{
  "meta": {
    "schema_version": "1.1",
    "endpoint": "/api/sources/secret-doctrine/vol-1-cosmogenesis/08-stanza-iii----the-awakening-of-kosmos-62.json"
  },
  "work": {
    "slug": "vol-1-cosmogenesis",
    "name": "Volume I — Cosmogenesis"
  },
  "parents": [
    {
      "slug": "secret-doctrine",
      "name": "The Secret Doctrine",
      "url": "/sources/secret-doctrine/"
    }
  ],
  "chapter": {
    "num": 6,
    "slug": "08-stanza-iii----the-awakening-of-kosmos-62",
    "title": "STANZA III. -- THE AWAKENING OF KOSMOS ... 62",
    "of": 48,
    "words": 9972,
    "text": "## STANZA III. -- THE AWAKENING OF KOSMOS ... 62\n\n\nThe Secret Doctrine by H. P. Blavatsky, Vol 1, bk 1, sec 3\n\n###### The Secret Doctrine by H. P. Blavatsky -- Vol. 1\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 62 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\n##### STANZA III.\n\nCOMMENTARY.\n\n1. **T**HE LAST VIBRATION OF THE SEVENTH ETERNITY\nTHRILLS THROUGH INFINITUDE (*a*). **T**HE\nMOTHER SWELLS, EXPANDING FROM WITHIN WITHOUT LIKE THE BUD OF THE\nLOTUS (*b*).\n\n(*a*) The seemingly paradoxical use of the sentence \"Seventh\nEternity,\" thus dividing the indivisible, is sanctified in\nesoteric philosophy. The latter divides boundless duration into\nunconditionally eternal and universal Time and a conditioned one\n(*Khandakala*)*. *One is the abstraction or noumenon\nof infinite time (Kala); the other its phenomenon appearing periodically,\nas the effect of *Mahat *(the Universal Intelligence limited\nby Manvantaric duration). With some schools, Mahat is \"the\nfirst-born\" of Pradhana (undifferentiated substance, or the\nperiodical aspect of Mulaprakriti, the root of Nature), which\n(Pradhana) is called Maya, the Illusion. In this respect, I believe,\nesoteric teaching differs from the Vedantin doctrines of both\nthe Adwaita and the Visishtadwaita schools. For it says that,\nwhile Mulaprakriti, the noumenon, is self-existing and without\nany origin -- is, in short, parentless, Anupadaka (as one with\nBrahmam) -- Prakriti, its phenomenon, is periodical and no better\nthan a phantasm of the former, so Mahat, with the Occultists,\nthe first-born of Gnana (or *gnosis*)* *knowledge,\nwisdom or the Logos -- is a phantasm reflected from the Absolute\nNIRGUNA (Parabrahm, the one reality, \"devoid of attributes\nand qualities\"; see Upanishads); while with some Vedantins\nMahat is a manifestation of Prakriti, or Matter.\n\n(*b*) Therefore, the \"last vibration of the Seventh\nEternity\" was \"fore-ordained\" -- by no God in particular,\nbut occurred in virtue of the eternal and changeless **L**AW\nwhich causes the great periods of Activity and Rest, called so\ngraphically, and at the same time so poetically, the \"Days\nand Nights of Brahma.\" The expansion \"from within without\"\nof the Mother, called elsewhere the \"Waters of Space,\"\n\"Universal Matrix,\" etc., does not allude to an expansion\nfrom a small centre or focus, but, without reference to size or\nlimitation or area, means the development of limitless subjectivity\ninto as limitless objectivity. \"The ever (to us) invisible\nand immaterial Substance present in eternity, threw its periodical\nshadow from its own plane into the lap\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 63 THE UNIVERSE, A FLITTING SHADOW.\n\nof Maya.\" It implies that this expansion, not being an increase\nin size -- for infinite extension admits of no enlargement --\nwas a change of condition. It \"expanded like the bud of the\nLotus\"; for the Lotus plant exists not only as a miniature\nembryo in its seed (a physical characteristic), but its prototype\nis present in an ideal form in the Astral Light from \"Dawn\"\nto \"Night\" during the Manvantaric period, like everything\nelse, as a matter of fact, in this objective Universe; from man\ndown to mite, from giant trees down to the tiniest blades of grass.\n\nAll this, teaches the hidden Science, is but the temporary reflection,\nthe shadow of the eternal ideal prototype in Divine Thought --\nthe word \"Eternal,\" note well again, standing here only\nin the sense of \"AEon,\" as lasting throughout the seemingly\ninterminable, but still limited cycle of activity, called by us\nManvantara. For what is the real esoteric meaning of Manvantara,\nor rather a Manu-Antara? It means, esoterically, \"between\ntwo Manus,\" of whom there are fourteen in every \"Day\nof Brahma,\" such a \"Day\" consisting of 1,000 aggregates\nof four ages, or 1,000 \"Great Ages,\" Mahayugas. Let\nus now analyse the word or name Manu. Orientalists and their Dictionaries\ntell us that the term \"Manu\" is from the root *Man,\n*\"to think\"; hence \"the thinking man.\"\nBut, esoterically, every Manu, as an anthropomorphized patron\nof his special cycle (or Round), is but the personified idea of\nthe \"Thought Divine\" (as the Hermetic \"Pymander\");\neach of the Manus, therefore, being the special god, the creator\nand fashioner of all that appears during his own respective cycle\nof being or Manvantara. Fohat runs the Manus' (or Dhyan-Chohans')\nerrands, and causes the ideal prototypes to expand from within\nwithout -- viz., to cross gradually, on a descending scale, all\nthe planes from the noumenon to the lowest phenomenon, to bloom\nfinally on the last into full objectivity -- the acme of illusion,\nor the grossest matter.\n\n-------\n\n##### STANZA III. -- continued.\n\n2. **T**HE VIBRATION SWEEPS ALONG, TOUCHING WITH\nITS SWIFT WING (*simultaneously*)* *THE WHOLE UNIVERSE,\nAND THE GERM THAT DWELLETH IN DARKNESS: THE DARKNESS THAT BREATHES\n(*moves*)* *OVER THE SLUMBERING WATERS OF LIFE (*a*).\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 64 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\n(*a*) The Pythagorean Monad is also said to dwell in solitude\nand darkness like the \"germ.\" The idea of the \"breath\"\nof Darkness moving over \"the slumbering Waters of life,\"\nwhich is primordial matter with the latent Spirit in it, recalls\nthe first chapter of Genesis. Its original is the Brahminical\nNarayana (the mover on the Waters), who is the personification\nof the eternal Breath of the unconscious All (or Parabrahm) of\nthe Eastern Occultists. The Waters of Life, or Chaos -- the female\nprinciple in symbolism -- are the vacuum (to our mental sight)\nin which lie the latent Spirit and Matter. This it was that made\nDemocritus assert, after his instructor Leucippus, that the primordial\nprinciples of all were atoms and a vacuum, in the sense of space,\nbut not of empty space, as \"Nature abhors a vacuum\"\naccording to the Peripatetics, and every ancient philosopher.\n\nIn all Cosmogonies \"Water\" plays the same important\npart. It is the base and source of material existence. Scientists,\nmistaking the word for the thing, understood by water the definite\nchemical combination of oxygen and hydrogen, thus giving a specific\nmeaning to a term used by Occultists in a generic sense, and which\nis used in Cosmogony with a metaphysical and mystical meaning.\nIce is not water, neither is steam, although all three have precisely\nthe same chemical composition.\n\n-------\n\n##### STANZA III. -- Continued.\n\n2.[[3.]] \"**D**ARKNESS\" RADIATES LIGHT,\nAND LIGHT DROPS ONE SOLITARY RAY INTO THE WATERS, INTO THE MOTHER\nDEEP. **T**HE RAY SHOOTS THROUGH THE VIRGIN-EGG;\nTHE RAY CAUSES THE ETERNAL EGG TO THRILL, AND DROP THE NON-ETERNAL\n(*periodical*)* *GERM, WHICH CONDENSES INTO THE\nWORLD EGG (*a*)*.*\n\n(*a*)* *The solitary ray dropping into the mother\ndeep may be taken as meaning Divine Thought or Intelligence, impregnating\nchaos. This, however, occurs on the plane of metaphysical abstraction,\nor rather the plane whereon that which we call a metaphysical\nabstraction is a reality. The Virgin-egg being in one sense abstract\nEgg-ness, or the power of becoming developed through fecundation,\nis eternal and for ever the same. And just as the fecundation\nof an egg takes place before it is dropped; so the non-eternal\nperiodical germ which becomes later in\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 65 NATURE'S SYMBOLS.\n\nsymbolism the mundane egg, contains in itself, when it emerges\nfrom the said symbol, \"the promise and potency\" of all\nthe Universe. Though the idea *per se *is, of course, an\nabstraction, a symbolical mode of expression, it is a symbol truly,\nas it suggests the idea of infinity as an endless circle. It brings\nbefore the mind's eye the picture of Kosmos emerging from and\nin boundless space, a Universe as shoreless in magnitude if not\nas endless in its objective manifestation. The simile of an egg\nalso expresses the fact taught in Occultism that the primordial\nform of everything manifested, from atom to globe, from man to\nangel, is spheroidal, the sphere having been with all nations\nthe emblem of eternity and infinity -- a serpent swallowing its\ntail. To realize the meaning, however, the sphere must be thought\nof as seen from its centre. The field of vision or of thought\nis like a sphere whose radii proceed from one's self in every\ndirection, and extend out into space, opening up boundless vistas\nall around. It is the symbolical circle of Pascal and the Kabalists,\n\"whose centre is everywhere and circumference nowhere,\"\na conception which enters into the compound idea of this emblem.\n\nThe \"Mundane Egg\" is, perhaps, one of the most universally\nadopted symbols, highly suggestive as it is, equally in the spiritual,\nphysiological, and cosmological sense. Therefore, it is found\nin every world-theogony, where it is largely associated with the\nserpent symbol; the latter being everywhere, in philosophy as\nin religious symbolism, an emblem of eternity, infinitude, regeneration,\nand rejuvenation, as well as of wisdom. (See Part II. \"Tree\nand Serpent and Crocodile Worship.\") The mystery of apparent\nself-generation and evolution through its own creative power repeating\nin miniature the process of Cosmic evolution in the egg, both\nbeing due to heat and moisture under the efflux of the unseen\ncreative spirit, justified fully the selection of this graphic\nsymbol. The \"Virgin Egg\" is the microcosmic symbol of\nthe macrocosmic prototype -- the \"Virgin Mother\" --\nChaos or the Primeval Deep. The male Creator (under whatever name)\nsprings forth from the Virgin female, the immaculate root fructified\nby the Ray. Who, if versed in astronomy and natural sciences,\ncan fail to see its suggestiveness? Cosmos as receptive Nature\nis an Egg fructified -- yet left immaculate; once regarded as\nboundless, it could have no other representation than a spheroid.\nThe Golden Egg was surrounded by seven natural elements (ether,\nfire, air, water), \"four ready, three secret.\" It may\nbe found\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 66 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\nstated in Vishnu Purana, where elements are translated \"Envelopes\"\nand a *secret *one is added: \"Aham-kara\" (see\nWilson's Vishnu Purana, Book I., p. 40). The original text has\nno \"Aham-kara;\" it mentions seven Elements without specifying\nthe last three (see Part II. on \"The Mundane Egg\").\n\n-------\n\n##### STANZA III. -- Continued.\n\n4.* *(*Then*)* *THE THREE (*triangle*)*\n*FALL INTO THE FOUR (*quaternary*)*. ***T**HE\nRADIANT ESSENCE BECOMES SEVEN INSIDE, SEVEN OUTSIDE (*a*).\nTHE LUMINOUS EGG (*Hiranyagarbha*),* *WHICH*\n*IN ITSELF IS THREE (*the triple hypostases of Brahma*,*\nor Vishnu*,* the three* \"*Avasthas*\"),*\n*CURDLES AND SPREADS IN MILK-WHITE CURDS THROUGHOUT THE DEPTHS\nOF MOTHER, THE ROOT THAT GROWS IN THE OCEAN OF LIFE (*b*)*.*\n\nThe use of geometrical figures and the frequent allusions to figures\nin all ancient scriptures (see Puranas, Egyptian papyri, the \"Book\nof the Dead\" and even the Bible) must be explained. In the\n\"Book of Dzyan,\" as in the Kabala, there are two kinds\nof numerals to be studied -- the figures, often simple blinds,\nand the Sacred Numbers, the values of which are all known to the\nOccultists through Initiation. The former is but a conventional\nglyph, the latter is the basic symbol of all. That is to say,\nthat one is purely physical, the other purely metaphysical, the\ntwo standing in relation to each other as matter stands to spirit\n-- the extreme poles of the ONE Substance.\n\nAs Balzac, the unconscious Occultist of French literature, says\nsomewhere, the Number is to Mind the same as it is to matter:\n\"an incomprehensible agent;\" (perhaps so to the profane,\nnever to the Initiated mind). Number is, as the great writer thought,\nan Entity, and, at the same time, a Breath emanating from what\nhe called God and what we call the ALL; the breath which alone\ncould organize the physical Kosmos, \"where naught obtains\nits form but through the Deity, which is an effect of Number.\"\nIt is instructive to quote Balzac's words upon this subject: --\n\n\"The smallest as the most immense creations, are they not\nto be distinguished from each other by their quantities, their\nqualities, their dimensions, their forces and attributes, all\nbegotten by the **N**UMBER? The infinitude of the\nNumbers is a fact proven to our mind, but of which no proof can\nbe physically\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 67 THE POWER OF NUMBERS.\n\ngiven. The mathematician will tell us that the infinitude of the\nnumbers exists but is not to be demonstrated. God is a Number\nendowed with motion, which is felt but not demonstrated. *As\nUnity*,* it begins the Numbers*, *with which it\nhas nothing in common*. . . . . The existence of the Number\ndepends on Unity, which, without a single Number, begets them\nall. . . . . What! unable either to measure the first abstraction\nyielded to you by the Deity, or to get hold of it, you still hope\nto subject to your measurements the mystery of the Secret Sciences\nwhich emanate from that Deity? . . . . And what would you feel,\nwere I to plunge you into the abysses of **M**OTION,\nthe Force which organizes the Number? What would you think, were\nI to add that *Motion *and *Number* *are begotten\nby the WORD, the Supreme Reason of the Seers and Prophets, who,\nin days of old, sensed the mighty Breath of God, a witness to\nwhich is the Apocalypse?\"\n\n(*b*) \"The radiant essence curdled and spread throughout\nthe depths\" of Space. From an astronomical point of view\nthis is easy of explanation: it is the \"milky way,\"\nthe world-stuff, or primordial matter in its first form. It is\nmore difficult, however, to explain it in a few words or even\nlines, from the standpoint of Occult Science and Symbolism, as\nit is the most complicated of glyphs. Herein are enshrined more\nthan a dozen symbols. To begin with, the whole pantheon of mysterious\nobjects,** every one of them having some definite Occult meaning,\nextracted from the allegorical \"churning of the ocean\"\nby the Hindu gods. Besides *Amrita*,* *the water\nof life or immortality, \"*Surabhi*\" the \"cow\nof plenty,\" called \"the fountain of milk and curds,\"\nwas extracted from this \"Sea of Milk.\" Hence the universal\nadoration of the cow and bull, one the productive, the other the\ngenerative power in Nature: symbols connected with both the Solar\nand the Cosmic deities. The specific properties, for occult purposes,\nof the \"fourteen precious things,\" being explained only\nat the fourth Initiation, cannot be given here; but the following\nmay be remarked. In the \"Satapatha Brahmana\" it is stated\nthat the churning of the \"Ocean of Milk\" took place\nin the Satya Yug, the first age which immediately followed the\n\"Deluge.\" As, however, neither the Rig-Veda nor\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* Number, truly; but never **M**OTION. It is *Motion\n*which begets the Logos, the Word, in occultism.\n\n** The \"Fourteen precious things.\" The narrative or\nallegory is found in the Satapatha Brahmana and others. The Japanese\nSecret Science of the Buddhist Mystics, the* Yamabooshi*,*\n*has \"seven precious things.\" We will speak of them,\nhereafter.\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 68 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\nManu -- both preceding Vaivasvata's \"deluge,\" that of\nthe bulk of the Fourth Race -- mention this deluge, it is evident\nthat it is not the \"great\" deluge, nor that which carried\naway Atlantis, nor even the deluge of Noah, which is meant here.\nThis \"churning\" relates to a period before the earth's\nformation, and is in direct connection with that other universal\nlegend, the various and contradictory versions of which culminated\nin the Christian dogma of the \"War in Heaven,\" and the\nfall of the Angels (see Book II., also Revelations chap. xii.).\nThe Brahmanas, reproached by the Orientalists with their versions\non the same subjects, often clashing with each other, *are\npre-eminently occult works*,* *hence used purposely\nas blinds. They were allowed to survive for public use and property\nonly because they were and are absolutely unintelligible to the\nmasses. Otherwise they would have disappeared from circulation\nas long ago as the days of Akbar.\n\n-------\n\n##### STANZA III. -- Continued.\n\n5. **T**HE ROOT REMAINS, THE LIGHT REMAINS, THE CURDS\nREMAIN, AND STILL **O**EAOHOO (*a*) IS ONE\n(*b*)*.*\n\n(*a*)* ***O**EAOHOO is rendered *\"Father-Mother\nof the Gods\" *in the Commentaries, or the SIX IN ONE,*\n**or the septenary root from which all proceeds*. All\ndepends upon the accent given to these seven vowels, which may\nbe pronounced as *one*,* *three, or even seven syllables\nby adding an *e* after the letter \"o.\" This mystic\nname is given out, because without a thorough mastery of the triple\npronunciation it remains for ever ineffectual.\n\n(*b*)* *This refers to the Non-Separateness of all\nthat lives and has its being, whether in active or passive state.\nIn one sense, Oeaohoo is the \"Rootless Root of All\";\nhence, one with Parabrahmam; in another sense it is a name for\nthe manifested ONE LIFE, the Eternal living Unity. The \"Root\"\nmeans, as already explained, pure knowledge (Sattva),*\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* The original for Understanding is *Sattva*,* *which\nSankara (acharya) renders anta*h*karana. \"Refined,\"\nhe says, \"by sacrifices and other sanctifying operations.\"\nIn the *Katha, *at p. 148, Sattva is said by Sankara to\nmean *buddhi* --* *a common use of the word. (\"The\n**B**HAGAVATGITA with The Sanatsugatiya and The Anugita,\"\ntrans- [[Footnote continued on next page]]\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 69 THE BLOSSOM OF THE ROOT OF LIFE.\n\neternal (*Nitya*) unconditioned reality or SAT (*Satya*)*,\n*whether we call it Parabrahmam or Mulaprakriti, for these\nare the two aspects of the ONE. The \"Light\" is the same\nOmnipresent Spiritual Ray, which has entered and now fecundated\nthe Divine Egg, and calls cosmic matter to begin its long series\nof differentiations. The curds are the first differentiation,\nand probably refer also to that cosmic matter which is supposed\nto be the origin of the \"Milky Way\" -- the matter we\nknow. This \"matter,\" which, according to the revelation\nreceived from the primeval Dhyani-Buddhas, is, during the periodical\nsleep of the Universe, of the ultimate tenuity conceivable to\nthe eye of the perfect Bodhisatva -- this matter, radical and\ncool, becomes, at the first reawakening of cosmic motion, scattered\nthrough Space; appearing, when seen from the Earth, in clusters\nand lumps, like curds in thin milk. These are the seeds of the\nfuture worlds, the \"Star-stuff.\"\n\n-------\n\n##### STANZA III. -- Continued.\n\n6. **T**HE ROOT OF LIFE WAS IN EVERY DROP OF THE\nOCEAN OF IMMORTALITY (*Amrita*)** *AND THE OCEAN\nWAS RADIANT LIGHT, WHICH WAS FIRE AND HEAT AND MOTION. **D**ARKNESS\nVANISHED AND WAS NO MORE.** **I**T DISAPPEARED IN\nITS OWN ESSENCE, THE BODY OF FIRE AND WATER, OF FATHER AND MOTHER\n(*a*).\n\n(*a*) The essence of darkness being absolute light, Darkness\nis taken as the appropriate allegorical representation of the\ncondition of the Universe during Pralaya, or the term of absolute\nrest, or non-being, as it appears to our finite minds. The \"fire,\"\n\"heat,\" and \"motion\" here spoken of, are,\nof course, not the fire, heat, and motion of physical science,\nbut the underlying abstractions, the noumena, or the soul, of\nthe essence of these material manifestations -- the \"things\nin themselves,\" which, as modern science confesses, entirely\nelude the instru-\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n[[Footnote continued from previous page]] lated by Kashinath Trimbak\nTelang, M.A.; edited by Max Muller.) Whatever meaning various\nschools may give the term, *Sattva *is the name given among\nOccult students of the Aryasanga School to the dual Monad or Atma-buddhi,\nand Atma-buddhi on this plane corresponds to Parabrahm and Mulaprakriti\non the higher plane.\n\n* Amrita is \"immortality.\"\n\n** See Commentary No. 1 to this Stanza.\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 70 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\nments of the laboratory, and which even the mind cannot grasp,\nalthough it can equally little avoid the conclusion that these\nunderlying essences of things must exist. Fire and Water, or Father*\nand Mother, may be taken here to mean the divine Ray and Chaos.\n\"Chaos, from this union with Spirit obtaining sense, shone\nwith pleasure, and thus was produced the Protogonos (the first-born\nlight),\" says a fragment of Hermas. Damascius calls it Dis\nin \"Theogony\" -- \"The disposer of all things.\"\n(See Cory's \"*Ancient Fragments*,\"* *p.\n314.)\n\nAccording to the Rosicrucian tenets, as handled and explained\nby the profane for once correctly, if only partially, so \"Light\nand Darkness are identical in themselves, being only divisible\nin the human mind\"; and according to Robert Fludd, \"Darkness\nadopted illumination in order to make itself visible\" (*On\nRosenkranz*)*. *According to the tenets of Eastern\nOccultism, **D**ARKNESS is the one true actuality,\nthe basis and the root of light, without which the latter could\nnever manifest itself, nor even exist. Light is matter, and **D**ARKNESS\npure Spirit. Darkness, in its radical, metaphysical basis, is\nsubjective and absolute light; while the latter in all its seeming\neffulgence and glory, is merely a mass of shadows, as it can never\nbe eternal, and is simply an illusion, or Maya.\n\nEven in the mind-baffling and science-harassing Genesis, light\nis created out of darkness \"and darkness was upon the face\nof the deep\" (ch. i. v. 2.) -- and not *vice versa. *\"In\nhim (in darkness) was life; and the life *was the light of\nmen*\"* *(John i. 4). A day may come when the eyes\nof men will be opened; and then they may comprehend better than\nthey do now, that verse in the Gospel of John that says \"And\nthe light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehendeth\nit not.\" They will see then that the word \"darkness\"\ndoes not apply to man's spiritual eyesight, but indeed to \"Darkness,\"\nthe absolute, that comprehendeth not (cannot cognize) transient\nlight, however transcendent to human eyes. *Demon est Deus\ninversus. *The devil is now called Darkness by the Church,\nwhereas, in the Bible he is called the \"Son of God\"\n(see Job), the bright star of the early morning, Lucifer (see\nIsaiah). There is a whole philosophy of dogmatic craft in the\nreason why the first Archangel, who sprang from the depths of\nChaos, was called Lux (Lucifer), the \"Luminous Son of the\nMorning,\" or man-\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* See \"Kwan-Shai-Yin.\" The real name from the text cannot\nbe given.\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 71 LIGHT EMERGES FROM DARKNESS.\n\nvantaric Dawn. He was transformed by the Church into Lucifer or\nSatan, because he is higher and older than Jehovah, and had to\nbe sacrificed to the new dogma. (See Book II.)\n\n##### ---------\n\n##### STANZA III. -- Continued.\n\n7. **B**EHOLD, OH **L**ANOO!** THE RADIANT\n**C**HILD OF THE TWO, THE UNPARALLELED REFULGENT\n**G**LORY, **B**RIGHT **S**PACE,\n**S**ON OF **D**ARK **S**PACE,\nWHO EMERGES FROM THE DEPTHS OF THE GREAT **D**ARK\n**W**ATERS. **I**T IS **O**EAOHOO,\nTHE **Y**OUNGER, THE * * ** *(*whom thou\nknowest now as* *Kwan-Shai-Yin.* --* Comment*)*\n*(*a*)*. ***H**E SHINES FORTH AS\nTHE **S**UN. **H**E IS THE BLAZING **D**IVINE\n**D**RAGON OF **W**ISDOM. **T**HE\n**E**KA IS **C**HATUR (*four*)*,\n*AND **C**HATUR TAKES TO ITSELF THREE, AND THE\nUNION PRODUCES THE **S**APTA (*seven*)*\n*IN WHOM ARE THE SEVEN WHICH BECOME THE **T**RIDASA***\n(*the thrice ten*)* *THE HOSTS AND THE MULTITUDES\n(*b*). **B**EHOLD HIM LIFTING THE **V**EIL,\nAND UNFURLING IT FROM **E**AST TO **W**EST.\n**H**E SHUTS OUT THE ABOVE AND LEAVES THE BELOW TO\nBE SEEN AS THE GREAT **I**LLUSION. **H**E\nMARKS THE PLACES FOR THE SHINING ONES (*stars*)* *AND\nTURNS THE UPPER (*space*)* *INTO A SHORELESS **S**EA\nOF **F**IRE, AND THE **O**NE MANIFESTED\n(*element*)* *INTO THE **G**REAT **W**ATERS\n(*c*).\n\n\"Bright Space, son of dark Space,\" corresponds to the\nRay dropped at the first thrill of the new \"Dawn\" into\nthe great Cosmic depths, from which it re-emerges differentiated\nas Oeaohoo the younger, (the *\"*new LIFE\"), to\nbecome, to the end of the life-cycle, the germ of all things.\nHe is \"the Incorporeal man who contains in himself the divine\nIdea,\" -- the generator of Light and Life, to use an expression\nof Philo Judaeus. He is called the \"Blazing Dragon of Wisdom,\"\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n** Lanoo is a student, a chela who studies practical Esotericism.\n\n*** \"Tri-dasa,\" or three times ten (30), alludes to\nthe Vedic deities, in round numbers, or more accurately 33 --\na sacred number. They are the 12 Adityas, the 8 Vasus, the 11\nRudras, and 2 Aswins -- the twin sons of the Sun and the Sky.\nThis is the root-number of the Hindu Pantheon, which enumerates\n33 crores or over three hundred millions of gods and goddesses.\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 72 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\nbecause, firstly, he is that which the Greek philosophers called\nthe Logos, the Verbum of the Thought Divine; and secondly, because\nin Esoteric philosophy this first manifestation, being the synthesis\nor the aggregate of Universal Wisdom, Oeaohoo, \"the Son of\nthe Son,\" contains in himself the Seven Creative Hosts (The\nSephiroth), and is thus the essence of manifested Wisdom. \"He\nwho bathes in the light of Oeaohoo will never be deceived by the\nveil of Maya.\"\n\nKwan-Shai-Yin is identical with, and an equivalent of the Sanskrit\n*Avalokiteshwara*, and as such he is an androgynous deity,\nlike the Tetragrammaton and all the Logoi* of antiquity. It is\nonly by some sects in China that he is anthropomorphized and represented\nwith female attributes,** when, under his female aspect, he becomes\nKwan-Yin, the goddess of mercy, called the \"Divine Voice.\"***\nThe latter is the patron deity of Thibet and of the island of\nPuto in China, where both deities have a number of monasteries.****\n(See Part II. Kwan-Shai-Yin and Kwan-yin.)\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* Hence all the higher gods of antiquity are all \"Sons of\nthe Mother\" before they become those of the \"Father.\"\nThe Logoi, like Jupiter or Zeus, Son of Kronos-Saturn, \"Infinite\nTime\" (or Kala), in their origin were represented as male-female.\nZeus is said to be the \"beautiful Virgin,\" and Venus\nis made bearded. Apollo is originally bisexual, so is Brahma-Vach\nin Manu and the Puranas. Osiris is interchangeable with Isis,\nand Horus is of both sexes. Finally St. John's vision in Revelation,\nthat of the Logos, who is now connected with Jesus -- is hermaphrodite,\nfor he is described as having female breasts. So is the Tetragrammaton\n= Jehovah. But there are two Avalokiteshwaras in Esotericism;\nthe first and the second *Logos.*\n\n** No religious symbol can escape profanation and even derision\nin our days of politics and Science. In Southern India the writer\nhas seen a converted native making pujah with offerings before\na statue of Jesus clad in woman's clothes and with a ring in his\nnose. When asking the meaning of the masquerade we were answered\nthat it was Jesu-Maria blended in one, and that it was done by\nthe permission of the Padri, as the zealous convert had no money\nto purchase two statues or \"idols\" as they, very properly,\nwere called by a witness -- another but a non-converted Hindu.\nBlasphemous this will appear to a dogmatic Christian, but the\nTheosophist and the Occultist must award the palm of logic to\nthe converted Hindu. The esoteric Christos in the *gnosis *is,\nof course, sexless, but in exoteric *theology *he is male\nand female.\n\n*** The Gnostic Sophia, \"Wisdom\" who is \"the Mother\"\nof the Ogdoad (Aditi, in a certain sense, with her eight sons),\nis the Holy Ghost and the Creator of all, as in the ancient systems.\nThe \"father\" is a far later invention. The earliest\nmanifested Logos was female everywhere -- the mother of the seven\nplanetary powers.\n\n**** See \"Chinese Buddhism,\" by the Rev. J. C. Edkins,\nwho always gives correct facts, although his conclusions are very\nfrequently erroneous.\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 73 THE DRAGON AND THE LOGOI.\n\n(*b*) \"The \"Dragon of Wisdom\" is the One,\nthe \"Eka\" (Sanskrit) or Saka. It is curious that Jehovah's\nname in Hebrew should also be One, Echod. \"His name is Echod\":\nsay the Rabbins. The philologists ought to decide which of the\ntwo is derived from the other -- linguistically and symbolically:\nsurely, not the Sanskrit? The \"One\" and the Dragon are\nexpressions used by the ancients in connection with their respective\nLogoi. Jehovah -- esoterically (as Elohim) -- is also the Serpent\nor Dragon that tempted Eve, and the \"Dragon\" is an old\nglyph for \"Astral Light\" (Primordial Principle), \"which\nis the Wisdom of Chaos.\" Archaic philosophy, recognizing\nneither Good nor Evil as a fundamental or independent power, but\nstarting from the Absolute ALL (Universal Perfection eternally),\ntraced both through the course of natural evolution to pure Light\ncondensing gradually into form, hence becoming Matter or Evil.\nIt was left with the early and ignorant Christian fathers to degrade\nthe philosophical and highly scientific idea of this emblem (the\nDragon) into the absurd superstition called the \"Devil.\"\nThey took it from the later Zoroastrians, who saw devils or the\nEvil in the Hindu Devas*, *and the word Evil thus became\nby a double transmutation D'Evil in every tongue (Diabolos, Diable,\nDiavolo, Teufel). But the Pagans have always shown a philosophical\ndiscrimination in their symbols. The primitive symbol of the serpent\nsymbolised divine Wisdom and Perfection, and had always stood\nfor psychical Regeneration and Immortality. Hence -- Hermes, calling\nthe serpent the most spiritual of all beings; Moses, initiated\nin the wisdom of Hermes, following suit in Genesis; the Gnostic's\nSerpent with the seven vowels over its head, being the emblem\nof the seven hierarchies of the Septenary or Planetary Creators.\nHence, also, the Hindu serpent Sesha or Ananta, \"the Infinite,\"\na name of Vishnu, whose first Vahan or vehicle on the primordial\nwaters is this serpent.* Yet they all made a difference between\nthe good and the bad Serpent (the Astral Light of\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* Like the *logoi *and the Hierarchies of Powers, however,\nthe \"Serpents\" have to be distinguished one from the\nother. Sesha or Ananta, \"the couch of Vishnu,\" is an\nallegorical abstraction, symbolizing infinite Time in Space, which\ncontains the germ and throws off periodically the efflorescence\nof this germ, the *manifested *Universe; whereas, the gnostic\n*Ophis *contained the same triple symbolism in its seven\nvowels as the One, Three and Seven-syllabled *Oeaohoo *of\nthe Archaic doctrine; *i.e.*, the One Unmanifested Logos,\nthe Second manifested, the triangle concreting into the Quaternary\nor Tetragrammaton, and the rays of the latter on the material\nplane.\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 74 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\nthe Kabalists) -- between the former, the embodiment of divine\nWisdom in the region of the Spiritual, and the latter, Evil, on\nthe plane of matter.* Jesus accepted the serpent as a synonym\nof Wisdom, and this formed part of his teaching: \"Be ye wise\nas serpents,\" he says. \"In the beginning, before Mother\nbecame Father-Mother, the fiery Dragon moved in the infinitudes\nalone\" (*Book of Sarparajni.*)* *The Aitareya\nBrahmana calls the Earth Sarparajni, \"the Serpent Queen,\"\nand \"the Mother of all that moves.\" Before our globe\nbecame egg-shaped (and the Universe also) \"a long trail of\nCosmic dust (or fire mist) moved and writhed like a serpent in\nSpace.\" The \"Spirit of God moving on Chaos\" was\nsymbolized by every nation in the shape of a fiery serpent breathing\nfire and light upon the primordial waters, until it had incubated\ncosmic matter and made it assume the annular shape of a serpent\nwith its tail in its mouth -- which symbolises not only Eternity\nand Infinitude, but also the globular shape of all the bodies\nformed within the Universe from that fiery mist. The Universe,\nas well as the Earth and Man, cast off periodically, serpent-like,\ntheir old skins, to assume new ones after a time of rest. The\nserpent is, surely, a not less graceful or a more unpoetical image\nthan the caterpillar and chrysalis from which springs the butterfly,\nthe Greek emblem of Psyche, the human soul. The \"Dragon\"\nwas also the symbol of the Logos with the Egyptians, as with the\nGnostics. In the \"Book of Hermes,\" Pymander, the oldest\nand the most spiritual of the Logoi of the Western Continent,\nappears to Hermes in the shape of a Fiery Dragon of \"Light,\nFire, and Flame.\" Pymander, the \"Thought Divine\"\npersonified, says: The Light is me, I am the Nous (the mind or\nManu), I am thy God, and I am far older than the human principle\nwhich escapes from the shadow (\"*Darkness*,\"*\n*or the concealed Deity). I am the germ of thought, the resplendent\n*Word, *the *Son *of God. All that thus sees and\nhears in thee is the *Verbum *of the Master, it is the\nThought (*Mahat*)* *which is God, the Father.**\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n*The Astral Light, or the AEther, of the ancient pagans (for the\nname of Astral Light is quite modern) is Spirit . . . . Matter.\nBeginning with the pure spiritual plane, it becomes grosser as\nit descends until it becomes the *Maya *or the tempting\nand deceitful serpent on our plane.\n\n** By \"God, the Father,\" the seventh principle in Man\nand Kosmos are here unmistakeably meant, this principle being\ninseparable in its Esse and Nature from the seventh Cosmic principle.\nIn one sense it is the Logos of the Greeks and the Avalokiteswara\nof the esoteric Buddhists.\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 75 NOUMENAL AND PHENOMENAL LIGHT.\n\nThe celestial Ocean, the 'Ether . . . . is the *Breath *of\nthe Father, the life-giving principle, the *Mother*, the\nHoly Spirit, for these are not separated, and their union is LIFE.\"\n\nHere we find the unmistakeable echo of the Archaic Secret Doctrine,\nas now expounded. Only the latter does not place at the head and\nEvolution of Life \"the Father,\" who comes third and\nis the \"Son of the Mother,\" but the \"Eternal and\nCeaseless Breath of the ALL.\" The *Mahat *(Understanding,\nUniversal Mind, Thought, etc.), before it manifests itself as\nBrahma or Siva, appears as Vishnu, says *Sankhya Sara *(p.\n16); hence *Mahat *has several aspects, just as the *logos*\nhas.* Mahat *is called the Lord, in the *Primary *Creation,\nand is, in this sense, Universal Cognition or *Thought Divine*;*\n*but, \"That Mahat which was first produced is (afterwards)\ncalled *Ego-ism*, when it is born as \"I,\" that\nis said to be the *second *Creation\"* *(*Anugita*,\nch. xxvi.). And the translator (an able and learned Brahmin, not\na European Orientalist) explains in a foot-note (6), \"*i.e.*,\nwhen Mahat develops into the feeling of Self-Consciousness --\nI -- then it assumes the name of Egoism,\" which, translated\ninto our esoteric phraseology, means when *Mahat *is transformed\ninto the human *Manas *(or even that of the finite gods),\nand becomes *Aham*-ship.* *Why it is called the\n*Mahat *of the *Second *creation (or the *ninth*,\nthat of the *Kumara *in* Vishnu Purana*)* *will\nbe explained in Book II. The \"Sea of Fire\" is then the\nSuper-Astral (*i.e.*, noumenal) Light, the first radiation\nfrom the *Root, *the Mulaprakriti, the undifferentiated\nCosmic Substance, which becomes *Astral *Matter. It is\nalso called the \"Fiery Serpent,\" as above described.\nIf the student bears in mind that there is but One Universal Element,\nwhich is infinite, unborn, and undying, and that all the rest\n-- as in the world of phenomena -- are but so many various differentiated\naspects and transformations (correlations, they are now called)\nof that One, from Cosmical down to microcosmical effects, from\nsuper-human down to human and sub-human beings, the totality,\nin short, of objective existence -- then the first and chief difficulty\nwill disappear and Occult Cosmology may be mastered.* All the\nKabalists and Occultists, Eastern and Western, recognise (*a*)\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* In the Egyptian as in the Indian theogony there was a *concealed\n*deity, the ONE, and the creative, androgynous god. Thus *Shoo\n*is the god of creation and Osiris is, in his original primary\nform, the \"god whose name is unknown.\" (See Mariette's\nAbydos II., p. 63, and Vol. III., pp. 413, 414, No. 1122.)\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 76 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\nthe identity of \"Father-Mother\" with primordial *AEther*\nor* Akasa*, (Astral Light)*; and (*b*) its homogeneity\nbefore the evolution of the \"Son,\" cosmically *Fohat,\n*for it is Cosmic Electricity. \"Fohat hardens and scatters\nthe seven brothers\" (Book III. Dzyan); which means that the\nprimordial Electric Entity -- for the Eastern Occultists insist\nthat Electricity is an Entity -- electrifies into life, and separates\nprimordial stuff or pregenetic matter into atoms, themselves the\nsource of all life and consciousness. \"There exists an universal\n*agent unique *of all forms and of life, that is called\nOd,** Ob, and Aour, active and passive, positive and negative,\nlike day and night: it is the first light in Creation\" (Eliphas\nLevi's Kabala): --- the first Light of the primordial Elohim --\nthe Adam, \"male and female\" -- or (scientifically) ELECTRICITY\nAND LIFE.\n\n(*c*) The ancients represented it by a serpent, for \"Fohat\nhisses as he glides hither and thither\" (in zigzags). The\nKabala figures it with the Hebrew letter Teth ,\nwhose symbol is the serpent which played such a prominent part\nin the Mysteries. Its universal value is nine, for it is the ninth\nletter of the alphabet and the ninth door of the fifty portals\nor gateways that lead to the concealed mysteries of being. It\nis the magical agent *par excellence*, and designates in\nHermetic philosophy \"Life infused into primordial matter,\"\nthe essence that composes all things, and the spirit that determines\ntheir form. But there are two secret Hermetical operations, one\nspiritual, the other material-correlative, and for ever united.\n\"Thou shalt separate the earth from the fire, the subtile\nfrom the solid . . . that which ascends from earth to heaven and\ndescends again from heaven to earth. It (the subtile light), is\nthe strong force of every force, for it conquers every subtile\nthing and penetrates into every solid. Thus was the world formed\"\n(*Hermes*)*.*\n\nIt was not Zeno alone, the founder of the Stoics, who taught that\nthe\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* See next note.\n\n** Od is the pure life-giving Light, or magnetic fluid; Ob the\nmessenger of death used by the sorcerers, the nefarious evil fluid;\nAour is the synthesis of the two, Astral Light proper. Can the\nPhilologists tell why Od -- a term used by Reichenbach to denominate\nthe vital fluid -- is also a Tibetan word meaning light, brightness,\nradiancy? It equally means \"Sky\" in an occult sense.\nWhence the root of the word? But *Akasa *is not quite *Ether*,\nbut far higher than that, as will be shown.\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 77 DEITY IN SPACE AND TIME.\n\nUniverse evolves, when its primary substance is transformed from\nthe state of fire into that of air, then into water, etc. Heracleitus\nof Ephesus maintained that the one principle that underlies all\nphenomena in Nature is fire. The intelligence that moves the Universe\nis fire, and fires is intelligence. And while Anaximenes said\nthe same of air, and Thales of Miletus (600 years B.C.) of water,\nthe Esoteric Doctrine reconciles all those philosophers by showing\nthat though each was right the system of none was complete.\n\n-------\n\n##### STANZA III. -- Continued.\n\n8. **W**HERE WAS THE GERM, AND WHERE WAS NOW DARKNESS?\n**W**HERE IS THE SPIRIT OF THE FLAME THAT BURNS IN\nTHY LAMP, OH **L**ANOO? **T**HE GERM\nIS THAT, AND THAT IS LIGHT; THE WHITE BRILLIANT SON OF THE DARK\nHIDDEN FATHER (*a*).\n\n(*a*)* *The answer to the first question, suggested\nby the second, which is the reply of the teacher to the pupil,\ncontains in a single phrase one of the most essential truths of\noccult philosophy. It indicates the existence of things imperceptible\nto our physical senses which are of far greater importance, more\nreal and more permanent, than those that appeal to these senses\nthemselves. Before the Lanoo can hope to understand the transcendentally\nmetaphysical problem contained in the first question he must be\nable to answer the second, while the very answer he gives to the\nsecond will furnish him with the clue to the correct reply to\nthe first.\n\nIn the Sanscrit Commentary on this Stanza, the terms used for\nthe concealed and the unrevealed Principle are many. In the earliest\nMSS. of Indian literature this Unrevealed, Abstract Deity has\nno name. It is called generally \"*That*\" (*Tad\n*in Sanskrit), and means all that is, was, and will be, or\nthat can be so received by the human mind.\n\nAmong such appellations, given, of course, only in esoteric philosophy,\nas the \"Unfathomable Darkness,\" the \"Whirlwind,\"\netc. -- it is also called the \"It of the Kalahansa, the Kala-ham-sa,\"\nand even the \"Kali Hamsa,\" (Black swan). Here the *m*\nand the *n* are convertible, and\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 78 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\nboth sound like the nasal French *an* or* am, *or,\nagain, *en* or* em *(*Ennui*,* Embarras*,*\n*etc.) As in the Hebrew Bible, many a mysterious sacred name\nin Sanscrit conveys to the profane ear no more than some ordinary,\nand often vulgar word, because it is concealed anagrammatically\nor otherwise. This word of Hansa or esoterically \"hamsa\"\nis just such a case. Hamsa is equal to a-ham-sa, three words meaning\n\"I am he\" (in English), while divided in still another\nway it will read \"So-ham,\" \"he (is) I\" --\nSoham being equal to Sah, \"he,\" and aham, \"I,\"\nor \"I am he.\" In this alone is contained the universal\nmystery, the doctrine of the identity of man's essence with god-essence,\nfor him who understands the language of wisdom. Hence the glyph\nof, and the allegory about, Kalahansa (or hamsa), and the name\ngiven to Brahma neuter (later on, to the male Brahma) of \"Hansa-Vahana,\"\nhe who uses the Hansa as his vehicle.\" The same word may\nbe read \"Kalaham-sa\" or \"I am I\" in the eternity\nof Time, answering to the Biblical, or rather Zoroastrian \"I\nam that I am.\" The same doctrine is found in the Kabala,\nas witness the following extract from an unpublished MS. by Mr.\nS. Liddell McGregor Mathers, the learned Kabalist: \"The three\npronouns , * *Hoa,\nAtah, Ani; He, Thou, I; are used to symbolize the ideas of Macroprosopus\nand Microprosopus in the Hebrew Qabalah. Hoa, \"He,\"\nis applied to the hidden and concealed Macroprosopus; Atah, \"Thou,\"\nto Microprosopus; and Ani, \"I,\" to the latter when He\nis represented as speaking. (See *Lesser Holy Assembly*,\n204* et seq.*) It is to be noted that each of these names\nconsists of three letters, of which the letter Aleph ,\nA, forms the conclusion of the first word Hoa, and the commencement\nof Atah and Ani, as if it were the connecting link between them.\nBut is the symbol of the\nUnity and consequently of the unvarying Idea of the Divine operating\nthrough all these. But behind the\nin the name Hoa are the letters\nand , the symbols of the\nnumbers Six and Five, the Male and the Female, the Hexagram and\nthe Pentagram. And the numbers of these three words, Hoa Atah\nAni, are 12, 406, and 61, which are resumed in the key numbers\nof 3, 10, and 7, by the Qabalah of the Nine Chambers, which is\na form of the exegetical rule of Temura.\"\n\nIt is useless to attempt to explain the mystery in full. Materialists\nand the men of modern Science will never understand it, since,\nin order\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 79 PRIMEVAL RADIATIONS FROM THE UNITY.\n\nto obtain clear perception of it, one has first of all to admit\nthe postulate of a universally diffused, omnipresent, eternal\nDeity in Nature; secondly, to have fathomed the mystery of electricity\nin its true essence; and thirdly, to credit man with being the\nseptenary symbol, on the terrestrial plane, of the One Great **U**NIT\n(the Logos), which is Itself the Seven-vowelled sign, the Breath\ncrystallized into the **W**ORD.* He who believes\nin all this, has also to believe in the multiple combination of\nthe seven planets of Occultism and of the Kabala, with the twelve\nzodiacal signs; to attribute, as we do, to each planet and to\neach constellation an influence which, in the words of Ely Star\n(a French Occultist), \"is proper to it, beneficent or maleficent,\nand this, after the planetary Spirit which rules it, who, in his\nturn, is capable of influencing men and things which are found\nin harmony with him and with which he has any affinity.\"\nFor these reasons, and since few believe in the foregoing, all\nthat can now be given is that in both cases the symbol of Hansa\n(whether \"I,\" \"He,\" Goose or Swan) is an important\nsymbol, representing, for instance, Divine Wisdom, Wisdom in darkness\nbeyond the reach of men. For all exoteric purposes, Hansa, as\nevery Hindu knows, is a fabulous bird, which, when given milk\nmixed with water for its food (in the allegory) separated the\ntwo, drinking the milk and leaving the water; thus showing inherent\nwisdom -- milk standing symbolically for spirit, and water for\nmatter.\n\nThat this allegory is very ancient and dates from the very earliest\narchaic period, is shown by the mention (in Bhagavata Purana)\nof a certain caste named \"Hamsa\" or \"Hansa,\"\nwhich was the \"one caste\" *par excellence*; when\nfar back in the mists of a forgotten past there was among the\nHindus only \"One Veda, One Deity, One Caste.\" There\nis also a range in the Himalayas, described in the old books as\nbeing situated north of Mount Meru, called \"Hamsa,\"\nand connected with episodes pertaining to the history of religious\nmysteries and initiations. As to the name of Kala-Hansa being\nthe supposed vehicle of Brahma-Prajapati, in the exoteric texts\nand translations of the\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* This is again similar to the doctrine of Fichte and German Pantheists.\nThe former reveres Jesus as the great teacher who inculcated the\nunity of the spirit of man with the God-Spirit (the Adwaita doctrine)\nor universal Principle. It is difficult to find a single speculation\nin Western metaphysics which has not been anticipated by Archaic\nEastern philosophy. From Kant to Herbert Spencer, it is all a\nmore or less distorted echo of the Dwaita, Adwaita, and Vedantic\ndoctrines generally.\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 80 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\nOrientalists, it is quite a mistake. Brahma, the neuter, is called\nby them Kala-Hansa and Brahma, the male, Hansa-Vahana, because\nforsooth \"his vehicle or Vahan is a swan or goose\" (vide\n\"the Hindu Classical Dictionary.\") This is a purely\nexoteric gloss. Esoterically and logically, if Brahma, the infinite,\nis all that is described by the Orientalists, namely, agreeably\nwith the Vedantic texts, an abstract deity in no way characterised\nby the description of any human attributes, and it is still maintained\nthat he or it is called Kala-Hansa -- then how can it ever become\nthe Vahan of Brahma, the manifested finite god? It is quite the\nreverse. The \"Swan or goose\" (Hansa) is the symbol of\nthat male or temporary deity, as he, the emanation of the primordial\nRay, is made to serve as a Vahan or vehicle for that divine Ray,\nwhich otherwise could not manifest itself in the Universe, being,\nantiphrastically, itself an emanation of \"Darkness\"\n-- for our human intellect, at any rate. It is Brahma, then, who\nis Kala-Hansa, and the Ray, the Hansa-Vahana.\n\nAs to the strange symbol chosen, it is equally suggestive; the\ntrue mystic significance being the idea of a universal matrix,\nfigured by the primordial waters of the \"deep,\" or the\nopening for the reception, and subsequently for the issue, of\nthat one ray (the Logos), which contains in itself the other seven\nprocreative rays or powers (the logoi or builders). Hence the\nchoice by the Rosecroix of the aquatic fowl -- whether swan or\npelican,* with seven young ones for a symbol, modified and adapted\nto the religion of every country. En-Soph is called the \"Fiery\nSoul of the Pelican\" in the Book of Numbers.** (See Part\nII. \"The Hidden Deity and its Symbols and Glyphs.\")\nAppearing with every Manvantara as Narayan, or Swayambhuva (the\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* Whether the genus of the bird be *cygnus*,* anser*,\nor* pelecanus*, it is no matter, as it is an aquatic bird\nfloating or moving on the waters like the Spirit, and then issuing\nfrom those waters to give birth to other beings. The true significance\nof the symbol of the Eighteenth Degree of the Rose-Croix is precisely\nthis, though poetised later on into the motherly feeling of the\nPelican rending its bosom to feed its seven little ones with its\nblood.\n\n** The reason why Moses forbids eating the pelican and swan, classing\nthe two among the unclean fowls, and permits eating \"bald\nlocusts, beetles, and the grasshopper after his kind\" (Leviticus\nxi. and Deuteronomy xiv.) is a purely physiological one, and has\nto do with mystic symbology only in so far as the word \"unclean,\"\nlike every other word, ought not to be read and understood literally,\nas it is esoteric like all the [[Footnote continued on next page]]\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 81 PRIMEVAL DIFFERENTIATIONS.\n\nSelf-Existent), and penetrating into the Mundane Egg, it emerges\nfrom it at the end of the divine incubation as Brahma or Prajapati,\na progenitor of the future Universe into which he expands. He\nis Purusha (spirit), but he is also Prakriti (matter). Therefore\nit is only after separating himself into two halves -- Brahma-vach\n(the female) and Brahma-Viraj (the male), that the Prajapati becomes\nthe male Brahma.\n\n-------\n\n##### STANZA III. -- Continued.\n\n9. **L**IGHT IS COLD FLAME, AND FLAME IS FIRE, AND\nTHE FIRE PRODUCES HEAT, WHICH YIELDS WATER, THE WATER OF LIFE\nIN THE GREAT MOTHER (*Chaos*)* *(*a*)*.*\n\n(*a*)* *It must be remembered that the words \"Light,\"\n\"Fire,\" and \"Flame\" used in the Stanzas have\nbeen adopted by the translators thereof from the vocabulary of\nthe old \"Fire philosophers,\"** in order to render better\nthe meaning of the archaic terms and symbols employed in the original.\nOtherwise they would have remained entirely unintelligible to\na European reader. But to a student of the Occult the terms used\nwill be sufficiently clear.\n\nAll these -- \"Light,\" \"Flame,\" \"Hot,\"\n\"Cold,\" \"Fire,\" \"Heat,\" \"Water,\"\nand the \"water of life\" are all, on our plane, the progeny;\nor as a modern physicist would say, the correlations of ELECTRICITY.\nMighty word, and a still mightier symbol! Sacred generator of\na no less sacred progeny; of fire -- the creator, the preserver\nand the destroyer; of light -- the essence of our divine ancestors;\nof flame -- the Soul of things. Electricity, the ONE Life at the\nupper rung of Being, and Astral Fluid, the Athanor of the Alchemists,\nat its lowest; GOD and DEVIL, GOOD and EVIL. . . .\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n[[Footnote continued from previous page]] rest, and may as well\nmean \"holy\" as not. It is a blind, very suggestive in\nconnection with certain superstitions -- *e.g*., that of\nthe Russian people who will not use the pigeon for food; not because\nit is \"unclean,\" but because the \"Holy Ghost\"\nis credited with having appeared under the form of a Dove.\n\n** Not the Mediaeval Alchemists, but the Magi and Fire-Worshippers,\nfrom whom the Rosicrucians or the Philosophers *per ignem*,\nthe successors of the theurgists borrowed all their ideas concerning\nFire, as a mystic and divine element.\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 82 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\nNow, why is Light called in the Stanzas \"cold flame\"?\nBecause in the order of Cosmic evolution (as taught by the Occultist),\nthe energy that actuates matter after its first formation into\natoms is generated on our plane by Cosmic heat; and because Kosmos,\nin the sense of dissociated matter, was not, before that period.\nThe first primordial matter, eternal and coeval with Space, \"which\nhas neither a beginning nor an end,\" is \"neither hot\nnor cold, but is of its own special nature,\" says the Commentary\n(Book II). Heat and cold are relative qualities and pertain to\nthe realms of the manifested worlds, which all proceed from the\nmanifested *Hyle*, which, in its absolutely latent aspect,\nis referred to as the \"cold Virgin,\" and when awakened\nto life, as the \"Mother.\" The ancient Western Cosmogonic\nmyths state that at first there was but cold mist which was the\nFather, and the prolific slime (the Mother, Ilus or Hyle), from\nwhich crept forth the Mundane snake-matter, (*Isis, *vol.\ni., p. 146). Primordial matter, then, before it emerges from the\nplane of the never-manifesting, and awakens to the thrill of action\nunder the impulse of Fohat, is but \"a cool Radiance, colourless,\nformless, tasteless, and devoid of every quality and aspect.\"\nEven such are her first-born, the \"four sons,\" who \"are\nOne, and become Seven,\" -- the entities, by whose qualifications\nand names the ancient Eastern Occultists called the four of the\nseven primal \"centres of Forces,\" or atoms, that develop\nlater into the great Cosmic \"Elements,\" now divided\ninto the seventy or so sub-elements, known to science. The four\nprimal natures of the first Dhyan Chohans, are the so-called (for\nwant of better terms) \"Akasic,\" \"Ethereal,\"\n\"Watery,\" and \"Fiery,\" answering, in the terminology\nof practical occultism, to scientific definitions of gases, which,\nto convey a clear idea to both Occultists and laymen, must be\ndefined as Parahydrogenic,* Paraoxygenic, Oxyhydrogenic, and Ozonic,\nor perhaps Nitr-ozonic; the latter forces or gases (in Occultism,\nsupersensuous, yet atomic substances) being the most effective\nand active when energising on the plane of more grossly differentiated\nmatter.** These are both electro-positive and electro-negative.\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n***[[*Para*]], \"beyond,\" outside.\n\n** Each of these and many more are probably the missing links\nof chemistry. They are known by other names in Alchemy and to\nthe Occultists who practise in phenomenal powers. It is by combining\nand recombining in a certain way (or dissociating) the \"Elements\"\nby means of astral fire that the greatest phenomena are produced.\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 83 THE WEB OF BEING.\n\n##### STANZA III. -- Continued.\n\n10. **F**ATHER-**M**OTHER SPIN A WEB\nWHOSE UPPER END IS FASTENED TO SPIRIT* *(*Purusha*)*,\n*THE LIGHT OF THE ONE DARKNESS, AND THE LOWER ONE TO MATTER\n(*Prakriti*)* *ITS* *(*the Spirit's*)*\n*SHADOWY END; AND THIS WEB IS THE UNIVERSE SPUN OUT OF THE\nTWO SUBSTANCES MADE IN ONE, WHICH IS SWABHAVAT (*a*).\n\n(*a*) In the Mandukya (Mundaka) Upanishad it is written,\n\"As a spider throws out and retracts its web, as herbs spring\nup in the ground . . . so is the Universe derived from the undecaying\none\" (I. 1. 7). Brahma, as \"the germ of unknown Darkness,\"\nis the material from which all evolves and develops \"as the\nweb from the spider, as foam from the water,\" etc. This is\nonly graphic and true, if Brahma the \"Creator\" is, as\na term, derived from the root *brih, *to increase or expand.\nBrahma \"expands\" and becomes the Universe woven out\nof his own substance.\n\nThe same idea has been beautifully expressed by Goethe, who says:\n\n\"Thus at the roaring loom of Time I ply,\n\nAnd weave for God the garment thou see'st Him by.\"\n\n-------\n\n##### STANZA III. -- Continued.\n\n`. **I**T* *(*the Web*)* *EXPANDS\nWHEN THE BREATH OF FIRE (*the Father*)* *IS UPON\nIT; IT CONTRACTS WHEN THE BREATH OF THE MOTHER (*the root of\nMatter*)* *TOUCHES IT. **T**HEN THE SONS\n(*the Elements with their respective Powers*,* or Intelligences*)*\n*DISSOCIATE AND SCATTER, TO RETURN INTO THEIR MOTHER'S BOSOM\nAT THE END OF THE \"GREAT DAY\" AND REBECOME ONE WITH\nHER (*a*). **W**HEN IT (*the Web*)*\n*IS COOLING, IT BECOMES RADIANT, ITS SONS EXPAND AND CONTRACT\nTHROUGH THEIR OWN SELVES AND HEARTS; THEY EMBRACE INFINITUDE.\n(*b*)\n\nThe expanding of the Universe under the breath of **F**IRE\nis very suggestive in the light of the \"Fire mist\" period\nof which modern science speaks so much, and knows in reality so\nlittle.\n\nGreat heat breaks up the compound elements and resolves the\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 84 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\nheavenly bodies into their primeval one element, explains the\ncommentary. \"Once disintegrated into its primal constituent\nby getting within the attraction and reach of a focus, or centre\nof heat (energy), of which many are carried about to and fro in\nspace, a body, whether alive or dead, will be vapourised and held\nin \"the bosom of the Mother\" until Fohat, gathering\na few of the clusters of Cosmic matter (nebulae) will, by giving\nit an impulse, set it in motion anew, develop the required heat,\nand then leave it to follow its own new growth.\n\nThe expanding and contracting of the Web -- *i.e., *the\nworld stuff or atoms -- expresses here the pulsatory movement;\nfor it is the regular contraction and expansion of the infinite\nand shoreless Ocean of that which we may call the noumenon of\nmatter emanated by Swabhavat, which causes the universal vibration\nof atoms. But it is also suggestive of something else. It shows\nthat the ancients were acquainted with that which is now the puzzle\nof many scientists and especially of astronomers: the cause of\nthe first ignition of matter or the world-stuff, the paradox of\nthe heat produced by the refrigerative contraction and other such\nCosmic riddles. For it points unmistakeably to a knowledge by\nthe ancients of such phenomena. \"There is heat internal and\nheat external in every atom,\" say the manuscript Commentaries,\nto which the writer has had access; \"the breath of the Father\n(or Spirit) and the breath (or heat) of the Mother (matter);\"\nand they give explanations which show that the modern theory of\nthe extinction of the solar fires by loss of heat through radiation,\nis erroneous. The assumption is false even on the Scientists'\nown admission. For as Professor Newcomb points out (Popular Astronomy,\npp. 506-508), \"by losing heat, a gaseous body contracts,\nand the heat generated by the contraction exceeds that which it\nhad to lose in order to produce the contraction.\" This paradox,\nthat a body gets hotter as the shrinking produced by its getting\ncolder is greater, led to long disputes. The surplus of heat,\nit was argued, was lost by radiation, and to assume that the temperature\nis not lowered *pari* *passu *with a decrease of volume\nunder a constant pressure, is to set at nought the law of Charles\n(Nebular Theory, Winchell). Contraction develops heat, it is true;\nbut contraction (from cooling) is incapable of developing the\nwhole amount of heat at any time existing in the mass, or even\nof maintaining a body at a constant temperature, etc. Professor\nWinchell tries to reconcile the paradox -- only a seeming one\nin fact, as\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 85 CONSCIOUS ELECTRICITY.\n\nHomer Lanes proved, -- by suggesting \"something besides heat.\"\n\"May it not be,\" he asks, \"simply a repulsion among\nthe molecules, which varies according to some law of the distance?\"\nBut even this will be found irreconcileable, unless this \"something\nbesides heat\" is ticketed \"Causeless Heat,\" the\n\"Breath of Fire,\" the all-creative Force Plus ABSOLUTE\nINTELLIGENCE, which physical science is not likely to accept.\n\nHowever it may be, the reading of this Stanza shows it, notwithstanding\nits archaic phraseology, to be more scientific than even modern\nscience.\n\n-------\n\n##### STANZA III. -- Continued.\n\n12. **T**HEN **S**VABHAVAT SENDS **F**OHAT\nTO HARDEN THE ATOMS. **E**ACH (*of these*)*\n*IS A PART OF THE WEB (*Universe*)*. ***R**EFLECTING\nTHE \"**S**ELF-**E**XISTENT **L**ORD\"\n(*Primeval Light*)* *LIKE A MIRROR, EACH BECOMES\nIN TURN A WORLD.* . . .\n\n\"Fohat hardens the atoms\"; *i.e.*, by infusing\nenergy into them: he scatters the atoms or primordial matter.\n\"He scatters himself while scattering matter into atoms\"\n(**MSS**. Commentaries.)\n\nIt is through Fohat that the ideas of the Universal Mind are impressed\nupon matter. Some faint idea of the nature of Fohat may be gathered\nfrom the appellation \"Cosmic Electricity\" sometimes\napplied to it; but to the commonly known properties of electricity\nmust, in this case, be added others, including intelligence. It\nis of interest to note that modern science has come to the conclusion,\nthat all cerebration and brain-activity are attended by electrical\nphenomena. (*For further details as to *\"*Fohat*\"*\nSee Stanza V. and Comments.*\")\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* This is said in the sense that the flame from a fire is endless,\nand that the lights of the whole Universe could be lit at one\nsimple rush-light without diminishing its flame.\n\n---------------------\n\nNext Section\n\nContents",
    "project_translation": false,
    "license": null,
    "methodology_url": null
  }
}