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    "name": "Volume I — Cosmogenesis"
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    "num": 12,
    "slug": "14-stanza-vi----continued-191",
    "title": "STANZA VI. -- CONTINUED. ... 191",
    "of": 48,
    "words": 9156,
    "text": "## STANZA VI. -- CONTINUED. ... 191\n\n\nThe Secret Doctrine by H. P. Blavatsky, Vol 1, bk 1, sec 6c\n\n###### The Secret Doctrine by H. P. Blavatsky -- Vol. 1\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 191 THE PRELIMINARY CREATION OF MAN.\n\n[[This page continued from previous section]]\n\n##### STANZA VI. -- Continued.\n\n5. **A**T THE FOURTH (*Round*,* or revolution\nof life and being around *\"*the seven smaller wheels*\")*\n*(*a*),* *THE SONS ARE TOLD TO CREATE THEIR\nIMAGES. **O**NE THIRD REFUSES. **T**WO\n(*thirds*)* *OBEY*.*\n\nThe full meaning of this sloka can be fully comprehended only\nafter reading the detailed additional explanations in the \"Anthropogenesis\"\nand its commentaries, in Book II. Between this Sloka and the last,\nSloka 4 in this same Stanza, extend long ages; and there now gleams\nthe dawn and sunrise of another aeon. The drama enacted on our\nplanet is at the beginning of its fourth act, but for a clearer\ncomprehension of the whole play the reader will have to turn back\nbefore he can proceed onward. For this verse belongs to the general\nCosmogony given in the archaic volumes, whereas Book II. will\ngive a detailed account of the \"Creation\" or rather\nthe formation, of the first human beings, followed by the second\nhumanity, and then by the third; or, as they are called, \"the\nfirst, second, and the third Root-Races.\" As the solid Earth\nbegan by being a ball of liquid fire, of fiery dust and its protoplasmic\nphantom, so did man.\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 192 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\n(*a*) That which is meant by the qualification the \"Fourth\"\nis explained as the \"fourth Round\" only on the authority\nof the Commentaries. It can equally mean fourth \"Eternity\"\nas \"Fourth Round,\" or even the fourth (our) Globe. For,\nas will repeatedly be shown, it is the fourth Sphere on the fourth\nor lowest plane of material life. And it so happens that we are\nin the Fourth Round, at the middle point of which the perfect\nequilibrium between Spirit and Matter had to take place.* Says\nthe Commentary explaining the verse: --\n\n\"*The holy youths *(*the gods*)* refused\nto multiply and create species after their likeness*,*\nafter their kind. They are not fit forms *(*rupas*)*\nfor us. They have to grow. They refuse to enter the chhayas *(*shadows\nor images*)* of their inferiors. Thus had selfish feeling\nprevailed from the beginning*,* even among the gods*,*\nand they fell under the eye of the Karmic Lipikas.*\"\n\nThey had to suffer for it in later births. How the punishment\nreached the gods will be seen in the second volume.\n\n-------\n\n##### STANZA VI. -- Continued.\n\n6. **T**HE CURSE IS PRONOUNCED (*a*): THEY\nWILL BE BORN IN THE FOURTH (*Race*),* *SUFFER AND\nCAUSE SUFFERING (*b*). **T**HIS IS THE FIRST\nWAR (*c*).\n\n(*a*)* *It is a universal tradition that, before\nthe physiological \"Fall,\" propagation of one's kind,\nwhether human or animal, took place through the WILL of the Creators,\nor of their progeny. It was the Fall of Spirit into generation,\nnot the Fall of mortal man. It has already been stated that, to\nbecome a Self-Conscious Spirit, the latter must pass through every\ncycle of being, culminating in its highest point on earth in Man.\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* It was, as we shall see, at this period -- during the highest\npoint of civilization and knowledge, as also of human intellectuality,\nof the fourth, Atlantean Race -- that, owing to the final crisis\nof physiologico-spiritual adjustment of the races, humanity branched\noff into its two diametrically opposite paths: the RIGHT- and\nthe LEFT-hand paths of knowledge or of Vidya. \"*Thus were\nthe germs of the White and the Black Magic sown in those days.\nThe seeds lay latent for some time*,* to sprout only during\nthe early period of the Fifth *(*our Race*)*.*\"*\n*(*Commentary.*)\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 193 THE FIRST CAUSE OF SIN.\n\nSpirit *per se *is an unconscious negative ABSTRACTION.\nIts purity is inherent, not acquired by merit; hence, as already\nshown, to become the highest Dhyan Chohan it is necessary for\neach Ego to attain to full self-consciousness as a human, *i.e.*,\nconscious Being, which is synthesized for us in Man. The Jewish\nKabalists arguing that no Spirit could belong to the divine hierarchy\nunless Ruach (Spirit) was united to Nephesh (living Soul), only\nrepeat the Eastern Esoteric teaching. \"A Dhyani has to be\nan Atma-Buddhi; once the Buddhi-Manas breaks loose from its immortal\nAtma of which it (Buddhi) is the vehicle, Atman passes into NON-BEING,\nwhich is absolute Being.\" This means that the purely Nirvanic\nstate is a passage of Spirit back to the ideal abstraction of\nBe-ness which has no relation to the plane on which our Universe\nis accomplishing its cycle.\n\n(*b*)* *\"The curse is pronounced\" does\nnot mean, in this instance, that any personal Being, god, or superior\nSpirit, pronounced it, but simply that the cause which could but\ncreate bad results had been generated, and that the effects of\na Karmic cause could lead the \"Beings\" that counteracted\nthe laws of Nature, and thus impeded her legitimate progress,\nonly to bad incarnations, hence to suffering.\n\n(*c*) \"There were many wars\" refers to several\nstruggles of adjustment, spiritual, cosmical, and astronomical,\nbut chiefly to the mystery of the evolution of man as he is now.\nPowers -- pure Essences -- \"that were told to create\"\nis a sentence that relates to a mystery explained, as already\nsaid, elsewhere. It is not only one of the most hidden secrets\nof Nature -- that of generation, over whose solution the Embryologists\nhave vainly put their heads together -- but likewise a divine\nfunction that involves that other religious, or rather dogmatic,\nmystery, the \"Fall\" of the Angels, as it is called.\nSatan and his rebellious host would thus prove, when the meaning\nof the allegory is explained, to have refused to create physical\nman, only to become the direct Saviours and the Creators of \"*divine\n*Man.\" The symbolical teaching is more than mystical\nand religious, it is purely scientific, as will be seen later\non. For, instead of remaining a mere blind, functioning medium,\nimpelled and guided by fathomless LAW, the \"rebellious\"\nAngel claimed and enforced his right of independent judgment and\nwill, his\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 194 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\nright of free-agency and responsibility, since man and angel are\nalike under Karmic Law.*\n\n\"And there was war in Heaven. . . . Michael and his angels\nfought against the Dragon; and the Dragon fought and his angels,\nand prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in Heaven.\nAnd the Dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the devil\nand Satan, which deceiveth the whole world.\"\n\nThe Kabalistic version of the same story is given in the Codex\nNazareus, the scripture of the Nazarenes, the real mystic Christians\nof John the Baptist and the Initiates of Christos. Bahak-Zivo,\nthe \"Father of the Genii,\" is ordered to construct creatures\n(to create). But, as he is \"ignorant of Orcus,\" he fails\nto do so, and calls in Fetahil, a still purer spirit, to his aid,\nwho fails still worse. This is a repetition of the failure of\nthe \"Fathers,\" the lords of light who fail one after\nthe other. (Book II, Sloka 17.)\n\nWe will now quote from our earlier Volumes: --\n\n\"Then steps on the stage of creation the spirit** (of the\nEarth so-called, or the Soul, Psyche, which St. James calls 'devilish')\nthe lower portion the *Anima Mundi *or Astral Light. (See\nthe close of this Sloka). With the Nazarenes and the Gnostics\nthis Spirit was\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* Explaining Kabalistic views, the author of the \"*New\nAspects of Life*\"* *says of the Fallen Angels\nthat, \"According to the symbolical teaching, Spirit, from\nbeing simply a functionary agent of God, became volitional in\nits developed and developing action; and, substituting its own\nwill for the Divine desire in its regard, so fell. Hence the Kingdom\nand reign of Spirits and spiritual action, which flow from and\nare the product of Spirit-volition, are outside, and contrasted\nwith, and in contradiction to the Kingdom of Souls and Divine\naction.\" So far, so good; but what does the Author mean by\nsaying, \"When man was created, he was human in constitution,\nwith human affections, human hopes and aspirations. From this\nstate he fell -- into the brute and savage\"? This is diametrically\nopposite to our Eastern teaching, and even to the Kabalistic notion\nso far as we understand it, and to the Bible itself. This looks\nlike Corporealism and Substantialism colouring positive philosophy,\nthough it is rather hard to feel quite sure of the Author's meaning\n(see p. 235). A FALL, however, \"from the natural into the\nsupernatural and the animal\" -- supernatural meaning the\npurely spiritual in this case -- means what we suggest.\n\n** On the authority of Irenaeus, of Justin Martyr and the \"Codex\"\nitself, Dunlap shows that the Nazarenes regarded \"Spirit\"\nas a female and *Evil Power *in its connection with our\nEarth. (Dunlap: \"Sod,\" the Son of the Man, p. 52).\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 195 THE CODEX REPEATS THE ALLEGORY.\n\n*feminine. *Thus the spirit of the Earth perceiving that\nfor Fetahil,* the *newest man *(the latest), the splendour\nwas 'changed,' and that for splendour existed 'decrease and damage,'\nshe awakes Karabtanos,** 'who was frantic and *without sense\nand judgment*,'* *and says to him: -- 'Arise, see,\nthe splendour (light) of the *newest *man (Fetahil) has\nfailed (to produce or create men), the decrease of this splendour\nis visible. Rise up, come with thy MOTHER (the Spiritus) and free\nthee from limits by which thou art held, and those more ample\nthan the whole world.' After which follows the union of the frantic\nand blind matter, guided by the insinuations of the spirit (not\nthe *Divine *breath but the *Astral *spirit, which\nby its double essence is already tainted with matter); and the\noffer of the MOTHER being accepted, the Spiritus conceives \"Seven\nFigures,\" and the seven *stellars *(planets) which\nrepresent also the *seven capital sins*,* *the*\n*progeny of an astral soul separated from its divine source\n(spirit) and *matter*,* *the blind demon of concupiscence.\nSeeing this, Fetahil extends his hand towards the abyss of matter,\nand says: -- 'Let the Earth exist, just as the abode of the powers\nhas existed.' Dipping his hand in the chaos, which he condenses,\nhe creates our planet.***\"\n\n\"Then the Codex proceeds to tell how Bahak-Zivo was separated\nfrom the Spiritus, and the Genii or angels from the rebels.****\nThen Mano***** (the greatest), who dwells with the greatest FERHO,\ncall Kebar-Zivo (known also by the name of Nebat-Iavar bar Iufin\nIfafin), Helm and *Vine *of the food of life,****** he\nbeing the third life, and commiserating the rebellious and foolish\nGenii, on account of the magnitude of their ambition, says: 'Lord\nof the Genii******* (AEons), see what the Genii, the\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* Fetahil is identical with the host of the Pitris who \"created\nMan\" as only a \"shell.\" He was, with the Nazarenes,\nthe king of light, and the creator; but in this instance he is\nthe unlucky Prometheus, who fails to get hold of the Living Fire\nnecessary for the formation of the divine Soul, as he is ignorant\nof the secret name, the ineffable or incommunicable name of the\nKabalists.\n\n** The spirit of Matter and Concupiscence; \"Kamarupa\"\n*minus* \"Manas,\" Mind.\n\n*** See Franck's \"*Codex Nazaraeus*,\"* *and\nDunlap's \"*Sod*,* the Son of the Man.*\"\n\n***** Codex Nazaraeus*,* *ii*.*,* *233.\n\n***** This Mano of the Nazarenes strangely resembles the Hindu\nManu, the Heavenly Man of the \"*Rig Vedas.*\"\n\n****** \"I am the *true Vine*,* *and my father\nis the husbandman.\" (*John* xv*.*,* *1.)\n\n******* With the Gnostics, Christ, as well as Michael who is identical\nwith him in some respects, was the \"Chief of the AEons.\"\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 196 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\nrebellious angels do, and about what they are consulting.* They\nsay, 'Let us call for the world, and let us call the 'powers'\ninto existence.\" The Genii are the *Principes*,*\n*the \"Sons of Light,\" but thou art the \"*Messenger\nof Life.*\"****\n\nAnd in order to counteract the influence of the seven \"badly\ndisposed\" principles, the progeny of *Spiritus*,*\n*CABAR-ZIO, the mighty Lord of Splendor, produces *seven\nother lives *(the cardinal virtues) who shine in their own\nform and light \"from on high\"*** and thus re-establish\nthe balance between good and evil, light and darkness.\n\nHere one finds a repetition of the early *allegorical*,*\n*dual systems, as the Zoroastrian, and detects a germ of the\ndogmatic and dualistic religions of the future, a germ which has\ngrown into such a luxuriant tree in ecclesiastical Christianity.\nIt is already the outline of the two \"Supremes\" -- God\nand Satan. But in the Stanzas no such idea exists.\n\nMost of the Western Christian Kabalists -- pre-eminently Eliphas\nLevi -- in their desire to reconcile the Occult Sciences with\nChurch dogmas, did their best to make of the \"Astral Light\"\nonly and preeminently the *Pleroma *of early Church Fathers,\nthe abode of the Hosts of the Fallen Angels, of the \"Archons\"\nand \"Powers.\" But the Astral Light, while only the lower\naspect of the Absolute, is yet dual. It is the *Anima Mundi*,*\n*and ought never to be viewed otherwise, except for Kabalistic\npurposes. The difference which exists between its \"light\"\nand its \"Living Fire\" ought to be ever present in the\nmind of the Seer and the \"Psychic.\" The higher aspect,\nwithout which only creatures of matter from that Astral Light\ncan be produced, is this Living Fire, and it is the Seventh Principle.\nIt is said in \"Isis Unveiled,\" in a complete description\nof it: --\n\n\"The Astral Light or *Anima Mundi *is dual and bisexual.\nThe (ideal) male part of it is purely divine and spiritual, it\nis the *Wisdom*,* *it is Spirit or Purusha; while\nthe female portion (the Spiritus of the Nazarenes) is tainted,\nin one sense, with matter, *is *indeed matter, and therefore\nis evil already. It is the life-principle of every living creature,\nand furnishes the astral soul, the fluidic *perisprit*,*\n*to men, animals, fowls of the air, and everything living.\nAnimals have only the latent germ of the highest immortal soul\nin them. . . . . This latter will develop\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n*** *Codex Nazaraeus*,* *i, 135*.*\n\n** *Ibid.*\n\n*** See the Cosmogony of Pherecydes.\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 197 ILDA-BAOTH-JEHOVAH.\n\nonly after a series of countless evolutions; the doctrine of which\nevolution is contained in the Kabalistic axiom: 'A stone becomes\na plant; a plant, a beast; a beast, a man; a man, a spirit; and\nthe spirit, a god.'\" (Vol. I., p. 301, note.)\n\nThe seven principles of the Eastern Initiates had not been explained\nwhen \"Isis\" was written, but only the three *Kabalistic\nFaces *of the semi-exoteric Kabala.* But these contain the\ndescription of the mystic natures of the first group of Dhyan\nChohans in the *regimen ignis*,* *the region and\n\"rule (or government) of fire,\" which group is divided\ninto three classes, synthesized by the first, which makes *four\n*or the \"Tetraktis.\" (*See Comments on Stanza\nVII. Book I.*)* *If one studies the Comments attentively\nhe will find the same progression in the angelic natures, viz.,\nfrom the *passive *down to the *active*,* *the\nlast of these Beings being as near to the *Ahamkara *element\n(the region or plane wherein *Egoship *or* *the\nfeeling of *I-am-ness *is beginning to be defined) as the\nfirst ones are near to the undifferentiated essence. The former\nare Arupa, incorporeal; the latter, Rupa, corporeal.\n\nIn Volume II. of *Isis *(*p. *183* et seq.*)*\n*the philosophical systems of the Gnostics and the primitive\nJewish Christians, the Nazarenes and the Ebionites, are fully\nconsidered. They show the views held in those days -- outside\nthe circle of Mosaic Jews -- about Jehovah. He was identified\nby all the Gnostics with the evil, rather than with the good principle.\nFor them, he was *Ilda-Baoth*,* *\"the son of\nDarkness,\" whose mother, Sophia Achamoth, was the daughter\nof Sophia, the Divine Wisdom (the female Holy Ghost of the early\nChristians) -- Akasa;** while Sophia Achamoth personified the\nlower Astral Light or *Ether. *Ilda-Baoth,*** or Jehovah,\nis simply one of the Elohim, the seven\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* They are found, however, in the Chaldean Book of Numbers.\n\n** The astral light stands in the same relation to Akasa and *Anima\nMundi*,* *as Satan stands to the Deity. They are one\nand the same thing *seen from two aspects: *the* *spiritual\nand the psychic -- the super-ethereal or connecting link between\nmatter and pure spirit, and the physical. See for the difference\nbetween *nous*,* *the higher divine wisdom, and\n*psyche*,* *the lower and terrestrial (*St. James\n*iii. v. 15-17). *Vide* \"Demon est Deus inversus,\"\nPart II. of this volume.\n\n*** Ilda-Baoth is a compound name made up of *Ilda*, ,\n\"a child,\" and Baoth; both from\nthe egg, and *Baoth*,*\n*\"chaos,\" emptiness, void, or desolation; or the\nchild born in the egg of Chaos, like Brahma.\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 198 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\ncreative Spirits, and one of the lower Sephiroth. He produces\nfrom himself seven other Gods, \"Stellar Spirits\" (or\nthe lunar ancestors*), for they are all the same.** They are all\n*in his own image *(the \"Spirits of the Face\"),\nand the reflections one of the other, and have become darker and\nmore material as they successively receded from their originator.\nThey also inhabit seven regions disposed like a ladder, as its\nrungs slope up and down the scale of spirit and matter.*** With\nPagans and Christians, with Hindus and Chaldeans, with the Greek\nas with the Roman Catholics -- with a slight variation of the\ntexts in their interpretations -- they all were the Genii of the\nseven planets, as of the seven planetary spheres of our septenary\nchain, of which Earth is the lowest. (See* Isis*,* Vol.\nII. p. *186.) This connects the \"Stellar\" and \"Lunar\"\nSpirits with the higher planetary Angels and the *Saptarishis\n*(the seven Rishis of the Stars) of the Hindus -- as subordinate\nAngels (Messengers) to these \"Rishis,\" the emanations,\non the descending scale, of the former. Such, in the opinion of\nthe philosophical Gnostics, were the God and the Archangels now\nworshipped by the Christians! The \"Fallen Angels\" and\nthe legend of the \"War in Heaven\" is thus purely pagan\nin its origin and comes from India *via* Persia and Chaldea.\nThe only reference to it in the Christian canon is found in Revelations\nxii., as quoted a few pages back.\n\nThus \"**S**ATAN,\" once he ceases to be\nviewed in the superstitious, dogmatic, unphilosophical spirit\nof the Churches, grows into the grandiose image of one who made\nof *terrestrial a divine *MAN; who gave him, throughout\nthe long cycle of Maha-kalpa the law of the Spirit of Life, and\nmade him free from the Sin of Ignorance, hence of death. (See\nthe Section *On Satan *in Part II. Vol. II.)\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* Jehovah's connection with the moon in the Kabala is well known\nto students.\n\n** About the Nazarenes see *Isis*,* Vol. II. p*.\n131 and 132; the true followers of the true Christos were all\nNazarenes and Christians, and were the opponents of the later\nChristians.\n\n**** Vide supra*,* *the diagram of the lunar ring\nof seven worlds, where, as in our or any other chain, the upper\nworlds are spiritual, while the lowest, whether Moon, Earth, or\nany planet, is dark with matter.\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 199 THE SEVEN PLANES.\n\n##### STANZA VI. -- Continued.\n\n6. **T**HE OLDER WHEELS ROTATED DOWNWARD AND UPWARD\n(*a*). . . . **T**HE **M**OTHER'S\nSPAWN FILLED THE WHOLE (*Kosmos*)*.* ***T**HERE\nWERE BATTLES FOUGHT BETWEEN THE **C**REATORS AND\nTHE **D**ESTROYERS, AND BATTLES FOUGHT FOR **S**PACE;\nTHE SEED APPEARING AND REAPPEARING CONTINUOUSLY (*b*).**\n\n(*a*) Here, having finished for the time being with our\nside-issues -- which, however they may break the flow of the narrative,\nare necessary for the elucidation of the whole scheme -- the reader\nmust return once more to Cosmogony. The phrase \"Older wheels\"\nrefers to the worlds or Globes of our chain as they were during\nthe \"previous Rounds.\" The present Stanza, when explained\nesoterically, is found embodied entirely in the Kabalistic works.\nTherein will be found the very history of the evolution of those\ncountless Globes which evolve after a periodical Pralaya, rebuilt\nfrom old material into new forms. The previous Globes disintegrate\nand reappear transformed and perfected for a new phase of life.\nIn the Kabala, worlds are compared to sparks which fly from under\nthe hammer of the great Architect -- LAW, the law which rules\nall the smaller Creators.\n\nThe following comparative diagram shows the identity between the\ntwo systems, the Kabalistic and the Eastern. The three upper are\nthe three higher planes of consciousness, revealed and explained\nin both schools only to the Initiates, the lower ones represent\nthe four lower planes -- the lowest being our plane, or the visible\nUniverse.\n\nThese seven *planes *correspond to the seven *states\n*of consciousness in man. It remains with him to attune the\nthree higher states in himself to the three higher planes in Kosmos.\nBut before he can attempt to attune, he must awaken the three\n\"seats\" to life and activity. And how many are capable\nof bringing themselves to even a superficial comprehension of\n*Atma-Vidya *(Spirit-Knowledge), or what is called by the\nSufis,* Rohanee! *In Section the **VII**th\nof this Book, in Sub-section 3,\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* The reader is reminded that Kosmos often means in our Stanzas\nonly our own Solar System, not the Infinite Universe.\n\n** This is purely astronomical.\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 200 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\nthe reader will find a still clearer explanation of the above\nin the Commentary upon *Saptaparna* --* *the man-plant.\nSee also the Section of that name in Part II.\n\n####### [[Footnote(s) to diagram -------------------------------------------------\n]]\n\n* The *Arupa *or \"formless,\" there where form\nceases to exist, on the objective plane.\n\n† The word \"Archetypal\" must not be taken here\nin the sense that the Platonists gave to it, *i.e.*,*\n*the world as it existed *in the Mind *of the Deity;\nbut in that of a world made as a first model, to be followed and\nimproved upon by the worlds which succeed it physically -- though\ndeteriorating in purity.\n\n‡ These are the four lower planes of Cosmic Consciousness,\nthe three higher planes being inaccessible to human intellect\nas developed at present. The seven states of human consciousness\npertain to quite another question.\n\n-------------\n\n(*b*)* *\"The Seed appears and disappears continuously.\"\nHere \"Seed\" stands for \"the World-germ,\" viewed\nby Science as material particles in a highly attenuated condition,\nbut in Occult physics as \"Spiritual particles,\" *i.e.*,\nsupersensuous matter existing in a state of primeval\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 201 NO SHADOW, NO LIGHT.\n\ndifferentiation.* In theogony, every Seed is an ethereal organism,\nfrom which evolves later on a celestial being, a God.\n\nIn the \"beginning,\" that which is called in mystic phraseology\n\"Cosmic *Desire*\"* *evolves into absolute\nLight. Now light without any shadow would be absolute light --\nin other words, absolute darkness -- as physical science seeks\nto prove. That shadow appears under the form of primordial matter,\nallegorized -- if one likes -- in the shape of the Spirit of Creative\nFire or Heat. If, rejecting the poetical form and allegory, science\nchooses to see in this the primordial Fire-Mist, it is welcome\nto do so. Whether one way or the other, whether Fohat or the famous\nFORCE of Science, nameless, and as difficult of definition as\nour Fohat himself, that Something \"caused the Universe to\nmove with circular motion,\" as Plato has it; or, as the Occult\nteaching expresses it:\n\n\"*The Central Sun causes Fohat to collect primordial dust\nin the form of balls*,* to impel them to move in converging\nlines and finally to approach each other and aggregate.*\"*\n*(*Book of Dzyan*) . . . . . \"*Being scattered\nin Space*,* without order or system*,* the world-germs\ncome into frequent collision until their final aggregation*,*\nafter which they become wanderers *(*Comets*)*.\nThen the battles and struggles begin. The older *(*bodies*)*\nattract the younger*,* while others repel them. Many perish*,*\ndevoured by their stronger companions. Those that escape become\nworlds.*\"****\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* To see and appreciate the difference -- the immense gulf that\nseparates terrestrial matter from the finer grades of supersensuous\nmatter -- every astronomer, every chemist and *physicist *ought\nto be a *psychometer*,* *to say the least; he ought\nto be able to sense for himself that difference in which he now\nrefuses to believe. Mrs. Elizabeth Denton, one of the most learned,\nand also one of the most materialistic and sceptical women of\nher age -- the wife of Professor Denton, the well-known American\ngeologist and the author of \"The Soul of Things\" --\nwas, nevertheless, one of the most wonderful psychometers some\nyears ago. This is what she described in one of her experiments;\nwith a particle of a meteorite placed on her forehead, in an envelope,\nthe lady, not being aware of what it contained, said:\n\n\"What a difference between that which we recognise as matter\nhere and that which seems like matter there! In the one, the *elements\nare so coarse and so angular*,* *I wonder that we can\nendure it all, much more that we can desire to continue our present\nrelations to it; in the other, all the elements are so refined,\nthey are so free from those great, rough angularities, which characterize\nthe elements here, that I can but regard that as by so much the\nmore than this, the real existence.\" (*Vol. III. p.*\n345-6.)\n\n** When carefully analysed and reflected upon, this will be found\nas scientific as Science could make it, even at our late period.\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 202 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\nWe have been assured that there exist several modern works of\nspeculative fancy upon such struggles for life in sidereal heaven,\nespecially in the German language. We rejoice to hear it, for\nours is an Occult teaching lost in the darkness of archaic ages.\nWe have treated of it fully in \"*Isis Unveiled*,\"*\n*and the idea of Darwinian-like evolution, of struggle for\nlife and supremacy, and of the \"survival of the fittest\"\namong the Hosts above as the Hosts below, runs throughout both\nthe volumes of our earlier work, written in 1876 (*See Index\nin *\"*Isis* *Unveiled*\"* at the\nwords *\"*Evolution*\" --* *\"*Darwin*\"\n--* *\"*Kapila*\"* *--* *\"*Battle\nof* *Life*,\"* etc. etc.*) But the idea\nwas not ours, it is that of antiquity.\n\nEven the Puranic writers have ingeniously interwoven allegory\nwith Cosmic facts and human events. Any symbologist may discern\nthe astro-cosmical allusion even though he be unable to grasp\nthe whole meaning. The great \"Wars in Heaven,\" in the\nPuranas; the wars of the Titans, in Hesiod and other classical\nwriters; the \"struggles,\" also in the Egyptian legend\nbetween Osiris and Typhon, and even those in the Scandinavian\nlegends, all refer to the same subject. Northern Mythology refers\nto it as the battle of the Flames, the sons of Muspel who fought\non the field of Wigred. All these relate to Heaven and Earth,\nand have a double and often even a triple meaning, and esoteric\napplication to things above as to things below. They relate severally\nto astronomical, theogonical and human struggles; to the adjustment\nof orbs, and the supremacy among nations and tribes. The \"Struggle\nfor Existence\" and the \"Survival of the Fittest\"\nreigned supreme from the moment that Kosmos manifested into being,\nand could hardly escape the observant eye of the ancient Sages.\nHence the incessant fights of Indra, the god of the Firmament,\nwith the Asuras -- degraded from high gods into Cosmic demons;\nand with Vritri or Ah-hi; the battles fought between stars and\nconstellations, between Moon and planets -- later on incarnated\nas kings and mortals. Hence also the War in Heaven of Michael\nand his Host against the Dragon (Jupiter and Lucifer-Venus), when\na third of the stars of the rebellious host was hurled down into\nSpace, and \"its place was found no more in Heaven.\"\nAs said long ago -- \"This is the basic and fundamental stone\nof the secret cycles. It shows that the Brahmins and Tanaim .\n. . speculated on the creation and development of the world quite\nin a Darwinian way, both anticipating him and his school in the\nnatural selection of species, the survival of the fittest,\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 203 THE BIRTH OF THE WORLDS.\n\nand transformation. . . . There were old worlds that perished\nconquered by the new,\" etc., etc. (\"*Isis Unveiled*,\"*\nVol. II.*,* p. *260.) The assertion that all the worlds\n(Stars, planets, etc.) -- as soon as a nucleus of primordial substance\nin the *laya* (undifferentiated) state is informed by the\nfreed principles, of a just *deceased *sidereal body --\nbecome first comets, and then Suns to cool down to inhabitable\nworlds, is a teaching as old as the Rishis.\n\nThus the Secret Books distinctly teach, as we see, an astronomy\nthat would not be rejected even by modern speculation could the\nlatter thoroughly understand its teachings.\n\nFor, archaic astronomy, and the ancient, physical and mathematical\nsciences, expressed views identical with those of modern science,\nand many of far more momentous import. A \"struggle for life\"\nas a \"survival of the fittest\" in the worlds above,\nas on our planet here below, are distinctly taught. This teaching,\nhowever, although it would not be \"entirely rejected\"\nby Science, is sure to be repudiated as an integral whole. For\nit avers that there are only seven Self-born primordial \"gods\"\nemanated from the trinitarian ONE. In other words, it means that\nall the worlds or sidereal bodies (always on strict analogy) are\nformed one from the other, after the primordial manifestation\nat the beginning of the \"Great Age\" is accomplished.\nThe birth of the celestial bodies in Space is compared to a crowd\nor multitude of \"pilgrims\" at the festival of the \"Fires.\"\nSeven ascetics appear on the threshold of the temple with seven\nlighted sticks of incense. At the light of these the first row\nof pilgrims light their incense sticks. After which every ascetic\nbegins whirling his stick around his head in space, and furnishes\nthe rest with fire. Thus with the heavenly bodies. A laya-centre\nis lighted and awakened into life by the fires of another \"pilgrim,\"\nafter which the new \"centre\" rushes into space and becomes\na comet. It is only after losing its velocity, and hence its fiery\ntail, that the \"Fiery Dragon\" settles down into quiet\nand steady life as a regular respectable citizen of the sidereal\nfamily. Therefore it is said: --\n\nBorn in the unfathomable depths of Space, out of the homogeneous\nElement called the World-Soul, every nucleus of Cosmic matter,\nsuddenly launched into being, begins life under the most hostile\ncircumstances. Through a series of countless ages, it has to conquer\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 204 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\nfor itself a place in the infinitudes. It circles round and round\nbetween denser and already fixed bodies, moving by jerks, and\npulling towards some given point or centre that attracts it, trying\nto avoid, like a ship drawn into a channel dotted with reefs and\nsunken rocks, other bodies that draw and repel it in turn; many\nperish, their mass disintegrating through stronger masses, and,\nwhen born within a system, chiefly within the insatiable stomachs\nof various Suns. (*See Comm. to Stanza IV*)*. *Those\nwhich move slower and are propelled into an elliptic course are\ndoomed to annihilation sooner or later. Others moving in parabolic\ncurves generally escape destruction, owing to their velocity.\n\nSome very critical readers will perhaps imagine that this teaching,\nas to the cometary stage passed through by all heavenly bodies,\nis in contradiction with the statements just made as to the moon\nbeing the mother of the earth. They will perhaps fancy that intuition\nis needed to harmonize the two. But no intuition is in truth required.\nWhat does Science know of Comets, their genesis, growth, and ultimate\nbehaviour? Nothing -- absolutely nothing! And what is there so\nimpossible that a laya centre -- a lump of cosmic protoplasm,\nhomogeneous and latent, when suddenly animated or fired up --\nshould rush from its bed in Space and whirl throughout the abysmal\ndepths in order to strengthen its homogeneous organism by an accumulation\nand addition of differentiated elements? And why should not such\na comet settle in life, live, and become an inhabited globe!\n\n\"The abodes of Fohat are many,\" it is said. \"He\nplaces his four fiery (electro-positive) Sons in the \"Four\ncircles\"; these *Circles *are the Equator, the Ecliptic,\nand the two parallels of declination, or the tropics -- to preside\nover the *climates *of which are placed the Four mystical\nEntities. Then again: \"Other seven (sons) are commissioned\nto preside over the seven hot, and seven cold *lokas *(the\nhells of the orthodox Brahmins) at the two ends of the Egg of\nMatter (our Earth and its poles). The seven *lokas *are\nalso called the \"Rings,\" elsewhere, and the \"Circles.\"\nThe ancients made the polar circles *seven *instead of\ntwo, as Europeans do; for Mount Meru, which is the North Pole,\nis said to have seven gold and seven silver steps leading to it.\n\nThe strange statement made in one of the Stanzas: \"The Songs\nof Fohat and his Sons were *radiant *as the noon-tide Sun\nand the Moon combined;\" and that the four Sons on the *middle\n*four-fold\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 205 SEEING SOUND, HEARING COLOURS.\n\nCircle \"*saw *their father's songs and *heard *his\nSolar-selenic radiance;\" is explained in the Commentary in\nthese words: \"The agitation of *the Fohatic *Forces\nat the two cold ends (North and South Poles) of the Earth which\nresulted in a multicoloured radiance at night, have in them several\nof the properties of Akasa (Ether) *colour *and sound as\nwell.\" . . . . . . \"Sound is the characteristic of Akasa\n(Ether): it generates air, the property of which is Touch; which\n(by friction) becomes productive of Colour and Light.\" .\n. . . . . (Vishnu Purana.)\n\nPerhaps the above will be regarded as archaic nonsense, but it\nwill be better comprehended, if the reader remembers the Aurora\nBorealis and Australis, both of which take place at the very centres\nof terrestrial electric and magnetic forces. The two poles are\nsaid to be the store-houses, the receptacles and liberators, at\nthe same time, of Cosmic and terrestrial Vitality (Electricity);\nfrom the surplus of which the Earth, had it not been for these\ntwo natural \"safety-valves,\" would have been rent to\npieces long ago. At the same time it is now a theory that has\nlately become an axiom, that the phenomenon of polar lights is\naccompanied by, and productive of, strong sounds, like whistling,\nhissing, and cracking. (But see Professor Trumholdt's works on\nthe Aurora Borealis, and his correspondence regarding this moot\nquestion.)\n\n-------\n\n##### STANZA VI. -- Continued.\n\n7. **M**AKE THY CALCULATIONS, **O**\n**L**ANOO, IF THOU WOULDST LEARN THE CORRECT AGE\nOF THY SMALL WHEEL (*chain*)*. ***I**TS\nFOURTH SPOKE IS OUR MOTHER (*Earth*)* *(*a*)*.\n***R**EACH THE FOURTH \"FRUIT\" OF THE\nFOURTH PATH OF KNOWLEDGE THAT LEADS TO **N**IRVANA,\nAND THOU SHALT COMPREHEND, FOR THOU SHALT SEE (*b*)*.*\n\n(*a*) The \"small wheel\" is our chain of spheres,\nand the fourth spoke is our Earth, the fourth in the chain. It\nis one of those on which the \"hot (positive) breath of the\nSun\" has a direct effect.*\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* The seven fundamental transformations of the globes or heavenly\nspheres, or rather of their constituent particles of matter, is\ndescribed as follows: (1) The *homogeneous;* (2) the*\naeriform* and *radiant *(gaseous); (3) *Curd-like\n*(nebulous); (4) *Atomic*,* Ethereal* [[Footnote\ncontinued on next page]]\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 206 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\nTo calculate its age, however, as the pupil is asked to do in\nthe Stanza, is rather difficult, since we are not given the figures\nof the Great Kalpa, and are not allowed to publish those of our\nsmall Yugas, except as to the approximate duration of these. \"The\nolder wheels rotated for one Eternity and one half of an Eternity,\"\nit says. We know that by \"Eternity\" the seventh part\nof 311,040,000,000,000 years, or an age of Brahma is meant. But\nwhat of that? We also know that, to begin with, if we take for\nour basis the above figures, we have first of all to eliminate\nfrom the 100 years of Brahma (or 311,040,000,000,000 years) two\n*years *taken up by the Sandhyas (twilights), which leaves\n98, as we have to bring it to the mystical combination 14 x 7.\nBut *we *have no knowledge at what time precisely the evolution\nand formation of our little earth began. Therefore it is impossible\nto calculate its age, unless the time of its birth is given --\nwhich the TEACHERS refuse to do, so far. At the close of this\nBook and in Book II., however, some chronological hints will be\ngiven. We must remember, moreover, that the law of Analogy holds\ngood for the worlds, as it does for man; and that as \"The\nONE (Deity) becomes Two (Deva or Angel) and *Two* becomes*\nThree *(or man),\" etc., etc., so we are taught that the\n*Curds *(world-stuff) become wanderers, (Comets), these\nbecome stars, and the stars (the centres of vortices) *our\nsun and planets* -- to put it briefly.*\n\n(*b*) There are four grades of initiation mentioned in\nexoteric works, which are known respectively in Sanskrit as \"Srotapanna,\"\n\"Sagardagan,\" \"Anagamin,\" and \"Arhan\"\n-- the four paths to Nirvana, in this, our fourth Round, bearing\nthe same appellations. The Arhan, though he can see the Past,\nthe Present, and the Future, is not yet the highest Initiate;\nfor the Adept himself, the *initiated *candidate, becomes\nchela (pupil) to a higher Initiate. Three further higher grades\nhave to be conquered by the Arhan who would reach the apex of\nthe ladder of Arhatship. There are those who have reached it even\nin this fifth race of ours, but the faculties necessary for the\nattainment of these higher\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n[[Footnote continued from previous page]] (beginning of motion,\nhence of differentiation); (5) *Germinal*,* fiery*,*\n*(differentiated, but composed of the germs only of the Elements,\nin their earliest states, they having seven states, when completely\ndeveloped on our earth); (6) *Four-fold*,* vapoury *(the\nfuture Earth); (7) *Cold and depending *(on the Sun for\nlife and light).\n\n* This cannot be so very *unscientific*,* *since\nDescartes thought also that \"the planets rotate on their\naxes because they were once lucid stars, the centres of Vortices.\"\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 207 THE TREE FROM WHICH THE ADEPTS GROW.\n\ngrades will be fully developed in the average ascetic only at\nthe end of this Root-Race, and in the Sixth and Seventh. Thus\nthere will always be Initiates and the Profane till the end of\nthis minor Manvantara, the present *life-cycle. *The*\nArhats *of the \"fire-mist\" of the 7th rung are but\none remove from the Root-Base of their Hierarchy -- the highest\non Earth, and our Terrestrial chain. This \"Root-Base\"\nhas a name which can only be translated by several compound words\ninto English\" -- \"the ever-living-human-Banyan.\"\nThis \"Wondrous Being\" descended from a \"high region,\"\nthey say, in the early part of the Third Age, before the separation\nof the sexes of the Third Race.\n\nThis Third Race is sometimes called collectively \"the Sons\nof *Passive Yoga*,\"* i.e.*, it was produced\nunconsciously by the second Race, which, as it was intellectually\ninactive, is supposed to have been constantly plunged in a kind\nof blank or abstract contemplation, as required by the conditions\nof the Yoga state. In the first or earlier portion of the existence\nof this third race, while it was yet in its state of purity, the\n\"Sons of Wisdom,\" who, as will be seen, incarnated in\nthis Third Race, produced by *Kriyasakti *a progeny called\nthe \"Sons of Ad\" or \"of the Fire-Mist,\" the\n\"Sons of Will and Yoga,\" etc. They were a conscious\nproduction, as a portion of the race was already animated with\nthe divine spark of spiritual, superior intelligence. It was not\na Race, this progeny. It was at first a wondrous Being, called\nthe \"Initiator,\" and after him a group of semi-divine\nand semi-human beings. \"*Set apart*\"* *in\nArchaic *genesis *for certain purposes, they are those\nin whom are said to have incarnated the highest Dhyanis, \"Munis\nand Rishis from previous Manvantaras\" -- *to* *form\nthe nursery for future human adepts*,* *on this earth\nand during the present cycle. These \"Sons of Will and Yoga\"\nborn, so to speak, in an immaculate way, remained, it is explained,\nentirely apart from the rest of mankind.\n\nThe \"**B**EING\" just referred to, which\nhas to remain nameless, is the *Tree *from which, in subsequent\nages, all the great *historically *known Sages and Hierophants,\nsuch as the Rishi Kapila, Hermes, Enoch, Orpheus, etc., etc.,\nhave branched off. As objective *man*,* *he is the\nmysterious (to the profane -- the ever invisible) yet ever present\nPersonage about whom legends are rife in the East, especially\namong the Occultists and the students of the Sacred Science. It\nis he who changes form, yet remains ever the same. And it is he\nagain who holds spiritual sway over the\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 208 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\n*initiated *Adepts throughout the whole world. He is, as\nsaid, the \"Nameless One\" who has so many names, and\nyet whose names and whose very nature are unknown. He is *the\n*\"Initiator,\" called the \"GREAT SACRIFICE.\"\nFor, sitting at the threshold of LIGHT, he looks into it from\nwithin the circle of Darkness, which he will not cross; nor will\nhe quit his post till the last day of this life-cycle. Why does\nthe solitary Watcher remain at his self-chosen post? Why does\nhe sit by the fountain of primeval Wisdom, of which he drinks\nno longer, as he has naught to learn which he does not know --\naye, neither on this Earth, nor in its heaven? Because the lonely,\nsore-footed pilgrims on their way back to their *home *are\nnever sure to the last moment of not losing their way in this\nlimitless desert of illusion and matter called Earth-Life. Because\nhe would fain show the way to that region of freedom and light,\nfrom which he is a voluntary exile himself, to every prisoner\nwho has succeeded in liberating himself from the bonds of flesh\nand illusion. Because, in short, he has sacrificed himself for\nthe sake of mankind, though but a few Elect may profit by the\nGREAT SACRIFICE.\n\nIt is under the direct, silent guidance of this **M**AHA\n-- (great) -- **G**URU that all the other less divine\nTeachers and instructors of mankind became, from the first awakening\nof human consciousness, the guides of early Humanity. It is through\nthese \"Sons of God\" that infant humanity got its first\nnotions of all the arts and sciences, as well as of spiritual\nknowledge; and it is they who have laid the first foundation-stone\nof those ancient civilizations that puzzle so sorely our modern\ngeneration of students and scholars.*\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* Let those who doubt this statement explain the mystery of the\nextraordinary knowledge possessed by the ancients -- alleged to\nhave developed from lower and animal-like savages, the *cave-men\n*of the Palaeolithic age -- on any other equally reasonable\ngrounds. Let them turn to such works as those of Vitruvius Pollio\nof the Augustan age, on architecture, for instance, in which all\nthe rules of proportion are those *taught anciently at initiations*,*\n*if he would acquaint himself with the truly divine art, and\nunderstand the *deep esoteric significance hidden in every\nrule and law of proportion. *No man descended from a Palaeolithic\ncave-dweller could ever evolve such a science unaided, even in\nmillenniums of thought and intellectual evolution. It is the pupils\nof those incarnated Rishis and Devas of the third Root Race, who\nhanded their knowledge from one generation to another, to Egypt\nand Greece with its now lost *canon of proportion; *as\nit is the Disciples of the Initiates of the 4th, the Atlanteans,\nwho handed it over to their *Cyclopes*,* *the \"Sons\nof Cycles\" or of the \"Infinite,\" from whom the\nname passed to the still later generations of Gnostic priests.\n\"It is owing to the divine perfection [[Footnote continued\non next page]]\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 209 THE SACRED ISLAND.\n\nAlthough these matters were barely hinted at in \"*Isis\nUnveiled*,\" it* *will be well to remind the reader\nof what was said in Vol. I., pp. 587 to 593, concerning a certain\nSacred Island in Central Asia, and to refer him for further details\nto the chapter in Book II. on \"The Sons of God and the Sacred\nIsland.\" A few more explanations, however, though thrown\nout in a fragmentary form, may help the student to obtain a glimpse\ninto the present mystery.\n\nTo state at least one detail concerning these mysterious \"Sons\nof God\" in plain words. It is from them, these Brahmaputras,\nthat the high Dwijas, the initiated Brahmins of old justly claimed\ndescent, while the modern Brahmin would have the lowest castes\nbelieve literally that they issued direct from the mouth of Brahma.\nThis is the esoteric teaching, which adds moreover that, although\nthese descendants (spiritually of course) from the \"sons\nof Will and Yoga,\" became in time divided into opposite sexes,\nas their \"*Kriyasakti*\"* *progenitors\ndid themselves, later on; yet even their degenerate descendants\nhave down to the present day retained a veneration and respect\nfor the creative\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n[[Footnote continued from previous page]] of those architectural\nproportions that the Ancients could build those wonders of all\nthe subsequent ages, their Fanes, Pyramids, Cave-Temples, Cromlechs,\nCairns, Altars, proving they had the powers of machinery and a\nknowledge of mechanics to which modern skill is like a child's\nplay, and which that *skill *refers to itself as the 'works\nof hundred-handed giants.'\" (*See *\"*Book\nof God*,\"* Kenealy.*)* *Modern architects\nmay not altogether have neglected those rules, but they have superadded\nenough empirical innovations to destroy those just proportions.\nIt is Vitruvius who gave to posterity the rules of construction\nof the Grecian temples erected to the immortal gods; and the ten\nbooks of Marcus Vitruvius Pollio on Architecture, of one, in short,\n*who was an initiate*,* *can only be studied esoterically.\nThe Druidical circles, the Dolmen, the Temples of India, Egypt\nand Greece, the Towers and the 127 towns in Europe which were\nfound \"Cyclopean in origin\" by the French Institute,\nare all the work of initiated Priest-Architects, the descendants\nof those primarily taught by the \"Sons of God,\" justly\ncalled \"The Builders.\" This is what appreciative posterity\nsays of those descendants. \"They used neither mortar nor\ncement, nor steel nor iron to cut the stones with; and yet they\nwere so artfully wrought that in many places the joints are not\nseen, though many of the stones, as in Peru, are 18 ft. thick,\nand in the walls of the fortress of Cuzco there are stones of\na still greater size.\" (*Acosta*,* *vi., 14.)\n\"Again, the walls of Syene, built 5,400 years ago, when that\nspot was exactly under the tropic, which it has now ceased to\nbe, were so constructed that at noon, at the precise moment of\nthe solar solstice, the entire disc of the Sun was seen reflected\non their surface -- a work which the united skill of all the astronomers\nof Europe would not now be able to effect.\" -- (Kenealy,\n\"*Book of God.*\")\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 210 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\nfunction, and still regard it in the light of a religious ceremony,\nwhereas the more civilized nations consider it as a mere animal\nfunction. Compare the western views and practice in these matters\nwith the Institutions of Manu in regard to the laws of Grihasta\nand married life. The true Brahmin is thus indeed \"he whose\nseven forefathers have drunk the juice of the moon-plant (Soma),\"\nand who is a \"Trisuparna,\" for he has understood the\nsecret of the Vedas.\n\nAnd, to this day, such Brahmins know that, during its early beginnings,\npsychic and physical intellect being dormant and consciousness\nstill undeveloped, the spiritual conceptions of that race were\nquite unconnected with its physical surroundings. That *divine\n*man dwelt in his animal -- though externally human -- form;\nand, if there was instinct in him, no self-consciousness came\nto enlighten the darkness of the latent fifth principle. When,\nmoved by the law of Evolution, the Lords of Wisdom infused into\nhim the spark of consciousness, the first feeling it awoke to\nlife and activity was a sense of solidarity, of one-ness with\nhis spiritual creators. As the child's first feeling is for its\nmother and nurse, so the first aspirations of the awakening consciousness\nin primitive man were for those whose element he felt within himself,\nand who yet were outside, and independent of him. **D**EVOTION\narose out of that feeling, and became the first and foremost motor\nin his nature; for it is the only one which is natural in our\nheart, which is innate in us, and which we find alike in human\nbabe and the young of the animal. This feeling of irrepressible,\ninstinctive aspiration in primitive man is beautifully, and one\nmay say intuitionally, described by Carlyle. \"The great antique\nheart,\" he exclaims, \"how like a child's in its simplicity,\nlike a man's in its earnest solemnity and depth! heaven lies over\nhim wheresoever he goes or stands on the earth; making all the\nearth a mystic temple to him, the earth's business all a kind\nof worship. Glimpses of bright creatures flash in the common sunlight;\nangels yet hover, doing God's messages among men . . . . . Wonder,\nmiracle, encompass the man; he lives in an element of miracle*\n. . . . A great law of duty, high as these two infinitudes (heaven\nand hell), dwarfing all else, annihilating all else -- it was\na reality, and it is one: the garment\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* That which was *natural *in the sight of primitive man\nhas become only now *miracle* to us; and that which was\nto him a miracle could never be expressed in our language.\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 211 THE SONS OF WISDOM.\n\nonly of it is dead; the essence of it lives through all times\nand all eternity!\"\n\nIt lives undeniably, and has settled in all its ineradicable strength\nand power in the Asiatic Aryan heart from the Third Race direct\nthrough its first \"mind-born\" sons, -- the fruits of\n*Kriyasakti. *As time rolled on the holy caste of Initiates\nproduced but rarely, and from age to age, such perfect creatures:\nbeings apart, inwardly, though the same as those who produced\nthem, outwardly.\n\nWhile in the infancy of the third primitive race: --\n\n\"A creature of a more exalted kind\n\nWas wanting yet, and therefore was designed;\n\nConscious of thought, of more capacious breast\n\nFor empire formed and fit to rule the rest. . . . .\"\n\nIt was called into being, a ready and perfect vehicle for the\nincarnating denizens of higher spheres, who took forthwith their\nabodes in these forms born of *Spiritual *WILL and the\nnatural divine power in man. It was a child of pure Spirit, mentally\nunalloyed with any tincture of earthly element. Its physical frame\nalone was of time and of life, as it drew its intelligence direct\nfrom above. It was the living tree of divine wisdom; and may therefore\nbe likened to the Mundane Tree of the Norse Legend, which cannot\nwither and die until the last battle of life shall be fought,\nwhile its roots are gnawed all the time by the dragon Nidhogg;\nfor even so, the first and holy Son of Kriyasakti had his body\ngnawed by the tooth of time, but the roots of his inner being\nremained for ever undecaying and strong, because they grew and\nexpanded in heaven not on earth. He was the first of the **F**IRST,\nand he was the seed of all the others. There were other \"Sons\nof Kriyasakti\" produced by a second Spiritual effort, but\nthe first one has remained to this day the Seed of divine Knowledge,\nthe One and the Supreme among the terrestrial \"Sons of Wisdom.\"\nOf this subject we can say no more, except to add that in every\nage -- aye, even in our own -- there have been great intellects\nwho have understood the problem correctly.\n\nHow comes our physical body to the state of perfection it is found\nin now? Through millions of years of evolution, of course, yet\nnever through, or from, animals, as taught by materialism. For,\nas Carlyle says: -- \". . . The essence of our being, the\nmystery in us that calls itself 'I,' -- what words have we for\nsuch things? -- it is a breath of Heaven,\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 212 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\nthe highest Being reveals himself in man. This body, these faculties,\nthis life of ours, is it not all as a vesture for the UNNAMED?\"\n\nThe* breath *of heaven, or rather the breath of life, called\nin the Bible *Nephesh*,* *is in every animal, in\nevery animate speck as in every mineral atom. But none of these\nhas, like man, the consciousness of the nature of that highest\nBeing,* as none has that divine harmony in its form which man\npossesses. It is, as Novalis said, and no one since has said it\nbetter, as repeated by Carlyle: --\n\n\"There is but one temple in the universe, and that is the\nbody of man. Nothing is holier than that high form . . . . We\ntouch heaven when we lay our hand on a human body!\" \"This\nsounds like a mere flourish of rhetoric,\" adds Carlyle, \"but\nit is not so. If well meditated it will turn out to be a scientific\nfact; the expression . . . of the actual truth of the thing. We\nare the miracle of miracles, -- the great inscrutable Mystery.\"\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* There is no nation in the world in which the feeling of devotion\nor of religious mysticism is more developed and prominent than\nin the Hindu people. See what Max Muller says of this idiosyncracy\nand national feature in his works. This is direct inheritance\nfrom the primitive *conscious *men of the Third Race.\n\n---------------------\n\nNext Section\n\nContents",
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