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    "num": 41,
    "slug": "43-xi-on-the-elements-and-atoms-566",
    "title": "XI. ON THE ELEMENTS AND ATOMS ... 566",
    "of": 48,
    "words": 6318,
    "text": "## XI. ON THE ELEMENTS AND ATOMS ... 566\n\n\nThe Secret Doctrine by H. P. Blavatsky, vol 1, bk 3, ch 11\n\n###### The Secret Doctrine by H. P. Blavatsky -- Vol.\n1\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 566 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\n[[This page continued from previous section]]\n\n##### XI.\nON THE ELEMENTS AND ATOMS.\n\nFROM THE STAND-POINT OF SCIENCE AND THAT OF OCCULTISM.\n\n**W**HEN the Occultist speaks of \"Elements,\"\nand of human Beings who lived during those geological ages, the\nduration of which it is found as impossible to determine, according\nto the opinion of one of the best\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 567 METAPHYSICAL CHEMISTRY.\n\nEnglish geologists*, as the nature of matter, it is because he\nknows what he is talking about. When he says \"Man\" and\nElements, he neither means \"man\" in his present physiological\nand anthropological form, nor the elemental atoms, those hypothetical\nconceptions, the entitative abstractions of matter in its highly\nattenuated state, as existing at present in scientific minds;\nnor, again, the compound Elements of antiquity. In Occultism the\nword *Element *means \"rudiment\" in every case.\nWhen we say \"Elementary Man,\" we mean either the proemial,\nincipient sketch of man, in its unfinished and undeveloped condition,\nhence in that form which now lies latent in physical man during\nhis life-time, and takes shape only occasionally and under certain\nconditions; or that form which for a time survives the material\nbody, and which is better known as an \"Elementary.\"**\nWith regard to \"Element,\" when the term is used metaphysically,\nit means, in distinction to the mortal, the incipient *divine*\nman; and, in its physical usage, inchoate matter in its first\nundifferentiated condition, or in the *laya *state, which\nis the eternal and the *normal *condition of substance,\ndifferentiating only periodically, and is during that differentiation\nin an *abnormal *state -- in other words, a transitory\nillusion of the senses.\n\nAs to the \"elemental atoms,\" so called, the Occultists\nrefer to them by that name with a meaning analogous to that which\nis given by the Hindu to Brahma when he calls him **A**NU,\nthe \"Atom.\" Every elemental *atom*,* *in\nsearch of which more than one Chemist has followed the path indicated\nby the Alchemists, is, in their firm belief (when not *knowledge*),*\n*a SOUL; not necessarily a disembodied soul, but a *jiva*,*\n*as the Hindus call it, a centre of POTENTIAL VITALITY, with\nlatent intelligence in it, and, in the case of compound Souls\n-- an intelligent active EXISTENCE, from the highest to the lowest\norder, a form composed of more or less differentiations. It requires\na metaphysician -- and an Eastern metaphysician -- to understand\nour meaning. All those atom-Souls are differentiations from the\nONE, and in the same relation to it as the *divine Soul*\n-- the Buddhi -- to its informing and inseparable Spirit, or *Atman.*\n\nModern physics, while borrowing from the ancients their atomic\ntheory, forgot one point, the most important of the doctrine;\nhence they got only the husks and will never be able to get at\nthe kernel. They left behind, in the adoption of physical atoms,\nthe suggestive fact that\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* In answer to a friend, that eminent geologist writes: . . .\n.\"I can only say, in reply to your letter, that it is at\npresent, and perhaps always will be, IMPOSSIBLE to reduce, even\napproximately, geological time into years, or even into millenniums.\"\n(Signed William Pengelly, F.R.S.)\n\n** Plato speaking of the irrational, turbulent Elements \"composed\nof fire, air, water, and earth,\" means Elementary Daemons.\n(See *Timaeus.*)\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 568 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\nfrom Anaxagoras down to Epicurus, the Roman Lucretius, and finally\neven to Galileo, all those Philosophers believed more or less\nin ANIMATED atoms, not in invisible specks of so-called \"brute\"\nmatter. Rotatory motion was generated in their views, by larger\n(read, more divine and pure) atoms forcing downwards other atoms;\nthe lighter ones being thrust simultaneously upward. The esoteric\nmeaning of this is the ever cyclic curve downward and upward of\ndifferentiated elements through intercyclic phases of existence,\nuntil each reaches again its starting point or birthplace. The\nidea was metaphysical as well as physical; the hidden interpretation\nembracing \"gods\" or souls, in the shape of atoms, as\nthe *causes *of all the *effects *produced on Earth\nby the *secretions *from the divine bodies.* No ancient\nphilosopher, not even the Jewish Kabalists, ever dissociated Spirit\nfrom matter or *vice versa. *Everything originated in the\nONE, and, proceeding from the one, must finally return to the\nOne. \"Light becomes heat, and consolidates into fiery particles;\nwhich, from being ignited, become cold, hard particles, round\nand smooth. And this is called *Soul*,* *imprisoned\nin its robe of matter;\"** *Atoms *and *Souls *having\nbeen synonymous in the language of the Initiates. The \"whirling\nSouls,\" *Gilgoolem*,* *a doctrine in which\nso many learned Jews have believed (*See Mackenzie*'*s\nRoyal Masonic Cyclopaedia*),* *had no other meaning\nesoterically. The learned Jewish Initiates never meant by the\n\"Promised land\" Palestine alone, but the same *Nirvana\n*as the learned Buddhist and Brahmin do -- the bosom of the\n**E**TERNAL **O**NE, symbolized by that\nof Abraham, and by Palestine as its substitute on Earth.*** The\npassage of the **S**OUL-**A**TOM \"through\nthe Seven Planetary Chambers\" had the same metaphysical and\nalso physical meaning. It had the latter when it was said to *dissolve\ninto Ether *(*See Isis Unveiled*,* *Vol. I.,\np. 297.) Even Epicurus, the *model Atheist *and materialist,\nknew and believed so much in the ancient Wisdom, that he taught\nthat the\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* Plato uses the words \"*secretions*\"* *of\nturbulent Elements (Timaeus).\n\n** Valentinus' *Esoteric Treatise on the Doctrine of Gilgul*.\n\n*** Surely no *educated *Jew ever believed the *literal\n*sense of this allegory -- namely, that \"the bodies of\nJews deposited in foreign lands contain within them a principle\nof Soul which cannot rest, until by a process called the \"whirling\nof the Soul\" the immortal particle reaches once more the\nsacred Soil of the \"Promised land.\" The meaning is evident\nto an occultist. The process was supposed to be accomplished by\na kind of metempsychosis, the psychic spark being conveyed through\nbird, beast, fish, and the most minute insect. (*See Royal\nMasonic Cyclo. Mackenzie.*)* *The Allegory relates\nto *the atoms of the body*,* *which have each to\npass through every form before all reach the *final *state,\nwhich is the first starting point of the departure of every atom\n-- its primitive laya State. But the primitive meaning of *Gilgoolem*,*\n*or \"Revolution of Souls,\" was the idea of the re-incarnating\nSouls or *Egos. *\"All the Souls go into the *gilgoolah*,\"*\n*into a cyclic or revolving process; *i.e.*, they all\nproceed on the cyclic path of re-births. Some Kabalists interpret\nthis doctrine to mean only a kind of purgatory for the souls of\nthe wicked. But this is not so.\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 569 PANTHEISM VERSUS MATERIALISM.\n\nSoul (entirely distinct from immortal Spirit when the former is\nenshrined *latent *in it, as it is in every atomic speck),\nwas composed of a fine, tender essence, formed from the *smoothest*,*\nroundest*,* and finest atoms.*\n\nAnd this shows that the ancient Initiates, who were followed more\nor less closely by all profane antiquity, meant by the term \"ATOM,\"\na Soul, a Genius or Angel, the first-born of the ever-concealed\nCAUSE of all causes; and in this sense their teachings become\ncomprehensible. They claimed, as do their successors, the existence\nof Gods and Genii, angels or \"demons,\" not outside,\nor independent of, the Universal *Plenum*,* *but\nwithin it. Only this *Plenum*,* *during the life-cycles,\nis infinite. They admitted and taught a good deal of that which\nmodern Science teaches now --namely, the existence of a primordial\n\"World-stuff or Cosmic Substance,\" from which worlds\nare formed, ever and eternally homogeneous, except during its\nperiodic existence, when it differentiates its universal diffusion\nthroughout infinite space; and the gradual formation of sidereal\nbodies from it. They taught the revolution of the Heavens, the\nEarth's rotation, the Heliocentric System, and the Atomic Vortices\n-- Atoms -- in reality Souls and intelligences. But those \"Atomists\"\nwere spiritual, most transcendental, and philosophical Pantheists.\nIt is not they who would have ever conceived, or dreamt that monstrous\ncontrasted progeny, the nightmare of our modern civilized Race;\nnamely -- *inanimate* material, self-guiding atoms, on\nthe one hand, and an extra-Cosmic God on the other.\n\nIt may be useful to show what, in the teachings of the old Initiates,\nthe Monad was, and what its origin.\n\nModern exact Science, as soon as it began to grow out of its teens,\nperceived the great, and, to it, hitherto *esoteric *axiom,\nthat nothing -- whether in the spiritual, psychic, or physical\nrealm of being -- could come into existence out of nothing. There\nis no cause in the manifested universe without its adequate effects,\nwhether in space or time; nor can there be an effect without its\nprimal cause, which itself owes its existence to a still higher\none -- the final and absolute cause having to remain to man for\never an incomprehensible **C**AUSELESS **C**AUSE.\nBut even this is no solution, and must be viewed, if at all, from\nthe highest philosophical and metaphysical standpoints, otherwise\nthe problem had better be left unapproached. It is an abstraction,\non the verge of which human reason -- however trained to metaphysical\nsubtleties -- trembles, threatening to collapse. This may be demonstrated\nto any European who would undertake to solve the problem of existence\nby the articles of faith of the true Vedantin, for instance. Let\nhim read and study the sublime teachings on the subject of Soul\nand Spirit, of\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 570 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\nSankaracharya (*Viveka Chudamani*)*,* *and the reader\nwill realize what is now said.\n\nWhile the Christian is taught that the human soul is a breath\nof God -- being created by him for sempiternal existence, *i.e.*,\nhaving a beginning, *but no end *(and therefore never to\nbe called eternal) -- the Occult teaching says, \"*Nothing\nis created*,* but is only transformed. *Nothing can\nmanifest itself in this universe -- from a globe down to a vague,\nrapid thought -- that was not in the universe already; everything\non the subjective plane is an eternal IS; as everything on the\nobjective plane is an *ever becoming *--* *because\ntransitory.\"\n\nThe monad -- a truly \"indivisible thing,\" as defined\nby Good, who did not give it the sense we now do -- is here rendered\nas the *Atma *in conjunction with *Buddhi *and the\nhigher Manas. This trinity is one and eternal, the latter being\nabsorbed in the former at the termination of all conditioned and\n*illusive *life. The monad, then, can be traced through\nthe course of its pilgrimage and its changes of transitory vehicles\nonly from the incipient stage of the manifested Universe. In Pralaya,\nor the intermediate period between two manvantaras, it loses its\nname, as it loses it when the real ONE self of man merges *into\nBrahm *in cases of high Samadhi (the *Turiya *state)\nor final Nirvana; \"when the disciple\" in the words of\nSankara, \"having attained that primeval consciousness, absolute\nbliss, of which the nature is truth, which is without form and\naction, abandons this illusive body that has been assumed by the\n*atma *just as an actor (abandons) the dress (put on).\"\nFor Buddhi (the *Anandamaya sheath*)* *is but a\nmirror which *reflects *absolute bliss; and, moreover,\n*that reflection *itself is yet not free from ignorance,\nand is *not *the Supreme Spirit, being subject to conditions,\nbeing a spiritual modification of Prakriti, and an effect; *Atma\n*alone is the one real and eternal substratum of all -- the\nessence and absolute knowledge -- the *Kshetragna.****\n*It is called in the Esoteric philosophy \"the One Witness,\"\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* Translated for the *Theosophist*,* *by Mohini\nM. Chatterji as \"Crest Jewel of Wisdom,\" 1886. (See\n*Theosophist*,* *July and August numbers).\n\n** Now that the revised version of the gospels has been published\nand the most glaring mistranslations of the old versions are corrected,\none will understand better the words in St. John v., vi., and\nvii.: \"It is the Spirit that beareth *witness* because\nthe Spirit is the truth.\" The words that follow in the mistranslated\nversion about the \"three witnesses,\" -- hitherto supposed\nto stand for \"the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost\"\n-- show the real meaning of the writer (St. John) very clearly,\nthus still more forcibly identifying his teaching in this respect\nwith that of Sankaracharya. For what can the sentence, \"there\nare three who bear witness: the Spirit and the *Water *and\nthe *Blood*\" -- mean, if they bear no relation to,\nor connection with, the more philosophical statement of the great\nVedanta teacher, who, speaking of the *sheaths *(the *principles\n*in man) *Jiva*,* Vignanamaya*,* *etc.,\nwhich *are*, in their physical manifestation, \"*water\n*and* blood*\"* *or life, adds that *atma*\n(spirit) alone is what remains after the [[Footnote continued\non next page]]\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 571 THE DIAMOND HEART.\n\nand, while it rests in Devachan, is referred to as \"the Three\nWitnesses to Karma.\"\n\n*Atma *(our seventh principle) being identical with the\nuniversal Spirit, and man being one with it in his essence, what\nis then the Monad proper? It is that homogeneous spark which radiates\nin millions of rays from the primeval \"Seven;\" -- of\nwhich seven further on. It is *the *EMANATING *spark\nfrom the *UNCREATED *Ray *--* *a mystery. In\nthe esoteric, and even exoteric Buddhism of the North, Adi Buddha\n(*Chogi dangpoi sangye*),* *the One unknown, without\nbeginning or end, identical with Parabrahm and Ain-Soph, emits\na bright ray from its darkness.\n\nThis is the *Logos *(the first), or Vajradhara, the Supreme\nBuddha (also called* Dorjechang*)*. *As the Lord\nof all Mysteries he cannot manifest, but sends into the world\nof manifestation his heart -- the \"diamond heart,\" Vajrasattva\n(*Dorjesempa*)*. *This is the second *logos *of\ncreation, from whom emanate the seven (in the exoteric blind the\nfive) Dhyani Buddhas, called the Anupadaka, \"the parentless.\"\nThese Buddhas are the primeval monads from the world of *incorporeal\nbeing*,* *the* Arupa *world, wherein the Intelligences\n(on that plane only) have neither shape nor name, in the exoteric\nsystem, but have their distinct seven names in esoteric philosophy.\nThese Dhyani Buddhas emanate, or create from themselves, by virtue\nof Dhyana, celestial Selves -- the *super*-human Bodhisattvas.\nThese incarnating at the beginning of every human cycle on earth\nas mortal men, become occasionally, owing to their personal merit,\nBodhisattvas among the Sons of Humanity, after which they may\nre-appear as *Manushi *(human) Buddhas. The Anupadaka (or\nDhyani-Buddhas) are thus identical with the Brahminical *Manasaputra*,*\n*\"mind-born sons\" -- whether of Brahma or either\nof the other two Trimurtian Hypostases, hence identical also with\nthe Rishis and Prajapatis. Thus, a passage is found in *Anugita*,*\n*which, read esoterically, shows plainly, though under another\nimagery, the same idea and system. It says: \"Whatever entities\nthere are in this world, moveable or immoveable, they are the\nvery first to be dissolved (at *pralaya*);* *and\nnext the developments produced from the elements (from which the\nvisible Universe is fashioned); and, after these developments\n(evolved entities), all the elements. Such is the upperward gradation\namong entities. Gods, Men, Gandharvas, Pisachas, Asuras, Rakshasas,\nall have been created by Svabhava (Prakriti, or plastic nature),\nnot by actions, nor by a cause\" -- *i.e.*, not by\nany physical cause.\n\n\"These Brahmanas (the Rishi Prajapati?), the creators of\nthe world, are born here (on earth) again and again. Whatever\nis produced from\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n[[Footnote continued from previous page]] *subtraction *of\nthe sheaths and that it is the ONLY *witness*,* *or\nsynthesized unity. The less spiritual and philosophical school,\nsolely with an eye to a trinity made three witnesses out of \"one,\"\nthus connecting it more with earth than with heaven.\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 572 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\nthem is dissolved in due time in those very five great elements\n(the five, or rather seven, Dhyani Buddhas, also called \"Elements\"\nof Mankind), like billows in the ocean. These great elements are\nin every way beyond the elements that make up the world (the gross\nelements). And he who is released even from these five elements\n(the tanmatras)* goes to the highest goal.\" \"The Lord\nPrajapati (Brahma) created all this by the mind only,\" *i.e.*,*\n*by* Dhyana*,* *or abstract meditation and mystic\npowers like the Dhyani Buddhas (*vide supra*)*. *Evidently\nthen, these \"Brahmanas\" are identical with the Bodhisattvas\n(the terrestrial) of the heavenly Dhyani Buddhas. Both, as primordial,\nintelligent \"Elements,\" become the *creators *or\nthe *emanators *of the monads destined to become human\nin that cycle; after which they evolve themselves, or, so to say,\nexpand into their own *selves *as Bodhisattvas or Brahmanas,\nin heaven and earth, to become at last simple men --\"the\ncreators of the world *are born here*,* on earth again\nand again*\"* *--* *truly. In the Northern\nBuddhist system, or the popular exoteric religion, it is taught\nthat every Buddha, while preaching the good law on earth, manifests\nhimself simultaneously in three worlds: in the formless, as Dhyani\nBuddha, in the World of forms, as a Bodhisattva, and in the world\nof desire, the lowest (or our world) as a man. Esoterically the\nteaching differs: The divine, purely Adi-Buddhic *monad*\nmanifests as the universal Buddhi (the *Maha-buddhi *or\nMahat in Hindu philosophies) the spiritual, omniscient and omnipotent\nroot of divine intelligence, the highest *anima mundi *or\nthe Logos*. This *descends \"like a flame spreading\nfrom the eternal Fire, immoveable, without increase or decrease,\never the same to the end\" of the cycle of existence, and\nbecomes universal life on the Mundane Plane. From this Plane of\n*conscious *Life shoot out, like seven fiery tongues, the\nSons of Light (the *logoi *of Life); then the Dhyani-Buddhas\nof contemplation: the concrete forms of their formless Fathers\n-- the Seven Sons of Light, *still themselves*,* *to\nwhom may be applied the Brahmanical mystic phrase: \"Thou\nart 'THAT' -- *Brahm.*\"* *It is from these\nDhyani-Buddhas that emanate their *chhayas *(Shadows) the\nBodhisattvas of the celestial realms, the prototypes of the *super*-terrestrial\nBodhisattvas, and of the terrestrial Buddhas, and finally of men.\nThe \"Seven Sons of Light\" are also called \"Stars.\"\n\nThe star under which a human Entity is born, says the Occult teaching,\nwill remain for ever its star, throughout the whole cycle of its\nincarnations in one Manvantara. But *this is not his astrological\nstar. *The latter is concerned and connected with the *personality*,*\n*the former with\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* The Tanmatras are literally the type or rudiment of an element\ndevoid of qualities; but esoterically, they are the primeval *noumenoi*\nof that which becomes in the progress of evolution a Cosmic element\nin the sense given to the term in antiquity, not in that of physics.\nThey are the logoi, the seven emanations or rays of the logos.\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 573 THE CREST-JEWEL OF WISDOM.\n\nthe INDIVIDUALITY. The \"Angel\" of that Star, or the\nDhyani-Buddha will be either the guiding or simply the presiding\n\"Angel,\" so to say, in every new rebirth of the monad,\n*which is part of his own essence*,* *though his\nvehicle, man, may remain for ever ignorant of this fact. The adepts\nhave each their Dhyani-Buddha, their elder \"twin Soul,\"\nand they know it, calling it \"Father-Soul,\" and \"Father-Fire.\"\nIt is only at the last and supreme initiation, however, that they\nlearn it when placed face to face with the bright \"Image.\"\nHow much has Bulwer Lytton known of this mystic fact when describing,\nin one of his highest inspirational moods, Zanoni face to face\nwith his *Augoeides?*\n\nThe* Logos*,* *or both the unmanifested and the\nmanifested **W**ORD, is called by the Hindus, Iswara,\n\"the Lord,\" though the Occultists give it another name.\nIswara, say the Vedantins, is the highest consciousness in nature.\n\"This highest consciousness,\" answer the Occultists,\n\"is only a* synthetic unit *in the world of the manifested\nLogos -- or on the *plane of illusion; *for it is the sum\ntotal of Dhyan-Chohanic *consciousnesses.*\"* *\"Oh,\nwise man, remove the conception *that not*-*Spirit is\nSpirit*,\"* *says Sankaracharya. Atma is *not*-*Spirit\n*in its final Parabrahmic state, *Iswara *or* Logos\n*is Spirit; or, as Occultism explains, it is a compound unity\nof manifested living Spirits, the parent-source and nursery of\nall the mundane and terrestrial monads, *plus* their*\ndivine *reflection, which emanate from, and return into, the\nLogos, each in the culmination of its time. There are seven chief\ngroups of such Dhyan Chohans, which groups will be found and recognised\nin every religion, for they are the primeval SEVEN Rays. Humanity,\noccultism teaches us, is divided into seven distinct groups and\ntheir sub-divisions, mental, spiritual, and physical.* The monad,\nthen, viewed as ONE, is above the seventh principle (in Kosmos\nand man), and as a triad, it is the direct radiant progeny of\nthe said *compound *UNIT, not the breath (and special *creation\n*out of *nihil*)* *of \"God,\" as that\nunit is called; for such an idea is quite unphilosophical, and\ndegrades Deity, dragging it down to a finite, attributive condition.\nAs well expressed by the translator of the \"Crest-Jewel of\nWisdom\" -- though *Iswara *is* *\"God\"\n\"unchanged in the profoundest depths of *pralayas *and\nin the intensest activity of the *manvantaras*\" .\n. ., still* *\"*beyond *(him) is\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* Hence the seven chief planets, the *spheres *of the indwelling\nseven spirits, under each of which is born one of the human groups\nwhich is guided and influenced thereby. There are only seven planets\n(*specially* connected with earth), and twelve houses,\nbut the possible combinations of their aspects are countless.\nAs each planet can stand to each of the others in twelve different\naspects, their combinations must, therefore, be almost infinite;\nas infinite, in fact, as the spiritual, psychic, mental, and physical\ncapacities in the numberless varieties of the *genus homo*,*\n*each of which varieties is born under one of the seven planets\nand one of the said countless planetary combinations. See*\nTheosophist*,* *for August, 1886.\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 574 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\n'**A**TMA,' round whose pavilion is the darkness\nof eternal **M**AYA.\"* The \"triads\"\nborn under the same Parent-planet, or rather the *radiations\n*of* *one and the same Planetary Spirit (Dhyani Buddha)\nare, in all their after lives and rebirths, sister, or \"*twin*-souls,\"\non this Earth.**\n\nThis was known to every high Initiate in every age and in every\ncountry: \"I and my Father are one,\" said Jesus (John\nx. 30).*** When He is made to say, elsewhere (xx. 17): \"I\nascend to *my* Father and your Father,\" it meant that\nwhich has just been stated. It was simply to show that the group\nof his disciples and followers attracted to Him belonged to the\nsame Dhyani Buddha, \"Star,\" or \"Father,\" again\nof the same planetary realm and division as He did. It is the\n*knowledge *of* *this occult doctrine that found\nexpression in the review of \"The Idyll of the White Lotus,\"\nwhen Mr. T. Subba Row wrote: \"Every Buddha meets at his last\ninitiation all the great adepts who reached Buddhahood during\nthe preceding ages . . . every class of adepts has its own bond\nof spiritual communion which knits them together. . . . . The\nonly possible and effectual way of entering into such brotherhood\n. . . . is by bringing oneself within the influence of the Spiritual\nlight which radiates *from one*'*s own Logos. *I\nmay further point out here . . . . that such communion is only\npossible *between persons whose souls derive their life and\nsustenance from the same divine *RAY, and that, as seven distinct\nrays radiate from the 'Central Spiritual Sun,' *all adepts\nand Dhyan Chohans are divisible into seven classes*,* *each\nof which is guided, controlled, and overshadowed *by one of\nthe seven forms *or manifestations of the divine Wisdom.\"\n(\"*Theosophist*,\"* *Aug., 1886.)\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* The now universal error of attributing to the ancients the knowledge\nof only seven planets, simply because they mentioned no others,\nis based on the same general ignorance of their occult doctrines.\nThe question is not whether they were, or were not, aware of the\nexistence of the later discovered planets; but whether the reverence\npaid by them to the four exoteric and three secret great gods\n-- the star-angels, had not some special reason. The writer ventures\nto say there was such a reason, and it is this. Had they known\nof as many planets as we do now (and this question can hardly\nbe decided at present, either way), they would have still connected\nwith their religious worship only the seven, because these seven\nare directly and specially connected with our earth, or, using\nesoteric phraseology, with our septenary ring of spheres. (See\n*supra*.)\n\n** It is the same, only still more metaphysical idea, as that\nof the Christian Trinity -- \"Three in One\" -- *i.e.*,*\n*the Universal \"over-Spirit,\" manifesting on the\ntwo higher planes, those of Buddhi and Mahat; and these are the\nthree hypostases, metaphysical, but *never personal.*\n\n*** The identity, and at the same time the illusive differentiation\nof the *Angel*-Monad and the *Human*-Monad is shown\nby the following sentences: \"My Father is *greater *than\nI\" (John xiv. 26) ; \"Glorify *your* Father*\nwho is in Heaven*\"* *(Matt. v. 16); \"The\nrighteous will *shine *in the kingdom of *their *Father\"\n(not *our* Father) (Matt. xiii. 43) \"Know ye not ye\nare *a temple *of God, and that the *Spirit of God dwelleth\n*in you? (I Cor. iii. 16); \"I *ascend *to my Father,\"\netc., etc.\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 575 WHAT ARE THE SEVEN PLANETS?\n\nIt is then the \"Seven Sons of Light\" -- called after\ntheir planets and (by the rabble) often identified with them --\nnamely Saturn, Jupiter, Mercury, Mars, Venus, and -- *presumably\n*for the modern critic, who goes no deeper than the surface\nof old religions* -- the Sun and Moon, which are, according to\nthe Occult teachings, our heavenly Parents, or \"Father,\"\nsynthetically. Hence, as already remarked, polytheism is really\nmore philosophical and correct, as to fact and nature, than anthropomorphic\nmonotheism. Saturn, Jupiter, Mercury, and Venus, the four exoteric\nplanets, and the three others, which must remain unnamed, were\nthe heavenly bodies in direct astral and psychic communication\nwith the Earth, its Guides, and Watchers -- morally and physically;\nthe visible orbs furnishing our Humanity with its outward and\ninward characteristics, and their \"Regents\" or *Rectors\n*with our Monads and spiritual faculties. In order to avoid\ncreating new misconceptions, let it be stated that among the three\n*secret *orbs (or star-angels) neither Uranus nor Neptune\nentered; not only because they were unknown under these names\nto the ancient Sages, but because they, as all other planets,\nhowever many there may be, are the *gods *and guardians\nof other septenary chains of globes within our systems.\n\nNor do the two last discovered great planets depend entirely on\nthe Sun like the rest of the planets. Otherwise, how explain the\nfact that Neptune receives 900 times less light than our Earth,\nand Uranus 390 times less, and that their satellites show a peculiarity\nof inverse rotation found in no other planets of the Solar System.\nAt any rate, what we say applies to Uranus, though recently the\nfact begins again to be disputed.\n\nThis subject will, of course, be considered mere vagary by all\nthose who confuse the universal order of being with their own\nsystems of classification. Here, however, simple facts from Occult\nteachings are stated, to be either accepted or rejected, as the\ncase may be. There are details which, on account of their great\nmetaphysical abstractions, *cannot *be entered upon. Hence,\nwe merely state that only seven of our planets are as intimately\nrelated to our globe, as the Sun is to all\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* These are planets accepted for purposes of judicial astrology\nonly. The astrotheogonical division differed from this one. The\nSun, being a central *star* and no planet, stands in more\noccult and mysterious relations with *its *seven planets\nof *our *globe than is generally known. The Sun was, therefore,\nconsidered the great Father of all the Seven \"Fathers,\"\nwhich accounts for the variations found between *seven *and\n*eight *great gods of the Chaldean and other countries.\nNeither the earth nor the moon -- its satellite -- nor yet stars,\nfor another reason -- were anything else than *substitutes\nfor esoteric purposes. *Yet, even with the Sun and the Moon\nthrown out of the calculation, the ancients seem to have known\nof *seven *planets. How many more are known to us, so far,\nif we throw out the Earth and Moon? Seven, and no more: Seven\nprimary or principal planets, the rest *planetoids *rather\nthan planets.\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 576 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\nthe bodies subject to him in his system. Of these bodies the poor\nlittle number of *primary *and* secondary *planets\nknown to astronomy, looks wretched enough, in truth.* Therefore,\nit stands to reason that there are a great number of planets,\nsmall and large, that have not been discovered yet, but of the\nexistence of which ancient astronomers -- all of them initiated\nadepts -- must have certainly been aware. But, as their relation\nto the gods was sacred, it had to remain arcane, as also the names\nof various other planets and stars.\n\nBesides which, even the Roman Catholic theology speaks of \"*seventy\n*planets that preside over the destinies of the nations of\nthis globe\"; and, save the erroneous application, there is\nmore truth in this tradition than in exact modern astronomy. The\nseventy planets are connected with the *seventy *elders\nof the people of Israel (*Numb. *11, 16) because the*\nregents *of these planets are meant, not the orbs themselves;\nand the word seventy is a play and a *blind *upon the 7\nx 7 of the subdivisions. Each people and nation, as said already,\nhas its *direct *Watcher, Guardian and Father in Heaven\n-- a Planetary Spirit. We are willing to leave their own national\nGod, Jehovah, to the descendants of Israel, the worshippers of\n*Sabaoth *or **S**ATURN; for, indeed, the\n*monads *of the people chosen by him are his own, and the\nBible has never made a secret of it. Only the text of the English\n(Protestant) Bible is, in disagreement, as usual, with those of\nthe Septuagint and the Vulgate. Thus, while in the former one\nreads (*in Deuter. *xxxii., 8 *and* 9)* *\"When\nthe MOST HIGH (not Jehovah) divided to the nations their inheritance\n. . . he set the bounds of the people according to the number\nof the children of Israel,\" in the *Septuagint *the\ntext reads \"according *to the number of the Angels*\"*\n*(Planet-Angels), which is more concordant with truth and\nfact. Moreover, all the texts agree that \"the Lord's (Jehovah)\n*portion *is his people; Jacob *is *the lot of *his*\ninheritance\" (Deut. xxxii. 9); and this settles the question.\nThe \"Lord\" Jehovah took *for his portion *Israel\n-- what have other nations to do with that particular *national\n*Deity? Let then, the \"angel Gabriel\" watch over\nIran and \"Mikael-Jehovah\" over the Hebrews. These are\nnot the gods of other nations, and it is difficult to see why\nChristians\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* When one remembers that under the powerful telescope of Sir\nW. Herschell, that eminent astronomer, gauging merely that portion\nof heaven in the equatorial plane, the approximate centre of which\nis occupied by our Earth -- saw pass in one quarter of an hour,\n16,000 stars; and applying this calculation to the totality of\nthe \"Milky Way\" he found in it no less than 18 (eighteen)\nmillions of **S**UNS -- one wonders no longer that\nLaplace, in conversation with Napoleon I. should have called God\na HYPOTHESIS -- perfectly useless to speculate upon for *exact*\nphysical Science, at any rate. Occult metaphysics and transcendental\nphilosophy will alone be able to lift the smallest corner of the\nimpenetrable veil in this direction.\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 577 CYCLIC FALL OF THE GODS.\n\nshould have selected a god against whose commandments Jesus was\nthe first one to rise in rebellion.\n\nThe Planetary origin of the Monad (Soul) and of its faculties\nwas taught by the Gnostics. On its way to the Earth, as on its\nway back from the Earth, each soul born in, and from, the \"Boundless\nLight,\"* had to pass through the seven planetary regions\nboth ways. The pure Dhyani and Devas of the oldest religions had\nbecome, in course of time, with the Zoroastrians, the Seven Daevas,\nthe ministers of Ahriman, \"each chained to his planet\"\n(*see Origen*'*s Copy of the Chart*);* *with\nthe Brahmins, the Asuras and some of its Rishis -- good, bad and\nindifferent; and among the Egyptian Gnostics it was *Thoth\n*or (Hermes) who was the chief of the seven whose names are\ngiven by Origen as *Adonai*,* *genius of the Sun;\n*Tao*,* *of the Moon; *Eloi*,* *of\nJupiter; *Sabao*,* *of Mars; *Orai*,*\n*of Venus; *Astaphai*,* *of Mercury; and *Ildabaoth\n*(Jehovah), of Saturn. Finally, the *Pistis*-*Sophia*,*\n*which the greatest modern authority on *exoteric *Gnostic\nbeliefs, the late Mr. C. W. King, refers to as \"that precious\nmonument of Gnosticism,\" -- this old document echoes, while\ndistorting it to sectarian purposes, the archaic belief of the\nages. The Astral Rulers of the Spheres (the planets) create the\nmonads (the Souls) from their own substance out of the \"tears\nof their eyes, and the sweat of their torments,\" endowing\nthe monads with a spark of the Divine Light, which is their substance.\nIt will be shown in Book II. why these \"Lords of the Zodiac\nand Spheres\" have been transformed by sectarian theology\ninto the rebellious angels of the Christians, who took them from\nthe Seven Devs of the Magi, without understanding the significance\nof the allegory. (*Vide Part II.*,* *\"*On\nthe Seven Souls*,\"* and Section *xv. *in this\nPart*,* *\"**G**ODS, **M**ONADS\nAND **A**TOMS\").\n\nAs usual, that which *is* and* was *from its beginning\ndivine, pure, and spiritual in its earliest unity, became, by\nreason of its differentiation by the distorted prism of man's\nconceptions, human and impure, as reflecting man's own sinful\nnature. Thus, in time, the planet Saturn became reviled by the\nworshippers of other \"gods.\" The nations born under\nSaturn -- the Jewish, for instance -- with whom he had become\nJehovah, after having been held as a son of Saturn, or Ilda-Baoth,\nby the Ophites, and in the book of Jasher -- were eternally fighting\nwith those born under Jupiter, Mercury, or any other planet, except\nSaturn-Jehovah; genealogies and prophecies notwithstanding, Jesus\n*the initiate *(or Jehoshua) -- the type from whom the\n\"historical\" Jesus was\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* C. W. King, identifies it with \"that *summum bonum*\nof Oriental aspiration, the Buddhist Nirvana,\" perfect repose,\nthe Epicurean *Indolentia*,* *which looks flippant\nenough in its expression, though not quite untrue.\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 578 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\ncopied -- was not of pure Jewish blood, and thus recognised no\nJehovah; nor did he worship any planetary god beside his own \"Father,\"\nwhom he knew, and with whom he communed as every high initiate\ndoes, \"Spirit to Spirit and Soul to Soul.\" This can\nhardly be taken exception to, unless the critic explains to every\none's satisfaction the strange sentences put in the mouth of Jesus\nby the author of the Fourth Gospel (*chapter *viii.) during\nhis disputes with the Pharisees.\n\n\"I know ye are Abraham's seed* . . . I speak the things which\nI have seen with *my *Father; and ye do the things which\nye heard from *your *Father. . . . . Ye do the works of\n*your *Father. . . . . Ye are of your Father, the Devil.\n. . . . He was a murderer from the beginning, and stood not in\nthe truth, because there is no truth in him. When one speaketh\na lie he speaketh of his own; for his father also is a liar and\nthe father thereof,\" etc., etc.\n\nThat \"Father\" of the Pharisees was Jehovah, because\nidentical with Cain, Saturn, Vulcan, etc. -- the planet under\nwhich they were born, and the God whom they worshipped. Evidently\nthere must be an occult meaning sought in these words and admonitions,\nhowever mistranslated, since they are pronounced by one who threatened\nwith hell-fire anyone who says simply *raca *(fool) to\nhis brother (*Matthew* v*.*,* *22). And evidently,\nagain, the planets are not merely spheres, twinkling in Space,\nand made to shine for no purpose, but the domains of various beings\nwith whom the profane are so far unacquainted; nevertheless, having\na mysterious, unbroken, and powerful connection with men and globes.\nEvery heavenly body is the temple of *a *god, and these\ngods themselves are the temples of **G**OD, the Unknown\n\"*Not* Spirit.\" There is nothing profane in the\nUniverse. All Nature is a consecrated place, as Young says: --\n\n\"Each of these Stars is a religious house.\" . . . .\n\nThus can all exoteric religions be shown the falsified copies\nof the esoteric teaching. It is the priesthood which has to be\nheld responsible for the reaction in favour of materialism of\nour day. It is by worshiping and enforcing on the masses the worship\nof the shells -- personified for purposes of allegory -- of pagan\nideals, that the latest exoteric religion has made of Western\nlands a Pandemonium, in which the higher classes worship the golden\ncalf, and the lower and ignorant masses are made to worship an\nidol with feet of clay.\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* Abraham and Saturn are identical in astro-symbology, and he\nis the forefather of the Jehovistic Jews.\n\nNext Section\n\nContents",
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