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    "slug": "vol-2-anthropogenesis",
    "name": "Volume II — Anthropogenesis"
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    "num": 38,
    "slug": "88-xxv-the-mysteries-of-the-hebdomad-590",
    "title": "XXV. THE MYSTERIES OF THE HEBDOMAD ... 590",
    "of": 49,
    "words": 7129,
    "text": "## XXV. THE MYSTERIES OF THE HEBDOMAD ... 590\n\n\n590 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\n###### The Secret Doctrine by H. P. Blavatsky -- Vol. 2\n\n####### [[Vol. 2, Page]] 590 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\n#### § XXV.\n\n##### THE MYSTERIES OF THE HEBDOMAD.\n\n**W**E must not close this Part on the Symbolism\nof Archaic History, without an attempt to explain the perpetual\nrecurrence of this truly mystic number in every scripture known\nto the Orientalists. As every religion, from the oldest to the\nlatest, claims its presence, and explains it on its own grounds\nagreeably with its own special dogmas, this is no easy task. We\ncan, therefore, do no better or more explanatory work than to\ngive a bird's-eye view of all. These sacred numbers (3, 4, 7)\nare the sacred numbers of *Light, Life,* and* Union\n*-- especially in this present manvantara, our Life-cycle;\nof which number seven is the special representative, or the *Factor\n*number. This has now to be demonstrated.\n\nIf one happened to ask a Brahmin learned in the Upanishads --\nso full of the secret wisdom of old, why \"he, of whom seven\nforefathers have drunk the juice of the moon-plant, is *trisuparna,*\"*\n*as Bopaveda is credited with saying; and why the Somapa Pitris\nshould be worshipped by the Brahmin *trisuparna* -- very\nfew could answer the question; or, if they knew, they would still\nless satisfy one's curiosity. Let us, then, hold to what the old\nEsoteric doctrine teaches.\n\n\"*When the first *'*Seven*'* appeared on\nearth, they threw the seed of* *everything that grows on\nthe land into the soil. First came three, and* *four were\nadded to these as soon as stone was transformed into plant.*\n*Then came the second *'*Seven,*'* who, guiding\nthe *Jivas *of the plants,* *produced the middle\n*(*intermediate*)* natures between plant and moving*\n*living animal. The third *'*Seven*'* evolved*\n*their* Chhayas. . . . *The fifth* '*Seven*'*\nimprisoned their ***E**SSENCE. . . . *Thus\nman became a Saptaparna.*\"* *(*Commentary.*)\n\n-------\n\n#### A.\n\n##### SAPTAPARNA.\n\nSuch is the name given in Occult phraseology to man. It means\nas shown elsewhere, a seven-leaved plant, and the name has a great\nsignificance in the Buddhist legends. So it had, also, under disguise,\nin the Greek \"myths.\" The T, or\n(*tau*)*, *formed from the figure 7, and the Greek\nletter [[*G*]] (*gamma*)*, *was* *(*see\n*§* *\"*Cross and Circle*\")*\n*the symbol of life,\n\n------\n\n####### [[Vol. 2, Page]] 591 THE MEANING OF THE DOUBLE TRIANGLE.\n\nand of life eternal: of earthly life, because [[*G*]] (*gamma*)*\n*is the symbol of the Earth (*gaia*)*; and of \"life\neternal,\" because the figure 7 is the symbol of the same\nlife *linked with divine life, *the double glyph expressed\nin geometrical figures being: --\n\na triangle and a quaternary, the symbol of *septenary *MAN.\n\nNow, the number *six *has been regarded in the ancient\nmysteries as an emblem of *physical nature. *For six is\nthe representation of the *six* dimensions of all bodies:\nthe *six *lines which compose their form, namely, the four\nlines extending to the four cardinal points, North, South, East,\nand West, and the two lines of height and thickness that answer\nto the Zenith and the Nadir. Therefore, while the *senary *was\napplied by the sages to *physical *man, the *septenary\n*was for them the symbol of that man *plus *his immortal\nsoul.\n\nRagon gives in his *Maconnerie Occulte *a very good illustration\nof the \"hieroglyphical senary,\" as he calls our double\nequilateral triangle, .\nHe shows it as the symbol of the commingling of the \"*philosophical\nthree *fires and the *three *waters, whence results\nthe procreation of the elements of all things. The same idea is\nfound in the Indian equilateral double triangle. For, though it\nis called in that country the sign of Vishnu, yet in truth it\nis the symbol of the Triad (or the Trimurti). For, even in the\nexoteric rendering, the lower triangle\nwith the apex downward, is the symbol of Vishnu, the god of the\nmoist principle and water (\"*Nara*-yana,\" or\nthe moving Principle in *Nara, *water;**) while the triangle,\nwith its apex upward, is\nSiva, the Principle of Fire, symbolized by the triple flame in\nhis hand. (See the bronze statue of Tripurantika Siva, \"Mahadeva\ndestroying Tripurasura,\" at the museum of the India House).\nIt is these two interlaced triangles -- wrongly called \"Solomon's\nseal,\" which also form the emblem of our\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* Hence the Initiates in Greece called the *Tau* [[*I*]]*,\n*son of *gaia*, \"sprung from earth,\" like\n*Tityos *in Odyssey 7, 324.\n\n** See the *Mahabharata, e.g.,*** III**.,\n189, 3, where Vishnu says, \"I called the name of water *nara*\nin ancient times, and am hence called *Narayana*, for that\nwas always the abode I moved in\" (*Ayana*). It is\ninto the water (or chaos, the \"moist principle\" of the\nGreeks and Hermes), that the first seed of the Universe is thrown.\n\"The 'Spirit of God' moves on the dark waters of Space\";\nhence Thales makes of it the primordial element and prior to Fire,\nwhich was yet latent in that Spirit.\n\n####### [[Vol. 2, Page]] 592 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\nSociety -- that produce the Septenary and the Triad at one and\nthe same time, and are the *Decad, *whatever way this sign\nis examined, as all the\nten numbers are contained therein. For with a point in the middle\nor centre, thus it is a\nsevenfold sign; its triangles denote number 3; the *two*\ntriangles show the presence of the binary; the triangles with\nthe central point common to both yield the quaternary; the six\npoints are the senary; and the central point, the unit; the *quinary\n*being traced by combination, as a compound of *two*\ntriangles, the even number, and of *three *sides in each\ntriangle, the first odd number. This is the reason why Pythagoras\nand the ancients made the number *six *sacred to Venus,\nsince \"the union of the two sexes, and the spagyrisation\nof matter by triads are necessary to develop the generative force,\nthat prolific virtue and tendency to reproduction which is inherent\nin all bodies.\"*\n\nBelief in \"Creators,\" or the personified Powers of Nature,\nis in truth no polytheism, but a philosophical necessity. Like\nall the other planets of our system, the Earth has seven Logoi\n-- the emanating rays of the one \"Father-Ray\" -- the\nPROTOGONOS, or the manifested \"Logos\" -- he who sacrifices\nhis Esse (or flesh, the Universe) that the world may live and\nevery creature therein have conscious being.\n\nNumbers 3 and 4 are respectively male and female, Spirit and Matter,\nand their union is the emblem of life eternal in spirit on its\nascending arc, and in matter as the ever resurrecting element\n-- by procreation and reproduction. The spiritual male line is\nvertical ; the differentiated\nmatter-line is horizontal; the two forming the cross or .\nThe former (the 3), is invisible; the latter (the 4), is on the\nplane of objective perception. This is why all the matter of the\nUniverse, when analyzed by science to its ultimates, can be reduced\nto four elements only -- carbon, oxygen, nitrogen, and hydrogen:\nand why the three primaries, the noumenoi of the four, or graduated\nSpirit or Force, have remained a *terra incognita *and\nmere speculations, names, to exact Science. Her servants must\nbelieve in and study first the primary causes, before they can\nhope to fathom the nature and acquaint themselves with the potentialities\nof the effects. Thus, while the men of Western learning had, and\nstill have, the four, or matter to toy with, the Eastern Occultists\nand their disciples, the great alchemists the world over, have\nthe whole septenate to study from.** As those Alche-\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* The \"Potency of the Pythagorean Triangles\" (Ragon).\n\n** There are learned Brahmins who have protested against our septenary\ndivision. They are right from their own standpoint, as we are\nright from ours. Leaving the [[footnote continued on next page]]\n\n####### [[Vol. 2, Page]] 593 SPIRITUAL AND PHYSICAL CORRESPONDENCES.\n\nmists have it: -- \"When the Three and the Four kiss each\nother, the Quaternary joins its middle nature with that of the\nTriangle,\" (or Triad, *i.e.*, the face of one of its\nplane surfaces becoming the middle face of the other), \"and\nbecomes a cube; then only does it (the cube unfolded) become the\nvehicle and the number of **L**IFE, the Father-Mother\n**S**EVEN.\"\n\nThe following diagram will perhaps assist the student to grasp\nthese parallelisms.\n\nNow we are taught that all these earliest forms of organic life\nalso appear in septenary groups of numbers. From minerals or \"soft\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n[[Continued from previous page]] three *aspects, *or*\nadjunct principles *out of calculation, they accept only four\n*Upadhis* (bases) including the Ego -- the reflected image\nof the Logos in the \"Karana Sarira\" -- and even \"strictly\nspeaking . . . . only three Upadhis.\" For purely theoretical\nmetaphysical philosophy, or purposes of meditation, these three\nmay be sufficient, as shown by the Taraka Yoga system; but for\n*practical occult teaching *our septenary division is the\nbest and easiest. It is, however, a matter of school and choice.\n\n####### [[Vol. 2, Page]] 594 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\nstones that hardened\" (Stanza) followed by the \"hard\nplants that softened,\" which are the product of the mineral,\nfor \"it is from the bosom of the stone that vegetation is\nborn\" (*Commentary, Book IX., F. *19); and then to\nman -- all the primitive models in every kingdom of nature begin\nby being ethereal, transparent, films. This, of course, takes\nplace only in the first beginning of life. With the next period\nthey consolidate, and at the *seventh *begin to branch\noff into species, *all except men, *the first of the mammalian\nanimals* in the Fourth Round.\n\nVirgil, versed as every ancient poet was, more or less, in esoteric\nphilosophy, sang evolution in the following strains: --\n\nPrincipio coelum ac terras, camposque liquentes\n\nLucentemque globum lunae, Titaniaque astra*\n\n**S**PIRITUS intus alit; totamque infusa per artus\n\n**M**ENS agitat molem, et magno se corpore miscet\n\nInde Hominum pecudumque genus, etc.** (AEneid **VI**.\n)\n\n\"First came three, or the triangle.\" This expression\nhas a profound meaning in Occultism, and the fact is corroborated\nin mineralogy, botany, and even in geology, as was demonstrated\nin the section on \"Ancient Chronology,\" by the compound\nnumber seven, the three and the four being in it. Salt in solution\nproves it. For when its molecules, clustering together, begin\nto deposit themselves as a solid, the first shape they assume\nis that of triangles, of small pyramids and cones. It is the figure\nof *fire*, whence the word \"*pyramids*\"*;\n*while the second geometrical figure in *manifested *Nature\nis a square or a cube, 4 and 6; for, \"the particles of earth\nbeing cubical, those of fire are pyramidal\" truly -- (Enfield).\nThe pyramidal shape is that assumed by the pines -- the most primitive\ntree after the fern period. Thus the two opposites in cosmic nature\n-- fire and water, heat and cold -- begin their metrographical\nmanifestations, one by a trimetric, the other by a hexagonal system.\nFor the stellate crystals of snow, viewed under a microscope,\nare all and each of them a double or a treble six-pointed star,\nwith a central nucleus, like a miniature star within the larger\none. Says Mr.\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n** Protista *are not animals. The reader is asked to bear\nin mind that when we speak of \"animals,\" the mammalians\nalone are meant. Crustacea, fishes, and reptiles are contemporary\nwith, and most have preceded *physical *man in this Round.\nAll were bisexual, however, before the age of mammalia in the\nclosing portion of the secondary or Mesozoic ages, *yet nearer\nto the Palaeozoic than the Cenozoic ages. *Smaller marsupial\nmammalia are contemporary with the huge reptilian monsters of\nthe Secondary.\n\n** \"First Divine Spirit within sustains the Heavens, the\nearth and watery plains, the moon's orb and shining stars and\nthe *Eternal Mind *diffused through all the parts of nature,\nactuates the whole stupendous frame and mingles with the vast\nbody of the universe. *Thence proceed the race of men and beasts,\nthe vital principles *of the flying kind and the monsters\nwhich the Ocean breeds under its smooth crystal plane.\" \"All\nproceeds from Ether and from its seven natures\" -- said the\nalchemists. Science knows these only in their superficial effects.\n\n####### [[Vol. 2, Page]] 595 NOAH, AN ASPECT OF THE CREATOR.\n\nDarwin, in his \"Descent of Man,\" p. 164. showing that\nthe inhabitants of the sea-shore are greatly affected by the tides:\n--\n\n\"The most ancient progenitors in the Kingdom of the Vertebrata\n. . . apparently consisted of a group of marine animals. . . .\nAnimals living either about the *mean *high-water mark,\nor about the *mean* low-water mark, pass through a complete\ncycle of tidal changes in a fortnight. . . . Now it is a mysterious\nfact that in the higher and now terrestrial Vertebrata . . . many\nnormal and abnormal processes have one or more weeks (septenates)\nas their periods . . . such as gestation of mammals, the duration\nof fevers,\" etc. . . \"The eggs of the pigeon are hatched\nin two weeks (or 14 days); those of the fowl in three; those of\nthe duck in four: those of the goose in five; and those of the\nostrich in seven.\" (Bartlett's \"Land and Water.\")\n\nThis number is closely connected with the moon, whose occult influence\nis ever manifesting itself in septenary periods. It is the moon\nwhich is the guide of the occult side of terrestrial nature, while\nthe Sun is the regulator and factor of manifested life; (See also\nVol. I., Part** II**.), and this truth was ever evident\nto the Seers and the adepts. Jacob Boehme, by insisting on the\nfundamental doctrine of the seven properties of everlasting mother\nNature, proved himself thereby a great Occultist.\n\nBut to return to the consideration of the septenary in ancient\nreligious symbolism. To the metrological key to the symbolism\nof the Hebrews, which reveals numerically the geometrical relations\nof the Circle (All-Deity) to the Square, Cube, Triangle, and all\nthe integral emanations of the divine area, may be added the theogonic\nKey. This Key explains that Noah, the deluge-Patriarch, is in\none aspect the permutation of the Deity (the Universal Creative\nLaw), for the purpose of the formation of our Earth, its population,\nand the propagation of life on it, in general.\n\nNow bearing in mind the Septenary division in divine Hierarchies,\nas in Cosmic and human constitutions, the student will readily\nunderstand that Jah-Noah is at the head of, and is the synthesis\nof the lower Cosmic Quaternary. The upper Sephirothal ,\ntriad -- of which Jehovah-Binah (Intelligence) is the left, female\nangle -- emanates the\nQuaternary. The latter symbolizing by itself the \"Heavenly\nMan,\" the sexless Adam-Kadmon viewed as Nature in the abstract,\nbecomes a septenate again by emanating from itself the additional\nthree principles, the lower terrestrial or manifested physical\nNature, Matter and our Earth (the seventh being Malkuth, the \"Bride\nof the Heavenly Man\"), thus forming, with the higher triad,\nor Kether, the Crown, the full number of the Sephirothal Tree\n-- the 10, the Total in Unity, or the Universe. Apart from the\nhigher Triad, the lower creative Sephiroth are seven.\n\nThe above is not directly to our point, though it is a necessary\n\n####### [[Vol. 2, Page]] 596 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\nreminder to facilitate the comprehension of what follows. The\nquestion at issue is to show that Jah-Noah, or the Jehovah of\nthe Hebrew Bible, the alleged Creator of our Earth, of man and\nall upon it, is: --\n\n(*a*) The lowest Septenary, the Creative Elohim -- in his\nCosmic aspect.\n\n(*b*) The Tetragrammaton or the Adam-Kadmon, \"the Heavenly\nMan\" of the Four letters -- in his theogonic and Kabalistic\naspects.\n\n(*c*) Noah -- identical with the Hindu *Sishta, *the\nhuman seed, left for the peopling of the Earth from a previous\ncreation or Manvantara, as expressed in the Puranas, or the pre-diluvian\nperiod as rendered allegorically in the Bible -- in his Cosmic\ncharacter.\n\nBut whether a Quaternary (Tetragrammaton) or a Triad, the Bible\nCreative God is not the Universal 10, unless blended with **A**IN-**S**OPH\n(as Brahma with Parabrahm), but a septenary, one of the many Septenaries\nof the Universal Septenate. In the explanation of the question\nnow in hand, his position and status as Noah may best be shown\nby placing the 3, ,and 4,\non parallel lines with\nthe \"Cosmic\" and \"Human\" principles. For the\nlatter, the old familiar classification is made use of. Thus:\n--\n\nAs an additional demonstration of the statement, let the reader\nturn to scientific works. \"*Ararat = the mount of descent\n=* *, Hor-Jared.\n*Hatho mentions it out of composition by *Areth =*\n. Editor\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n**N**OTE. -- For footnotes, see next page.\n\n####### [[Vol. 2, Page]] 597 NOAH IN A NEW DRESS.\n\nof Moses Cherenensis says: 'By this, they say, is signified *the\nfirst* *place of descent *(of the ark).' (*Bryant*'*s\nAnal., *Vol. **IV**., pages 5, 6, 15.) Under\n\"*Berge*\"* mountain, *Nork says of Ararat:\n, for\n(*i.e., Ararat *for* Arath*)* ***E**ARTH,\nAramaic reduplication.' Here it is seen that Nork and Hatho make\nuse of the same equivalent in Arath, with the meaning of *Earth.*\"*****\n\nNoah thus symbolizing both the *Root*-Manu and the *Seed*-Manu,\nor the Power which developed the planetary chain, and our earth,\nand the *Seed *Race (the Fifth) which was saved while the\nlast sub-races of the Fourth perished -- Vaivasvata Manu -- the\nnumber *Seven* will be seen to recur at every step. It\nis he (Noah), who represents, as Jehovah's permutation, the septenary\nHost of the Elohim, and is thus the Father or Creator (the Preserver)\nof all animal life. Hence verses 2 and 3 of\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* The Adwaitee Vedantic philosophy classifies this as the highest\ntrinity, or rather the Trinitarian aspect of Chinmatra (Parabrahmam),\nexplained by them as the \"bare potentiality of Pragna\"\n-- the power or the capacity that gives rise to perception; Chidakasam,\nthe infinite field or plane of Universal Consciousness; and Asath\n(Mulaprakriti), or undifferentiated matter. (See \"*Personal\nand Impersonal God*\" in \"*Five Years of Theosophy.*\")\n\n** Differentiated matter existing in the Solar System (let us\nnot touch the whole Kosmos) in seven different conditions, and\nPragna, or the capacity of perception, existing likewise in seven\ndifferent aspects corresponding to the seven conditions of matter,\nthere must necessarily be seven states of consciousness in man;\nand according to the greater or smaller development of these states,\nthe systems of religions and philosophies were schemed out.\n\n*** Represented as the jealous, angry, turbulent and ever active-god,\nrevengeful, and kind only to his chosen people when propitiated\nby them.\n\n**** Noah and his three Sons are the collective symbol of this\nQuaternary in many and various applications, Ham being the Chaotic\nprinciple.\n\n****** *\"*Source of Measures,*\"* *p.\n65. The author explains, \"Note that in Hebrew, *Jared*,\nthe father of Enoch, is construed to be '*the mount of descent,*'*\n*and it is said to be the same with *Ararat *on which\nthe cubical structure of *Noah, *or* foundation measure\n*rested. *Jared, *in Hebrew, is .\nThe root derivations are the same with those of *Ararat, *of\n*acre, *of earth.\" As by Hebrew metrology \"Jared,\nis, *literally in British\n*Y R D; hence in *Jared *is to be found *literally\n*our English word *yard* (and also ,\nfor *Jah, *or *Jehovah, is rod*)*. *It is\nnoteworthy that the son of *Jared, *viz*., Enoch, *lived\n365 years, and it is said of him by rabbinical commentators, that\nthe year period of 365 days was discovered by him, thus bringing,\nagain, *time and distance *values together, *i.e., year*\n*time* descended by co-ordination, through the *yard,*\nor* jared, *who* thus was its father,* in or through\n*Enoch*; and truly enough, 1296 = *yard *(or *jared*)*\n*x 4 = 5184, the characteristic value of the solar day, in\n*thirds, *which as stated may be styled the *parent*\n*numerically, *of the solar year\" (*ibid. *p.\n65). This, however, by the astronomical and numerical Kabalistic\nmethods. Esoterically, Jared is the Third race and Enoch the Fourth\n-- but as he is taken away alive he symbolizes also the Elect\nsaved in the Fourth, while Noah is the Fifth from the beginning\n-- the family saved from the waters, eternally and *physically.*\n\n####### [[Vol. 2, Page]] 598 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\nchapter vii. of *Genesis, *\"Of every clean beast thou\nshalt take to thee by sevens, the male (3), and the female (4);\nof fowls also of the air by *sevens,*\"* *etc.,\netc., followed by all the *sevening *of days and the rest.\n\n-------\n\n#### B.\n\n##### THE TETRAKTIS IN RELATION\nTO THE HEPTAGON.\n\nThus Number Seven, as a compound of 3 and 4, *is *the factor\nelement in every ancient religion, because *it is the factor\nelement in nature. *Its adoption must be justified, and it\nmust be shown to *be* the number *par* *excellence,\n*for, since the appearance of \"Esoteric Buddhism,\"\nfrequent objections have been made, and doubts expressed as to\nthe correctness of these assertions.\n\nAnd here let the student be told at once, that in all such numerical\ndivisions the **O**NE universal Principle, -- although\nreferred to as (the) one, because the *Only One -- *never\nenters into the calculations.** I**T stands, in its\ncharacter of the Absolute, the Infinite, and the universal abstraction,\nentirely by **I**TSELF and independent of every other\nPower whether noumenal or phenomenal. **I**T \"is\nneither matter nor spirit; **I**T is neither Ego\nnor non-Ego; and **I**T is neither object nor subject,\"\nsays the author of \"*Personal and Impersonal God,*\"*\n*and adds: --\n\n\"In the language of Hindu philosophers it is the original\nand eternal combination of Purusha (Spirit) and Prakriti (matter).\nAs the Adwaitees hold that an external object is merely the product\nof our mental states, Prakriti is nothing more than an illusion,\nand Purusha is the only reality; it is the **O**NE\nexistence which remains in the universe of Ideas. This . . . then,\nis the Parabrahm of the Adwaitees. . . . .\"\n\n\"Even if there were to be a personal God with anything like\na material *upadhi* (physical basis of whatever form),\nfrom the standpoint of an Adwaitee there will be as much reason\nto doubt his noumenal existence, as there would be in the case\nof any other object. In their opinion, a conscious God cannot\nbe the origin of the Universe, as his Ego would be the effect\nof a previous cause, if the word conscious conveys but its ordinary\nmeaning. They cannot admit that *the grand total of all the\nstates of consciousness in the Universe *is their deity, as\nthese states are constantly changing, and as cosmic ideation ceases\nduring *Pralaya*. There is only one permanent condition\nin the Universe, which is the state of perfect unconsciousness,\nbare *Chidakasam *(the field of consciousness) in fact.\nWhen my readers once realize the fact that this grand universe\nis in reality but a huge aggregation of various states of consciousness,\nthey will not be surprised to find that the ultimate state of\nunconsciousness is considered as Parabrahmam by the Adwaitees.\"*\n\nBeing itself entirely out of human reckoning or calculation, yet\nthis \"huge aggregation of various states of consciousness\"\nis a Septenate,\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n*\" Five Years of Theosophy,\" Art. \"Personal and\nImpersonal God.\"\n\n####### [[Vol. 2, Page]] 599 THE ROOTS OF THINGS.\n\nin *its* totality entirely composed of Septenary groups;\nsimply because \"the capacity of perception *exists in\nseven different aspects corresponding* *to the seven conditions\nof matter*\"* *(*ibid*)*, *or the\nseven properties, or states, or conditions of matter. And, therefore,\nnumber 1 down to number 7 begins in the esoteric calculations\nwith the first manifested principle, which is number one if we\ncommence from above, and the *seventh *when reckoning from\nbelow, or from the lowest Principle.\n\nThe *Tetrad *is esteemed in the Kabala, as it was by Pythagoras,\nthe most perfect, or rather *sacred* number, because it\nemanated from the *one,* the first manifested Unit, or\nrather *the three in one. *Yet the latter has been ever\nimpersonal, sexless, incomprehensible, though within the possibility\nof the higher mental perceptions.\n\nThe first manifestation of the eternal monad was never meant to\nstand as the symbol of another symbol, the **U**NBORN\nfor the Element-born, or the one **L**OGOS for the\nHeavenly man. Tetragrammaton, or the Tetractys of the Greeks,\nis the *Second logos, *the Demiurgos. The Tetrad, as Thomas\nTaylor thought (*vide* the* *\"*Pythagorean\nTriangle*\")*, *\"is the *animal itself\n*of Plato, who, as Syrianus justly observes, was the best\nof the Pythagoreans; it subsists at the extremity of the intelligible\ntriad, as is most satisfactorily shown by Proclus in the third\nbook of his treatise on the theology of Plato. And between these\ntwo triads (the double triangle), the one intelligible, and the\nother intellectual, another order of gods exists which partakes\nof both extremes.\" \"The Pythagorean world,\" Plutarch\ntells us (in *De anim. procr.,* 1027)* *\"*consisted\nof a double* *quaternary.*\"* *This statement\ncorroborates what is said about the choice, by the exoteric theologies,\n*of the lower *Tetraktis. For: -- \"The quaternary\nof the intellectual world (the world of *Mahat*)* *is\nT'Agathon, Nous, Psyche, Hyle; while that of the sensible world\n(of matter), which is properly what Pythagoras meant by the word\nKosmos -- is Fire, Air, Water, and Earth. The four elements are\ncalled by the name of *rizomata, *the roots or principles\n*of all mixed bodies,*\"* i.e., *the lower Tetraktis\nis the root of *illusion *of the world of matter; and this\nis the tetragrammaton of the Jews, and the \"mysterious deity,\"\nover which the modern Kabalists make such a fuss!\n\n\"Thus number *four* forms the arithmetical mean between\nthe monad and the *heptad, *as this contains all powers,\nboth of the productive and produced numbers; for this of all numbers\nunder ten, is made of a certain number; the duad doubled makes\na tetrad, and the tetrad doubled or unfolded makes the *hebdomad\n*(the septenary). Two multiplied into itself produces four;\nand retorted into itself makes the first cube. This first cube\n*is a fertile number, *the ground of multitude and variety,\nconstituted of two and four (depending on the monad, the *seventh*)*.\n*Thus the two principles of temporal things, the *pyramis\n*and\n\n####### [[Vol. 2, Page]] 600 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\ncube, form and matter, flow from one fountain, the tetragon (on\nearth) the* monad *(in heaven) . . . . \" (See Reuchlin,\n\"*Cabala*\"* *1*, *ii.).\n\nHere Reuchlin, the great authority on the Kabala, shows the cube\nto be *matter, *whereas the pyramid or the *triad *is\n\"form.\" With the Hermesians the number four becomes\nthe symbol of truth *only when amplified into a cube, *which,\nunfolded, makes seven, as symbolizing the male and female elements\nand the element of **L**IFE.*\n\nSome students have been puzzled to account for the vertical line,\nwhich is male, becoming (*vide infra*)* *in the\ncross a four-partitioned line *-- four *being a female\nnumber, while the horizontal (the line of matter) becomes three-divisioned.\nBut this is easy of explanation. Since the middle face of the\ncube unfolded *is common *to both the vertical and the\nhorizontal bar, or double-line, it becomes *neutral* ground\nso to say, and belongs to neither. The spirit line remains triadic,\nand the matter line two-fold -- two being an even and therefore\na female number also. Moreover, according to Theon, the Pythagoreans\nwho gave the name of Harmony to the Tetraktis, \"because it\nis a diatessaron in sesquitertia\" -- were of opinion that\n\"the division of the canon of the monochord was made by the\ntetraktis in the *duad, triad, *and* tetrad;* for\nit comprehends a sesquitertia, a sesquialtera, a double, a triple,\nand a quadruple proportion, the section of which is 27.\"\n\"In the ancient musical notation, the tetrachord consisted\nof *three *degrees or intervals, and *four *terms\nof sounds called by the Greeks diatessaron, and by us a fourth.\"\nMoreover, the quaternary though an even, therefore a female (\"infernal\")\nnumber, varied according to its form. This is shown by Stanley\n(in *Pythag. *p. 61). The 4 was called by the\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* In the \"*Hebrew Egyptian Mystery, the Source of Measures,*\"*\n*the Author shows (on p. 50) that the figure of the cube unfolded\nin connection with the circle . . . . \"becomes . . a cross\nproper, or of the *tau* form, and the attachment of the\ncircle to this last gives the *ansated cross *of the Egyptians\n. . . . while there are but 6 faces to a cube, the representation\nof the cross as the cube unfolded, as to the cross-bars, displays\n*one face of the cube as common to* *two bars, *counted\nas belonging to either . . *. *(*i.e.*, once counted\nhorizontally, and once vertically)\n\n. . . 4 for the upright and 3 for the cross bar making *seven*\nin all,\" -- 4 for the upright, and 3 for the -- adding --\n\"Here we have the famous 4, and 3, and 7.\" Esoteric\nphilosophy explains that *four* is the symbol of the Universe\nin its potential state, or *chaotic matter,* and that it\nrequires Spirit to permeate it actively, *i.e.*, the primordial\n*abstract *triangle has to quit its one dimensional quality\nand spread across that matter, thus forming a *manifested*\nbasis on the three dimensional space, in order that the Universe\nshould manifest intelligibly. This is achieved by the cube unfolded.\nHence the *ansated *cross\nas the symbol of man, generation and life. In Egypt *ank*\nsignified soul, life and blood. It is the *ensouled,* *living*\nman, the Septenary.\n\n####### [[Vol. 2, Page]] 601 THE MUSIC OF THE SPHERES.\n\nPythagoreans the Key-Keeper of Nature; but in union with the 3,\nwhich made it seven, it became the most perfect and harmonious\nnumber -- *nature* *herself. *The four was \"the\nMasculine of Feminine Form,\" when forming the Cross; and\nSeven is \"the Master of the Moon,\" for this planet is\nforced to alter her appearance every seven days. It is on number\nseven that Pythagoras composed his doctrine on the Harmony and\nMusic of the Spheres, calling \"a tone\" the distance\nof the Moon from the Earth; from the Moon to Mercury half a tone,\nfrom thence to Venus the same; from Venus to the Sun l 1/2 tones;\nfrom the Sun to Mars a tone; from thence to Jupiter 1/2 a tone;\nfrom Jupiter to Saturn 1/2 a tone; and thence to the Zodiac a\ntone; thus making seven tones -- the diapason harmony. All the\nmelody of nature is in those seven tones, and therefore is called\n\"the Voice of Nature.\"\n\nPlutarch explains (*de Plac. Phil., *p. 878) that the Achaean\nGreeks regarded the tetrad as the root and principle of all things,\nsince it was the number of the elements which gave birth to all\nvisible and invisible *created* things. With the brothers\nof the Rosy Cross, the figure of the Cross, or *Cube unfolded,\n*formed the subject of a disquisition in one of the theosophic\ndegrees of Peuret, and was treated according to the fundamental\nprinciples of light and darkness, *or good and evil.*\n\n\"The intelligible world proceeds out of the divine mind (or\nunit) after this manner. The Tetraktis reflecting upon its own\nessence, *the first unit, productrix* *of all things,\n*and on its own beginning, saith thus: Once one, twice two,\nimmediately ariseth a tetrad, having on its top the highest unit,\n*and becomes a Pyramis,* *whose base *is a plain\ntetrad, answerable to a superficies, upon which the radiant light\nof the divine unity produceth the form of incorporeal fire, by\nreason of the descent of Juno (matter) to inferior things. Hence\nariseth essential light, not burning but illuminating. This *is\nthe creation of the middle world, *which the Hebrews *call\nthe Supreme, *the world of the (*their*)* *deity.\nIt is termed Olympus, entirely light, and replete with separate\nforms, where is the seat of the immortal gods, '*deum domus\nalta,*'* *whose top is UNITY, its wall *trinity,*\nand its superficies *quaternity.*\"* *(Reuchlin,*\nCabala, *p. 689).\n\nThe \"superficies\" has thus to remain a *meaningless\nsurface, *if left by itself. **U**NITY only \"illuminating\"\n*quaternity; *the famous lower four has to build for itself\nalso a wall from *trinity, *if it would be manifested.\nMoreover, the *tetragrammaton, *or Microprosopus, is \"Jehovah\"\narrogating to himself very improperly the \"Was, Is, Will\nbe,\" now translated into the \"*I am that I am,*\"*\n*and interpreted as referring to the highest abstract Deity,\nwhile esoterically and in plain truth, it means only periodically\nchaotic, turbulent, and eternal MATTER with all its potentialities.\nFor the Tetragrammaton is one with Nature or Isis, and is the\nexoteric series of androgyne gods such as Osiris-Isis, Jove-Juno,\nBrahma-Vach, or the Kabalistic *Jah-hovah; *all male-females.\nEvery *anthropomorphic *god, in old nations, as Marcelinus\nVicinus well observed,\n\n####### [[Vol. 2, Page]] 602 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\nhas his name written with four letters. Thus with the Egyptians,\nhe was *Teut; *the Arabs, *Alla*; the Persians,\n*Sire*; the Magi, *Orsi; *the Mohammedans, *Abdi*;\nthe Greeks, *Theos; *the ancient Turks, *Esar; *the\nLatins, *Deus; *to which J. Lorenzo Anania adds the German\n*Gott; *the Sarmatian, *Bouh*, etc., etc.\n\nThe Monad being one, and an *odd* number, the ancients\ntherefore called the odd, the only perfect numbers; and -- selfishly,\nperhaps, yet as a fact -- considered them all as masculine and\nperfect, being applicable to the celestial gods, while even numbers,\nsuch as two, *four, *six, and especially eight, as being\nfemale, were regarded as imperfect, and given only to the *terrestrial*\n*and infernal deities. *In his eighth eclogue, Virgil records\nthe fact by saying, \"*Numero deus impare gaudet,*\"*\n*\"Unequal numbers please the gods.\"\n\nBut number *seven, *or the *heptagon, *the Pythagoreans\nconsidered to be a *religious and perfect *number. It was\ncalled \"*Telesphoros,*\" because *by it all\nin the Universe and mankind is led to its end, i.e., *its\nculmination (*Philo. de Mund. opif.*)*. *Being under\nthe rule of seven sacred planets,* the doctrine of the Spheres\nshows, from Lemuria to Pythagoras, the seven powers of terrestrial\nand sublunary nature, as well as the seven great Forces of the\nUniverse, proceeding and evolving in seven tones, which are the\nseven notes of the musical scale. The *heptad* (our Septenary)\nwas regarded \"*as the number of a virgin, because it is*\n*unborn*\"* *(like the Logos or the \"Aja\"\nof the Vedantins); \"without a father or a mother, *but\nproceeding directly from the Monad, *which is the origin and\ncrown of all things.\" (*Pythag. Triangle, *p. 174.)\nAnd if the *heptad *is made to proceed from the Monad directly,\nthen it is, as taught in the Secret Doctrine of the oldest schools,\nthe perfect and sacred number of this Maha-Manvantara of ours.\n\nThe septenary, or *heptad, *was sacred indeed to several\ngods and goddesses; to Mars, with his seven attendants, to Osiris,\nwhose body was divided into seven and twice seven parts; to Apollo\n(the Sun), between his seven planets, and playing the hymn to\nthe seven-rayed on his seven-stringed harp; to Minerva, the fatherless\nand the motherless, and others.\n\nCis-Himalayan Occultism with its *sevening, *and because\nof such sevening, must be regarded as the most ancient, the original\nof all. It is opposed by *some *fragments left by Neo-Platonists;\nand the admirers of the latter, who hardly understand what they\ndefend, say to us: \"See, your forerunners believed only in\n*triple *man, composed of\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* The seven planets are not limited to this number because the\nancients knew of no others, but simply because they were the primitive\nor primordial *houses *of the seven *Logoi. *There\nmay be nine and ninety-nine other planets discovered -- this does\nnot alter the fact of these seven alone being sacred.\n\n####### [[Vol. 2, Page]] 603 THE SEPTENARY DEMONSTRATED.\n\nSpirit, Soul, and body. Behold, the Taraka Raja Yoga of India\nlimits that division to 3, we, to 4, and the Vedantins to 5 (koshas).\"\nTo this, we of the Archaic school, ask: --\n\nWhy then does the Greek poet say that \"*it is not four\n*but SEVEN who sing the praise of the Spiritual Sun,\"\n[[*HEPTA ME*]]? He says--\n\n\"Seven sounding letters sing the praise of me,\n\nThe immortal God, the Almighty deity.\"\n\n. . .\n\nWhy again is the *triune ***I**AO (the Mystery\nGod) called the \"fourfold,\" and yet the triad and tetradic\nsymbols come under one unified name with the Christians -- the\nJehovah of the seven letters? Why again in the Hebrew Sheba is\nthe Oath (the Pythagorean *Tetraktis*)* *identical\nwith number 7; or, as Mr. G. Massey has it, \"taking an oath\nwas synonymous with 'to seven,' and the 10 expressed by the letter\n*Yod, *was the full number of **I**AO-**S**ABAOTH,\nthe ten-lettered God\"? In Lucian's *Auction,* Pythagoras\nasks, \"How do you reckon?\" The reply is, \"One,\nTwo, Three, Four.\" \"Then, do you see,\" says Pythagoras,\n\"in *what you* *conceive ***F**OUR\nthere are Ten; then, *a perfect triangle and our Oath*\n(tetraktis, *four!*)*,*\"* *or Seven.\nWhy does Proclus say in *Timaeus,* c*. iii.* -*-*\n\"The Father of the golden verses celebrates the Tetractys\nas the fountain of perennial nature\"?\n\nSimply because those Western Kabalists who quote the *exoteric\n*proofs against us have no idea of the real *esoteric *meaning.\nBecause all the ancient Cosmologies -- the oldest Cosmographies\nof the two most ancient people of the Fifth Root Race, the Hindu\nAryans and the Egyptians, adding to them the early Chinese races\n(the remnants of the Fourth or Atlantean Race) -- based the whole\nof their mysteries on number 10: the higher triangle standing\nfor the invisible and metaphysical world, the lower three and\nfour, or the *Septenate, *for the physical realm. It is\nnot the Jewish Bible that brought number seven into prominence.\nHesiod used the words \"The seventh is the sacred day,\"\nbefore the Sabbath of \"Moses\" was ever heard of. The\nuse of number seven was never confined to any one nation. This\nis well testified by the seven vases in the temple of the Sun,\nnear the ruins of Babion in Upper Egypt; the seven fires burning\ncontinually for ages before the altars of Mithra; the seven holy\nfanes of the Arabians; the seven peninsulas, the seven islands,\nseven seas, mountains, and rivers of India; and of the *Zohar\n*(See* Ibn Gebirol*)*; *the Jewish Sephiroth\nof the *Seven *splendours; the seven Gothic deities, the\nseven worlds of the Chaldeans and their seven Spirits; the seven\nconstellations mentioned by Hesiod and Homer; and all the interminable\nsevens which the Orientalists find in every **MS**.\nthey discover.\n\nWhat we have to say finally is this: Enough has been brought forward\nto show why the human principles were and are divided in the\n\n####### [[Vol. 2, Page]] 604 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\nesoteric schools into seven. Make it *four *and it will\neither leave man *minus *his lower terrestrial elements,\nor, if viewed from a physical stand-point, make of him a soulless\nanimal. The Quaternary must be the higher or the lower -- the\ncelestial or terrestrial Tetraktis: to become comprehensible,\naccording to the teachings of the esoteric *ancient* school\nman must be regarded as a Septenary. This was so well understood,\nthat even the so-called Christian Gnostics had adopted this time-honoured\nsystem (*Vide *§ on \"*The Seven Souls*\")*.\n*This remained for a long time secret as, though suspected,\nno **MSS**. of that time spoke of it clearly enough\nto satisfy the sceptic. But there comes to our rescue the literary\ncuriosity of our age -- the oldest and best preserved gospel of\nthe Gnostics, *Pistis Sophia *[[*Pictic Cophia*]].\nTo make the proof absolutely complete, we shall quote from an\nauthority (C. W. King) -- the only archaeologist who had a faint\nglimmer of this elaborate doctrine, and the best writer of the\nday on the Gnostics and their gems.\n\nAccording to this extraordinary piece of religious literature\n-- a true Gnostic fossil -- the human Entity is the Septenary\nray from the One,* just as our school teaches. It is composed\nof seven elements, four of which are borrowed from the four Kabalistical\nmanifested worlds. Thus \"from Asia it gets the *Nephesh\n*or seat of the physical appetites (vital breath, also); from\nJezirah, the Ruach, or seat of the passions (? !); from Briah,\nthe *Neshamah, *and from Aziluth it obtains the *Chaiah,*\nor principle of spiritual life;\" (King). \"This looks\nlike an adaptation of the Platonic theory of the Soul's obtaining\nits respective faculties from the Planets in its downward progress\nthrough their Spheres. But the *Pistis-Sophia, *with its\naccustomed boldness, puts this theory into a much more poetical\nshape (§ 282).\" The *Inner Man *is similarly\nmade up of *four *constituents, *but these are supplied\nby the rebellious AEons of* *the Spheres, *being the\n*Power -- *a particle of the Divine light (\"*Divinae*\n*particula aurae*\")* *yet left in themselves;\nthe *Soul *(the fifth) \"formed out of the tears of\ntheir eyes, and the sweat of their torments; the [[*Antimimon\nPrieumatos*]]*, Counterfeit of the Spirit *(seemingly\nanswering to our Conscience), (*the sixth*)*; *and\nlastly the [[*Moira*]], *Fate** *(Karmic Ego), whose\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* The Seven Centres of Energy evolved, or rendered objective by\nthe action of Fohat upon the one element; or, in fact, the \"*Seventh*\nPrinciple\" of the Seven Elements which exist throughout manifested\nKosmos. We may here point out that they are in truth the Sephiroth\nof the Kabalists; the \"Seven gifts of the Holy Ghost\"\nin the Christian system; and in a mystical sense, the seven children\nor sons of Devaki killed before the birth of Krishna by Kamsa.\nOur seven principles symbolize all of these. We have to part or\nseparate from them before we reach the *Krishna or Christ-state,\n*that of a *Jivanmukta*, and centre ourselves entirely\nin the highest, the Seventh or the **O**NE.\n\n** [[*Moira*]] is destiny, not \"Fate,\" in this\ncase, as it is an appellation, not a proper noun. (See Wolf's\ntransl. in Odyssey 22, 413). But Moira, the Goddess of Fate, is\na deity [[Continued on next page]]\n\n####### [[Vol. 2, Page]] 605 THE VEDIC TEACHINGS.\n\nwhose business it is to lead the man to the end appointed for\nhim; if he hath to die by the fire, to lead him into the fire,\nif he hath to die by a wild beast, to lead him unto the wild beast,\netc.\"* -- the SEVENTH!\n\n[[Page continued in next section]]\n\n-------\n\nNext Section\n\nContents",
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