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    "name": "Volume I — Cosmogenesis"
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    "num": 45,
    "slug": "47-xv-gods-monads-and-atoms-610",
    "title": "XV. GODS, MONADS, AND ATOMS ... 610",
    "of": 48,
    "words": 12020,
    "text": "## XV. GODS, MONADS, AND ATOMS ... 610\n\n\nThe Secret Doctrine by H. P. Blavatsky, vol 1, bk 3, ch 15\n\n###### The Secret Doctrine by H. P. Blavatsky -- Vol.\n1\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 610 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\n[[This page continued from previous section]]\n\n##### § XV.\nGODS, MONADS, AND ATOMS.\n\n**S**OME years ago we remarked* that \"the Esoteric\nDoctrine may well be called the 'thread-doctrine,' since, like\n*Sutratman*,* *in the Vedanta philosophy,** it passes\nthrough and strings together all the ancient philosophical religious\nsystems, and reconciles and explains them all.\" We say now\nit does more. It not only reconciles the various and apparently\nconflicting systems, but it checks the discoveries of modern exact\nscience, and shows some of them to be necessarily correct, since\nthey are found corroborated in the ancient records. All this will,\nno doubt, be regarded as terribly impertinent and disrespectful,\na veritable crime of *lese*-*Science; *nevertheless,\nit is a fact.\n\nScience is, undeniably, ultra-materialistic in our days; but it\nfinds, in one sense, its justification. Nature behaving *in\nactu *ever esoterically, and being, as the Kabalists say,\n*in abscondito*,* *can only be judged by the profane\nthrough her appearance, and that appearance is always deceitful\non the physical plane. On the other hand, the naturalists refuse\nto blend physics with metaphysics, the body with its informing\nsoul and spirit, which they prefer ignoring. This is a matter\nof choice with some, while the minority strive very sensibly to\nenlarge the domain of physical science by trespassing on the forbidden\ngrounds of metaphysics, so distasteful to some materialists. These\nscientists are wise in their generation. For all their wonderful\ndiscoveries would go for nothing, and remain for ever *headless\n*bodies, unless they lift the veil of matter and strain their\neyes to see *beyond. *Now that they have studied nature\nin the length, breadth, and thickness of her physical frame, it\nis time to remove the skeleton to the second plane and search\nwithin the unknown depths for the living and real entity, for\nits SUB-*stance *--* *the noumenon of evanescent\nmatter.\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* \"The Septenary Principle,\" art. in \"Five Years\nof Theosophy,\" p. 197.\n\n** The Atman or Spirit (the Spiritual **S**ELF) passing\nlike a thread through the five subtle bodies (or principles, *Koshas*)*\n*is called \"thread-soul,\" or *Sutratman *in\nVedantic philosophy.\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 611 WHICH OF THE TWO IS BLIND?\n\nIt is only by acting on such lines that some of the truths, now\ncalled \"exploded superstitions,\" will be discovered\nto be facts and the relics of ancient knowledge and wisdom.\n\nOne of such \"degrading\" beliefs -- in the opinion of\nthe all-denying sceptic -- is found in the idea that Kosmos, besides\nits objective planetary inhabitants, its humanities in other inhabited\nworlds, is full of invisible, intelligent *Existences. *The\nso-called Arch-Angels, Angels and Spirits, of the West, copies\nof their prototypes, the Dhyan-Chohans, the Devas and Pitris,\nof the East, are no real Beings but fictions. On this point Materialistic\nScience is inexorable. To support its position, it upsets its\nown axiomatic law of uniformity in the laws of nature, that of\ncontinuity, and all the logical sequence of analogies in the evolution\nof being. The masses of the profane are asked, and made, to believe\nthat the accumulated testimony of History, which shows even the\nAtheists of old -- such as Epicurus and Democritus -- believing\nin *gods*,* *was false; and that philosophers like\nSocrates and Plato, asserting their existence, were mistaken enthusiasts\nand fools. If we hold our opinions merely on historical grounds,\non the authority of legions of the most eminent Sages, Neo-Platonists,\nMystics of all the ages, from Pythagoras down to the eminent Scientists\nand Professors of the present century, who, if they reject \"gods,\"\nbelieve in \"spirits,\" shall we consider such authorities\nas weak-minded and foolish as any Roman Catholic peasant, who\nbelieves in and prays to his once human Saint, or the Archangel,\nSt. Michael? But is there no difference between the belief of\nthe peasant and that of the Western heirs to the Rosicrucians\nand Alchemists of the Middle Ages? Is it the Van Helmonts, the\nKhunraths, the Paracelsuses and Agrippas, from Roger Bacon down\nto St. Germain, who were all blind enthusiasts, hysteriacs or\ncheats, or is it the handful of modern sceptics -- the \"leaders\nof thought\" -- who are struck with the cecity of negation?\nThe latter, we opine. It would be a *miracle *indeed, quite\nan abnormal fact in the realm of probabilities and logic, were\nthat handful of negators to be the sole custodians of *truth*,*\n*while the million-strong hosts of believers in gods, angels,\nand spirits -- in Europe and America alone -- namely, Greek and\nLatin Christians, Theosophists, Spiritualists, Mystics, etc.,\netc., should be no better than deluded fanatics and hallucinated\nmediums, and often no higher than the victims of deceivers and\nimpostors! However varying in their external presentations and\ndogmas, beliefs in the Hosts of invisible Intelligences of various\ngrades have all the same foundation. Truth and error are mixed\nin all. The exact extent, depth, breadth, and length of the mysteries\nof Nature are to be found only in Eastern esoteric sciences. So\nvast and so profound are these that hardly a few, a very few of\nthe highest Initiates -- those *whose very existence is known\nbut to a small number of*\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 612 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\n*Adepts *-- are capable of assimilating the knowledge.\nYet it is all there, and one by one facts and processes in Nature's\nworkshops are permitted to find their way into the exact Sciences,\nwhile mysterious help is given to rare individuals in unravelling\nits arcana. It is at the close of great Cycles, in connection\nwith racial development, that such events generally take place.\nWe are at the very close of the cycle of 5,000 years of the present\nAryan Kaliyuga; and between this time and 1897 there will be a\nlarge rent made in the Veil of Nature, and materialistic science\nwill receive a death-blow.\n\nWithout throwing any discredit upon time-honoured beliefs, in\nwhatever direction, we are forced to draw a marked line between\nblind faith, evolved by theologies, and knowledge due to the independent\nresearches of long generations of adepts; between, in short, faith\nand philosophy. There have been -- in all ages -- undeniably learned\nand good men who, having been reared in sectarian beliefs, died\nin their crystallized convictions. For Protestants, the garden\nof Eden is the primeval point of departure in the drama of Humanity,\nand the solemn tragedy on the summit of Calvary, the prelude to\nthe hoped-for Millennium. For Roman Catholics, Satan is at the\nfoundation of Kosmos, Christ in its centre, and Antichrist at\nits apex. For both, the Hierarchy of Being begins and ends within\nthe narrow frames of their respective theologies: one self-created\n*personal *God and an Empyrean ringing with the Hallelujas\nof *created *angels; the rest, *false *gods, Satan\nand fiends.\n\nTheophilosophy proceeds on broader lines. From the very beginning\nof AEons -- in time and space in our Round and Globe -- the Mysteries\nof Nature (at any rate, those which it is lawful for our races\nto know) were recorded by the pupils of those same now invisible\n\"heavenly men,\" in geometrical figures and symbols.\nThe keys thereto passed from one generation of \"wise men\"\nto the other. Some of the symbols, thus passed from the east to\nthe west, were brought therefrom by Pythagoras, who was not the\ninventor of his famous \"Triangle.\" The latter figure,\nalong with the plane cube and circle, are more eloquent and scientific\ndescriptions of the order of the evolution of the Universe, spiritual\nand psychic, as well as physical, than volumes of descriptive\nCosmogonies and revealed \"*Geneses*.\" The *ten\npoints *inscribed within that \"Pythagorean *triangle*\"*\n*are worth all the theogonies and angelologies ever emanated\nfrom the theological brain. For he who interprets them -- on their\nvery face, and in the order given -- will find in these seventeen\npoints (the seven Mathematical Points hidden) the uninterrupted\nseries of the genealogies from the first *Heavenly* to\n*terrestrial *man. And, as they give the order of Beings,\nso they reveal the order in which were evolved the Kosmos, our\nearth, and the primordial elements by\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 613 THE MATHEMATICAL POINT.\n\nwhich the latter was generated. Begotten in the invisible *Depths*,*\n*and in the womb of the same \"Mother\" as its fellow-globes\n-- he who will master the mysteries of our Earth, will have mastered\nthose of all others.\n\nWhatever ignorance, pride or fanaticism may suggest to the contrary,\nEsoteric Cosmology can be shown inseparably connected with both\nphilosophy and modern science. The gods of the ancients, the monads\n-- from Pythagoras down to Leibnitz -- and the atoms of the present\nmaterialistic schools (as borrowed by them from the theories of\nthe old Greek Atomists) are only a compound unit, or a graduated\nunity like the human frame, which begins with body and ends with\nspirit. In the occult sciences they can be studied separately,\nbut never mastered unless viewed in their mutual correlations\nduring their life-cycle, and as a Universal Unity during *Pralayas.*\n\nLa Pluche shows sincerity, but gives a poor idea of his philosophical\ncapacities when declaring his personal views on the Monad or the\nMathematical Point. \"A point,\" he says, \"is enough\nto put all the schools in the world in a combustion. But what\nneed has man to know that point, since the creation of such a\nsmall being is beyond his power? *A fortiori*,* *philosophy\nacts against probability when, from that point which absorbs and\ndisconcerts all her meditations, she presumes to pass on to the\ngeneration of the world. . . .\"\n\nPhilosophy, however, could never have formed its conception of\na logical, universal, and absolute Deity if it had no Mathematical\nPoint within the Circle to base its speculations upon. It is only\nthe manifested Point, lost to our senses after its pregenetic\nappearance in the infinitude and *incognizability *of the\nCircle, that made a reconciliation between philosophy and theology\npossible -- on condition that the latter should abandon its crude\nmaterialistic dogmas. And it is because it has so unwisely rejected\nthe Pythagorean Monad and geometrical figures, that Christian\ntheology has evolved its self-created human and personal God,\nthe monstrous Head from whence flow in two streams the dogmas\nof Salvation and Damnation. This is so true that even those clergymen\nwho would be philosophers and who were masons, have, in their\narbitrary interpretations, fathered upon the ancient sages the\nqueer idea that \"the Monad represented (with them) *the\nthrone *of the Omnipotent Deity, placed in the centre of the\nEmpyrean to indicate **T.G.A.O.T.U**.\"* -- read \"the\nGreat Architect of the Universe.\" A curious explanation this,\nmore Masonic than strictly Pythagorean.\n\nNor did the \"hierogram within a Circle, or equilateral Triangle,\"\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* \"Science of Numbers,\" by the Rev. G. Oliver (p. 36).\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 614 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\never mean \"the exemplification of the unity of the divine\nEssence\"; for this was exemplified by the plane of the boundless\nCircle. What it really meant was the triune co-equal Nature of\nthe first differentiated Substance, or the *con*-*substantiality\n*of the (manifested) Spirit, matter and the Universe -- their\n\"Son,\" who proceeds from the Point (the real, esoteric\n**L**OGOS) or the Pythagorean **M**ONAD.\nFor the Greek *Monas *signifies \"Unity\" in its\nprimary sense. Those unable to seize the difference between the\nmonad -- the Universal Unit -- and the *Monads *or*\n*the manifested Unity, as also between the ever-hidden and\nthe revealed **L**OGOS or the *Word*,*\n*ought never to meddle in philosophy, let alone the Esoteric\nSciences. It is needless to remind the educated reader of Kant's\n*Thesis *to demonstrate his second *Antinomy.***\n*Those who have read and understood it will see clearly the\nline we draw between the *absolutely Ideal* Universe and\nthe invisible though manifested Kosmos. Our Gods and Monads are\nnot the Elements of *extension *itself, but only those\nof the invisible reality which is the basis of the manifested\nKosmos. Neither esoteric philosophy, nor Kant, nor Leibnitz would\never admit that extension can be composed of simple or unextended\nparts. But theologian-philosophers will not grasp this. The Circle\nand the Point, which latter retires into and merges with the former,\nafter having emanated the first three points and connected them\nwith lines, thus forming the first *noumenal *basis of\nthe Second Triangle in the Manifested World, have ever been an\ninsuperable obstacle to theological flights into dogmatic Empyreans.\nOn the authority of this Archaic Symbol, a male, personal god,\nthe *Creator* and *Father *of all, becomes a third-rate\nemanation, the Sephiroth standing *fourth *in descent,\nand on the left hand of En-Soph (see the *Kabalistic Tree of\nLife*)*. *Hence, the Monad is degraded into a Vehicle\n-- a \"throne\"!\n\nThe Monad -- only the emanation and reflection of the Point (Logos)\nin the phenomenal World -- becomes, as the *apex *of the\nmanifested equilateral triangle, the \"Father.\" The left\nside or line is the *Duad*,* *the \"Mother,\"\nregarded as the evil, counteracting principle (Plutarch, *De*\n*Placitis Placitorum*);* *the right side represents\nthe Son (\"his Mother's husband\" in every Cosmogony,\nas one with the *apex*);* *at the basic line is\nthe Universal plane of productive Nature, unifying on the phenomenal\nplane Father-Mother-Son, as these were unified in the *apex*,*\n*in the supersensuous World.** By mystic transmutation they\nbecame the Quaternary -- the triangle became the **T**ETRAKTIS.\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* See Kant's *Critique de la Raison pure *(Barni's transl.,\nVol. II., p. 54).\n\n** In the Greek and Latin churches -- which regard marriage as\none of the sacraments -- the officiating priest during the marriage\nceremony represents the apex of the *triangle; *the bride\nits left feminine side and the bridegroom the right one, while\nthe horizontal line is symbolised by the row of witness, the bridesmaids\nand best-men. But behind [[Footnote continued on next page]]\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 615 SPACE, FORCE AND MATTER.\n\nThis transcendental application of geometry to Cosmic and divine\ntheogony -- the Alpha and the Omega of mystical conception --\nbecame dwarfed after Pythagoras by Aristotle. By omitting the\nPoint and the Circle, and taking no account of the apex, he reduced\nthe metaphysical value of the idea, and thus limited the doctrine\nof magnitude to a simple TRIAD -- the *line*,* *the*\nsurface*,* *and the *body. *His modern heirs,\nwho play at Idealism, have interpreted these three geometrical\nfigures as Space, Force, and Matter -- \"the potencies of\nan interacting Unity.\"* Materialistic Science, perceiving\nbut the basic line of the *manifested *\"triangle\"\n-- the plane of matter -- translates it practically as (Father)-**M**ATTER,\n(Mother)-**M**ATTER, and (Son)-**M**ATTER,\nand theoretically as Matter, Force, and Correlation.\n\nBut to the average physicist, as remarked by a Kabalist, \"Space,\nForce, Matter, are, what signs in algebra are to the mathematician,\nmerely conventional symbols;\" or \"Force as force, and\nMatter as matter, are as absolutely unknowable as is the assumed\nempty space in which they are held to interact.\" As symbols\nrepresenting abstractions, \"the physicist bases reasoned\nhypotheses of the origin of things . . . . and sees three needs\nin what he terms creation: (*a*) a place wherein to create;\n(*b*) a medium by which to create; (*c*) a material\nfrom which to create. And in giving a logical expression to this\nhypothesis through the terms space, force, matter, he believes\nhe has proved the existence of that which each of these represents\n*as he conceives it to be*.\"**\n\nThe physicist who regards Space merely as a representation of\nour mind, or extension unrelated to things in it, which Locke\ndefined as capable of neither resistance nor motion; the paradoxical\nmaterialist, who would have a *void *there, where he can\nsee no matter, would reject with the utmost contempt the proposition\nthat \"Space is a substantial though (apparently) an absolutely\nunknowable living Entity.\" (*New Aspects*,* *p.\n9.) Such is, nevertheless, the Kabalistic teaching, and it is\nthat of Archaic philosophy. Space is the real world, while our\nworld is an artificial one. It is the One Unity throughout its\ninfinitude: in its bottomless depths as on its illusive surface;\na surface studded with countless phenomenal Universes, systems\nand mirage-like worlds. Nevertheless, to the Eastern Occultist,\nwho is an objective Idealist at the bottom, in the *real*\nworld, which is a Unity of Forces, there is \"a connection\nof all matter in the *plenum*,\"* *as Leibnitz\nwould say. This is symbolized in the Pythagorean Triangle.\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n[[Footnote continued from previous page]] the priest there is\nthe altar with its mysterious containments and symbolic meaning,\ninside of which no one but the consecrated priests ought to enter.\nIn the early days of Christianity the marriage ceremony was a\nmystery and a true symbol. Now, however, even the churches have\nlost the true meaning of this symbolism.\n\n* See Von Hartmann's and Herbert Spencer's works.\n\n** \"New Aspects of Life,\" by Henry Pratt, M.D.\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 616 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\nIt consists of *ten points *inscribed pyramid-like (from\none to the last four) within its three lines, and it symbolizes\nthe Universe in the famous Pythagorean Decad. The upper single\ndot is a Monad, and represents a Unit-Point, which is *the*\nUnity from whence all proceeds, and all is of the same essence\nwith it. While the ten dots within the triangle represent the\nphenomenal world, the three sides of the equilateral triangle\nwhich enclose the pyramid of dots are the barriers of *noumenal\n*Matter, or Substance, that separate it from the world of\nThought. \"Pythagoras considered a *point *to correspond\nin proportion to unity; a *line *to 2; a *superficies*\nto 3; a *solid *to 4; and he defined a point as a Monad\nhaving position, and the beginning of all things; a line was thought\nto correspond with duality, because it was produced by the first\nmotion from indivisible nature, and formed the junction of two\npoints. A superficies was compared to the number three because\nit is the first of all causes that are found in figures; for a\ncircle, which is the principal of all round figures, comprises\na triad, in centre -- space -- circumference. But a triangle,\nwhich is the first of all rectilineal figures, is included in\na ternary, and receives its form according to that number; and\nwas considered by the Pythagoreans to be the creator of all sublunary\nthings. The four points at the base of the Pythagorean triangle\ncorrespond with a solid or cube, which combines the principles\nof length, breadth, and thickness, for no solid can have less\nthan four extreme boundary points.\" (*Pythag. Triangle*,*\n*p. 19.)\n\nIt is argued that \"the human mind cannot conceive an indivisible\nunit short of the annihilation of the idea with its subject.\"\nThis is an error, as the Pythagoreans have proved, and a number\nof Seers before them, although there is a special training for\nit, and although the profane mind can hardly grasp it. But there\nare such things as *metamathematics* and *metageometry.\n*Even mathematics pure and simple proceed from the Universal\nto the particular, from the mathematical, hence *indivisible\n*Point, to solid figures. The teaching originated in India,\nand was taught in Europe by Pythagoras, who, throwing a veil over\nthe Circle and the Point -- which no living man can define except\nas incomprehensible abstractions -- laid the origin of the differentiated\nCosmic matter in the basic or horizontal line of the Triangle.\nThus the latter became the earliest of geometrical figures. The\nauthor of \"New Aspects of Life\" and of the Kabalistic\nMysteries -- objects to the objectivization, so to speak, of the\nPythagorean conception and use of the equilateral triangle, and\ncalls it a *misnomer. *His argument that a solid equilateral\nbody -- \"one whose base, and each of its sides, form equal\ntriangles -- must have four co-equal sides or surfaces, while\na triangular plane will as necessarily possess five,\" demonstrates\non the contrary the grandeur of the conception in all its esoteric\napplication to the idea of\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 617 PHANTOMS OF THE MIND.\n\nthe *pregenesis*,* *and the genesis of Kosmos. Granted,\nthat an ideal triangle, depicted by mathematical, imaginary lines\n\"can have no sides at all, being simply *a phantom of\nthe mind *(if sides be imputed to which, they must be the\nsides of the object it constructively represents).\" But in\nsuch case most of the scientific hypotheses are no better than\n\"phantoms of the mind\"; they are unverifiable, except\non inference, and have been adopted merely to answer scientific\nnecessities. Furthermore, the ideal triangle -- \"as the abstract\nidea of a triangular body, and, therefore, as the type of an abstract\nidea\" -- accomplished and carried out to perfection the double\nsymbolism intended. As an emblem applicable to the objective idea,\nthe simple triangle became a solid. When repeated in stone on\nthe four cardinal points, it assumed the shape of the Pyramid\n-- the symbol of the phenomenal merging into the noumenal Universe\nof thought -- at the apex of the four triangles; and, as an \"imaginary\nfigure constructed of three mathematical lines,\" it symbolized\nthe subjective spheres -- those lines \"enclosing a mathematical\nspace -- which is equal to nothing enclosing nothing.\" Because,\nto the senses and the untrained consciousness of profane and scientist,\neverything beyond the line of differentiated matter -- *i.e.*,\noutside of, and beyond the realm of even the most spiritual *substance*\n-- has* *to* *remain for ever *equal to nothing.\n*It is the **A**IN-**S**OPH -- the\n*No*-THING.\n\nYet these \"phantoms of the mind\" are in truth no greater\nabstractions than the abstract ideas in general upon evolution\nand physical development -- *e.g*., Gravity, Matter, Force,\netc. -- on which the exact sciences are based. Our most eminent\nchemists and physicists are earnestly pursuing the not hopeless\nattempt of finally tracing to its hiding-place the *protyle*,*\n*or the basic line of the Pythagorean triangle. The latter\nis, as said, the grandest conception imaginable, as it symbolizes\nboth the ideal and the visible universes.* For if \"*the\npossible unit is only a possibility as an actuality of nature*,*\nas an individual of any kind*,\"* *and as every\nindividual natural object is capable of division, and by division\nloses its unity, *or ceases to be a unit*,*** *it\nis so only in the realm of exact sciences in a world as deceptive\nas it is illusive. In the realm of the Esoteric sciences the unit\ndivided *ad infinitum*,* *instead of losing its\nunity, approaches with every division the planes of the only eternal\n**R**EALITY. The eye of the **S**EER\ncan follow and behold it in all its pregenetic glory. This same\nidea of the reality of the subjective, and the unreality of the\nobjective universes, is found at the bottom of the Pythagorean\nand Platonic teachings -- limited to the *Elect *alone;\nfor\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* In the world of Form, having found its expression in the Pyramids,\nSymbolism has in them both a triangle and a square, with their\nfour co-equal triangles or surfaces, the four basic points, and\nthe fifth -- the *apex.*\n\n** \"New Aspects of Life.\"\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 618 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\nPorphyry, speaking of the *Monad *and the *Duad*,*\n*says that the former only was considered substantial and\nreal, \"*that most simple Being*,* the cause of\nall unity and the measure of all things.*\"\n\nBut the Duad, although the origin of Evil, or Matter -- thence\n*unreal *in philosophy -- is still Substance during Manvantara,\nand is often called the* third *monad, in Occultism, and\nthe connecting line as between two Points, . . . or Numbers which\nproceeded from THAT, \"which was before all Numbers,\"\nas expressed by Rabbi Barahiel. And from this Duad proceeded all\nthe *Scintillas *of the three upper and the four lower\nworlds or planes -- which are in constant interaction and correspondence.\nThis is a teaching which the Kabala has in common with Eastern\nOccultism. For in the occult philosophy there are the \"**O**NE\nCause\" and the \"*Primal *Cause,\" which latter\nthus becomes, paradoxically, the second, as clearly expressed\nby the author of the \"*Qabbalah*,* from the philosophical\nwritings of Ibn Gabirol*,\"* *--* *\"in\nthe treatment of the Primal cause, two things must be considered,\nthe Primal Cause *per se*,* *and the relation and\nconnection of the Primal Cause with the visible and unseen universe.\"\nThus he shows the early Hebrews following in the steps of the\nOriental philosophy -- Chaldean, Persian, Hindu, Arabic, etc.\nTheir Primal Cause was designated at first \"by the triadic\nShaddai, the (triune) Almighty, subsequently by the Tetragrammaton,\n**YHVH**, symbol of the Past, Present, and Future,\" and,\nlet us add, of the eternal **I**S, or the **I**\n**A**M. Moreover, in the Kabala the name **YHVH**\n(or Jehovah) expresses a He and a She, male and female, two in\none, or Hokhmah and Binah, and his, or rather their *Shekinah\n*or synthesizing spirit (grace), which makes again of the\nDuad a Triad. This is demonstrated in the Jewish Liturgy for Pentecost,\nand the prayer, \"In the name of Unity, of the Holy and Blessed\nHu (He), and His Shekinah, the Hidden and Concealed Hu, blessed\nbe **YHVH **(the Quaternary) for ever.\" \"Ha is said\nto be masculine and **YAH** feminine, together they make the\n*i.e.*,* *one\n**YHVH**. One, but of a male-female nature. The Shekinah is\nalways considered in the Qabbalah as feminine\" (p. 175).\nAnd so it is considered in the *exoteric *Puranas, for\nShekinah is no more than *Sakti *--* *the female\ndouble or lining of any god, in such case. And so it was with\nthe early Christians whose Holy Spirit was feminine, as Sophia\nwas with the Gnostics. But in the transcendental Chaldean Kabala\nor \"Book of Numbers,\" \"Shekinah\" is sexless,\nand the purest abstraction, a State, like Nirvana, not subject\nor object or anything except an absolute **P**RESENCE.\n\nThus it is only in the anthropomorphised systems (such as the\nKabala has now greatly become) that Shekinah-Sakti is feminine.\nAs such she becomes the *Duad *of Pythagoras, the two straight\nlines of the symbol that can never meet, which therefore form\nno geometrical figure and are\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 619 THE MONAD OF LEIBNITZ.\n\nthe symbol of matter. Out of this Duad, when united in one basic\nline of the triangle on the lower plane (the upper Triangle of\nthe Sephirothal Tree), emerge the Elohim, or Deity in *Cosmic\n*Nature, with the true Kabalists the *lowest *designation,\ntranslated in the Bible \"God\" (see the same work and\npage).* Out of these issue the *Scintillas.*\n\nThe* Scintillas *are the \"Souls,\" and these Souls\nappear in the three-fold form of Monads (units), atoms and gods\n-- according to our teaching. \"Every atom becomes a visible\ncomplex unit (a molecule), and once attracted into the sphere\nof terrestrial activity, the Monadic Essence, passing through\nthe mineral, vegetable, and animal kingdoms, becomes man.\"\n(Esot. Catechism.) Again, \"God, Monad, and Atom are the correspondences\nof Spirit, Mind, and Body (*Atma*,* Manas and Sthula\nSarira*)* *in man.\" In their septenary aggregation\nthey are the \"Heavenly Man\" (see *Kabala *for\nthe latter term); thus, terrestrial man is the provisional reflection\nof the Heavenly. . . . . \"The Monads (*Jivas*)*\n*are the Souls of the Atoms, both are the fabric in which\nthe Chohans (Dhyanis, *gods*)* *cloth themselves\nwhen a form is needed.\" (*Esot. Cat.*)\n\nThis relates to Cosmic and sub-planetary Monads, not to the Super-Cosmic\n*Monas *(the Pythagorean Monad) as called, in its synthetic\ncharacter, by the Pantheistical Peripatetics. The Monads of the\npresent dissertation are treated from the standpoint of their\nindividuality, as* atomic Souls*,* *before these\natoms descend into pure terrestrial form. For this descent into\n*concrete *matter marks the medial point of their own individual\npilgrimage. Here, losing in the mineral kingdom their individuality,\nthey begin to ascend through the seven states of terrestrial evolution\nto that point where a correspondence is firmly established between\nthe human and *Deva* (divine) consciousness. At present,\nhowever, we are not concerned with their terrestrial metamorphoses\nand tribulations, but with their life and behaviour in Space,\non planes wherein the eye of the most intuitional chemist and\nphysicist cannot reach them -- unless, indeed, he develops in\nhimself highly clairvoyant faculties.\n\nIt is well known that Leibnitz came several times very near the\ntruth, but defined monadic evolution incorrectly, which is not\nto be wondered at, since he was not an **I**NITIATE,\nnor even a Mystic, only a\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* Such recent works as the Qabbalah of Mr. Isaac Myer and of Mr.\nS. L. MacGregor Mathers, fully justify our attitude towards the\nJehovistic Deity. It is not the transcendental, philosophical,\nand highly metaphysical abstraction of the original Kabalistic\nthought -- Ain-Soph-Shekinah-Adam-Kadmon, and all that follows\n-- that we oppose, but the crystallization of all these into the\nhighly unphilosophical, repulsive, and anthropomorphic Jehovah,\nthe androgynous and *finite *deity for which eternity,\nomnipotence, and omniscience are claimed. We do not war against\nthe IDEAL **R**EALITY, but the hideous theological\n*Shadow*.\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 620 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\nvery intuitional philosopher. Yet no psycho-physicist ever came\nnearer than he has to the esoteric general outline of evolution.\nThis evolution -- viewed from its several standpoints -- *i.e.*,\nas the *universal *and the *individualized *Monad;\nand the chief aspects of the Evolving Energy, after differentiation\n-- the purely Spiritual, the Intellectual, the Psychic and the\nPhysical -- may be thus formulated as an invariable law; a descent\nof Spirit into Matter, equivalent to an ascent in physical evolution;\na re-ascent from the depths of materiality towards its *status\nquo ante*,* *with a corresponding dissipation of concrete\nform and substance up to the **L**AYA state, or what\nScience calls \"the zero-point,\" and beyond.\n\nThese states -- once the spirit of Esoteric philosophy is grasped\n-- become absolutely necessary from simple logical and analogical\nconsiderations. Physical Science having now ascertained, through\nits department of Chemistry, the invariable law of this evolution\nof atoms -- from their* *\"*protylean*\"*\n*state down to that of a physical and then a chemical particle\n(or molecule) -- cannot well reject the same as a general law.\nAnd once it is forced by its enemies -- Metaphysics and Psychology*\n-- out of its alleged impregnable strongholds, it will find it\nmore difficult than it now appears to refuse room *in the Spaces\n*of **S**PACE to Planetary Spirits (gods), Elementals,\nand even the *Elementary *Spooks or Ghosts, and others.\nAlready Figuier and Paul D'Assier, two Positivists and Materialists,\nhave succumbed before this logical necessity. Other and still\ngreater Scientists will follow in that \"intellectual **F**ALL.\"\nThey will be driven out of their position not by spiritual, theosophical,\nor any other physical or even mental phenomena, but simply by\nthe enormous *gaps *and* chasms *that open daily\nand will still be opening before them, as one discovery follows\nthe other, until they are finally knocked off their feet by the\nninth wave of simple common sense.\n\nHere is an example: Prof. W. Crookes' latest discovery of what\nhe has named *protyle. *In the \"Notes on the Bhagavat\nGita,\" by one of the best metaphysicians and Vedantic scholars\nin India,** the lecturer, referring cautiously to \"things\noccult\" in that great Indian esoteric work, makes a remark\nas suggestive as it is strictly correct. \". . . Into the\ndetails of the evolution of the solar system itself,\" he\nsays, \"*it is not necessary for me to enter. *You\nmay gather some idea *as to the way *in which the various\nelements start into existence from these THREE *principles\ninto which ***M**ULAPRAKRITI *is differentiated\n*(the Pythagorean triangle), by\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* Let not the word \"psychology\" cause the reader to\ncarry his thought by an association of ideas to modern \"Psychologists,\"\nso-called, whose *idealism *is another name for uncompromising\nmaterialism, and whose pretended Monism is no better than a mask\nto conceal the void of final annihilation -- even of consciousness.\nHere *Spiritual *psychology is meant.\n\n** T. Subba Row, see *Theosophist *for Feb., 1887.\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 621 THE CHEMISTRY OF THE FUTURE.\n\nexamining the lecture delivered by Professor Crookes a short time\nago upon the so-called elements of modern chemistry. This lecture\nwill give you some idea of the way in which these Elements spring\nfrom *Vishwanara*,** *the most objective of these\nthree principles, which seems to stand in the place of the *protyle\n*mentioned in that lecture. *Except in a few particulars*,*\n*this lecture seems to give the outlines of the theory of\nphysical evolution on the plane of *Vishwanara*,* *and\nis, so far as I know, *the nearest approach made by modern\ninvestigators *TO THE REAL OCCULT THEORY *on the subject.*\"\n\nThese words will be re-echoed and approved by every Eastern Occultist.\nMuch from the lectures by Prof. Crookes has already been quoted\nin § **XII.** of these Addenda. Since then, there has\nbeen another lecture delivered, as remarkable as the first one,\non the \"Genesis of the Elements,\"** and also a third\none. Here we have almost a corroboration of the teachings of Esoteric\nphilosophy concerning the mode of primeval evolution. It is, indeed,\nas *near an approach*,* *made by a great scholar\nand specialist in chemistry,*** to the Secret Doctrine, as could\nbe made apart from the application of the monads and atoms to\nthe dogmas of pure transcendental metaphysics, and their connection\nand correlation with \"Gods and intelligent Conscious Monads.\"\nBut Chemistry is now on its ascending plane, thanks to one of\nits highest European representatives. It is impossible for it\nto go back to that day when materialism regarded its *sub*-elements\nas absolutely simple and homogeneous bodies, which it had raised,\nin its blindness, to the rank of elements. The mask has been snatched\noff by too clever a hand for there to be any fear of a new disguise.\nAnd after years of pseudology, of bastard molecules parading under\nthe name of elements, behind and beyond which there could be nought\nbut void, a great professor of chemistry asks once more: \"What\nare these elements, whence do they come, what is their signification?\n. . . . These elements perplex us in our researches, baffle us\nin our speculations, and haunt us in our very dreams. They stretch\nlike an unknown sea before us mocking -- mystifying, and murmuring\nstrange revelations and possibilities.\" (*Gen. of Elem.*,*\n*p. 1.)\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n** *\"*Vishwanara *is not merely the manifested\nobjective world, but the one physical basis (the horizontal line\nof the triangle) from which the whole objective world starts into\nexistence.\" And this is the Cosmic *Duad*, the androgynous\nSubstance. Beyond only, is the true *Protyle.*\n\n** By W. Crookes, **F.R.S., V.P.C.S**., delivered at the Royal\nInstitution, London, on Friday, February 18th, 1887.\n\n*** How true it is will be fully demonstrated only on that day\nwhen his discovery of radiant matter will have resulted in a further\nelucidation with regard to the true source of light, and revolutionized\nall the present speculations. Further familiarity with the northern\nstreamers of the *aurora borealis *may help the recognition\nof this truth.\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 622 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\nThose who are heirs to primeval revelations have taught these\n\"possibilities\" in every century, but have never found\na fair hearing. The truths inspired to Kepler, Leibnitz, Gassendi,\nSwedenborg, etc., were ever alloyed with their own speculations\nin one or another predetermined direction --hence distorted. But\nnow one of the great truths has dawned upon an eminent professor\nof modern exact science, and he fearlessly proclaims as a fundamental\naxiom that Science has not made itself acquainted, so far, with\n*real* simple elements. For Prof. Crookes tells his audience:\n\n\"If I venture to say *that our commonly received elements\nare* NOT *simple and primordial*,* *that they\nhave *not *arisen by chance or have *not *been created\nin a desultory and mechanical manner, but have been evolved from\nsimpler matters -- or perhaps, indeed, from one sole kind of matter\n-- I do but give formal utterance to an idea which has been, so\nto speak, for some time 'in the air' of science. Chemists, physicists,\nphilosophers of the highest merit, declare explicitly their belief\nthat the seventy (or thereabouts) elements of our text-books are\nnot the pillars of Hercules which we must never hope to pass.\"\n. . . \"Philosophers in the present as in the past -- men\nwho certainly have not worked in the laboratory -- have reached\nthe same view from another side.\" Thus Mr. Herbert Spencer\nrecords his conviction that 'the chemical atoms are produced from\nthe true or physical atoms by processes of evolution under conditions\nwhich chemistry has not yet been able to produce.' . . . \"And\nthe poet has forestalled the philosopher. Milton ('Paradise Lost,'\nBook V.) makes the Archangel Raphael say to Adam, instinct with\nthe evolutionary idea, that the Almighty had created\n\n. . . 'One first matter, all\n\nIndued with various forms, various degrees\n\nOf substance.' \"\n\nNevertheless, the idea would have remained crystallized \"in\nthe air of Science,\" and never have descended into the thick\natmosphere of materialism and profane mortals for years to come,\nperhaps, had not Professor Crookes bravely and fearlessly reduced\nit to its simple elements, and thus publicly forced it on Scientific\nnotice. \"An idea,\" says Plutarch, \"is a *being\n*incorporeal, which has no subsistence by itself, but gives\nfigure and form unto shapeless matter, and *becomes the cause\nof the manifestation.*\"* *(*De Placit. Philos.*)*\n*The revolution produced in old chemistry by Avogadro was\nthe first page in the Volume of *New Chemistry. *Mr. Crookes\nhas now turned the second page, and is boldly pointing *to\nwhat may be the last. *For once *protyle *accepted\nand recognized -- *as invisible Ether was*,* both being\nlogical and scientific necessities *--* *Chemistry\nwill have virtually ceased to live: it will reappear in its reincarnation\nas *New Alchemy*,* *or **M**ETACHEMISTRY.\nThe discoverer of\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 623 THE GENESIS OF ATOMS.\n\nradiant matter will have vindicated in time the Archaic Aryan\nworks on Occultism and even the Vedas and Puranas. For what are\nthe manifested \"Mother,\" the \"Father-Son-Husband\"\n(Aditi and Daksha, a form of Brahma, as Creators) and the \"Son,\"\n-- the three \"First-born\" -- *but simply Hydrogen*,*\nOxygen*,* *and that which in its terrestrial manifestation\nis called *nitrogen. *Even the exoteric descriptions of\nthe \"First Born\" triad give all the characteristics\nof these three *gases. *Priestley, the \"discoverer\"\nof Oxygen, or that which was known in the highest antiquity!\n\nYet all the ancient, mediaeval, and modern poets and philosophers\nhave been anticipated even in the exoteric Hindu books. Descartes'\n*plenum *of matter differentiated into particles; Leibnitz's\n*Ethereal Fluid *and Kant's \"primitive fluid\"\ndissolved into its elements; Kepler's Solar Vortex and Systemic\nVortices; in short, from the Elemental Vortices inaugurated by\nthe universal mind -- through Anaxagoras, down to Galileo, Torricelli,\nand Swedenborg, and after them to the latest speculations by European\nmystics -- all this is found in the Hindu hymns and Mantras to\nthe \"Gods, Monads, and Atoms,\" in their fulness, for\nthey are inseparable. In esoteric teachings, the most transcendental\nconceptions of the universe and its mysteries, as the most (seemingly)\nmaterialistic speculations are found reconciled, because those\nsciences embrace the whole scope of evolution from Spirit to matter.\nAs declared by an American Theosophist, \"The Monads (of Leibnitz)\nmay from one point of view be called *force*,* *from\nanother *matter. *To occult Science, *force *and\n*matter *are *only two sides of the same *SUBSTANCE.\"\n(\"Path,\" No. 10, p. 297.)\n\nLet the reader remember these \"Monads\" of Leibnitz,\nevery one of which is a living mirror of the universe, every monad\nreflecting every other, and compare this view and definition with\ncertain Sanskrit stanzas (*Slokas*)* *translated\nby Sir William Jones, in which it is said that the creative source\nof the Divine Mind, . . . \"Hidden in a veil of thick darkness,\nformed *mirrors of the atoms *of the world, and *cast\nreflection from its own face on every atom. . *. . .\"\n\nWhen, therefore, Professor Crookes declares that \"If we can\nshow how the so-called chemical elements might have been generated\nwe shall be able to fill up a formidable gap in our knowledge\nof the universe, . . .\" the answer is ready. The theoretical\nknowledge is contained in the esoteric meaning of every Hindu\ncosmogony in the *Puranas;* the* *practical demonstration\nthereof -- is in the hands of those who will not be recognised\n*in this *century, save by the very few. The scientific\npossibilities of various discoveries, that must inexorably lead\nexact Science into the acceptation of Eastern Occult views, which\ncontain all the requisite material for the filling of those \"gaps,\"\nare, so far, at the mercy of modern materialism. It is only by\nworking in the direction\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 624 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\ntaken by Professor Crookes that there is any hope for the recognition\nof a few, hitherto Occult, truths.\n\nMeanwhile, one thirsting to have a glimpse at a practical diagram\nof the evolution of primordial matter, which, separating and differentiating\nunder the impulse of cyclic law, divides itself into a septenary\ngradation of **S**UBSTANCE (from a general view),\ncan do no better than examine the plates attached to Mr. Crookes'\nlecture: \"Genesis of the Elements,\" and ponder well\nover some passages of the text. In one place (p. 11) he says:\n--\n\n\". . . . Our notions of a chemical element have expanded.\nHitherto the molecule has been regarded as an aggregate of two\nor more atoms, and no account has been taken of the architectural\ndesign on which these atoms have been joined. We may consider\nthat the structure of a chemical element is more complicated than\nhas hitherto been supposed. Between the molecules we are accustomed\nto deal with in chemical reactions and ultimate atoms as first\ncreated, come smaller molecules or aggregates of physical atoms;\nthen sub-molecules differ one from the other, according to the\nposition they occupied in the yttrium edifice.\"\n\n\"Perhaps this hypothesis can be simplified if we imagine\nyttrium to be represented by a five-shilling piece. By chemical\nfractionation I have divided it into five separate shillings,\nand find that these shillings are not counterparts, but like the\ncarbon atoms in the benzol ring, have the impress of their position,\n1, 2, 3, 4, 5, stamped on them. . . . If I throw my shillings\ninto the melting-pot or dissolve them chemically, the mint stamp\ndisappears and they all turn out to be silver.\" . . .\n\nThis will be the case with all the atoms and molecules when they\nhave separated from their compound forms and bodies -- when *pralaya\n*sets in. Reverse the case, and imagine the dawn of a new\nmanvantara. The pure \"silver\" of the absorbed material\nwill once more separate into SUBSTANCE, which will generate \"Divine\nEssences\" whose \"principles\"* are the primary elements,\nthe sub-elements, the physical energies and subjective and objective\nmatter; or, as these are epitomised -- GODS, MONADS, and ATOMS.\nIf leaving for one moment the metaphysical or transcendental side\nof the question, -- dropping out of the present consideration\nthe supersensuous and intelligent beings and entities believed\nin by the Kabalists and Christians -- we turn to the atomical\ntheory of evolution, the occult teachings are still found corroborated\nby exact Science and its confessions, as far, at least, as regards\nthe supposed \"simple\" elements, now suddenly\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* Corresponding on the cosmic scale with the Spirit, Soul-mind,\nLife, and the three *Vehicles *-- the* *astral,\nthe *Mayavic *and the physical bodies (of mankind) whatever\ndivision is made.\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 625 HERMES OR HUXLEY?\n\ndegraded into poor and distant relatives -- not even second cousins\nto the latter. For we are told by Prof. Crookes that:\n\n\"Hitherto, it has been considered that if the atomic weight\nof a metal, determined by different observers, setting out from\ndifferent compounds, was always found to be constant . . . then\nsuch metal must rightly take rank among the simple or elementary\nbodies. We learn . . . that this is no longer the case. Again,\nwe have here wheels within wheels. Gadolinium is not an element\nbut a compound. . . We have shown that yttrium is a complex of\nfive or more new constituents. And who shall venture to gainsay\nthat each of these constituents, if attacked in some different\nmanner, and if the result were submitted to a test more delicate\nand searching than the radiant-matter test, might not be still\nfurther divisible? Where, then, is the actual ultimate element?\nAs we advance it recedes like the tantalizing mirage lakes and\ngroves seen by the tired and thirsty traveller in the desert.\nAre we in our quest for truth to be thus deluded and baulked?\nThe very idea of an element, as something absolutely primary and\nultimate, seems to be growing less and less distinct. . .\"\n(p. 16).\n\nOn page 429 of *Isis Unveiled*,* *Vol. I., we said\nthat \"the mystery of first creation, which was ever the despair\nof Science, is unfathomable unless they (the Scientists) accept\nthe doctrine of Hermes. *They will have to follow in the footsteps\nof the Hermetists.*\"* *Our prophecy begins to\nassert itself.\n\nBut between Hermes and Huxley there is a middle course and point.\nLet the men of Science only throw a bridge half-way, and think\nseriously over the theories of Leibnitz. We have shown *our*\ntheories with regard to atomic evolution -- their last formation\ninto compound chemical molecules being produced within our terrestrial\nworkshops in the earth's atmosphere and not elsewhere -- as strangely\nagreeing with the evolution of atoms shown on Mr. Crookes' plates.\nSeveral times already it was stated in this volume that *Marttanda\n*(the Sun) had evolved and aggregated, together with his smaller\nseven Brothers, from his Mother's (Aditi's) bosom, that bosom\nbeing *prima *MATER-ia -- the lecturer's primordial *protyle.\n*Esoteric doctrines teach the existence of \"an antecedent\nform of energy having periodic cycles of ebb and swell, rest and\nactivity\" (p. 21) -- and behold a great scholar in Science\nnow asking the world to accept this as one of the postulates.\nWe have shown the \"Mother,\" fiery and hot, becoming\ngradually cool and radiant, and that same Scientist claims as\nhis second postulate, a *scientific necessity*,* *it\nwould seem -- \"an internal action akin to cooling, operating\nslowly in the protyle.\" Occult Science teaches that \"Mother\"\nlies stretched in infinity (during *Pralaya*)* *as\nthe great Deep, the \"*dry* Waters of Space,\"\naccording to the quaint expression in the *Catechism*,*\n*and becomes *wet*\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 626 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\nonly after the separation and the moving over its face of *Narayana*,*\n*the \"Spirit which is invisible Flame, which never burns,\nbut sets on fire all that it touches, and gives it life and generation.\"*\nAnd now Science tells us that \"the first-born element . .\n. most nearly allied to protyle\" . . . would be \"*hydrogen\n*. . . which for some time would be the only existing form\nof matter\" in the Universe. What says *Old* Science?\nIt answers: just so; but we would call hydrogen and oxygen (which\ninstils the fire of life into the \"Mother\" by incubation)\nin the *pregenetic *and even pre-geological ages -- the\n*Spirit*,* *the* noumenon *of that which\nbecomes in its grossest form oxygen and hydrogen and nitrogen\non Earth -- nitrogen being of no divine origin, but merely an\nearth-born cement to unite other gases and fluids, and serve as\na sponge to carry in itself the breath of LIFE -- pure air.**\nBefore these *gases *and fluids become what they are in\n*our* atmosphere, they are interstellar Ether; still earlier\nand on a *deeper *plane -- something else, and so on *in\ninfinitum. *The eminent and learned gentleman must pardon\nan Occultist for quoting him at such length; but such is the penalty\nof a Fellow of the Royal Society who approaches so near the precincts\nof the Sacred Adytum of Occult mysteries as virtually to overstep\nthe forbidden boundaries.\n\nBut it is time to leave modern *physical *science and turn\nto the psychological and metaphysical side of the question. We\nwould only remark that to the \"two very reasonable postulates\"\nrequired by the eminent lecturer, \"to get a glimpse of some\nfew of the secrets so darkly hidden\" behind \"the door\nof the Unknown\" -- a third should be added*** -- lest no\nbattering at it should avail; the postulate that Leibnitz, in\nhis speculations, stood on a firm groundwork of fact and truth.\nThe admirable and thoughtful synopsis of these speculations --\nas given by John Theodore Merz in his \"Leibnitz\" --\nshows how nearly he has brushed the hidden secrets of esoteric\nTheogony in his *Monadologie. *And yet that philosopher\nhas hardly risen in his speculations above the first planes, the\nlower principles of the Cosmic Great Body. His theory soars to\nno loftier heights than those of the *manifested *life,\nself-consciousness and intelligence, leaving the regions of the\nearlier post-genetic mysteries untouched, as his ethereal fluid\nis post-planetary.\n\nBut this third postulate will hardly be accepted by the modern\nmen\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* \"The Lord is a consuming *fire.*\" . . . \"In\nhim was *life*, and the life was the light of men.\"\n\n** Which if separated ALCHEMICALLY would yield the Spirit of Life,\nand its Elixir.\n\n*** Foremost of all, the postulate that there is no such thing\nin Nature as *inorganic *substances or bodies. Stones,\nminerals, rocks, and even chemical \"atoms\" are simply\norganic units in profound lethargy. Their coma has an end and\ntheir inertia becomes activity.\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 627 LEIBNITZ AND OCCULTISM.\n\nof Science; and, like Descartes, they will prefer keeping to the\nproperties of external things, which, like extension, are incapable\nof explaining the phenomenon of motion, rather than accept the\nlatter as an independent Force. They will never become anti-Cartesian\nin this generation; nor will they admit that \"this property\nof inertia is not a purely geometrical property, that it points\nto the existence of something in external bodies which is not\nextension merely.\" This is Leibnitz's idea as analyzed by\nMertz, who adds that he called this *something *Force,*\n*and maintained that external things were endowed with Force,\nand that in order to be the bearers of this force they must have\na substance, for they are not lifeless and inert masses, but the\ncentres and bearers of form, a purely esoteric claim, since *force\n*was with Leibnitz an *active *principle, the division\nbetween mind and matter disappearing by this conclusion. But --\n\n\"The mathematical and dynamical inquiries of Leibnitz would\nnot have led to the same result in the mind of a purely scientific\ninquirer. But Leibnitz was not a scientific man in the modern\nsense of the word. Had he been so, he might have worked out the\nconception of energy, defined mathematically the ideas of force\nand mechanical work, and arrived at the conclusion that even for\npurely scientific purposes it is desirable to look upon force,\nnot as a primary quantity, but as a quantity derived from some\nother value.\"\n\nBut, luckily for truth --\n\n\"Leibnitz was a philosopher; and as such he had certain primary\nprinciples, which biassed him in favour of certain conclusions,\nand his discovery that external things were substances endowed\nwith force was at once used for the purpose of applying these\nprinciples. One of these principles was the law of continuity,\nthe conviction that all the world was connected, that there were\nno gaps and chasms which could not be bridged over. The contrast\nof extended thinking substances was unbearable to him. The definition\nof the extended substances had already become untenable: it was\nnatural that a similar inquiry was made into the definition of\nmind, the thinking substance. . .\"\n\nThe divisions made by Leibnitz, however incomplete and faulty\nfrom the standpoint of Occultism, show a spirit of metaphysical\nintuition to which no man of science, not Descartes -- not even\nKant -- has ever reached. With him there existed ever an infinite\ngradation of thought. Only a small portion of the contents of\nour thoughts, he said, rises into the clearness of apperception,\n\"into the light of perfect consciousness.\" Many remain\nin a confused or obscure state, in the state of \"perceptions;\"\nbut they are there; . . . Descartes denied soul to the animal,\nLeibnitz endowed, as the Occultists do, \"the whole creation\nwith mental life, this being, according to him, capable of infinite\ngradations.\" And\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 628 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\nthis, as Mertz justly observes, \"at once widened the realm\nof mental life, destroying the contrast of *animate and inanimate\nmatter; *it did yet more -- it reacted on the conception of\nmatter, of the extended substance. For it became evident that\nexternal or material things presented the property of extension\nto our senses only, not to our thinking faculties. The mathematician,\nin order to calculate geometrical figures, had been obliged to\ndivide them into an infinite number of infinitely small parts,\nand the physicist saw no limit to the divisibility of matter into\natoms. The bulk through which external things seemed to fill space\nwas a property which they acquired only through the coarseness\nof our senses. . . . Leibnitz followed these arguments to some\nextent, but he could not rest content in assuming that matter\nwas composed of a finite number of very small parts. His mathematical\nmind forced him to carry out the argument *in infinitum. *And\nwhat became of the atoms then? They lost their extension and they\nretained only their property of resistance; they were the centres\nof force. They were reduced to mathematical points . . . but if\ntheir extension in space was nothing, *so much fuller was their\ninner life. *Assuming that inner existence, such as that of\nthe human mind, is a new dimension, not a geometrical but a metaphysical\ndimension . . . having reduced the geometrical extension of the\natoms to nothing, Leibnitz endowed them with an infinite extension\nin the direction of their metaphysical dimension. After having\nlost sight of them in the world of space, the mind has, as it\nwere, to dive into a metaphysical world to find and grasp the\nreal essence of what appears in space merely as a mathematical\npoint. . . . As a cone stands on its point, or a perpendicular\nstraight line cuts a horizontal plane only in one mathematical\npoint, but may extend infinitely in height and depth, so the essences\n*of things real *have only a punctual existence in this\nphysical world of space; but have an infinite depth of inner life\nin the metaphysical world of thought . . . \" (p. 144).\n\nThis is the spirit, the very root of occult doctrine and thought.\nThe \"Spirit-Matter\" and \"Matter-Spirit\" extend\ninfinitely *in depth*,* *and like \"the essence\nof things\" of Leibnitz, our essence of things *real *is\n*at the seventh depth; *while the *unreal *and gross\nmatter of Science and the external world, is at the lowest end\nof our perceptive senses. The Occultist knows the worth or worthlessness\nof the latter.\n\nThe student must now be shown the fundamental distinction between\nthe system of Leibnitz* and that of occult philosophy, on the\nquestion of the Monads, and this may be done with his *Monadology\n*before us. It may be correctly stated that were Leibnitz'\nand Spinoza's systems\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* The real spelling of the name -- as spelt by himself -- is Leibniz.\nHe was of Slavonian descent though a German by birth.\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 629 SPINOZA AND LEIBNITZ.\n\nreconciled, the essence and Spirit of esoteric philosophy would\nbe made to appear. From the shock of the two -- as opposed to\nthe Cartesian system -- emerge the truths of the Archaic doctrine.\nBoth opposed the metaphysics of Descartes. His idea of the contrast\nof two substances -- Extension and Thought -- radically differing\nfrom each other and mutually irreducible, was too arbitrary and\ntoo unphilosophical for them. Thus Leibnitz made of the two Cartesian\nsubstances two attributes of one universal unity, in which he\nsaw God. Spinoza recognised but one universal indivisible substance\nand absolute ALL, like Parabrahmam. Leibnitz, on the contrary\nperceived the existence of a plurality of substances. There was\nbut ONE for Spinoza; for Leibnitz an infinitude of Beings, *from*,*\n*and* in*, the One. Hence, though both admitted but\n*one real Entity*,* *while Spinoza made it impersonal\nand indivisible, Leibnitz divided his *personal *Deity\ninto a number of divine and semi-divine Beings. Spinoza was a\n*subjective*,* *Leibnitz an *objective *Pantheist,\nyet both were great philosophers in their intuitive perceptions.\n\nNow, if these two teachings were blended together and each corrected\nby the other, -- and foremost of all the One Reality weeded of\nits personality -- there would remain as sum total a true spirit\nof esoteric philosophy in them; the impersonal, attributeless,\nabsolute divine essence which is *no *\"Being,\"\nbut the root of all being. Draw a deep line in your thought between\nthat ever-incognizable essence, and the, as invisible, yet comprehensible\nPresence (*Mulaprakriti*),* *or Schekinah, from\n*beyond and through which *vibrates the Sound of the *Verbum*,*\n*and from which evolve the numberless hierarchies of intelligent\n*Egos*,* *of conscious as of semi-conscious, *perceptive*\nand *apperceptive *Beings, whose essence is spiritual Force,\nwhose Substance is the Elements and whose Bodies (when needed)\nare the *atoms *--* *and our doctrine is there.\nFor, says Leibnitz, \"the primitive Element of every material\nbody being Force, which has none of the characteristics of (*objective*)*\n*matter -- it can be conceived but can never be the object\nof any imaginative representation.\" That which was for him\nthe primordial and ultimate element in every body and object was\nthus not the material atoms, or molecules, necessarily more or\nless extended, as those of Epicurus and Gassendi, but, as Mertz\nshows, immaterial and metaphysical atoms, 'mathematical points';\nor *real souls*,* *--* *as explained by Henri\nLachelier (*Professeur agrege de Philosophie*),* *his\nFrench biographer. \"That which exists outside of us in an\nabsolute manner, are Souls whose essence is force,\"* *(*Monadologie*,*\nIntrod.*)*.*\n\nThus, *reality *in the manifested world is composed of\na *unity of units*,* *so to say, immaterial (from\nour stand-point) and infinite. This Leibnitz calls \"Monads,\"\nEastern philosophy \"*Jivas*\"* *--*\n*and Occultism gives it, with the Kabalists and all the Christians,\na variety of names.\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 630 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\nThey are with us, as with Leibnitz -- \"the expression of\nthe universe,\"* and every physical point is but the phenomenal\nexpression of the noumenal, metaphysical point. His distinction\nbetween *perception *and* apperception*,* *is\nthe philosophical though dim expression of the Esoteric teachings.\nHis \"reduced universes,\" of which \"there are as\nmany as there are Monads\" -- is the chaotic representation\nof our Septenary System with its divisions and sub-divisions.\n\nAs to the relation his Monads bear to our Dhyan-Chohans, Cosmic\nSpirits, Devas and Elementals, we may reproduce briefly the opinion\nof a learned and thoughtful theosophist, Mr. H. A. Bjerregaard,\non the subject. In an excellent paper \"On the Elementals,\nthe Elementary Spirits, and the relationship between them and\nHuman Beings,\" read by him before the \"Aryan Theosophical\nSociety of New York\" (see **P**ATH, Nos. 10\nand 11, of Jan. and Feb. 1887), Mr. Bjerregaard formulates distinctly\nhis opinion. . . . . \"To Spinoza, substance is dead and inactive,\nbut to Leibnitz's penetrating mind everything is living activity\nand active energy. In holding this view, *he comes infinitely\nnearer the Orient than any other thinker of his day*,*\nor after him. *His discovery that *an active energy forms\nthe essence of Substance *is a principle that *places him\nin direct relationship to the Seers of the East.*\"\n\nAnd the lecturer proceeds to show that to Leibnitz atoms and elements\nare* centres of force*,* *or rather \"spiritual\nbeings whose very nature is to act,\" for the elementary particles\nare not acting mechanically, but from an *internal *principle.\nThey are incorporeal spiritual units (\"substantial,\"\nhowever, but not *immaterial *in our sense) inaccessible\nto all changes from without, and indestructible by any external\nforce. Leibnitz's monads, adds the lecturer, \"differ from\natoms in the following particulars, which are very important for\nus to remember, otherwise we shall not be able to see the difference\nbetween elementals and mere matter.\" . . . . \"Atoms\nare not distinguished from each other, they are qualitatively\nalike; but one monad differs from every other monad qualitatively;\nand every one is a peculiar world to itself. Not so with atoms;\nthey are absolutely alike quantitatively and qualitatively, and\npossess no individuality of their own.** Again, the atoms (molecules,\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* \"Leibnitz's Dynamism,\" says Professor Lachelier, \"would\noffer but little difficulty if, with him, the Monad had remained\na simple atom of *blind force. *But . . . .\" One perfectly\nunderstands the perplexity of modern materialism!\n\n** Leibnitz was an *absolute *Idealist in maintaining that\n\"material atoms are contrary to reason\" (*Systeme\nnouveau*,* *Erdmann, p. 126. col. 2). For him *matter\n*was a simple representation of the monad, whether human or\natomic. Monads, he thought (as we do), are everywhere. Thus the\nhuman soul is a monad, and every cell in the human body has its\nmonad, as every cell in animal, vegetable, and even in the (so-called)\n*inorganic *bodies. His *atoms *are the molecules\nof modern Science, and his monads those *simple *[[Footnote\ncontinued on next page]]\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 631 MAYA AND MAHAMAYA.\n\nrather) of materialistic philosophy can be considered as extended\nand divisible, while the monads are mere mathematical points and\nindivisible. Finally, and this is a point where these monads of\nLeibnitz closely resemble the elementals of mystic philosophy\n-- these monads are representative Beings. Every monad reflects\nevery other. Every monad is a living mirror of the Universe within\nits own sphere. And mark this, for upon it depends the power possessed\nby these monads, and upon this depends the work they can do for\nus; in mirroring the world, the monads are not mere passive reflective\nagents, but *spontaneously self*-*active*; they\nproduce the images spontaneously, as the soul does a dream. In\nevery monad, therefore, the adept may read everything, even the\nfuture. Every monad or *Elemental *is a looking-glass that\ncan speak. . .\"\n\nIt is at this point that Leibnitz's philosophy breaks down. There\nis no provision made, nor any distinction established, between\nthe \"Elemental\" monad and that of a high Planetary Spirit,\nor even the human monad or Soul. He even goes so far as to sometimes\ndoubt whether \"God has ever made anything but Monads or substances\nwithout extension.\" (*Examen des Principes du P. Malebranche.*)*\n*He* *draws a distinction between Monads and Atoms,*\nbecause, as he repeatedly states, \"bodies with all their\nqualities are only phenomenal, like the rainbow. . . . *Corpora\nomnia cum omnibus qualitatibus suis non sunt aliud quam phenomena\nbene fundata*,* ut Iris*\"* *(Letter to\nFather Desbosses, *Correspondence*,* *letter xviii.)\n-- but soon after he finds a provision for this in a substantial\ncorrespondence, a certain metaphysical bond between the monads\n-- *vinculum substantiale. *Esoteric philosophy, teaching\nan *objective *Idealism -- though it regards the objective\nUniverse and all in it as *Maya*,* *temporary illusion\n-- draws a practical distinction between collective illusion,\n*Mahamaya*,* *from the purely metaphysical stand-point,\nand the objective relations in it between various conscious *Egos\n*so long as this illusion lasts. The adept, therefore, *may*\nread the future in an Elemental Monad, but he has to draw for\nthis object a great number of them, as each monad represents only\na portion of the Kingdom it belongs to. \"It is not in the\nobject, but in the modification of the cognition of the object\nthat the Monads are limited. They all go confusedly to the infinite,\nto the all, but they are all limited and distinguished by the\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n[[Footnote continued from previous page]] *atoms *that\nmaterialistic Science takes on faith, though it will never succeed\nin *interviewing *them -- except in imagination. But Leibnitz\nis rather contradictory in his views about Monads. He speaks of\nhis *Metaphysical Points *and* Formal Atoms*,*\n*at one time as *realities*,* *occupying space;\nat another as pure Spiritual *ideas; *then again endows\nthem with objectivity and aggregates and positions in their co-relations.\n\n* The *atoms *of Leibnitz have, in truth, nothing but the\nname in common with the atoms of the Greek Materialists, or even\nthe *molecules *of modern Science. He calls them formal\natoms, and compares them to the substantial forms of Aristotle.\n(See *Systeme Nouveau*, § 3.)\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 632 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\ndegrees of distinct perceptions.\" (§ 60, *Monadologie*.)**\n*And as Leibnitz explains, \"All the portions of the Universe\nare distinctly represented in the Monads, *but some are reflected\nin one monad*,* some in another;*\"* *but\na number of monads could represent simultaneously the thoughts\nof the two millions of inhabitants of Paris.\n\nBut what say the Occult Sciences to this, and what do they add?\n\nThey say that what is called collectively *Monads *by Leibnitz\n-- roughly viewed, and leaving every subdivision out of calculation,\nfor the present** -- may be separated into three distinct Hosts,\nwhich, counted from the highest planes, are, firstly, \"gods,\"\nor conscious, spiritual *Egos; *the intelligent architects,\nwho work after the plan in the *Divine Mind. *Then come\nthe Elementals, or *Monads*,* *who form collectively\nand unconsciously the grand Universal Mirrors of everything connected\nwith their respective realms. Lastly, the atoms, or material molecules,\nwhich are informed in their turn by their *apperceptive*\nmonads, just as every cell in a human body is so informed. (See\nthe closing pages of Book I.) There are shoals of such *informed\n*atoms which, in their turn, inform the molecules; an infinitude\nof monads, or Elementals proper, and countless spiritual Forces\n-- *Monadless*,* *for they are pure incorporealities,***\nexcept under certain laws, when they assume a form -- not*\nnecessarily human. *Whence the substance that clothes them\n-- the apparent organism they evolve around their centres? The\n*Formless *(\"Arupa\") Radiations, existing in\nthe harmony of Universal Will, and being what we term the collective\nor the aggregate of Cosmic Will on the plane of the subjective\nUniverse, unite together an infinitude of monads -- each the mirror\nof its own Universe -- and thus individualize\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* Leibnitz, like Aristotle, calls the created or *emanated\n*monads (the Elementals issued from Cosmic Spirits or Gods)\n-- *Entelechies*,* *[[*Entelecheia*]] --\nand \"incorporeal *automata.*\"* *(§\n18, *Monadologie.*)\n\n** These three \"rough divisions\" correspond to *spirit*,*\nmind *(or soul), and *body*,* *in the human\nconstitution.\n\n*** Brother C. H. A. Bjerregaard, in his lecture (already mentioned),\nwarns his audience not to regard the *Sephiroth *too much\nas *individualities*,* *but to avoid at the same\ntime seeing in them *abstractions. *\"We shall never\narrive at the truth,\" he says, \"much less the power\nof *associating with those celestials*,* *until\nwe return to the simplicity and fearlessness of the primitive\nages, when men mixed freely with the gods, and the gods descended\namong men and guided them in truth and holiness\" (No. 10,*\nPath*)* *. . . . \"There are several designations\nfor 'angels' in the Bible which clearly show that beings like\nthe Elementals of the Kabala and the monads of Leibnitz, must\nbe understood by that term rather than that which is commonly\nunderstood. They are called 'morning stars,' 'flaming fires,'\n'the mighty ones,' and St. Paul sees them in his cosmogonic vision\nas 'Principalities and Powers.' Such names as these preclude the\nidea of personality, and we find ourselves compelled to think\nof them as impersonal Existences . . . as an *influence*,*\n*a spiritual substance, or *conscious Force.*\"\n(*Path*,* *No. 11, p. 322.)\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 633 THE WHEELS OF LIFE.\n\nfor the time being an independent mind, omniscient and universal;\nand by the same process of magnetic aggregation they create for\nthemselves objective, visible bodies, out of the interstellar\natoms. For atoms and Monads, associated or dissociated, simple\nor complex, are, from the moment of the first differentiation,\nbut the *principles*,* *corporeal, psychic and Spiritual,\nof the \"Gods,\" -- themselves the Radiations of primordial\nnature. Thus, to the eye of the Seer, the higher Planetary Powers\nappear under two aspects: the subjective -- *as influences*,*\n*and the objective -- as mystic FORMS, which, under Karmic\nlaw, become a *Presence*,* *Spirit and Matter being\nOne, as repeatedly stated. Spirit is matter *on the seventh\nplane; *matter is Spirit -- on the lowest point of its cyclic\nactivity; and both -- are **M**AYA.\n\nAtoms are called \"Vibrations\" in Occultism; also \"Sound\"\n-- collectively. This does not interfere with Mr. Tyndall's scientific\ndiscovery. He traced, on the lower rung of the ladder of monadic\nbeing, the whole course of the *atmospheric vibrations *--*\n*and this constitutes the *objective *part of the process\nin nature. He has traced and recorded the rapidity of their motion\nand transmission; the force of their impact; their setting up\nvibrations in the tympanum and their transmission of these to\nthe stolithes, etc., etc., till the vibration of the auditory\nnerve commences -- and a new phenomenon now takes place: the *subjective\nside *of the process or *the sensation of Sound. *Does\nhe perceive or see it? No; for his speciality is to discover the\nbehaviour of matter. But why should not a psychic see it, a spiritual\nseer, whose inner Eye is opened, and who can see through the veil\nof matter? The waves and undulations of Science are all produced\nby atoms propelling their molecules into activity *from within.\n*Atoms fill the immensity of Space, and by their continuous\nvibration *are *that MOTION which keeps the wheels of Life\nperpetually going. It is that inner work that produces the natural\nphenomena called the correlation of Forces. Only, at the origin\nof every such \"force,\" there stands the *conscious\n*guiding noumenon thereof -- Angel or God, Spirit or Demon\n-- ruling powers, yet the same.\n\nAs described by Seers -- those who can see the motion of the interstellar\nshoals, and follow them in their evolution clairvoyantly -- they\nare dazzling, like specks of virgin snow in radiant sunlight.\nTheir velocity is swifter than thought, quicker than any mortal\nphysical eye could follow, and, as well as can be judged from\nthe tremendous rapidity of their course, the motion is circular.\n. . . . Standing on an open plain, on a mountain summit especially,\nand gazing into the vast vault above and the spacial infinitudes\naround, the whole atmosphere seems ablaze with them, the air soaked\nthrough with these dazzling coruscations. At times, the intensity\nof their motion produces flashes\n\n####### [[Vol. 1, Page]] 634 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\nlike the Northern lights during the *Aurora Borealis. *The\nsight is so marvellous, that, as the Seer gazes into this inner\nworld, and feels the scintillating points shoot past him, he is\nfilled with awe at the thought of other, still greater mysteries,\nthat lie beyond, and within, this radiant ocean. . . . .\n\nHowever imperfect and incomplete this explanation on \"Gods,\nMonads and Atoms,\" it is hoped that some students and theosophists,\nat least, will feel that there may be indeed a close relation\nbetween materialistic Science, and Occultism, which is the complement\nand missing soul of the former.\n\n-------\n\n[[This page continued in next section]]\n\nNext Section\n\nContents",
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