane. It is\ncalled \"New Aspects of Life and Religion,\" by Henry\nPratt, M.D. It is full of esoteric dogmas and philosophy, the\nlatter rather limited, in the concluding chapters, by what seems\nto be a spirit of conditioned positivism. Nevertheless, what is\nsaid of Space as \"the Unknown First Cause,\" merits quotation.\n\"This unknown something, thus recognised as, and identified\nwith, the primary embodiment of Simple Unity, is invisible and\nimpalpable\" -- (*abstract *space, granted); \"and\nbecause invisible and impalpable, therefore incognisable. And\nthis incognisability has led to the error of supposing it to be\na simple void, a mere receptive capacity. But, even viewed as\nan absolute void, space must be admitted to be either Self-existent,\ninfinite, and eternal, or to have had a first cause outside, behind,\nand beyond itself.\n\n\"And yet could such a cause be found and defined, this would\nonly lead to the transferring thereto of the attributes otherwise\naccruing to space, and thus merely throw the difficulty of origination\na step farther back, without gaining additional light as to primary\ncausation.\" (p. 5.)\n\nThis is precisely what has been done by the believers in an anthropomorphic\nCreator, an extracosmic, instead of an intracosmic God. Many --\nmost of Mr. Pratt's subjects, we may say -- are old Kabalistic\nideas and theories which he presents in quite a new garb: \"New\nAspects\" of the Occult in Nature, indeed. Space, however,\nviewed as a \"Substantial Unity\" -- the \"living\nSource of Life\" -- is as the \"Un- [[Footnote continued\non next page]]\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 10 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\naccepts revelation as coming from divine yet still finite Beings,\nthe manifested lives, never from the Unmanifestable ONE LIFE;\nfrom those entities, called Primordial Man, Dhyani-Buddhas, or\nDhyan-Chohans, the \"Rishi-Prajapati\" of the Hindus,\nthe Elohim or \"Sons of God,\" the Planetary Spirits of\nall nations, who have become Gods for men. He also regards the\nAdi-Sakti -- the direct emanation of Mulaprakriti, the eternal\nRoot of THAT, and the female aspect of the Creative Cause Brahma,\nin her A'kasic form of the Universal Soul -- as philosophically\na Maya, and cause of human Maya. But this view does not prevent\nhim from believing in its existence so long as it lasts, to wit,\nfor one Mahamanvantara; nor from applying Akasa, the radiation\nof Mulaprakriti,* to practical purposes, connected as the World-Soul\nis with all natural phenomena, known or unknown to science.\n\nThe oldest religions of the world -- exoterically, for the esoteric\nroot or foundation is one -- are the Indian, the Mazdean, and\nthe Egyptian. Then comes the Chaldean, the outcome of these --\nentirely lost to the world now, except in its disfigured Sabeanism\nas at present rendered by the archaeologists; then, passing over\na number of religions that will be mentioned later, comes the\nJewish, esoterically, as in the Kabala, following in the line\nof Babylonian Magism; exoterically, as in Genesis and the Pentateuch,\na collection of allegorical legends. Read by the light of the\nZohar, the initial four chapters of Genesis are the fragment\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n[[Footnote continued from previous page]] known Causeless Cause,\"\nis the oldest dogma in Occultism, millenniums earlier than the*\nPater-AEther *of the Greeks and Latins. So are the \"Force\nand Matter, as Potencies of Space, inseparable, and the Unknown\nrevealers of the Unknown.\" They are all found in Aryan philosophy\npersonified by Visvakarman, Indra, Vishnu, etc., etc. Still they\nare expressed very philosophically, and under many unusual aspects,\nin the work referred to.\n\n* In contradistinction to the manifested universe of matter, the\nterm *Mulaprakriti *(from *Mula*, \"the root,\"\nand *prakriti*,* *\"nature\"), or the unmanifested\nprimordial matter -- called by Western alchemists Adam's Earth\n-- is applied by the Vedantins to *Parabrahmam. *Matter\nis dual in religious metaphysics, and septenary in esoteric teachings,\nlike everything else in the universe. As *Mulaprakriti, *it\nis undifferentiated and eternal; as Vyakta, it becomes differentiated\nand conditioned, according to *Svetasvatara Upanishad*,\n*I*.* *8, and *Devi Bhagavata Purana. *The\nauthor of the Four Lectures on the Bhagavad Gita, says, in speaking\nof *Mulaprakriti: *\"From its (the Logos') objective\nstandpoint, *Parabrahmam *appears to it as *Mulaprakriti*.\n. . . Of course this *Mulaprakriti *is material to it,\nas any material object is material to us. . . . *Parabrahmam\n*is an unconditioned and absolute reality, and *Mulaprakriti\n*is a sort of veil thrown over it.\" (*Theosophist*,*\n*Vol. VIII., p. 304.)\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 11 PROEM.\n\nof a highly philosophical page in the World's Cosmogony. (*See\n*Book III.,* Gupta Vidya and the Zohar.*)* *Left\nin their symbolical disguise, they are a nursery tale, an ugly\nthorn in the side of science and logic, an evident effect of Karma.\nTo have let them serve as a prologue to Christianity was a cruel\nrevenge on the part of the Rabbis, who knew better what their\nPentateuch meant. It was a silent protest against their spoliation,\nand the Jews have certainly now the better of their traditional\npersecutors. The above-named exoteric creeds will be explained\nin the light of the Universal doctrine as we proceed with it.\n\nThe Occult Catechism contains the following questions and answers:\n\n\"*What is it that ever is?*\"* *\"*Space,\nthe eternal Anupadaka.*\"** *\"*What is\nit that ever was?*\"* *\"*The Germ in the\nRoot.*\"* *\"*What is it that is ever coming\nand going?*\"* *\"*The Great Breath.*\"*\n*\"*Then, there are three Eternals?*\"*\n*\"*No, the three are one. That which ever is is one,\nthat which ever was is one, that which is ever being and becoming\nis also one: and this is Space.*\"\n\n\"*Explain, oh Lanoo (disciple).*\"* -- *\"*The\nOne is an unbroken Circle *(*ring*)* with no circumference,\nfor it is nowhere and everywhere; the One is the boundless plane\nof the Circle, manifesting a diameter only during the manvantaric\nperiods; the One is the indivisible point found nowhere, perceived\neverywhere during those periods; it is the Vertical and the Horizontal,\nthe Father and the Mother, the summit and base of the Father,\nthe two extremities of the Mother, reaching in reality nowhere,\nfor the One is the Ring as also the rings that are within that\nRing. Light in darkness and darkness in light: the *'*Breath\nwhich is eternal.*'* It proceeds from without inwardly,\nwhen it is everywhere, and from within outwardly, when it is nowhere\n-- *(*i.e., maya,** one of the centres****)*. It\nexpands* *and*\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* Meaning \"parentless\" -- see farther on.\n\n** Esoteric philosophy, regarding as Maya (or the illusion of\nignorance) every finite thing, must necessarily view in the same\nlight every intra-Cosmic planet and body, as being something organised,\nhence finite. The expression, therefore, \"it proceeds from\nwithout inwardly, etc.\" refers in the first portion of the\nsentence to the dawn of the Mahamanvantaric period, or the great\nre-evolution after one of the complete periodical dissolutions\nof every compound form in Nature (from planet to molecule) into\nits ultimate essence or element; and in its second portion, to\nthe partial or local manvantara, which may be a solar or even\na planetary one.\n\n*** By \"centre,\" a centre of energy or a Cosmic focus\nis meant; when the so-called \"Creation,\" or formation\nof a planet, is accomplished by that force which is designated\nby the Occultists LIFE and by Science \"energy,\" then\nthe process takes place [[Footnote continued on next page]]\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 12 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\n*contracts *(*exhalation and inhalation*)*. When\nit expands the mother diffuses and scatters; when it contracts,\nthe mother draws back and ingathers. This produces the periods\nof Evolution and Dissolution, Manwantara and Pralaya. The Germ\nis invisible and fiery; the Root *(*the plane of the circle*)*\nis cool; but during Evolution and Manwantara her garment is cold\nand radiant. Hot Breath is the Father who devours the progeny\nof the many-faced Element *(*heterogeneous*)*; and\nleaves the single-faced ones *(*homogeneous*)*.\nCool Breath is the Mother, who conceives, forms, brings forth,\nand receives them back into her bosom, to reform them at the Dawn\n*(*of the Day of Brahma, or Manvantara*)*. . *.\n. .\"\n\nFor clearer understanding on the part of the general reader, it\nmust be stated that Occult Science recognises *Seven *Cosmical\nElements -- four entirely physical, and the fifth (Ether) semi-material,\nas it will become visible in the air towards the end of our Fourth\nRound, to reign supreme over the others during the whole of the\nFifth. The remaining two are as yet absolutely beyond the range\nof human perception. These latter will, however, appear as presentments\nduring the 6th and 7th Races of this Round, and will become known\nin the 6th and 7th Rounds respectively.* These seven elements\nwith their numberless Sub-Elements\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n[[Footnote continued from previous page]] from within outwardly,\nevery atom being said to contain in itself creative energy of\nthe divine breath. Hence, whereas after an absolute pralaya, or\nwhen the pre-existing material consists but of ONE Element, and\nBREATH \"is everywhere,\" the latter acts from without\ninwardly: after a minor pralaya, everything having remained in\n*statu quo -- *in a refrigerated state, so to say, like\nthe moon -- at the first flutter of manvantara, the planet or\nplanets begin their resurrection to life from within outwardly.\n\n* It is curious to notice how, in the evolutionary cycles of ideas,\nancient thought seems to be reflected in modern speculation. Had\nMr. Herbert Spencer read and studied ancient Hindu philosophers\nwhen he wrote a certain passage in his \"First Principles\"\n(p. 482), or is it an independent flash of inner perception that\nmade him say half correctly, half incorrectly, \"motion as\nwell as matter, being fixed in quantity (?), it would seem that\nthe change in the distribution of Matter which Motion effects,\ncoming to a limit in whichever direction it is carried (?), the\nindestructible Motion thereupon necessitates a reverse distribution.\nApparently, the universally co-existent forces of attraction and\nrepulsion which, as we have seen, necessitate rhythm in all minor\nchanges throughout the Universe, also necessitate rhythm in the\ntotality of its changes -- produce now an immeasurable period\nduring which the attracting forces predominating, cause universal\nconcentration, and then an immeasurable period, during which the\nrepulsive forces predominating, cause universal diffusion -- alternate\neras of Evolution and dissolution.\"\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 13 PROEM.\n\nfar more numerous than those known to Science) are simply *conditional\n*modifications and aspects of the ONE and only Element. This\nlatter is not *Ether,* *not even *A'kasa *but the\n*Source *of these. The Fifth Element, now advocated quite\nfreely by Science, is not the Ether hypothesised by Sir Isaac\nNewton -- although he calls it by that name, having associated\nit in his mind probably with the AEther, \"Father-Mother\"\nof Antiquity. As Newton intuitionally says, \"Nature is a\nperpetual circulatory worker, generating fluids out of solids,\nfixed things out of volatile, and volatile out of fixed, subtile\nout of gross, and gross out of subtile. . . . . Thus, perhaps,\nmay all things be originated from Ether,\" (Hypoth, 1675).\n\nThe reader has to bear in mind that the Stanzas given treat only\nof the Cosmogony of our own planetary System and what is visible\naround it, after a Solar Pralaya. The secret teachings with regard\nto the Evolution of the Universal Kosmos cannot be given, since\nthey could not be understood by the highest minds in this age,\nand there seem to be very few Initiates, even among the greatest,\nwho are allowed to speculate upon this subject. Moreover the Teachers\nsay openly that not even the highest Dhyani-Chohans have ever\npenetrated the mysteries beyond those boundaries that separate\nthe milliards of Solar systems from the \"Central Sun,\"\nas it is called. Therefore, that which is given, relates only\nto our visible Kosmos, after a \"Night of Brahma.\"\n\nBefore the reader proceeds to the consideration of the Stanzas\nfrom the Book of Dzyan which form the basis of the present work,\nit is absolutely necessary that he should be made acquainted with\nthe few fundamental conceptions which underlie and pervade the\nentire system of thought to which his attention is invited. These\nbasic ideas are few in number, and on their clear apprehension\ndepends the understanding of all that follows; therefore no apology\nis required for asking the reader to make himself familiar with\nthem first, before entering on the perusal of the work itself.\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* Whatever the views of physical Science upon the subject, Occult\nScience has been teaching for ages that A'kasa -- of which Ether\nis the grossest form -- the fifth universal Cosmic Principle (to\nwhich corresponds and from which proceeds human Manas) is, cosmically,\na radiant, cool, diathermanous plastic matter, creative in its\nphysical nature, correlative in its grossest aspects and portions,\nimmutable in its higher principles. In the former condition it\nis called the Sub-Root; and in conjunction with radiant heat,\nit recalls \"dead worlds to life.\" In its higher aspect\nit is the Soul of the World; in its lower -- the DESTROYER.\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 14 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\nThe Secret Doctrine establishes three fundamental propositions:\n--\n\n*(**a**)* An Omnipresent, Eternal, Boundless,\nand Immutable **P**RINCIPLE on which all speculation\nis impossible, since it transcends the power of human conception\nand could only be dwarfed by any human expression or similitude.\nIt is beyond the range and reach of thought -- in the words of\nMandukya, \"unthinkable and unspeakable.\"\n\nTo render these ideas clearer to the general reader, let him set\nout with the postulate that there is one absolute Reality which\nantecedes all manifested, conditioned, being. This Infinite and\nEternal Cause -- dimly formulated in the \"Unconscious\"\nand \"Unknowable\" of current European philosophy -- is\nthe rootless root of \"all that was, is, or ever shall be.\"\nIt is of course devoid of all attributes and is essentially without\nany relation to manifested, finite Being. It is \"Be-ness\"\nrather than Being (in Sanskrit, *Sat*), and is beyond all\nthought or speculation.\n\nThis \"Be-ness\" is symbolised in the Secret Doctrine\nunder two aspects. On the one hand, absolute abstract Space, representing\nbare subjectivity, the one thing which no human mind can either\nexclude from any conception, or conceive of by itself. On the\nother, absolute Abstract Motion representing Unconditioned Consciousness.\nEven our Western thinkers have shown that Consciousness is inconceivable\nto us apart from change, and motion best symbolises change, its\nessential characteristic. This latter aspect of the one Reality,\nis also symbolised by the term \"The Great Breath,\" a\nsymbol sufficiently graphic to need no further elucidation. Thus,\nthen, the first fundamental axiom of the Secret Doctrine is this\nmetaphysical **O**NE **A**BSOLUTE --\n**B**E-NESS -- symbolised by finite intelligence\nas the theological Trinity.\n\nIt may, however, assist the student if a few further explanations\nare given here.\n\nHerbert Spencer has of late so far modified his Agnosticism, as\nto assert that the nature of the \"First Cause,\"* which\nthe Occultist more logically derives from the \"Causeless\nCause,\" the \"Eternal,\" and the \"Unknowable,\"\nmay be essentially the same as that of the Consciousness which\nwells up within us: in short, that the impersonal reality pervading\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n*The \"first\" presupposes necessarily something which\nis the \"first brought forth, the first in time, space, and\nrank\" -- and therefore finite and conditioned. The \"first\"\n[[Footnote continued on next page]]\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 15 PROEM.\n\nthe Kosmos is the pure noumenon of thought. This advance on his\npart brings him very near to the esoteric and Vedantin tenet.*\n\nParabrahm (the One Reality, the Absolute) is the field of Absolute\nConsciousness, *i.e.,* that Essence which is out of all\nrelation to conditioned existence, and of which conscious existence\nis a conditioned symbol. But once that we pass in thought from\nthis (to us) Absolute Negation, duality supervenes in the contrast\nof Spirit (or consciousness) and Matter, Subject and Object.\n\nSpirit (or Consciousness) and Matter are, however, to be regarded,\nnot as independent realities, but as the two facets or aspects\nof the Absolute (Parabrahm), which constitute the basis of conditioned\nBeing whether subjective or objective.\n\nConsidering this metaphysical triad as the Root from which proceeds\nall manifestation, the great Breath assumes the character of precosmic\nIdeation. It is the* fons et origo *of force and of all\nindividual consciousness, and supplies the guiding intelligence\nin the vast scheme of cosmic Evolution. On the other hand, precosmic\nroot-substance (*Mulaprakriti*) is that aspect of the Absolute\nwhich underlies all the objective planes of Nature.\n\nJust as pre-Cosmic Ideation is the root of all individual consciousness,\nso pre-Cosmic Substance is the substratum of matter in the various\ngrades of its differentiation.\n\nHence it will be apparent that the contrast of these two aspects\nof the Absolute is essential to the existence of the \"Manifested\nUniverse.\" Apart from Cosmic Substance, Cosmic Ideation could\nnot manifest as individual consciousness, since it is only through\na vehicle** of matter that consciousness wells\nup as \"I am I,\" a physical basis being necessary to\nfocus a ray of the Universal Mind at a certain stage of complexity.\nAgain, apart from Cosmic Ideation, Cosmic Substance would remain\nan empty abstraction, and no emergence of consciousness could\nensue.\n\nThe \"Manifested Universe,\" therefore, is pervaded by\nduality, which is, as it were, the very essence of its EX-istence\nas \"manifestation.\"\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n[[Footnote continued from previous page]] *cannot be the absolute*,\nfor it is a manifestation. Therefore, Eastern Occultism calls\nthe Abstract All the \"Causeless One Cause,\" the \"Rootless\nRoot,\" and limits the \"First Cause\" to the *Logos,\n*in the sense that Plato gives to this term.\n\n* See Mr. Subba Row's four able lectures on the Bhagavad Gita,\n\"Theosophist,\" February, 1887.\n\n** Called in Sanskrit: \"Upadhi.\"\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 16 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\nBut just as the opposite poles of subject and object, spirit and\nmatter, are but aspects of the One Unity in which they are synthesized,\nso, in the manifested Universe, there is \"that\" which\nlinks spirit to matter, subject to object.\n\nThis something, at present unknown to Western speculation, is\ncalled by the occultists Fohat. It is the \"bridge\" by\nwhich the \"Ideas\" existing in the \"Divine Thought\"\nare impressed on Cosmic substance as the \"laws of Nature.\"\nFohat is thus the dynamic energy of Cosmic Ideation; or, regarded\nfrom the other side, it is the intelligent medium, the guiding\npower of all manifestation, the \"Thought Divine\" transmitted\nand made manifest through the Dhyan Chohans,* the Architects of\nthe visible World. Thus from Spirit, or Cosmic Ideation, comes\nour consciousness; from Cosmic Substance the several vehicles\nin which that consciousness is individualised and attains to self\n-- or reflective -- consciousness; while Fohat, in its various\nmanifestations, is the mysterious link between Mind and Matter,\nthe animating principle electrifying every atom into life.\n\nThe following summary will afford a clearer idea to the reader.\n\n(1.) The **A**BSOLUTE; the *Parabrahm *of\nthe Vedantins or the one Reality, **S**AT, which\nis, as Hegel says, both Absolute Being and Non-Being.\n\n(2.) The first manifestation, the impersonal, and, in philosophy,\n*unmanifested* Logos, the precursor of the \"manifested.\"\nThis is the \"First Cause,\" the \"Unconscious\"\nof European Pantheists.\n\n(3.) Spirit-matter, **L**IFE; the \"Spirit of\nthe Universe,\" the Purusha and Prakriti, or the *second\n*Logos.\n\n(4.) Cosmic Ideation, **M**AHAT or Intelligence,\nthe Universal World-Soul; the Cosmic Noumenon of Matter, the basis\nof the intelligent operations in and of Nature, also called **M**AHA-**B**UDDHI.\n\nThe **O**NE **R**EALITY; its *dual*\naspects in the conditioned Universe.\n\nFurther, the Secret Doctrine affirms: --\n\n*(**b.**)* The Eternity of the Universe *in\ntoto *as a boundless plane; periodically \"the playground\nof numberless Universes incessantly manifesting and disappearing,\"\ncalled \"the manifesting stars,\" and the \"sparks\nof Eternity.\" \"The Eternity of the Pilgrim\"**\nis like a wink\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* Called by Christian theology: Archangels, Seraphs, etc., etc.\n\n** \"Pilgrim\" is the appellation given\nto our *Monad *(the two in one) during its cycle of incarnations.\nIt is the only immortal and eternal principle in us, being an\nindivisible part of the integral whole -- the Universal Spirit,\nfrom which it emanates, and into which it is absorbed at the end\nof the cycle. When it is said to emanate from the one [[Footnote\ncontinued on next page]]\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 17 PROEM.\n\nof the Eye of Self-Existence (Book of Dzyan.) \"The appearance\nand disappearance of Worlds is like a regular tidal ebb of flux\nand reflux.\" (See Part II., \"Days and Nights of Brahma.\")\n\nThis second assertion of the Secret Doctrine is the absolute universality\nof that law of periodicity, of flux and reflux, ebb and flow,\nwhich physical science has observed and recorded in all departments\nof nature. An alternation such as that of Day and Night, Life\nand Death, Sleeping and Waking, is a fact so common, so perfectly\nuniversal and without exception, that it is easy to comprehend\nthat in it we see one of the absolutely fundamental laws of the\nuniverse.\n\nMoreover, the Secret Doctrine teaches: --\n\n(*c*)* *The fundamental identity of all Souls with\nthe Universal Over-Soul, the latter being itself an aspect of\nthe Unknown Root; and the obligatory pilgrimage for every Soul\n-- a spark of the former -- through the Cycle of Incarnation (or\n\"Necessity\") in accordance with Cyclic and Karmic law,\nduring the whole term. In other words, no purely spiritual Buddhi\n(divine Soul) can have an independent (conscious) existence before\nthe spark which issued from the pure Essence of the Universal\nSixth principle, -- or the OVER-SOUL, -- has (a) passed through\nevery elemental form of the phenomenal world of that Manvantara,\nand (b) acquired individuality, first by natural impulse, and\nthen by self-induced and self-devised efforts (checked by its\nKarma), thus ascending through all the degrees of intelligence,\nfrom the lowest to the highest Manas, from mineral and plant,\nup to the holiest archangel (Dhyani-Buddha). The pivotal doctrine\nof the Esoteric philosophy admits no privileges or special gifts\nin man, save those won by his own Ego through personal effort\nand merit throughout a long series of metempsychoses and reincarnations.\nThis is why the Hindus say that the Universe is Brahma and Brahmâ,\nfor Brahma is in every atom of the universe, the six principles\nin Nature being all the outcome -- the variously differentiated\naspects -- of the SEVENTH and ONE, the only reality in the Universe\nwhether Cosmical or micro-cosmical; and also why the permutations\n(psychic, spiritual and physical), on the plane of manifestation\nand form, of the sixth (Brahmâ the vehicle of Brahma) are\nviewed by metaphysical\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n[[Footnote continued from previous page]] spirit, an awkward and\nincorrect expression has to be used, for lack of appropriate words\nin English. The Vedantins call it Sutratma (Thread-Soul), but\ntheir explanation, too, differs somewhat from that of the occultists;\nto explain which difference, however, is left to the Vedantins\nthemselves.\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 18 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\nantiphrasis as illusive and Mayavic. For although the root of\nevery atom individually and of every form collectively, is that\nseventh principle or the one Reality, still, in its manifested\nphenomenal and temporary appearance, it is no better than an evanescent\nillusion of our senses. (See, for clearer definition, Addendum\n\"Gods, Monads and Atoms,\" and also \"Theophania,\"\n\"Bodhisatvas and Reincarnation,\" etc., etc.)\n\nIn its absoluteness, the One Principle under its two aspects (of\nParabrahmam and Mulaprakriti) is sexless, unconditioned and eternal.\nIts periodical (manvantaric) emanation -- or primal radiation\n-- is also One, androgynous and phenomenally finite. When the\nradiation radiates in its turn, all its radiations are also androgynous,\nto become male and female principles in their lower aspects. After\nPralaya, whether the great or the minor Pralaya (the latter leaving\nthe worlds in *statu quo**)*, *the first that re-awakes\nto active life is the plastic A'kasa, Father-Mother, the Spirit\nand Soul of Ether, or the plane on the surface of the Circle.\nSpace is called the \"Mother\" before its Cosmic activity,\nand Father-Mother at the first stage of re-awakening. (See Comments,\nStanza II.) In the Kabala it is also Father-Mother-Son. But whereas\nin the Eastern doctrine, these are the Seventh Principle of the\nmanifested Universe, or its \"Atma-Buddhi-Manas\" (Spirit,\nSoul, Intelligence), the triad branching off and dividing into\nthe seven cosmical and seven human principles, in the Western\nKabala of the Christian mystics it is the Triad or Trinity, and\nwith their occultists, the male-female Jehovah, Jah-Havah. In\nthis lies the whole difference between the esoteric and the Christian\ntrinities. The Mystics and the Philosophers, the Eastern and Western\nPantheists, synthesize their pregenetic triad in the pure divine\nabstraction. The orthodox, anthropomorphize it. *Hiranyagarbha,\nHari, *and* Sankara* -- the* *three hypostases\nof the manifesting \"Spirit of the Supreme Spirit\" (by\nwhich title Prithivi -- the Earth -- greets Vishnu in his first\nAvatar) -- are the purely metaphysical abstract qualities of formation,\npreservation, and destruction, and are the three divine Avasthas\n(lit. hypostases) of that which \"does\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* It is not the physical organisms that remain in *statu quo,\n*least of all their psychical principles, during the great\nCosmic or even Solar pralayas, but only their Akasic or astral\n\"photographs.\" But during the minor pralayas, once over-taken\nby the \"Night,\" the planets remain intact, though dead,\nas a huge animal, caught and embedded in the polar ice, remains\nthe same for ages.\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 19 PROEM.\n\nnot perish with created things\" (or Achyuta, a name of Vishnu);\nwhereas the orthodox Christian separates his personal creative\nDeity into the three personages of the Trinity, and admits of\nno higher Deity. The latter, in Occultism, is the abstract Triangle;\nwith the orthodox, the perfect Cube. The creative god or the aggregate\ngods are regarded by the Eastern philosopher as *Bhrantidarsanatah*\n--* *\"*false *apprehension,\" something\n\"conceived of, by reason of erroneous appearances, as a material\nform,\" and explained as arising from the illusive conception\nof the Egotistic personal and human Soul (lower fifth principle).\nIt is beautifully expressed in a new translation of Vishnu Purana.\n\"That Brahma in its totality has essentially the aspect of\nPrakriti, both evolved and unevolved (Mulaprakriti), and also\nthe aspect of Spirit and the aspect of Time. Spirit, O twice born,\nis the leading aspect of the Supreme Brahma.* The next is a twofold\naspect, -- Prakriti, both evolved and unevolved, and is the time\nlast.\" Kronos is shown in the Orphic theogony as being also\na generated god or agent.\n\nAt this stage of the re-awakening of the Universe, the sacred\nsymbolism represents it as a perfect Circle with the (root) point\nin the Centre. This sign was universal, therefore we find it in\nthe Kabala also. The Western Kabala, however, now in the hands\nof Christian mystics, ignores it altogether, though it is plainly\nshown in the Zohar. These sectarians begin at the end, and show\nas the symbol of pregenetic Kosmos this sign ,\ncalling it \"the Union of the Rose and Cross,\" the great\nmystery of occult generation, from whence the name -- Rosicrucians\n(Rose Cross)!\n\nAs may be judged, however, from the most important, as the best\nknown of the Rosicrucians' symbols, there is one which has never\nbeen hitherto understood even by modern mystics. It is that of\nthe \"Pelican\" tearing open its breast to feed its seven\nlittle ones -- the real creed of the Brothers of the Rosie-Cross\nand a direct outcome from the Eastern\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* Thus Spencer, who, nevertheless, like Schopenhauer and von Hartmann,\nonly reflects an aspect of the old esoteric philosophers, and\nhence lands his readers on the bleak shore of Agnostic despair\n-- reverently formulates the grand mystery; \"that which persists\nunchanging in quantity, but ever changing in form, under these\nsensible appearances which the Universe presents to us, is an\nunknown and unknowable power, which we are obliged to recognise\nas without limit in Space and without beginning or end in time.\"\nIt is only daring Theology -- never Science or philosophy -- which\nseeks to gauge the Infinite and unveil the Fathomless and Unknowable.\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 20 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\nSecret Doctrine. Brahma (neuter) is called Kalahansa, meaning,\nas explained by Western Orientalists, the Eternal Swan or goose\n(see Stanza III., Comment. 8), and so is Brahma, the Creator.\nA great mistake is thus brought under notice; it is Brahma (neuter)\nwho ought to be referred to as Hansa-vahana (He who uses the swan\nas his Vehicle) and not Brahma the Creator, who is the real Kalahansa,\nwhile Brahma (neuter) is hamsa, and \"A-hamsa,\" as will\nbe explained in the Commentary. Let it be understood that the\nterms Brahma and Parabrahmam are not used here because they belong\nto our Esoteric nomenclature, but simply because they are more\nfamiliar to the students in the West. Both are the perfect equivalents\nof our one, three, and seven vowelled terms, which stand for the\n**O**NE **A**LL, and the One \"All\nin all.\"\n\nSuch are the basic conceptions on which the Secret Doctrine rests.\n\nIt would not be in place here to enter upon any defence or proof\nof their inherent reasonableness; nor can I pause to show how\nthey are, in fact, contained -- though too often under a misleading\nguise -- in every system of thought or philosophy worthy of the\nname.\n\nOnce that the reader has gained a clear comprehension of them\nand realised the light which they throw on every problem of life,\nthey will need no further justification in his eyes, because their\ntruth will be to him as evident as the sun in heaven. I pass on,\ntherefore, to the subject matter of the Stanzas as given in this\nvolume, adding a skeleton outline of them, in the hope of thereby\nrendering the task of the student more easy, by placing before\nhim in a few words the general conception therein explained.\n\nStanza I. The history of cosmic evolution, as traced in the Stanzas,\nis, so to say, the abstract algebraical formula of that Evolution.\nHence the student must not expect to find there an account of\nall the stages and transformations which intervene between the\nfirst beginnings of \"Universal\" evolution and our present\nstate. To give such an account would be as impossible as it would\nbe incomprehensible to men who cannot even grasp the nature of\nthe plane of existence next to that to which, for the moment,\ntheir consciousness is limited.\n\nThe Stanzas, therefore, give an abstract formula which can be\napplied, *mutatis mutandis, *to all evolution: to that\nof our tiny earth, to\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 21 PROEM.\n\nthat of the chain of planets of which that earth forms one, to\nthe solar Universe to which that chain belongs, and so on, in\nan ascending scale, till the mind reels and is exhausted in the\neffort.\n\nThe seven Stanzas given in this volume represent the seven terms\nof this abstract formula. They refer to, and describe the seven\ngreat stages of the evolutionary process, which are spoken of\nin the Puranas as the \"Seven Creations,\" and in the\nBible as the \"Days\" of Creation.\n\n---------------------\n\nThe First Stanza describes the state of the ONE ALL during Pralaya,\nbefore the first flutter of re-awakening manifestation.\n\nA moment's thought shows that such a state can only be symbolised;\nto describe it is impossible. Nor can it be symbolised except\nin negatives; for, since it is the state of Absoluteness *per\nse, *it can possess none of those specific attributes which\nserve us to describe objects in positive terms. Hence that state\ncan only be suggested by the negatives of all those most abstract\nattributes which men feel rather than conceive, as the remotest\nlimits attainable by their power of conception.\n\nThe stage described in Stanza II. is, to a western mind , so nearly\nidentical with that mentioned in the first Stanza, that to express\nthe idea of its difference would require a treatise in itself.\nHence it must be left to the intuition and the higher faculties\nof the reader to grasp, as far as he can, the meaning of the allegorical\nphrases used. Indeed it must be remembered that all these Stanzas\nappeal to the inner faculties rather than to the ordinary comprehension\nof the physical brain.\n\nStanza III. describes the Re-awakening of the Universe to life\nafter Pralaya. It depicts the emergence of the \"Monads\"\nfrom thei[[r]] state of absorption within the ONE; the earliest\nand highest stage in the formation of \"Worlds,\" the\nterm Monad being one which may apply equally to the vastest Solar\nSystem or the tiniest atom.\n\nStanza IV. shows the differentiation of the \"Germ\" of\nthe Universe\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 22 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\ninto the septenary hierarchy of conscious Divine Powers, who are\nthe active manifestations of the One Supreme Energy. They are\nthe framers, shapers, and ultimately the creators of all the manifested\nUniverse, in the only sense in which the name \"Creator\"\nis intelligible; they inform and guide it; they are the intelligent\nBeings who adjust and control evolution, embodying in themselves\nthose manifestations of the ONE LAW, which we know as \"The\nLaws of Nature.\"\n\nGenerically, they are known as the Dhyan Chohans, though each\nof the various groups has its own designation in the Secret Doctrine.\n\nThis stage of evolution is spoken of in Hindu mythology as the\n\"Creation\" of the Gods.\n\nIn Stanza V. the process of world-formation is described: ---\nFirst, diffused Cosmic Matter, then the fiery \"whirlwind,\"\nthe first stage in the formation of a nebula. That nebula condenses,\nand after passing through various transformations, forms a Solar\nUniverse, a planetary chain, or a single planet, as the case may\nbe.\n\nThe subsequent stages in the formation of a \"World\"\nare indicated in Stanza VI., which brings the evolution of such\na world down to its fourth great period, corresponding to the\nperiod in which we are now living.\n\nStanza VII. continues the history, tracing the descent of life\ndown to the appearance of Man; and thus closes the first Book\nof the Secret Doctrine.\n\nThe development of \"Man\" from his first appearance on\nthis earth in this Round to the state in which we now find him\nwill form the subject of Book II.\n\n---------------------\n\n##### NOTE.\n\n####### The Stanzas which form the thesis of every section are given\nthroughout in their modern translated version, as it would be\nworse\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 23 PROEM.\n\nthan useless to make the subject still more difficult by introducing\nthe archaic phraseology of the original, with its puzzling style\nand words. Extracts are given from the Chinese Thibetan and Sanskrit\ntranslations of the original Senzar Commentaries and Glosses on\nthe Book of **D**ZYAN -- these being now rendered\nfor the first time into a European language. It is almost unnecessary\nto state that only portions of the seven Stanzas are here given.\nWere they published complete they would remain incomprehensible\nto all save the few higher occultists. Nor is there any need to\nassure the reader that, no more than most of the profane, does\nthe writer, or rather the humble recorder, understand those forbidden\npassages. To facilitate the reading, and to avoid the too frequent\nreference to foot-notes, it was thought best to blend together\ntexts and glosses, using the Sanskrit and Tibetan proper names\nwhenever those cannot be avoided, in preference to giving the\noriginals. The more so as the said terms are all accepted synonyms,\nthe former only being used between a Master and his chelas (or\ndisciples).\n\nThus, were one to translate into English, using only the substantives\nand technical terms as employed in one of the Tibetan and Senzar\nversions, Verse I would read as follows: --- \"Tho-ag in Zhi-gyu\nslept seven Khorlo. Zodmanas zhiba. All Nyug bosom. Konch-hog\nnot; Thyan-Kam not; Lha-Chohan not; Tenbrel Chugnyi not; Dharmakaya\nceased; Tgenchang not become; Barnang and Ssa in Ngovonyidj; alone\nTho-og Yinsin in night of Sun-chan and Yong-grub (Parinishpanna),\n&c., &c.,\" which would sound like pure *Abracadabra.*\n\nAs this work is written for the instruction of students of Occultism,\nand not for the benefit of philologists, we may well avoid such\nforeign terms wherever it is possible to do so. The untranslateable\nterms alone, incomprehensible unless explained in their meanings,\nare left, but all such terms are rendered in their Sanskrit form.\nNeedless to remind the reader that these are, in almost every\ncase, the late developments of the later language, and pertain\nto the Fifth Root-Race. Sanskrit, as now known, was not spoken\nby the Atlanteans, and most of the philosophical terms used in\nthe systems of the India of the post-Mahabharatan period are not\nfound in the Vedas, nor are they to be met with in the original\nStanzas, but only their equivalents. The reader who is not a Theosophist,\nis once more invited to regard all that which follows as a fairy\ntale, if he likes; at best as one of the yet unproven speculations\nof\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 24 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\n*dreamers; *and, at the worst, as an additional hypothesis\nto the many Scientific hypotheses past, present and future, some\nexploded, others still lingering. It is not in any sense worse\nthan are many of the so called Scientific theories; and it is\nin every case more philosophical and probable.\n\nIn view of the abundant comments and explanations required, the\nreferences to the footnotes are given in the usual way, while\nthe sentences to be commented upon are marked with figures. Additional\nmatter will be found in the Chapters on Symbolism forming Part\nII., as well as in Part III., these being often more full of information\nthan the text.\n\n---------------------\n\nNext Section\n\nContents",
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