{
  "meta": {
    "schema_version": "1.1",
    "endpoint": "/api/sources/secret-doctrine/vol-2-anthropogenesis/54-stanza-ii----nature-unaided-fails-52.json"
  },
  "work": {
    "slug": "vol-2-anthropogenesis",
    "name": "Volume II — Anthropogenesis"
  },
  "parents": [
    {
      "slug": "secret-doctrine",
      "name": "The Secret Doctrine",
      "url": "/sources/secret-doctrine/"
    }
  ],
  "chapter": {
    "num": 4,
    "slug": "54-stanza-ii----nature-unaided-fails-52",
    "title": "STANZA II. -- NATURE UNAIDED FAILS ... 52",
    "of": 49,
    "words": 10841,
    "text": "## STANZA II. -- NATURE UNAIDED FAILS ... 52\n\n\nThe Secret Doctrine by H. P. Blavatsky, vol 2, pt 1, stanza 2\n\n###### The Secret Doctrine by H. P. Blavatsky -- Vol.\n2\n\n####### [[Vol. 2, Page]] 52 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\n##### STANZA II.\nNATURE UNAIDED FAILS.\n\n-------\n\n§ (5) After enormous periods the Earth creates monsters.\n(6) The \"Creators\" are displeased. (7) They dry the\nEarth. (8) The forms are destroyed by them. (9) The first great\ntides. (10) The beginning of incrustation.\n\n---------------------\n\n5. **T**HE **W**HEEL WHIRLED FOR THIRTY\nCRORES (*of years, or *300,000,000***)*. ***I**T\nCONSTRUCTED RUPAS (*forms*)*. ***S**OFT\nSTONES, THAT HARDENED (*minerals*)*; *HARD PLANTS,\nTHAT SOFTENED (*vegetation*)*. ***V**ISIBLE\nFROM INVISIBLE, INSECTS AND SMALL LIVES (*sarisripa, swapada*)*.\n***S**HE* *(*the Earth*)* *SHOOK\nTHEM OFF HER BACK, WHENEVER THEY OVERRAN THE MOTHER (*a*).\n**A**FTER THIRTY CRORES OF YEARS, SHE TURNED ROUND.\n**S**HE LAID ON HER BACK; ON HER SIDE. . . . . **S**HE\nWOULD CALL NO SONS OF **H**EAVEN, SHE WOULD ASK NO\nSONS* *OF **W**ISDOM. **S**HE\nCREATED FROM HER OWN BOSOM. SHE EVOLVED WATER-MEN TERRIBLE AND\nBAD (*b*).\n\n(*a*) This relates to an inclination of the axis -- of\nwhich there were several -- to a consequent deluge and chaos on\nEarth (having, however, no reference to primeval chaos), in which\nmonsters, half-human, half-animal, were generated. We find it\nmentioned in the \"Book of the Dead,\" and also in the\nChaldean account of creation, on the Cutha Tablets, however mutilated.\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* 300 million years, or Three Occult Ages. The Rig Veda has the\nsame division. In the* *\"*Physician*'*s\nHymn,*\"* *(X 97 1) it is said that \"the plants\ncame into being *three ages *(Triyugam) before the gods\"\non our Earth (See \"Chronology of the Brahmins\" at the\nend of this Stanza).\n\n####### [[Vol. 2, Page]] 53 THE MONSTERS OF CHAOS.\n\nIt is not even allegory. Here we have *facts, *that are\nfound repeated in the account of *Pymander, *as well as\nin the Chaldean tablets of creation. The verses may almost be\nchecked by the Cosmogony, as given by Berosus, which has been\ndisfigured out of recognition by Eusebius, but some of the features\nof which may yet be found in fragments left by ancient Greek authors\n-- Apollodorus, Alexander Polyhistor, etc., etc. \"The water-men\nterrible and bad,\" who were the production of physical nature\nalone, a result of the \"evolutionary impulse\" and the\nfirst attempt to create *man* the \"crown,\" and\nthe aim and goal of all animal life on Earth -- are shown to be\nfailures in our Stanzas. Do we not find the same in the Berosian\nCosmogony, denounced with such vehemence as the culmination of\nheathen absurdity? And yet who of the Evolutionists can say that\nthings in the beginning have not come to pass as they are described?\nThat, as maintained in the Puranas, the Egyptian and Chaldean\nfragments, and even in Genesis, there have not been two, and even\nmore, \"creations\" before the last formation of the Globe;\nwhich, changing its geological and atmospheric conditions, changed\nalso its flora, its fauna, and its men? This claim agrees not\nonly with every ancient Cosmogony, but also with modern science,\nand even, to a certain degree, with the theory of evolution, as\nmay be demonstrated in a few words.\n\nThere is no \"dark creation,\" no \"Evil Dragon\"\nconquered by a Sun-God, in the earliest World-Cosmogonies. Even\nwith the Akkads, the great Deep (the Watery Abyss, or **S**PACE)\nwas the birthplace and abode of Ea, Wisdom, the incognizable infinite\nDeity. But with the Semites and the later Chaldeans, the fathomless\nDeep of Wisdom becomes gross matter, sinful Substance, and Ea\nis changed into Tiamat, the dragon slain by Merodach, or Satan,\nin the astral waves.\n\nIn the Hindu Puranas, Brahma, the creator, is seen recommencing\n*de* *novo *several creations after as many failures;\nand two great creations are mentioned,* the Padma and the Varaha,\nthe present, when the Earth was lifted out of the water by Brahma,\nin the shape of a boar, or \"Varaha Avatar.\" Creation\nis shown as a sport, an amusement (Lila) of the creative god.\nThe Zohar speaks of primordial worlds, which perished as soon\nas they came into existence. And the same is said in Midraish,\nRabbi Abahu explaining distinctly (in Bereschith Rabba, Parscha\n**IX**.) that \"the Holy One\" had successively\ncreated and de-\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* These two must not be confused with the seven creations or divisions\nin each Kalpa (See Book I. \"*The Seven Creations*\")*.\n*The *primary* and *secondary *creations are\nhere meant.\n\n####### [[Vol. 2, Page]] 54 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\nstroyed sundry worlds, before he succeeded in the present one.\nThis does not relate only to other worlds in space, but to a mystery\nof our own globe contained in the allegory about the \"kings\nof Edom.\" For the words, \"This one pleases me,\"\nare repeated in Genesis i. 31, though in disfigured terms, as\nusual. The Chaldean fragments of Cosmogony on the Cuneiform inscriptions,\nand elsewhere, show two distinct creations of animals and men,\nthe first being destroyed, as it was a failure. The Cosmogonical\ntablets prove that this our actual creation was preceded by others\n(See \"Hibbert Lectures,\" p. 390); and as shown by the\nauthor of \"The Qabbalah,\" in the Zohar, Siphrah Dzeniouta,\nin Jovah Rabbah, 128*a*, etc., etc. The Kabala states the\nsame.\n\n(*b*) Oannes (or Dagon, the Chaldean \"Man-fish\")\ndivides his Cosmogony and Genesis into two portions. First the\nabyss of waters and darkness, wherein resided most hideous beings\n--\n\n-men with wings, four and two-faced men, human beings with two\nheads, with the legs and horns of a goat (our \"goat-men,\")*\nhippocentaurs, bulls with the heads of men, and dogs with tails\nof fishes. In short, combinations of various animals and men,\nof fishes, reptiles and other monstrous animals assuming each\nother's shapes and countenances. The feminine element they resided\nin, is personified by Thalatth -- the Sea, or \"Water\"\n-- which was finally conquered by Belus, the male principle. And\nPolyhistor says: \"Belus came and cut the woman asunder, and\nof one half of her he formed the Earth, and of the other half\nthe heavens, and at the same time he destroyed the animals within\nher.\" As pertinently remarked by I. Myer, \"with the\nAkkadians each object and power of Nature had its Zi, Spirit.\nThe Akkadians formed their deities into triads, usually males\n(sexless, rather?); the Semites also had triadic deities, but\nintroduced sex\" (p. 246) -- or phallicism. With the Aryans\nand the earliest Akkadians all things are emanations *through,*\nnot* by, *a creator or logos. With the Semites everything\nis *begotten.*\n\n-------\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* Whence the identity of the ideas? The Chinese have the same\ntraditions. According to the commentator Kwoh P'oh, in the work\ncalled *Shan-Hai-King, *\"Wonders by Sea and Land,\"\na work which was written by the historiographer Chung Ku from\nengravings on nine urns made by the Emperor Yu, (B.C. 2255), an\ninterview is mentioned with men *having two distinct faces\non their heads, *before and behind, monsters with bodies of\ngoats and human faces, etc. Gould, in his \"*Mythical Monsters,*\"*\n*p. 27, giving the names of some authors on Natural History,\nmentions *Shan-Hai-King. Ac*cording to Kwoh P'oh (A.D.\n276-324) this work was compiled three thousand years before his\ntime, or at seven dynasties distance. Yang Sun of the Ming Dynasty\n(commencing A.D. 1368) states that it was compiled by Kung Chia\nand Chung Ku (as stated above). Chung Ku at the time of the last\nemperor of the Hia dynasty, B.C. 1818, fearing that the emperor\nmight destroy the books treating of the ancient time, carried\nthem in his flight to Yin. (See \"*Mythical Monsters,*\"*\n*by C. Gould, p. 27.)\n\n####### [[Vol. 2, Page]] 55 UNAIDED PHYSICAL NATURE FAILS.\n\n6. **T**HE **W**ATER-MEN TERRIBLE AND\nBAD SHE HERSELF CREATED. **F**ROM THE REMAINS OF\nOTHERS (*from the mineral, vegetable and animal* *remains*)*\n*FROM THE FIRST, SECOND, AND THIRD (*Rounds*)* *SHE\nFORMED THEM. **T**HE **D**HYANI CAME\nAND LOOKED. . . . . **T**HE **D**HYANI\nFROM THE BRIGHT **F**ATHER-**M**OTHER,\nFROM THE WHITE (*Solar-lunar*)* *REGIONS THEY CAME,*\nFROM THE ABODES OF THE **I**MMORTAL-**M**ORTALS\n(*a*).\n\n(*a*) The explanations given in our Stanzas are far more\nclear than that which the legend of creation from the *Cutha\n*tablet would give, even were it complete. What is preserved\non it, however, corroborates them. For, in the tablet, \"the\nLord of Angels\" destroys the men in the abyss, when \"there\nwere not left the carcases and waste\" after they were slaughtered.\nAfter which they, the Great Gods, create men with the bodies of\nbirds of the desert, human beings, \"seven kings, brothers\nof the same family,\" etc., which is a reference to the locomotive\nqualities of the primary ethereal bodies of men, which could fly\nas well as they could walk,** but who \"were destroyed\"\nbecause they were not \"*perfect,*\"* i.e.*,\nthey \"were sexless, like the Kings of Edom.\"\n\nWeeded of metaphors and allegories, what will science say to this\nidea of a primordial creation of species? It will object to the\n\"Angels\" and \"Spirits\" having anything to\ndo therewith: but if it is nature and the physical law of evolution\nthat are the creators of all there is now on Earth, why could\nthere be \"no such abyss\" when the globe was covered\nwith waters, in which numbers of monstrous beings were generated?\nIs it the \"human beings\" and animals with human heads\nand double faces, which are a point of the objection? But if man\nis only a higher animal and has evolved from the brute species\nby an infinite series of transformations, why could not the \"missing\nlinks\" have had human heads attached to the bodies of animals,\nor, being two-headed, have heads of beasts and *vice versa,\n*in Nature's early efforts? Are we not shown during the geological\nperiods, in the ages of the reptiles and the mammalia, lizards\nwith birds' wings, and serpents' heads on animal bodies.*** And,\narguing from the standpoint of science, does not even our modern\nhuman race occasionally furnish us with monster-specimens: two-headed\nchildren, animal bodies with human heads, dog-headed babies, etc.,\netc.? And this proves that, if nature will still play such\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* Gods and planetary Spirits, especially the Ribhus. \"The\nthree Ribhus\" who yet become \"thrice seven in number\"\nof their gifts.\n\n** Remember the \"winged Races\" of Plato; and the *Popol-Vuh\n*accounts of the first human race, which could walk, fly and\nsee objects, however distant.\n\n*** *See *\"*Mythical Monsters,*\"* *by\nCharles Gould.\n\n####### [[Vol. 2, Page]] 56 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\nfreaks now that she has settled for ages into the order of her\nevolutionary work, monsters, like those described by Berosus,\nwere a possibility in her opening programme; which possibility\nmay even have existed once upon a time as a law, before she sorted\nout her species and began regular work upon them; which indeed\nnow admits of definite proof by the bare fact of \"**R**EVERSION,\"\nas science puts it.\n\nThis is what the doctrine teaches and demonstrates by numerous\nproofs. But we shall not wait for the approval of either dogmatic\ntheology or materialistic science, but proceed with the Stanzas.\nLet these speak for themselves, with the help of the light thrown\nby the Commentaries and their explanations; the scientific aspect\nof these questions will be considered later on.\n\nThus physical nature, when left to herself in the creation of\nanimal and man, is shown to have failed. She can produce the first\ntwo and the lower animal kingdoms, but when it comes to the turn\nof man, spiritual, independent and intelligent powers are required\nfor his creation, besides the \"coats of skin\" and the\n\"Breath of animal Life.\" The human Monads of preceding\nRounds need something higher than purely physical materials to\nbuild their personalities with, under the penalty of remaining\neven below any \"Frankenstein\" animal.*\n\n-------\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* In the first volume of the lately published \"*Introduction\na l*'*atude des Races Humaines,*\"* *by\nM. de Quatrefages, there is proof that since the post-tertiary\nperiod and even before that time -- since many Races were already\nscattered during that age on the face of the Earth -- man has\nnot altered one iota in his physical structure. And if, surrounded\nfor ages by a fauna that altered from one period or cycle to another,\nwhich died out, which was reborn in other forms -- so that now\nthere does not exist one single animal on Earth, large or small,\ncontemporary with the man of that period -- if, then, every animal\nhas been transformed save man himself, this fact goes to prove\nnot only his antiquity, but that he is a *distinct Kingdom.\n*Why should he alone have escaped transformation? Because,\nsays de Quatrefages, the weapon used by him, in his struggle with\nnature and the ever-changing geological conditions and elements,\nwas \"his *psychic force,* *not his physical strength\nor body*,\" as in the case of animals. Give man only that\ndose of intelligence and reason with which other mammalia are\nendowed, and with his present bodily organization he will show\nhimself the most helpless of creatures of Earth. And as everything\ngoes to prove that the *human **organism with all its\ncharacteristics, peculiarities and idiosyncrasies existed already\non our Globe in those far distant geological periods when there\nwas not yet one single specimen of the now-existing forms of mammalia*,\nwhat is the unavoidable conclusion? Why this: Since all the human\nraces are of one and the same species, it follows that this species\nis the *most ancient of all *the now-living mammalia. Therefore\nit is the most stable and persevering of all, and was already\nas fully developed as it is now when all the other mammalia now\nknown had not made even their first approach to appearance on\nthis Earth. Such is the opinion of the great French Naturalist,\nwho gives thereby a terrible blow to Darwinism.\n\n####### [[Vol. 2, Page]] 57 THE \"DOUBLE DRAGON.\"\n\n7. **D**ISPLEASED THEY WERE. **O**UR\nFLESH IS NOT THERE (*they said*)*.*** T**HIS\nIS NO FIT RUPA FOR OUR BROTHERS OF THE FIFTH. **N**O\nDWELLINGS FOR THE LIVES.* **P**URE WATERS, NOT TURBID,\nTHEY MUST DRINK (*a*). **L**ET US DRY THEM\n(*the waters*)*.*\n\n(*a*)* *Says the Catechism (Commentaries): --\n\n\"*It is from the material Worlds that descend they, who\nfashion physical man at the new Manvantaras. They are inferior\nLha *(*Spirits*)*, possessed of a dual body *(an\nastral within an ethereal form). *They are the fashioners and\ncreators of our body of illusion*.\" . . . .\n\n\"*Into the forms projected by the Lha *(Pitris)*\nthe two letters** *(the Monad, called also 'the Double Dragon')\n*descend from the spheres of expectation.*** But they are like\na roof with no walls, nor pillars to rest upon*.\" . .\n. .\n\n\"*Man needs four flames and three fires to become one\non Earth, and he requires the essence of the forty-nine fires****\nto be perfect. It is those who have deserted the Superior Spheres,\nthe Gods of Will,***** who complete the Manu of illusion. For\nthe *'*Double Dragon*'* has no hold upon the mere\nform. It is like the breeze where there is no tree or branch to\nreceive and harbour it. It cannot affect the form where there\nis no agent of transmission *(Manas, \"Mind\") *and\nthe form knows it not.*\"\n\n\"*In the highest worlds, the three are one,****** on Earth\n*(*at first*)* the one becomes two. They are like\nthe two *(*side*)* lines of a triangle that has\nlost its bottom line -- which is the third fire.*\"*\n*(Catechism Book **III**., sec. 9.)\n\nNow this requires some explanation before proceeding any further.\nTo do so especially for the benefit of our Aryan Hindu brethren\n--\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* The Monads of the *presentments *of men of the *Third\n*Round, the huge Ape-like forms.\n\n** In the esoteric system the seven principles in man are represented\nby seven letters. The first two are *more* sacred than\nthe four letters of the Tetragrammaton.\n\n*** The intermediate spheres, wherein the Monads, which have not\nreached Nirvana, are said to slumber in unconscious inactivity\nbetween the Manvantaras.\n\n**** Explained elsewhere. The \"Three Fires,\" Pavaka,\nPavamana, and Suchi, who had forty-five sons, who, with their\nthree fathers and their Father Agni, constitute the 49 fires.\nPavamana (fire produced by friction) is the parent of the *fire*\n*of the Asuras; *Suchi (Solar fire) is the parent of the\nfire of the gods; and Pavaka (electric fire) is the father of\nthe fire of the *Pitris *(See* Vayu Purana*). But\nthis is an explanation on the material and the terrestrial plane.\nThe flames are evanescent and only periodical; the fires -- eternal\nin their triple unity. They correspond to the *four *lower,\nand the *three *higher human principles.\n\n***** The *Suras, *who become later the A-Suras.\n\n****** Atma, Buddhi and Manas. In Devachan the higher element\nof the Manas is needed to make it a state of perception and consciousness\nfor the disembodied *Monad*.\n\n####### [[Vol. 2, Page]] 58 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\nwhose esoteric interpretations may differ from our own -- we shall\nhave to explain to them the foregoing by certain passages in their\nown exoteric books, namely, the Puranas. In the allegories of\nthe latter, Brahma, who is collectively the creative Force of\nthe Universe, is said to be \"at the beginning of the Yugas\n(cycles) . . . . *Possessed of the desire and of the power\nto create, and, impelled by the potencies of what is to be created,\n*again and again does he, at the outset of a Kalpa, put forth\na similar creation,\" (see *Vishnu Purana, *Book I.\nch. V., closing Sloka. Also \"*Manava Dharma Shastra*\"\nI. 30.) It is now proposed to examine the exoteric account in\nthe Vishnu Purana, and see how much it may agree or disagree with\nour occult version.\n\n-------\n\n**C**REATION OF **D**IVINE **B**EINGS\nIN THE **E**XOTERIC **A**CCOUNTS.\n\nIn the *Vishnu Purana *-- which is certainly the earliest\nof all the scriptures of that name -- we find, as in all the others,\nBrahma assuming as the male God, for purposes of creation, \"*four\nbodies invested by three qualities.*\"** *It is\nsaid: \"In this manner, Maitreya, *Jyotsna *(dawn),\n*Ratri *(night)*, Ahan *(day), and *Sandhya *(evening\ntwilight) are the four bodies of Brahma\" . . (p. 81, Vol.\nI., Wilson's translation). As Parasara explains it, when Brahma\nwants to create the world anew and construct progeny *through\nhis will*, in the fourfold condition (or the four orders of\nbeings) termed gods (Dhyan Chohans), Demons** (*i.e.*,\nmore material Devas), Progenitors (Pitris) and men, \"he collects\nYoga-like (Yuyuje) his mind.\"\n\nStrange to say, he begins by creating DEMONS, who thus take precedence\nover the angels or gods. This is no incongruity, nor is it due\nto inconsistency, but has, like all the rest, a profound esoteric\nmeaning, quite clear to one free from Christian theological prejudice.\nHe who bears in mind that the principle **M**AHAT,\nor Intellect, the \"Universal Mind\" (literally \"the\ngreat\"), which esoteric philosophy explains as the \"manifested\nOmniscience\" -- the \"first product\" of Pradhana\n(primordial matter) as Vishnu Purana says, but the first Cosmic\naspect of Parabrahm or the esoteric SAT, the Universal Soul,***\nas Occultism\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* This has in *esotericism *a direct bearing upon the seven\nprinciples of the manifested Brahma, or universe, in the same\norder as in man. Exoterically, it is only four principles.\n\n** *Demons *is a very loose word to use, as it applies\nto a great number of inferior -- *i.e., *more material\n-- Spirits, or minor Gods, who are so termed because they \"war\"\nwith the higher ones; but they are no devils.\n\n*** The same order of principles in man: -- *Atma* (Spirit)*,\nBuddhi *(Soul), its vehicle, as Matter is the *Vahan *of\nSpirit, and *Manas *(mind), the third, or the fifth microcosmically.\nOn the *plane of personality, Manas *is the first.\n\n####### [[Vol. 2, Page]] 59 THE BODIES OF BRAHMA.\n\nteaches -- is at the root of **S**ELF-Consciousness,\nwill understand the reason why. The so-called \"Demons\"\n-- who are (esoterically) the Self-asserting and (intellectually)\nactive Principle -- are the *positive poles of creation, *so\nto say; hence, the first produced. This is in brief the process\nas narrated allegorically in the Puranas.\n\n\"Having concentrated his mind into itself and the quality\nof darkness pervading Brahma's assumed body, the Asuras, issuing\nfrom his thigh, were first produced; after which, abandoning this\nbody, it was transformed into NIGHT.\" (See Part **II.**,\n§* *\"*The Fallen Angels.*\")\n\nTwo important points are involved herein: -- (*a*) Primarily\nin the *Rig-Veda, *the \"Asuras\" are shown as\n*spiritual divine beings; *their etymology is derived from\n*asu *(breath), the \"Breath of God,\" and they\nmean the same as the Supreme Spirit or the Zoroastrian *Ahura.\n*It is later on, for purposes of theology and dogma, that\nthey are shown issuing from Brahma's thigh, and that their name\nbegan to be derived from a privative, and *sura, *god (solar\ndeities), or *not-a-god, *and that they became the enemies\nof the gods. Every ancient theogony without exception -- from\nthe Aryan and the Egyptian down to that of Hesiod -- places, in\nthe order of Cosmogonical evolution, Night before the Day; even*\nGenesis, *where \"darkness is upon the face of the deep\"\nbefore \"the *first day.*\"* *The reason\nfor this is that every Cosmogony -- except in the Secret Doctrine\n-- begins by the \"Secondary Creation\" so-called: to\nwit, the *manifested *Universe, the Genesis of which has\nto open by a marked differentiation between the eternal Light\nof *Primary *Creation, whose mystery must remain for ever\n\"Darkness\" to the prying finite conception and intellect\nof the profane, and the Secondary Evolution of manifested visible\nnature. The Veda contains the whole philosophy of that division\nwithout having ever been correctly explained by our Orientalists,\nbecause it has *never been understood *by them.\n\nContinuing to create, Brahma assumes another form, that of the\nDay, and creates from his breath the gods, who are endowed with\nthe quality of goodness (passivity)*. In his next body the quality\nof great passivity prevailed, which is also (negative) goodness,\nand from the side of that personage issued the Pitris, the progenitors\nof men, because, as the text explains, \"Brahma thought of\nhimself (during the process) as the father of the world.\"**\nThis is *Kriya-sakti -- *the mysterious *Yoga* power\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* Thus, says the Commentary, the saying \"by day the gods\nare most powerful, and by night the demons,\" is purely allegorical.\n\n** This *thinking of oneself *as this, that, or the other,\nis the chief factor in the production of every kind of psychic\nor even physical phenomena. The words \"whosoever shall say\nto this mountain be thou removed and cast into the sea, and *shall\nnot doubt *. . . . that thing will come to pass,\" are\nno vain words. Only the word \"faith\" ought to be translated\nby WILL. Faith without Will is like a wind-mill without *wind*\n-- barren of results.\n\n####### [[Vol. 2, Page]] 60 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\nexplained elsewhere. This body of Brahma when cast off became\nthe *Sandhya *(evening twilight), the interval between\nday and night.\n\nFinally Brahma assumed his last form pervaded by the *quality\nof foulness, *\"and from this MEN, in whom foulness and\npassion predominate, were produced.\" This body when cast\noff became the dawn, or morning twilight -- the twilight of Humanity.\nHere Brahma stands esoterically for the *Pitris. *He is\ncollectively the Pitar, \"father.\"\n\nThe true esoteric meaning of this allegory must now be explained.\nBrahma here symbolizes personally the collective creators of the\nWorld and Men -- the universe with all its numberless productions\nof things movable and (seemingly) immovable.* He is collectively\nthe Prajapatis, the Lords of Being; and the four bodies typify\nthe four classes of creative powers or Dhyan Chohans, described\nin the Commentary directly following Stanza **VII**. in Book\nI. The whole philosophy of the so-called \"Creation\"\nof the good and evil in this world and of the whole cycle of Manvantaric\nresults therefrom, hangs on the correct comprehension of these\nFour bodies of Brahma.\n\nThe reader will now be prepared to understand the real, the esoteric\nsignificance of what follows. Moreover there is an important point\nto be cleared up. Christian theology having arbitrarily settled\nand agreed that Satan with his Fallen Angels belonged to the earliest\ncreation, Satan being the first-created, the wisest and most beautiful\nof God's Archangels, the word was given, the key-note struck.\nHenceforth all the *pagan *scriptures were made to yield\nthe same meaning, and all were shown to be demoniacal, and it\n*was *and* is *claimed that *truth and fact *belong\nto, and commence only with, Christianity. Even the Orientalists\nand Mythologists, some of them no Christians at all but \"infidels,\"\nor men of science, entered unconsciously to themselves, and by\nthe mere force of association of ideas and habit, into the theological\ngroove. Purely Brahmanical considerations, based on greed of power\nand ambition, allowed the masses to remain in ignorance of great\ntruths; and the same causes led the Initiates among the early\nChristians to remain silent, while those who had never known the\ntruth disfigured the order of things, judging of the hierarchy\nof \"Angels\" by their exoteric form. Thus as the *Asuras\n*had become the rebellious inferior gods fighting the higher\nones in popular creeds, so the highest archangel, in truth the\nAgathodaemon, the eldest benevolent Logos, became with theology\nthe \"Adversary\" or *Satan. *But is this warranted\nby the correct interpretation of any old Scripture? The answer\nis, *most certainly not. *As the Mazdean Scriptures of\nthe\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* The same idea is found in the first four chapters of *Genesis,\n*with their \"Lord\" and \"God,\" which are\nthe *Elohim* and the Androgynous *Eloha*.\n\n####### [[Vol. 2, Page]] 61 WHAT THE GNOSTICS SAY.\n\n*Zend-Avesta, *the* Vendidad *and others correct\nand expose the later cunning shuffling of the gods in the Hindu\nPantheon, and restore through **A**HURA the *Asuras\n*to their legitimate place in theogony, so the recent discoveries\nof the Chaldean tablets vindicate the good name of the first divine\nEmanations. This is easily proved. Christian Angelology is directly\nand solely derived from that of the Pharisees, who brought their\ntenets from Babylonia. The Sadducees, the real guardians of the\nLaws of Moses, knew not of, and rejected, any angels, opposing\neven the immortality of the human *Soul *(not impersonal\nSpirit). In the Bible the only \"Angels\" spoken of are\nthe \"Sons of God\" mentioned in Genesis vi. (who are\nnow regarded as the *Nephilim, *the* *Fallen Angels),\nand several angels in human form, the \"Messengers\" of\nthe Jewish God, whose own rank needs a closer analysis than heretofore\ngiven. (*Vide Supra, *Stanza I., sub-sections 2, *3,\net seq., *where it is shown that the early Akkadians called\n*Ea*, Wisdom, that which was disfigured by the later Chaldees\nand Semites into *Tismat, *Tisalat and the Thallath of\nBerosus, the female Sea Dragon, now Satan.) Truly -- \"How\nart thou fallen (by the hand of man), O bright star and son of\nthe morning\"!\n\nNow what do the Babylonian accounts of \"Creation,\" as\nfound on the Assyrian fragments of tiles, tell us; those very\naccounts upon which the Pharisees built their angelology? But\ncompare Mr. G. Smith's \"*Assyrian Discoveries,*\"*\n*p. 398, and his \"*Chaldean Account of Genesis,*\"*\n*p. 107. The \"*Tablet with the story of the Seven\nWicked Gods or Spirits,*\"* *has the following\naccount -- we print the important passages in italics: --\n\n1. In the *first days *the evil Gods,\n\n2. the* angels, who were in rebellion, *who* in the\nlower part of heaven*\n\n3*. had been created,*\n\n4. they caused their evil work\n\n5. devising with wicked heads . . . . etc.\n\nThus we are shown, as plainly as can be, on a fragment which remained\nunbroken, so that there can be no dubious reading, that the \"rebellious\nangels\" had been created in the *lower part of heaven,\ni.e., *that they belonged and do belong to a *material\nplane of evolution, *although as it is not the plane of which\nwe are made cognizant through our senses, it remains generally\ninvisible to us, and is thus regarded as subjective. Were the\nGnostics so wrong, after this, in affirming that this our visible\nworld, and especially the Earth, had been created by *lower\n*angels, the inferior Elohim, of which, as they taught, the\nGod of Israel was one. These Gnostics were nearer in time to the\nrecords of the Archaic Secret Doctrine, and therefore ought to\nbe allowed to have known better than non-initiated Christians,\nwho took upon themselves, hundreds of years\n\n####### [[Vol. 2, Page]] 62 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\nlater, to remodel and *correct *what was said. But let\nus see what the same Tablet says further on: --\n\n7. There were seven of them (the wicked gods) . . . . (then follows\nthe description of these, the fourth being a \"serpent,\"\nthe phallic symbol of the *fourth *Race in human Evolution).\n\n15. The seven of them, messengers of the God Anu, their king.\n\nNow Anu belongs to the Chaldean trinity, and is identical with\nSin, the \"Moon,\" in one aspect. And the Moon in the\nHebrew Kabala is the Argha of the seed of all material life, and\nis still more closely connected, kabalistically, with Jehovah,\nwho is double-sexed as Anu is. They are both represented in Esotericism\nand viewed from a dual aspect: male or spiritual, female or material,\nor Spirit and Matter, the two antagonistic principles. Hence the\n\"Messengers of Anu,\" (who is Sin, the \"Moon,\")\nare shown, in verses 28 to 41, as being finally overpowered by\nthe same Sin with the help of Bel (the Sun) and Ishtar (Venus).\nThis is regarded as a contradiction by the Assyriologists, but\nis simply *metaphysics *in the esoteric teaching.\n\nThere is more than one interpretation, for there are seven keys\nto the mystery of the Fall. Moreover there are two \"Falls\"\nin Theology: the rebellion of the Archangels and their \"Fall,\"\nand the \"Fall\" of Adam and Eve. Thus the lower as well\nas the higher Hierarchies are charged with a supposed crime. The\nword \"supposed\" is the true and correct term, for in\nboth cases it is founded on misconception. Both are considered\nin Occultism as Karmic effects, and both belong to the law of\nEvolution: intellectual and spiritual on the one hand, physical\nand psychic on the other. The \"Fall\" is a universal\nallegory. It sets forth at one end of the ladder of Evolution\nthe \"rebellion,\" *i.e., *the action of differentiating\nintellection or consciousness on its various planes, seeking union\nwith matter; and at the other, the lower end, the rebellion of\nmatter against Spirit, or of action against spiritual inertia.\nAnd here lies the germ of an error which has had such disastrous\neffects on the intelligence of civilized societies for over 1,800\nyears. In the original allegory it is matter -- hence the more\nmaterial angels -- which was regarded as the conqueror of Spirit,\nor the Archangels who \"fell\" on this plane. \"They\nof the *flaming sword *(or animal passions) had put to\nflight the Spirits of Darkness.\" Yet it is the latter who\nfought for the supremacy of the conscious and divine spirituality\non Earth and failed, succumbing to the power of matter. But in\ntheological dogma we see the reverse. It is Michael, \"who\nis like unto God,\" the representative of Jehovah, who is\nthe leader of the celestial hosts -- as Lucifer, in Milton's fancy,\nis of the infernal hosts -- who has the best of Satan. It is true\nthat the nature of\n\n####### [[Vol. 2, Page]] 63 WHO ARE THE \"FLAMES\"?\n\nMichael depends upon that of his Creator and Master. Who the latter\nis, one may find out by carefully studying the allegory of the\n\"War in Heaven\" with the astronomical key. As shown\nby Bentley, the \"War of the Titans against the gods\"\nin Hesiod, and also the war of the Asuras (or the Tarakamaya)\nagainst the devas in Puranic legend, are identical in all save\nthe names. The aspects of the stars show (Bentley taking the year\n945 **B.C**. as the nearest date for such conjunction) that\n\"all the planets, except Saturn, were on the same side of\nthe heavens as the Sun and Moon,\" and hence were his opponents.\nAnd yet it is Saturn, or the Jewish \"Moon-god,\" who\nis shown as prevailing, both by Hesiod and Moses, neither of whom\nwas understood. Thus it was that the real meaning became distorted.\n\n-------\n\n##### STANZA II. -- Continued.\n\n8. **T**HE FLAMES CAME. **T**HE FIRES\nWITH THE SPARKS; THE NIGHT FIRES AND THE DAY FIRES (*a*).\n**T**HEY DRIED OUT THE TURBID DARK WATERS. **W**ITH\nTHEIR HEAT THEY QUENCHED THEM. **T**HE **L**HAS\n(*Spirits*)* *OF THE HIGH; **T**HE\nLHAMAYIN (*those*)* *OF BELOW, CAME (*b*)*.***\nT**HEY SLEW THE FORMS, WHICH WERE TWO- AND FOUR-FACED.\n**T**HEY FOUGHT THE GOAT-MEN, AND THE DOG-HEADED\nMEN, AND THE MEN WITH FISHES' BODIES.\n\n(*a*) The \"Flames\" are a Hierarchy of Spirits\nparallel to, if not identical with, the \"burning\" fiery\n*Saraph *(Seraphim) mentioned by Isaiah (vi. 2-6), those\nwho attend, according to Hebrew Theogony, \"the Throne of\nthe Almighty.\" Melha is the Lord of the \"Flames.\"\nWhen he appears on Earth, he assumes the personality of a Buddha,\nsays a popular legend. He is one of the most ancient and revered\n*Lhas, a *Buddhist St. Michael.\n\n(*b*) The word \"Below\" must not be taken to mean\ninfernal regions, but simply a spiritual, or rather ethereal,\nBeing of a lower grade, because nearer to the Earth, or one step\nhigher than our terrestrial sphere; while the Lhas are Spirits\nof the highest Spheres -- whence the name of the capital of Tibet,\n*Lha-ssa.*\n\nBesides a statement of a purely physical nature and belonging\nto the\n\n####### [[Vol. 2, Page]] 64 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\nevolution of life on Earth, there may be another allegorical meaning\nattached to this Sloka, or indeed, as is taught, several. The\nFLAMES, or \"Fires,\" represent Spirit, or the male element,\nand \"Water,\" matter, or the opposite element. And here\nagain we find, in the action of the Spirit slaying the purely\nmaterial form, a reference to the eternal struggle, on the physical\nand psychic planes, between Spirit and Matter, besides a scientific\ncosmic fact. For, as said in the next verse: --\n\n-------\n\n9. **M**OTHER-WATER, THE GREAT SEA WEPT. **S**HE\nAROSE, SHE DISAPPEARED IN THE **M**OON, WHICH HAD\nLIFTED HER, WHICH HAD GIVEN HER BIRTH (*a*).\n\n(*a*)* *Now what can this mean? Is it not an evident\nreference to tidal action in the early stage of the history of\nour planet in its fourth Round? Modern research has been busy\nof late in its speculations on the Palaeozoic high-tides. Mr.\nDarwin's theory was that not less than 52,000,000 years ago --\nand probably much more -- the Moon originated from the Earth's\nplastic mass. Starting from the point where research was left\nby Helmholtz, Ferrel, Sir William Thomson and others, he retraced\nthe course of tidal retardation of the earth's rotary motions\nfar back into the very night of time, and placed the Moon during\nthe infancy of our planet at only \"a fraction of its present\ndistance.\" In short, his theory was that it is the Moon which\nseparated from the Earth. The tidal elevation concurring with\nthe swing of the globular mass -- centrifugal tendency being then\nnearly equal to gravity -- the latter was overcome, and the tidally\nelevated mass could thus separate completely from the Earth.*\n\nThe Occult teaching is the reverse of this. The Moon is far older\nthan the Earth; and, as explained in Book I., it is the latter\nwhich owes its being to the former, however astronomy and geology\nmay explain the fact. Hence, the tides and the attraction to the\nMoon, as shown by the liquid portion of the Globe ever striving\nto raise itself towards its parent. This is the meaning of the\nsentence that \"the Mother-Water arose and disappeared in\nthe Moon, which had lifted her, which had given her birth.\"\n\n-------\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* But see the difficulties suggested later, in the works of various\ngeologists, against this theory. Compare Sir R. S. Bull's article\nin \"*Nature*\"* *(Dec. 1, 1881), and also\nwhat the American geologists say.\n\n####### [[Vol. 2, Page]] 65 DIVINE WILL BECOMES EROS.\n\n10. **W**HEN THEY (*the Rupas*)* *WERE\nDESTROYED, **M**OTHER-EARTH REMAINED BARE,* SHE ASKED\nTO BE DRIED (*a*).**\n\n(*a*) The time for its incrustation had arrived. The waters\nhad separated and the process was started. It was the beginning\nof a new life. This is what one key divulges to us. Another key\nteaches the origin of Water, its admixture with Fire (liquid fire\nit calls it),*** and enters upon an alchemical description of\nthe progeny of the two -- solid matter such as minerals and earths.\nFrom the \"Waters of Space,\" the progeny of the male\nSpirit-Fire and the female (gaseous) Water has become the Oceanic\nexpanse on Earth. Varuna is dragged down from the infinite Space,\nto reign as Neptune over the finite Seas. As always, the popular\nfancy is found to be based on a strictly scientific foundation.\n\nWater is the symbol of the female element everywhere; *mater*,\nfrom which the letter M, is derived pictorially from [[diagram]]\na water hieroglyph. It is the universal matrix or the \"Great\nDeep.\" Venus, the great Mother-Virgin, issues forth from\nthe Sea-wave, and Cupid or *Eros is *her son. But Venus\nis the later mythological variant of *Gaia *(or* Gaea*)*,\n*the Earth, which, in its higher aspect is Nature (*Prakriti*)*,\n*and metaphysically Aditi, and even Mulaprakriti, the root\nof Prakriti or its noumenon.\n\nHence Cupid or Love in his primitive sense is Eros, the Divine\nWill, or *Desire of manifesting itself through visible creation.\n*Thence Fohat, the prototype of Eros, becomes on Earth the\ngreat power \"Life-electricity,\" or the Spirit of \"Life-giving.\"\nLet us remember the Greek Theogony and enter into the spirit of\nits philosophy. We are taught by the Greeks (See \"*Iliad*\"*\n*IV., 201, 246) that all things, gods included, owe their\nbeing to the Ocean and his wife Tethys, the latter being Gaea,\nthe Earth or Nature. But who is *Ocean? *Ocean is the immeasurable\nSPACE (Spirit in Chaos), which is the Deity (*see *Book\nI.); and Tethys is not the Earth, but primordial matter in the\nprocess of formation. In our case it is no longer Aditi-Gaea who\nbegets *Ouranos *or Varuna, the chief Aditya among the\nseven planetary gods, but Prakriti, materialised and localised.\nThe Moon, masculine in its theogonic character, is,\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* The goddess who gave birth to these primordial monsters, in\nthe account of Berosus, was Thallath, in Greek *Thalassa, *\"the\nSea.\"\n\n** See, for comparison, the account of creation by Berosus (*Alexander\nPolyhistor*)* *and the hideous beings born from the\ntwo-fold principle (Earth and Water) in the Abyss of primordial\ncreation: Neras (Centaurs, men with the limbs of horses and human\nbodies), and Kimnaras (men with the heads of horses) created by\nBrahma in the commencement of the Kalpa.\n\n*** See Commentary following Sloka 18.\n\n####### [[Vol. 2, Page]] 66 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\nin its cosmic aspect only, the female generative principle, as\nthe Sun is the male emblem thereof. Water is the progeny of the\nMoon, an androgyne deity with every nation.\n\nEvolution proceeds on the laws of analogy in Kosmos as in the\nformation of the smallest globe. Thus the above, applying to the\n*modus operandi *at the time when the Universe was appearing,\napplies also in the case of our Earth's formation.\n\nThis Stanza opens by speaking of thirty crores, 30,000,000, of\nyears. We may be asked -- What could the ancients know of the\nduration of geological periods, when no modern scientist or mathematician\nis able to calculate their duration with anything like approximate\naccuracy? Whether they had or had not better means (and it is\nmaintained that they had them in their Zodiacs), still the chronology\nof the ancient Brahmins shall now be given as faithfully as possible.\n\n-------\n\n**T**HE **C**HRONOLOGY\nOF THE **B**RAHMINS.\n\nNo greater riddle exists in science, no problem is more hopelessly\ninsoluble, than the question: How old -- even approximately --\nare the Sun and Moon, the Earth and Man? What does modern science\nknow of the duration of the ages of the World, or even of the\nlength of geological periods?\n\nNothing; *absolutely nothing.*\n\nIf one turns to science for chronological information, one is\ntold by those who are straightforward and truthful, as for instance\nMr. Pengelly, the eminent geologist, \"We do not know.\"*\nOne will learn that, so far, no trustworthy numerical estimate\nof the ages of the world and man could be made, and that both\ngeology and anthropology are at sea. Yet when a student of esoteric\nphilosophy presumes to bring forward the teachings of Occult Science,\nhe is at once sat upon. Why should this be so, since, when reduced\nto their own physical methods, the greatest scientists have failed\nto arrive even at an approximate agreement?\n\nIt is true that science can hardly be blamed for it. Indeed, in\nthe Cimmerian darkness of the prehistoric ages, the explorers\nare lost in a labyrinth, whose great corridors are doorless, allowing\nno visible exit into the Archaic past. Lost in the maze of their\nown conflicting speculations, rejecting, as they have always done,\nthe evidence of Eastern tradition, without any clue, or one single\ncertain milestone to guide them, what can geologists or anthropologists\ndo but pick up the slender\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* For a similar admission see Prof. Lefevre's *Philosophy,\n*p. 481.\n\n####### [[Vol. 2, Page]] 67 THE RACE THAT NEVER DIES.\n\nthread of Ariadne where they first perceive it, and then proceed\nat perfect random? Therefore we are first told that the farthest\ndate to which documentary record extends is now generally regarded\nby Anthropology as but \"the earliest distinctly visible point\nof the pre-historic period*.*\"* *(*Encyclopaedia\nBritannica.*)\n\nAt the same time it is confessed that \"beyond that period\nstretches back a vast indefinite series of prehistoric ages.\"\n(*Ibid.*)\n\nIt is with those specified \"Ages\" that we shall begin.\nThey are \"prehistoric\" to the naked eye of matter only.\nTo the spiritual eagle eye of the seer and the prophet of every\nrace, Ariadne's thread stretches beyond that \"historic period\"\nwithout break or flaw, surely and steadily, into the very night\nof time; and the hand which holds it is too mighty to drop it,\nor even let it break. Records exist, although they may be rejected\nas fanciful by the profane; though many of them are tacitly accepted\nby philosophers and men of great learning, and meet with an unvarying\nrefusal only from the official and collective body of *orthodox\n*science. And since the latter refuses to give us even an\napproximate idea of the duration of the geological ages -- save\nin a few conflicting and contradictory hypotheses -- let us see\nwhat Aryan philosophy can teach us.\n\nSuch computations as are given in Manu and the Puranas -- save\ntrifling and most evidently *intentional *exaggerations\n-- are, as already stated, almost identical with those taught\nin esoteric philosophy. This may be seen by comparing the two\nin any Hindu calendar of recognised orthodoxy.\n\nThe best and most complete of all such calendars, at present,\nas vouched for by the learned Brahmins of Southern India, is the\nalready mentioned Tamil calendar called the \"Tirukkanda Panchanga,\"\ncompiled, as we are told, from, and in full accordance with, secret\nfragments of Asuramaya's data. As Asuramaya is said to have been\nthe greatest astronomer, so he is whispered to have also been\nthe most powerful \"Sorcerer\" of the \"**W**HITE**\nI**SLAND, which had become **B**LACK with\nsin,\" *i.e., *of the islands of Atlantis.\n\nThe \"White Island\" is a symbolical name. Asuramaya is\nsaid to have lived (see the tradition of Jhana-bhaskara) in *Romaka-pura\n*in the West: because the name is an allusion to the land\nand cradle of the \"Sweat-born\" of the Third Race. That\nland or continent had disappeared ages before Asuramaya lived,\nsince he was an Atlantean; but he was a direct descendant of the\n*Wise Race, the Race that never dies. *Many are the legends\nconcerning this hero, the pupil of Surya (the Sun-God) himself,\nas the Indian accounts allege. It matters little whether he lived\non one or another island, but the question is to prove that he\nwas no myth, as Dr. Weber and others would make him. The\n\n####### [[Vol. 2, Page]] 68 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\nfact of \"*Romaka-pura *in the West\" being named\nas the birth-place of this hero of the archaic ages, is the more\ninteresting because it is so very suggestive of the esoteric teaching\nabout the \"Sweat-born\" Races, the men born from the\n*pores of their parents. *\"**R**OMAKUPAS\"\nmeans \"hair-pores\" in Sanskrit. In *Mahabharata XII.\n*10,308, a people named Raumyas are said to have been created\nfrom the pores of Virabhadara, the terrible giant, who destroyed\nDaksha's sacrifice. Other tribes and people are also represented\nas born in this way. All these are references to the later Second\nand the earlier Third Root Races.\n\nThe following figures are from the calendar just referred to;\na footnote marks the points of disagreement with the figures of\nthe Arya Samaj school: --\n\nI. From the beginning of cosmic evolution,* up\n\nto the Hindu year *Tarana *(or 1887) ....................\n1,955,884,687 years.\n\nII. The (astral) mineral, vegetable and animal\n\nkingdoms up to Man, have taken to evolve** ........ 300,000,000\nyears.\n\nIII. Time, from the first appearance of\n\n\"Humanity\" (on planetary chain)..........................1,664,500,987\nyears.***\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* The esoteric doctrine says that this \"cosmic evolution\"\nrefers only to our solar system; while exoteric Hinduism makes\nthe figures refer, if we do not mistake, to the whole Universal\nSystem.\n\n** Another point of disagreement. Occultism says: \"The astral\nprototypes of the mineral, vegetable and animal kingdoms up to\nman have taken that time (300 million years) to evolve, re-forming\nout of the cast-off materials of the preceding Round, which, though\nvery dense and physical in their own cycle, are relatively ethereal\nas compared with the materiality of our present middle Round.\nAt the expiration of these 300 million years, Nature, on the way\nto the physical and material, down the arc of descent, begins\nwith mankind and works downwards, hardening or materialising forms\nas it proceeds. Thus the fossils found in strata, to which an\nantiquity, not of eighteen, but of many hundreds of millions of\nyears, must be ascribed, belong in reality to forms of the preceding\nRound, which, while living, were far more ethereal than physical,\nas *we* *know the physical. *That we perceive and\ndisinter them as tangible forms, is due to the process of materialization\nor crystallization referred to, which took place subsequently,\nat the beginning of the Fourth Round, and reached its maximum\nafter the appearance of man, proceeding parallel with his physical\nevolution. This alone illustrates the fact that the degree of\nmateriality of the Earth changes *pari passu *with that\nof its inhabitants. And thus man now finds, as tangible fossils,\nwhat were once the (to his present senses) ethereal forms of the\nlower kingdoms. The above Brahmanical figures refer to evolution\nbeginning on Globe A, and in the First Round. In this Volume we\nspeak only of this, the Fourth Round.\"\n\n*** This difference and the change of cyphers in the last three\ntriplets of figures, the writer cannot undertake to account for.\nAccording to every calculation, once the three hundred millions\nare subtracted, the figures ought to stand, 1,655,884,687. But\nthey are given as stated in the Tamil calendar above-named and\nas they were translated. The school of the late Pandit Dayanand\nSaraswati, founder of the Arya Samaj, gives a date of 1,960,852,987.\nSee the \"Arya Magazine\" of Lahore, the cover of which\nbears the words: \"Aryan era 1,960,852,987.\"\n\n####### [[Vol. 2, Page]] 69 THE VARIOUS PRALAYAS.\n\nIV. The number that elapsed since the \"*Vaivasvata Manvantara*\"**\n-- *or the *human* period --\n\nup to the year 1887, is just ......................... 18,618,728\nyears.\n\nV. The full period of one *Manvantara *is ..... 308,448,000\nyears.\n\nVI. 14 \"Manvantaras\" *plus* the period of one\n*Satya Yuga *make ONE DAY OF **B**RAHMA, or\n\ncomplete Manvantara and make ................. 4,320,000,000 years.\n\nTherefore a *Maha-Yuga *consists of ............. 4,320,000\nyears.**\n\nThe year 1887 is from the commencement of\n\nKali-Yuga .....................................................\n4,989 years.\n\nTo make this still clearer in its details, the following computations\nby Rao Bahadur P. Sreenivas Row, are given from the \"*Theosophist*\"\nof* *November, 1885.\n\n- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -\n- - - - Mortal years.\n\n360 days of mortals make a year ...........................................\n1\n\nKrita Yuga contains .................................................\n1,728,000\n\nTreta Yuga contains .................................................\n1,296,000\n\nDwapara Yuga contains ..............................................\n864,000\n\nKali Yuga contains ......................................................\n432,000\n\nThe total of the said four Yugas constitute a\n\nMaha Yuga ...............................................................\n4,320,000\n\nSeventy-one of such Maha-Yugas form the\n\nperiod of the reign of one Manu .......................... 306,720,000\n\nThe reign of 14 Manus embraces the duration\n\nof 994 Maha-Yugas, which is equal to .............. 4,294,080,000\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* **V**AIVASVATA Manu is the one human being -- some\nversions add to him the seven Rishis -- who in the *Matsya\n*Avatar allegory is saved from the Deluge in a boat, like\nNoah in the Ark. Therefore, this *Vaivasvata Manvantara *would\nbe the \"post-Diluvian\" period. This, however, does not\nrefer to the later \"Atlantean\" or Noah's deluge, nor\nto the Cosmic *Deluge *or* Pralaya *of obscuration,\nwhich preceded our Round, but to the appearance of mankind in\nthe latter Round. There is a great difference made, however, between\nthe \"*Naimitika,*\"* *occasional or incidental,\n\"*Prakritika*,\" elemental, \"*Atyantika,*\"*\n*the absolute, and \"*Nitya,*\"* *the\nperpetual Pralaya; the latter being described as \"Brahma's\ncontingent recoalescence of the Universe at the end of Brahma's\n**D**AY.\" The question was raised by a learned\nBrahmin Theosophist: \"Whether there is such a thing as *Cosmic\n*Pralaya; because, otherwise, the *Logos *(Krishna)\nwould have to be reborn, and he is *Aja* (unborn).\"\nWe cannot see why. The *Logos *is said to be born only\nmetaphorically, as the Sun is born daily, or rather a beam of\nthat Sun is born in the morning and is said to die when it disappears,\nwhereas it is simply reabsorbed into the parent essence. Cosmic\n*Pralaya *is for things visible, not for the *Arupa*,\nformless, world. The Cosmic or Universal *Pralaya* comes\nonly at the end of one hundred years of Brahma; when the Universal\ndissolution is said to take place. Then the *Avyaya, *say\nthe exoteric scriptures, the eternal life symbolized by Vishnu,\nassuming the character of Rudra, the *Destroyer, *enters\ninto the *Seven* Rays of the Sun and drinks up all the\nwaters of the Universe. \"Thus fed, the seven solar Rays dilate\nto *seven Suns *and set fire to the whole Cosmos. . . .\n.\"\n\n** Since a Maha-Yuga is the 1,000th part of a day of Brahma.\n\n####### [[Vol. 2, Page]] 70 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\nAdd *Sandhis, i.e., *intervals between the reign of each\nManu, which amount\n\nto six Maha-Yugas, equal to ...................................................................................................\n25,920,000\n\nThe total of these reigns and interregnums of 14 Manus, is 1,000\nMaha-Yugas,\n\nwhich constitute a Kalpa, *i.e.*, one day of Brahma ............................................................\n4,320,000,000\n\nAs Brahma's Night is of equal duration, one Day and Night of Brahma\nwould contain .... 8,640,000,000\n\n360 of such days and nights make one year of Brahma make .......................................\n3,110,400,000,000\n\n100 such years constitute the whole period of Brahma's age, *i.e.*,\nMaha-Kalpa ...... 311,040,000,000,000\n\nThese are the exoteric figures accepted throughout India, and\nthey dovetail pretty nearly with those of the Secret works. The\nlatter, moreover, amplify them by a division into a number of\nesoteric cycles, never mentioned in Brahmanical popular writings\n-- one of which, the division of the Yugas into racial cycles,\nis given elsewhere as an instance. The rest, in their details,\nhave of course never been made public. They are, nevertheless,\nknown to every \"*Twice-born*\"* *(Dwija,\nor Initiated) Brahmin, and the Puranas contain references to some\nof them in veiled terms, which no matter-of-fact Orientalist has\nyet endeavoured to make out, nor could he if he would.\n\nThese sacred astronomical cycles are of immense antiquity, and\nmost of them pertain, as stated, to the calculations of Narada\nand Asuramaya. The latter has the reputation of a giant and a\nsorcerer. But the antediluvian giants (the Gibborim of the Bible)\nwere not all bad or Sorcerers, as Christian Theology, which sees\nin every Occultist a servant of the Evil one, would have it; nor\nwere they worse than many of \"the faithful sons of the Church.\"\nA Torquemada and a Catherine de Medicis certainly did more harm\nin their day and in the name of their Master than any Atlantean\ngiant or demigod of antiquity ever did; whether his name was Cyclops,\nor Medusa, or yet the Orphic Titan, the *anguipedal *monster\nknown as Ephialtes. There were *good *\"giants\"\nin days of old just as there are *bad* \"pigmies\"\nnow; and the Rakshasas and Yakshas of Lanka are no worse than\nour modern dynamiters, and certain Christian and civilised generals\nduring modern wars. Nor are they myths. \"He who would laugh\nat Briareus and Orion ought to abstain from going to, or even\ntalking of, Karnac or Stonehenge,\" remarks somewhere a modern\nwriter.\n\nAs the Brahmanical figures given above are approximately the basic\ncalculations of our esoteric system, the reader is requested to\ncarefully keep them in mind.\n\nIn the \"*Encyclopaedia Britannica*\"* *one\nfinds, as the last word of science, that the antiquity of man\nis allowed to stretch *only over *\"tens of thou-\n\n####### [[Vol. 2, Page]] 71 SCIENTIFIC SELF-COMPLACENCE.\n\nsands of years.\"* It becomes evident that as these figures\nmay be made to fluctuate between 10,000 and 100,000, therefore\nthey mean very little if anything, and only render still denser\nthe darkness surrounding the question. Moreover, what matters\nit that science places the birth of man in the \"pre- or post-glacial\ndrift,\" if we are told at the same time that the so-called\n\"ice age\" is simply a long succession of ages which\n\"shaded without abrupt change of any kind into what is termed\nthe human or Recent period . . . the overlapping of geological\nperiods having been the rule from the beginning of time.\"\nThe latter \"rule\" only results in the still more puzzling,\neven if strictly *scientific *and correct, information,\nthat \"even to-day man is contemporary with the ice-age in\nthe Alpine valleys and in the Finmark.\"**\n\nThus, had it not been for the lessons taught by the *Secret\nDoctrine, *and even by exoteric Hinduism and its traditions,\nwe should be left to this day to float in perplexed uncertainty\nbetween the indefinite ages of one school of science, the \"tens\nof thousands\" of years of the other, and the 6,000 years\nof the Bible interpreters. This is one of the several reasons\nwhy, with all the respect due to the conclusions of the men of\nlearning of our modern day, we are forced to ignore them in all\nsuch questions of pre-historic antiquity.\n\nModern Geology and Anthropology must, of course, disagree with\nour views. But Occultism will find as many weapons against these\ntwo sciences as it has against astronomical and physical theories,\nin spite of Mr. Laing's assurances that*** \"in (chronological)\ncalculations of this sort, concerning older and later formations,\nthere is no *theory, *and they are based on positive *facts,\n*limited only by a certain possible (?) amount of error either\nway,\" occultism will prove, scientific confessions in hand,\nthat geology is very much in error, and very often even more so\nthan Astronomy. In this very passage by Mr. Laing, which gives\nto Geology pre-eminence for correctness over Astronomy, we find\na passage in flagrant contradiction to the admissions of the best\nGeologists themselves. Says the author --\n\n\"In short, the conclusions of Geology, at any rate up to\nthe Silurian period,**** when the present order of things was\nfairly inaugurated, are approximate (truly so) *facts *and\nnot *theories, *while the astronomical conclusions are\n*theories *based on *data so uncertain, *that while\nin some\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* *See* article* *\"*Geology,*\"*\n*in* *\"*Encyclopaedia Britannica.*\"\n\n** This allows a chance even to the Biblical \"Adam Chronology\"\nof 6,000 years. (*Ibid.*)\n\n*** See his \"*Modern Science and Modern Thought.*\"\n\n**** To the Silurian period as regards Molluscs and Animal life\n-- granted; but what do they know of man?\n\n####### [[Vol. 2, Page]] 72 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\ncases they give results incredibly short . . . in others they\ngive results almost incredibly long.\"\n\nAfter which, the reader is advised that the safest course \"seems\nto be to *assume *that Geology really proves the *duration\nof the present order of things *to have been somewhere over\n100 millions of years,\" as \"Astronomy gives an enormous\nthough unknown time in the past, and to come in the future, for\nthe birth, growth, maturity, decline, and death of the Solar System,\nof which our Earth is a small planet now passing through the habitable\nphase.\" (p. 49.)\n\nJudging from past experience, we do not entertain the slightest\ndoubt that, once called upon to answer \"the absurd unscientific\nand preposterous claims of exoteric (and esoteric) Aryan chronology,\"\nthe scientist of \"the results incredibly short,\" *i.e.*,\nonly 15,000,000 years, and the scientist, who \"would require\n600,000,000 years,\" together with those who accept Mr. Huxley's\nfigures of 1,000,000,000 \"since sedimentation began in Europe\"\n(*World Life*)*, *would all be as dogmatic one as\nthe other. Nor would they fail to remind the Occultist and the\nBrahmin, that it is the modern men of science alone who represent\nexact science, whose duty it is to fight *inaccuracy* and*\nsuperstition.*\n\nThe earth is passing through the \"habitable phase\" only\nfor the *present order *of things, and as far as our present\nmankind is concerned with its actual \"coats of skin\"\nand phosphorus for bones and brain.\n\nWe are ready to concede the 100 millions of years offered by Geology,\nsince we are taught that our present physical mankind -- or the\n*Vaivasvata* humanity -- began only 18 millions of years\nago. But Geology has no facts to give us for the duration of geological\nperiods, as we have shown, no more indeed than has Astronomy.\nThe authentic letter from Mr. W. Pengelly, **F.R.S**.,\nquoted elsewhere, says that: \"It is at present, and perhaps\nalways will be, **IMPOSSIBLE **to reduce, even approximately,\ngeological time into years or even into millenniums.\" And\nhaving never, hitherto, excavated a fossil man of any other than\nthe *present form -- *what does Geology know of him? It\nhas traced zones or strata and, with these, primordial zoological\nlife, down to the Silurian. When it has, in the same way, traced\nman down to his primordial protoplasmic form, then we will admit\nthat it may know something of primordial man. If it is not very\nmaterial \"to the bearings of modern scientific discovery\non modern thought,\" whether \"man has existed in state\nof constant though slow progression for the last 50,000 years\nof period of 15 millions, or for the last 500,000 years of a period\nof 150 millions\" (\"Modern Science, etc.\" p. 49),\nas Mr. S. Laing tells his readers, it is very much so for the\nclaims of the Occultists. Unless the latter show that it is a*\npossibility, *if not a perfect certainty, that man\n\n####### [[Vol. 2, Page]] 73 COSMOGONY, AN INTELLIGENT PLAN.\n\nlived 18 millions of years ago, the Secret Doctrine might as well\nhave remained unwritten. An attempt must, therefore, be made in\nthis direction, and it is our modern geologists and men of science\ngenerally who will be brought to testify to this fact in the third\npart of this volume. Meanwhile, and notwithstanding the fact that\nHindu Chronology is constantly represented by the Orientalists\nas a fiction based on no \"*actual* computation,\"*\nbut simply a \"childish boasting,\" it is nevertbeless\noften twisted out of recognition to make it yield to, and fit\nin with, Western theories. No figures have ever been more meddled\nwith and tortured than the famous 4, *3, 2, *followed by\ncyphers of the Yugas and Maha-Yugas.\n\nAs the whole cycle of prehistoric events, such as the evolution\nand transformation of Races and the extreme antiquity of man,\nhangs upon the said Chronology, it becomes extremely important\nto check it by other existing calculations. If the Eastern Chronology\nis rejected, we shall at least have the consolation of proving\nthat no other -- whether the figures of Science or of the Churches\n-- is one whit more reliable. As Professor Max Muller expresses\nit, it is often as useful to prove what a thing is not as to show\nwhat it may be. And once we succeed in pointing out the fallacies\nof both Christian and scientific computations -- by allowing them\na fair chance of comparison with our Chronology -- neither of\nthe two will have a reasonable ground to stand upon, in pronouncing\nthe esoteric figures less reliable than its own.\n\nWe may here refer the reader to our earlier work \"*Isis\nUnveiled,*\"* *Vol. I., p. 32, for some remarks\nconcerning the figures which were cited a few pages back.\n\nTo-day a few more facts may be added to the information there\ngiven, which is already known to every Orientalist. The sacredness\nof the cycle of 4320, with additional cyphers, lies in the fact\nthat the figures which compose it, taken separately or joined\nin various combinations, are each and all symbolical of the greatest\nmysteries in Nature. Indeed, whether one takes the 4 separately,\nor the 3 by itself, or the two together making 7, or again the\nthree added together and yielding 9, all these numbers have their\napplication in the most sacred and occult things, and record the\nworkings of Nature in her eternally periodical phenomena. They\nare never erring, perpetually recurring numbers, unveiling, to\nhim who studies the secrets of Nature, a truly divine System,\nan *intelligent *plan in Cosmogony, which results in natural\ncosmic divisions of times, seasons, invisible influences, astronomical\nphenomena, with their action and reaction on terrestrial and even\nmoral nature; on\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* Wilson's \"Translation of Vishnu Purana,\" Vol. I.,\npp. *50, 51.** *\n\n####### [[Vol. 2, Page]] 74 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\nbirth, death, and growth, on health and disease. All these natural\nevents are based and depend upon cyclical processes in the Kosmos\nitself, producing periodic agencies which, acting from without,\naffect the Earth and all that lives and breathes on it, from one\nend to the other of any Manvantara. Causes and effects are esoteric,\nexoteric, and *endexoteric, *so to say.\n\nIn* Isis Unveiled *we wrote that which we now repeat: --\n\"*We are at the bottom of a cycle and evidently in a transitory\nstate. *Plato divides the intellectual progress of the universe\nduring every cycle into fertile and barren periods. In the sublunary\nregions, the spheres of the various elements remain eternally\nin perfect harmony with the divine nature, he says; 'but their\nparts,' owing to a too close proximity to earth, and their commingling\nwith the *earthly *(which is matter, and therefore the\nrealm of evil), 'are sometimes according, and sometimes contrary\nto (divine) nature.' When those circulations -- which Eliphas\nLevi calls ' currents of the astral light' -- in the universal\nether which contains in itself every element, take place in harmony\nwith the divine spirit, our earth and everything pertaining to\nit enjoys a fertile period. The occult powers of plants, animals,\nand minerals magically sympathize with the ' superior natures,'\nand the divine soul of man is in perfect intelligence with these\n'inferior' ones. But during the barren periods, the latter lose\ntheir magic sympathy, and the spiritual sight of the majority\nof mankind is so blinded as to lose every notion of the superior\npowers of its own divine spirit. We are in a barren period: the\neighteenth century, during which the malignant fever of scepticism\nbroke out so irrepressibly, has entailed unbelief as an hereditary\ndisease upon the nineteenth. The divine intellect is veiled in\nman; his animal brain alone* philosophizes.*\"*\n*And philosophizing alone, how can it understand the \"**S**OUL\n**D**OCTRINE\"?\n\nIn order not to break the thread of the narrative we shall give\nsome striking proofs of these cyclic laws in Part II., proceeding\nmeanwhile with our explanations of geological and racial cycles.\n\n-------\n\nNext Section\n\nContents",
    "project_translation": false,
    "license": null,
    "methodology_url": null
  }
}