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    "num": 28,
    "slug": "30-xiii-the-seven-creations-445",
    "title": "XIII. THE SEVEN CREATIONS ... 445",
    "of": 48,
    "words": 7719,
    "text": "## XIII. THE SEVEN CREATIONS ... 445\n\n\nThe Secret Doctrine by H. P. Blavatsky, Vol 1, bk 2, ch 13\n\n###### fThe Secret Doctrine by H. P. Blavatsky -- Vol.\n1\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 445 GOD IS OUR HIGHER SELF.\n\n[[This page continued from previous section]]\n\n##### § XIII.\nTHE SEVEN CREATIONS.\n\n\"**T**HERE was neither day nor night, nor sky\nnor earth, nor darkness nor light, nor any other thing save only\nONE, unapprehensible by intellect, or THAT which is Brahma and\nPumis (Spirit) and Pradhana (crude matter)\" (*Veda: *\"*Vishnu\nPurana Commentary*\");* *or literally: \"One\nPradhanika Brahma Spirit: THAT was.\" The \"Pradhanika\nBrahma Spirit\" is Mulaprakriti and Parabrahmam.\n\nIn Vishnu Purana, Parasara says to Maitreya, his pupil: -- \"I\nhave thus explained to you, excellent Muni, six creations. . .\n. the creation of the Arvaksrotas beings was the seventh, and\nwas that of man.\" Then he proceeds to speak of two additional\nand very mysterious creations, variously interpreted by the commentators.\n\nOrigen, commenting upon the books written by Celsus, his opponent\n-- books which were all destroyed by the prudent Church Fathers\n-- evidently answers the objections of his contradictor and reveals\nhis system at the same time. This was evidently *septenary.\n*But his theogony, the genesis of the stars or planets, that\nof sound and colour, all found as an answer satire, and no better.\nCelsus, you see, \"desiring to exhibit his learning,\"\nspeaks of a ladder of creation with *seven gates*,*\n*and on the top\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 446 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\nof it the eighth -- ever closed. The mysteries of the Persian\nMithras are explained and \"musical reasons, moreover, are\nadded.\" . . . . And to these again he strives \"to add\na second explanation connected also with musical considerations,\"*\n-- *i.e.*, with the seven notes of the scale, the Seven\nSpirits of the Stars, &c., &c.\n\nValentinus expatiates upon the power of the great *Seven*,\nwho were called to bring forth this universe after *Ar*(*r*)*hetos*,*\n*or the Ineffable, whose name is composed of seven letters,\nhad represented the first *hebdomad. *This name (Ar(r)hetos)\nis one to indicate the Sevenfold nature of the One (the *logos*)*.\n*\"The goddess Rhea,\" says Proclus in *Timaeus\n*(p.* *121), \"is a Monad, Duad, and Heptad,\"\ncomprehending in herself all the *Titanidae*,* *\"who\nare seven.\"\n\nThe *Seven Creations *are found in almost every Purana.\nThey are all preceded by what Wilson translates -- \"the indiscrete\nPrinciple,\" absolute Spirit independent of any relation with\nobjects of sense. They are -- (1)* Mahattattwa*,* *the\nUniversal Soul, Infinite Intellect, or Divine Mind; (2)* Bhuta\n*or* Bhutasarga*,* *elemental creation, the\nfirst differentiation of Universal indiscrete Substance; (3) *Indriya\n*or* Aindriyaka*,* *organic evolution. \"These\nthree were the Prakrita creations, the *developments of indiscrete\nnature *preceded by indiscrete principle\"; (4) *Mukhya*,*\n*the fundamental creation of perceptible things, was that\nof inanimate bodies**; (5) *Tairyagyonya*,* *or*\nTiryaksrotas*,* *was that of animals; (6) *Urdhwasrotas*,*\n*or that of divinities*** (?); (7) *Arvaksrotas*,*\n*was that of man. (*See Vishnu Purana.*)\n\nThis is the order given in the *exoteric *texts. According\nto esoteric teaching there are seven primary, and seven secondary\n\"creations;\" the former being the Forces *self-evolving\n*from the one *causeless *FORCE; the latter, showing\nthe manifested Universe emanating from the already differentiated\n*divine* elements.\n\nEsoterically, as well as exoterically, all the above enumerated\nCreations stand for the (7) periods of Evolution, whether after\nan \"Age\" or a \"Day\" of Brahma. This is the\nteaching *par excellence *of Occult Philosophy, which,\nhowever, never uses the term \"creation,\" nor even that\nof evolution, \"with regard to *primary *'Creation':\"\nbut calls all such *forces *\"the* aspects *of\nthe Causeless Force.\" In the Bible\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* Origen *contra *Celsum, b. vi., chap. xxii.\n\n** The text says: \"And the fourth creation is *here *the\nprimary, for *things *immovable are emphatically known\nas primary.\" (*See Fitzedward Hall*'*s Corrections.*)\n\n*** How can \"divinities\" have been created *after*\nthe animals? The esoteric meaning of the expression \"animals\"\nis the *germs of all animal* *life *including man.\nMan is called a *sacrificial animal*,* *and an animal\nthat is the only one among animal creation who sacrifices to the\ngods. *Moreover*,* *by the \"sacred animals,\"\nthe 12 signs of the zodiac are often meant in the sacred texts,\nas already stated.\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 447 THE ORDER OF THE EVOLUTION.\n\nthe seven periods are dwarfed into the six days of creation and\nthe seventh *day *of rest, and the Westerns adhere to the\nletter. In the Hindu philosophy, when the active Creator has produced\nthe world of gods, the *germs *of all the undifferentiated\nelements and the rudiments of future senses (the world of noumena,\nin short), the Universe remains unaltered for a \"Day of Brahma,\"\na period of 4,320,000,000 years. This is the *seventh *passive\nperiod or the \"Sabbath day\" of Eastern philosophy, that\nfollows six periods of active evolution. In the *Satapatha\nBrahmana *\"Brahma\" (neuter), the *absolute Cause\n*of all Causes, *radiates *the gods. Having radiated\nthe gods (through its inherent nature) the work is interrupted.\nIn the 1st Book of Manu it is said, \"At the expiration of\neach night (pralaya) Brahma, having been asleep, awakes, and,\n*through the sole energy of the motion*,* *CAUSES\nto emanate from *itself *the spirit, which in its essence\nis, and yet is not.\"\n\nIn the *Sepher Jezirah*,* *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 his Name, who liveth for ever! Voice, Spirit,\nand Word, this is the Holy Spirit.\" (*Sepher Jezireh*,*\nchap.* 1,* Mishna IX.*)* *And this is the Kabalistic\nabstract Trinity, so unceremoniously anthropomorphized by the\nFathers. From this triple ONE emanated the whole Kosmos. First\nfrom ONE emanated number TWO, or Air, the creative element; and\nthen number THREE, *Water*,* *proceeded from the\nair; *Ether *or* Fire* complete the mystic four,\nthe Arba-il. (Ibid.) In the Eastern doctrine Fire is the first\nElement -- *Ether*, synthesizing the whole (since it contains\nall of them).\n\nIn the *Vishnu Purana*,* *the whole seven periods\nare given, and the progressive Evolution of \"Spirit-Soul,\"\nand of the seven forms of matter (or principles) are shown. It\nis impossible to enumerate them in this work. The reader is asked\nto peruse one of the Puranas.\n\n\"R. Yehudah began, it is written: 'Elohim said: Let there\nbe a firmament, in the midst of waters. . . . . At the time that\nthe Holy . . . created the world, He (they) created seven heavens\nAbove. He created seven earths Below, seven seas, seven days,\nseven rivers, seven weeks, seven years, seven times, and 7,000\nyears that the world has been. . . . . the seventh of all the\nmillennium. So here are seven earths Below, they are all inhabited\nexcept those which are above, and those . . . . below. And . .\n. . between each earth, a heaven (firmament) is spread out between\neach other. . . . . And there are in them (these earths) creatures\nwho look different from each other . . . . but if you object and\nsay that all the children of the world came out from Adam,\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 448 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\nit is not so. . . . . And the lower earths, where do they come\nfrom? They are *from the chain of the earth*,* *and\nfrom the heaven below,\" etc., etc.*\n\nIrenaeus is our witness (and a very unwilling one, too) that the\nGnostics taught the same system, veiling very carefully the true\nesoteric meaning. This \"veiling,\" however, is identical\nwith that of the Vishnu Purana and others. Thus Irenaeus writes\nof the Marcosians: \"They maintain that first of all the four\nelements, fire, water, earth and air, were produced after the\nimage of the primary *tetrad *above, and that then if we\nadd their operations, namely, heat, cold, dryness and moisture,\nan exact likeness of the ogdoad is presented.\" (B. i. ch.\nxvii.)\n\nOnly this \"likeness\" and the *ogdoad *itself\nis a blind, just as in the seven creations of the Vishnu Puranas,\nto which two more are added of which the eighth, termed Anugraha,\n\"possesses both the qualities of goodness and darkness,\"\na Sankhyan more than a Puranic idea. For Irenaeus says again (b.\nI. xxx. 6) that \"they (the Gnostics) had a like eighth creation\nwhich was good and bad, divine and human. They affirm that man\nwas formed *on the eighth day*. Sometimes they affirm that\nhe was made on the *sixth day*,* *and at others\non the eighth; unless, perchance, they mean that his earthly part\nwas formed on the sixth day and his fleshly part (?) on the eighth\nday; these two being distinguished by them.\"\n\nThey were so \"distinguished,\" but not as Irenaeus gives\nit. The Gnostics had a superior *Hebdomad*,* *and\nan inferior one, in Heaven; and a third terrestrial *Hebdomad*,*\n*on the plane of matter. **I**AO, the mystery\ngod and the Regent of the Moon, as given in Origen's chart, was\nthe chief of these superior \"*Seven Heavens*,\"***\n*hence identical with the chief of the lunar Pitris, that\nname being given by them to the lunar Dhyan-Chohans. \"They\naffirm that these seven heavens are intelligent, and *speak\nof them as being angels*,\"* *writes the same Irenaeus;\nand adds that on this account they termed Iao Hebdomas, while\nhis mother was called \"*Ogdoas*,\"* *because,\nas he explains, \"she preserved the number of *the first\nbegotten and primary Ogdoad of the Pleroma.*\"* *(Ibid.\nb. I, v. 2).\n\nThis \"first begotten *Ogdoad*\"* *was*\n*(*a*) in theogony the *second Logos *(the manifested)\nbecause he was born of the Seven-fold *first Logos*,*\n*hence he is the eighth on this manifested plane; and (*b*)\nin astrolatry, it was the *Sun*, Marttanda -- the eighth\nson of Aditi, whom she rejects while preserving her Seven Sons,\n*the planets. *For the ancients have never regarded the\nSun as a planet, but *as a central and fixed Star. *This,\nthen, is the second Hebdomad born of the *Seven-rayed *one,\nAgni, the Sun\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* Qabbalah, p. 415-16, by T. Myer, Philadelphia.\n\n** Superior to the Spirits or \"Heavens\" of the Earth\nonly.\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 449 THE SIX STELLAR GODS.\n\nand what not, only not the seven planets, which are Surya's *brothers*,*\n*not his *Sons. *These* Astral *gods, whose\nchief with the Gnostics was Ildabaoth* (from *Ilda* \"child,\"\nand *Baoth *\"the egg\"), the son of Sophia Achamoth,\nthe daughter of Sophia (Wisdom), whose region is the Pleroma,\nwere his (Ildabaoth's) sons. He produces from himself these six\nstellar spirits: *Jove* (Jehovah),* Sabaoth*,*\nAdonai*,* Eloi*,* Osraios*,* Astaphaios*,***\n*and it is they who are the second, or inferior *Hebdomad.\n*As* *to the third, it is composed of the seven primeval\nmen, the shadows of the lunar gods, projected by the first Hebdomad.\nIn this the Gnostics did not, as seen, differ much from the esoteric\ndoctrine except that they veiled it. As to the charge made by\nIrenaeus, who was evidently ignorant of the true tenets of the\n\"Heretics,\" with regard to man being created on the\n*sixth *day, and man being created on the *eighth*,*\n*this relates to the mysteries of the *inner *man.\nIt will become comprehensible to the reader only after he has\nread Book II., and understood well the *Anthropogenesis *of\nthe Esoteric doctrine.\n\nIldabaoth is a copy of Manu. The latter boasts, \"Oh, best\nof twice-born men! Know that I (Manu) am he, the creator of all\nthis world, whom that male Viraj . . . spontaneously produced\"\n(I., 33). He first creates the ten lords of Being, the Prajapatis,\nwho, as verse 36 says . . . \"produce seven other Manus.\"\n(*The Ordinances of Manu.*)* *Ildabaoth does likewise:\n\"I am Father and God, and there is no one above me,\"\nhe exclaims. For which his mother coolly puts him down by saying,\n\"Do not lie, Ildabaoth, for the father of all, the *first\n*man* *(*Anthropos*)* is above thee*,*\nand so is Anthropos*,* the Son of Anthropos*\"*\n*(Irenaeus, b. I, ch. xxx., 6). This is a good proof that\nthere were three Logoi (besides the Seven born of the First),\none of these being the *Solar Logos. *And, again, who was\nthat \"Anthropos\" himself, so much higher than Ildabaoth?\nThe Gnostic records alone can solve this riddle. In *Pistis\nSophia *the four-vowelled name **I**EOV is in\neach case accompanied by the epithet of \"the Primal, or First\nman.\" This shows again that the gnosis was but an echo of\nour archaic doctrine. The names answering to Parabrahm, to Brahm,\nand Manu (the first *thinking *man) are composed of one-vowelled,\nthree-vowelled and seven-vowelled sounds. Marcus, whose philosophy\nwas certainly more Pythagorean than anything else, speaks of a\nrevelation to him of the seven heavens sounding each one vowel\nas they pronounced the seven names of the seven (angelic) hierarchies.\n\nWhen spirit has permeated every minutest atom of the seven principles\nof Kosmos, then the *secondary *creation, after the above-mentioned\nperiod of rest, begins.\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* See \"Isis Unveiled,\" Vol. II., p. 183.\n\n** See also King's *Gnostics. *Other sects regarded Jehovah\nas Ildabaoth himself King identifies him with Saturn.\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 450 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\n\"The creators (Elohim) outline in the *second *'hour'\nthe shape of man,\" says Rabbi Simeon (*The Nuctameron\nof the Hebrews*)*. *\"There are twelve hours in\nthe day,\" says the *Mishna*,* *\"and it\nis during these that creation is accomplished.\" The \"twelve\nhours of the day\" are again the dwarfed copy, the faint,\nyet faithful, echo of primitive Wisdom. They are like the 12,000\ndivine years of the gods, a cyclic blind. Every \"Day of Brahma\"\nhas 14 Manus, which the Hebrew Kabalists, following, however,\nin this the Chaldeans, have disguised into 12 \"Hours.\"*\nThe *Nuctameron *of Apollonius of Tyana is the same thing.\n\"The Dodecahedron lies concealed in the perfect Cube,\"\nsay the Kabalists. The mystic meaning of this is, that the twelve\ngreat transformations of Spirit into matter (the 12,000 divine\nyears) take place during the four great ages, or the first*\nMahayuga. *Beginning with the metaphysical and the supra-human,\nit ends in the physical and purely human natures of Kosmos and\nman. Eastern philosophy can give the number of mortal years that\nrun along the line of spiritual and physical evolutions of the\nseen and the unseen, if Western science fails to do so.\n\n*Primary *Creation is called the *Creation of Light\n*(Spirit); and the *Secondary* --* *that of\nDarkness (matter).** Both are found in *Genesis*,* *chap.\ni., v. 2, and at the beginning of chapter ii. The first is the\nemanation of *self*-born gods (Elohim); the second of physical\nnature.\n\nThis is why it is said in the Zohar: -- \"Oh, companions,\ncompanions, man as emanation was both man and woman; as well on\nthe side of the **F**ATHER as on the side of the\n**M**OTHER. And this is the sense of the words: --\nAnd Elohim spoke: 'Let there be Light and it was Light!' . . .\nAnd this is the 'two-fold man'\" Light, moreover, on our plane,\nis* darkness *in the higher spheres.\n\n\"Man and woman on the side of the FATHER\" (Spirit) refers\nto Primary Creation; and on the side of the *Mother *(matter)\nto the secondary. The two-fold man is Adam Kadmon, the male and\nfemale abstract prototype and the *differentiated *Elohim*.\nMan *proceeds from the Dhyan Chohan, and is a \"Fallen\nAngel,\" a god in exile, as will be shown.\n\nIn India these creations were described as follows: --\n\n(I.) Mahat-tattwa creation -- so-called because it was the primordial\nself-evolution of that which had to become *Mahat *-- the\n\"divine **M**IND, conscious and intelligent\";\nesoterically, \"the *spirit *of the Universal soul.\"\n. . . \"Worthiest of ascetics, through its potency (*the\npotency of that cause*);* *every *produced *cause\ncomes by its proper nature.\" (*Vishnu Purana.*)*\n*\"Seeing that the potencies of all beings are under-\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* Elsewhere, however, the identity is revealed. *See supra*,*\n*the quotation from Ibn-Gabirol and his 7 heavens, 7 earths,\netc.\n\n** This must not be confused with *precosmic *\"**D**ARKNESS,\"\nthe Divine ALL.\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 451 MANY VERSIONS OF THE ONE TRUTH.\n\nstood *only *through the knowledge of *That *(Brahma),\nwhich is beyond reasoning, creation, and the like, such potencies\nare referable to Brahma.\" **T**HAT, then, precedes\nthe manifestation. \"The first was *Mahat*,\"*\n*says* Linga Purana; *for the ONE (the *That*)*\n*is neither *first *nor* last*,* *but\nALL. Exoterically, however, this manifestation is the *work\n*of the \"Supreme One\" (a natural *effect*,*\n*rather, of an Eternal Cause); or, as the Commentator says,\nit might have been understood to mean that Brahma was then *created\n*(?),* *being identified with Mahat, active intelligence\nor the operating will of the Supreme. Esoteric philosophy renders\nit \"the operating LAW.\"\n\nIt is on the right comprehension of this tenet in the Brahmanas\nand Puranas that hangs, we believe, the apple of discord between\nthe three Vedantin Sects: the Advaita, Dwaita, and the Visishtadvaitas.\nThe first arguing rightly that Parabrahman, having no relation,\nas the absolute *all*, to the manifested world -- the Infinite\nhaving no connection with the finite -- can neither *will*\nnor* create; *that, therefore, Brahma, Mahat, Iswara, or\nwhatever name the creative power may be known by, creative gods\nand all, are simply an illusive aspect of Parabrahmam in the conception\nof the conceivers; while the other sects identify the impersonal\nCause with the Creator, or Iswara.\n\n*Mahat *(or Maha-Buddhi) is, with the Vaishnavas, however,\ndivine mind *in active operation*,* *or, as Anaxagoras\nhas it, \"an ordering and disposing mind, which was the cause\nof all things,\" -- [[*Nous o diakosmonte kai panton aitios*]].\n\nWilson saw at a glance the suggestive connection between *Mahat\n*and the Phoenician Mot, or *Mut*,* *who was\nfemale with the Egyptians -- the Goddess Mout, the \"Mother\"\n-- \"which, like Mahat,\" he says, \"was the first\nproduct of the mixture (?) of Spirit and matter, and the first\nrudiment of Creation\": \"Ex connexione autem ejus spiritus\nprodidit Mot . . . . . From whose seed were created all living\nthings\" -- repeats Brucker (I., 240) -- giving it a still\nmore materialistic and anthropomorphic colouring.\n\nNevertheless, the esoteric sense of the doctrine is seen through\nevery exoteric sentence on the very face of the old Sanscrit texts\nthat treat of primordial Creation. \"The Supreme Soul, the\n*all permeant *(Sarvaga) Substance of the World, having\nentered (*been drawn*)* *into matter (prakriti)\nand Spirit (purusha), *agitated* the *mutable and the\nimmutable principles *the season of Creation (manvantara)\nhaving arrived.\"* . . .\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* The *nous *of the Greeks, which is (spiritual or divine)\nmind, or* mens*, \"Mahat,\" operates upon matter\nin the same way; it \"enters into\" and *agitates*\nit:\n\n\"Spiritus intus alit, totamque infusa per artus,\n\nMens agitat molem, et magno se corpore miscet.\"\n\nIn the Phoenician Cosmogony, \"Spirit mixing with its own\nprinciples gives rise to [[Footnote continued on next page]]\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 452 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\nEsoteric doctrine teaches that the Dhyan Chohans are the collective\naggregate of divine Intelligence or primordial *mind*,\nand that the first Manus -- the seven \"mind-born\" Spiritual\nIntelligences -- are identical with the former. Hence the \"Kwan-shi-yin\"\n-- \"the golden Dragon in whom are the seven,\" of Stanza\nIII. -- is the primordial Logos, or Brahma, the first manifested\ncreative Power; and the Dhyani-Energies are the Manus, or *Manu-Swayambhuva\ncollectively. *The direct connection, moreover, between the\n\"Manus\" and \"Mahat\" is easy to see. *Manu\n*is from the root *man*,* *\"to think\";\nand thinking proceeds from the mind. It is, in Cosmogony, the\npre-nebular period.\n\n(II.) \"The* second *Creation,\" \"Bhuta,\"\nwas of the rudimental principles (Tanmatras), thence termed the\nelemental creation (*Bhuta-sarga*)*.* *It is the\nperiod of the first breath of the differentiation of the *pre-Cosmic\n*Elements or matter. *Bhutadi* means literally \"the\norigin of the Elements,\" and precedes *Bhuta-sarga*\n--* *the \"creation\" or differentiation of those\nElements in primordial \"Akasa\" (Chaos or Vacuity).**\nIn the \"Vishnu Purana\" it is said to proceed along,\nand belong to, the triple aspect of *Ahankara*,* *translated\nEgotism, but meaning rather that untranslateable term the \"**I**-AM-NESS,\"\nthat which first issues from \"Mahat,\" or divine mind;\nthe first shadowy outline of Self-hood, for \"pure\" Ahankara\nbecomes \"passionate\" and finally \"rudimental\"\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n[[Footnote continued from previous page]] creation\" also;\n(*Brucker*, I.,* *240); the Orphic triad shows an\nidentical doctrine: for there *Phanes *(or Eros), *Chaos*,*\n*containing crude *undifferentiated *Cosmic matter,\nand *Chronos *(time), are the three co-operating principles,\nemanating from the Unknowable and concealed *point*, which\nproduce the work of \"Creation.\" And they are the Hindu\n*Purusha *(phanes), *Pradhana* (chaos), and *Kala*\n(Chronos) or *time. *The good Professor Wilson does not\nlike the idea, as no Christian clergyman, however liberal, would.\nHe remarks that \"as presently explained,. the *mixture\n*(of the *Supreme *Spirit or Soul) *is not mechanical;\n*it is *an influence or effect exerted upon intermediate\nagents *which produce effects.\" The sentence in *Vishnu\nPurana: *\"As fragrance affects the mind from its proximity\nmerely, *and not from any immediate operation upon mind itself*,*\n*so the Supreme influenced the elements of creation,\"\nthe reverend and erudite Sanscritist correctly explains . . .\n: \"As perfumes do not delight the mind by actual contact,\nbut by the impression they make upon the sense of smelling, which\ncommunicates it to the mind,\" adding: \"The entrance\nof the *Supreme *into spirit, as well as matter, *is\nless intelligible *than the view elsewhere taken of it, as\nthe *infusion *of spirit, identified with the supreme,\ninto Prakriti or matter alone.\" He prefers the verse in *Padma\nPurana: *\"He who is called the *male* (spirit)\nof Prakriti . . . that same divine Vishnu entered into Prakriti.\"\nThis \"view\" is certainly more akin to the plastic character\nof certain verses in the Bible concerning the Patriarchs, such\nas Lot (*Gen. xix.*,* *34-38) and even Adam (*iv*.,\n*v. *1), and others of a still more anthropomorphic nature.\nBut it is just that which led Humanity to *Phallicism*,*\n*Christian religion being honeycombed with it, from the first\nchapter of *Genesis *down to the *Revelation.*\n\n* All these sentences are quoted from \"Vishnu Purana,\"\nBook I., ch. v.\n\n** Vishnu is both Bhutesa, \"Lord of the Elements, and all\nthings,\" and *Viswarupa*,* *\"Universal\nSubstance or Soul.\"\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 453 THE SEVEN CREATIONS.\n\n(initial); it is \"the origin of conscious as of all *unconscious\n*being,\" though the Esoteric school rejects the idea\nof anything being \"unconscious\" -- save on this (our)\nplane of illusion and ignorance. At this stage of the Second Creation,\nthe second hierarchy of the Manus appear, the Dhyan Chohans or\nDevas, who are the origin of Form (rupa): the *Chitrasikhandina\n*(bright-crested) or the *Riksha* --* *those\nRishis who have become the informing souls of the seven stars\n(of the Great Bear).* In astronomical and Cosmogonical language\nthis Creation relates to the first stage of Cosmic-life, the *Fire-Mist\n*Period after its Chaotic stage,** when atoms issue from *Laya.*\n\n(III.) The third (the *Indriya*)* *was the modified\nform of *Ahankara*, the conception of \"I,\" (from\n\"*Aham*,\"* *\"I\") termed the\norganic Creation, or creation of the senses (*Aindriyaka*)*.\n*\"These three were the Prakrita creation, the (discrete)\ndevelopments of indiscrete nature preceded by the indiscrete principle.\"\n\"Preceded by,\" ought to be replaced here with \"beginning\nby,\" Buddhi; for the latter is neither a discrete nor an\n*indiscrete quantity*,* *but partakes of the nature\nof both, in man as in Kosmos: a unit -- a human MONAD on the plane\nof illusion -- when once freed from the three forms of Ahankara\nand liberated from its terrestrial manas, Buddhi becomes truly\na continued quantity, both in duration and extension, because\neternal and immortal. Earlier it is stated, that the *third*\nCreation \"abounding with the quality of goodness, is termed\n*Urdhvasrotas*\";* *and a page or two further\nthe *Urdhvasrotas *creation* *is referred to as\n\"the sixth creation . . . that of the divinities\" (p.\n75). This shows plainly that earlier as well as later manvantaras\nhave been purposely confused, to prevent the pro-\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* See concerning their *post-types*,* *the Treatise\nwritten by Trithemius (Agrippa's master, 16th cent.). \"Concerning\nthe seven secondaries, or Spiritual Intelligences, who, after\nGod, actuate the Universe;\" giving out, besides secret cycles\nand several prophecies, certain facts and beliefs about the Genii,\nor the Elohim, which preside over and guide the septenary stages\nof the World's Course.\n\n** From the first, the Orientalists have found themselves beset\nby great difficulties with regard to any possible order in the\nPuranic *Creations. *Brahma is very often confused with\nBrahm, by Wilson, for which he is criticised by his successors.\nThe \"*Original Sanscrit Texts*\"* *are\npreferred by Mr. Fitzedward Hall for the translation of *Vishnu\nPurana *and texts, to those used by Wilson. \"Had Professor\nWilson enjoyed the advantages which are now at the command of\nthe student of Indian philosophy, unquestionably he would have\nexpressed himself differently,\" as said by the editor of\nhis works. This reminds one of the answer given by one of Thomas\nTaylor's admirers to those scholars who criticised his translations\nof Plato. \"Thomas Taylor may have had less knowledge of the\nGreek than his critics have, but he understood Plato far better\nthan they do,\" he said. Our present Orientalists disfigure\nthe *mystic *sense of the Sanskrit texts far more than\nWilson ever did, though the latter is undeniably guilty of very\ngross errors.\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 454 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\nfane from perceiving the truth. This is called \"incongruity\"\nand \"contradictions\" by the Orientalists.*\n\nThis \"creation\" of the immortals, the \"*Deva-Sarga*,\"*\n*is the last of the first series, and has a universal reference;\nnamely, to Evolutions in general, not specifically to our *Manvantara*;\nbut the latter begins with the same over and over again, showing\nthat it refers to several distinct Kalpas. For it is said \"at\nthe close of the past (*Padma*)* *Kalpa the divine\nBrahma awoke from his night of sleep and beheld the universe void.\"\nThen Brahma is shown going once more over the \"seven creations\"\nin the secondary stage of evolution, repeating the first three\non the objective plane.\n\n(IV.) The *Mukhya*,* *the Primary as it begins the\nseries of four. Neither the word \"inanimate\" bodies\nnor yet *immovable *things, as translated by Wilson, gives\na correct idea of the Sanskrit terms used. Esoteric philosophy\nis not the only one to reject the idea of any atom being *inorganic*,*\n*for it is found also in orthodox Hinduism. Moreover, Wilson\nhimself says (*in his collected Works*,* vol. iii.*,*\np. *381): \"All the Hindu systems consider vegetable bodies\nas endowed with life . . . \"* Charachara*,* *or\nthe synonymous *sthavara *and* jangama*,* *is,\ntherefore, inaccurately rendered by \"animate and inanimate,\"\n\"sentient beings,\" and \"unconscious,\" or \"conscious\nand unconscious beings,\" etc., etc. \"Locomotive and\nfixed\" would be better, since trees are considered to possess\nsouls.\" *Mukhya *is the \"creation\" or organic\nevolution of the vegetable kingdom. In this *secondary *Period,\nthe three degrees of Elemental or Rudimental Kingdoms are evolved\nin this world, corresponding *inversely *in order to the\nthree Prakritic creations during the Primary period of Brahma's\nactivity. As in that period, in the words of \"Vishnu Purana\":\n\"The first creation was that of *Mahat *(Intellect),\nthe second, of* Tanmatras *(rudimental principles), and\nthe third, that of the senses (Aindriyaka)\"; in this one,\nthe order of the Elemental Forces stands thus: (1) The* nascent\n*centres of Force (intellectual and physical); (2) the rudimental\nprinciples -- *nerve force*,* *so to say; and (3)\nnascent *apperception*,* *which is the *Mahat\n*of the lower kingdoms, especially developed in the third\norder of Elementals; these are succeeded by the\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* \"The three Creations beginning with Intelligence are elemental,\nbut the six creations which proceed from the series of which Intellect\nis the first are the work of Brahma\" (*Vayu-Purana*).\nHere \"creations\" mean everywhere *stages *of\nEvolution. *Mahat*,* *\"Intellect\" or *mind*\n(which corresponds with Manas, the former being on the Cosmic,\nand the latter on the human plane) stands here, too, lower than\n*Buddhi *or Supra-divine Intelligence. Therefore, when\nwe read in *Linga Purana *that \"the first Creation\nwas that of Mahat, Intellect being the first in manifestation,\"\nwe must refer that (specified) creation to the first evolution\nof our system or even our Earth, none of the preceding ones being\ndiscussed in the *Puranas*,* *but only occasionally\nhinted at.\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 455 CREATIONS CONTINUED.\n\nobjective kingdom of minerals, in which latter that apperception\nis entirely latent, to re-develop only in the plants). The *mukhya\n*\"Creation,\" then, is the middle point between the\nthree lower and the three higher kingdoms, which represent the\nseven esoteric kingdoms of Kosmos, as of Earth.\n\n(V.) The *Tiryaksrotas *(or Tairyagyonya) creation,* that\nof the \"(*sacred*)* *animals,\" corresponding\nonly on Earth, to the dumb animal creation. That which is meant\nby \"animals,\" in *primary *Creation, is the germ\nof awakening consciousness or of *apperception*,* *that\nwhich is faintly traceable in some sensitive plants on Earth and\nmore distinctly in the *protistic *monera.** On our globe,\nduring the first round, animal \"creation\" precedes that\nof man, while the former (or mammal) evolves from the latter in\nour fourth round -- on the physical plane: in Round I. the animal\natoms are drawn into a cohesion of human physical form; while\nin Round IV. the reverse occurs according to magnetic conditions\ndeveloped during life. And this is *metempsychosis *(*See\n*\"*Mineral Monad*\"* in *\"*Five\nYears of Theosophy*,\"* p. *276). This fifth stage\nof evolution, called exoterically \"Creation,\" may be\nviewed in both the *Primary *and* Secondary *periods,\none as the Spiritual and Cosmic, the other as the material and\n*terrestrial. *It is *Archibiosis*,* *or\nlife-origination -- \"origination,\" so far, of course,\nas the *manifestation *of life on all the seven planes\nis concerned. It is at this period of Evolution that the *absolutely\neternal *universal motion, or vibration, that which is called\nin Esoteric language \"the GREAT BREATH,\" differentiates\nin the primordial, first manifested ATOM. More and more, as chemical\nand physical sciences progress, does this occult axiom find its\ncorroboration in the world of knowledge: the scientific hypothesis,\nthat even the simplest elements of matter are identical in nature\nand differ from each other only owing to the variety of the distributions\nof *atoms *in the molecule or speck of substance, or by\nthe modes of its *atomic vibration*,* *gains every\nday more ground.\n\nThus, as the differentiation of the primordial germ of life has\nto precede the evolution of the Dhyan Chohan of *the third\n*group or hierarchy of Being in Primary Creation, before those\n\"gods\" can become rupa (embodied in their first ethereal\nform), so animal creation has to *precede*,\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* Professor Wilson translates it, as though animals were higher\non the scale of \"creation\" than divinities, or angels,\nalthough the truth about the devas is very plainly stated further\non. This \"creation,\" says the text, is both primary\n(*Prakrita*) and secondary (*Vaikrita*)*. *It\nis the latter, as regards the origin of the gods from Brahma (the*\npersonal* anthropomorphic *creator* of our material\nuniverse); it is the former (*primary*)* *as affecting\nRudra, who is the immediate production of the first principle.\nRudra is not alone a title of Siva, but embraces agents of creation,\nangels and men, as will be shown further on.\n\n** Neither plant nor animal, but an existence between the two.\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 456 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\nfor that same reason, *divine *MAN on earth. And this is\nwhy we find in the Puranas: \"The fifth, the Tairyagyonya\ncreation, was that of animals, and --\n\n(VI). The Urdhvasrotas creation, or that of divinities (*Vishnu\nPurana Book I. chap. i.*)*. *But these (divinities)\nare simply the prototypes of the First Race, the fathers of their\n\"mind-born\" progeny with the *soft *bones.* It\nis these who became the *Evolvers *of the \"Sweat-born\"\n-- an expression explained in Book II. Finally, the sixth \"Creation\"\nis followed, and \"*Creation *in general, closed by\n--\n\n(VII.) The evolution of the \"*Arvaksrotas *beings,\nwhich was the seventh, and was that of man\" (*Vishnu Purana*,*\nBook I.*)*.*\n\nThe \"eighth creation\" mentioned is no *Creation *at\nall; it is a *blind *again, for it refers to a purely mental\nprocess: the cognition of the \"ninth\" creation, which,\nin its turn, is an effect, manifesting in the *secondary *of\nthat which was a \"Creation\" in the *Primary *(*Prakrita*)*\n*Creation.** The *Eighth*,* *then, called *Anugraha\n*(the* Pratyayasarga *or the *intellectual *creation\nof the Sankhyas, explained in *Karika*,* *v. 46,\np. 146), is \"that creation of which *we have a perception*\"\n-- in its esoteric aspect -- and \"to which we give intellectual\nassent (Anugraha) in contradistinction to *organic creation.*\"*\n*It is the correct perception of our relations to the whole\nrange of \"gods\" and especially of those we bear to the\n*Kumaras* --* *the so-called \"Ninth Creation\"\n-- which is in reality an aspect of or reflection of the sixth\nin our manvantara (the Vaivasvata). \"There is a *ninth*,*\n*the Kumara Creation, which is both primary and secondary,\"\nsays *Vishnu Purana*,* *the oldest of such texts.***\n\"The *Kumaras*,\"* *explains an *esoteric*\ntext,\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* \"Created beings\" -- explains *Vishnu Purana*\n--* *\"although they are destroyed (in their individual\nforms) at the periods of dissolution, yet being affected by the\ngood or evil acts of former *existences*,* *are\nnever exempted from their consequences. And when Brahma produces\nthe world anew, they are the progeny of his will . . .\" \"*Collecting\nhis mind into itself *(*Yoga *willing), Brahma creates\nthe four orders of beings, termed gods, demons, *progenitors*,*\n*and* MEN*\"* . *. . \"progenitors\"\nmeaning the prototypes and Evolvers of the first Root Race of\nmen. The progenitors are the Pitris, and are of seven classes.\nThey are said in *exoteric *mythology to be born of *Brahma*'*s\nside*,* *like Eve from the rib of Adam.\n\n** \"These notions,\" remarks Dr. Wilson, \"the birth\nof Rudra and the saints, seem to have been *borrowed *from\nthe Saivas, and to have been awkwardly engrafted upon the Vaishnava\nsystem.\" The esoteric meaning ought to have been consulted\nbefore venturing such a hypothesis.\n\n*** Parasara, the Vedic Rishi, who received the Vishnu Purana\nfrom Pulastya and taught it to Maitreya, is placed by the Orientalists\nat various epochs. As correctly observed, in the *Hindu Class.\nDict: *-- \"Speculations as to his era differ widely from\n575 **B.C.** to 1391 **B.C**., and *cannot be trusted.*\"*\n*Quite so; but no less, however, than any other date as assigned\nby the Sanskritists, so famous in this department of arbitrary\nfancy.\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 457 WHO THE KUMARAS ARE.\n\n\"are the Dhyanis, derived immediately from the supreme Principle,\nwho reappear in the Vaivasvata Manu period, for the progress of\nmankind.\"* The commentator of the *Vishnu Purana *corroborates\nit, by remarking that \"these *sages *live as long\nas Brahma; and they are only created by him in the *first *Kalpa,\nalthough their generation is very commonly and inconsistently\nintroduced in the *Varaha*,* *or* Padma *Kalpa\"\n(the secondary). Thus, the Kumaras are, exoterically, \"the\ncreation of Rudra or Nilalohita, a form of Siva, by Brahma, and\nof certain other mind-born sons of Brahma. But, in the esoteric\nteaching, they are the progenitors of the true spiritual SELF\nin the physical man -- the higher Prajapati, while the Pitris,\nor lower Prajapati, are no more than the *fathers *of the\nmodel, or type of his physical form, made \"in *their *image.\"\nFour (and occasionally *five*) are mentioned freely in\nthe exoteric texts, three Kumaras being secret.** (Compare what\nis said of \"The Fallen Angels\" in Book II.).\n\nThe Exoteric four are: Sanat-Kumara, Sananda, Sanaka, and Sanatana;\nand the esoteric three are: Sana, Kapila, and Sanat-sujata. Special\nattention is once more drawn to this class of Dhyan Chohans, for\nherein lies the mystery of generation and heredity hinted at in\nBook I. (*See the four Orders of Angelic Beings; Comment on\nStanza VII.*)*. *Book II. explains their position in\nthe divine Hierarchy. Meanwhile, let us see what the *exoteric\n*texts say about them.\n\nThey do not say much; nothing to him who fails to read between\nthe lines. \"We must have recourse, here, to other Puranas\nfor the elucidation of this term,\" remarks Wilson, who does\nnot suspect for one moment that he is in the presence of the \"Angels\nof Darkness,\" the mythical \"great enemy\" of his\nChurch. Therefore, he contrives to *elucidate *no more\nthan that these (divinities) DECLINING TO CREATE PROGENY*** (and\nthus rebelling against Brahma), remained, as the name\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* They may indeed mark a \"special\" or extra *creation*,*\n*since it is they who, by incarnating themselves within the\nsenseless human shells of the two first Root-races, and a great\nportion of the Third Root-race -- create, so to speak, a *new\nrace: *that of thinking, self-conscious and *divine *men.\n\n** \"The four Kumaras (are) the mind-born Sons of Brahma.\nSome *specify seven*\"* *(*H. Class. Dict.*)*.\n*All these seven Vaidhatra, the patronymic of the Kumaras,\n\"the Maker's Sons,\" are mentioned and described in Iswara\nKrishna's \"Sankhya Karika\" with the Commentary of Gaudapadacharya\n(Sankaracharya's *Paraguru*) attached to it. It discusses\nthe nature of the Kumaras, though it refrains from mentioning\n*by name *all the seven Kumaras, but calls them instead\n\"the seven sons of Brahma,\" which they are, as they\nare created by Brahma in Rudra. The list of names it gives us\nis: Sanaka, Sanandana, Sanatana, Kapila, Ribhu, and Panchasikha.\nBut these are again all *aliases.*\n\n*** So untrustworthy are some translations of the Orientalists\nthat in the French Translation of *Hari-Vamsa*,* *it\nis said \"The seven Prajapati, Rudra, Skanda (his son) [[Footnote\ncontinued on next page]]\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 458 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\nof the first implies, ever boys, Kumaras: that is, ever pure and\ninnocent, whence their creation is also called the \"Kumara.\"\n(*Book I. chap. v.*,* Vishnu Purana.*)* *The\nPuranas, however, may afford a little more light. \"Being\never as he was born, he is here called a youth; and hence his\nname is well known as Sanat-Kumara\" (*Linga purana*,*\nprior section LXX. *174.) In the *Saiva Purana*,*\n*the Kumaras are always described as Yogins. The Kurma Purana,\nafter enumerating them, says: \"These five, O Brahmans, were\nYogins, who acquired entire exemption from passion.\" They\nare *five*, because two of the Kumaras *fell*.\n\nOf all the seven great divisions of Dhyan-Chohans, or Devas, there\nis none with which humanity is more concerned than with the Kumaras.\nImprudent are the Christian Theologians who have degraded them\ninto *fallen *Angels, and now call them \"Satan\"\nand Demons; as among these heavenly denizens who *refuse to\ncreate*,* *the Archangel Michael -- the greatest patron\nSaint of Western and Eastern Churches, under his double name of\nSt. Michael and his supposed copy on earth, St. George conquering\nthe **D**RAGON -- has to be allowed one of the most\nprominent places. (See Book II., \"The Sacred Dragons and\ntheir Slayers.\")\n\nThe Kumaras, the \"mind-born Sons\" of *Brahma-Rudra\n*(or Siva)\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n[[Footnote continued from previous page]] and Sanat-Kumara proceeded\nto create beings.\" Whereas, as Wilson shows, the original\nis: \"These seven . . . created progeny; and so did Rudra,\nbut Skanda and Sanat Kumara, *restraining their power*,*\nabstained *from creation.\" The \"four orders of beings\"\nare referred to sometimes as \"Ambhamsi,\" which Wilson\nrenders: \"literally Waters,\" and believes it \"a\nmystic term.\" It is one, no doubt; but he evidently failed\nto catch the *real *esoteric meaning. \"Waters\"\nand \"water\" stand as the symbol for Akasa, the \"primordial\nOcean of Space,\" on which Narayana, the self-born Spirit,\nmoves: reclining on that *which is its progeny *(*See\nManu*)*. *\"Water is the body of Nara; thus we\nhave heard the name of water explained. Since *Brahma *rests\non the water, therefore he is termed *Narayana*\"*\n*(*Linga*,* Vayu*,* and Markandeya Puranas*)*\n*\". . . Pure, Purusha created the Waters pure . . .\"\nat the same time Water is the third principle in material Kosmos,\nand the third in the realm of the Spiritual: *Spirit *of\nFire, Flame, Akasa, Ether, Water, Air, Earth, are the cosmic,\nsidereal, psychic, spiritual and mystic principles, *pre-eminently\noccult*,* *in every *plane *of being. \"Gods,\nDemons, Pitris and men,\" are the four orders of beings to\nwhom the term Ambhamsi is applied (in the Vedas it is a synonym\nof gods): because they are all the product of WATERS (mystically),\nof the Akasic Ocean, and of the Third Principle in nature. Pitris\nand men on earth are the transformations (rebirths) of gods and\ndemons (Spirits) on a higher plane. Water is, in another sense,\nthe feminine principle. Venus Aphrodite is the personified Sea,\nand the mother of the god of love, the generator of all the gods\nas much as the Christian Virgin Mary is Mare (the sea), the mother\nof the Western God of Love, Mercy and Charity. If the student\nof Esoteric philosophy thinks deeply over the subject he is sure\nto find out all the suggestiveness of the term Ambhamsi, in its\nmanifold relations to the Virgin in Heaven, to the Celestial Virgin\nof the Alchemists, and even to the \"Waters of Grace\"\nof the modern Baptist.\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 459 THE PATRON-GUIDE OF ISRAEL.\n\nthe howling and terrific *destroyer of human passions and physical\nsenses*,* *which are ever in the way of the development\nof the higher spiritual perceptions and the growth of the *inner*\neternal man -- mystically,* are the progeny of Siva, the *Mahayogi*,*\n*the great patron of all the Yogis and mystics of India. They\nthemselves, being the \"Virgin-Ascetics,\" refuse to create\nthe *material *being MAN. Well may they be suspected of\na direct connection with the Christian Archangel Michael, the\n\"Virgin Combatant\" of the Dragon *Apophis*,*\n*whose* *victim is every soul united too loosely to\nits immortal Spirit, the Angel who, as shown by the Gnostics,\n*refused to create *just as the Kumaras did. (*See Book\nII.*,* *\"*The Mystic Dragons and their Slayers.*\")*\n. *. . Does not that patron-Angel of the Jews *preside\n*over Saturn (Siva or Rudra), and the Sabbath, the day of\nSaturn? Is he not shown of the same essence with his father (Saturn),\nand called the \"Son of Time,\"* Kronos*,* or\nKala *(time), a form of Brahma (Vishnu and Siva)?\" And\nis not \"Old Time\" of the Greeks, with its scythe and\nsand-glass, identical with the \"Ancient of Days\" of\nthe Kabalists, the latter \"Ancient\" being one with the\nHindu \"Ancient of Days,\" Brahma (in his* triune *form),\nwhose name is also \"Sanat,\" the Ancient? Every Kumara\nbears the prefix of *Sanat *and* Sana; *and Sanaischara\nis Saturn, the planet (Sani and Sarra), the King Saturn whose\nSecretary in Egypt was Thot-Hermes the first. They are thus identified\nboth with the planet and the god (Siva), who are, in their turn,\nshown the prototypes of Saturn, who is the same as Bel, Baal,\nSiva, and Jehovah Sabbaoth, *The angel of whose face is *MIKAEL\n( \"who is as God\").\nHe is the patron, and guardian Angel of the Jews, as Daniel tells\nus (v. 21); and, before the Kumaras were degraded, by those who\nwere ignorant of their very name, into demons and fallen angels,\nthe Greek Ophites, the occultly inclined predecessors and precursors\nof the Roman Catholic Church after its secession and separation\nfrom the primitive Greek Church, had identified Michael with their\n*Ophiomorphos*,* *the rebellious and opposing spirit.\nThis means nothing more than the reverse aspect (symbolically)\nof Ophis -- divine Wisdom or Christos. In the *Talmud*,*\nMikael *(Michael) is \"Prince of *Water*\"*\n*and the chief of the seven Spirits, for the same reason that\nhis prototype (among many others) Sanat-Sujata,\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* Siva-Rudra is the Destroyer, as Vishnu is the preserver; and\nboth are the regenerators of spiritual as well as of physical\nnature. To live as a plant, the *seed *must die. To live\nas a conscious entity in the Eternity, the passions and senses\nof man must first DIE before his body does. \"To live is to\ndie and to die is to live,\" has been too little understood\nin the West. Siva, the *destroyer*,* *is the *creator\n*and the Saviour of Spiritual man, as he is the good gardener\nof nature. He weeds out the plants, human and cosmic, and kills\nthe passions of the physical, to call to life the perceptions\nof the spiritual, man.\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 460 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\n-- the chief of the Kumaras -- is called Ambhamsi, \"Waters,\"\n-- according to the commentary on *Vishnu Purana. *Why?\nBecause the \"Waters\" is another name of the \"Great\nDeep,\" the primordial Waters of space or *Chaos*,*\n*and also means \"Mother,\" *Amba*,* *meaning\nAditi and Akasa, the Celestial Virgin-Mother of the visible universe.\nFurthermore, the \"Waters of the flood\" are also called\n\"the **G**REAT **D**RAGON,\"\nor Ophis, Ophio-Morphos.\n\nThe Rudras will be noticed in their Septenary character of \"Fire-Spirits\"\nin the \"Symbolism\" attached to the Stanzas in Book II.\nThere we shall also consider the Cross (3 + 4) under its primeval\nand later forms, and shall use for purposes of comparison the\nPythagorean numbers side by side with Hebrew Metrology. The immense\nimportance of the number *seven *will thus become evident,\nas the root number of nature. We shall examine it from the standpoints\nof the Vedas and the Chaldean Scriptures, as it existed in Egypt\nthousands of years **B.C**., and as treated in the Gnostic\nrecords; we shall show how its importance as a basic number has\ngained recognition in physical Science; and we shall endeavour\nto prove that the importance attached to the number *seven*\nthroughout all antiquity was due to no fanciful imaginings of\nuneducated priests, but to a profound knowledge of natural law.\n\n--------------\n\n[[This page continued in next section]]\n\nNext Section\n\nContents",
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