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    "num": 27,
    "slug": "29-xii-the-theogony-of-the-creative-gods-424",
    "title": "XII. THE THEOGONY OF THE CREATIVE GODS ... 424",
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    "words": 11038,
    "text": "## XII. THE THEOGONY OF THE CREATIVE GODS ... 424\n\n\nThe Secret Doctrine by H. P. Blavatsky, Vol 1, bk 2, ch 12\n\n###### The Secret Doctrine by H. P. Blavatsky -- Vol.\n1\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 424 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\n[[This page continued from previous section]]\n\n##### § XII.\nTHE THEOGONY OF THE CREATIVE GODS.\n\n**T**O thoroughly comprehend the idea underlying\nevery ancient cosmology necessitates the study, in a comparative\nanalysis, of all the great religions of antiquity; as it is only\nby this method that the root idea will be made plain. Exact science\n-- could the latter soar so high, while tracing the operations\nof nature to their ultimate and original sources -- would call\nthis idea the hierarchy of Forces. The original, transcendental\nand philosophical conception was one. But as systems began to\nreflect with every age more and more the idiosyncracies of nations;\nand as the latter, after separating, settled into distinct groups,\neach evolving along its own national or tribal groove, the main\nidea gradually became veiled with the overgrowth of human fancy.\nWhile in some countries the **F**ORCES, or rather\nthe intelligent Powers of nature, received divine honours they\nwere hardly entitled to, in others -- as now in Europe and the\n*civilized *lands -- the very thought of any such Force\nbeing endowed with intelligence seems absurd, and is proclaimed\n*unscientific. *Therefore one finds relief in such statements\nas are found in the *Introduction *to \"Asgard and\nthe Gods: Tales and Traditions of our Northern Ancestors,\"\nby W. S. W. Anson. The author remarks, on p. 3: \"Although\nin Central Asia, or on the banks of the Indus, in the land of\nthe Pyramids, and in the Greek and Italian peninsulas, and even\nin the North, whither Kelts, Teutons and Slavs wandered, the religious\nconceptions of the people have taken different forms, *yet\ntheir common origin *is still perceptible. We point out this\nconnection between the stories of the gods, and the deep thought\ncontained in them, and their importance, in order that the reader\nmay see that *it is not a magic world of erratic fancy *which\nopens out before him, but that . . . *Life and nature *formed\nthe basis of the existence and action of these divinities.\"\nAnd though it is impossible for any Occultist or student of Eastern\nEsotericism to concur in the strange idea that \"the religious\ncon-\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 425 MYTH IS ORAL TRADITION.\n\nceptions of the most famous nations of antiquity are connected\nwith the beginnings of civilization amongst the Germanic races,\"\nhe is yet glad to find such truths expressed as that: \"These\nfairy tales are not senseless stories written for the amusement\nof the idle; they embody the profound religion of our forefathers\n. . . \"\n\nPrecisely so. Not only their religion, but likewise their History.\nFor a myth, in Greek [[*mythos*]], means oral tradition,\npassed from mouth to mouth from one generation to the other; and\neven in the modern etymology the term stands for a *fabulous\n*statement conveying some important truth; a tale of some\nextraordinary personage whose biography has become overgrown,\nowing to the veneration of successive generations, with rich popular\nfancy, but which is no *wholesale *fable. Like our ancestors,\nthe primitive Aryans, we believe firmly in the personality and\nintelligence of more than one phenomenon-producing Force in nature.\n\nAs time rolled on, the archaic teaching grew dimmer; and those\nnations more or less lost sight of the highest and One principle\nof all things, and began to transfer the abstract attributes of\nthe \"causeless cause\" to the caused effects -- become\nin their turn causative -- the creative Powers of the Universe:\nthe great nations, out of the fear of profaning the IDEA, the\nsmaller, because they either failed to grasp it or lacked the\npower of philosophic conception needed to preserve it in all its\nimmaculate purity. But one and all, with the exception of the\nlatest Aryans, now become Europeans and Christians, show this\nveneration in their Cosmogonies. As Thomas Taylor,* the most intuitional\nof all the translators of Greek Fragments, shows, no nation has\never conceived the One principle as the immediate creator of the\nvisible Universe, for no sane man would credit a planner and architect\nwith having built the edifice he admires with his own hands. On\nthe testimony of Damascius ([[Peri* *archon]]) they referred\nto it as \"the Unknown **D**ARKNESS.\" The\nBabylonians passed over this principle in silence: \"To that\ngod,\" says Porphyry, in [[*Peri apoches empsuchon*]],*\n*\"who is above all things, neither external speech ought\nto be addressed, nor yet that which is inward. . . . .\" Hesiod\nbegins his theogony with: \"Chaos of all things was the first\nproduced,\"** thus allowing the inference that its cause or\nproducer must be passed over in reverential silence. Homer in\nhis poems ascends no higher than *Night*,* *whom\nhe represents Zeus as reverencing. According to all the ancient\ntheologists, and to the doctrines of Pythagoras and Plato, Zeus,\nor the\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* See \"Magazine\" for April, 1797.\n\n** [[*Etoi men protista chaos genet*;* geneto*]]\nbeing considered in antiquity as meaning \"Was *generated*\"*\n*and not simply *was. *(*See *\"*Taylor*'*s\nIntrod. to the Parmenides of Plato*,\"* *p. 260.\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 426 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\nimmediate artificer of the universe, *is not the highest god;\n*any more than Sir Christopher Wren in his physical, human\naspect is the MIND in him which produced his great works of art.\nHomer, therefore, is not only silent with respect to the first\nprinciple, but likewise with respect to those two principles immediately\nposterior to the first, the *AEther *and* Chaos *of\nOrpheus and Hesiod, and the *bound *and infinity of Pythagoras\nand Plato.* . . . . Proclus says of this highest principle that\nit is. . . . \"the Unity of Unities, and beyond the first\nadyte. . . . . more ineffable than all silence, and more occult\nthan all Essence. . . . . concealed amidst the intelligible gods.\"\n(*Ibid.*)\n\nTo what was written by Thomas Taylor in 1797 -- namely, that the\n\"Jews appear to have ascended no higher. . . . than the *immediate\n*artificer of the universe\"; as \"Moses introduces\na darkness on the face of the deep, without even insinuating that\nthere was any cause of its existence,\"** one might add something\nmore. Never have the Jews in their Bible (a purely esoteric, symbolical\nwork) degraded so profoundly their metaphorical deity as have\nthe Christians, by accepting Jehovah as their one living yet *personal\n*God*.*\n\nThis first, or rather ONE, principle was called \"the circle\nof Heaven,\" symbolized by the hierogram of a point within\na circle or equilateral triangle, the point being the LOGOS. Thus,\nin the Rig Veda, wherein Brahma is not even named, Cosmogony is\npreluded with the *Hiranyagharha*,* *\"the Golden\nEgg,\" and Prajapati (Brahma later on), from whom emanate\nall the hierarchies of \"Creators.\" The Monad, or point,\nis the original and is the unit from which follows the entire\nnumeral system. This Point is the First Cause, but THAT from which\nit emanates, or of which, rather, it is the expression, the Logos,\nis passed over in silence. In its turn, the universal symbol,\nthe *point within the circle*,* *was not yet the\nArchitect, but the cause of that Architect; and the latter stood\nto it in precisely the same relation as the point itself stood\nto the* circumference *of the Circle, which cannot be defined,\naccording to Hermes Trismegistus. Porphyry shows that the Monad\nand the Duad of Pythagoras are identical with Plato's *infinite\n*and* finite *in \"Philebus\" -- or what Plato\ncalls the [[*apeiron*]] and [[*peras*]]. It is the\nlatter only (the mother) which is substantial, the former being\nthe \"*cause of all unity and measure of all things*\"*\n*(*Vit. Pyth. p. *47); the Duad (Mulaprakriti, the\n**V**EIL) being thus shown to be the mother of the\nLogos and, at the same time, his *daughter* --* i.e.*,\nthe object of his perception -- the produced\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* It is the \"bound\" confused with the \"*Infinite*,\"*\n*that Kapila overwhelms with sarcasms in his disputations\nwith the Brahman Yogis, who claim in their mystical visions to\nsee the \"Highest One.\"\n\n** See T. Taylor's article in his Monthly Magazine quoted in the\n*Platonist*,* *edited by T. M. Johnson, F.T.S.,\nOsceola, Missouri. (Feb. Number of 1887.)\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 427 THE CREATIVE LOGOI, ANDROGYNOUS.\n\nproducer and the secondary cause of it. With Pythagoras, the MONAD\nreturns into silence and Darkness as soon as it has evolved the\n*triad*,* *from which emanate the remaining seven\nnumbers of the 10 (ten) numbers which are at the base of the manifested\nuniverse.\n\nIn the Norse cosmogony it is again the same. \"In the beginning\nwas a great abyss (Chaos), neither day nor night existed; the\nabyss was Ginnungagap, the yawning gulf, without beginning, without\nend. **A**LL **F**ATHER, the Uncreated,\nthe Unseen, dwelt in the depth of the 'Abyss' (**S**PACE)\nand *willed*,* *and what was willed came into being.\"\n(See* *\"*Asgard and the Gods.*\")* *As\nin the Hindu cosmogony, the evolution of the universe is divided\ninto two acts: called in India the *Prakriti *and* Padma\n*Creations. Before the warm rays pouring from the \"Home\nof Brightness\" awake life in the Great Waters of Space, the\nElements of the first creation come into view, and from them is\nformed the Giant Ymir (also Orgelmir) -- primordial matter differentiated\nfrom Chaos (literally *seething clay*)*. *Then comes\nthe cow Audumla, the nourisher,* from whom is born Buri (the Producer)\nwho, by Bestla, the daughter of the \"Frost-Giants\" (the\nsons of Ymir) had three sons, *Odin*,* Willi *and*\nWe*,* *or \"Spirit,\" \"Will,\" and\n\"Holiness.\" (*Compare the Genesis of the Primordial\nRaces*,* in this work.*)* *This was when Darkness\nstill reigned throughout Space, when the *Ases*,* *the\ncreative Powers (Dhyan Chohans) were not yet evolved, and the\nYggdrasil, the *tree *of the universe of Time and of Life,\nhad not yet grown, and there was, as yet, no Walhalla, or Hall\nof Heroes. The Scandinavian legends of creation, of our earth\nand world, begin with *time *and human life. All that precedes\nit is for them \"Darkness,\" wherein All-Father, the cause\nof all, dwells. As observed by the editor of \"Asgard and\nthe Gods,\" though these legends have in them the idea of\nthat **A**LL-**F**ATHER, the original\ncause of all, \"he is scarcely more than mentioned in the\npoems,\" not because, as he thinks, before the preaching of\nthe gospel, the idea \"could not rise to distinct conceptions\nof the Eternal,\" but on account of its great esoteric character.\nTherefore, all the creative gods, or *personal *Deities,\nbegin at the secondary stage of Cosmic evolution. Zeus is born\n*in*, and* out *of* Kronos* --* *Time.\nSo is Brahma the production and emanation of *Kala*,*\n*\"eternity and time,\" Kala being one of the names\nof Vishnu. Hence we find Odin, the father *of the gods and\nof the Ases*,* *as Brahma is the father of *the\ngods and of the Asuras*,* *and hence also the androgyne\ncharacter of all the chief creative gods, from the second **M**ONAD\nof the Greeks down to the Sephiroth Adam Kadmon, the Brahma or\nPrajapati-Vach of the Vedas, and the androgyne of Plato, which\nis but another version of the Indian symbol.\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* Vach -- the \"melodious cow, who milks sustenance and water,\"\nand yields us \"nourishment and sustenance\" as described\nin Rig-Veda.\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 428 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\nThe best metaphysical definition of primeval theogony in the spirit\nof the Vedantins may be found in the \"Notes on the Bhagavat-Gita,\"\nby Mr. T. Subba Row. (*See *\"*Theosophist*\"*\nfor February*,* *1887.) Parabrahmam, the unknown and\nthe incognisable, as the lecturer tells his audience:\n\n\". . . . . Is not Ego, it is not non-ego, nor is it consciousness\n. . . . . it is not even *Atma*\" . . . . . \"but\nthough not itself an object of knowledge, it is yet capable of\nsupporting and giving rise to every kind of object and every kind\nof existence which becomes an object of knowledge. It is the one\nessence from which starts into existence a centre of energy .\n. . . .\" which he calls *Logos.*\n\nThis Logos is the *Sabda Brahmam *of the Hindus, which\nhe will not even call *Eswara *(the \"lord\" God),\nlest the term should create confusion in the people's minds. But\nit is the *Avalokiteswara *of the Hindus, the *Verbum\n*of the Christians in its real *esoteric *meaning,\nnot in the theological disfigurement.\n\n\"It is,\" he says, \"the *Gnatha *or the Ego\nin the Kosmos, and every other Ego . . . . . . is but its reflection\nand manifestation. . . . . . It exists in a latent condition in\nthe bosom of Parabrahmam at the time of *Pralaya. . *. .\"\n(During Manvantara) \"it has a consciousness and an individuality\nof its own . . . . .\" (It is a centre of energy, but) . .\n. . . such centres of energy are almost innumerable in the bosom\nof Parabrahmam . . . . .\" \"It must not be supposed,\nthat even the logos is *the* Creator, or that it is but a\nsingle centre of energy . . . . . . their number is almost infinite.\"\n\"This Ego,\" he adds, \"is the first that appears\nin Kosmos, and is the end of all evolution. It is the abstract\nEgo\" . . . . . \"this is the *first *manifestation\n(or aspect) of Parabrahmam.\" \"When once it starts into\nconscious being . . . . . . from its objective standpoint, *Parabrahmam\n*appears to it as *Mulaprakriti.*\"* *\"Please\nbear this in mind,\" observes the lecturer, \"for here\nis the root of the whole difficulty about *Purusha *and*\nPrakriti *felt by the various writers on Vedantic philosophy.\nThis *Mulaprakriti *is material to it (the Logos), as any\nmaterial object is material to us. This *Mulaprakriti *is\nno more *Parabrahmam *than the bundle of attributes of a\npillar is the pillar itself; Parabrahmam is an unconditioned and\nabsolute reality, and Mulaprakriti is a sort of veil thrown over\nit. Parabrahmam by itself cannot be seen as it is. It is seen\nby the *Logos *with a veil thrown over it, and that veil\nis the mighty expanse of Cosmic matter. . . .\" \"Parabrahmam,\nafter having appeared on the one hand as the Ego, and on the other\nas Mulaprakriti, acts as the one energy through the *Logos*.\"\n\nAnd the lecturer explains what he means by this acting of something\nwhich is *nothing*,* *though it is the ALL, by a\nfine simile. He compares the Logos to the sun through which light\nand heat radiate, but whose energy, light and heat, exist in some\nunknown condition in Space and are diffused in Space only as *visible\n*light and heat, the sun being only the agent thereof. This\nis the first triadic hypostasis. The quaternary is made up by\nthe *energizing light *shed by the Logos.\n\nThe Hebrew Kabalists give it in a shape which esoterically is\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 429 THE ONE IS KNOWN BY THE MANY.\n\nidentical with the Vedantic. **A**IN-**S**OPH,\nthey taught, could not be comprehended, could not be located,\nnor named, though the causeless cause of all. Hence its name --\n**A**IN-**S**OPH -- is a term of negation,\n\"the inscrutable, the incognizable, and the unnameable.\"\nThey made of it, therefore, a boundless circle, a sphere, of which\nhuman intellect, with the utmost stretch, could only perceive\nthe vault. In the words of one who has unriddled much in the Kabalistical\nsystem, in one of its meanings thoroughly, in its numerical and\ngeometrical esotericism: -- \"Close your eyes, and from your\nown consciousness of perception try and think outward to the extremest\nlimits in every direction. You will find that equal lines or rays\nof perception extend out evenly in all directions, so that the\nutmost effort of perception will terminate in the *vault of\na sphere. *The limitation of this sphere will, of necessity,\nbe a great *Circle*,* *and the direct rays of thought\nin any and every direction must be *right line radii *of\nthe circle. This, then, *must *be, humanly speaking, the\nextremest all-embracing conception of the Ain-Soph *manifest*,*\n*which formulates itself as a *geometrical figure*,*\n*viz., of a circle, with its elements of curved circumference\nand right line diameter divided into radii. Hence, a geometrical\nshape is the first recognisable means of connection between the\nAin-Soph and the intelligence of man.\"*\n\nThis great circle (which Eastern Esotericism reduces to the point\nwithin the Boundless Circle) is the Avalokiteswara, the *Logos\n*or* Verbum *of which Mr. Subba Row speaks. But this\ncircle or manifested God is as unknown to us, except through its\n*manifested *universe, as the ONE, though easier, or rather\nmore possible to our highest conceptions. This Logos which sleeps\nin the bosom of Parabrahmam during Pralaya, as our \"*Ego\n*is latent (in us) at the time *of sushupti*,* *sleep\";\nwhich cannot cognize Parabrahmam otherwise than as *Mulaprakriti*\n--* *the latter being a cosmic veil which is \"the\nmighty expanse of cosmic matter\" -- is thus only an organ\nin cosmic creation, through which radiate the energy and wisdom\nof Parabrahmam, *unknown to the Logos*,* as it is to\nourselves. *Moreover, as the Logos is as unknown to us as\nParabrahmam is unknown in reality to the Logos, both Eastern Esotericism\nand the Kabala -- in order to bring the Logos within the range\nof our conceptions -- have resolved the abstract synthesis into\nconcrete images; viz., into the reflections or multiplied aspects\nof that Logos or Avalokiteswara, Brahma, Ormazd, Osiris, Adam-Kadmon,\ncall it by any of these names -- which aspects or Manvantaric\nemanations are the Dhyan Chohans, the Elohim, the Devas, the Amshaspends,\n&c., &c. Metaphysicians explain the root and germ of the\nlatter, according to Mr. Subba Row, as the first manifestation\nof Parabrahmam, \"the highest trinity that we\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* From the *Masonic Review *for June, 1886.\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 430 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\nare capable of understanding,\" which is *Mulaprakriti\n*(the veil), the *Logos*,* *and the conscious\nenergy \"of the latter,\" or its power and light*; or\n-- \"matter, force and the *Ego*,* *or the one\nroot of self, of which every other kind of self is but a manifestation\nor a reflection.\" It is then only in this \"light\"\n(of consciousness) of mental and physical perception, that *practical\n*Occultism can throw this into visibility by geometrical figures;\nwhich, when closely studied, will yield not only a scientific\nexplanation of the real, objective, existence** of the \"Seven\nsons of the divine Sophia,\" which is this light of the Logos,\nbut show by means of other yet undiscovered keys that, with regard\nto Humanity, these \"Seven Sons\" and their numberless\nemanations, centres of energy personified, are an absolute necessity.\nMake away with them, and the mystery of Being and Mankind *will\nnever be unriddled*,* not even closely approached.*\n\nIt is through *this light *that everything is created.\nThis ROOT of mental SELF is also the root of physical *Self*,\nfor this light is the permutation, in our manifested world, of\nMulaprakriti, called *Aditi *in the Vedas. In its third\naspect it becomes *Vach*,*** the daughter and the mother\nof the Logos, as Isis is the daughter and the mother of Osiris,\nwho is Horus; and* Mout*,* *the daughter, wife,\nand mother of Ammon, in the Egyptian Moon-glyph. In the Kabala,\nSephira is the same as Shekinah, and is, in another synthesis,\nthe wife, daughter, and mother of the \"Heavenly man,\"\nAdam Kadmon, and is even identical with him, just as Vach is identical\nwith Brahma, and is called the female Logos. In the Rig-Veda,\nVach is \"mystic speech,\" by whom Occult Knowledge and\nWisdom are communicated to man, and thus Vach is said to have\n\"entered the Rishis.\" She is \"generated by the\ngods;\" she is the *divine *Vach -- the \"Queen\nof gods\"; and she is associated -- like Sephira with the\nSephiroth -- with the Prajapati in their work of creation. Moreover,\nshe is called \"the mother of the Vedas,\" \"since\nit is through her power (as mystic *speech*)* *that\nBrahma revealed them, and also owing to her power that he produced\nthe universe\" -- *i.e.*, through speech, and *words\n*(synthesized by the \"WORD\") and numbers.****\n\nBut Vach being also spoken of as the daughter of Daksha -- \"the\ngod who lives in all the Kalpas\" -- her Mayavic character\nis thereby shown:\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* Called, in the Bhagavat-Gita, *Daiviprakriti.*\n\n*** Objective* --* *in the world of Maya, of course;\nstill as real as we are.\n\n*** \"In the course of cosmic manifestation, this *Daiviprakriti*,*\n*instead of being the mother of the Logos, should, strictly\nspeaking, be called his daughter.\" (\"*Notes on the\nBhagavat-Gita*,\" *p*. 305, *Theosophist.*)\n\n**** The wise men, like Stanley Jevons amongst the moderns, who\ninvented the scheme which makes the incomprehensible assume a\ntangible form, could only do so by resorting to numbers and geometrical\nfigures.\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 431 THE FEMALE LOGOI.\n\nduring the *pralaya *she disappears, absorbed in the one,\nall-devouring Ray.\n\nBut there are two distinct aspects in universal Esotericism, Eastern\nand Western, in all those personations of the *female *Power\nin nature, or nature -- the* noumenal *and the *phenomenal.\n*One is its purely metaphysical aspect, as described by the\nlearned lecturer in his \"Notes on the Bhagavat-Gita;\"\nthe other terrestrial and physical, and at the same time *divine\n*from the stand-point of practical human conception and Occultism.\nThey are all the symbols and personifications of *Chaos*,*\n*the \"Great Deep\" or the Primordial Waters of Space,\nthe impenetrable VEIL between the INCOGNISABLE and the **L**OGOS\nof Creation. \"Connecting himself through his mind with Vach,\nBrahma (the Logos) created the primordial waters.\" In the\nKathaka Upanishad it is stated still more clearly: \"Prajapati\nwas this Universe. *Vach was a second to him. *He associated\nwith her . . . she produced these creatures and again re-entered\nPrajapati.\"*\n\nAnd here we may incidentally point out one of the many unjust\nslurs thrown by the pious and *good *missionaries in India\non the religion of the land. This allegory -- in the \"Satapatha\nBrahmana\" -- namely, that Brahma, as the father of men, performed\nthe work of procreation by incestuous intercourse with his own\ndaughter Vach, also called Sandhya (twilight), and *Satarupa\n*(the hundred formed), is incessantly thrown into the teeth\nof the Brahmins, as condemning their \"detestable, *false\n*religion.\" Besides the fact, conveniently forgotten\nby the Europeans, that the Patriarch Lot is shown guilty of the\nsame crime under the *human form*,* *whereas Brahma,\nor rather Prajapati, accomplished the incest under the form of\na buck with his daughter, who had that of a hind (*rohit*),*\n*the esoteric reading of Genesis (*ch. iii.*)* *shows\nthe same. Moreover, there is certainly a *cosmic*,*\n*not a physiological meaning attached to the Indian allegory,\nsince Vach is a permutation of Aditi and Mulaprakriti (Chaos),\nand Brahma a permutation of Narayana, the Spirit of God entering\ninto, and fructifying nature; therefore, there is nothing *phallic\n*in the conception at all.\n\nAs already stated, Aditi-Vach is the female *Logos*,*\n*or the \"word,\" *Verbum; *and Sephira in\nthe Kabala is the same. These feminine Logoi are all correlations,\nin their *noumenal *aspect, of Light, and Sound, and Ether,\nshowing how well-informed were the ancients both in\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* This connects Vach and Sephira with the goddess Kwan-Yin, the\n\"merciful mother,\" the *divine *VOICE* of\nthe soul *even in Exoteric Buddhism; and with the female aspect\nof *Kwan-Shai-yin*,* *the Logos, the *verbum\n*of Creation, and at the same time with the voice that speaks\naudibly to the Initiate, according to Esoteric Buddhism. Bath\nKol, the *filia Vocis*,* *the daughter of the divine\nvoice of the Hebrews, responding from the mercy seat within the\nveil of the temple is -- a result.\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 432 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\nphysical science (as now known to the moderns), and as to the\nbirth of that science in the Spiritual and Astral spheres.\n\n\"Our old writers said that *Vach *is of four kinds .\n. . . *para*,* pasyanti*,* madhyama*,* vaikhari\n*(a statement found in the Rig-Veda and the Upanishads) . .\n. . Vaikhari Vach is what we utter.\" It is sound, *speech*,*\n*that again which becomes comprehensive and objective to one\nof our physical senses and may be brought under the laws of perception.\nHence: \"Every kind of *Vaikhari-Vach *exists in its*\nMadhyama *. . . . *Pasyanti *and ultimately in its *Para\n*form. . . . . The reason why this *Pranava* *is called\nVach is this, that these four principles of the great Kosmos correspond\nto these four forms of Vach. . . . . The whole Kosmos in its objective\nform is *Vaikhari *Vach; the light of the *Logos *is\nthe *madhyama *form; and the *Logos *itself the *pasyanti\n*form; while Parabrahmam is the *para *(beyond the *noumenon\n*of all *Noumena*)* *aspect of that Vach.\" (*Notes\non the Bhagavad-Gita*)*.*\n\nThus Vach, Shekinah, or the \"music of the spheres\" of\nPythagoras, are one, if we take for our example instances in the\nthree most (apparently) dissimilar religious philosophies in the\nworld -- the Hindu, the Greek and the Chaldean Hebrew. These personations\nand allegories may be viewed under *four *(chief) and three\n(lesser) aspects or *seven *in all, as in Esotericism.\nThe *para *form is the ever subjective and latent Light\nand Sound, which exist eternally in the bosom of the INCOGNISABLE;\nwhen transferred into the ideation of the Logos, or its latent\n*light*,* *it is called *pasyanti*,* *and\nwhen it becomes that light *expressed*,* *it is\n*madhyama.*\n\nNow the Kabala gives the definition thus: \"There are three\nkinds of light, and that (fourth) which interpenetrates the others;\n(1) the clear and the penetrating, the *objective light*,*\n*(2)* *the* reflected *light, and (3) the*\nabstract *light. The ten Sephiroth, the *three *and\nthe Seven, are called in the Kabala the 10 words, **D-BRIM **(Dabarim),\nthe numbers and the Emanations of the heavenly light, which is\nboth Adam Kadmon and Sephira, or (Brahma) Prajapati-Vach. Light,\nSound, Number, are the three factors of creation in the Kabala.\nParabrahmam cannot be known except through the luminous Point\n(the **L**OGOS), which knows not *Parabrahmam\n*but only *Mulaprakriti. *Similarly Adam Kadmon knew\nonly Shekinah, though he was the *vehicle *of Ain-Soph.\nAnd, as Adam Kadmon, he is in the esoteric interpretation the\ntotal of the number ten, the Sephiroth (himself a trinity, or\nthe three attributes of the\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n** Pranava*, like *Om*, is a mystic term pronounced\nby the Yogis during meditation; of the terms called, according\nto exoteric Commentators, *Vyahritis*,* *or \"Om,\n*Bhur*,* Bhuva*,* Swar*\"* *(Om,\nearth, sky, heaven) -- Pranava is the most sacred, perhaps. They\nare pronounced with breath suppressed. *See Manu II. *76-81,\n*and Mitakshara commenting on the Yajnavahkya-Suriti*,*\n*i.* *23. But the esoteric explanation goes a great\ndeal further.\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 433 THE PYTHAGOREAN IDEA.\n\n*incognisable ***D**EITY in One).* \"When\nthe Heavenly man (or **L**OGOS) first assumed the\nform of the Crown** (Kether) and identified himself with Sephira,\nhe caused seven splendid lights to emanate from it (the Crown),\"\nwhich made in their totality ten; so the Brahma-Prajapati, once\nhe became separated from, yet identical with Vach, caused the\nseven Rishis, the seven Manus or Prajapatis to issue from that\ncrown. In Exotericism one will always find 10 and 7, of either\nSephiroth or Prajapati; in *Esoteric *rendering always\n3 and 7, which yield also 10. Only when divided in the manifested\nsphere into 3 and 7, they form ,\nthe androgyne, and , or the\nfigure X manifested and differentiated.\n\nThis will help the student to understand why Pythagoras esteemed\nthe Deity (the Logos) to be the *centre of unity *and \"Source\nof Harmony.\" We say this Deity was the *Logos*,*\n*not the MONAD that dwelleth in Solitude and Silence, because\nPythagoras taught that UNITY being indivisible is *no number.\n*And this is also why it was required of the candidate, who\napplied for admittance into his school, that he should have already\nstudied as a preliminary step, the Sciences of Arithmetic, Astronomy,\nGeometry and *Music*,* *held as the four divisions\nof Mathematics.*** Again, this explains why the Pythagoreans asserted\nthat the doctrine of Numbers -- the chief of all in Esotericism\n-- had been revealed to man by the celestial deities; that the\nworld had been called forth out of Chaos by Sound or Harmony,\nand constructed according to the principles of musical proportion;\nthat the seven planets which rule the destiny of mortals have\na harmonious motion \"and intervals corresponding to musical\ndiastemes, rendering various sounds, so perfectly consonant, that\nthey produce the sweetest melody, which is inaudible to us, only\nby reason of the greatness of the sound, which our ears are incapable\nof receiving.\" (*Censorinus.*)\n\nIn the Pythagorean Theogony the hierarchies of the heavenly Host\nand Gods were numbered and expressed numerically. Pythagoras had\nstudied Esoteric Science in India; therefore we find his pupils\nsaying \"The monad (the manifested one) is the principle of\nall things. From the Monad and the indeterminate duad (Chaos),\nnumbers; from\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* It is this *trinity *that is meant by the \"three\nsteps of Vishnu\"; which means: (Vishnu being considered as\nthe *Infinite *in exotericism) -- that from the Parabrahm\nissued Mulaprakriti, Purusha (the Logos), and Prakriti: the four\nforms (with itself, the synthesis) of Vach. And in the Kabala\n-- Ain-Soph, Shekinah, Adam Kadmon and Sephirah, the four -- or\nthe three emanations being distinct -- yet ONE.\n\n** Chaldean *Book of Numbers. *In the current *Kabala\n*the name Jehovah replaces Adam Kadmon.\n\n*** Justin Martyr tells us that, owing to his ignorance of these\nfour sciences, he was rejected by the Pythagoreans as a candidate\nfor admission into their school.\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 434 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\nnumbers, *Points*;* *from points, *Lines*;*\n*from lines, *Superficies; *from superficies,* Solids;\n*from these, solid Bodies, whose elements are four -- Fire,\nWater, Air, Earth; of all which transmuted (correlated), and totally\nchanged, the world consists.\" -- (Diogenes Laertius *in\nVit. Pythag.*)\n\nAnd this may also, if it does not unriddle the mystery altogether,\nat any rate lift a corner of the veil off those wondrous allegories\nthat have been thrown upon Vach, the most mysterious of all the\nBrahmanical goddesses, she who is termed \"the *melodious\n*cow who milked forth sustenance and water\" (the Earth\nwith all her mystic powers); and again she \"who yields us\nnourishment and sustenance\" (physical Earth). *Isis *is\nalso mystic Nature and also Earth; and her cow's horns identify\nher with Vach. The latter, after having been recognised in her\nhighest form as *para*,* *becomes at the lower or\nmaterial end of creation -- *Vaikhari. *Hence she is mystic,\nthough physical, Nature, with all her magic ways and properties.\n\nAgain, as goddess of Speech and of Sound, and a permutation of\nAditi -- she is *Chaos*,* *in one sense. At any\nrate, she is the \"Mother of the gods,\" and it is from\nBrahma (Iswara, or the Logos) and Vach, as from Adam Kadmon and\nSephira, that the real *manifested *theogony has to start.\nBeyond, all is darkness and abstract speculation. With the Dhyan\nChohans, or the gods, the Seers, the Prophets and the adepts in\ngeneral are on firm ground. Whether as Aditi, or the *divine*\nSophia of the Greek Gnostics, she is the mother of the seven sons:\nthe \"Angels of the Face,\" of the \"Deep,\" or\nthe \"Great Green One\" of the \"Book of the Dead.\"\nSays the Book of Dzyan (Knowledge through meditation) --\n\n\"*The great mother lay with ,\nand the* |, *and the* ,\n*the second *|* and the *\nin her bosom*,* ready to bring them forth*,* the\nvaliant sons of the ||\n(or *4,320,000,* the Cycle*)* whose two elders are\nthe and the * * *(*Point*)*.*\"\n\nAt the beginning of every cycle of 4,320,000, the *Seven *(or,\nas some nations had it, eight) great gods, descended to establish\nthe new order of things and give the impetus to the new cycle.\nThat *eighth *god was the unifying *Circle *or **L**OGOS,\nseparated and made distinct from its host, in exoteric dogma,\njust as the three divine hypostases of the ancient Greeks are\nnow considered in the Churches as three distinct *personae.\n*\"The **M**IGHTY **O**NES perform\ntheir great works, and leave behind them everlasting monuments\nto commemorate their visit, every time they penetrate within our\nmayavic veil (atmosphere),\" says a\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* 31415, or [[pi]]. The synthesis, or the *Host unified *in\nthe Logos and the Point called in Roman Catholicism the \"Angel\nof the Face,\" and in Hebrew\n\"who is (like unto, or the same) as God\" -- the manifested\nrepresentation.\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 435 ANTIQUITY OF THE PYRAMIDS.\n\nCommentary.* Thus we are taught that the great Pyramids were built\nunder their direct supervision, \"when *Dhruva *(the\nthen Pole-star) was at his lowest culmination, and the Krittika\n(Pleiades) looked over his head (were on the same meridian but\nabove) to watch the work of the giants.\" Thus, as the first\nPyramids were built at the beginning of a Sidereal year, under\nDhruva (Alpha Polaris), it must have been over 31,000 years (31,105)\nago. Bunsen was right in admitting for Egypt an antiquity of over\n21,000 years, but this concession hardly exhausts truth and fact\nin this question. \"The stories told by Egyptian priests and\nothers of time-keeping in Egypt, are now beginning to look less\nlike lies in the sight of all who have escaped from biblical bondage,\"\nwrites the author of \"*The Natural Genesis.*\"*\n*\"Inscriptions have lately been found at Sakkarah, making\nmention of two Sothiac cycles . . . registered at that time, now\nsome 6,000 years ago. Thus when Herodotus was in Egypt, the Egyptians\nhad -- as now known -- observed at least five different Sothiac\ncycles of 1,461 years. The priests informed the Greek inquirer\nthat time had been reckoned by them for so long that the sun had\ntwice risen where it then set, and twice set where it then arose.\nThis . . . can only be realized as a fact in nature by means of\ntwo cycles of Precession, or a period of 51,736 years,\" (vol.\nii, p. 318. But see in our Book II., \"**C**HRONOLOGY\nOF THE **B**RAHMINS.\")\n\nMor Isaac (*See* Kircher's* OEdipus*,* vol. ii.*,*\np. *425) shows the ancient Syrians defining their world of\nthe \"Rulers\" and \"active gods\" in the same\nway as the Chaldeans. The lowest world was the **S**UBLUNARY\n-- our own -- watched by the \"Angels\" of the first or\nlower order; the one that came next in rank, was Mercury, ruled\nby the \"**A**RCHANGELS\"; then came Venus,\nwhose gods were the **P**RINCIPALITIES; the fourth\nwas that of the **S**UN, the domain and region of\nthe highest and mightiest gods of our system, the solar gods of\nall nations; the fifth was Mars, ruled by the \"**V**IRTUES\";\nthe sixth -- that of *Bel *or Jupiter -- was governed by\nthe **D**OMINIONS; the seventh -- the world of Saturn\n-- by the **T**HRONES. These are the worlds of form.\nAbove come the four higher ones, making seven again, since the\nthree *highest *are \"unmentionable and unpronounceable.\"\nThe eighth, composed of 1,122 stars, is the domain of the *Cherubs;\n*the ninth, belonging to the *walking *and numberless\nstars on account of their distance, has the seraphs; as to the\ntenth -- Kircher, quoting Mor Isaac, says that it is composed\n\"of invisible stars that could be taken, they said, for clouds\n-- so massed are they in the zone that we call *Via Straminis*,*\n*the\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* Appearing at the beginning of Cycles, as also of every sidereal\nyear (of 25,868 years) therefore the Kabeiri or *Kabarim *received\ntheir name in Chaldea, as it means the* measures of Heaven\n*from *Kob *-- measure of, and Urim -- heavens.\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 436 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\nMilky Way\"; and he hastens to explain that \"these are\nthe stars of Lucifer, engulfed with him in his terrible shipwreck.\"\nThat which comes after and beyond the tenth world (our Quaternary,\nor the *Arupa *world), the Syrians could not tell. \"All\nthey knew was that it is there that begins the vast and incomprehensible\nocean of the infinite, the abode of the true divinity without\nboundary or end.\"\n\nChampollion shows the same belief among the Egyptians. Hermes\nhaving spoken of the Father-Mother and Son, whose spirit (collectively\nthe DIVINE FIAT) shapes the Universe, says: -- \"*Seven\nAgents *(mediums) were also formed, to contain the material\n(or manifested) worlds, within their respective *circles *and\nthe action of these agents was named DESTINY.\" He further\nenumerates seven and ten and twelve orders, which would take too\nlong to detail here.\n\nAs the \"*Rig Vidhana*\"* *together with\nthe \"*Brahmanda Purana*\"* *and all such\nworks, whether describing the magic efficacy of the Rig-Vedic\n*Mantras *or the future Kalpas, are declared by Dr. Weber\nand others to be* modern compilations *\"belonging\nprobably only to the time of the Puranas,\" it is useless\nto refer the reader to their mystic explanations; and one may\nas well quote simply from the archaic books utterly unknown to\nthe Orientalists. These works explain that which so puzzles the\nscholars, namely that the *Saptarshi*,* *the \"mind-born\nsons\" of Brahma, are referred to in the *Satapatha Brahmana\n*under one set of names; in the *Mahabharata *under\nanother set; and that the Vayu Purana makes even *nine*\ninstead of *seven *Rishis, by adding the names of Bhrigu\nand Daksha to the list. But the same occurs in every exoteric\nScripture. The secret doctrine gives a long genealogy of Rishis,\nbut separates them into many classes. Like the Gods of the Egyptians,\nwho were divided into seven, and even twelve, classes, so are\nthe Indian Rishis in their Hierarchies. The first three groups\nare the Divine, the Cosmical and the Sub-lunary. Then come the\nSolar Gods of *our *system, the Planetary, the Sub-Mundane,\nand the purely human -- the heroes and the* Manoushi.*\n\nAt present, however, we are only concerned with the *pre*-cosmic,\ndivine gods, the Prajapati or the \"Seven Builders.\"\nThis group is found unmistakably in every Cosmogony. Owing to\nthe loss of Egyptian archaic documents -- since, according to\nM. Maspero, \"the materials and historical data on hand to\nstudy the history of the religious evolution in Egypt are neither\ncomplete nor very often intelligible\" -- in order to have\nthe statements brought forward from the Secret Doctrine corroborated\npartially and indirectly, the ancient hymns and inscriptions on\nthe tombs must be appealed to. One such, at any rate, shows that\nOsiris was, like Brahma-Prajapati, Adam Kadmon, Ormazd, and so\nmany other Logoi, the chief and synthesis of the\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 437 COSMIC GODS.\n\ngroup of \"Creators\" or Builders. Before Osiris became\nthe \"One\" and the *highest *god of Egypt he was\nworshipped at Abydos as the head or leader of the Heavenly Host\nof the Builders belonging to the higher of the three orders. The\nhymn engraved on the votive stela of a tomb from Abydos (3rd register)\naddresses Osiris thus: \"Salutations to thee, Osiris, elder\nson of *Sib*;* *thou the greatest over the six gods\nissued from the goddess *Noo *(primordial Water), thou\nthe great favourite of thy father *Ra*; father of fathers,\nKing of Duration, master in the eternity . . . who, as soon as\nthese issued from thy mother's bosom, gathered all the crowns\nand attached the *Uraeus *(serpent or naja)* on thy head;\nmultiform god, *whose name is unknown *and who has many\nnames in towns and provinces. . .\" Coming out from the primordial\nwater crowned with the *uraeus*,* *which is the\nserpent emblem of Cosmic fire, and himself the *seventh *over\nthe six primary gods issued from Father-Mother, *Nou* and\n*Nout *(the sky), who can Osiris be, but the chief Prajapati,\nthe chief Sephiroth, the chief Amshaspend-Ormazd! That this latter\nsolar and cosmic god stood, in the beginning of religious evolution,\nin the same position as the archangel \"whose name was secret,\"\nis certain. This Archangel was the representative on earth of\nthe *Hidden *Jewish God, Michael, in short: it is his \"Face\"\nthat is said to have gone before the Jews like a \"Pillar\nof Fire.\" Burnouf says, \"The seven Amshaspends, who\nare most assuredly our archangels, designate also the personifications\nof the divine Virtues.\" (*Comment on the Yacna*,*\np. *174.) And these archangels, therefore, are as \"certainly\"\nthe *Saptarishi *of the Hindus, though it is next to impossible\nto class each with its pagan prototype and parallel, since, as\nin the case of Osiris, they have all so \"many names in towns\nand provinces.\" Some of the most important, however, will\nbe shown in their order.\n\nOne thing is thus undeniably proven. The more one studies their\nHierarchies and finds out their identity, the more proofs one\nacquires that there is not one of the past and present *personal\n*gods, known to us from the earliest days of History, that\ndoes not belong to the third stage of Cosmic manifestation. In\nevery religion we find the concealed deity forming the ground\nwork; then the ray therefrom, that falls into primordial Cosmic\nmatter (first manifestation); then the androgyne result, the dual\nMale and Female abstract Force, personified* *(*second\n*stage)* *; this separates itself finally, in the *third*,*\n*into seven Forces, called the creative Powers by all the\nancient Religions, and the\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* This Egyptian word Naja reminds one a good deal of the Indian\n*Naga*,* *the Serpent-God. Brahma and Siva and Vishnu\nare all crowned with, and connected with Nagas -- a sign of their\ncyclic and cosmic character.\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 438 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\n\"Virtues of God\" by the Christians. The later explanation\nand metaphysical abstract qualifications have never prevented\nthe Roman and Greek Churches from worshipping these \"Virtues\"\nunder the personifications and distinct names of the seven Archangels.\nIn the Book of *Druschim *(*p. *59,* *1*st\nTreatise*)* *in the Talmud, a distinction between these\ngroups is given which is the correct Kabalistical explanation.\nIt says:\n\n\"There are three groups (or orders) of *Sephiroth. *1st.\nThe Sephiroth called \"the divine attributes\" (abstract).\n2nd. The physical or *sidereal *Sephiroth (personal) --\none group of *seven*,* *the other of *ten. *3rd.\nThe metaphysical Sephiroth, or *periphrasis of Jehovah*,*\n*who are the first three Sephiroth (Kether, Chochma and Binah),\nthe rest of the seven being the (personal) seven spirits of the\nPresence\" (also of the planets).\n\nThe same division has to be applied to the primary, secondary\nand tertiary evolution of gods in every theogony, if one wishes\nto translate the meaning esoterically. We must not confuse the\npurely metaphysical personifications of the *abstract *attributes\nof Deity, with their reflection -- the sidereal gods. This reflection,\nhowever, is in reality the objective expression of the abstraction:\n*living* Entities and the models formed on that divine\nprototype. Moreover, the three metaphysical Sephiroth or \"*the\nperiphrasis of Jehovah*\"* *are* not *Jehovah;\nit is the latter himself with the additional titles of Adonai,\nElohim, Sabbaoth, and the numerous names lavished on him, who\nis the periphrasis of the Shaddai, ,\nthe Omnipotent. The name is a circumlocution, indeed, a too abundant\nfigure of Jewish rhetoric, and has always been denounced by the\nOccultists. To the Jewish Kabalists, and even the Christian Alchemists\nand Rosicrucians, Jehovah was a convenient *screen*,*\n*unified by the folding of its many flaps, and adopted as\na substitute: one name of an individual Sephiroth being as good\nas another name, for those who had the secret. The Tetragrammaton,\nthe Ineffable, the sidereal \"*Sum Total*,\"*\n*was invented for no other purpose than to mislead the profane\nand to symbolize life and generation.* The real secret and *unpronounceable*\nname --* *\"the word that is no word\" -- has to\nbe sought in the seven names of the first seven emanations, or\nthe \"Sons of the Fire,\"\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* Says the translator of Avicebron's \"*Qabbalah*\"*\n*(Mr. Isaac Myer, **LL.B**., of Philadelphia) of this \"Sum\nTotal\": \"The letter of Kether is\n(Yod), of Binah (Heh), together\nYaH, the feminine Name; the third letter, that of Hokhmah, is\n(Vau), making together,\nYHV of\nYHVH, the Tetragrammaton, and really the complete symbols of its\nefficaciousness. The last (Heh)\nof this Ineffable Name *being always applied to the Six Lower\nand the last*,* together the Seven *remaining Sephiroth.\"\n. . . Thus the Tetragrammaton is holy only in its abstract synthesis.\nAs a quaternary containing the lower Seven Sephiroth, *it is\nphallic.*\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 439 INCREDIBLE, BUT TRUE.\n\nin the secret Scriptures of all the great nations, and even in\nthe *Zohar*,* *the Kabalistic lore of that smallest\nof all, the Jewish. This word, composed of seven letters in each\ntongue, is found embodied in the architectural remains of every\ngrand building in the world; from the Cyclopean remains on Easter\nIsland (part of a continent buried under the seas nearer four\nmillion years ago* than 20,000) down to the earliest Egyptian\npyramids.\n\nWe shall have to enter more fully upon this subject, and bring\npractical illustrations to prove the statements made in the text.\n\nFor the present it is sufficient to show, by a few instances,\nthe truth of what was asserted at the beginning of this Monograph,\nnamely, that no Cosmogony, the world over, with the sole exception\nof the Christian, has ever attributed to the One Highest cause,\nthe UNIVERSAL Deific Principle, the immediate creation of our\nEarth, man, or anything connected with these. This statement holds\nas good for the Hebrew or Chaldean Kabala as it does for *Genesis*,*\n*had the latter been ever thoroughly understood, and -- what\nis still more important -- correctly translated.** Everywhere\nthere is either a LOGOS -- a* *\"*Light *shining\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* The statement will, of course, be found preposterous and absurd,\nand simply laughed at. But if one believes in the final submersion\nof Atlantis 850,000 years ago, as taught in \"*Esoteric\nBuddhism*\"* *(the gradual first sinking having\nbegun during the Eocene age), one has to accept the statement\nfor the so-called Lemuria, the continent of the Third Root Race,\nfirst nearly destroyed by combustion, and then submerged. This\nis what the Commentary says: \"The first earth having been\npurified by the forty-nine fires, her people, born of Fire and\nWater, could not die . . . etc.; the Second Earth (with its race)\ndisappeared as vapour vanishes in the air . . . the Third Earth\nhad everything consumed on it after the *separation*,*\n*and went down into the lower Deep (the Ocean). This was *twice\ne*ighty-two cyclic years ago.\" Now a *cyclic *year\nis what we call a* sidereal *year, and is founded on the\nprecession of the equinoxes, or 25,868 years each, and this is\nequal, therefore, in all to 4,242,352 years. More details will\nbe found in the text of Book II. Meanwhile, this doctrine is embodied\nin the \"Kings of Edom.\"\n\n** The same reserve is found in the Talmud and in every national\nsystem of religion whether monotheistic or exoterically polytheistical.\nFrom the superb religious poem by the Kabalist Rabbi Solomon Ben\nGabirol in \"the Kether Malchuth,\" we select a few definitions\ngiven in the prayers of Kippur. . . . \"Thou art one, the\nbeginning of all numbers, and the foundation of all edifices;\nThou art One, and in the secret of Thy unity the wisest of men\nare lost, because they know it not. Thou art one, and Thy Unity\nis never diminished, never extended, and cannot be changed. Thou\nart one, but *not as an element of numeration; for Thy Unity\nadmits not of multiplication*,* change or form. *Thou\nart existent; but the understanding and vision of mortals cannot\nattain to thy existence, nor determine for thee the Where, the\nHow, and the Why. Thou art Existent, but in thyself alone, there\nbeing none other that can exist with thee. Thou art Existent,\nbefore all time and without Place. Thou art Existent, and thy\nexistence is so profound and secret that none can penetrate and\ndiscover thy secrecy. Thou art Living, but within no time that\ncan be fixed or known; Thou art Living, but not by a spirit or\na soul, for *Thou art thyself*,* *THE SOUL OF ALL\nSOULS,\" etc., etc. There is [[Footnote continued on next\npage]]\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 440 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\nin **D**ARKNESS,\" truly -- or the Architect\nof the Worlds is *esoterically* a* *plural number.\nThe Latin Church, paradoxical as ever, while applying the epithet\nof Creator to Jehovah alone, adopts a whole *Kyriel *of\nnames for the *working *FORCES* of the latter*,*\n*those names betraying the secret. For if the said Forces\nhad nought to do with \"Creation\" so-called, why call\nthem *Elohim *(Alhim) in plural; \"divine workmen\"\nand *Energies *([['*Energeia*]]),* *incandescent\ncelestial stones (lapides igniti coelorum), and especially, \"*supporters\n*of the World\" ([[*Kosmokratores*]]), governors\nor RULERS of *the World *(*rectores mundi*),*\n*the \"Wheels\" of the World (*Rotae*), Ophanim,\nFlames and **P**OWERS, \"Sons of God\" (*B*'*ne\nAlhim*),* *\"Vigilant COUNSELLORS,\" etc.,\netc.\n\nIt was often premised (and as unjustly as usual) that China, nearly\nas old a country as India, had no cosmogony. \"It was unknown\nto Confucius, and the Buddhists extended their Cosmogony without\nintroducing a personal God,\"* it is complained. The *Yi-King*,*\n*\"the very essence of ancient thought and the combined\nwork of the most venerated sages, fails to show a distinct cosmogony.\"\nNevertheless, there is one, and a very distinct one. Only as Confucius\ndid not admit of a future life** and the Chinese Buddhists reject\nthe idea of *One* Creator, accepting one cause and its\nnumberless effects, they are misunderstood by the believers in\na *personal *God. The \"great Extreme\" as the\ncommencement \"of changes\" (transmigrations) is the shortest\nand perhaps the most suggestive of all Cosmogonies, for those\nwho, like the Confucianists, love virtue for its own sake, and\ntry to do good unselfishly without perpetually looking to reward\nand profit. The \"great Extreme\" of Confucius produces\n\"two figures.\" These \"two\" produce in their\nturn \"the four images\"; these again \"the eight\nsymbols.\" It is complained that though the Confucianists\nsee in them \"Heaven, Earth and man in miniature,\" .\n. . we can see in them anything we like. No doubt, and so it is\nwith regard to many symbols, especially in those of the latest\nreligions. But they who know something of Occult numerals, see\nin these \"figures\" the symbol, however rude, of a harmonious\nprogressive Evolution of Kosmos and its beings, both the Heavenly\nand the Terrestrial. And any one who has studied the numerical\nevolution in the primeval cosmogony of Pythagoras (a contemporary\nof Confucius) can never fail to find in his *Triad*,*\nTetractis *and\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n[[Footnote continued from previous page]] a distance between this\nKabalistical Deity and the Biblical Jehovah, the spiteful and\nrevengeful God of Abram, Isaac, and Jacob, *who* *tempted\n*the former and wrestled with the last. No Vedantin but would\nrepudiate such a Parabrahm.\n\n* Rev. Joseph Edkins \"*On* *Cosmogony*,\"*\n*p*. *320. And very wisely they have acted.\n\n** If he rejected it, it was on the ground of what he calls the\nchanges -- in other words, rebirths -- of man, and constant transformations.\nHe denied immortality to the* personality *of man -- as\nwe do -- not to MAN.\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 441 THE SAME IDEA IN CONFUCIANISM.\n\n*Decade *emerging from the ONE and solitary Monad, the\nsame idea. Confucius is laughed at by his Christian biographer\nfor \"talking of divination\" before and after this passage,\nand is represented as saying: \"The eight symbols determine\ngood and ill fortune, and these lead to great deeds. There are\nno imitable images greater than heaven and earth. There are no\nchanges greater than the four seasons (meaning North, South, East\nand West, *et seq.*)*. *There are no suspended images\nbrighter than the sun and moon. In preparing *things for use*,*\nthere is none greater than the sage. *In determining good\nand ill-luck there is nothing greater than *the divining straws\nand the tortoise.*\"*\n\nTherefore, the \"divining straws\" and the \"tortoise,\"\nthe \"symbolic sets of lines,\" and the great sage who\nlooks at them as they become one and two, and two become four,\nand four become eight, and the other sets \"three and six,\"\nare laughed to scorn, only because his wise symbols are misunderstood.\n\nSo the author and his colleagues will scoff no doubt at the *Stanzas\n*given in our text, for they represent *precisely the same\nidea. *The old archaic map of Cosmogony is full of *lines\n*in the Confucian style, of concentric circles and dots. Yet\nall these represent the most abstract and philosophical conceptions\nof the Cosmogony of our Universe. At all events it may answer,\nperhaps, better to the requirements and the scientific purposes\nof our age, than the cosmogonical essays of St. Augustine and\nthe \"Venerable Bede,\" though these were published over\na millennium later than the Confucian.\n\nConfucius, one of the greatest sages of the ancient world, believed\nin ancient magic, and practised it himself \"if we take for\ngranted the statements of *Kin-yu*\" . . . . and \"he\npraised it to the skies in *Yi-kin*,\"* *we\nare told by his reverend critic. Nevertheless, even in his age\n-- *i.e.*,* *600 B.C., Confucius and his school\ntaught the sphericity of the Earth and even the heliocentric system;\nwhile, at about thrice 600 years after the Chinese philosopher,\nthe Popes of Rome threatened and even burnt \"heretics\"\nfor asserting the same. He is laughed at for speaking of the \"Sacred\nTortoise.\" No unprejudiced person can see any great difference\nbetween a *tortoise *and a *lamb *as candidates\nfor sacredness, as both are symbols and no more. The Ox, the Eagle,**\nthe Lion, and occasionally\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* He may be laughed at by the Protestants; but the Roman Catholics\nhave no right to mock him, without becoming guilty of blasphemy\nand sacrilege. For it is over 200 years since Confucius was canonized\nas a Saint in China by the Roman Catholics, who have thereby obtained\nmany converts among the ignorant Confucianists.\n\n** The animals regarded as *sacred *in the Bible are not\nfew: the goat for one, the *Azaz-el*,* *or God of\nVictory. As Aben Ezra says: \"If thou art capable of comprehending\nthe mystery of Azazel, thou wilt learn the mystery of His (God's)\nname, for it has similar associates in Scriptures. I will tell\nthee by allusion one portion of the mystery; [[Footnote continued\non next page]]\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 442 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\nthe Dove, are \"the sacred animals\" of the Western Bible,\nthe first three being found grouped round the Evangelists; and\nthe fourth (the human face) is a Seraph, *i.e.*, a fiery\nserpent, the Gnostic Agathodaemon probably.* As explained, the\n\"sacred animals\" and the Flames or \"Sparks\"\nwithin the \"Holy Four\" refer to the prototypes of all\nthat is found in the Universe in the *Divine Thought*,*\n*in the **R**OOT, which is the perfect cube,\nor the foundation of the Kosmos collectively and individually.\nThey have all an occult reference to primordial Cosmic forms and\nits first concretions, work, and evolution.\n\nIn the earliest Hindu exoteric cosmogonies, it is not even the\nDemiurge who creates. For it is said in one of the Puranas that:\n\"The great Architect of the World gives the first impulse\nto the rotatory motion of our planetary system by stepping in\nturn over each planet and body.\" It is this action \"that\ncauses each sphere to turn around itself, and all around the Sun.\"\nAfter which action, \"it is the *Brahmandica*,*\n*the Solar and Lunar Pitris (the Dhyani-Chohans)\" who\ntake charge of their respective spheres (earths and planets),\nto the end of the Kalpa.\" The Creators are the Rishis; most\nof whom are credited with the authorship of the mantras or Hymns\nof the Rig Veda. They are sometimes seven, sometimes ten, when\nthey become *prajapati*,* *the* *\"Lord\nof Beings\"; then they rebecome the *seven *and the\n*fourteen *Manus, as the representatives of the seven and\nfourteen *cycles *of Existence (\"Days of Brahma\");\nthus answering to the seven *AEons*,* *when at the\nend of the first stage of Evolution they are transformed into\nthe seven stellar Rishis, the Saptarishis; while their *human\n*doubles appear as heroes, Kings and Sages on this earth.\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n[[Footnote continued from previous page]] when thou shalt have\n*thirty three years of age *thou wilt comprehend me.\"\nSo with the mystery of the *tortoise. *Rejoicing over the\npoetry of Biblical metaphors, associating with the name of Jehovah,\n\"incandescent stones,\" \"sacred animals,\" etc.,\nand quoting from the *Bible de Vence *(*Vol. XIX. p.\n*318) a French pious writer says: \"Indeed all of them\nare *Elohim like their God; *for, these Angels assume,\n*through a holy usurpation*,* *the very divine name\nof Jehovah each time they represent him.\" (*Pneumatologie*,*\nVol. II.*,* p*. 294). No one ever doubted that *the\n*NAME must have been *assumed*,* *when under\nthe guise of the Infinite, One Incognizable, the *Malachim\n*(messengers) descended to eat and drink with men. But if\nthe Elohim (and even lower Beings), *assuming *the god-name,\nwere and are still worshipped, why should the same Elohim be called\n*devils*,* *when appearing under the names of other\nGods?\n\n* The choice is curious, and shows how paradoxical were the first\nChristians in their selections. For why should they have chosen\nthese symbols of Egyptian paganism, when the eagle is never mentioned\nin the New Testament save once, when Jesus refers to it as a *carrion\n*eater?* *(*Matt. *xxiv. 28); and in the Old\nTestament it is called *unclean*;* *that the Lion\nis made a point of comparison with Satan, both roaring for men\nto devour; and the oxen are driven out of the Temple. On the other\nhand the Serpent, brought as an exemplar of wisdom to follow,\nis now regarded as the symbol of the Devil. The esoteric pearl\nof Christ's religion degraded into Christian theology, may indeed\nbe said to have chosen a strange and unfitting *shell *to\nbe born in and evolved from.\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 443 THE MYSTERY OF BLACKNESS.\n\nThe Esoteric doctrine of the East having thus furnished and struck\nthe key-note -- which is as scientific as it is philosophical\nand poetical, as may be seen, under its allegorical garb -- every\nnation has followed its lead. It is from the exoteric religions\nthat we have to dig out the root-idea before we turn to esoteric\ntruths, lest the latter should be rejected. Furthermore, every\nsymbol -- in *every* national religion -- may be read esoterically,\nand the proof furnished for its being correctly read by transliterating\nit into its corresponding numerals and geometrical forms -- by\nthe extraordinary agreement of all -- however much the glyphs\nand symbols may vary among themselves. For in the origin those\nsymbols were all identical. Take, for instance, the opening sentences\nin various cosmogonies: in every case it is either a *circle*,*\n*an* egg*, or a *head. ***D**ARKNESS\nis always associated with this first symbol and surrounds it,\n-- as shown in the Hindu, the Egyptian, the Chaldeo-Hebrew and\neven the Scandinavian systems -- hence black ravens, black doves,\nblack waters and even black flames; the *seventh *tongue\nof Agni, the *fire-god *being called \"*Kali*,\"*\n*\"the black,\" as it was a black flickering flame.\nTwo *black *doves flew from Egypt and settling on the oaks\nof Dodona, gave their names to the Grecian gods. Noah lets out\na *black *raven after the deluge, which is a symbol for\nthe Cosmic pralaya, after which began the real creation or evolution\nof our earth and humanity. Odin's black ravens fluttered around\nthe Goddess Saga and \"whispered to her of the past and of\nthe future.\" What is the real meaning of all those black\nbirds? They are all connected with the primeval wisdom, which\nflows out of the pre-cosmic Source of all, symbolised by the Head,\nthe Circle, the Egg; and they all have an identical meaning and\nrelate to the primordial Archetypal man (Adam Kadmon) the creative\norigin of all things, which is composed of the Host of Cosmic\nPowers -- the Creative Dhyan-Chohans, beyond which all is darkness.\n\nLet us inquire of the wisdom of the Kabala -- even veiled and\ndistorted as it now is, -- to explain in its numerical language\nan approximate meaning, at least of the word \"raven.\"\nThis is its number value as given in the \"Source of Measures.\"\n\n\"The term *Raven *is used but once, and taken as *eth-h*'*orebv\n, = 678, or 113 x 6; while\nthe Dove is mentioned five times. Its value is 71, and 71 x 5\n= 355. Six diameters, or the raven*, crossing, would divide\nthe circumference of a circle of 355 into 12 parts or compartments;\nand 355 subdivided for each unit by 6, would equal 213-0, or the*\nhead *(\"beginning\") in the first verse of Genesis.\nThis divided or subdivided, after the same fashion, by 2, or the\n355 by 12, would give 213-2, or the word *B*'*rash*,\n, or the first word of\nGenesis, with its prepositional prefix, signifying the same concreted\ngeneral form\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 444 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\nastronomically, with the one here intended.\" Now the secret\nreading of the first verse of Genesis being: \"In Rash (B'rash)\nor head, developed gods, the Heavens and the Earth\" -- it\nis easy to comprehend the esoteric meaning of the *raven*,*\n*once that the like meaning of the Flood (or Noah's Deluge)\nis ascertained. Whatever the many other meanings of this emblematical\nallegory may be, its *chief* meaning is that of a new cycle\nand a new Round (our *Fourth *Round.)* The \"Raven,\"\nor the *Eth-H*'*Orebv*,* *yields the same\nnumerical value as the \"Head,\" and returned not to the\nark, while the dove returned, carrying the olive-branch, when\nNoah, the new man of the new Race (whose prototype is Vaivasvata\nManu), prepared to leave the ark, the womb (or *Argha*)*\n*of terrestrial nature, is the symbol of the purely spiritual,\nsexless and androgyne man of the first three Races, who vanished\nfrom earth for ever. Numerically Jehovah, Adam, Noah, are one\nin the Kabala: at best, then, it is Deity descending on to Ararat\n(later on Sinai), to incarnate in man his *image*,*\n*through the natural process, henceforth: the mother's womb,\nwhose symbols are the ark, the mount (Sinai), etc., in *Genesis.\n*The Jewish allegory is at once astronomical, and purely physiological\nrather than anthropomorphic.\n\nAnd here lies the abyss between the two systems (Aryan and Semitic),\nthough built on the same foundation. As shown by an expounder\nof the Kabala, \"the basic idea underlying the philosophy\nof the Hebrews was that God contained all things within himself\nand that man was *his image; *man, including woman (as\nAndrogynes);\" and that \"geometry and numbers (and measures\napplicable to astronomy) are contained in the terms *man *and*\nwoman; *and the apparent incongruity of such a mode was eliminated\nby showing the connection of man and woman with a particular system\nof numbers and measures and geometry, by the parturient time-periods,\nwhich furnished the connecting link between the terms and the\nfacts shown, and perfected the mode used.\" It is argued that,\nthe primal cause being absolutely incognizable, \"the symbol\nof its first* comprehensible manifestation *was the conception\nof a circle with its diameter line, so as at once to carry the\nidea of geometry, phallicism, and astronomy;\" and this was\nfinally applied to the \"signification of simply human generative\norgans.\"** Hence the whole cycle of events\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* Bryant is right in saying \"Druid Bardesin says of Noah\nthat when he came out of the ark (the birth of a new cycle), after\na stay therein of a year and a day, that 364 + 1 = 365 days, he\nwas congratulated by Neptune upon his birth from the waters of\nthe Flood, who wished him a *happy New Year.*\"*\n*The \"Year,\" or cycle, esoterically, was the new*\n*race of men *born from woman *after the separation\nof the sexes, which is *the secondary *meaning of the allegory:\nits primary meaning being the beginning of the Fourth Round, or\nthe *new *Creation.\n\n** *Unpubl. MSS. *(But see \"*Source of Measures.*\")\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 445 GOD IS OUR HIGHER SELF.\n\nfrom Adam and the Patriarchs down to Noah is made to apply to\nphallic and astronomical uses, the one regulating the other, as\nthe lunar periods, for instance. Hence, too, their *genesis\n*begins after their coming out of the Ark, and the close of\nthe flood -- at the Fourth Race. With the Aryan people it is different.\n\nEastern Esotericism has never degraded the One Infinite Deity,\nthe container of all things, to such uses; and this is shown by\nthe absence of Brahma from the Rig Veda and the modest positions\noccupied therein by Rudra and Vishnu, who became the powerful\nand great Gods, the \"Infinites\" of the exoteric creeds,\nages later. But even they, \"Creators\" as the three may\nbe, are not the direct creators and \"forefathers of men.\"\nThe latter are shown occupying a still lower scale, and are called\nPrajapatis, the Pitris (our lunar ancestors), etc., etc. -- never\nthe \"One Infinite God.\" Esoteric philosophy shows only\n*physical *man as created *in the image *of the\nDeity: but the latter is but \"the *minor gods.*\"*\n*It* *is the **H**IGHER-**S**ELF,\nthe real **E**GO who alone is divine and GOD.\n\n--------------\n\n[[This page continued in next section]]\n\nNext Section\n\nContents",
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