{
  "meta": {
    "schema_version": "1.1",
    "endpoint": "/api/sources/secret-doctrine/vol-1-cosmogenesis/20-iii-primordial-substance-and-divine-thought-325.json"
  },
  "work": {
    "slug": "vol-1-cosmogenesis",
    "name": "Volume I — Cosmogenesis"
  },
  "parents": [
    {
      "slug": "secret-doctrine",
      "name": "The Secret Doctrine",
      "url": "/sources/secret-doctrine/"
    }
  ],
  "chapter": {
    "num": 18,
    "slug": "20-iii-primordial-substance-and-divine-thought-325",
    "title": "III. PRIMORDIAL SUBSTANCE AND DIVINE THOUGHT ... 325",
    "of": 48,
    "words": 8167,
    "text": "## III. PRIMORDIAL SUBSTANCE AND DIVINE THOUGHT ... 325\n\n\nThe Secret Doctrine by H. P. Blavatsky, Vol 1, bk 2, ch 3\n\n###### The Secret Doctrine by H. P. Blavatsky -- Vol.\n1\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 325 THE IMPARTIALITY OF SCIENTIFIC DENIALS.\n\n[[This page continued from previous section]]\n\n##### § III.\nPRIMORDIAL SUBSTANCE AND DIVINE THOUGHT.\n\n\"As it would seem irrational to affirm that we already know\nall existing causes, permission must be given to assume, if need\nbe, *an entirely new agent.*\n\n\"Assuming, what is not strictly accurate as yet, that the\nundulatory hypothesis accounts for all the facts, we are called\non to decide whether the existence of an undulating Ether is thereby\nproved. *We cannot positively affirm*\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 326 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\n*that no other supposition* *will explain the facts. *Newton's\ncorpuscular hypothesis is admitted to have broken down on Interference;\nand there is, at the present day, no rival. Still, it is extremely\ndesirable in all such hypotheses to find some collateral confirmation,\nsome evidence *aliunde*,* *of THE SUPPOSED ETHER. .\n. . . Some Hypotheses consist of assumptions as to the minute\nstructure and operations of bodies. From the nature of the case,\nthese assumptions can never be proved by direct means. Their only\nmerit is *their suitability to express the phenomena. *They\nare REPRESENTATIVE FICTIONS.\" -- (\"*Logic*,\"*\nby Alexander Bain*,* LL.D.*,* Part II.*,* p. *133)\n\nEther, this *hypothetical *Proteus, one of the \"representative\n*Fictions*\"* *of modern Science -- which, nevertheless,\nwas so long *accepted* --* *is one of the lower\n\"principles\" of what we call PRIMORDIAL SUBSTANCE (Akasa,\nin Sanskrit), one of the *dreams *of old, and which has\nnow become again the dream of modern science. It is the greatest,\njust as it is the boldest, of the surviving speculations of ancient\nphilosophers. For the Occultists, however, both ETHER and the\nPrimordial Substance are a reality. To put it plainly, ETHER is\nthe Astral Light, and the Primordial Substance is **A**KASA,\nthe *Upadhi *of DIVINE THOUGHT.\n\nIn modern language, the latter would be better named COSMIC IDEATION\n-- Spirit; the former, COSMIC SUBSTANCE, Matter. These, the Alpha\nand the Omega of Being, are but the two *facets *of the\none Absolute Existence. The latter was never addressed, or even\nmentioned, by any name in antiquity, except allegorically. In\nthe oldest Aryan race, the Hindu, the worship of the intellectual\nclasses never consisted (as with the Greeks) in a fervent adoration\nof marvellous form and art, which led later on to anthropomorphism.\nBut while the Greek philosopher adored form, and the Hindu sage\nalone \"perceived the true relation of earthly beauty and\neternal truth\" -- the uneducated of every nation understood\nneither, at any time.\n\nThey do not understand it even now. The evolution of the **G**OD-IDEA\nproceeds apace with man's own intellectual evolution. So true\nit is that the noblest ideal to which the religious Spirit of\none age can soar, will appear but a gross caricature to the philosophic\nmind in a succeeding epoch! The philosophers themselves had to\nbe *initiated into perceptive mysteries*,* *before\nthey could grasp the correct idea of the ancients in relation\nto this most metaphysical subject. Otherwise -- outside such initiation\n-- for every thinker there will be a \"Thus far shalt thou\ngo and no farther,\" mapped out by his intellectual capacity,\nas clearly and as unmistakeably as there is for the progress of\nany nation or race in its cycle by the law of Karma. Outside of\ninitiation, the ideals of contemporary religious thought must\nalways have their wings clipped and remain unable to soar higher;\nfor idealistic as well as realistic thinkers, and even free-thinkers,\nare but the outcome and the natural product of their respective\nenvironments and periods. The ideals of both are only\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 327 DIVINE THOUGHT, OR CINERITIOUS MATTER.\n\nthe necessary results of their temperaments, and the outcome of\nthat phase of intellectual progress to which a nation, in its\ncollectivity, has attained. Hence, as already remarked, the highest\nflights of modern (Western) metaphysics have fallen far short\nof the truth. Much of current Agnostic speculation on the existence\nof the \"First Cause\" is little better than veiled materialism\n-- the terminology alone being different. Even so great a thinker\nas Mr. Herbert Spencer speaks of the \"Unknowable\" occasionally\nin terms that demonstrate the lethal influence of materialistic\nthought, which, like the deadly Sirocco, has withered and blighted\nall current ontological speculation.*\n\nFrom the early ages of the Fourth Race, when Spirit alone was\nworshipped and the mystery was made manifest, down to the last\npalmy days of Grecian art at the dawn of Christianity -- the Hellenes\nalone had dared to raise publicly an altar to the **U**NKNOWN\n**G**OD. Whatever St. Paul may have had in his profound\nmind when declaring to the Athenians that this \"unknown,\"\nignorantly worshipped by them, was the true God announced by himself\n-- that Deity *was not *\"Jehovah\" (*see *\"*The\nHoly of Holies*\"),* *nor was he \"The Maker\nof the world and all things.\" For it is not the \"God\nof Israel\" but the \"Unknown\" of the ancient and\nmodern Pantheist that \"dwelleth not in temples *made with\nhands*\"* *(Acts xviii., 23-4).\n\nDivine thought cannot be defined, or its meaning explained, except\nby the numberless manifestations of Cosmic Substance in which\nthe former *is sensed *spiritually by those who can do\nso. To say this, after having defined it as the Unknown Deity,\nabstract, impersonal, sexless, which must be placed at the root\nof every Cosmogony and its subsequent evolution, is equivalent\nto saying nothing at all. It is like attempting a transcendental\nequation of conditions for the true values of a set, having in\nhand for deducing them only a number of *unknown* quantities.\nIts place is found in the old primitive Symbolic charts, in which,\nas shown in the text, it is represented by a boundless darkness,\non the ground of which appears the first central point in white\n-- thus symbolising coeval and co-eternal **S**PIRIT-**M**ATTER\nmaking its appearance in the phenomenal world, before its first\ndifferentiation. When \"the one becomes two,\" it may\nthen be\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* For instance, when he terms the \"First Cause\" -- the\n**U**NKNOWABLE -- a \"power *manifesting *through\nphenomena,\" and \"an infinite eternal *Energy*\"\n(?) it is clear that he has grasped solely the *physical *aspect\nof the mystery of Being -- the Energies of Cosmic Substance only.\nThe co-eternal aspect of the **O**NE **R**EALITY\n-- Cosmic Ideation -- (as to its *noumenon*,* *it\nseems *non-existent *in the mind of the great thinker)\nis absolutely omitted from consideration. Without doubt, this\n*one-sided *mode of dealing with the problem is due largely\nto the pernicious Western practice of subordinating consciousness,\nor regarding it as a \"by-product\" of molecular motion.\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 328 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\nreferred to as Spirit *and* matter. To \"Spirit\"\nis referable every manifestation of consciousness, reflective\nor direct, and of *unconscious purposiveness *(to adopt\na modern expression used in Western *philosophy*,* *so-called)\nas evidenced in the Vital Principle, and Nature's submission to\nthe majestic sequence of immutable law. \"Matter\" must\nbe regarded as objectivity in its purest abstraction -- the self-existing\nbasis whose septenary manvantaric differentiations constitute\nthe objective reality underlying the phenomena of each phase of\nconscious existence. During the period of Universal Pralaya, Cosmic\nIdeation is nonexistent; and the variously differentiated states\nof Cosmic Substance are resolved back again into the primary state\nof abstract potential objectivity.\n\nManvantaric impulse commences with the re-awakening of Cosmic\nIdeation (the \"Universal Mind\") concurrently with, and\nparallel to the primary emergence of Cosmic Substance -- the latter\nbeing the manvantaric vehicle of the former -- from its undifferentiated\n*pralayic *state. Then, absolute wisdom mirrors itself\nin its Ideation; which, by a transcendental process, superior\nto and incomprehensible by human Consciousness, results in Cosmic\nEnergy (*Fohat*)*. *Thrilling through the bosom\nof inert Substance, *Fohat *impels it to activity, and\nguides its primary differentiations on all the Seven planes of\nCosmic Consciousness. There are thus *Seven Protyles *(as\nthey are now called), while Aryan antiquity called them the Seven\nPrakriti, or Natures, serving, severally, as the *relatively\n*homogeneous basis, which in the course of the increasing\nheterogeneity (in the evolution of the Universe) differentiate\ninto the marvellous complexity presented by phenomena on the planes\nof perception. The term \"relatively\" is used designedly,\nbecause the very existence of such a process, resulting in the\nprimary segregations of undifferentiated Cosmic Substance into\nits septenary bases of evolution, compels us to regard the *protyle*\n*of* *each plane as only a *mediate *phase assumed\nby Substance in its passage from abstract, into full objectivity.\n\nCosmic Ideation is said to be non-existent during Pralayic periods,\nfor the simple reason that there is no one, and nothing, to perceive\nits effects. There can be no manifestation of Consciousness, semi-consciousness,\nor even \"unconscious purposiveness,\" except through\nthe\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* The term *Protyle *is due to Mr. Crookes, the eminent\nchemist, who has given that name to *pre-Matter*,* *if\none may so call primordial and purely homogeneous substances,\nsuspected, if not actually yet found, by Science in the ultimate\ncomposition of the atom. But the incipient segregation of primordial\nmatter into atoms and molecules takes its rise subsequent to the\nevolution of the Seven *Protyles. *It is the last of these\n-- having recently detected the possibility of its existence on\nour plane -- that Mr. Crookes is in search of.\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 329 THE UNIVERSAL ILLUSION.\n\nvehicle of matter; that is to say, on this our plane, wherein\nhuman consciousness *in its normal state *cannot soar beyond\nwhat is known as transcendental metaphysics, it is only through\nsome molecular aggregation or fabric that Spirit wells up in a\nstream of individual or sub-conscious subjectivity. And as Matter\nexisting apart from perception is a mere abstraction, both of\nthese aspects of the **A**BSOLUTE -- Cosmic Substance\nand Cosmic Ideation -- are mutually inter-dependent. In strict\naccuracy -- to avoid confusion and misconception -- the term \"Matter\"\nought to be applied to the aggregate of objects of possible perception,\nand \"Substance\" to *noumena; *for inasmuch as\nthe phenomena of *our *plane are the creation of the perceiving\nEgo -- the modifications of its own subjectivity -- all the \"states\nof matter representing the aggregate of perceived objects\"\ncan have but a relative and purely phenomenal existence for the\nchildren of our plane. As the modern Idealists would say, the\nco-operation of Subject and Object results in the Sense-object\nor phenomenon. But this does not necessarily lead to the conclusion\nthat it is the same on all other planes; that the co-operation\nof the two on the planes of their septenary differentiation results\nin a septenary aggregate of phenomena which are likewise non-existent\n*per se*,* *though concrete realities for the Entities\nof whose experience they form a part, in the same manner as the\nrocks and rivers around us are real from the stand-point of a\nphysicist, though unreal illusions of sense from that of the metaphysician.\nIt would be an error to say, or even conceive such a thing. From\nthe stand-point of the highest metaphysics, the whole Universe,\ngods included, is an illusion; but the illusion of him who is\nin himself an illusion differs on every plane of consciousness;\nand we have no more right to dogmatise about the possible nature\nof the perceptive faculties of an Ego on, say, the sixth plane,\nthan we have to identify our perceptions with, or make them a\nstandard for, those of an ant, in *its *mode of consciousness.\nThe pure object apart from consciousness* is unknown to us, while\nliving on the plane of our three-dimensional World; as we know\nonly the mental states it excites in the perceiving Ego. And,\nso long as the contrast of Subject and Object endures -- to wit,\nas long as we enjoy our five senses and no more, and do not know\nhow to divorce our all-perceiving *Ego* (the Higher Self)\nfrom the thraldom of these senses -- so long will it be impossible\nfor the *personal *Ego to break through the barrier which\nseparates it from a\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* Cosmic Ideation focussed in a principle or *upadhi* (basis)\nresults as the consciousness of the individual Ego. Its manifestation\nvaries with the degree of *upadhi*,* e.g.*,*\n*through that known as *Manas *it wells up as Mind-Consciousness;\nthrough the more finely differentiated fabric (sixth state of\nmatter) of the *Buddhi *resting on the experience of Manas\nas its basis -- as a stream of spiritual INTUITION.\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 330 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\nknowledge of *things in themselves *(*or Substance*)*.\n*That Ego, progressing in an arc of ascending subjectivity,\nmust exhaust the experience of every plane. But not till the Unit\nis merged in the ALL, whether on this or any other plane, and\nSubject and Object alike vanish in the absolute negation of the\nNirvanic State (negation, again, only *from our plane*),*\n*is* *scaled that peak of Omniscience -- the Knowledge\nof things-in-themselves; and the solution of the yet more awful\nriddle approached, before which even the highest Dhyan Chohan\nmust bow in silence and ignorance -- the unspeakable mystery of\nthat which is called by the Vedantins, the **P**ARABRAHMAM.\n\nTherefore, such being the case, all those who sought to give a\nname to the incognizable Principle have simply degraded it. Even\nto speak of Cosmic Ideation -- save in its *phenomenal *aspect\n--* *is like trying to bottle up primordial Chaos, or to\nput a printed label on **E**TERNITY.\n\nWhat, then, is the \"primordial Substance,\" that mysterious\nobject of which Alchemy was ever talking, and which became the\nsubject of philosophical speculation in every age? What can it\nbe finally, even in its phenomenal pre-differentiation? Even *that\n*is ALL in manifested Nature and -- *nothing *to our\nsenses. It is mentioned under various names in every Cosmogony,\nreferred to in every philosophy, and shown to be, to this day,\nthe ever grasp-eluding **P**ROTEUS in Nature. We\ntouch and do not feel it; we look at it without seeing it; we\nbreathe it and do not perceive it; we hear and smell it without\nthe smallest cognition that it is there; for it is in every molecule\nof that which in our illusion and ignorance we regard as Matter\nin any of its states, or conceive as a feeling, a thought, an\nemotion. . . . In short, it is the \"*upadhi*,\"*\n*or vehicle, of every possible phenomenon, whether physical,\nmental, or psychic. In the opening sentences of *Genesis*,*\n*as in the Chaldean Cosmogony; in the *Puranas *of\nIndia, and in the *Book of the Dead *of Egypt, it opens\neverywhere the cycle of manifestation. It is termed \"Chaos,\"\nand the face of the waters, incubated by the Spirit proceeding\nfrom the Unknown, under whatever name. (*See *\"*Chaos*,*\nTheos*,* Kosmos.*\")\n\nThe authors of the sacred Scriptures in India go deeper into the\norigin of things evolved than Thales or Job, for they say: --\n\n\"From **I**NTELLIGENCE (called **M**AHAT\nin the Puranas) associated with **I**GNORANCE (Iswar,\nas a *personal *deity)* attended by its projective power*,*\n*in which the quality of dulness (*tamas*,* *insensibility)\npredominates, proceeds *Ether *-- from ether, air; from\nair, heat; from heat, water; and from water, earth \"with\neverything on it.\" \"From THIS, from this same SELF,\nwas the Ether produced,\" says the Veda. (*Taittiriya Upanishad\nII*. 1).\n\nIt becomes thus evident that it is not *this *Ether --\nsprung at the fourth\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 331 ETHER, AS ITS NOUMENON.\n\nremove from an *Emanation *of Intelligence \"associated\nwith Ignorance\" -- which is the high principle, the *deific\n*Entity worshipped by the Greeks and Latins under the name\nof \"*Pater omnipotens AEther*,\"* *and\n\"*Magnus AEther*\"* *in its collective\naggregates. The septenary gradation, and the innumerable subdivisions\nand differences, made by the ancients between the powers of *Ether\n*collectively, from its outward fringe of effects, with which\nour Science is so familiar, up to the \"Imponderable Substance,\"\nonce admitted as the \"Ether of Space,\" now about to\nbe rejected, has been ever a vexing riddle for every branch of\nknowledge. The mythologists and symbologists of our day, confused\nby this incomprehensible glorification, on the one hand, and degradation\non the other, of the same deified entity and in the same religious\nsystems, are often driven to the most ludicrous mistakes. The\nChurch, firm as a rock in each and all of her early errors of\ninterpretation, has made of Ether the abode of her Satanic legions.*\nThe whole hierarchy of the \"Fallen\" angels is there;\nthe *Cosmocratores *-- or the \"world bearers,\"\n(according to Bossuet);* Mundi Tenentes* --* *the\n\"world holders,\" as Tertullian calls them; and *Mundi\nDomini *\"world dominations,\" or rather *dominators*,*\n*the *Curbati*,* *or \"Curved,\" etc.,\nwho thus make of the stars and celestial orbs in their course\n-- Devils!\n\nThe difference made between the seven states of Ether (itself\none of the Seven Cosmic principles), while the AEther of the Ancients\nis *universal Fire*,* *may be seen in the injunctions\nby Zoroaster and Psellus, respectively. The former said: \"Consult\nit only when it is without form or figure,\" *absque forma\net figura*,* *which means without flames or burning\ncoals. \"When it has a form -- *heed it not*,\"*\n*teaches Psellus; \"but when it is formless, obey it,\nfor it is then *sacred fire*,* *and all it will\nreveal thee, shall be true.\"** This proves that Ether, itself\nan aspect of Akasa, has in its turn several aspects or \"principles.\"\n\nAll the ancient nations deified AEther in its imponderable aspect\nand potency. Virgil calls Jupiter, *Pater omnipotens AEther*,*\n*\"the great AEther.\"*** The Hindus have also placed\nit among their deities; under the name of Akasa (the synthesis\nof AEther). And the author of the *Homoiomerian*\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* For it is thus that the Church has interpreted verse 12 in the\nVI. Chapter to the Ephesians. \"For we wrestle not against\nflesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against\nthe rulers of the darkness of this world.\" Further on St.\nPaul mentions the spiritual *malices* (\"wickedness\"\nin English texts) SPREAD IN THE AIR -- \"*Spiritualia nequitiae\ncoelestibus*,\"* *the Latin texts giving various\nnames to these \"malices,\" the innocent \"Elementals.\"\nBut the Church is right this time, though wrong in calling them\nall devils. The ASTRAL LIGHT or lower Ether *is *full of\nconscious and semi-conscious and unconscious entities; only the\nchurch has less *power *over them than over invisible microbes\nor mosquitoes.\n\n*** Effatum ***XVI**. \"Oracles of Zoroaster.\"\n\n**** Georgica. *Book II.\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 332 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\nSystem of philosophy, Anaxagoras of Clazomenae, firmly believed\nthat the spiritual prototypes of all things, as well as their\nelements, were to be found in the boundless Ether where they were\ngenerated, whence they evolved, and whither they returned -- an\nOccult teaching.\n\nIt thus becomes clear that it is from Ether in its highest synthetic\naspect, once anthropomorphised, that sprung the first idea of\na personal creative deity. With the philosophical Hindus the elements\nare *Tamas*,* i.e.*, \"unenlightened by *intellect*,*\n*which they obscure.\"\n\nWe have now to exhaust the question of the mystical meaning of\n\"Primordial Chaos\" and of the Root-Principle, and show\nhow they were connected in the ancient philosophies with Akasa,\nwrongly translated AEther, and also with *Maya *(illusion)\n-- of which *Ishwara *is the male aspect. We shall speak\nfurther on of the *intelligent *\"principle,\"\nor rather of the invisible *immaterial *properties, in\nthe visible and material elements, that \"sprung from the\n*primordial *Chaos.\"\n\nFor, \"What is the primordial Chaos but AEther?\" it is\nasked in \"ISIS UNVEILED.\" Not the *modern *Ether;\nnot such as is recognised now, but such as *was *known\nto the ancient philosophers long before the time of Moses; but\nAEther, with all its mysterious and occult properties, containing\nin itself the germs of universal creation. *Upper A*Ether\nor Akasa, is the celestial virgin and mother of every existing\nform and being, from whose bosom, as soon as \"incubated\"\nby the Divine Spirit, are called into existence Matter and Life,\nForce and Action. AEther is the Aditi of the Hindus, and it is\nAkasa. Electricity, magnetism, heat, light, and chemical action\nare so little understood even now that fresh facts are constantly\nwidening the range of our knowledge. Who knows where ends the\npower of this protean giant -- AEther; or whence its mysterious\norigin? Who, we mean, that denies the spirit that works in it,\nand evolves out of it all visible forms?\n\nIt will be an easy task to show that the cosmogonical legends\nall over the world are based on a knowledge by the ancients of\nthose sciences, which have allied themselves in our days in support\nof the doctrine of evolution; and that further research may demonstrate\nthat those ancients were far better acquainted with the fact of\nevolution itself, embracing both its physical and spiritual aspects,\nthan we are now. \"With the old philosophers, evolution was\na universal theorem, a doctrine embracing the *whole*,*\n*and an established principle; while our modern evolutionists\nare enabled to present us merely with speculative theoretics;\nwith *particular*,* *if not wholly *negative\n*theorems. It is idle for the representatives of our modern\nwisdom to close the debate and pretend that the question is settled,\nmerely because the obscure phraseology of the Mosaic, far later,\naccount clashes with the definite exegesis of 'Exact Science'\"*\n*(\"*Isis Unveiled*\")*.*\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 333 WHAT MANU SAYS OF THIS.\n\nIf one turns to the \"Laws (or Ordinances) of Manu,\"\none finds the prototype of all these ideas. Mostly lost (to the\nWestern world) in their original form, disfigured by later interpolations\nand additions, they have, nevertheless, preserved quite enough\nof their ancient Spirit to show its character. \"Removing\nthe darkness, the Self-existent Lord\" (*Vishnu*,*\nNarayana*,* etc.*)* *becoming manifest, and\n\"wishing to produce beings from his Essence, created, in\nthe beginning, water alone. In that he cast seed. . . . . That\nbecame a golden Egg.\" (V. 6, 7, 8, 9.) Whence this Self-existent\nLord? It is called THIS, and is spoken of as \"Darkness, imperceptible,\nwithout definite qualities, undiscoverable as if wholly in sleep.\"\n(V. 5.) Having dwelt in that Egg for a whole divine year, he \"who\nis called in the world Brahma,\" splits that Egg in two, and\nfrom the upper portion he forms the heaven, from the lower the\nearth, and from the middle the sky and \"the perpetual place\nof waters.\" (12, 13.)\n\nBut there is, directly following these verses, something more\nimportant for us, as it corroborates entirely our esoteric teachings.\nFrom verse 14 to 36, evolution is given in the order described\nin the Esoteric philosophy. This cannot be easily gainsaid. Even\nMedhatithi, the son of Viraswamin, and the author of the Commentary,\n\"the Manubhasya,\" whose date, according to the western\nOrientalists, is 1,000 A.D., helps us with his remarks to the\nelucidation of the truth. He showed himself either unwilling to\ngive out more, because he knew that truth which has to be kept\nfrom the profane, or else he was really puzzled. Still, what he\ndoes give out makes the septenary principle in men and nature\nplain enough.\n\nLet us begin with Chapter 1. of the \"Ordinances\" or\n\"Laws\" after the Self-existent Lord, the *unmanifesting\n*Logos of the Unknown \"Darkness,\" becomes manifested\nin the golden Egg. It is from this \"Egg,\" from ----\n\n(11.) That which is the undiscrete (undifferentiated) cause, eternal,\nwhich *Is and Is not*,* *from It issued that male\nwho is called in the world Brahma. . . . .\n\nHere we find, as in all genuine philosophical systems, even the\n\"Egg\" or the Circle (or Zero), boundless Infinity, referred\nto as **I**T,* and Brahma, the first *unit *only,\nreferred to as the *male *god,* i.e.*, the fructifying\nPrinciple. It is or 10\n(ten) the Decade. On the plane of the Septenary *or our World\n*only, it is called Brahma. On that of the *Unified Decade\n*in the realm of Reality, this male Brahma is an illusion.\n\n(14.) \"From Self (*atmanah*)* *he created mind,\n(1)* which is and is not;*\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\nThe ideal apex of the Pythagorean triangle: vide Sections in Vol.\nII., \"Cross and Circle,\" and the \"Earliest Symbolics\nof the Cross.\"\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 334 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\n(2) and from mind, Ego-ism (Self-Consciousness) the ruler; (3)\nthe Lord.\"\n\n(1.) The mind is *Manas. *Medhatithi, the commentator,\njustly observes here that it is the reverse of this and shows\nalready interpolation and rearranging; for it is *Manas *that\nsprings from *Ahamkara *or* *(Universal) Self-Consciousness,\nas *Manas *in the microcosm springs from Mahat, *or\nMaha-Buddhi *(Buddhi, in man). For Manas is dual, and as shown\nand translated by Colebrooke, \"is *serving both for sense\nand action*,* *is an organ by affinity, being cognate\nwith the rest.\" \"The rest\" means, here, that Manas,\nour *fifth* principle (the fifth, because the body was\nnamed the *first*,* *which is the reverse of the\ntrue philosophical order)* is in affinity both with Atma-Buddhi\nand with the lower four principles. Hence, our teaching: namely,\nthat Manas follows Atma-Buddhi to Devachan, and that the lower\n(dregs, the residue of) Manas remains with Kama rupa, in *Limbus*,*\n*or Kama-loka, the abode of the \"Shells.\"\n\n(2.) Such is the meaning of *Manas*,* *which*\n*\"*is*,* and is not.*\"\n\n(3.) Medhatithi translates it as \"the one conscious of the\nI,\" or Ego, not \"ruler,\" as the Orientalists do.\nThus they translate verse 16: \"He also, having made the subtile\nparts of those six (the Great Self and the five organs of sense)\nof unmeasured brightness, to enter into the elements of Self (*Atmamatrasu*)*\n*created all beings.\"\n\nWhen, according to Medhatithi, it ought to read *matra-Chit\n*instead of \"Atmamatrasu,\" and thus be made to say:\n--\n\n\"He having pervaded the subtile parts of those six, of unmeasured\nbrightness, by elements of self, created all beings.\"\n\nThis latter reading must be the correct one, since he, the *Self*,*\n*is what we call Atma, and thus constitutes the seventh principle,\nthe synthesis of the \"*six.*\"* *Such is\nalso the opinion of the editor of *Manava-dharma Shastra*,*\n*who seems to have intuitionally entered far deeper into the\nspirit of the philosophy than has the translator of the \"Ordinances\nof Manu,\" the late Dr. Burnell. For he hesitates little between\nthe text of Kulluka and the Commentaries of Medhatithi. Rejecting\nthe *tanmatra*,* *or subtile elements, and the *atmamatrasu\n*of Kulluka, he says, applying the principles to the Cosmic\n*Self:* \"The six appear rather to be the *manas\n*plus the five principles of Ether, air, fire, water, earth\";\n\"having united five portions of these six with the spiritual\nelement (the *seventh*)* *he (thus) created all\nexisting things;\" *atmamatra *is therefore the spiritual\natom as opposed to the elementary, not reflective \"elements\nof himself.\" Thus he corrects the translation of verse --\n\"17. As the subtile elements of bodily forms of This One\ndepend on these six, so\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* *Vide *A. Coke Burnell's translation, edited by Ed. W.\nHopkins, Ph.D.\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 335 THE SEVEN PRAKRITIS.\n\nthe wise call his form *carira*\"* *(sharira)\n-- and he says that \"Elements\" mean here portions or\nparts (or principles), which reading is borne out by verse 19,\nwhich says: --\n\n\"19. This non-eternal (Universe) arises then from the Eternal,\nby means of the subtile elements of forms of *those seven *very\nglorious principles\" (*purusha*)*.*\n\nCommenting upon which, according to Medhatithi, the Editor remarks\nthat \"the five elements plus mind (*Manas*)* *and\nSelf-Consciousness (Ahamkara)* are meant;\" \"subtile\nelements,\" as before (meaning) \"five portions of form\"\n(or principles). For verse 20 shows it, when saying of these (five\nelements, or \"five portions of form\" (*rupa*,*\nplus Manas *and Self-Consciousness) that they constitute the\n\"*seven purusha*,\"* *or* principles*,*\n*called in the Puranas the \"Seven Prakritis.\"\n\nMoreover, these \"five elements\" or \"five portions\"\nare spoken of in verse 27 as \"those which are called the\natomic destructible portions\" -- therefore \"distinct\nfrom the atoms of the *nyaya.*\"\n\nThis creative Brahma, issuing from the mundane or golden egg,\nunites in himself both the male and the female principles. He\nis, in short, the same as all the creative Protologoi. Of Brahma,\nhowever, it could not be said, as of Dionysos: \"[[*protogonon\ndiphue trigonon Baccheion Hanakta Hagrion arreton kruphion dikerota\ndimorphon*]]\" --* *a lunar Jehovah -- Bacchus\ntruly, with David dancing nude before his *symbol *in the\nark -- because no licentious Dionysia were ever established in\nhis name and honour. All such public worship was exoteric, and\nthe great universal symbols were distorted universally, as those\nof Krishna are now by the Vallabacharyas of Bombay, the followers\nof the *infant *god. But are these popular gods the *true\nDeity? *Are* they *the Apex and synthesis of the sevenfold\ncreation, man included? Never! Each and all are one of the rungs\nof that septenary ladder of Divine Consciousness, pagan as Christian.\nFor Ain-Soph also is said to manifest through the *Seven Letters\nof Jehovah*'*s name *who, having usurped the place\nof the Unknown Limitless, was given by his devotees his Seven\nAngels of the Presence -- his* Seven Principles. *Yet they\nare mentioned in almost every school. In the pure Sankhya philosophy\n*mahat*,* ahamkara *and the five *tanmatras *are*\n*called the *seven Prakritis *(or Natures), and they\nare counted from *Maha-Buddhi *or Mahat down to Earth.\n(See *Sankhya Karika* III. and Commentaries.)\n\nNevertheless, however disfigured for Rabbinical purposes is the\noriginal* Elohistic *version by Ezra, however repulsive\nat times even the\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* *Ahamkara*,* *as universal Self-Consciousness,\nhas a triple aspect, as also *Manas. *For this conception\nof \"I,\" or one's *Ego*,* *is either *sattwa*,*\n*\"pure quietude,\" or appears as* rajas*,*\n*\"active,\" or remains *tamas*, \"stagnant,\"\nin darkness. It belongs to Heaven and Earth, and assumes the properties\nof either.\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 336 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\n*esoteric *meaning in the Hebrew scrolls, which is far\nmore so than its outward *veil* or* cloaking *may\nbe* -- once the *Jehovistic *portions are eliminated, the\nMosaic books are found full of purely occult and priceless knowledge,\nespecially in the first six chapters.\n\nRead by the aid of the Kabala one finds a matchless temple of\noccult truths, a well of deeply concealed beauty hidden under\na structure, the *visible *architecture of which, its apparent\nsymmetry notwithstanding, is unable to stand the criticism of\ncold reason, or to reveal its age, for it belongs to all the ages.\nThere is more wisdom concealed under the exoteric *fables *of\nPuranas and Bible than in all the exoteric *facts *and\nscience in the literature of the world, and more OCCULT true Science,\nthan there is of exact knowledge in all the academies. Or, in\nplainer and stronger language, there is as much esoteric wisdom\nin some portions of the* exoteric *Puranas and Pentateuch,\nas there is of nonsense and of designed childish fancy in it,\nwhen read only in the dead-letter murderous interpretations of\ngreat dogmatic religions, and especially of sects.\n\nLet anyone read the first verses of chapter i. of *Genesis\n*and reflect upon them. There \"God\" commands to\n*another *\"god,\"* who does his bidding*\n-- even in the *cautious *English Protestant translation\nof James the First's authorised edition.\n\nIn the \"beginning,\" the Hebrew language having no word\nto express the idea of Eternity,** \"God\" fashions the\n*heaven *and the *Earth*;* *and the latter\nis \"without form and void,\" while the former is no Heaven\nin fact, but the \"Deep,\" *Chaos*,* *with\ndarkness upon its face.***\n\n\"And the *Spirit *of **G**OD moved upon the face\nof the Waters\" (v. 2), or the great Deep of the Infinite\nSpace. And this Spirit is *Nara-yana*,* *or Vishnu.\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* See \"The Holy of Holies.\"\n\n** The word \"eternity,\" by which Christian theologians\ninterpret the term \"for ever and ever,\" does not exist\nin the Hebrew tongue -- either as a word or meaning. *Oulam*,\nsays Le Clerc, only imports a time when beginning or end is not\nknown. It does not mean \"*infinite* duration,\"\nand the word *for ever *in the Old Testament, only signifies\na \"long time.\" Nor is the term \"eternity\"\nused in the Christian sense in the Puranas. For in Vishnu Purana,\nit is clearly stated that by Eternity and Immortality only \"existence\nto the end of the Kalpa\" is meant (Book II. chap. viii.).\n\n*** Orphic theogony is purely Oriental and Indian in its Spirit.\nThe successive transformations it has undergone, have now separated\nit widely from the spirit of ancient Cosmogony, as may be seen\nby comparing it even with Hesiod's theogony. Yet the truly Aryan\nHindu spirit breaks forth everywhere in both Hesiod's and the\nOrphic theogony. (See the remarkable work of James Darmesteter,\n*Cosmogonies Aryennes*,* *in his *Essais Orientaux.*)*\n*Thus the original Greek conception of Chaos is that of the\nSecret Wisdom Religion. In Hesiod, therefore, Chaos is infinite,\nboundless, endless and beginningless in duration, an abstraction\nat the same time as a visible presence. **S**PACE\nfilled with darkness, which is primordial matter in its *precosmic\n*state. For in its etymological sense, Chaos is Space, according\nto Aristotle, and Space is *the *ever Unseen and Unknowable\nDeity in our philosophy.\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 337 DARKNESS, IS LIGHT.\n\n\"And God said, Let there be a firmament. . .\" (v. 6),\nand \"God,\" the second, obeyed and \"*made *the\nfirmament\" (v. 7). \"And God said let there be light,\"\nand \"there was light.\" Now the latter does not mean\nlight at all, but in the Kabala, the androgyne \"Adam Kadmon,\"\nor Sephira (*Spiritual light*),* *for they are one;\nor, according to the Chaldean \"Book of Numbers,\" the\n*secondary *angels, the first being the Elohim who are\nthe *aggregate *of that \"fashioning\" *god*.\nFor to whom are those words of command addressed? And who is it\nwho commands? That which commands is the *eternal Law*,*\n*and he who obeys, the *Elohim*,* *the known\nquantity acting in and with *x*, or the coefficient of\nthe unknown quantity, the *Forces *of the ONE Force. All\nthis is Occultism, and is found in the archaic STANZAS. It is\nperfectly immaterial whether we call these \"Forces\"\nthe Dhyan Chohans, or the *Ophanim*,* *as St. John\ndoes.\n\n\"The one Universal Light, which to Man is *Darkness*,*\n*is ever existent,\" says the Chaldean \"Book of Numbers.\"\nFrom it proceeds periodically the **E**NERGY, which\nis reflected in the \"Deep\" or Chaos, the store-house\nof future worlds, and, once awakened, stirs up and fructifies\nthe latent Forces, which are the ever present eternal potentialities\nin it. Then awake anew the Brahmas and Buddhas -- the co-eternal\nForces -- and a new Universe springs into being. . . . .\n\nIn the *Sepher Jezireh*,* *the Kabalistic Book of\nCreation, the author has evidently repeated the words of Manu.\nIn it, the Divine Substance is represented as having alone existed\nfrom the eternity, boundless and absolute; and as having emitted\nfrom itself the Spirit.* \"One is the Spirit of the living\nGod, blessed be **I**TS name, which liveth for ever!\nVoice, Spirit, and Word, this is the Holy Spirit;\"** and\nthis is the Kabalistic abstract Trinity, so unceremoniously anthropomorphised\nby the Christian Fathers. From this triple **O**NE\nemanated the whole Kosmos. First from **O**NE emanated\nnumber **T**WO, or Air (the Father), the creative\nelement; and then number **T**HREE, *Water *(the\nMother), proceeded from the air; *Ether *or* Fire *completes\nthe mystic four, the Arba-il.*** \"When the Concealed of the\nConcealed wanted to reveal Himself, he first made a point (primordial\npoint, or the first Sephiroth, air, or Holy Ghost), shaped into\na sacred form (the ten Sephiroth, or the Heavenly man), and covered\nit with a rich and splendid garment, *that is the world.*\"****\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* The* manifested *Spirit; Absolute, Divine Spirit is one\nwith absolute Divine Substance: Parabrahm and Mulaprakriti are\none in essence. Therefore, Cosmic Ideation and Cosmic Substance\nin their primal character are one also.\n\n** \"Sepher Jezireh,\" chap. 1, Mishna ix.\n\n*** Ibid. It is from *Arba *that Abram is made to come.\n\n**** \"Zohar,\" I., 2a.\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 338 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\n\"He maketh the wind His messengers, flaming Fire His servants,\"\nsays the Jezireh, showing the cosmical character of the later\neuhemerised Elements,* and that the Spirit permeates every atom\nin Kosmos.\n\nThis \"primordial Substance\" is called by some *Chaos:\n*Plato and the Pythagoreans named it the *Soul of the World\n*after it had been impregnated by the Spirit of *that *which\nbroods over the Primeval Waters, or *Chaos. *It is by being\nreflected in it, say the Kabalists, that the brooding Principle\n*created *the phantasmagoria of a visible, manifested Universe.\n*Chaos*,* *before -- Ether, after, the \"reflection;\"\nit is still the deity that pervades all Space and things. It is\nthe invisible, imponderable Spirit of things and the invisible,\nbut too tangible fluid that radiates from the fingers of the healthy\nmagnetizer, for it is Vital Electricity -- **L**IFE\nitself. Called in derision by the Marquis de Mirville \"the\nnebulous Almighty,\" it is termed by the Theurgists and Occultists\nto this day \"the living Fire\"; and there is not a Hindu\nwho practises at dawn a certain kind of meditation but knows its\neffects.** It is the \"Spirit of\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* \"Sepher Jezireh,\" Mishna ix., 10. Everywhere throughout\nthe Acts, Paul calls the invisible Kosmic Beings the \"Elements.\"\n(*See Greek Texts.*) But now the Elements are degraded\ninto and limited to atoms of which nothing is known, so far, and\nwhich are only \"children of necessity\" as Ether is too\n--\n\nas we said in \"**I**SIS.\" \"The poor\nprimordial elements have long been exiled, and our ambitious physicists\nrun races to determine who shall add one more to the fledgling\nbrood of the sixty and odd elementary substances.\" Meanwhile\nthere rages a war in modern chemistry about terms. We are denied\nthe right to call these substances \"chemical elements,\"\nfor they are not \"primordial principles of self-existing\nessences out of which the universe was fashioned,\" according\nto Plato. Such ideas associated with the word *element *were\ngood enough for the \"old Greek philosophy,\" but modern\nscience rejects them; for, as Professor Crookes says, \"they\nare unfortunate terms,\" and experimental science will have\n\"nothing to do with any kind of essences except those which\nit can see, smell, or taste. It leaves others to the metaphysicians.\n. . .\" We must feel grateful even for so much.\n\n** Writing upon this subject in *Isis Unveiled *we said\nof it that it was: \"The Chaos of the ancients, the Zoroastrian\nsacred fire, or the *Atash-Behram *of the Parsees; the\nHermes-fire, the Elmes-fire of the ancient Germans; the lightning\nof Cybele; the burning torch of Apollo; the flame on the altar\nof Pan; the inextinguishable fire in the temple on the Acropolis,\nand in that of Vesta; the fire-flame of Pluto's helm; the brilliant\nsparks on the hats of the Dioscuri, on the Gorgon head, the helm\nof Pallas, and the staff of Mercury; the Egyptian Phtha-Ra; the\nGrecian *Zeus Cataibates *(the* *descending) of\nPausanias; the pentacostal fire-tongues; the burning bush of Moses;\nthe pillar of fire of the *Exodus*,* *and the \"burning\nlamp\" of Abram, the eternal fire of the \"bottomless\npit\"; the Delphic oracular vapours; the Sidereal light of\nthe Rosicrucians; the **A**KASA of the Hindu adepts;\nthe Astral Light of Eliphas Levi; the nerve-aura and the fluid\nof the magnetists; the *od *of the Reichenbach; the *Psychod\n*and ectenic force of Thury; the psychic force of Sergeant\nCox, and the atmospheric magnetism of some naturalists; galvanism;\nand finally, electricity -- all these are but various names for\nmany different manifestations or effects of the same mysterious,\nall-pervading cause, the Greek *Archeus.*\"* *We\nnow add -- it is all this and much more.\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 339 THE MYSTIC FIRE.\n\nLight\" and *Magnes. *As truly expressed by an opponent,\n*Magus *and *magnes *are two branches growing from\nthe same trunk and shooting forth the same resultants. And in\nthis appellation of \"living fire\" we may also discover\nthe meaning of the puzzling sentence in the *Zend-Avesta *saying\nthat there is \"a fire that gives knowledge of the future.\nScience and amiable speech,\" *i.e.*, develops an extraordinary\neloquence in the sybil, the sensitive, and even some orators.\n\nThis \"fire\" is spoken of in all the Hindu Books, as\nalso in the Kabalistic works. The *Zohar *explains it as\nthe \"white hidden fire, in the* Resha trivrah*\"*\n*(the White Head), whose Will causes the fiery fluid to flow\nin 370 currents in every direction of the universe. It is identical\nwith the \"Serpent that runs with 370 leaps\" of the *Siphrah\nDzenioota*,* *which, when the \"Perfect Man,\"\nthe Metatron, *is raised*,* i.e.*,* *when\nthe *divine *man indwells in the *animal *man, it,\nthe Serpent, becomes *three spirits*,* *that is\nto say, is Atma-Buddhi-Manas, in our theosophical phraseology.\n(Vide Part II. in Vol. II., §§ 3, \"The Many Meanings\nof the War in Heaven.\")\n\nSpirit, then, or Cosmic Ideation, and Cosmic Substance -- one\nof whose* principles *is Ether -- are *one*,*\n*and include the ELEMENTS, in the sense St. Paul attaches\nto them. These Elements are the veiled Synthesis standing for\nDhyan Chohans, Devas, Sephiroth, Amshaspends, Archangels, etc.,\netc. The Ether of science -- the *Ilus *of Berosus, or\nthe *Protyle *of Chemistry -- constitutes, so to speak,\nthe *rude* material (relatively) out of which the above-named\n\"Builders,\" following the plan traced out for them eternally\nin the DIVINE THOUGHT, fashion the systems in the Cosmos. They\nare \"myths,\" we are told. \"No more so than Ether\nand the Atoms,\" we answer. The two latter are *absolute\n*necessities of physical science; the \"Builders\"\nare as absolute a necessity of metaphysics. We are twitted with:\n\"You *never saw them.*\"* *We ask the materialists:\n\"Have you ever seen Ether, *or your Atoms*,* *or,\nagain, your FORCE?\" Moreover, one of the greatest Western\nEvolutionists of our modern day, the coadjutor of Darwin, Mr.\nA. R. Wallace, when discussing the inadequacy of Natural Selection\nalone to account for the physical form of Man, admits the guiding\naction of \"higher intelligences\" as a \"*necessary\n*part of the great laws which govern the material Universe\"\n(\"*Contributions to Theory of Natural Selection*\")*.*\n\nThese \"higher intelligences\" are the Dhyan Chohans of\nthe *Occultists.*\n\nIndeed, there are few Myths in any religious system worthy of\nthe name, but have an *historical *as well as a *scientific\n*foundation. \"Myths,\" justly observes Pococke, \"are\nnow proved to be fables, *just in proportion as we misunderstand\n*them;* truths*,* *in proportion as *they\nwere once understood.*\"\n\nThe one prevailing, most distinct idea -- found in all ancient\nteaching,\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 340 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\nwith reference to Cosmic Evolution and the first \"creation\"\nof our Globe with all its products, organic and *inorganic\n*(strange word for an Occultist to use) -- is that the whole\nKosmos has sprung from the DIVINE THOUGHT. This thought impregnates\nmatter, which is co-eternal with the ONE REALITY; and all that\nlives and breathes evolves from the emanations of the ONE *Immutable\n*-- Parabrahm = Mulaprakriti, the eternal one-root. The former\nof these is, so to say, the aspect of the central point turned\ninward into regions quite inaccessible to human intellect, and\nis absolute abstraction; whereas, in its aspect as *Mulaprakriti*\n--* *the eternal root of all, -- it gives one some hazy\ncomprehension at least of the Mystery of Being.\n\n\"Therefore, it was taught in the *inner* temples that\nthis visible universe of spirit and matter is but the concrete\nimage of the ideal abstraction; it was built on the model of the\nfirst DIVINE IDEA. Thus our universe existed from Eternity in\na latent state. The soul animating this purely spiritual universe\nis the central sun, the highest deity itself. It was not the *One*\nwho built the concrete form of the idea, but the first-begotten;\nand as it was constructed on the geometrical figure of the dodecahedron,*\nthe first-begotten 'was pleased to employ twelve thousand years\nin its creation.' The latter number is expressed in the Tyrrhenian\ncosmogony,** which shows man created in the sixth millennium.\nThis agrees with the Egyptian theory of 6,000 'years'*** and with\nthe Hebrew computation. But it is the exoteric form of it. The\n*secret *computation explains that the 'twelve thousand and\nthe 6,000 years' are YEARS OF **B**RAHMA -- one *day*\nof Brahma being equal to 4,320,000,000 years. Sanchoniathon****\nin his *Cosmogony*,* *declares that when the wind (spirit)\nbecame enamoured of its own principles (the chaos), an intimate\nunion took place, which connection was called *pothos*,*\n*and from this sprang the seed of all. And the chaos knew not\nits own production, for it was *senseless; *but from its\nembrace with the wind was generated Mot, or the ilus (mud).*****\nFrom this proceeded the spores of creation and the generation\nof the universe.\n\n\"Zeus-Zen (aether), and Chthonia (the chaotic earth) and\nMetis (the water), his wives; Osiris and Isis-Latona -- the former\ngod also representing ether -- the first emanation of the Supreme\nDeity, Amun, the primeval source of light; the goddess earth and\nwater again; Mithras,****** the rock-born god, the symbol of the\nmale mundane-fire, or the personified primordial light, and Mithra,\nthe fire-goddess, at once his mother and his wife: the pure element\nof fire (the active or male principle) regarded as light and heat,\nin conjunction with earth and water, or matter (female, or passive,\nelements of Cosmical generation)\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* Plato: \"Timaeus.\"\n\n** \"Suidas\" v. Tyrrhenia.\"\n\n*** The reader will understand that by \"years\" is meant\n\"ages,\" not mere periods of thirteen lunar months each.\n\n**** See the Greek translation by Philo Byblius.\n\n***** Cory: \"Ancient Fragment.\"\n\n****** Mithras was regarded among the Persians as the *Theos\nekpetros* --* *god of the rock.\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 341 ONE TREE OF KNOWLEDGE.\n\nMithras is the son of Bordj, the Persian mundane mountain,* from\nwhich he flashed out as a radiant ray of light. Brahma, the fire-god,\nand his prolific consort; and the Hindu Agni, the refulgent deity\nfrom whose body issue a thousand streams of glory and *seven*\ntongues of flame, and in whose honour certain Brahmans preserve\nto this day a *perpetual *fire; Siva, personated by the mundane\nmountain of the Hindus, the *Meru*: these terrific fire-gods,\nwho are said in the legend to have descended from heaven, like\nthe Jewish Jehovah, in a *pillar of fire*,* *and a dozen\nother Archaic double-sexed deities, all loudly proclaim their\nhidden meaning. And what could these dual myths mean but the psychochemical\nprinciple of primordial creation? The *first Evolution *in\nits triple manifestation of spirit, force and matter; the divine\n*correllation *at its starting point, allegorized as the\nmarriage of *Fire *and water, products of electrifying spirit,\nunion of the male active principle with the female passive element,\nwhich become the parents of their tellurian child, cosmic matter,\nthe *prima materia*,* *whose soul is AEther, and whose\nshadow is the ASTRAL LIGHT!\" (**I**SIS **U**NVEILED).\n\nThe fragments of the systems that have now reached us are rejected\nas absurd fables. Nevertheless, occult Science -- having survived\neven the great Flood that submersed the antediluvian giants and\nwith them their very memory, save in the Secret Doctrine, the\nBible and other Scriptures -- still holds the Key to all the world\nproblems.\n\nLet us apply that Key to the rare fragments of long-forgotten\ncosmogonies and try by their scattered parts to re-establish the\nonce Universal Cosmogony of the Secret Doctrine. The Key fits\nthem all. No one can study ancient philosophies seriously without\nperceiving that the striking similitude of conception between\nall -- in their exoteric form very often, in their hidden spirit\ninvariably -- is the result of no mere coincidence, but of a concurrent\ndesign: and that there was, during the youth of mankind, one languages,\none knowledge, one universal religion, when there were no churches,\nno creeds or sects, but when every man was a priest unto himself.\nAnd, if it is shown that already in those ages which are shut\nout from our sight by the exuberant growth of tradition, human\nreligious thought developed in uniform sympathy in every portion\nof the globe; then, it becomes evident that, born under whatever\nlatitude, in the cold North or the burning South, in the East\nor West, that thought was inspired by the same revelations, and\nman was nurtured under the protecting shadow of the same TREE\nOF KNOWLEDGE.\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* Bordj is called a fire-mountain -- a volcano ; therefore it\ncontains fire, rock, earth and water: the male, or active and\nthe female, or passive, elements. The myth is suggestive.\n\n--------------\n\nNext Chapter\n\nContents",
    "project_translation": false,
    "license": null,
    "methodology_url": null
  }
}