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    "name": "Volume I — Cosmogenesis"
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    "num": 8,
    "slug": "10-stanza-v----fohat-the-child-of-the-septenary-hierarchies-106",
    "title": "STANZA V. -- FOHAT: THE CHILD OF THE SEPTENARY HIERARCHIES ... 106",
    "of": 48,
    "words": 13178,
    "text": "## STANZA V. -- FOHAT: THE CHILD OF THE SEPTENARY HIERARCHIES ... 106\n\n\nThe Secret Doctrine by H. P. Blavatsky, Vol 1, bk 1, sec 5\n\n###### The Secret Doctrine by H. P. Blavatsky -- Vol. 1\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 106 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\n##### STANZA V.\n\n1. **T**HE **P**RIMORDIAL **S**EVEN,\nTHE FIRST SEVEN **B**REATHS OF THE **D**RAGON\nOF **W**ISDOM, PRODUCE IN THEIR TURN FROM THEIR HOLY\nCIRCUMGYRATING **B**REATHS THE **F**IERY\n**W**HIRLWIND (*a*).\n\n##### COMMENTARY.\n\n(*a*) This is, perhaps, the most difficult of all the Stanzas\nto explain. Its language is comprehensible only to him who is\nthoroughly versed in Eastern allegory and its purposely obscure\nphraseology. The question will surely be asked, \"Do the Occultists\nbelieve in all these 'Builders,' 'Lipika,' and 'Sons of Light'\nas Entities, or are they merely imageries?\" To this the answer\nis given as plainly: \"After due allowance for the imagery\nof personified Powers, we must admit the existence of these Entities,\nif we would not reject the existence of spiritual humanity within\nphysical mankind. For the hosts of these Sons of Light and 'Mind-born\nSons' of the first manifested Ray of the **U**NKNOWN\n**A**LL, are the very root of spiritual man.\"\nUnless we want to believe the unphilosophical dogma of a specially\ncreated soul for every human birth -- a fresh supply of these\npouring in daily, since \"Adam\" -- we have to admit the\noccult teachings. This will be explained in its place. Let us\nsee, now, what may be the occult meaning of this Stanza.\n\nThe Doctrine teaches that, in order to become a divine, fully\nconscious god, -- aye, even the highest -- the Spiritual primeval\n**I**NTELLIGENCES must pass through the human stage.\nAnd when we say human, this does not apply merely to our terrestrial\nhumanity, but to the mortals that inhabit any world, *i.e.*,\nto those Intelligences that have reached the appropriate equilibrium\nbetween matter and spirit, as *we *have now, since the middle\npoint of the Fourth Root Race of the Fourth Round was passed.\nEach Entity must have won for itself the right of becoming divine,\nthrough self-experience. Hegel, the great German thinker, must\nhave known or sensed intuitionally this truth when saying, as\nhe did, that the Unconscious evolved the Universe only \"in\nthe hope of attaining clear self-consciousness,\" of becoming,\nin other words, MAN; for this is also the secret meaning of the\nusual Puranic phrase about\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 107 NO MAN -- NO GOD.\n\nBrahma being constantly \"moved by the desire to create.\"\nThis explains also the hidden Kabalistic meaning of the saying:\n\"The *Breath *becomes a stone; the stone, a plant;\nthe plant, an animal; the animal, a man; the man, a spirit; and\nthe spirit, a god.\" The Mind-born Sons, the Rishis, the Builders,\netc., were all men -- of whatever forms and shapes -- in other\nworlds and the preceding Manvantaras.\n\nThis subject, being so very mystical, is therefore the most difficult\nto explain in all its details and bearings; since the whole mystery\nof evolutionary creation is contained in it. A sentence or two\nin it vividly recalls to mind similar ones in the Kabala and the\nphraseology of the King Psalmist (civ.), as both, when speaking\nof God, show him making the wind his messenger and his \"ministers\na flaming fire.\" But in the Esoteric doctrine it is used\nfiguratively. The \"fiery Wind\" is the incandescent Cosmic\ndust which only follows magnetically, as the iron filings follow\nthe magnet, the directing thought of the \"Creative Forces.\"\nYet, this cosmic dust is something more; for every atom in the\nUniverse has the potentiality of self-consciousness in it, and\nis, like the Monads of Leibnitz, a Universe in itself, and *for\n*itself.* It is an atom and an angel.*\n\nIn this connection it should be noted that one of the luminaries\nof the modern Evolutionist School, Mr. A. R. Wallace, when discussing\nthe inadequacy of \"natural selection\" as the sole factor\nin the development of physical man, practically concedes the whole\npoint here discussed. He holds that the evolution of man was directed\nand furthered by superior Intelligences, whose agency is a necessary\nfactor in the scheme of Nature. But once the operation of these\nIntelligences is admitted in one place, it is only a logical deduction\nto extend it still further. No hard and fast line can be drawn.\n\n-------\n\n##### STANZA V. -- Continued.\n\n2. **T**HEY MAKE OF HIM THE MESSENGER OF THEIR WILL\n(*a*). **T**HE **D**ZYU BECOMES\n**F**OHAT; THE **S**WIFT **S**ON\nOF* *THE **D**IVINE **S**ONS,\nWHOSE SONS ARE THE **L**IPIKA,* RUNS CIRCULAR ERRANDS.\n**H**E IS THE STEED, AND\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* The difference between the \"Builders,\" the Planetary\nSpirits, and the Lipika must not be lost sight of. (See Nos. 5\nand 6 of this Commentary.)\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 108 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\nTHE **T**HOUGHT IS THE RIDER (*i.e.*,*\nhe is under the influence of their guiding thought*)*.\n***H**E PASSES LIKE LIGHTNING THROUGH THE FIERY\nCLOUDS (*cosmic mists*)* *(*b*);* *TAKES\nTHREE, AND FIVE, AND SEVEN STRIDES THROUGH THE SEVEN REGIONS ABOVE\nAND THE SEVEN BELOW (*the world to be*)*. ***H**E\nLIFTS HIS VOICE, AND CALLS THE INNUMERABLE SPARKS (*atoms*)*\n*AND* *JOINS THEM TOGETHER (*c*).\n\n(*a*) This shows the \"Primordial Seven\" using\nfor their *Vahan *(vehicle, or the manifested subject which\nbecomes the symbol of the Power directing it), Fohat, called in\nconsequence, the \"Messenger of their will\" -- the fiery\nwhirlwind.\n\n\"Dzyu becomes Fohat\" -- the expression itself shows\nit. Dzyu is the one real (magical) knowledge, or Occult Wisdom;\nwhich, dealing with eternal truths and primal causes, becomes\nalmost omnipotence when applied in the right direction. Its antithesis\nis Dzyu-mi, that which deals with illusions and false appearances\nonly, as in our exoteric modern sciences. In this case, Dzyu is\nthe expression of the collective Wisdom of the Dhyani-Buddhas.\n\n(*b*)* *As the reader is supposed not to be acquainted\nwith the Dhyani-Buddhas, it is as well to say at once that, *according\nto the Orientalists*,* *there are five Dhyanis who\nare the \"celestial\" Buddhas, of whom the human Buddhas\nare the manifestations in the world of form and matter. Esoterically,\nhowever, the Dhyani-Buddhas are seven, of whom five only have\nhitherto manifested,* and two are to come in the sixth and seventh\nRoot-races. They are, so to speak, the eternal prototypes of the\nBuddhas who appear on this earth, each of whom has his particular\ndivine prototype. So, for instance, Amitabha is the Dhyani-Buddha\nof Gautama Sakyamuni, manifesting through him whenever this great\nSoul incarnates on earth as He did in Tzon-kha-pa.** As the synthesis\nof the seven Dhyani-Buddhas, Avalokiteswara was the first Buddha\n(the Logos), so Amitabha is the inner \"God\" of Gautama,\nwho, in China, is called Amita(-Buddha). They are, as Mr. Rhys\nDavids\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* See A. P. Sinnett's \"Esoteric Buddhism,\" 5th annotated\nedition, pp. 171-173.\n\n** The first and greatest Reformer who founded the \"Yellow-Caps,\"\nGyalugpas. He was born in the year 1355 A.D. in Amdo, and was\nthe *Avatar *of Amitabha, the celestial name of Gautama\nBuddha.\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 109 THEOGONY OF THE CREATORS.\n\ncorrectly states, \"the glorious counterparts in the mystic\nworld, free from the debasing conditions of this material life\"\nof every earthly mortal Buddha -- the liberated Manushi-Buddhas\nappointed to govern the Earth in this Round. They are the \"Buddhas\nof Contemplation,\" and are all Anupadaka (parentless), *i.e.*,\nself-born of divine essence. The exoteric teaching which says\nthat every Dhyani-Buddha has the faculty of creating from himself,\nan equally celestial son -- a Dhyani-Bodhisattva -- who, after\nthe decease of the Manushi (human) Buddha, has to carry out the\nwork of the latter, rests on the fact that owing to the highest\ninitiation performed by one overshadowed by the \"Spirit of\nBuddha\" -- (who is credited by the Orientalists with having\ncreated the five Dhyani-Buddhas!), -- a candidate becomes virtually\na Bodhisattva, created such by the High Initiator.\n\n(*c*) Fohat, being one of the most, if not the most important\ncharacter in esoteric Cosmogony, should be minutely described.\nAs in the oldest Grecian Cosmogony, differing widely from the\nlater mythology, Eros is the third person in the primeval trinity:\nChaos, Gaea, Eros: answering to the Kabalistic En-Soph (for Chaos\nis SPACE, [[***C**haino*]], \"void\") the Boundless\n**A**LL, Shekinah and the Ancient of Days, or the\nHoly Ghost; so Fohat is one thing in the yet unmanifested Universe\nand another in the phenomenal and Cosmic World. In the latter,\nhe is that Occult, electric, vital power, which, under the Will\nof the Creative Logos, unites and brings together all forms, giving\nthem the first impulse which becomes in time law. But in the unmanifested\nUniverse, Fohat is no more this, than Eros is the later brilliant\nwinged Cupid, or **L**OVE. Fohat has naught to do\nwith Kosmos yet, since Kosmos is not born, and the gods still\nsleep in the bosom of \"Father-Mother.\" He is an abstract\nphilosophical idea. He produces nothing yet by himself; he is\nsimply that potential creative power in virtue of whose action\nthe **N**OUMENON of all future phenomena divides,\nso to speak, but to reunite in a mystic supersensuous act, and\nemit the creative ray. When the \"Divine Son\" breaks\nforth, then Fohat becomes the propelling force, the active Power\nwhich causes the **O**NE to become **T**WO\nand **T**HREE -- on the Cosmic plane of manifestation.\nThe triple One differentiates into the many, and then Fohat is\ntransformed into that force which brings together the elemental\natoms and makes them aggregate and combine. We find an echo of\nthis primeval teaching\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 110 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\nin early Greek mythology. Erebos and Nux are born out of Chaos,\nand, under the action of Eros, give birth in their turn to Ether\nand Hemera, the light of the superior and the light of the inferior\nor terrestrial regions. Darkness generates light. See in the Puranas\nBrahma's \"Will\" or desire to create; and in the Phoenician\nCosmogony of Sanchoniathon the doctrine that Desire, [[*pothos*]],\nis the principle of creation.\n\nFohat is closely related to the \"ONE LIFE.\" From the\nUnknown One, the Infinite TOTALITY, the manifested ONE, or the\nperiodical, Manvantaric Deity, emanates; and this is the Universal\nMind, which, separated from its Fountain-Source, is the Demiurgos\nor the creative Logos of the Western Kabalists, and the four-faced\nBrahma of the Hindu religion. In its totality, viewed from the\nstandpoint of manifested Divine Thought in the esoteric doctrine,\nit represents the Hosts of the higher creative Dhyan Chohans.\nSimultaneously with the evolution of the Universal Mind, the concealed\nWisdom of Adi-Buddha -- the One Supreme and eternal -- manifests\nitself as Avalokiteshwara (or manifested Iswara), which is the\nOsiris of the Egyptians, the Ahura-Mazda of the Zoroastrians,\nthe Heavenly Man of the Hermetic philosopher, the Logos of the\nPlatonists, and the Atman of the Vedantins.* By the action of\nthe manifested Wisdom, or Mahat, represented by these innumerable\ncentres of spiritual Energy in the Kosmos, the reflection of the\nUniversal Mind, which is Cosmic Ideation and the intellectual\nForce accompanying such ideation, becomes objectively the Fohat\nof the Buddhist esoteric philosopher. Fohat, running along the\nseven principles of **A**KASA, acts upon manifested\nsubstance or the One Element, as declared above, and by differentiating\nit into various centres of Energy, sets in motion the law of Cosmic\nEvolution, which, in obedience to the Ideation of the Universal\nMind, brings into existence all the various states of being in\nthe manifested Solar System.\n\nThe Solar System, brought into existence by these agencies, consists\nof Seven Principles, like everything else within these centres.\nSuch is the teaching of the trans-Himalayan Esotericism. Every\nphilosophy, however, has its own way of dividing these principles.\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* Mr. Subba Row seems to identify him with, and to call him, the\n**L**OGOS. (See his four lectures on the \"Bhagavadgita\"\nin the Theosophist.)\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 111 THE PROTEAN SPIRIT-SUBSTANCE.\n\nFohat, then, is the personified electric vital power, the transcendental\nbinding Unity of all Cosmic Energies, on the unseen as on the\nmanifested planes, the action of which resembles -- on an immense\nscale -- that of a living Force created by WILL, in those phenomena\nwhere the seemingly subjective acts on the seemingly objective\nand propels it to action. Fohat is not only the living Symbol\nand Container of that Force, but is looked upon by the Occultists\nas an Entity -- the forces he acts upon being cosmic, human and\nterrestrial, and exercising their influence on all those planes\nrespectively. On the earthly plane his influence is felt in the\nmagnetic and active force generated by the strong desire of the\nmagnetizer. On the Cosmic, it is present in the constructive power\nthat carries out, in the formation of things -- from the planetary\nsystem down to the glow-worm and simple daisy -- the plan in the\nmind of nature, or in the Divine Thought, with regard to the development\nand growth of that special thing. He is, metaphysically, the objectivised\nthought of the gods; the \"Word made flesh,\" on a lower\nscale, and the messenger of Cosmic and human ideations: the active\nforce in Universal Life. In his secondary aspect, Fohat is the\nSolar Energy, the electric vital fluid,* and the preserving fourth\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]]\n\n* In 1882 the President of the Theosophical Society, Col. Olcott,\nwas taken to task for asserting in one of his lectures that Electricity\nis matter. Such, nevertheless, is the teaching of the Occult Doctrine.\n\"Force,\" \"Energy,\" may be a better name for\nit, so long as European Science knows so little about its true\nnature; yet matter it is, as much as Ether is matter, since it\nis as atomic, though several removes from the latter. It seems\nridiculous to argue that because a thing is imponderable to Science,\ntherefore it cannot be called matter. Electricity is \"immaterial\"\nin the sense that its molecules are not subject to perception\nand experiment; yet it may be -- and Occultism says it is -- atomic;\ntherefore it is matter. But even supposing it were unscientific\nto speak of it in such terms, once Electricity is called in Science\na source of Energy, Energy simply, and a Force -- where is that\nForce or that Energy which can be thought of without thinking\nof matter? Maxwell, a mathematician and one of the greatest authorities\nupon Electricity and its phenomena, said, years ago, that Electricity\nwas matter, not motion merely. \"If we accept the hypothesis\nthat the elementary substances are composed of atoms we cannot\navoid concluding that electricity also, positive as well as negative,\nis divided into definite elementary portions, which behave like\natoms of electricity.\" (Helmholtz, *Faraday Lecture, *1881).\nWe will go further than that, and assert that Electricity is not\nonly Substance but that it is an emanation from an Entity, which\nis neither God nor Devil, but one of the numberless Entities that\nrule and guide our world according to the eternal Law of **K**ARMA.\n(See the Addendum to this Book.)\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 112 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\nprinciple, the animal Soul of Nature, so to say, or -- Electricity.\nIn India, Fohat is connected with Vishnu and Surya in the early\ncharacter of the (first) God; for Vishnu is not a high god in\nthe Rig Veda. The name Vishnu is from the root *vish*,*\n*\"to pervade,\" and Fohat is called the \"Pervader\"\nand the Manufacturer, because he shapes the atoms from crude material.*\nIn the sacred texts of the Rig Veda, Vishnu, also, is \"a\nmanifestation of the Solar Energy,\" and he is described as\nstriding through the Seven regions of the Universe in three steps,\nthe Vedic God having little in common with the Vishnu of later\ntimes. Therefore the two are identical in this particular feature,\nand one is the copy of the other.\n\nThe \"three and seven\" strides refer to the Seven spheres\ninhabited by man, of the esoteric Doctrine, as well as to the\nSeven regions of the Earth. Notwithstanding the frequent objections\nmade by would-be Orientalists, the Seven Worlds or spheres of\nour planetary chain are distinctly referred to in the exoteric\nHindu scriptures. But how strangely all these numbers are connected\nwith like numbers in other Cosmogonies and with their symbols,\ncan be seen from comparisons and parallelisms made by students\nof old religions. The \"three strides of Vishnu\" through\nthe \"seven regions of the Universe,\" of the Rig Veda,\nhave been variously explained by commentators as meaning \"fire,\nlightning and the Sun\" cosmically; and as having been taken\nin the Earth, the atmosphere, and the sky; also as the \"three\nsteps\" of the dwarf (Vishnu's incarnation), though more philosophically\n-- and in the astronomical sense, very correctly -- they are explained\nby Aurnavabha as being the various positions of the sun, rising,\nnoon, and setting. Esoteric philosophy alone explains it clearly,\nand the Zohar laid it down very philosophically and comprehensively.\nIt is said and plainly demonstrated therein that in the beginning\nthe Elohim (Elhim) were called Echod, \"one,\" or the\n\"Deity is one in many,\" a very simple idea in a pantheistic\nconception (in its philosophical sense, of course). Then came\nthe change, \"Jehovah is Elohim,\" thus unifying the multiplicity\nand taking the first step towards Monotheism. Now to the query,\n\"How is Jehovah Elohim?\" the answer is, \"By three\nSteps\" from below.\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* It is well known that sand, when placed on a metal plate in\nvibration assumes a series of regular curved figures of various\ndescriptions. Can Science give a *complete *explanation\nof this fact?\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 113 THE CORRELATION OF THE GODS.\n\nThe meaning is plain.* They are all symbols, and emblematic, mutually\nand correlatively, of Spirit, Soul and Body (MAN); of the circle\ntransformed into Spirit, the Soul of the World, and its body (or\nEarth). Stepping out of the Circle of Infinity, that no man comprehendeth,\nAin-Soph (the Kabalistic synonym for Parabrahm, for the Zeroana\nAkerne, of the Mazdeans, or for any other \"**U**NKNOWABLE\")\nbecomes \"One\" -- the **E**CHOD, the **E**KA,\nthe **A**HU -- then he (or it) is transformed by\nevolution into the One in many, the Dhyani-Buddhas or the Elohim,\nor again the Amshaspends, his third Step being taken into generation\nof the flesh, or \"Man.\" And from man, or Jah-Hova, \"male\nfemale,\" the *inner *divine entity becomes, on the\nmetaphysical plane, once more the Elohim.\n\nThe Kabalistic idea is identical with the Esotericism of the Archaic\nperiod. This esotericism is the common property of all, and belongs\nneither to the Aryan 5th Race, nor to any of its numerous Sub-races.\nIt cannot be claimed by the Turanians, so-called, the Egyptians,\nChinese, Chaldeans, nor any of the Seven divisions of the Fifth\nRoot Race, but really belongs to the Third and Fourth Root Races,\nwhose descendants we find in the Seed of the Fifth, the earliest\nAryans. The Circle was with every nation the symbol of the Unknown\n-- \"Boundless Space,\" the abstract garb of an ever present\nabstraction -- the Incognisable Deity. It represents limitless\nTime in Eternity. The Zeroana Akerne is also the \"Boundless\nCircle of the Unknown Time,\" from which Circle issues the\nradiant light -- the Universal **S**UN, or Ormazd**\n-- and the latter\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* The numbers 3, 5, and 7 are prominent in speculative masonry,\nas shown in \"Isis.\" A mason writes: -- \"There are\nthe 3, 5,* *and 7 steps to show a circular walk. The three\nfaces of 3, 3; 5,* *3; and 7, 3; etc., etc. Sometimes it\ncomes in this form -- 753/2 = 376.5 and 7635/2 = 3817.5 and the\nratio of 20612/6561 feet for cubit measure gives the Great Pyramid\nmeasures,\" etc., etc. Three, five and seven are mystical\nnumbers, and the last and the first are as greatly honoured by\nMasons as by the Parsis -- the triangle being a symbol of Deity\neverywhere. (See the *Masonic Cyclopedia*, and* *\"*Pythagorean\nTriangle*,\"* *Oliver.) As a matter of course,\ndoctors of divinity (Cassel, for instance) show the Zohar explaining\nand supporting the Christian trinity (!). It is the latter, however,\nthat had its origin from the\nof the Heathen, in the Archaic Occultism and Symbology. The three\nstrides relate metaphysically to the descent of Spirit into matter,\nof the Logos falling as a ray into the Spirit, then into the Soul,\nand finally into the human physical form of man, in which it becomes\n**L**IFE.\n\n** Ormazd is the Logos, the \"First Born\" and the Sun.\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 114 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\nis identical with Kronos, in his AEolian form, that of a Circle.\nFor the circle is Sar, and Saros, or cycle, and was the Babylonian\ngod whose circular horizon was the visible symbol of the invisible,\nwhile the sun was the ONE Circle from which proceeded the Cosmic\norbs, and of which he was considered the leader. Zero-ana, is\nthe Chakra or circle of Vishnu, the mysterious emblem which is,\naccording to the definition of a mystic, \"a curve of such\na nature that as to any, the least possible part thereof, if the\ncurve be protracted either way it will proceed and finally re-enter\nupon itself, and form one and the same curve -- or that which\nwe call the circle.\" No better definition could thus be given\nof the natural symbol and the evident nature of Deity, which having\nits circumference everywhere (the boundless) has, therefore, its\ncentral point also everywhere; in other words, is in every point\nof the Universe. The invisible Deity is thus also the Dhyan Chohans,\nor the Rishis, the primitive seven, and the nine, without, and\nten, including, their synthetical unit; from which IT steps into\nMan. Returning to the Commentary (4) of Stanza IV. the reader\nwill understand why, while the trans-Himalayan Chakra has inscribed\nwithin it |\n| (triangle, first line,\ncube second line, and a pentacle with a dot in the centre thus:\n, and some other variations),\nthe Kabalistic circle of the Elohim reveals, when the letters\nof the word (Alhim or\nElohim) are numerically read, the famous numerals 13514, or by\nanagram 31415 -- the astronomical * *(pi) number, or the\nhidden meaning of Dhyani-Buddhas, of the Gebers, the Geborim,\nthe Kabeiri, and the Elohim, all signifying \"great men,\"\n\"Titans,\" \"Heavenly Men,\" and, on earth, \"the\ngiants.\"\n\nThe Seven was a Sacred Number with every nation; but none applied\nit to more physiologically materialistic uses than the Hebrews.\nWith these it was pre-eminently the generative number and 9 the\nmale causative one, forming as shown by the Kabalists the\nor *otz* -- \"the Tree of the Garden of Eden,\"*\nthe \"double hermaphrodite rod\" of the fourth race. Whereas\nwith the Hindus and Aryans generally, the significance was manifold,\nand related almost entirely to purely metaphysical\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* This was the symbol of the \"Holy of Holies,\" the 3\nand the 4 of sexual separation. Nearly every one of the 22 Hebrew\nletters are merely phallic symbols. Of the two letters -- as shown\nabove -- one, the *ayin, *is a *negative *female\nletter, symbolically an eye; the other a male letter, *tza*,\na *fish*-hook or a dart.\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 115 MANIFESTED SYMBOLS.\n\nand astronomical truths.* Their Rishis and gods, their Demons\nand Heroes, have historical and ethical meanings, and the Aryans\nnever made their religion rest solely on physiological symbols,\nas the old Hebrews have done. This is found in the exoteric Hindu\nScriptures. That these accounts are blinds is shown by their contradicting\neach other, a different construction being found in almost every\nPurana and epic poem. Read esoterically -- they will all yield\nthe same meaning. Thus one account enumerates Seven worlds, exclusive\nof the nether worlds, also seven in number; these fourteen upper\nand nether worlds have\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* We are told by a Kabalist, who in a work not yet published contrasts\nthe Kabala and Zohar with Aryan Esotericism, that \"The Hebrew\nclear, short, terse and exact modes far and beyond measure surpass\nthe toddling word-talk of the Hindus -- just as by parallelisms\nthe Psalmist says, 'My mouth speaks with my tongue, I know not\nthy numbers' (lxxi., 15). *. *. . The Hindu Glyph shows\nby its insufficiency in the large admixture of adventitious sides\nthe same borrowed plumage that the Greeks (the lying Greeks) had,\nand that Masonry has: which in the rough monosyllabic (and apparent)\npoverty of the Hebrew, shows the latter to have come down from\na far more remote antiquity than any of these, and to have been\nthe source (!?), or nearer the old original source than any of\nthem.\" This is entirely erroneous. Our learned brother and\ncorrespondent judges apparently the Hindu religious systems by\ntheir Shastras and Puranas, probably the latter, and in their\nmodern translation moreover, which is disfigured out of all recognition,\nby the Orientalists. It is to their philosophical systems that\none has to turn, to their esoteric teaching, if he would make\na point of comparison. No doubt the symbology of the Pentateuch\nand even of the New Testament, comes from the same source. But\nsurely the Pyramid of Cheops, whose measurements are all found\nrepeated by Professor Piazzi Smythe in Solomon's alleged and mythical\ntemple, is not of a later date than the Mosaic books? Hence, if\nthere is any such great identity as claimed, it must be due to\nservile copying on the part of the Jews, not on that of the Egyptians.\nThe Jewish glyphs -- and even their language, the Hebrew -- are\nnot original. They are borrowed from the Egyptians, from whom\nMoses got his Wisdom; from the Coptic, the probable kinsman, if\nnot parent, of the old Phoenician and from the Hyksos, their (alleged)\nancestors, as Josephus shows in his \"*Against Apion*,\"*\n*I.*, *25. Aye; but who are the Hyksos shepherds? And\nwho the Egyptians? History knows nothing of the question, and\nspeculates and theorizes out of the depths of the respective consciousnesses\nof her historians. (*See Isis Unveiled*,* *vol.\nII., p. 430-438.) \"Khamism, or old Coptic,\" says Bunsen,\n\"is from Western Asia, and contains some germ of the Semitic,\nthus bearing witness to the primitive cognate unity of the Aryan\nand Semitic races\"; and he places the great events in Egypt\n9,000 years **B.C**. The fact is that in archaic\nEsotericism and Aryan thought we find a grand philosophy, whereas\nin the Hebrew records we find only the most surprising ingenuity\nin inventing apotheoses for phallic worship and sexual theogony.\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 116 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\nnothing to do with the classification of the septenary chain and\nbelong to the purely aethereal, invisible worlds. These will be\nnoticed elsewhere. Suffice for the present to show that they are\npurposely referred to as though they belonged to the chain. \"Another\nenumeration calls the Seven worlds -- earth, sky, heaven, middle\nregion, place of birth, mansion of the blest, and abode of truth;\nplacing the 'Sons of Brahma' in the sixth division, and stating\nthe fifth, or Jana Loka, to be that where animals destroyed in\nthe general conflagration are born again.\" (see* Hindu\nClassical Dictionary.*)* *Some real esoteric teaching\nis given in the \"Symbolism.\" He who is prepared for\nit will understand the hidden meaning.\n\n-------\n\n##### STANZA V. -- Continued.\n\n3. **H**E IS THEIR GUIDING SPIRIT AND LEADER. **W**HEN\nHE COMMENCES WORK, HE SEPARATES THE SPARKS OF THE LOWER KINGDOM\n(*mineral* *atoms*)* *THAT FLOAT AND THRILL\nWITH JOY IN THEIR RADIANT DWELLINGS (*gaseous clouds*)*,\n*AND FORMS THEREWITH THE GERMS OF WHEELS. **H**E\nPLACES THEM IN THE SIX DIRECTIONS OF SPACE AND ONE IN THE MIDDLE\n-- THE CENTRAL WHEEL (*a*).\n\n(*a*) \"Wheels,\" as already explained, are the\ncentres of force, around which primordial Cosmic matter expands,\nand, passing through all the six stages of consolidation, becomes\nspheroidal and ends by being transformed into globes or spheres.\nIt is one of the fundamental dogmas of Esoteric Cosmogony, that\nduring the Kalpas (or aeons) of life, MOTION, which, during the\nperiods of Rest \"pulsates and thrills through every slumbering\natom\"* (Commentary on Dzyan), assumes an evergrowing\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n*It may be asked, as also the writer has not failed to ask, \"Who\nis there to ascertain the difference in that motion, since all\nnature is reduced to its primal essence, and there can be no one\n-- not even one of the Dhyani-Chohans, who are all in Nirvana\n-- to see it?\" The answer to this is: \"Everything in\nNature has to be judged by analogy. Though the highest Deities\n(Archangels or Dhyani-Buddhas) are unable to penetrate the mysteries\ntoo far beyond our planetary system and the visible Kosmos, yet\nthere were great seers and prophets in olden times who were enabled\nto perceive the mystery of Breath and Motion retrospectively,\nwhen the systems of worlds were at rest and plunged in their periodic\nsleep.\"\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 117 THE ANTIQUITY OF PHYSICAL SCIENCES.\n\ntendency, from the first awakening of Kosmos to a new \"Day,\"\nto circular movement. The \"Deity becomes a WHIRLWIND.\"\nThey are also called Rotae -- the moving wheels of the celestial\norbs participating in the world's creation -- when the meaning\nrefers to the animating principle of the stars and planets; for\nin the Kabala, they are represented by the Ophanim, the Angels\nof the Spheres and stars, of which they are the informing Souls.\n(See *Kabala Denudata*,* *\"*De Anima*,\"*\n*p. 113.)\n\nThis law of vortical movement in primordial matter, is one of\nthe oldest conceptions of Greek philosophy, whose first historical\nSages were nearly all Initiates of the Mysteries. The Greeks had\nit from the Egyptians, and the latter from the Chaldeans, who\nhad been the pupils of Brahmins of the esoteric school. Leucippus,\nand Democritus of Abdera -- the pupil of the Magi -- taught that\nthis gyratory movement of the atoms and spheres existed from eternity.*\nHicetas, Heraclides, Ecphantus, Pythagoras, and all his pupils,\ntaught the rotation of the earth; and Aryabhata of India, Aristarchus,\nSeleucus, and Archimedes calculated its revolution as scientifically\nas the astronomers do now; while the theory of the Elemental Vortices\nwas known to Anaxagoras, and maintained by him 500 years B.C.,\nor nearly 2,000 before it was taken up by Galileo, Descartes,\nSwedenborg, and finally, with slight modifications, by Sir W.\nThomson. (See his* *\"*Vortical Atoms.*\")*\n*All such knowledge, if justice be only done to it, is an\necho of the archaic doctrine, an attempt to explain which is now\nbeing made. How men of the last few centuries have come to the\nsame ideas and conclusions that were taught as axiomatic truths\nin the secrecy of the Adyta dozens of\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n*\"The doctrine of the rotation of the earth about an axis\nis taught by the Pythagorean Hicetas, probably as early as 500\n**B.C**. It was also taught by his pupil Ecphantus,\nand by Heraclides, a pupil of Plato. The immobility of the Sun\nand the orbital rotation of the earth were shown by Aristarchus\nof Samos as early as 281 **B.C**. to be suppositions\naccordant with facts of observation. The Heliocentric theory was\ntaught about 150 **B.C**., by Seleucus of Seleucia\non the Tigris. -- [It was taught 500 **B.C**. by\nPythagoras. -- **H. P. B**.] It is said also that\nArchimedes, in a work entitled Psammites, inculcated the Heliocentric\ntheory. The sphericity of the earth was distinctly taught by Aristotle,\nwho appealed for proof to the figure of the Earth's shadow on\nthe moon in eclipses (Aristotle, De Coelo, lib. II, cap. XIV.).\nThe same idea was defended by Pliny (Nat. Hist., II., 65). These\nviews seem to have been lost from knowledge for more than a thousand\nyears. . . *.*\"* *(*Comparative Geology*,\nPart IV., \"Pre-Kantian Speculation,\" p. 551, by Alex.\nWinchell, **LL.D**.).\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 118 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\nmillenniums ago, is a question that is treated separately. Some\nwere led to it by the natural progress in physical science and\nby independent observation; others -- such as Copernicus, Swedenborg,\nand a few more -- their great learning notwithstanding, owed their\nknowledge far more to intuitive than to acquired ideas, developed\nin the usual way by a course of study.* (See \"A Mystery about\nBuddha.\")\n\nBy the \"Six directions of Space\" is here meant the \"Double\nTriangle,\" the junction and blending together of pure Spirit\nand Matter, of the Arupa and the Rupa, of which the Triangles\nare a Symbol. This double Triangle is a sign of Vishnu, as it\nis Solomon's seal, and the Sri-Antara of the Brahmins.\n\n-------\n\n##### STANZA V. -- (Continued.)\n\n4. **F**OHAT TRACES SPIRAL LINES TO UNITE THE SIX\nTO THE SEVENTH -- THE CROWN (*a*);* *AN **A**RMY\nOF THE **S**ONS OF **L**IGHT STANDS\nAT EACH ANGLE (*and*)* *THE **L**IPIKA\n-- IN THE MIDDLE WHEEL. **T**HEY (*the Lipika*)*\n*SAY,* *\"**T**HIS IS GOOD\" (*b*).\n**T**HE FIRST DIVINE WORLD IS READY, THE FIRST (*is\nnow*), THE SECOND (*world*),* *THEN THE \"**D**IVINE\n**A**RUPA\" (*the formless Universe*\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* That Swedenborg, who could not possibly have known anything\nof the esoteric ideas of Buddhism, came independently near the\nOccult teaching in his general conceptions, is shown by his essay\non the Vortical Theory. In Clissold's translation of it, quoted\nby Prof. Winchell, we find the following *resume*: -- \"The\nfirst Cause is the Infinite or Unlimited. This gives existence\nto the First Finite or Limited.\" (The Logos in His manifestation\nand the Universe.) \"That which produces a limit is analogous\nto motion. (See first Stanza, *supra*.) The limit produced\nis a point, the Essence of which is Motion; but being without\nparts, this Essence is not actual Motion, but only a connatus\nto it.\" (In our Doctrine it is not a \"connatus,\"\nbut a change from eternal vibration in the unmanifested, to Vortical\nMotion in the phenomenal or manifested World). . . \"From\nthis first proceed Extension, Space, Figure, and Succession, or\nTime. As in Geometry a point generates a line, a line a surface,\nand a surface a solid, so here the connatus of a point tends towards\nlines, surfaces and solids. In other words, the Universe is contained\n*in ovo *in the first natural point . . . the Motion toward\nwhich the connatus tends, is circular, since the circle is the\nmost perfect of all figures . . . The most perfect figure of a\nMotion *. . *. must be the perpetually circular, that is\nto say, it must proceed from the centre to the periphery and from\nthe periphery to the centre.\" (Quoted from *Principia\nRerum Naturalia.*)* *This is Occultism pure and simple.\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 119 THE EVOLUTION OF THE PRINCIPLES.\n\n*of Thought*)* *REFLECTS ITSELF IN **C**HHAYALOKA\n(*the shadowy* *world of primal form*,* or the\nintellectual*)* *THE FIRST GARMENT OF (*the*)\nANUPADAKA (*c*)*.*\n\n(*a*) This tracing of \"Spiral lines\" refers to\nthe evolution of man's as well as Nature's principles; an evolution\nwhich takes place gradually (as will be seen in Book II., on \"The\norigin of the Human Races\"), as does everything else in nature.\nThe Sixth principle in Man (Buddhi, the Divine Soul) though a\nmere breath, in our conceptions, is still something material when\ncompared with divine \"Spirit\" (Atma) of which it is\nthe carrier or vehicle. Fohat, in his capacity of **D**IVINE\n**L**OVE (*Eros*), the electric Power of affinity\nand sympathy, is shown allegorically as trying to bring the pure\nSpirit, the Ray inseparable from the ONE absolute, into union\nwith the Soul, the two constituting in Man the **M**ONAD,\nand in Nature the first link between the ever unconditioned and\nthe manifested. \"The first is now the second\" (world)\n-- of the Lipikas -- has reference to the same.\n\n(*b*)* *The \"Army\" at each angle is the\nHost of angelic Beings (Dhyan-Chohans) appointed to guide and\nwatch over each respective region from the beginning to the end\nof Manvantara. They are the \"Mystic Watchers\" of the\nChristian Kabalists and Alchemists, and relate, symbolically as\nwell as cosmogonically, to the numerical system of the Universe.\nThe numbers with which these celestial Beings are connected are\nextremely difficult to explain, as each number refers to several\ngroups of distinct ideas, according to the particular group of\n\"Angels\" which it is intended to represent. Herein lies\nthe *nodus *in the study of symbology, with which, unable\nto untie by disentangling it, so many scholars have preferred\ndealing as Alexander dealt with the Gordian knot; hence erroneous\nconceptions and teachings, as a direct result.\n\nThe \"First is the Second,\" because the \"First\"\ncannot really be numbered or regarded as the First, as that is\nthe realm of noumena in its primary manifestation: the threshold\nto the World of Truth, or **S**AT, through which\nthe direct energy that radiates from the ONE REALITY -- the Nameless\nDeity -- reaches us. Here again, the untranslateable term **S**AT\n(*Be-ness*)* *is likely to lead into an erroneous\nconception, since that which is manifested cannot be **S**AT,\nbut is something phenomenal, not everlasting, nor, in truth, even\nsempiternal. It is coeval and\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 120 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\ncoexistent with the One Life, \"Secondless,\" but as a\nmanifestation it is still a Maya -- like the rest. This \"World\nof Truth\" can be described only in the words of the Commentary\nas \"A bright star dropped from the heart of Eternity; the\nbeacon of hope on whose Seven Rays hang the Seven Worlds of Being.\"\nTruly so; since those are the Seven Lights whose reflections are\nthe human immortal Monads -- the Atma, or the irradiating Spirit\nof every creature of the human family. First, this septenary Light;\nthen: --\n\n(*c*) The \"Divine World\" -- the countless Lights\nlit at the primeval Light -- the Buddhis, or formless divine Souls,\nof the last Arupa (formless) world; the \"Sum Total,\"\nin the mysterious language of the old Stanza. In the Catechism,\nthe Master is made to ask the pupil: --\n\n\"*Lift thy head, oh Lanoo; dost thou see one, or countless\nlights above thee, burning in the dark midnight sky?*\"\n\n\"*I sense one Flame, oh Gurudeva, I see countless undetached\nsparks shining in it.*\"\n\n\"*Thou sayest well. And now look around and into thyself.\nThat light which burns inside thee, dost thou feel it different\nin anywise from the light that shines in thy Brother-men?*\"\n\n\"*It is in no way different, though the prisoner is held\nin bondage by Karma, and though its outer garments delude the\nignorant into saying, *'*Thy Soul and My Soul.*' \"\n\nThe radical unity of the ultimate essence of each constituent\npart of compounds in Nature -- from Star to mineral Atom, from\nthe highest Dhyan Chohan to the smallest infusoria, in the fullest\nacceptation of the term, and whether applied to the spiritual,\nintellectual, or physical worlds -- this is the one fundamental\nlaw in Occult Science. \"The Deity is boundless and infinite\nexpansion,\" says an Occult axiom; and hence, as remarked,\nthe name of Brahma.* There is a deep philosophy underlying the\nearliest worship in the world, that of the Sun and of Fire. Of\nall the Elements known to physical science, Fire is the one that\nhas ever eluded definite analysis. It is confidently asserted\nthat\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* In the Rig Veda we find the names *Brahmanaspati *and*\nBrihaspati *alternating and equivalent to each other. Also\nsee \"Brihad Upanishad\"; Brihaspati is a deity called\n\"the Father of the gods.\"\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 121 THE MYSTERY OF THE FIRE.\n\nAir is a mixture containing the gases Oxygen and Nitrogen. We\nview the Universe and the Earth as matter composed of definite\nchemical molecules. We speak of the primitive ten Earths, endowing\neach with a Greek or Latin name. We say that water is, chemically,\na compound of Oxygen and Hydrogen. But what is **F**IRE?\nIt is the effect of combustion, we are gravely answered. It is\nheat and light and motion, and a correlation of physical and chemical\nforces in general. And this scientific definition is philosophically\nsupplemented by the theological one in Webster's Dictionary, which\nexplains fire as \"the instrument of punishment, or the punishment\nof the impenitent in another state\" -- the \"state,\"\nby the bye, being supposed to be spiritual; but, alas! the presence\nof fire would seem to be a convincing proof of its material nature.\nYet, speaking of the illusion of regarding phenomena as simple,\nbecause they are familiar, Professor Bain says (*Logic. *Part\nII.): \"Very familiar facts seem to stand in no need of explanation\nthemselves and to be the means of explaining whatever can be assimilated\nto them. Thus, the boiling and evaporation of a liquid is supposed\nto be a very simple phenomenon requiring no explanation, and a\nsatisfactory explanation of rarer phenomena. That water should\ndry up is, to the uninstructed mind, a thing wholly intelligible;\nwhereas to the man acquainted with physical science the liquid\nstate is anomalous and inexplicable. The lighting of a fire by\na flame is a GREAT SCIENTIFIC DIFFICULTY, yet few people think\nso\" (p. 125).\n\nWhat says the esoteric teaching with regard to fire? \"Fire,\"\nit says, \"is the most perfect and unadulterated reflection,\nin Heaven as on Earth, of the **O**NE **F**LAME.\nIt is Life and Death, the origin and the end of every material\nthing. It is divine '**S**UBSTANCE.' \" Thus,\nnot only the **F**IRE-**W**ORSHIPPER,\nthe Parsee, but even the wandering savage tribes of America, which\nproclaim themselves \"born of fire,\" show more science\nin their creeds and truth in their superstitions, than all the\nspeculations of modern physics and learning. The Christian who\nsays: \"God is a living Fire,\" and speaks of the Pentecostal\n\"Tongues of Fire\" and of the \"burning bush\"\nof Moses, is as much a fire-worshipper as any other \"heathen.\"\nThe Rosicrucians, among all the mystics and Kabalists, were those\nwho defined Fire in the right and most correct way. Procure a\nsixpenny lamp, keep it only supplied with oil, and you will be\nable to light at its flame the lamps, candles,\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 122 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\nand fires of the whole globe without diminishing that flame. If\nthe Deity, the radical One, is eternal and an infinite substance\n(\"the Lord thy God is a consuming fire\") and never consumed,\nthen it does not seem reasonable that the Occult teaching should\nbe held as unphilosophical when it says: \"Thus were the Arupa\nand Rupa worlds formed: from **O**NE light seven\nlights; from each of the seven, seven times seven,\" etc.,\netc.\n\n-------\n\n##### STANZA V. -- Continued.\n\n5. **F**OHAT TAKES FIVE STRIDES (*having already\ntaken the first three*)* *(*a*)*, *AND\nBUILDS A WINGED WHEEL AT EACH CORNER OF THE SQUARE FOR THE FOUR\nHOLY ONES . . . . . AND THEIR ARMIES (*hosts*)* *(*b*)*.*\n\n(*a*) The \"strides,\" as already explained (see\nCommentary on Stanza **IV**.), refer to both the\nCosmic and the Human principles -- the latter of which consist,\nin the exoteric division, of three (Spirit, Soul, and Body), and,\nin the esoteric calculation, of seven principles -- three rays\nof the Essence and four aspects.* Those who have studied Mr. Sinnett's\n\"*Esoteric Buddhism*\"* *can easily grasp\nthe nomenclature. There are two esoteric schools -- or rather\none school, divided into two parts -- one for the inner Lanoos,\nthe other for the outer or semi-lay chelas beyond the Himalayas;\nthe first teaching a septenary, the other a six-fold division\nof human principles.\n\nFrom a Cosmic point of view, Fohat taking \"five strides\"\nrefers here to the five upper planes of Consciousness and Being,\nthe sixth and the seventh (counting downwards) being the astral\nand the terrestrial, or the two lower planes.\n\n(*b*) \"Four winged wheels at each corner . . . . .\nfor the four holy ones and their armies (hosts)\" . . . .\n. These are the \"four Maharajahs\" or great Kings of\nthe Dhyan-Chohans, the Devas who preside, each over one of the\nfour cardinal points. They are the Regents or Angels who rule\nover the Cosmical Forces of North, South,\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* The four aspects are the body, its life or vitality, and the\n\"Double\" of the body, the triad which disappears with\nthe death of the person, and the Kama-rupa which disintegrates\nin *Kama-loka.*\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 123 THE SECRET OF THE ELEMENTS.\n\nEast and West, Forces having each a distinct occult property.\nThese BEINGS are also connected with Karma, as the latter needs\nphysical and material agents to carry out her decrees, such as\nthe four kinds of winds, for instance, professedly admitted by\nScience to have their respective evil and beneficent influences\nupon the health of Mankind and every living thing. There is occult\nphilosophy in that Roman Catholic doctrine which traces the various\npublic calamities, such as epidemics of disease, and wars, and\nso on, to the invisible \"Messengers\" from North and\nWest. \"The glory of God comes from the way of the East\"\nsays Ezekiel; while Jeremiah, Isaiah, and the Psalmist assure\ntheir readers that all the evil under the Sun comes from the North\nand the West -- which proposition, when applied to the Jewish\nnation, sounds like an undeniable prophecy for themselves. And\nthis accounts also for St. Ambrose (On Amos, ch. iv.) declaring\nthat it is precisely for that reason that \"we curse the North-Wind,\nand that during the ceremony of baptism we begin by turning towards\nthe West (Sidereal), to renounce the better him who inhabits it;\nafter which we turn to the East.\"\n\nBelief in the \"Four Maharajahs\" -- the Regents of the\nFour cardinal points -- was universal and is now that of Christians,*\nwho call them, after St. Augustine, \"Angelic Virtues,\"\nand \"Spirits\" when enumerated by themselves, and \"Devils\"\nwhen named by Pagans. But where is the difference between the\nPagans and the Christians in this cause? Following Plato, Aristotle\nexplained that the term [[*stoicheia*]] was understood\nonly as meaning the incorporeal principles placed at each of the\nfour great divisions of our Cosmical world to supervise them.\nThus, no more than the Christians did, do they *adore *and*\nworship *the Elements and the cardinal (imaginary) points,\nbut the \"gods\" that ruled these respectively. For the\nChurch there are two kinds of Sidereal beings, the\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* Says the scholarly Vossius, in his Theol. Cir. I. VII.: \"Though\nSt. Augustine has said that every visible thing in this world\nhad an angelic virtue as an overseer near it, it is not individuals\nbut entire species of things that must be understood, each such\nspecies having indeed its particular angel to watch it. He is\nat one in this with all the philosophers . . . For us these angels\nare spirits separated from the objects . . . whereas for the philosophers\n(pagan) they were gods.\" Considering the Ritual established\nby the Roman Catholic Church for \"Spirits of the Stars,\"\nthe latter look suspiciously like \"Gods,\" and were no\nmore honoured and prayed to by the ancient and modern pagan rabble\nthan they are now at Rome by the highly cultured Catholic Christians.\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 124 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\nAngels and the Devils. For the Kabalist and Occultist there is\nbut one; and neither of them makes any difference between \"the\nRectors of Light\" and the Cosmocratores, or \"Rectores\ntenebrarum harum,\" whom the Roman Church imagines and discovers\nin a \"Rector of Light\" as soon as he is called by another\nname than the one she addresses him by. It is not the \"Rector\"\nor \"Maharajah\" who punishes or rewards, with or without\n\"God's\" permission or order, but man himself -- his\ndeeds or Karma, attracting individually and collectively (as in\nthe case of whole nations sometimes), every kind of evil and calamity.\nWe produce CAUSES, and these awaken the corresponding powers in\nthe sidereal world; which powers are magnetically and irresistibly\nattracted to -- and react upon -- those who produced these causes;\nwhether such persons are practically the evil-doers, or simply\nThinkers who brood mischief. Thought is matter,* we are taught\nby modern Science; and \"every particle of the existing matter\nmust be a register of all that has happened,\" as in their\n\"*Principles of Science*\"* *Messrs. Jevons\nand Babbage tell the profane. Modern Science is drawn more every\nday into the maelstrom of Occultism; unconsciously, no doubt,\nstill very sensibly. The two main theories of science -- *re*\nthe relations between Mind and Matter -- are Monism and Materialism.\nThese two cover the whole ground of negative psychology with the\nexception of the quasi-occult views of the pantheistic German\nschools.**\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* Not of course in the sense of the German Materialist Moleschott,\nwho assures us that \"Thought is the movement of matter,\"\na statement of almost unequalled absurdity. Mental states and\nbodily states are utterly contrasted as such. But that does not\naffect the position that every thought, in addition to its physical\naccompaniment (brain-change), exhibits an objective -- though\nto us supersensuously objective -- aspect on the astral plane.\n(See \"The Occult World,\" pp. 89, 90.)\n\n** The views of our present-day scientific thinkers as to the\nrelations between mind and matter may be reduced to two hypotheses.\nThese show that both views equally exclude the possibility of\nan independent Soul, distinct from the physical brain through\nwhich it functions. They are: --\n\n(1.) **M**ATERIALISM, the theory which regards mental\nphenomena as the product of molecular change in the brain; *i.e.*,\nas the outcome of a transformation of motion into feeling (!).\nThe cruder school once went so far as to identify mind with a\n\"peculiar mode of motion\" (!!), but this view is now\nhappily regarded as absurd by most of the men of science themselves.\n\n(2.) **M**ONISM, or the Single Substance Doctrine,\nis the more subtle form of negative psychology, which one of its\nadvocates, Professor Bain, ably terms \"guarded [[Footnote\ncontinued on next page]]\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 125 THE REAL MEANING OF THE TABERNACLE.\n\nIn the Egyptian temples, according to Clemens Alexandrinus, an\nimmense curtain separated the tabernacle from the place for the\ncongregation. The Jews had the same. In both, the curtain was\ndrawn over five pillars (the Pentacle) symbolising our five senses\nand five Root-races esoterically, while the four colours of the\ncurtain represented the four cardinal points and the four terrestrial\nelements. The whole was an allegorical symbol. It is through the\nfour high Rulers over the four points and Elements that our five\nsenses may become cognisant of the hidden truths of Nature; and\nnot at all, as Clemens would have it, that it is the elements\n*per se *that furnished the Pagans with divine Knowledge\nor the knowledge of God.* While the Egyptian emblem was spiritual,\nthat of the Jews was purely materialistic, and, indeed, honoured\nonly the blind Elements and the imaginary \"Points.\"\nFor what was the meaning of the square tabernacle raised by Moses\nin the wilderness, if it had not the same cosmical significance?\n\"Thou shalt make an hanging . . . of blue, purple, and scarlet\"\nand \"five pillars of shittim wood for the hanging . . . four\nbrazen rings in the four corners thereof . . . boards of fine\nwood for the four sides, North, South, West, and East . . . of\nthe Tabernacle . . . with Cherubims of cunning work.\" (Exodus,\nch. xxvi., xxvii.) The Tabernacle and the square courtyard, Cherubim\nand all, were precisely the same as those in the Egyptian temples.\nThe square form of the Tabernacle meant just the same thing as\nit still means, to this day, in the exoteric worship of the Chinese\nand Tibetans -- the four cardinal points signifying that which\nthe four sides of the pyramids, obelisks, and other such square\nerections mean. Josephus takes care to explain the whole thing.\nHe declares that the Tabernacle pillars are the same\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n[[Footnote continued from previous page]] Materialism.\" This\ndoctrine, which commands a very wide assent, counting among its\nupholders such men as Lewis, Spencer, Ferrier, and others, while\npositing thought and mental phenomena generally as radically contrasted\nwith matter, regards both as equal to the two sides, or aspects,\nof one and the same substance in some of its conditions. Thought\nas thought, they say, is utterly contrasted with material phenomena,\nbut it must be also regarded as only \"the subjective side\nof nervous motion\" whatever our learned men may mean by this.\n\n* Thus the sentence, \"Natura Elementorum obtinet revelationem\nDei,\" (In Clemens's *Stromata*, R. **IV**.,\npara. 6), is applicable to both or neither. Consult the Zends,\nvol II., p. 228, and Plutarch *De Iside*,* *as compared\nby Layard, *Academie des Inscriptions*,* *1854,\nVol. **XV.**\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 126 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\nas those raised at Tyre to the four Elements, which were placed\non pedestals whose four angles faced the four cardinal points:\nadding that \"the angles of the pedestals had equally the\nfour figures of the Zodiac\" on them, which represented the\nsame orientation (*Antiquities I., *VIII., ch. xxii.).\n\nThe idea may be traced in the Zoroastrian caves, in the rock-cut\ntemples of India, as in all the sacred square buildings of antiquity\nthat have survived to this day. This is shown definitely by Layard,\nwho finds the four cardinal points, and the four primitive elements,\nin the religion of every country, under the shape of square obelisks,\nthe four sides of the pyramids, etc., etc. Of these elements and\ntheir points the four Maharajahs were the regents and the directors.\n\nIf the student would know more of them, he has but to compare\nthe Vision of Ezekiel (chap. i.) with what is known of Chinese\nBuddhism (even in its exoteric teachings); and examine the outward\nshape of these \"Great Kings.\" In the opinion of the\nRev. Joseph Edkins, they are \"the Devas who preside each\nover one of the four continents into which the Hindus divide the\nworld.\"* Each leads an army of spiritual beings to protect\nmankind and Buddhism. With the exception of favouritism towards\nBuddhism, the four celestial beings are precisely this. They are\nthe protectors of mankind and also the Agents of Karma on Earth,\nwhereas the Lipika are concerned with Humanity's hereafter. At\nthe same time they are the four living creatures \"who have\nthe likeness of a man\" of Ezekiel's visions, called by the\ntranslators of the Bible, \"Cherubim,\" \"Seraphim,\"\netc.; and by the Occultists, \"the winged Globes,\" the\n\"Fiery Wheels,\" and in the Hindu Pantheon by a number\nof different names. All these Gandharvas, the \"Sweet Songsters,\"\nthe Asuras, Kinnaras, and Nagas, are the allegorical descriptions\nof the \"four Maharajahs.\" The Seraphim are the fiery\nSerpents of Heaven which we find in a passage describing Mount\nMeru as: \"the exalted mass of glory, the venerable haunt\nof gods and heavenly choristers . . . . not to be reached by sinful\nmen . . . . because guarded by Serpents.\" They are called\nthe Avengers, and the \"Winged Wheels.\"\n\nTheir mission and character being explained, let us see what the\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n*The Hindus happen to divide the world into seven continents,\nexoterically as esoterically; and their four cosmic Devas are\neight, presiding over the eight points of the compass and not\nthe Continents. (Compare \"Chinese Buddhism,\" p. 216.)\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 127 THE DRAGONS OF SECRET WISDOM.\n\nChristian Bible-interpreters say of the Cherubim: -- \"The\nword signifies in Hebrew, fullness of knowledge; these angels\nare so called from their exquisite Knowledge, and were therefore\nused for the punishment of men who affected divine Knowledge.\"\n(Interpreted by Cruden in his Concordance, from Genesis iii.,\n24.) Very well; and vague as the information is, it shows that\nthe Cherub placed at the gate of the garden of Eden after the\n\"Fall,\" suggested to the venerable Interpreters the\nidea of punishment connected with forbidden Science or divine\nKnowledge -- one that generally leads to another \"Fall,\"\nthat of the gods, or \"God,\" in man's estimation. But\nas the good old Cruden knew nought of Karma, he may be forgiven.\nYet the allegory is suggestive. From Meru, the abode of gods,\nto Eden, the distance is very small, and from the Hindu Serpents\nto the Ophite Cherubim, the third out of the seven of which was\nthe Dragon, the separation is still smaller, for both watched\nthe entrance to the realm of Secret Knowledge. But Ezekiel plainly\ndescribes the four Cosmic Angels: \"I looked, and behold,\na whirlwind, a cloud and fire infolding it . . . also out of the\nmidst thereof came the likeness of four living creatures . . .\nthey had the likeness of a man. And every one had four faces and\nfour wings . . . the face of a man, and the face of a lion, the\nface of an ox, and the face of an eagle . . . \" (\"Man\"\nwas here substituted for \"Dragon.\" Compare the \"*Ophite\nSpirits.*\"***) . . . \"Now as I beheld the\nliving creatures behold one wheel upon the Earth with his four\nfaces . . . as it were a wheel in the middle of a wheel . . .\nfor the support of the living creature was in the wheel . . .\ntheir appearance was like coals of fire . . .\" etc. (Ezekiel,\nch. i.)\n\nThere are three chief groups of Builders and as many of the Planetary\nSpirits and the Lipika, each group being again divided into Seven\nsub-groups. It is impossible, even in such a large work as this,\nto enter into a minute examination of even the three principal\ngroups, as it would demand an extra volume. The \"Builders\"\nare the representatives of the first \"Mind-Born\" Entities,\ntherefore of the primeval Rishi-Prajapati: also of the Seven great\nGods of Egypt, of which Osiris is the chief: of the Seven Amshaspends\nof the Zoroastrians, with\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* The Angels recognised by the Roman Catholic Church who correspond\nto these \"Faces\" were with the Ophites: -- Dragon --\nRaphael; Lion -- Michael; Bull, or ox -- Uriel; and Eagle -- Gabriel.\nThe four keep company with the four Evangelists, and preface the\nGospels.\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 128 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\nOrmazd at their head: or the \"Seven Spirits of the Face\":\nthe Seven Sephiroth separated from the first Triad, etc., etc.*\n\nThey build or rather rebuild every \"System\" after the\n\"Night.\" The Second group of the Builders is the Architect\nof our planetary chain exclusively; and the third, the progenitor\nof our Humanity -- the Macrocosmic prototype of the microcosm.\n\nThe Planetary Spirits are the informing spirits of the Stars in\ngeneral, and of the Planets especially. They rule the destinies\nof men who are all born under one or other of their constellations;\nthe second and third groups pertaining to other systems have the\nsame functions, and all rule various departments in Nature. In\nthe Hindu exoteric Pantheon they are the guardian deities who\npreside over the eight points of the compass -- the four cardinal\nand the four intermediate points -- and are called *Loka-Palas*,\n\"Supporters or guardians of the World\" (in our visible\nKosmos), of which Indra (East), Yama (South), Varuna (West), and\nKuvera (North) are the chief; their elephants and their spouses\npertaining of course to fancy and afterthought, though all of\nthem have an occult significance.\n\nThe Lipika (a description of whom is given in the Commentary on\nStanza **IV**. No. 6) are the Spirits of the Universe,\nwhereas the Builders are only our own planetary deities. The former\nbelong to the most occult portion of Cosmogenesis, which cannot\nbe given here. Whether the Adepts (even the highest) know this\nangelic order in the completeness of its triple degrees, or only\nthe lower one connected with the records of our world, is something\nwhich the writer is unprepared to say, and she would incline rather\nto the latter supposition. Of its highest grade one thing only\nis taught: the Lipika are connected with Karma -- being its direct\nRecorders.**\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* The Jews, save the Kabalists, having no names for East, West,\nSouth, and North, expressed the idea by words signifying before,\nbehind, right and left, and very often confounded the terms exoterically,\nthus making the blinds in the Bible more confused and difficult\nto interpret. Add to this the fact that out of the forty-seven\ntranslators of King James I. of England's Bible \"only three\nunderstood Hebrew, and of these two died before the Psalms were\ntranslated\" (*Royal Masonic Cyclopaedia*),* *and\none may easily understand what reliance can be placed on the English\nversion of the Bible. In this work the Douay Roman Catholic version\nis generally followed.\n\n** The Symbol for Sacred and Secret Knowledge was universally\nin antiquity, a Tree, by which a Scripture or a Record was also\nmeant. Hence the word Lipika, the [[Footnote continued on next\npage]]\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 129 THE LIPIKA.\n\n##### STANZA V. -- Continued.\n\n6. **T**HE **L**IPIKA CIRCUMSCRIBE THE\nTRIANGLE, THE FIRST ONE (*the vertical line or the figure *1*.*),\nTHE CUBE, THE SECOND ONE, AND THE PENTACLE WITHIN THE EGG (*circle*)*\n*(*a*)*. ***I**T IS THE RING CALLED\n\"**P**ASS NOT,\" FOR THOSE WHO DESCEND AND\nASCEND (*as also for those*)* *WHO, DURING THE KALPA,\nARE PROGRESSING TOWARD THE GREAT DAY \"**B**E\nWITH US\" (*b*). . . . **T**HUS WERE FORMED\nTHE **A**RUPA AND THE **R**UPA (*the\nFormless World and the World of Forms*); FROM ONE LIGHT SEVEN\nLIGHTS; FROM EACH OF THE SEVEN SEVEN TIMES SEVEN LIGHTS. **T**HE\n\"**W**HEELS\" WATCH THE **R**ING.\n\nThe Stanza proceeds with a minute classification of the Orders\nof Angelic Hierarchy. From the group of Four and Seven emanates\nthe \"mind-born\" group of Ten, of Twelve, of Twenty-one,\netc., all these divided again into sub-groups of septenaries,\nnovenaries, duodecimals, and so on, until the mind is lost in\nthis endless enumeration of celestial hosts and Beings, each having\nits distinct task in the ruling of the visible Kosmos during its\nexistence.\n\n(*a*) The esoteric meaning of the first sentence of the\nSloka is, that those who have been called Lipikas, the Recorders\nof the Karmic ledger, make an impassible barrier between the personal\n**E**GO and the impersonal **S**ELF,\nthe Noumenon and Parent-Source of the former. Hence the allegory.\nThey circumscribe the manifested world of matter within the **R**ING\n\"Pass-Not.\" This world is the symbol (objective) of\nthe **O**NE divided into the many, on the planes\nof Illusion, of Adi (the \"First\") or of Eka (the \"One\");\nand this One is the collective aggregate, or totality, of the\nprincipal Creators or Architects of this visible universe. In\nHebrew Occultism their name is both Achath, feminine, \"One,\"\nand Achod, \"One\" again, but masculine. The monotheists\nhave taken (and are still taking) advantage of the profound esotericism\nof the Kabala to apply the name by which the One Supreme Essence\nis known to ITS manifestation, the Sephiroth-Elohim, and call\nit Jehovah. But this is\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n[[Footnote continued from previous page]] \"writers\"\nor scribes; the \"Dragons,\" symbols of wisdom, who guard\nthe Trees of Knowledge; the \"golden\" apple Tree of the\nHesperides; the \"Luxuriant Trees\" and vegetation of\nMount Meru guarded by a Serpent. Juno giving to Jupiter, on her\nmarriage with him, a Tree with golden fruit is another form of\nEve offering Adam the apple from the Tree of Knowledge.\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 130 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\nquite arbitrary and against all reason and logic, as the term\nElohim is a plural noun, identical with the plural word *Chiim,\n*often compounded with the Elohim.* Moreover, in Occult metaphysics\nthere are, properly speaking, two \"**O**NES\"\n-- the One on the unreachable plane of Absoluteness and Infinity,\non which no speculation is possible, and the Second \"One\"\non the plane of Emanations. The former can neither emanate nor\nbe divided, as it is eternal, absolute, and immutable. The Second,\nbeing, so to speak, the reflection of the first One (for it is\nthe Logos, or Iswara, in the Universe of Illusion), can do all\nthis.** It emanates from itself -- as the upper Sephirothal Triad\nemanates the lower seven Sephiroth -- the seven Rays or Dhyan\nChohans; in other words, the Homogeneous becomes the Heterogeneous,\nthe \"Protyle\" differentiates into the Elements. But\nthese, unless they return into their primal Element, can never\ncross beyond the Laya, or zero-point.\n\nHence the allegory. The Lipika separate the world (or plane) of\npure spirit from that of Matter. Those who \"descend and ascend\"\n-- the incarnating Monads, and men striving towards purification\nand \"ascending,\" but still not having quite reached\nthe goal -- may cross the \"circle of the Pass-Not,\"\nonly on the day \"Be-With-Us\"; that day when man, freeing\nhimself from the trammels of ignorance, and recog-\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* The sentence in the Sepher Jezirah and elsewhere: \"Achath-Ruach-Elohim-Chiim\"\ndenotes the Elohim as androgynous at best, the feminine element\nalmost predominating, as it would read: \"**O**NE\nis She the Spirit of the Elohim of Life.\" As said above,\nEchath (or Achath) is feminine, and Echod (or Achod) masculine,\nboth meaning **O**NE.\n\n** This metaphysical tenet can hardly be better described than\nMr. Subba Row's in \"Bhagavadgita\" lectures: \"Mulaprakriti\n(the veil of Parabrahmam) acts as the one energy through the Logos\n(or 'Eswara'). Now Parabrahmam, is the one essence from which\nstarts into existence a centre of energy, which I shall for the\npresent call the Logos. . . . It is called the Verbum . . . by\nthe Christians, and it is the divine Christos who is eternal in\nthe bosom of his father. It is called Avalokiteshwara by the Buddhists.\n. . . In almost every doctrine, they have formulated the existence\nof a centre of spiritual energy which is unborn and eternal, and\nwhich exists in the bosom of Parabrahmam at the time of Pralaya,\nand starts as a centre of conscious energy at the time of Cosmic\nactivity. . . .\" For, as the lecturer premised by saying,\nParabraham is not this or that, it is not even consciousness,\nas it cannot be related to matter or anything conditioned. It\nis not Ego nor is it Non-ego, not even Atma, but verily the one\nsource of all manifestations and modes of existence.\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 131 THE SIDEREAL BOOK OF LIFE.\n\nnising fully the non-separateness of the Ego within his personality\n-- erroneously regarded as his own -- from the **U**NIVERSAL\n**E**GO (Anima Supra-Mundi), merges thereby into\nthe One Essence to become not only one \"with us\" (the\nmanifested universal lives which are \"ONE\" LIFE), but\nthat very life itself.\n\nAstronomically, the \"Ring **P**ASS-**N**OT\"\nthat the Lipika trace around the Triangle, the First One, the\nCube, the Second One, and the Pentacle to circumscribe these figures,\nis thus shown to contain the symbol of 31415 again, or the coefficient\nconstantly used in mathematical tables (the value of *, *pi),\nthe geometrical figures standing here for numerical figures. According\nto the general philosophical teachings, this ring is beyond the\nregion of what are called nebulae in astronomy. But this is as\nerroneous a conception as that of the topography and the descriptions,\ngiven in Puranic and other exoteric Scriptures, about the 1008\nworlds of the Devaloka worlds and firmaments. There are worlds,\nof course, in the esoteric as well as in the profane scientific\nteachings, at such incalculable distances that the light of the\nnearest of them which has just reached our modern Chaldees, had\nleft its luminary long before the day on which the words \"Let\nthere be Light\" were pronounced; but these are no worlds\non the Devaloka plane, but in our Kosmos.\n\nThe chemist goes to the *laya *or zero point of the plane\nof matter with which he deals, and then stops short. The physicist\nor the astronomer counts by billions of miles beyond the nebulae,\nand then they also stop short; the semi-initiated Occultist will\nrepresent this laya-point to himself as existing on some plane\nwhich, if not physical, is still conceivable to the human intellect.\nBut the full Initiate *knows *that the ring \"Pass-Not\"\nis neither a locality nor can it be measured by distance, but\nthat it exists in the absoluteness of infinity. In this \"Infinity\"\nof the full Initiate there is neither height, breadth nor thickness,\nbut all is fathomless profundity, reaching down from the physical\nto the \"para-para-metaphysical.\" In using the word \"down,\"\nessential depth -- \"nowhere and everywhere\" -- is meant,\nnot depth of physical matter.\n\nIf one searches carefully through the exoteric and grossly anthropomorphic\nallegories of popular religions, even in these the doctrine embodied\nin the circle of \"Pass-Not\" thus guarded by the Lipika,\nmay be dimly perceived. Thus one finds it even in the teachings\nof\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 132 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\nthe Vedantin sect of the Visishtadwaita, the most tenaciously\nanthropomorphic in all India. For we read of the released soul\nthat: --\n\nAfter reaching Moksha (a state of bliss meaning \"release\nfrom Bandha\" or bondage), bliss is enjoyed by it in a place\ncalled **P**ARAMAPADHA, which place is not material,\nbut made of Suddasatwa (the essence, of which the body of Iswara\n-- \"the Lord\" -- is formed). There, Muktas or Jivatmas\n(Monads) who have attained Moksha, are never again subject to\nthe qualities of either matter or Karma. \"But if they choose,\n*for the sake of doing good to the world*, they may incarnate\non Earth.\"* The way to Paramapadha, or the immaterial worlds,\nfrom this world, is called Devayana. When a person has attained\nMoksha and the body dies: --\n\n\"The Jiva (Soul) goes with Sukshma Sarira** from the heart\nof the body, to the Brahmarandra in the crown of the head, traversing\nSushumna, a nerve connecting the heart with the Brahmarandra.\nThe Jiva breaks through the Brahmarandra and goes to the region\nof the Sun (Suryamandala) through the solar Rays. Then it goes,\nthrough a dark spot in the Sun, to Paramapadha. The Jiva is directed\non its way by the Supreme Wisdom acquired by Yoga.*** The Jiva\nthus proceeds to Paramapadha by the aid of Athivahikas (bearers\nin transit), known by the names of Archi-Ahas . . . Aditya, Prajapati,\netc. The Archis here mentioned are certain pure Souls, etc., etc.\"\n(Visishtadwaita Catechism, by Pundit Bhashyacharya, **F.T.S**.)\n\nNo Spirit except the \"Recorders\" (Lipika) has ever crossed\nits forbidden line, nor will any do so until the day of the next\nPralaya, for it is the boundary that separates the finite -- however\ninfinite in man's sight -- from the truly **I**NFINITE.\nThe Spirits referred to, therefore, as those who \"ascend\nand descend\" are the \"Hosts\" of what we loosely\ncall \"celestial Beings.\" But they are, in fact, nothing\nof the kind.\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* These voluntary re-incarnations are referred to in our Doctrine\nas Nirmanakayas (the surviving spiritual principles of men).\n\n** Sukshma-sarira, \"dream-like\" illusive body, with\nwhich are clothed the inferior Dhyanis of the celestial Hierarchy.\n\n*** Compare this esoteric tenet with the Gnostic doctrine found\nin \"Pistis-Sophia\" (Knowledge = Wisdom), in which treatise\nSophia Achamoth is shown lost in the waters of Chaos (matter),\non her way to Supreme Light, and Christos delivering and helping\nher on the right Path. Note well, \"Christos\" with the\nGnostics meant the impersonal principal, the Atman of the Universe,\nand the Atma within every man's soul -- not Jesus; though in the\nold Coptic **MSS**. in the British Museum \"Christos\"\nis almost constantly replaced by \"Jesus.\"\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 133 THE GOD OF MAN AND THE GOD OF THE ANT.\n\nThey are Entities of the higher worlds in the hierarchy of Being,\nso immeasurably high that, to us, they must appear as Gods, and\ncollectively -- **G**OD. But so we, mortal men, must\nappear to the ant, which reasons on the scale of its special capacities.\nThe ant may also, for all we know, see the avenging finger of\na personal God in the hand of the urchin who, in one moment, under\nthe impulse of mischief, destroys its anthill, the labour of many\nweeks -- long years in the chronology of insects. The ant, feeling\nit acutely, and attributing the undeserved calamity to a combination\nof Providence and sin, may also, like man, see in it the result\nof the sin of its first parent. Who knows and who can affirm or\ndeny? The refusal to admit in the whole Solar system of any other\nreasonable and intellectual beings on the human plane, than ourselves,\nis the greatest conceit of our age. All that science has a right\nto affirm, is that there are no invisible Intelligences living\nunder the same conditions as we do. It cannot deny point-blank\nthe possibility of there being worlds within worlds, under totally\ndifferent conditions to those that constitute the nature of our\nworld; nor can it deny that there may be a certain limited communication*\nbetween some of those worlds and our own. To the highest, we are\ntaught, belong the seven orders of the purely divine Spirits;\nto the six lower ones belong hierarchies that can occasionally\nbe seen and heard by men, and who do communicate with their progeny\nof the Earth; which progeny is indissolubly linked with them,\neach principle in man having its direct source in the nature of\nthose great Beings, who furnish us with the respective invisible\nelements in us. Physical Science is welcome to speculate upon\nthe physiological mechanism of living beings, and to continue\nher fruitless efforts in trying to resolve our feelings, our sensations,\nmental and spiritual, into functions of their inorganic vehicles.\nNevertheless, all that will ever be accomplished in this direction\nhas already been done, and Science will go no farther.\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* The greatest philosopher of European birth, Imanuel Kant, assures\nus that such a communication is in no way improbable. \"I\nconfess I am much disposed to assert the existence of Immaterial\nnatures in the world, and to place my own soul in the class of\nthese beings. It will hereafter, I know not where, or when, yet\nbe proved that the human soul stands even in this life in indissoluble\nconnection with all immaterial natures in the spirit-world, that\nit reciprocally acts upon these and receives impressions from\nthem.\" (Traume eines Geistersehers, quoted by C. C. Massey,\nin his preface to Von Hartmann's \"Spiritismus.\")\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 134 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\nShe is before a dead wall, on the face of which she traces, as\nshe imagines, great physiological and psychic discoveries, but\nevery one of which will be shown later on to be no better than\nthe cobwebs spun by her scientific fancies and illusions. The\ntissues of our objective framework alone are subservient to the\nanalysis and researches of physiological science.* The six higher\nprinciples in them will evade for ever the hand that is guided\nby an animus that purposely ignores and rejects the Occult Sciences.\n\nThe \"Great Day of **B**E-WITH-US,\" then,\nis an expression the only merit of which lies in its literal translation.\nIts significance is not so easily revealed to a public, unacquainted\nwith the mystic tenets of Occultism, or rather of Esoteric Wisdom\nor \"Budhism.\" It is an expression peculiar to the latter,\nand as hazy for the profane as that of the Egyptians who called\nthe same the \"Day of **C**OME-TO-US,\"**\nwhich\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* *E.g.*,* *all that modern physiological research\nin connection with psychological problems has, and owing to the\nnature of things, could have shown, is, that every thought, sensation,\nand emotion is attended with a re-marshalling of the molecules\nof certain nerves. The inference drawn by scientists of the type\nof Buchner, Vogt, and others, that thought is molecular motion,\nnecessitates a complete abstraction being made of the fact of\nour subjective consciousness.\n\n** See \"Le Livre des Morts,\" by Paul Pierret; \"Le\nJour de 'Viens a nous' . . . c'est le jour ou Osiris a dit au\nSoleil: Viens! Je le vois rencontrant le Soleil dans l'Amenti.\"\n(Chap. xvii., p. 61.) The Sun here stands for the Logos (or Christos,\nor Horus) as central Essence synthetically, and as a diffused\nessence of radiated Entities, different in substance, but not\nin essence. As expressed by the *Bhagavadgita *lecturer,\n\"it must not be supposed that the Logos is but a single centre\nof energy manifested from Parabrahmam; there are innumerable other\ncentres . . . and their number is almost infinite in the bosom\nof Parabrahmam.\" Hence the expressions, \"The Day of\nCome to us\" and \"The Day of Be with us,\" etc. Just\nas the square is the Symbol of the Four sacred Forces or Powers\n-- Tetraktis -- so the Circle shows the boundary within the Infinity\nthat no man can cross, even in spirit, nor Deva nor Dhyan Chohan.\nThe Spirits of those who \"descend and ascend\" during\nthe course of cyclic evolution shall cross the \"iron-bound\nworld\" only on the day of their approach to the threshold\nof Paranirvana. If they reach it -- they will rest in the bosom\nof Parabrahmam, or the \"Unknown Darkness,\" which shall\nthen become for all of them Light -- during the whole period of\nMahapralaya, the \"Great **N**IGHT,\" namely,\n311,040,000,000,000 years of absorption in Brahm. The day of \"Be-With-Us\"\nis this period of rest or Paranirvana. See also for other data\non this peculiar expression, the day of \"Come-To-Us,\"\n*The Funerary Ritual of the Egyptians*,* *by Viscount\nde Rouge. It corresponds to the Day of the Last Judgment of the\nChristians, which has been sorely materialised by their religion.\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 135 THE SOUL'S PILGRIMAGE.\n\nis identical with the former, though the verb \"be\" in\nthis sense, might be still better replaced with either of the\ntwo words \"Remain\" or \"Rest-with-us,\" as it\nrefers to that long period of **R**EST which is called\nParanirvana. As in the exoteric interpretation of the Egyptian\nrites the soul of every defunct person -- from the Hierophant\ndown to the sacred bull Apis -- became an Osiris, was Osirified,\nthough the Secret Doctrine had always taught, that the real Osirification\nwas the lot of every Monad only after 3,000 cycles of Existences;\nso in the present case. The \"Monad,\" born of the nature\nand the very Essence of the \"Seven\" (its highest principle\nbecoming immediately enshrined in the Seventh Cosmic Element),\nhas to perform its septenary gyration throughout the Cycle of\nBeing and forms, from the highest to the lowest; and then again\nfrom man to God. At the threshold of Paranirvana it reassumes\nits primeval Essence and becomes the Absolute once more.\n\n---------------------\n\nNext Section\n\nContents",
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