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    "slug": "vol-2-anthropogenesis",
    "name": "Volume II — Anthropogenesis"
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  "chapter": {
    "num": 39,
    "slug": "89-the-septenary-element-in-the-vedas",
    "title": "The Septenary Element in the Vedas",
    "of": 49,
    "words": 13069,
    "text": "## The Septenary Element in the Vedas\n\n\n###### The Secret Doctrine by H. P. Blavatsky -- Vol. 2\n\n####### [[Vol. 2, Page]] 605 THE VEDIC TEACHINGS.\n\n[[Page continued from previous section]]\n\n#### C.\n\n##### THE SEPTENARY ELEMENT\nIN THE VEDAS.\n\n####### IT CORROBORATES THE OCCULT\nTEACHING CONCERNING THE SEVEN\nGLOBES\n\n####### AND THE SEVEN RACES.\n\nWe have to go to the very source of historical information, if\nwe would bring our best evidence to testify to the facts enunciated.\nFor, though entirely allegorical, the Rig-Vedic hymns are none\nthe less suggestive. The seven rays of Surya (the Sun) are made\ntherein parallel to the Seven Worlds (of every planetary chain),\nto the seven rivers of heaven and earth, the former being the\nseven creative Hosts, and the latter the Seven men, or primitive\nhuman groups. The Seven ancient Rishis -- the progenitors of all\nthat lives and breathes on earth -- are the seven friends of Agni,\nhis seven \"horses,\" or seven \"**H**EADS.\"\nThe human race has sprung from fire and water, it is allegorically\nstated; fashioned by the **F**ATHERS, or the ancestor-sacrificers,\nfrom Agni; for Agni, the Aswins, the Adityas (*Rig-Veda III.,\n*54, 16, *II.,* 29*, *3, 4), are all synonymous\nwith that \"sacrificer,\" or the fathers, variously called\n*Pitar *(*Pitris, *fathers)*,* Angirases***\n*(*Ibid,* 1*, *31, 17, 139, *et seq.*)*,\n*the *Sadhyas, *\"divine sacrificers,\" the\nmost occult of all. They are all called *deva putra rishayah\n*or \"the Sons of God\" (*X.,* 62*; *1,\n4). The \"sacrificers,\" moreover, are collectively the\nONE sacrificer, the father of the gods, Visvakarman, who performed\nthe great Sarva-Medha ceremony, and ended by sacrificing himself.\n(See Rig-Vedic Hymns.)\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n[[Continued fn from previous page]] \"who like [[*Aisa*]]\n*gives to all their portion of good and evil,*\"*\n*and is therefore *Karma *(*Vide *Liddell). By\nthis abbreviation, however, *the subject to Destiny *or\n*Karma *is meant, the **S**ELF or Ego, and\nthat which is reborn. Nor is [[*Antimimon Pneumatos*]]*\n*our conscience, but our *Buddhi; *nor is it again\nthe \"*counterfeit *of Spirit\" but \"modelled\nafter,\" or a *counterpart *of the Spirit -- which\n*Buddhi* is, as the vehicle of *Atma* (*Vide*\nAr. Theism, 17; and Liddell's definitions).\n\n* C. W. King's *Gnostics, *p. 38.\n\n** Prof. Roth (in Peter's Lexicon) defines the Angirases as an\nintermediate race of higher beings between gods and men; while\nProf. Weber, according to his invariable custom of modernising\nand anthropomorphising the divine, sees in them the original priests\nof the religion which was common to the Aryan Hindus and Persians.\nRoth is right. \"Angirases\" was one of the names of the\nDhyanis, or Devas *instructors *(\"guru-deva\"),\nof the late Third, the Fourth, and even of the Fifth Race Initiates.\n\n####### [[Vol. 2, Page]] 606 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\nIn these Hymns the \"Heavenly Man\" is called* purusha,\n*\"the Man,\" (*X. *90, 1) from whom Viraj\nwas born (*X.* 90, 5); and from Viraj, the (mortal) man.\nIt is Varuna (now drawn from his sublime position to be the chief\nof the lords-Dhyanis or Devas) who regulates all natural phenomena,\nwho \"makes a path for the Sun, for him to follow.\" The\nseven rivers of the sky (the descending creative gods) and the\nseven rivers of the earth (the seven primitive mankinds) are under\nhis control, as will be seen. For he who breaks Varuna's laws\n(Vratani, \"courses of natural action,\" active laws)\nis punished by Indra (*X*. 113, 5), the Vedic powerful god,\nwhose *Vrata* (law or power) is greater than the *Vratani\n*of any other god.\n\nThus, the Rig Veda, the oldest of *all* *the known *ancient\nrecords, may be shown to corroborate the occult teachings in almost\nevery respect. Its hymns -- the records written by the earliest\nInitiates of the Fifth (our race) concerning the primordial teachings\n-- speak of the Seven Races (two still to come) allegorising them\nby the \"seven streams\" (1, 35, 8); and of the Five Races\n(\"*panca krishtayah*\")* *which have already\ninhabited this world (*ibid*)* *on the five regions\n\"*panca pradicah*\"* *(*IX, *86,\n29), as also of the *three continents *that were.*\n\nIt is those scholars only who will master the secret meaning of\nthe *Purushasukta *(in which the intuition of the modern\nOrientalist has chosen to see \"one of the very latest hymns\nof the Rig-Veda\"), who may hope to understand how harmonious\nare its teachings and how corroborative of the Esoteric doctrines.\nOne must study in all the abstruseness of their metaphysical meaning\nthe relations in it between the (Heavenly) man \"Purusha,\"\n**S**ACRIFICED for the production of the Universe\nand all in it (*See Visvakarman*)*, *and the terrestrial\nmortal man (*Hymn X. 20, *1, 16), before one realizes the\nhidden philosophy of this verse: --\n\n\"15. He (\"Man,\" *purusha, *or Visvakarman)\nhad seven enclosing logs of fuel, and *thrice seven *layers\nof fuel; when the gods performed the sacrifice, they bound the\nMan as victim\" . . . . This relates to the three Septenary\nprimeval Races, and shows the antiquity of the Vedas, who knew\nof no other, probably in this earliest *oral* teachings;\nand also\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* Three submerged, or otherwise destroyed, continents -- the first\n\"continent\" of the First Race prevailing to the last\nand existing to this day -- are described in the occult Doctrine,\nthe *Hyperborean, *the *Lemurian *(adopting the\nname now known in Science), and the *Atlantean*. Most of\nAsia issued from under the waters after the destruction of Atlantis;\nAfrica came still later, while Europe is the fifth and the latest\n-- portions of the two Americas being far older. But of these,\nmore anon. The Initiates who recorded the Vedas -- or the Rishis\nof our Fifth Race -- wrote at a time when Atlantis had already\ngone down. Atlantis is the fourth continent that *appeared*,\nbut *the third that disappeared.*\n\n####### [[Vol. 2, Page]] 607 THE SEVEN EARTHS AND THE SEVEN RACES.\n\nto the seven primeval groups of mankind, as Visvakarman represents\ndivine humanity collectively.*\n\nThe same doctrine is found reflected in the other old religions.\nIt may, and must have come down to us disfigured and misinterpreted,\nas in the case of the Parsis, who read it in their Vendidad and\nelsewhere, without understanding the allusions they contain any\nbetter than the Orientalists do; yet the doctrine is plainly mentioned\nin their old works. (See the enumeration of the seven *spheres\n*--not the \"*Karshvare of the* *earth,*\"*\n*as believed -- in Fargard **XIX**., 30). But\nsee further on.\n\nComparing the esoteric teaching with the interpretations by James\nDarmesteter (the Vendidad, edited by Prof. Max Muller), one may\nsee at a glance where the mistake is made, and the cause that\nproduced it. The passage runs thus: --\n\n\"The Indo-Iranian Asura (Ahura) *was often conceived as\nseven-fold;* by the play of certain mythical (?) formulae\nand the strength of certain *mythical *(?) numbers, the\nancestors of the Indo-Iranians had been led to speak *of seven\nworlds,**** *and the Supreme God was often made seven-fold,\nas well as the worlds over which he ruled.\" (*Vide the\nfoot note*)*. *\"The seven worlds became in Persia\nthe seven *Karshvare *of the earth: the earth is divided\ninto seven Karshvare, *only one of which is known and*\n*accessible to man, *the one on which we live, namely,\n*Hvaniratha; *which amounts to saying *that there are\nseven earths.*** *Parsi mythology knows also of seven heavens.\nHvaniratha itself is divided into seven climes. (Orm. Ahr. §\n72. \"*Vendidad Introd. p.* Lx.,)\" and the same\ndivision and doctrine is to be found in the oldest and most revered\nof the Hindu\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* Nor is this archaic teaching so very *unscientific, *since\none of the greatest naturalists of the age -- the late Professor\nAgassiz -- admitted the multiplicity of the geographical origins\nof man, and supported it to the end of his life. The unity of\nthe human species was accepted by the illustrious Professor of\nCambridge (U.S.A.) in the same way as the Occultists do -- namely,\nin the sense of their essential and original homogeneity and their\norigin from one and the same source: -- *e.g*., Negroes,\nAryans, Mongols, etc., have all originated in the same way and\nfrom the same ancestors. The latter were all of one essence, yet\ndifferentiated, because belonging to seven planes which differed\nin degree though not in kind. That original physical difference\nwas but little more accentuated by that of geographical and climatic\nconditions, later on. This is not the theory of Agassiz, of course,\nbut the esoteric version. It is fully discussed in the *Addenda*\n(Part **III.**).\n\n** The seven worlds are, as said, the seven spheres of the chain,\neach presided over by one of the \"Seven great gods\"\nof every religion. When the latter became degraded and anthropomorphized,\nand the metaphysical ideas nearly forgotten, the synthesis or\nthe highest, the seventh, was separated from the rest, and that\npersonification became the *eighth *god, whom monotheism\ntried to unify but -- failed. In no exoteric religion is God really\none, if analyzed metaphysically.\n\n*** The six invisible globes of our chain are both \"worlds\"\nand \"earths\" as is our own, albeit invisible. But where\ncould be the Six invisible *earths *on* this *globe?\n\n####### [[Vol. 2, Page]] 608 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\nscriptures -- the Rig-veda. Mention is made therein of six worlds,\n*besides our earth: *the six *rajamsi *above*\nprithivi -- *the earth, -- or \"this\" (idam) as opposed\nto that which is *yonder *(*i.e., *the six globes\non the *three *other planes or worlds). (*See Rig-veda\nI. *34*, III.* 56*; VII *10, 411, and *V*.,\n60. 6).\n\nThe italics are ours to point out the identity of the tenets with\nthose of the esoteric doctrine, and the mistake made. The Magi\nor Mazdeans only believed in what other people believed in; namely,\nin seven \"worlds\" or globes of our planetary chain,\nof which *only one *is accessible to man (at the present\ntime), our Earth; and in the successive appearance and destruction\nof seven continents or earths on this our globe, each continent\nbeing divided, in commemoration of the seven globes (one visible,\nsix invisible), into seven islands or continents, \"seven\nclimes,\" etc., etc. This was a common belief in those days\nwhen the now Secret Doctrine was open to all. It is this multiplicity\nof localities under Septenary division, that made the Orientalists\n(led astray, moreover, by the oblivion of both the uninitiated\nHindus and Parsis of their primitive doctrines) feel so puzzled\nby this ever-recurring seven-fold number, as to regard it as \"mythical.\"\nIt is that oblivion of the first principles which has led the\nOrientalists off the right track and made them commit the greatest\nblunders. The same failure is found in the definition of the Gods.\nThose who are ignorant of the esoteric doctrine of the earliest\nAryans, can never assimilate or understand correctly the metaphysical\nmeaning contained in these **B**EINGS.\n\nAhura Mazda (Ormazd) was the head and synthesis of the seven *Amesha\nSpentas *(or Amshaspends), and, therefore, an Amesha Spenta\nhimself. Just as \"Jehovah-Binah Arelim\" was the head\nand synthesis of the Elohim and no more; so Agni-Vishnu-Surya\nwas the synthesis and head, or the focus whence emanated in physics\nas in metaphysics, from the Spiritual as from the physical Sun,\nthe Seven Rays, the seven fiery tongues, the seven planets or\ngods. All these became supreme gods and *the ***O**NE\n**G**OD, but only after the loss of the primeval\nsecrets, the sinking of Atlantis, or \"the Flood,\" and\nthe occupation of India by the Brahmans, who sought safety on\nthe summits of the Himalayas, when even the high table-lands of\nwhat is now Tibet became submerged for a time. Ahura Mazda is\naddressed only as \"the Most Blissful Spirit, Creator *of\nthe corporeal *World\" in the Vendidad. \"Ahura Mazda\"\nin its literal translation means the \"Wise Lord\" (*Ahura\n*\"lord,\" and *Mazda *\"wise\"). Moreover,\nthis name of *Ahura, *in Sanskrit *Asura, *connects\nhim with the *Manasaputras, *the Sons of Wisdom who informed\nthe mindless man, and endowed him with his mind (*manas*)*.\n*Ahura (asura) may be derived from the root *ah* \"to\nbe,\" but in its primal signification it is what the Secret\nTeaching shows it to be.\n\n####### [[Vol. 2, Page]] 609 THE ZOROASTRIAN SEPTENARY.\n\nWhen geology shall have found out how many thousands of years\nago the disturbed waters of the Indian Ocean reached the highest\nplateaux of Central Asia, when the Caspian Sea and the Persian\nGulf made one with it, then only will they know the age of the\nAryan Brahminical nation, and the time of its descent into the\nplains of Hindostan, which it did millenniums later.\n\nYima, the so-called \"first man\" in the *Vendidad,\n*as much as his twin-brother Yama, the Son of Vaivasvata Manu,\nbelongs to two epochs of the Universal History. He is the \"Progenitor\"\nof the Second human Race, hence the personification of the shadows\nof the Pitris, and the father of the *postdiluvian *Humanity.\nThe Magi said \"Yima,\" as we say \"man\" when\nspeaking of mankind. The \"fair Yima,\" the first mortal\nwho converses with Ahura Mazda, *is the first *\"*man*\"*\nwho dies *or disappears, not the first who is born. The \"Son\nof Vixanghat,\" was, like the Son of Vaivasvata, the symbolical\nman, who stood in esotericism as the representative of the *first\nthree races *and the collective Progenitor thereof. Of these\nraces the first two never died* but only vanished, absorbed in\ntheir progeny, and the third knew death only towards its close,\nafter the separation of the sexes and its \"Fall\" into\ngeneration. This is plainly alluded to in the **II**.\nFargard of the *Vendidad. *Yima refuses to become the bearer\nof the law of Ahura Mazda, saying \"I was not born, I was\nnot taught to be the preacher and the bearer of thy law.\"\nAnd then Ahura Mazda asks him to make his men increase and \"watch\nover his world\" (3 and 4).\n\nHe refuses to become the priest of Ahura Mazda, because he is\n*his* *own priest and sacrificer, *but he accepts\nthe second proposal. He is made to answer: --\n\n\"Yes! . . . yes, I will rule and watch over thy world. There\nshall be, while I am King, neither cold wind nor hot wind, *neither\ndisease nor death.*\"* *\n\nThen Ahura Mazda brings him a golden ring and a poniard, the emblems\nof sovereignty, and under the sway of Yima --\n\n\"Three hundred *winters* passed away, and the earth\nwas *replenished *with flocks and herds, with men, and dogs,\nand birds, and with red blazing fires,\" etc. (300 *winters*\nmean 300 periods or cycles.)\n\n\"Replenished,\" mark well, that is to say, all this had\nbeen on it before; and thus is proven the knowledge of the doctrine\nabout the successive destructions of the world and its life cycles.\nOnce the \"300 winters\" were over, Ahura Mazda warns\nYima that the earth is becoming too full, and men have nowhere\nto live. Then Yima steps forward, and with the help of Spenta\nArmaita (the female genius, or Spirit of the Earth) makes that\nearth stretch out and become larger by\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* Death came only after man had become a *physical *creature,\n*vide supra. *The men of the First Race and also of the\nSecond, dissolved and disappeared in their progeny.\n\n####### [[Vol. 2, Page]] 610 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\none-third, after which \"new herds and flocks and men\"\nappear upon it. Ahura Mazda warns him again, and Yima makes the\nearth by the same magic power to become larger by two-thirds.\n\"Nine hundred winters\" *pass *away, and Yima\nhas to perform the ceremony *for the third time. *The whole\nof this is allegorical. The three processes of stretching the\nearth, refer to the three successive continents and races issuing\none after and from the other, as explained more fully elsewhere.\nAfter the *third* time, Ahura Mazda warns Yima in an assembly\nof \"celestial gods and excellent mortals\" that upon\nthe material world the fatal winters are going to fall, and all\n*life *will perish. This is the old Mazdean symbolism for\nthe \"flood,\" and the coming cataclysm to Atlantis, which\nsweeps away every race in its turn. Like Vaivasvata Manu and Noah,\nYima makes a *vara *(an enclosure, an ark) under the God's\ndirection, and brings thither the seed of every living creature,\nanimals and \"fires.\"\n\nIt is of this \"earth\" or new continent that Zarathustra\nbecame the law-giver and ruler. This was the Fourth Race in its\nbeginning, after the men of the Third began to die out. Till then,\nas said (*vide supra,* foot note) there had been no regular\ndeath, but only a transformation, for *men had no personality\n*as yet. They had monads -- breaths of the **O**NE\nBreath, and as impersonal as the source from which they proceeded.\nThey had bodies, or rather shadows of bodies, which were sinless,\nhence *Karmaless. *Therefore, as there was no Kamaloka\n-- least of all Nirvana or even Devachan -- for the \"souls\"\nof men who had no personal *Egos,* there could be no intermediate\nperiods between the incarnations. Like the Phoenix, primordial\nman resurrected out of his old into a new body. Each time, and\nwith each new generation, he became more solid, more physically\nperfect, agreeably with the evolutionary law, which is the *Law\nof Nature. *Death came with the complete physical organism,\nand with it -- moral decay.\n\nThis explanation shows one more old religion agreeing in its symbology\nwith the universal Doctrine.\n\nElsewhere the oldest Persian traditions, the relics of Mazdeism\nof the still older Magians, are given, and some of them explained.\nMankind did not issue from one solitary couple. Nor was there\never a first man -- whether Adam or Yima -- but a first mankind.\n\nIt may, or may not be, \"mitigated polygenism.\" Once\nthat both creation* ex-nihilo* *-- *an absurdity\n-- and a superhuman Creator or creators -- a fact -- are made\naway with by science, polygenism presents no more difficulties\nor inconveniences (rather fewer from a scientific point of view)\nthan monogenism does.\n\nNevertheless, it is as scientific as any other claim. For in his\nIntroduction to Nott's and Gliddon's \"*Types of Mankind,*\"*\n*Agassiz declares\n\n####### [[Vol. 2, Page]] 611 THE SEPTENATE IN THE PURANAS.\n\nhis belief in an indefinite number of \"*primordial races\nof men created* *separately*\"*; *and remarks\nthat, \"whilst in every zoological province animals are of\n*different species, man, in spite of the diversity of his races,*\n*always forms one and the same human being.*\"* *\n\nOccultism defines and limits the number of primordial races to\nseven, because of the \"seven progenitors,\" or *prajapatis,\n*the evolvers of beings. These are neither gods, nor supernatural\nBeings, but advanced Spirits from another and lower planet, reborn\non this one, and giving birth in their turn in the present Round\nto present Humanity. This doctrine is again corroborated by one\nof its echoes -- the Gnostic. In their Anthropology and Genesis\nof man they taught that \"a certain company of *Seven *angels,\"\nformed the first men, who were no better than senseless, gigantic,\nshadowy forms -- \"a mere wriggling worm\" (!) writes\nIrenaeus (I., 24, 1), who takes, as usual, the metaphor for reality.\n\n#### D.\n\n##### THE SEPTENARY IN THE EXOTERIC\nWORKS.\n\nWe may now examine other ancient Scriptures and see whether they\ncontain the septenary classification, and, if so, to what degree.\n\nAs much, if not much more, even than in the Jewish Bible, scattered\nabout in the thousands of Sanskrit texts, some still unopened,\nothers yet unknown, as well as in all the Puranas, the numbers\nseven and forty-nine (7 x 7) play a most prominent part. They\nare found from the Seven creations in Chapter I., down to the\nseven rays of the Sun at the final Pralaya, which expand into\nSeven Suns and absorb the material of the whole Universe. Thus\nthe *Matsya *Purana has: \"For the sake of promulgating\nthe Vedas, Vishnu, in the beginning of a Kalpa, related to Manu\nthe story of Narasimha and the events of *seven* Kalpas.\"\nThen again the same Purana shows that \"in all the Manvantaras,\nclasses of Rishis* appear by seven and *seven, *and having\nestablished a code of law and morality depart to felicity\"\n-- the Rishis representing many other things besides living Sages.\n\nIn Hymn xix., 53, of *Atharva Veda *(Dr. Muir's translation)\none reads: --\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n*\" These are the seven persons by whom in the several Manvantaras\"\n-- says Parasara -- \"created beings have been protected.\nBecause the whole world has been pervaded by the energy of the\ndeity, he is entitled Vishnu, from the root *Vis *'to enter'\nor 'pervade,' for all the gods, the Manus, the Seven Rishis, the\nSons of the Manu, the Indras, all are but the impersonated potencies\n(*Vibhutayah*)* *of Vishnu\" (Vish. Purana).\nVishnu is the Universe; and the Universe itself is divided in\nthe *Rig Veda* into *seven* regions -- which ought\nto be sufficient authority, for the Brahmins, at all events.\n\n####### [[Vol. 2, Page]] 612 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\n\" 1. Time carries (us) forward, a steed, with *seven rays,\n*a thousand eyes, undecaying, full of fecundity. On him intelligent\nsages mount; his wheels are all the worlds.\"\n\n\"2. Thus Time moves on *seven wheels; *he has *seven\n*naves; immortality is his axle. He is at present *all\nthese worlds. *Time hastens onward the first God.\"\n\n\"3. A full jar is contained in Time. We behold him existing\nin many forms. He is all these worlds in the future. They call\nhim 'Time in the highest Heaven' \" . . . .\n\nNow add to this the following verse from the Esoteric volumes:\n--\n\n\"Space and Time are one. Space and Time are nameless, for\nthey are the incognizable **T**HAT, which can be\nsensed *only through its seven* *rays* -- which\nare the *Seven Creations, *the* Seven Worlds, the Seven*\n*Laws,*\"* *etc., etc., etc. . . .\n\nRemembering that the Puranas insist on the identity of Vishnu\nwith Time and Space*; and that even the Rabbinical symbol for\nGod is MAQOM, \"Space,\" it becomes clear why, for purposes\nof a manifesting Deity -- Space, Matter, and Spirit -- the one\ncentral point became the Triangle and Quaternary (the perfect\nCube), hence *Seven. *Even the *Pravaha *wind (the\nmystic and occult Force that gives the impulse to, and regulates\nthe course of the stars and planets) is septenary. The Kurma and\nLinga Puranas enumerate seven principal winds of that name, which\nwinds are the principles of Cosmic Space. They are intimately\nconnected with *Dhruva** *(now Alpha), the Pole-Star, which\nis connected in its turn with the production of various phenomena\nthrough cosmic forces.\n\nThus, from the Seven Creations, seven Rishis, Zones, Continents,\nPrinciples, etc., etc. in the Aryan Scriptures, the number has\npassed through Indian, Egyptian, Chaldaic, Greek, Jewish, Roman,\nand finally Christian mystic thought, until it landed in and remained\nimpressed indelibly on every exoteric theology. The seven old\nbooks stolen out of Noah's ark by Ham, and given to Cush, his\nson, and the seven Brazen columns of Ham and Cheiron, are a reflection\nand a remem-\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* Vishnu is *all* -- the worlds, the stars, the seas, etc.,\netc. \"Vishnu is all that is, all that is not . . . . but\nis not *Vastubhuta,*\"* *\"a substance\"\n(Vishnu Purana, Book **II**. ch. xii). \"That\nwhich people call the highest God is not a substance *but the\ncause of it;* not one that is here, there, or elsewhere, *not\nwhat we see, *but that in which all is -- SPACE.\"\n\n** Therefore it is said in the Puranas that the view of Dhruva\n(the polar star) at night, and of the celestial porpoise (Sisumara,\na constellation) \"expiates whatever sin has been committed\nduring the day.\" The fact is that the rays of the four stars\nin the circle of perpetual apparition -- the Agni, Mahendra, Kasyapa,\nand Dhruva, placed in the tail of *Ursa Minor *(Sisumara)\n-- focussed in a certain way and on a certain object produce extraordinary\nresults. The *astro-magians *of India will understand what\nis meant.\n\n####### [[Vol. 2, Page]] 613 WHO ARE THE MARUTS?\n\nbrance of the Seven primordial mysteries instituted according\nto the \"Seven secret emanations,\" the \"Seven Sounds,\"\nand seven rays -- the spiritual and sidereal models of the seven\nthousand times seven copies of them in later aeons.\n\nThe mysterious number is once more prominent in the no less mysterious\nMaruts. The Vayu Purana shows, and Harivansa corroborates, that\nthe Maruts -- the oldest as the most incomprehensible of all the\nsecondary or lower gods in the Rig Veda -- \"are *born\nin every* *manvantara *(Round)* seven times seven\n*(or 49); that in each Manvantara, *four times seven *(or\ntwenty-eight) they obtain emancipation, but their places are *filled\nup by persons reborn in that character.*\"* *What\nare the *Maruts *in their esoteric meaning, and who *those\npersons *\"reborn in that character\"? In the Rig\nand other Vedas, the Maruts are represented as the storm gods\nand the *friends and allies *of Indra; they are the \"Sons\nof heaven and of earth.\" This led to an allegory that makes\nthem the children of Siva, the great patron of the Yogis, \"the\n**M**AHA-**Y**OGI, the great *ascetic,\n*in whom is centred the highest perfection of austere penance\nand abstract meditation, *by which the most unlimited powers\nare obtained,* *marvels and miracles are worked, the highest\nspiritual knowledge is* *acquired, and union with the great\nspirit of the universe is eventually* *gained.*\"*\n*In the Rig Veda the name Siva is unknown, but the god is\ncalled Rudra, which is a word used for *Agni, *the fire\ngod, the Maruts being called therein his sons. In the *Ramayana\n*and the Puranas, their mother, Diti -- the sister, or complement\nof, and a form of Aditi -- anxious to obtain a son who would destroy\nIndra, is told by Kasyapa the Sage, that \"if, with thoughts\nwholly pious and person entirely pure, she carrys the babe in\nher womb for a hundred years\" she will get such a son. But\nIndra foils her in the design. With his thunderbolt he *divides\nthe embryo in her womb into seven portions, *and then divides\nevery such portion *into seven pieces again, *which become\nthe swift-moving deities, the Maruts.* These deities are only\nanother *aspect, *or a development of the Kumaras, who\nare *Rudras *in their patronymic, like many others.**\n\nDiti, being Aditi, unless the contrary is proven to us, Aditi,\nwe say, or Akasa in her highest form, is *the Egyptian seven-fold\nheaven. *Every true Occultist will understand what this means.\nDiti, we repeat, is the sixth\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* In the Ramayana it is Bala-Rama, Krishna's elder brother, who\ndoes it.\n\n** With regard to the origin of Rudra, it is stated in several\n*Puranas* that his (spiritual) progeny, *created in\nhim by Brahma, *was not confined to either the *seven*\nKumaras or the *eleven* Rudras, etc., but \"comprehends\ninfinite numbers of beings *in* *person and equipments\nlike their *(virgin) father. Alarmed at their fierceness,\nnumbers, and *immortality*, Brahma desires his son Rudra\nto form creatures of a different and mortal nature.\" Rudra\n*refusing to create, *desists, etc., hence *Rudra*\nis *the first rebel.* (*Linga, Vayu, Matsya, *and\nother Puranas.)\n\n####### [[Vol. 2, Page]] 614 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\nprinciple of *metaphysical *nature, the *Buddhi *of\nAkasa. Diti, the mother of the Maruts, is one of her terrestrial\nforms, made to represent, at one and the same time, the divine\nSoul in the ascetic, and the divine aspirations of mystic Humanity\ntoward deliverance from the webs of Maya, and final bliss in consequence.\nIndra, now degraded, because of the Kali Yuga, when such aspirations\nare no more general but have become abnormal through a general\nspread of *Ahamkara *(the feeling of Egotism, *Self,\n*or **I**-AM-NESS) and ignorance -- was, in the\nbeginning, one of the greatest gods of the Hindu Pantheon, as\nthe Rig Veda shows. *Sura-dhipa, *\"the chief of the\ngods,\" has fallen down from *Jishnu, *\"the leader\nof the celestial host,\" -- the Hindu St. Michael -- to an\nopponent of asceticism, the enemy of every holy aspiration. He\nis shown married to Aindri (Indrani), the personification of *Aindri-yaka,\n*the evolution of the element of senses, whom he married \"because\nof her *voluptuous* *attractions*\"*; *after\nwhich he began sending celestial female demons to excite the passions\nof holy men, Yogis, and \"to beguile them from the potent\npenances which he dreaded.\" Therefore, Indra, now characterized\nas \"the god of the firmament, the personified atmosphere\"\n-- is in reality the cosmic principle *Mahat, *and the\nfifth human -- *Manas *in its dual aspect: as connected\nwith *Buddhi; *and as allowing himself to be dragged down\nby his *Kama*-principle (the body of passions and desires).\nThis is demonstrated by Brahma telling the conquered god that\nhis frequent defeats were due to *Karma, *and were a punishment\nfor his licentiousness, and the seduction of various nymphs. It\nis in this latter character that he seeks, to save himself from\ndestruction, to destroy the coming \"babe\" destined to\nconquer him: -- the babe, of course, allegorizing the divine and\nsteady will of the Yogi -- determined to resist all such temptations,\nand thus destroy the passions within his earthly personality.\nIndra succeeds again, because flesh conquers spirit -- (Diti is\nshown frustrated in the Dvapara Yug, during that period when the\nFourth Race was flourishing). He divides the \"Embryo\"\n(of new *divine *adeptship, begotten once more by the Ascetics\nof the Aryan Fifth Race), into *seven *portions -- a reference\nnot alone to the *seven *sub-races of the new Root-Race,\nin each of which there will be a \"Manu,\"* but also to\nthe seven degrees of adeptship -- and then each\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* Notwithstanding the terrible, and evidently *purposed*,\nconfusion of Manus, Rishis, and their progeny in the Puranas,\none thing is made clear: there have been and there will be seven\nRishis in every Root-Race (called also *Manvantara *in\nthe sacred books) as there are fourteen Manus in every Round,\nthe \"presiding gods, the Rishis and Sons of the Manus\"\nbeing identical. (See Book **III**. ch. 1 of *Vishnu\nPurana.*)* *\"Six\" Manvantaras are given,\nthe Seventh being our own in the Vishnu Purana. The *Vayu*\nPurana furnishes the nomenclature of the Sons of the fourteen\nManus in every Manvantara, and the Sons of the seven Sages or\nRishis. The latter are the progeny [[Continued on next page]]\n\n####### [[Vol. 2, Page]] 615 THE DOOM OF CONTINUAL REBIRTH.\n\nportion into seven pieces -- alluding to the Manu-Rishis of each\nRoot-Race, and even sub-race.\n\nIt does not seem difficult to perceive what is meant by the Maruts\nobtaining \"*four times seven*\"* *emancipations\nin every \"manvantara,\" and by those persons who, being\n*reborn *in that character (of the *Maruts* in their\nesoteric meaning), \"fill up their places.\" The Maruts\nrepresent (*a*) the* passions *that storm and rage\nwithin every candidate's breast, when preparing for an ascetic\nlife -- this* mystically; *(*b*)* *the occult\npotencies concealed in the manifold aspects of *Akasa*'*s\n*lower principles -- her body, or *sthula sarira, *representing\nthe terrestrial, lower, atmosphere of every inhabited globe --\nthis mystically and sidereally; (*c*) actual conscious\nExistences, Beings of a cosmic and psychic nature.\n\nAt the same time \"Maruts\" is, in occult parlance, one\nof the names given to those EGOS of great Adepts who have passed\naway, and who are known also as *Nirmanakayas; *of those\nEgos for whom -- *since they* *are beyond illusion --\n*there is no Devachan, and who, having either voluntarily\nrenounced it for the good of mankind, or not yet reached Nirvana,\nremain invisible on earth. Therefore are the Maruts* shown firstly\n-- as the sons of Siva-Rudra -- the \"Patron Yogi,\" whose\n\"*third* eye,\"* *mystically, must be acquired\nby the ascetic before he becomes an adept; then, in their cosmic\ncharacter, as the subordinates of Indra and his opponents -- variously.\nThe \"four times seven\" emancipations have a reference\nto the four Rounds, and the four Races that preceded ours, in\neach of which *Marut-Jivas *(monads) have been re-born,\nand have obtained final liberation, if they have only availed\nthemselves of it. Instead of which, preferring the good of mankind,\nwhich would struggle still more hopelessly in the meshes of ignorance\nand misery, *were it not* *for this extraneous help\n-- *they are re-born over and over again \"in that character,\"\nand thus \"fill up their own places.\" *Who *they\nare,* *\"*on* *earth*\" -- every student\nof Occult science knows. And he also knows that the Maruts are\n*Rudras, *among whom also the family of Twashtri, a synonym\nof Visvakarman -- the great patron of the Initiates -- is included.\nThis gives us an ample knowledge of their true nature.\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n[[Continued.from previous page]] of the Progenitors of mankind.\nAll the Puranas speak of the seven Prajapatis of this period (Round).\n\n* \"Chakshuba was the Manu of the sixth period (Third Round\nand Third Race), in which Indra was Manojava\" (*Mantradruma\n*in the *Bhagavata Purana*)*. *As there is a\nperfect analogy between the \"great Round\" (*Mahakalpa*)*,\n*each of the seven Rounds, and each of the seven great Races\nin every one of the Rounds -- therefore, Indra of the sixth period,\nor Third Round, corresponds to the close of the Third Race (at\nthe time of the *Fall *or the separation of sexes). Rudra,\nas the father of the Maruts, has many points of contact with Indra,\nthe Marutwan, or \"lord of the Maruts.\" To receive a\nname Rudra is said to have wept for it. Brahma called him Rudra;\nbut *he wept seven times* *more and so obtained seven\nother names -- *of which he uses one during *each*\n\"period.\"\n\n####### [[Vol. 2, Page]] 616 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\nThe same for the Septenary Division of Kosmos and human principles.\nThe Puranas, along with other sacred texts, teem with allusions\nto this. First of all, the mundane Egg which contained Brahma,\nor the Universe, \"was externally invested with *seven*\nnatural elements, at first loosely enumerated as Water, Air, Fire,\nEther, and *three secret *elements\" (Book I.); then\nthe \"World\" is said to be \"encompassed on every\nside\" by seven elements, also *within *the egg --\nas explained, \"the universe is encompassed on every side,\nabove and below by the *Andakat*'*aha -- *the shell\nof the egg of Brahma.\" . . . Around the shell flows water,\nwhich is surrounded with fire; fire by air; air by ether; ether\nby the origin of the elements (Ahamkara); the latter by Universal\nMind (\"Intellect\" in the Texts) (Book **II**.,\nch. **VII**. *Vishnu Purana*)*. *It\nrelates to spheres of being as much as to principles. *Prithivi\n*is not our Earth, but the World, the Solar system, and means\nthe *broad,* the *Wide. *In the *Vedas -- *the\ngreatest of all authorities, though needing the key to read it\ncorrectly -- three terrestrial and three celestial earths are\nmentioned as having been called into existence simultaneously\nwith *Bhumi *-- our earth. We have often been told that\nsix, not *seven*, appears to be the number of spheres, principles,\netc. We answer that there are, in fact, only six principles in\nman; since his body is *no principle,* but the covering,\nthe shell thereof. So with the *planetary chain; *speaking\nof which, esoterically, the Earth (as well as the seventh, or\nrather *fourth *plane, one that stands as the seventh if\nwe count from the first triple kingdom of the Elementals that\nbegin the formation) may be left out of consideration, being (to\nus) the only distinct body of the seven. The language of occultism\nis varied. But supposing that *three *earths only, instead\nof seven, are meant in the Vedas, what are those three, since\nwe still know of but one? Evidently there *must be *an\noccult meaning in the statement under consideration. Let us see.\nThe \"Earth that floats\" on the Universal Ocean (of Space),\nwhich Brahma divides in the Puranas into seven zones, is *Prithivi,\n*the world divided into seven *principles; *a cosmic\ndivision looking metaphysical enough, but, in reality, *physical\n*in its occult effects. Many Kalpas later, our Earth is mentioned,\nand, in its turn, is divided into seven zones* on that same law\nof analogy that guided ancient philosophers. After which one finds\non it seven continents, seven isles, seven oceans, seven seas\nand rivers, seven mountains, and seven climates, etc., etc., etc.**\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* See the Puranas.\n\n** In *Vishnu Purana,* Book **II**., chap.\niv., it is stated that the **E**ARTH, \"with\nits continents, mountains, oceans, and exterior shell, is *fifty\ncrores *(500* *millions) of yojanas in extent,\"\nto which the commentator remarks that* *\"*this comprises\nthe planetary spheres;* for the diameter of the seven zones\nand oceans -- each ocean being of the same diameter as the continent\nit encloses, and each successive continent being twice the [[Continued\non next page]]\n\n####### [[Vol. 2, Page]] 617 PERSIAN SYMBOLOGY.\n\nFurthermore, it is not only in the Hindu Scriptures and philosophy\nthat one finds references to the *Seven Earths, *but in\nthe Persian, Phoenician, Chaldean, and Egyptian Cosmogonies, and\neven in Rabbinical literature. The Phoenix* -- called by the Hebrews\nOnech [Heb char] (from *Phenoch, *Enoch, symbol of a secret\ncycle and initiation), and by the Turks,* Kerkes -- *lives\na thousand years, after which, kindling a flame, it is self-consumed;\nand then, reborn from itself -- it lives another thousand years,\nup to *seven times seven: *(See \"Book of Ali\"\n-- Russian transl.), when comes the day of Judgment. The \"seven\ntimes seven,\" 49, are a transparent allegory, and an allusion\nto the forty-nine \"Manus,\" the Seven Rounds, and the\nseven times seven human cycles in each Round on each globe. The\n*Kerkes *and the *Onech* stand for a race cycle,\nand the mystical tree Ababel -- the \"*Father Tree*\"*\n*in the Kuran -- shoots out new branches and vegetation at\nevery resurrection of the Kerkes or Phoenix; the \"Day of\njudgment\" meaning a \"minor *Pralaya*\"*\n*(See* *\"*Esoteric Buddhism*\")*.\n*The author of the \"Book of God\" and the \"Apocalypse\"\nbelieves that \"the Phoenix is very plainly the same as the\n*Simorgh, *the Persian *roc*, and the account which\nis given us of this last bird, yet more decisively establishes\nthe opinion that the death and revival of the Phoenix exhibit\nthe successive destruction and reproduction of the world, which\nmany believed to be effected by the agency of a fiery deluge\"\n-- (p. 175); and a watery one in turn. \"When the Simorgh\nwas asked her age, she informed Caherman that this world is very\nancient, for it has been already *seven times replenished *with\nbeings different from men, and *seven times depopulated;**\n*that the age of the human race, in which we now are, is to\nendure *seven thousand numbers,* and that she herself had\nseen *twelve *of these revolutions, and knew not how many\nmore she had to see.\" (*Oriental *Collections, ii.,\n119.)\n\nThe above, however, is no new statement. From Bailly, in the last\ncentury, down to Dr. Kenealy, in this one, these facts have been\nnoticed by several writers, but now a connection can be established\nbetween\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n[[Continued from previous page]] diameter of that which precedes\nit -- amounts to but two crores or fifty-four lakhs etc. . . .\nWhenever any contradictions in different Puranas occur, they have\nto be ascribed . . . to differences of Kalpas and *the like.*\"*\n*\"The like\" ought to read \"Occult meaning,\"\nwhich explanation is withheld by the commentator, who wrote for\n*exoteric, sectarian *purposes, and was misunderstood by\nthe translator for various other reasons, the least of which is\n-- ignorance of the esoteric philosophy.\n\n* The *Phoenix,* connected with the Solar Cycle of 600\nyears (with ciphers taken out or with more added according to\nwhich cycle is meant), the Western cycle of the Greeks and other\nnations -- is a generic symbol for several kinds of cycles. Fuller\ndetails will be given in the section on \"Kalpas and Cycles.\"\n\n** The tense is the \"past\" because the book is allegorical,\nand has to veil the truths contained.\n\n####### [[Vol. 2, Page]] 618 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\nthe Persian oracle and the Nazarene prophet. Says the author of\nthe \"Book of God\": --\n\n\"The Simorgh is in reality the same as the winged *Singh*\nof the Hindus, and the Sphinx of the Egyptians. It is said that\nthe former will appear at the end of the world . . . . as a monstrous\nlion-bird. From these the Rabbins have borrowed their mythos of\nan enormous Bird, sometimes standing on the Earth, sometimes walking\nin the ocean . . . while its head props the sky; and with the\nsymbol, they have also adopted the doctrine to which it relates.\nThey teach *that there are to* *be seven successive\nrenewals of the globe, *that each reproduced system *will\nlast seven thousand years; *(*?*)* *and that\nthe *total duration of the* *universe will be *49,000*\nyears. *This opinion, which involves the doctrine of the pre-existence\nof each renewed creature, they may either have learned during\ntheir Babylonian captivity, or *it may have been part of*\n*the primeval *religion which their priests had preserved\nfrom remote times\" (p. 176). It shows rather that the initiated\nJews *borrowed, *and their non-initiated successors, the\nTalmudists, lost the sense, and applied the Seven Rounds, and\nthe forty-nine races, etc., to the wrong end.\n\nNot only \"*their *priests,\" but those of every\nother country. The Gnostics, whose various teachings are the many\nechoes of the one primitive and universal doctrine, put the same\nnumbers, under another form, in the mouth of Jesus in the very\noccult *Pistis Sophia. *We say more: even the Christian\neditor or author of *Revelation *has preserved this tradition\nand speaks of the Seven **R**ACES, four of which,\nwith part of the fifth, are gone, and two have to come. It is\nstated as plainly as could be stated in chapter xvii., verses\n9 and 10. Thus saith the angel: \"And here *is *the\nmind which hath wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains, on\nwhich the woman sitteth. And there are SEVEN Kings, *five *are\nfallen, and one *is, *and the other is not yet come . .\n. . \" Who, acquainted in the least with the symbolical language\nof old, will fail to discern in the *five* Kings that have\nfallen, the four Root-Races that were, and part of the fifth,\nthe one that *is*; and in the *other, *that*\n*\"*is not yet* *come,*\"* *the\nsixth and seventh coming root races, as also the sub-races of\nthis, our present race? Another still more forcible allusion to\nthe Seven Rounds and the forty-nine root-races in *Leviticus,\n*will be found elsewhere in the Addenda, Part **III**.\n\n-------\n\n#### E.\n\n##### SEVEN IN ASTRONOMY, SCIENCE,\nAND MAGIC.\n\nAgain, number seven is closely connected with the occult significance\nof the Pleiades, those seven daughters of Atlas, \"the six\npresent, the\n\n####### [[Vol. 2, Page]] 619 THE CYCLE OF THE NAROS.\n\nseventh *hidden.*\" In India they are connected with\ntheir nursling, the war god, Karttikeya. It is the *Pleiades\n*(in Sanskrit, *Krittika*)* *who gave the god\ntheir name, for Karttikeya is the planet Mars, *astronomically.*\nAs a god he is the son of Rudra, born without the intervention\nof a woman. He is a *Kumara, *a \"virgin youth\"\nagain, generated in the fire from the Seed of Siva -- the *holy\nspirit* -- hence called Agni-bhu. The late Dr. Kenealy believed\nthat, in India, Karttikeya is the secret symbol of the cycle of\nNaros, composed of 600, 666, and 777 years, according to whether\nit is solar or lunar, divine or mortal, years that are counted;\nand the six visible, or the seven actual sisters, the Pleiades,\nare needed for the completion of this most secret and mysterious\nof all the astronomical and religious symbols. Therefore, when\nmade to commemorate one particular event, Karttikeya appeared,\nof old, as a *Kumara,* an ascetic, with *six heads*\n--* *one for each century of the Naros. When the symbolism\nwas needed for another event, then, in conjunction with the seven\nsidereal sisters, Karttikeya is seen accompanied by Kaumara (or\nSena) his female aspect. He is then riding on a peacock -- the\nbird of Wisdom and Occult Knowledge, and the Hindu Phoenix, whose\nGreek relation with the 600 years of Naros is well-known. A six-rayed\nstar (double triangle) a Swastica, a six and occasionally seven-pointed\ncrown is on his brow; the peacock's tail represents the sidereal\nheavens; and the twelve signs of the Zodiac *are hidden on\nhis* *body; *for which he is also called Dwadasa Kara,\"\n(\"the twelve-handed\"), and Dwadasaksha, \"twelve-eyed.\"\nIt is as Sakti-dhara, however, the \"Spear-holder,\" and\nthe conqueror of Taraka, \"Taraka-jit,\" that he is shown\nmost famous.\n\nThe years of the Naros, being (in India) counted in two ways --\neither \"100 years of the gods,\" (*divine *years)\n-- or 100 *mortal years *-- one can see the tremendous\ndifficulty for the non-initiated in comprehending correctly this\ncycle, which plays such an important part in St. John's Revelation.\nIt is the truly apocalyptic Cycle; yet in none of the numerous\nspeculations about it have we found anything but *a few*\n*approximate *truths, because of its being of various lengths\nand relating to various pre-historic events.\n\nIt has been urged against the duration claimed by the Babylonians\nfor their divine ages, that Suidas shows the ancients counting,\nin their chronological computations, days for years. Dr. Sepp\nin his ingenious plagiarism -- exposed elsewhere -- of the Hindu\n432 in thousands and millions of years (the duration of the Yugas)\nwhich he dwarfed to 4,320 *lunar *years before the \"birth\nof Christ\" -- as \"foreordained\" in the sidereal\n(besides the invisible) heavens, and proved \"by the apparition\nof the Star of Bethlehem\" -- appeals to Suidas and his authority.\nBut Suidas had no other warrant for it than his own speculations,\nand he\n\n####### [[Vol. 2, Page]] 620 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\nwas no Initiate. He cites, as a proof, Vulcan, in showing him\nas having, according to chronological claim, reigned 4,477 years,\n*i.e.*, 4,477* days, as** *he thinks, or rendered\nin years, 12 years, 3 months, and 7 days; he has 5 days in his\noriginal -- thus committing an error even in such an easy calculation.\n(See Suidas, art. [[*Heelios*]].) True, there are other ancient\nwriters guilty of like fallacious speculations -- Calisthenes,\nfor instance, who assigns to the astronomical observations of\nthe Chaldeans only 1,903 years, whereas Epigenes recognises 720,000\nyears (*Pliny. Histor.* *Natur. Lib. ***VII.***\nc. *56.) The whole of these hypotheses made by profane writers\nare based upon and due to a misunderstanding. The chronology of\nall the Western peoples, ancient Greeks and Romans, was borrowed\nfrom India. Now, it is said in the Tamil edition of *Bagavadam\n*that* *15 solar days make a *Paccham; *two*\npaccham *(or 30 days) are a month of the mortals, adding that\nsuch a month is only one day of the *Pitar Devata* (*Pitris*)*.\n*Again, two of these months constitute a *roodoo,*\nthree* roodoo* make an *ayanam, *and two *ayanams\n*a year -- which year of the mortals is* but a day of the\ngods. *It is on such misunderstood teachings that some Greeks\nhave imagined that all the initiated priests had transformed days\ninto years!\n\nThis mistake of the ancient Greek and Latin writers became pregnant\nwith results in Europe. At the close of the past and the beginning\nof this century, relying upon the purposely mutilated accounts\nof Hindu chronology, brought from India by certain too zealous\nand as unscrupulous missionaries, Bailly, Dupuis, and others built\nquite a fantastic theory upon the subject. Because the Hindus\nhad made half a revolution of the moon, a measure of time; and\nbecause a month composed of only fifteen days -- of which Quint.\nCurtius speaks (*Menses in quinos dies descriperunt dies. *Quint.\nCurt. **LVIII**., c. 9) -- is found mentioned in\nHindu literature, therefore, it is a verified fact that their\n*year *was only half a year, when it was *not called\na day. *The Chinese, too, divided their Zodiac into twenty-four\nparts, hence their year into twenty-four fortnights, but such\ncomputation did not, nor does it prevent their having an astronomical\nyear just the same as ours. And they have a period of sixty days\n-- the Southern Indian *Roodoo, *to this day in some provinces.\nMoreover, Diodorus Siculus (Lib. I. § 26, p. 30) calls \"*thirty\ndays *an Egyptian year,\" or that period during which\nthe moon performs a complete revolution. Pliny and Plutarch both\nspeak of it (*Hist. Nat. *Lib. **VII**., c.\n48, Vol**. III**., p. 185, and *Life of Numa,\n*§* *16); but does it stand to reason that the\nEgyptians, who knew astronomy as well as any other people did,\nmade the *lunar *month consist of thirty days, when it\nis only twenty-eight days with fractions? This lunary period had\n*an occult* *meaning *surely as much as the *Ayanam\n*and the *roodoo *of the Hindus had. The year of two\nmonths' duration, and the period of sixty days also,\n\n####### [[Vol. 2, Page]] 621 VARIOUS CYCLIC CALCULATIONS.\n\nwas a universal measure of time in antiquity, as Bailly himself\nshows in his *Traite de l*'*Astronomie Orientale. *The\nChinamen, according to their own books, divided their year into\ntwo parts, from one equinox to the other (*Mem. Acad. Ins.\n*T. **XVI**., c. 48, *Tom. ***III**.,\np. 183); the Arabs anciently divided the year into six seasons,\neach composed of two months; in the Chinese astronomical work\ncalled *Kioo-tche, *it is said that two moons make a measure\nof time, and six measures a year; and to this day the aborigines\nof Kamschatka have their years of six months, as they had when\nvisited by Abbe Chappe (Voyage to Siberia, Vol. III., p. 19).\nBut is all this a reason to say that when the Hindu Puranas say\n\"a *solar year*\"* *they mean *one solar\n*day! It is the knowledge of the natural laws that make of\nseven the root nature-number, so to say, in the manifested world\n-- at any rate in our present terrestrial life-cycle -- and the\nwonderful comprehension of its workings, that unveiled to the\nancients so many of the mysteries of nature. It is these laws,\nagain, and their processes on the sidereal, terrestrial, and moral\nplanes, which enabled the old astronomers to calculate correctly\nthe duration of the cycles and their respective effects on the\nmarch of events; to record beforehand (prophecy, it is called)\nthe influence which they will have on the course and development\nof the human races. The Sun, Moon, and planets being the never-erring\ntime measurers, whose potency and periodicity were well known,\nbecame thus the great Ruler and rulers of our little system in\nall its *seven* *domains, *or \"spheres of action.\"*\n\nThis has been so evident and remarkable, that even many of the\nmodern men of Science, Materialists as well as Mystics, had their\nattention called to this law. Physicians and theologians, mathematicians\nand psychologists have drawn the attention of the world repeatedly\nto this fact of periodicity in the behaviour of \"Nature.\"\nThese numbers are explained in the \"Commentaries\" in\nthese words.\n\n**T**HE **C**IRCLE IS NOT THE \"**O**NE\"\nBUT THE **ALL**.\n\n**I**N THE HIGHER [*heaven*] THE IMPENETRABLE\n**R**AJAH [\"*ad Mutant,*\" *see\nAtharva-Veda X., *105], IT [*the Circle*]* *BECOMES\n**O**NE, BECAUSE [*it* *is*] THE INDIVISIBLE,\nAND THERE CAN BE NO** T**AU IN IT.\n\n**I**N* *THE SECOND [*of the three *\"*Rajamsi*\"*\n*(*tritiye*)*, or the three *\"*Worlds*\"]*\n*THE* *ONE BECOMES TWO [*male and female*]*;\n*AND THREE [*add* *the Son or logos*]*; *AND\nTHE **S**ACRED **F**OUR [\"*tetractis,*\"*\nor the *\"*Tetragrammaton.*\"]\n\n**I**N THE THIRD [*the lower world or our earth*]*\n*THE NUMBER BECOMES FOUR, AND THREE, AND TWO. **T**AKE\nTHE FIRST TWO, AND THOU WILT\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* The spheres of action of the combined Forces of Evolution and\nKarma are (1) the Super-spiritual or *noumenal; *(*2*)*\n*the Spiritual; (3) the Psychic; (4) the Astro-ethereal; (5)\nthe Sub-astral; (6) the Vital; and (7) the purely *physical\n*spheres.\n\n####### [[Vol. 2, Page]] 622 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\nOBTAIN **S**EVEN, THE SACRED NUMBER OF LIFE; BLEND\n[*the latter*]* *WITH* *THE MIDDLE **R**AJAH,\nAND THOU WILT HAVE **N**INE, THE SACRED NUMBER OF\n**BEING** AND **BECOMING**.\"*\n\nWhen the Western Orientalists have mastered the real meaning of\nthe Rig Vedic divisions of the World -- the two-fold, three-fold,\nsix and seven-fold, and especially the nine-fold division, the\nmystery of the cyclic divisions applied to heaven and earth, gods\nand men, will become clearer to them than it is now. For --\n\n\"**T**HERE IS A HARMONY OF NUMBERS IN ALL NATURE;\n*in the force of gravity, in the planetary movements, in the\nlaws of heat, light, electricity, and chemical affinity, in the\nforms of animals and plants, in the perception of the mind.*\nThe direction, indeed, of modern natural and physical science,\nis towards a generalization which shall express the fundamental\nlaws of all, by one simple numerical ratio. We would refer to\nProfessor Whewell's 'Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences,' and\nto Mr. Hay's researches into the laws of harmonious colouring\nand form. *From these it appears that the number seven is distinguished\nin the laws regulating the harmonious Perception of forms, colours,\nand sounds*, and probably of taste also, if we could analyse\nour sensations of this kind with mathematical accuracy.\"\n(\"Medical Review,\" July, 1844).\n\nSo much so, indeed, that more than one physician has stood aghast\nat the periodical *septenary *return of the cycles in the\nrise and fall of various complaints, and naturalists have felt\nthemselves at an utter loss to explain this law. \"The birth,\ngrowth, maturity, vital functions . . . . change, diseases, decay\nand death, of insects, reptiles, fishes, birds, mammals, and even\nof man, are more or less controlled by a law of completion in\n*weeks,*\"* *or seven days.** Dr. Laycock (*Lancet,\n*1842-3), writing on the Periodicity of Vital Phenomena, records\na \"most remarkable illustration and confirmation of the law\nin insects.\"***\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* In Hinduism, as understood by the Orientalists from the *Atharvaveda,\n*the three rajamsi refer to the three strides of Vishnu; his\nascending higher step, being taken in the highest world (A. V.,\n**VII**., 99, 1, cf. I 155*, *5)*. *It\nis the *divo rajah, *or the \"sky,\" as they take\nit. But it is something besides this in Occultism. The sentence\n*pareshu, guhyeshu,* *vrateshu, *cf. * *I,\n155, 3, and **IX.**, 75, 2; or again, verse X., 114,\nin Atharvaveda -- has yet to be explained.\n\n** H. Grattan Guinness, **F.R.G.S**., in his \"Approaching\nEnd of the Age.\"\n\n*** Having given a number of illustrations from natural history,\nthe doctor adds: \"The facts I have briefly glanced at are\ngeneral facts, *and cannot happen day after day in so*\n*many millions of animals of every kind, *FROM THE **L**ARVA\nOR **O**VUM OF A **M**INUTE **I**NSECT\nUP TO **M**AN, *at definite periods, *from\na mere *chance or coincidence *. . . I think it impossible\nto come to any less general conclusion than this, that *in\nanimals, changes occur* every *three and a half, seven,\nfourteen, twenty-one, *or* twenty-eight days, *or at\nsome *definite number of weeks*\"* *or septenary\ncycles. Again, the same Dr. Laycock states that: -- \"Whatever\ntype the fever may exhibit, *there will be a paroxysm on the\nseventh day* . . . the *fourteenth will be remarkable as\na day of amendment* . . . \" (either cure or death*\n*taking place). \"If the fourth (paroxysm) be severe,\nand the fifth less so, the disease will end at the *seventh\n*paroxysm, and . . . change for the better . . . will be seen\non the *fourteenth day*, [[footnote continued on following\npage]]\n\n####### [[Vol. 2, Page]] 623 THE SEPTENATE IN PHYSIOLOGY.\n\nTo all of which Mr. Grattan Guinness, the author of \"The\nApproaching End of the Age,\" says very pertinently, as he\ndefends Biblical Chronology, \"And man's life . . . is *a\nweek, a week of decades. *'The days of our years are threescore\nyears and ten.' Combining the testimony of all these facts, we\nare bound to admit that *there prevails in organic* *mature\na law of septiform periodicity, a law of completion in weeks*\"*\n*(p. 269). Without accepting the conclusions, and especially\nthe premises of the learned Founder of \"the East London Institute\nfor Home and Foreign Missions,\" the writer accepts and welcomes\nhis researches in the occult chronology of the Bible. Just as,\nwhile rejecting the theories and hypotheses of modern Science\nand its generalizations, we bow before its great achievements\nin the world of the physical, or in all the minor details of material\nnature.\n\nThere is most assuredly an occult \"chronological system in\nHebrew Scripture\" -- the* Kabala *being its warrant;\nthere is in it \"a system of\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n[[Continued from previous page]]* *namely, about three\nor four o'clock a.m., when the system is most languid.\" (See\n\"Approaching End of the Age,\" by Grattan Guinness, pp.\n258 to 269, wherein this is quoted.)\n\nThis is pure \"soothsaying\" by *cyclic* calculations,\nand it is connected with Chaldean astrolatry and astrology. Thus\nmaterialistic Science -- medicine, *the most materialistic*\n*of all *-- applies our occult laws to diseases, studies\nnatural history with its help, recognizes its presence as a fact\nin nature, and yet must needs pooh-pooh the same archaic knowledge\nwhen claimed by the Occultists. For if the mysterious Septenary\nCycle is a law in nature, *and it is one, *as proven; if\nit is found controlling the evolution and *involution *(or\ndeath) in the realms of entomology, icthyology and ornithology,\nas in the Kingdom of the Animal, mammalia and man -- why cannot\nit be present and acting in Kosmos, in general, in its natural\n(though occult) divisions of time, races, and *mental*\ndevelopment? And why, furthermore, should not the most ancient\nadepts have studied and thoroughly mastered these cyclic laws\nunder all their aspects? Indeed, Dr. Stratton states as a physiological\nand pathological fact, that \"in health the human pulse is\nmore frequent *in* *the morning than in the evening\nfor six days out of seven; *and that on the *seventh day\nit is slower.*\"* *(*Ibid. Edinb. Med. and Surg.\nJournal, *Jan. 1843.) Why, then, should not an Occultist show\nthe same in cosmic and terrestrial life in the pulse of the planet\nand races? Dr. Laycock divides life by *three great septenary\nperiods; *the first and last, each stretching over 21 years,\nand the central period or prime of life lasting 28 years, or four\ntimes seven. He subdivides the first into *seven distinct stages,*\nand the other two into *three* minor periods, and says\nthat \"The fundamental unit of the greater periods is *one\nweek of seven days, each day being twelve hours*\"*;\n*and that \"single and compound *multiples *of this\nunit, determine the length of these periods by the same ratio,\nas multiples of the unit of twelve hours determine the lesser\nperiods. *This law* *binds all periodic vital phenomena\ntogether, and links the periods observed in the lowest* *annulose\nanimals, with those of man himself, the highest of the vertebrate.*\"*\n*If* Science* does this, why should the latter scorn\nthe Occult information, namely, that (speaking Dr. Laycock's language)\n\"*one week *of the manvantaric (*lunar*) fortnight,\nof fourteen days (or seven manus), that fortnight of twelve hours\nin a day representing seven periods or seven races -- is now passed?\"\nThis language of science fits our doctrine admirably. We (mankind)\n*have* lived over \"*a* *week of seven days,\n*each day being *twelve hours,*\"* *since\nthree and a half races are now gone for ever, the fourth is submerged,\nand we are now in the Fifth Race.\n\n####### [[Vol. 2, Page]] 624 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\nweeks\" -- which is based on the archaic Indian system, which\nmay still be found in the old Jyotisha.* And there are in it cycles\nof \"the *week* of days,\" of the \"*week\n*of* *months,\" of years, of centuries, and even\nof millenniums, decamillenniums, and more, or \"the week of\nyears of years.\"** But all this can be found in the archaic\ndoctrine. And if this common source of the chronology in every\nScripture, however *veiled, *is denied in the case of the\nBible, then the six days, and a Sabbath, the seventh, can hardly\ndisconnect *Genesis* from the Puranic Cosmogonies. For\nthe first \"Week of Creation\" shows the septiformity\nof its chronology and thus connects it with Brahma's \"Seven\nCreations.\" The able volume from the pen of Mr. Grattan Guinness,\nin which he has collected on some 760 pages every proof of that\nseptiform calculation, is good evidence. For if the Bible chronology\nis, as he says, \"regulated by the law of weeks,\" and\nif it is septenary, whatever the measures of the creation week\nand the length of its days; and if, finally, \"the Bible system\nincludes weeks on a great variety of scales,\" then this system\nis shown to be identical with all the pagan systems. Moreover,\nthe attempt to show that 4,320 years (in lunar months) elapsed\nbetween \"Creation\" and the Nativity, is a clear and\nunmistakable connection with the 4,320,000 of the Hindu Yugas.\nOtherwise, why make such efforts to prove that these figures,\nwhich are pre-eminently Chaldean and Indo-Aryan, play such a part\nin the New Testament? We shall prove it now still more forcibly.\n\nLet the impartial critic compare the two accounts -- the Vishnu\nPurana and the Bible -- and he will find that the \"seven\ncreations\" of Brahma are at the foundation of the \"week\"\nof creation in *Genesis* i*.* The two allegories\nare different, but the systems are all built on the same foundation-stone.\nThe Bible can be understood *only by the light* *of\nthe Kabala. *Take the *Zohar, *the \"Book of Concealed\nMystery,\" however now disfigured, and compare. The seven\nRishis and the fourteen Manus of the seven Manvantaras -- issue\nfrom Brahma's head; they are his \"mind-born sons,\" and\nit is with them that begins the division of mankind and its races\nfrom the Heavenly man, \"the Logos\" (the manifested),\nwho is Brahma Prajapati. Says (V. 70 in) the \"Ha Idra Rabba\nQadisha\" (the Greater Holy Assembly) of the skull (head)\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* See for the length of such cycles or *Yugas *in Vriddha\nGarga and other ancient astronomical Sections (Jyotisha). They\nvary from the cycle of five years -- which Colebrooke calls \"the\ncycle of the Vedas,\" specified in the institutes of Parasara,\n\"and the basis of calculation for larger cycles\" (*Miscell.\nEssays, *Vol. I., pp. 106 and 108) -- up to the Mahayuga or\nthe famous cycle of 4,320,000 years.\n\n** The Hebrew word for \"week\" is *Seven; *and\nany length of time divided by *Seven* would have been a\n\"week\" in their day, even 49,000,000 years, as it is\nseven times seven millions. But their calculation is throughout\nseptiform.\n\n####### [[Vol. 2, Page]] 625 THE HAIRY SYMBOL.\n\nof Macroprosopus, the ancient One* (*Sanat, *an appellation\nof Brahma), that in every one of his hairs is a \"hidden fountain\nissuing from the concealed brain.\" \"And it shineth and\ngoeth forth through that hair unto the hair of Microprosopus,\nand from it (which is the manifest **Q**UATERNARY,\nthe *Tetragrammaton*)* *his brain is formed; and\nthence that brain goeth into THIRTY and TWO paths\" (or the\n*triad* and the *duad, *or again 432). And again:\n(V. 80) \"Thirteen curls of hair exist on the one side and\non the other of the skull\" -- *i.e.*, six on one and\nsix on the other, the thirteenth being also the fourteenth, as\nit is male-female, \"and through them commenceth the division\nof the hair\" (the division of things, Mankind and Races).\n\n\"We *six *are lights which shine forth from a *seventh\n*(light),\" saith Rabbi Abba; \"*thou art the seventh\nlight*\"* *(the synthesis of us all, he adds, speaking\nof *Tetragrammaton *and his seven \"companions,\"\nwhom he calls \"the eyes of Tetragrammaton.\")\n\n**T**ETRAGRAMMATON is Brahma Prajapati, who assumed\n*four* forms, in order to create four kinds of *supernal\n*creatures, *i.e.*, made himself *fourfold, *or\nthe manifest *Quaternary *(see Vishnu Purana, Book I. ch.\nV.); and who, after that, is re-born in the *seven *Rishis,\nhis *Manasaputras,* \"mind-born sons,\" who became\nlater, 9, 21 and so on, who are all said to be born from various\nparts of Brahma**\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* Brahma creates in the first Kalpa (day one) various \"sacrificial\nanimals\" *pasu* -*- *or the celestial bodies\nand the Zodiacal signs, and plants *which* he uses *in*\n*sacrifices *at the opening of *Treta* Yuga. The\nesoteric meaning of it shows him proceeding cyclically and creating\nastral prototypes on the *descending spiritual arc *and\nthen on the *ascending* physical arc. The latter is the\nsub-division of a *two-fold *creation, subdivided again\ninto seven descending and seven ascending degrees of spirit falling,\nand of matter ascending -- the inverse of what takes place (as\nin a mirror which reflects the right on the left side) in this\nmanvantara of ours. It is the same, *esoterically, *in\nthe Elohistic Genesis (chap. i.), and in the Jehovistic copy,\nas in Hindu cosmogony.\n\n** It is very surprising to see theologians and Oriental scholars\nexpress indignation at the \"*depraved* taste of the\nHindu mystics\" who, not content with having *invented*\nthe \"Mind-born\" Sons of Brahma, make the Rishis, Manus,\nand Prajapatis of every kind *spring from various parts of\nthe body of their primal Progenitor -- *Brahma (see Wilson's\nfootnote in his *Vishnu Purana, *Vol. I., p. 102). Because\nthe average public is unacquainted with the Kabala, the key to,\nand glossary of, the much veiled Mosaic Books, therefore, the\nclergy imagines the truth will never out. Let any one turn to\nthe English, Hebrew, or Latin texts of the Kabala, now so ably\ntranslated by several scholars, and he will find that the Tetragrammaton,\nwhich is the Hebrew IHVH, is also both the \"Sephirothal Tree\"--\n*i.e.*, it contains all the Sephiroth except Kether, the\ncrown -- and the united *body *of the \"Heavenly man\"\n(Adam Kadmon) from whose limbs emanate the Universe and everything\nin it. Furthermore, he will find that the idea in the Kabalistic\nBooks (the chief of which in the *Zohar *are the \"Books\nof Concealed Mystery,\" of the \"Greater,\" and the\n\"Lesser Holy Assembly\") is entirely phallic and far\nmore crudely expressed than is the four-fold Brahma in any of\nthe Puranas. (See \"*Kabala Unveiled,*\"* *by\nMr. S. L. Mathers, Chap. xxii., concerning the remaining members\nof Microprosopus).\n\n####### [[Vol. 2, Page]] 626 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\nThere are two *Tetragrammatons: *the Macro and the Microprosopus.\nThe first is the *absolute *perfect Square, or the **T**ETRACTIS\nwithin the Circle, both abstract conceptions, and is therefore\ncalled **A**IN -- the Non-being, *i.e*., illimitable\nor absolute *Be-ness. *But when viewed as Microprosopus,\nor the \"Heavenly man,\" the manifested Logos, he is the\n*triangle in the square *-- the* sevenfold cube *not\nthe fourfold, or the plane Square. For it is written in the same\n\"Greater Holy Assembly\" -- (83): \"And concerning\nthis, the children of Israel wished to know in their minds, like\nas it is written (*Exod. *xvii. 7.): 'Is the Tetragrammaton\nin the midst of us, or the Negatively Existent One?'* (*Where\ndid* *they distinguish *between Microprosopus, who\nis called Tetragrammaton, and between Macroprosopus, who is called\n**A**IN, *Ain *the negatively existent?) \"**\n\nTherefore, Tetragrammaton is the THREE *made* four and\nthe FOUR made three, and is represented on this Earth by his seven\n\"companions,\" or \"Eyes\" -- the \"Seven\neyes of the Lord.\" Microprosopus is, at best, only a *secondary\n*manifested Deity. For, verse 1,152 of the \"Greater Holy\nAssembly\" (Kabala) says --\n\n\"We have learned that there *were ten *(companions)\nwho entered into the *Sod, *('mysterious assembly or mystery'),\nand that *seven only *came forth\"*** (*i.e.*,\n10 for the unmanifested, 7 for the manifested Universe.)\n\n1,158. \"And when Rabbi Shimeon revealed the *Arcana *there\nwere found none present there save those (seven companions) .\n. . . 1,159. And Rabbi Shimeon called them the seven eyes of Tetragrammaton,\nlike as it is written, Zach. iii., 9, 'These are the seven eyes\n(or principles) of Tetragrammaton,\" ' -*- i.e.*, the\nfour-fold Heavenly man, or pure spirit, is resolved into Septenary\nman, pure matter and Spirit.\n\nThus the Tetrad is *Microprosopus, *and the latter is the\nmale-female Chochmah-Binah, the 2d and 3d Sephiroth. The Tetragrammaton\nis the very essence of number Seven, in its terrestrial significance.\nSeven stands between four and nine -- the basis and foundation\n(astrally) of our physical world and man, in the kingdom of Malkuth.\n\nFor Christians and believers, this reference to Zaccharias and\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* [[Continued from previous page]] For, this \"Tree of Life\"\nis also the \"tree of knowledge of good and evil,\" whose\nchief mystery is that of human procreation. It is a mistake to\nregard the Kabala as *explaining *the mysteries of Kosmos\nor Nature; it explains and unveils only a few allegories in the\nBible, and *is more esoteric *than is the latter.\n\n* Simplified in the English Bible to: \"Is the Lord (! !)\namong us, or not?\" (See *Exodus *xvii. 7.)\n\n** See *Kabala Denudata, *by S. Liddell MacGregor Mathers,\n**F.T.S**., p. 121.\n\n*** Translators often render the word \"companion\" (angel,\nalso adept) by \"*Rabbi,*\"* *as the Rishis\nare called *gurus. *The \"Zohar\" is, if possible,\nmore occult than the Books of Moses; to read the \"Book of\nConcealed Mystery\" one requires the keys furnished by the\ngenuine \"Chaldean Book of Numbers,\" which is not extant.\n\n####### [[Vol. 2, Page]] 627 THE NUMBER SEVEN IN CHEMISTRY.\n\nespecially to the Epistle of Peter (I P. ii. 2-5) ought to be\nconclusive. In the old symbolism, man, chiefly the *inner*\nSpiritual man is called \"a stone.\" Christ is the corner-stone,\nand Peter refers to all men as \"lively\" (living) stones.\nTherefore a \"stone with seven eyes\" on it can only mean\nwhat we say, *i.e., *a man whose constitution or (\"principles,\")\nis septenary.\n\nTo demonstrate more clearly the seven in Nature, it may be added\nthat not only does the number seven govern the periodicity of\nthe phenomena of life, but that it is also found dominating the\nseries of chemical elements, and equally paramount in the world\nof sound and in that of colour as revealed to us by the spectroscope.\nThis number is the factor, *sine qua non, *in the production\nof occult astral phenomena.\n\nThus, if the chemical elements are arranged in groups according\nto their atomic weights, they will be found to constitute a series\nof groups of seven; the first, second, etc., members of each group\nbearing a close analogy in *all* their properties to the\ncorresponding members of the next group. The following table,\ncopied from Hellenbach's *Magie der Zahlen,* exhibits this\nlaw and fully warrants the conclusion he draws in the following\nwords: \"We thus see that chemical variety, so far as we can\ngrasp its inner nature, depends upon numerical relations, and\nwe have further found in this variety a ruling law for which we\ncan assign no cause; we find a law of periodicity governed by\nthe number *seven*.\"\n\nThe eighth column in this list is, as it were, the *octave\n*of the first, containing elements almost identical in chemical\nand other properties with those in the first; a phenomenon which\naccentuates the septenary law of periodicity. For further details\nthe reader is referred to Hellenbach's\n\n####### [[Vol. 2, Page]] 628 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\nwork, where it is also shown that this classification is confirmed\nby the spectroscopic peculiarities of the elements.\n\nIt is needless to refer in detail to the number of vibrations\nconstituting the notes of the musical scale; they are strictly\nanalogous to the scale of chemical elements, and also to the scale\nof colour as unfolded by the spectroscope, although in the latter\ncase we deal with only *one* octave, while both in music\nand chemistry we find a series of *seven* octaves represented\ntheoretically, of which *six* are fairly complete and in\nordinary use in both sciences. Thus, to quote Hellenbach: --\n\n\"It has been established that, from the standpoint of phenomenal\nlaw, upon which all our knowledge rests, the vibrations of sound\nand light increase regularly, that they divide themselves into\n*seven *columns, and that the successive numbers in each\ncolumn are closely allied; *i.e.*, that they exhibit a\nclose relationship which not only is expressed in the figures\nthemselves, but also is practically confirmed in chemistry as\nin music, in the latter of which the ear confirms the verdict\nof the figures. . . . . . The fact that this periodicity and variety\nis governed by the number *seven* is undeniable, and it\nfar surpasses the limits of mere chance, and must be assumed to\nhave an adequate cause, which cause must be discovered.\"\n\nVerily, then, as Rabbi Abbas said: \"We are six lights which\nshine forth from a seventh (*light*); thou (Tetragrammaton)\nart the seventh light (the origin) of us all;\" (V. 1,160)\nand -- \"For assuredly there is no stability in those six,\nsave what they derive from the seventh. For ALL THINGS DEPEND\nFROM THE SEVENTH.\" (V. 1,161. Kabala, \"The Greater Holy\nAssembly.\")\n\nThe (ancient and modern) Western American Zuni Indians seem to\nhave entertained similar views. Their present-day customs, their\ntraditions and records, all point to the fact that, from time\nimmemorial, their institutions -- political, social and religious\n-- were (and still are) shaped according to the septenary principle.\nThus all their ancient towns and villages were built in clusters\nof six, around a seventh. It is always a group of seven, or of\nthirteen, and always the six surround the seventh. Again, their\nsacerdotal hierarchy is composed of six \"Priests of the House\"\nseemingly synthesized in the seventh, who is a woman, the \"**P**RIESTESS\n**M**OTHER.\" Compare this with the \"seven\ngreat officiating priests\" spoken of in *Anugita, *the\nname given to the \"seven senses,\" exoterically, and\nto the seven human principles, *esoterically. *Whence this\nidentity of symbolism? Shall we still doubt the fact of Arjuna\ngoing over to Patala (the Antipodes, America) and there marrying\nUlupi, the daughter of the Naga (or rather *Nargal*)*\n*King? But to the Zuni priests.\n\nThese receive an annual tribute, to this day, of corn of seven\ncolours. Undistinguished from other Indians during the whole year,\non a certain day, they come out (the six priests and one priestess)\narrayed in their\n\n####### [[Vol. 2, Page]] 629 THE SEVEN PRIESTS OF THE ZUNIS.\n\npriestly robes, each of a colour sacred to the particular God\nwhom the priest serves and personifies; each of them representing\none of the seven regions, and each receiving corn of the colour\ncorresponding to that region. Thus, the white represents the East,\nbecause from the East comes the first Sun-light; the yellow, corresponds\nto the North, from the colour of the flames produced by the *aurora\nborealis;* the red, the South, as from that quarter comes\nthe heat; the blue stands for the West, the colour of the Pacific\nOcean, which lies to the West; black is the colour of the nether\nunderground region -- darkness; corn with grains of all colours\non one ear represents the colours of the upper region -- of the\nfirmament, with its rosy and yellow clouds, shining stars, etc.\nThe \"speckled\" corn -- each grain containing all the\ncolours -- is that of the \"Priestess-Mother\": woman\ncontaining in herself the seeds of all races past, present and\nfuture; Eve being the mother of all living.\n\nApart from these was the Sun -- the Great Deity -- whose priest\nwas the spiritual head of the nation. These facts were ascertained\nby Mr. F. Hamilton Cushing, who, as many are aware, became an\nIndian Zuni, lived with them, was initiated into their religious\nmysteries, and has learned more about them than any other man\nnow living.\n\nSeven is also the great magic number. In the occult records the\nweapon mentioned in the Puranas and the *Mahabharata --*\nthe* Agneyastra* or \"fiery weapon\" bestowed by\nAurva upon his chela Sagara -- is said to be built of seven elements.\nThis weapon -- supposed by some ingenious Orientalists to have\nbeen a \"rocket\" (!) -- is one of the many thorns in\nthe side of our modern Sanskritists. Wilson exercises his penetration\nover it, on several pages in his *Specimens of the Hindu Theatre,\n*and finally fails to explain it. He can make nothing out\nof the *Agneyastra.*\n\n\"These weapons,\" he argues, \"are of a very unintelligible\ncharacter. Some of them are wielded as missiles; but, in general,\nthey *appear to be* *mystical powers exercised by the\nindividual -- *such as those of paralysing an enemy, or *locking\nhis senses fast in sleep, *or bringing down storm, and rain,\nand fire, from heaven. (*Vide supra, *pp. 427 and 428.)\n. . . . They assume celestial shapes, endowed with human faculties.\n. . . . The *Ramayana *calls them the Sons of Krisaswa\"\n(p. 297).\n\nThe Sastra-devatas, \"gods of the divine weapons,\" are\nno more Agneyastra, the weapon, than the gunners of modern artillery\nare the cannon they direct. But this simple solution did not seem\nto strike the eminent Sanskritist. Nevertheless, as he himself\nsays of the armiform progeny of Krisaswa, \"the allegorical\norigin of the (Agneyastra) weapons is, undoubtedly, the more ancient.\"*\nIt is the fiery javelin of Brahma.\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* It is. But *Agneyastra *are fiery \"missile weapons,\"\nnot \"edged\" weapons, as there is some difference between\n*Sastra* and* Astra *in Sanskrit.\n\n####### [[Vol. 2, Page]] 630 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\nThe seven-fold Agneyastra, like the *seven *senses and\nthe \"seven principles,\" symbolized by the seven priests,\nare of untold antiquity. How old is the doctrine believed in by\nTheosophists, the following section will tell.\n\n-------\n\n[[Page continued in next section]]\n\nNext Section\n\nContents",
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