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    "slug": "vol-1-cosmogenesis",
    "name": "Volume I — Cosmogenesis"
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    "num": 31,
    "slug": "33-i-reasons-for-these-addenda-477",
    "title": "I. REASONS FOR THESE ADDENDA ... 477",
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    "text": "## I. REASONS FOR THESE ADDENDA ... 477\n\n\nThe Secret Doctrine by H. P. Blavatsky, vol 1, bk 3, ch 1\n\n###### The Secret Doctrine by H. P. Blavatsky -- Vol.\n1\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page 475]]\n\n##### BOOK I. -- PART III.\n\n##### ADDENDA.\n\n### SCIENCE AND THE SECRET\nDOCTRINE CONTRASTED.\n\n\"The knowledge of this nether world --\n\nSay, friend, what is it, false or true?\n\nThe false, what mortal cares to know?\n\nThe true, what mortal ever knew?\"\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page 476]]\n\nCONTENTS.\n\n--------------\n\nPAGE\n\nI. **R**EASONS FOR THESE **A**DDENDA\n... 477\n\nII.**M**ODERN **P**HYSICISTS ARE **P**LAYING\nAT **B**LIND **M**AN'S **B**UFF\n... 482\n\nIII. \"**A**N **L**UMEN **S**IT\n**C**ORPUS, **N**EC **N**ON\"\n... 483\n\nIV. **I**S **G**RAVITATION A **L**AW?\n... 490\n\nV. **T**HE **T**HEORIES OF **R**OTATION\nIN **S**CIENCE ... 500\n\nVI. **T**HE **M**ASKS OF **S**CIENCE\n... 506\n\nVII. **A**N **A**TTACK ON THE **S**CIENTIFIC\n**T**HEORY OF **F**ORCE BY A **M**AN\nOF **S**CIENCE ... 523\n\nVIII. **L**IFE, **F**ORCE, OR **G**RAVITY?\n... 529\n\nIX. **T**HE **S**OLAR **T**HEORY\n... 540\n\nX. **T**HE **C**OMING **F**ORCE\n... 554\n\nXI. **O**N THE **E**LEMENTS AND **A**TOMS\n... 566\n\nXII. **A**NCIENT **T**HOUGHT IN **M**ODERN\n**D**RESS ... 579\n\nXIII. **T**HE **M**ODERN **N**EBULAR\n**T**HEORY ... 588\n\nXIV. **F**ORCES -- **M**ODES OF **M**OTION\nOR **I**NTELLIGENCES? ... 601\n\nXV. **G**ODS, **M**ONADS, AND **A**TOMS\n... 610\n\nXVI. **C**YCLIC **E**VOLUTION AND **K**ARMA\n... 634\n\nXVII. **T**HE **Z**ODIAC AND ITS **A**NTIQUITY\n... 647\n\nXVIII. **S**UMMARY OF THE **M**UTUAL\n**P**OSITION ... 668\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 477 MUTUAL POSITION DEFINED.\n\n#### ADDENDA TO BOOK I.\n\n--------------\n\n##### I.\nREASONS FOR THESE ADDENDA.\n\n**M**ANY of the doctrines contained in the foregoing\nSeven Stanzas and Commentaries having been studied and critically\nexamined by some Western Theosophists, certain of the occult teachings\nhave been found wanting from the ordinary stand-point of modern\nscientific knowledge. They seemed to encounter insuperable difficulties\nin the way of their acceptance, and to require reconsideration\nin view of scientific criticism. Some friends have already been\ntempted to regret the necessity of so often calling in question\nthe assertions of modern Science. It appeared to them -- and I\nhere repeat only their arguments -- that \"to run counter\nto the teachings of its most eminent exponents, was to court a\npremature discomfiture in the eyes of the Western World.\"\n\nIt is, therefore, desirable to define once and for all the position\nwhich the writer, who does not agree in this with her friends,\nintends to maintain. So far as Science remains what in the words\nof Prof. Huxley it is, viz., \"organized common sense\";\nso far as its inferences are drawn from accurate premises -- its\ngeneralizations resting on a purely inductive basis -- every Theosophist\nand Occultist welcomes respectfully and with due admiration its\ncontributions to the domain of cosmological law. There can be\nno possible conflict between the teachings of occult and so-called\nexact Science, where the conclusions of the latter are grounded\non a substratum of unassailable fact. It is only when its more\nardent exponents, over-stepping the limits of observed phenomena\nin order to penetrate into the arcana of Being, attempt to wrench\nthe formation of Kosmos and its *living *Forces from Spirit,\nand attribute all to blind matter, that the Occultists claim the\nright to dispute and call in question their theories. Science\ncannot, owing to the very nature of things, unveil the mystery\nof the universe around us. Science can, it is true, collect, classify,\nand generalize upon phenomena; but the occultist, arguing from\nadmitted metaphysical data, declares that the daring explorer,\nwho would probe the inmost secrets of Nature, must transcend the\nnarrow limitations of sense, and transfer his consciousness into\nthe region of noumena and the sphere of primal causes. To effect\nthis, he must develop faculties which are absolutely\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 478 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\ndormant -- save in a few rare and exceptional cases -- in the\nconstitution of the off-shoots of our present Fifth Root-race\nin Europe and America. He can in no other conceivable manner collect\nthe facts on which to base his speculations. Is this not apparent\non the principles of Inductive Logic and Metaphysics alike?\n\nOn the other hand, whatever the writer may do, she will never\nbe able to satisfy both Truth and Science. To offer the reader\na systematic and uninterrupted version of the Archaic Stanzas\nis impossible. A gap of 43 verses or *Slokas *has to be\nleft between the 7th (already given) and the 51st, which is the\nsubject of Book II., though the latter are made to run from 1\n*et seq. *for easier reading and reference. The appearance\nof man on Earth alone occupies as many stanzas, which describe\nminutely his primal evolution from the human Dhyan Chohans; the\nstate of the globe at that time, etc., etc. A great number of\nnames referring to chemical substances and other compounds, which\nhave now ceased to combine together, and are therefore unknown\nto the later offshoots of our Fifth Race, occupy a considerable\nspace. As they are simply untranslateable, and would remain in\nevery case inexplicable, they are omitted, along with those which\ncannot be made public. Nevertheless, even the little that is given\nwill irritate any follower and defender of dogmatic materialistic\nScience who happens to read this.\n\nBefore proceeding to other Stanzas, it is proposed, therefore,\nto defend those already given. They are not in perfect accord\nor harmony with modern Science -- this we all know. Had they been,\nhowever, as much in agreement with the views of modern knowledge\nas a lecture by Sir W. Thomson, they would have been rejected\nall the same. For they teach belief in conscious Powers and Spiritual\nEntities; in terrestrial, semi-intelligent, and highly intellectual\nForces on other planes*; and in Beings that dwell around us in\nspheres imperceptible, whether through telescope or microscope.\nHence the necessity of examining the beliefs of materialistic\nScience: of comparing its views about the \"Elements\"\nwith the opinions of the ancients, and of analysing the physical\nForces as they exist in modern perception before the Occultists\nadmit themselves to be in the wrong. We shall touch upon the constitution\nof the Sun and planets, and the occult characteristics of what\nare called *Devas *and* Genii*, and are now termed\nby Science, Force, or \"modes of motion,\" and see whether\nesoteric belief is defensible or not (*Vide infra*, \"*Gods*,*\nMonads*,* and Atoms*)\".* *Notwithstanding\nthe efforts made to the contrary, an unprejudiced mind will discover\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* Their intellection, of course, being of quite a different nature\nto any we can conceive of on Earth.\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 479 DUAL NATURE OF THE SUN.\n\nunder Newton's \"agent, material or immaterial\" (of his\nthird letter to Bentley), the agent which *causes gravity*,\nand, in his personal *working *God, one finds just as much\nof the metaphysical *devas *and* genii*, as in Kepler's\n*angelus rector *conducting each planet, and the *species\nimmateriata *by which the celestial bodies were carried along\nin their courses, according to that astronomer.\n\nWe shall have, in Book II., to openly approach dangerous subjects.\nWe must bravely face Science and declare, in the teeth of materialistic\nlearning, of Idealism, Hylo-Idealism, Positivism and all-denying\nmodern Psychology, that the true Occultist believes in \"Lords\nof Light;\" that he believes in a Sun, which, far from being\nsimply \"a lamp of day\" moving in accordance with physical\nlaw, and far from being merely one of those Suns, which according\nto Richter -- \". . . . are Sun-flowers of a higher light\"\n-- is, like milliards of other Suns, the dwelling or the vehicle\nof a god, and a host of gods.\n\nIn this question, of course, it is the Occultists who will be\nworsted. They will be considered on the *prima facie *aspect\nof the dispute to be ignoramuses, and labelled with more than\none of the usual epithets given to those whom the superficially\njudging public, itself ignorant of the great underlying truths\nin nature, accuses of believing in mediaeval superstitions. Let\nit be so. Submitting beforehand to every criticism in order to\ngo on with their task, they only claim the privilege of showing\nthat the physicists are as much at loggerheads among themselves\nin their speculations, as the latter are with the teachings of\nOccultism.\n\nThe Sun is matter, and the Sun is Spirit. Our ancestors -- the\n\"heathen,\" -- along with their modern successors, the\nParsis -- were, and are, wise enough in their generation to see\nin it the symbol of Divinity, and at the same time to sense within,\nconcealed by the physical Symbol, the bright God of Spiritual\nand terrestrial Light. Such belief is now regarded as a superstition\nonly by rank materialism, which denies Deity, Spirit, Soul, and\nadmits no intelligence outside the mind of man. But if too much\nof wrong superstition bred by \"Churchianity\" -- as Lawrence\nOliphant calls it -- \"renders a man a fool,\" too much\nscepticism makes him mad. We prefer the charge of folly in believing\ntoo much, to that of a madness which denies everything, as do\nMaterialism and Idealism. Hence, the Occultists are fully prepared\nto receive their dues from Materialism, and to meet the adverse\ncriticism which will be poured on this work, not for writing it,\nbut *for believing in that which it contains.*\n\nTherefore the discoveries, hypotheses, and unavoidable objections\nwhich will be brought forward by the scientific critics must be\nanticipated and disposed of. It has also to be shown how far the\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 480 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\noccult teachings depart from real science, and whether the ancient\nor the modern theories are the most logically and philosophically\ncorrect. The unity and mutual relations of all parts of Kosmos\nwere known to the ancients, before they became evident to modern\nastronomers and philosophers. And if even the external and visible\nportions of the Universe and their mutual relations cannot be\nexplained in any other terms than those used by the adherents\nof the mechanical theory of the Universe in physical science,\nit follows that no materialist, who denies that the Soul of Kosmos\n(which appertains to metaphysical philosophy) exists, has the\nright to trespass upon that metaphysical domain. That physical\nscience is trying to, and actually does, encroach upon it, is\nonly one more proof that \"might is right,\" and no more.\n\nAnother good reason for these Addenda is this. Since only a certain\nportion of the Secret teachings can be given out in the present\nage, if they were published without any explanations or commentary,\nthe doctrines would never be understood even by theosophists.\nTherefore they must be contrasted with the speculations of modern\nscience. Archaic axioms must be placed side by side with modern\nhypotheses and comparison left to the sagacious reader.\n\nOn the question of the \"Seven Governors,\" as Hermes\ncalls the \"Seven Builders,\" the Spirits which guide\nthe operations of nature, the animated atoms of which are the\nshadows, in their world, of their Primaries in the astral realms\n-- this work will, of course, besides the men of Science, have\nevery materialist against it. But this opposition can, at most,\nbe only temporary. People have laughed at everything and scouted\nevery unpopular idea at first, and then ended by accepting it.\nMaterialism and scepticism are evils that must remain in the world\nas long as man has not quitted his present gross form to don the\none he had during the first and second races of this Round. Unless\nscepticism and our present natural ignorance are equilibrated\nby intuition and a natural spirituality, every being afflicted\nwith such feelings will see in himself no better than a bundle\nof flesh, bones, and muscles, with an empty garret inside him\nwhich serves the purpose of storing his sensations and feelings.\nSir Humphry Davy was a great scientist, as deeply versed in physics\nas any theorist of our day, yet he loathed materialism. \"I\nheard with disgust,\" he says, \"in the dissecting-rooms,\nthe plan of the physiologist, of the gradual secretion of matter,\nand its becoming endued with irritability, ripening into sensibility,\nand acquiring such organs as were necessary, by its own inherent\nforces, and at last rising into intellectual existence.\"\nNevertheless, physiologists are not the most to be blamed for\nspeaking of that only which they can see and estimate on the evidence\nof their physical senses. Astronomers\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 481 THE SONS OF LIGHT.\n\nand physicists are, we consider, far more illogical in their materialistic\nviews than even physiologists, and this has to be proved. Milton's\n--\n\n. . . . . . . . . . . . \"Light\n\nEthereal, first of things, quintessence pure,\"\n\nhas become with the materialists only --\n\n. . . . . . Prime cheerer, light,\n\nOf all material beings, first and best.\n\nFor the occultists it is both Spirit and Matter. Behind the \"mode\nof motion,\" now regarded as \"the property of matter\"\nand nothing more, they perceive the radiant noumenon. It is the\n\"Spirit of Light,\" the first born of the Eternal pure\nElement, whose energy (or emanation) is stored in the Sun, the\ngreat Life-Giver of the physical world, as the hidden Concealed\nSpiritual Sun is the Light- and Life-Giver of the Spiritual and\nPsychic Realms. Bacon was one of the first to strike the key-note\nof materialism, not only by his inductive method (renovated from\nill-digested Aristotle), but by the general tenor of his writings.\nHe inverts the order of mental Evolution when saying that \"the\nfirst Creation of God was the light of the sense; the last was\nthe light of the reason; and his Sabbath work ever since is the\nillumination of the Spirit.\" It is just the reverse. The\nlight of Spirit is the eternal Sabbath of the mystic or occultist,\nand he pays little attention to that of mere sense. That which\nis meant by the allegorical sentence, \"*Fiat Lux*\"\nis,-- when esoterically rendered -- \"Let there be the 'Sons\nof Light,' \" or the noumena of all phenomena. Thus the Roman\nCatholics rightly interpret the passage as referring to Angels,\nand wrongly as meaning Powers created by an anthropomorphic God,\nwhom they personify in the ever thundering and punishing Jehovah.\n\nThese beings are the \"Sons of Light,\" because they emanate\nfrom, and are self-generated in, that infinite Ocean of Light,\nwhose one pole is pure *Spirit *lost in the absoluteness\nof Non-Being, and the other, the *matter *in which it condenses,\ncrystallizing into a more and more gross type as it descends into\nmanifestation. Therefore matter, though it is, in one sense, but\nthe illusive dregs of that Light whose limbs are the Creative\nForces, yet has in it the full presence of the Soul thereof, of\nthat Principle, which none -- not even the \"Sons of Light,\"\nevolved from its ABSOLUTE DARKNESS -- will ever know. The idea\nis as beautifully, as it is truthfully, expressed by Milton, who\nhails the holy Light, which is the --\n\n\". . . . . Offspring of Heaven, first-born,\n\nAnd of th' Eternal co-eternal beam;\n\n. . . . . Since God is light,\n\nAnd never but in unapproached Light\n\nDwelt from Eternity,. dwelt then in thee\n\nBright effluence, of bright essence increate.\"\n\nNext Section\n\nContents",
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