{
  "meta": {
    "schema_version": "1.1",
    "endpoint": "/api/sources/secret-doctrine/vol-2-anthropogenesis/90-the-seven-souls-of-the-egyptologists.json"
  },
  "work": {
    "slug": "vol-2-anthropogenesis",
    "name": "Volume II — Anthropogenesis"
  },
  "parents": [
    {
      "slug": "secret-doctrine",
      "name": "The Secret Doctrine",
      "url": "/sources/secret-doctrine/"
    }
  ],
  "chapter": {
    "num": 40,
    "slug": "90-the-seven-souls-of-the-egyptologists",
    "title": "The Seven Souls of the Egyptologists",
    "of": 49,
    "words": 5664,
    "text": "## The Seven Souls of the Egyptologists\n\n\n###### The Secret Doctrine by H. P. Blavatsky -- Vol. 2\n\n####### [[Vol. 2, Page]] 630 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\n[[Page continued from previouis section]]\n\n#### F.\n\n##### THE SEVEN SOULS\nOF THE EGYPTOLOGISTS.\n\nIf one turns to those wells of information, \"*The Natural\nGenesis*\" and the* Lectures *of Mr. Gerald Massey,\nthe proofs of the antiquity of the doctrine under analysis become\npositively overwhelming. That the belief of the author differs\nfrom ours can hardly invalidate the facts. He views the symbol\nfrom a purely natural standpoint, one perhaps a trifle too materialistic,\nbecause too much that of an ardent Evolutionist and follower of\nthe modern Darwinian dogmas. Thus he shows that \"the student\nof Bohme's books finds much in them concerning these Seven Fountain\nSpirits and primary powers, treated as seven properties of nature\nin the alchemistic and astrological phase of the mediaeval mysteries;\"*\nand adds --\n\n\"The followers of Bohme look on such matter as divine revelation\nof his inspired Seership. They know nothing of the natural genesis,\nthe history and persistence of the Wisdom** of the past (or of\nthe broken links), and are unable to recognise the physical features\nof the ancient Seven Spirits beneath their modern metaphysical\nor alchemist mask. A second connecting link between the Theosophy\nof Bohme and the physical origins of Egyptian thought, is extant\nin the fragments of *Hermes Trismegistus.*** *No matter\nwhether these teachings are called Illuminatist, Buddhist, Kabalist,\nGnostic, Masonic, or Christian, the elemental types can only be\ntruly known in their beginnings.**** When the prophets or visionary\nshowmen of cloudland come to us claiming original inspiration,\nand utter something new, we judge of its value by what it is in\nitself. But if we find they bring us the ancient matter which\nthey cannot account for, and we can, it is natural that we should\njudge it by the primary significations rather than the latest\npretensions.***** It is useless for us to read our\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* The Natural Genesis, Vol. I.. pp, 318-319.\n\n** Yet there are some, who may know something of these, even outside\nthe author's lines, wide as they undeniably are.\n\n*** This connecting link, like others, was pointed out by the\npresent writer nine years before the appearance of the work from\nwhich the above is quoted, namely in *Isis* *Unveiled,\n*a work full of such guiding links between ancient, mediaeval,\nand modern thought, but, unfortunately, too loosely edited.\n\n**** Ay; but how can the learned writer prove that these \"beginnings\"\nwere precisely in Egypt, and nowhere else; and only 50,000 years\nago?\n\n***** Precisely: and this is just what the Theosophists do. They\nhave never claimed,\" (original inspiration,\" not even\nas mediums, but have always pointed, and do now point to the \"primary\nsignification\" of the symbols, which they trace to other\n[[Continued on next page]]\n\n####### [[Vol. 2, Page]] 631 THE SIDEREAL SEVEN.\n\nlater thought into the earliest types of expression, and then\nsay the ancients meant that.* Subtilized interpretations which\nhave become doctrines and dogmas in theosophy have now to be tested\nby their genesis in physical phenomena, in order that we may explode\ntheir false pretensions to supernatural origin or supernatural\nknowledge.*\n\nBut the able author of the \"Book of the Beginnings\"\nand of \"*The* *Natural Genesis*\"* *does\n-- very fortunately, for us -- quite the reverse. He demonstrates\nmost triumphantly our Esoteric (Buddhist) teachings, by showing\nthem identical with those of Egypt. Let the reader judge from\nhis learned lecture on \"The Seven Souls of Man.\"** Says\nthe author: --\n\n\"The first form of the mystical **S**EVEN was\nseen to be figured in heaven by the Seven large stars of the *great\nBear, *the constellation assigned by the Egyptians to the\nMother of Time, and of the Seven Elemental Powers.\"\n\nJust so, for the Hindus place in the *great Bear *their\nseven primitive Rishis and call this constellation the abode of\nthe *Saptarishi, Riksha* and *Chitra-Sikhandinas. *But\nwhether it is only an astronomical myth or a primordial mystery,\nhaving a deeper meaning than it bears on its surface, is what\ntheir adepts claim to know. We are also told that \"the Egyptians\ndivided the face of the sky by night into seven parts. The primary\nHeaven was seven-fold.\" So it was with the Aryans. One has\nbut read the Puranas about the beginnings of Brahma, and his \"Egg\"\nto see it. Have the Aryans taken the idea from the Egyptians?\n-- \"The earliest forces,\" proceeds the lecturer, \"recognized\nin nature were reckoned as seven in number. These became seven\nelementals, devils (?) or later, divinities. Seven properties\nwere assigned to nature, as\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n[[Continued from previous page]] countries, older even than Egypt;\n*significations, *moreover, which emanate from a hierarchy\n(or hierarchies, if preferred) of *living wise men*, mortals,\nnotwithstanding that Wisdom, who reject every approach to *supernaturalism.*\n\n* But where is the proof that the ancients did not mean precisely\nthat which the theosophists claim? Records exist for what they\nsay, just as other records exist for what Mr. G. Massey says.\nHis interpretations are very correct, but equally one-sided. Surely\nnature has more than one *physical aspect; *for astronomy,\nastrology, and so on, are all on the physical, not the spiritual\nplane.\n\n** It is to be feared that Mr. Massey has not succeeded. We have\nour followers as he has his followers, and materialistic Science\nsteps in and takes little account of both his and our speculations!\n\nThe fact that this learned Egyptologist does not recognise in\nthe doctrine of the \"Seven Souls,\" as he terms our *principles,\n*or \"metaphysical concepts,\" but \"the primitive\nbiology or physiology of the Soul,\" does not invalidate our\nargument. The lecturer touches on only two keys, those that unlock\nthe astronomical and the physiological mysteries of esotericism,\nand leaves out the other five. Otherwise he would have promptly\nunderstood that what he calls the *physiological *divisions\nof the living Soul of man, are regarded by theosophists as also\npsychological and spiritual.\n\n[[Vol. 2, Page]] 632 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\nmatter, cohesion, fluxion, coagulation, accumulation, station,\nand division and *seven elements or souls to man.*\"*\n*\n\nAll this was taught in the esoteric doctrine, but it was interpreted\nand its mysteries unlocked, as already stated, with *seven,\n*not two, or at the utmost, three keys; hence the causes and\ntheir effects worked in invisible or mystic as well as psychic\nnature, and were made referable to metaphysics and psychology\nas much as to physiology. \"The principle of *sevening*\"*\n-- *as the author says -- \"was introduced, and the number\nseven supplied a sacred type *that could be used for manifold\npurposes*\"*; *and it was so used. For \"the\nseven Souls of the Pharaoh are often mentioned in the Egyptian\ntexts. . . . *Seven Souls or principles in man were* *identified\nby our British Druids*. . . . . The Rabbins also ran the number\nof souls up to seven; so, likewise, do the Karens of India. .\n. .\"\n\nAnd then, the author tabulates the two teachings -- the Esoteric\nand the Egyptian, -- and shows that the latter had the same series\nand in the same order.\n\nFurther on, the lecturer formulates these seven (Egyptian) souls,\nas (1) The Soul of Blood -- the* formative*; (2)* *The\nSoul of Breath -- \"that *breathes*\";* *(3)*\n*The Shade or Covering Soul -- \"that *envelopes*\";*\n*(4) The Soul of Perception -- \"that *perceives*;\"*\n*(5)* *The Soul of Pubescence \"that *procreates*\";*\n*(6) The Intellectual Soul -- \"that* reproduces intellectually*\";*\n*and (7) The Spiritual Soul -- \"that is *perpetuated\npermanently.*\"\n\nFrom the exoteric and physiological standpoint this may be very\ncorrect; it becomes less so from the esoteric point of view. To\nmaintain this, does not at all mean that the \"Esoteric Buddhists\"\n*resolve men into* *a number of elementary Spirits,\n*as Mr. G. Massey, in the same lecture, accuses them of maintaining.\nNo \"Esoteric Buddhist\" has ever been guilty of any such\nabsurdity. Nor has it been ever imagined that these shadows \"become\nspiritual beings in another world,\" or \"seven potential\nspirits or elementaries of another life.\" What is maintained\nis simply that every time the immortal *Ego* incarnates\nit becomes, as a total, a com-\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* This is a great mistake made in the Esoteric enumeration. Manas\nis the fifth, not the fourth; and *Manas *corresponds precisely\nwith *Seb, *the Egyptian fifth principle, for that portion\nof Manas, which follows the two higher principles, is the ancestral\nsoul, indeed, the bright, immortal thread of the higher Ego, to\nwhich clings the Spiritual aroma of all the lives or births.\n\n####### [[Vol. 2, Page]] 633 THE \"PRINCIPLES\" IN THE EGYPTIAN\nMETAPHYSICS.\n\npound unit of Matter and Spirit, which together act on seven different\nplanes of being and consciousness. Elsewhere, Mr. G. Massey adds:\n-- \"The seven souls (our \"Principles\") are often\nmentioned in the Egyptian texts. The moon god, Taht-Esmun, or\nthe later sun god, expressed the seven nature-powers that were\nprior to himself, and were summed up in him as his seven souls\n(we say \"principles\") . . . . The seven stars in the\nhand of Christ in the Revelation, have the same significance,\"\netc.\n\nAnd a still greater one, as these stars represent also the *seven\nkeys *of the Seven Churches or the **S**ODALIAN\n**M**YSTERIES, cabalistically. However, we will not\nstop to discuss, but add that other Egyptologists have also found\nout that the septenary constitution of man was a cardinal doctrine\nwith the old Egyptians. In a series of remarkable articles in\nthe \"Sphinx\" (Munich) Herr Franz Lambert gives incontrovertible\nproof of his conclusions from the \"Book of the Dead\"\nand other Egyptian records. For details the reader must be referred\nto the articles themselves, but the following diagram, summing\nup the author's conclusions, is demonstrative evidence of the\nidentity of Egyptian psychology with the septenary division in\n\"Esoteric Buddhism.\"\n\nOn the left hand side the Kabalistic names of the corresponding\nhuman principles are placed, and on the right the hieroglyphic\nnames with their renderings as in the diagram of F. Lambert.\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* There seems a confusion -- lasting for many centuries -- in\nthe minds of Western Kabalists. They call *Ruach *(Spirit)\nwhat we call *Kama*-rupa; whereas, with us Ruach would\nbe the \"Spiritual Soul\" *Buddhi,* and* Nephesh\n*the 4th principle, the Vital, Animal Soul. Eliphas Levi falls\ninto the same error.\n\n####### [[Vol. 2, Page]] 634 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\nThis is a very fair representation of the number of the \"principles\"\nof Occultism, but much confused; and this is what we call the\n7 principles in man, and what Mr. Massey calls \"Souls,\"\ngiving the same name to the Ego or the *Monad *which reincarnates\nand *resurrects, *so to speak, at each rebirth, as the\nEgyptians did, namely -- \"the Renewed.\" But how can\nRuach (Spirit) be lodged in Kama-rupa? What does Bohme, the Prince\nof all the mediaeval Seers, say?\n\n\"We find Seven especial properties in nature whereby this\nonly Mother works all things\" (which he calls -- fire, light,\nsound (the upper three) and *desire, bitterness, anguish, *and*\nsubstantiality, *thus analysing the lower in his own mystic\nway) . . . \"whatever the six forms are spiritually, that\nthe seventh, the body (or substantiality), is essentially.\"\nThese are the seven forms of the Mother of all Beings from whence\nall that is in this world is generated,* and again in *Aurora\nxxiv. p. *27 (quoted in *Natural Genesis*)* -- *\"The\nCreator hath in the body of this world generated himself as it\nwere *creaturely *in his qualifying Fountain Spirits, and\nall the stars are . . . God's powers, and the whole body of the\nworld consisteth in the seven qualifying or Fountain Spirits.\"\n\nThis is rendering in mystical language our theosophical doctrine.\n. . But how can we agree with Mr. G. Massey when he states that\n--\n\n\"The Seven *Races *of men that have been sublimated\nand made Planetary (?) by Esoteric Buddhism,** may be met with\nin the Bundahish as (1) the earth-men; (2) water-men; (3) breast-eared\nmen; (4) breast-eyed men; (5) one-legged men; (6) bat-winged men;\n(7) men with tails.\" . . . Each of these descriptions, allegorical\nand even perverted in their later form -- is, nevertheless, an\necho of the Secret Doctrine teaching. They all refer to the pre-Human\nevolution of the water-men \"terrible and bad\" by *unaided\n*Nature through millions of years, as previously described.\nBut we deny point blank the assertion made that \"these were\nnever real races,\" and point to the Archaic Stanzas for our\nanswer. It is easy to infer and to say that our \"instructors\nhave mistaken these shadows of the Past, for things human and\nspiritual\"; but that \"they are neither, and never were\neither,\" it is less easy to prove. The assertion must ever\nremain on a par with the Darwinian claim that man and the ape\nhad a common pithecoid ancestor. What the Lecturer takes for a\n\"mode of expression\" and nothing more, in the Egyptian\nRitual, we take as having quite another and an important meaning.\nHere is one instance. Says the Ritual, the \"Book of the Dead\"\n--\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n** Signatura rerum *xiv. ps. 10, 15* et seq.*\n\n** This is indeed news! It makes us fear that the Lecturer had\nnever read \"Esoteric Buddhism\" before criticising it,\nas there are too many such misconceptions in his notices of it.\n\n####### [[Vol. 2, Page]] 635 MAN, THE PARENT OF ALL THE MAMMALS.\n\n\"I am the mouse.\" \"I am the hawk.\" \"I\nam the ape.\" . . . \"*I am the crocodile whose Soul\nComes *FROM MEN.\" \"*I am the Soul of the Gods.*\"*\n*Of these last two sentences, one: \"whose soul comes\nfrom men\" -- is explained by the Lecturer, who says parenthetically,\n\"*that is, as a type* *of intelligence,*\"*\n*and the other: \"*I am the Soul of the Gods,*\"*\n*as meaning, \"the Horus, or Christ, as the outcome of\nall.\"\n\nThe occult teaching answers: \"It means far more.\" .\n. .\n\nIt gives first of all a corroboration of the teaching that, while\nthe human monad has passed on globe *A* and others, in\nthe First Round, through all the three kingdoms -- the mineral,\nthe vegetable, and the animal -- in this our Fourth Round, every\nmammal has sprung from Man if the semi-ethereal, many-shaped creature\nwith the *human *Monad in it, of the first two races, can\nbe regarded as Man. But it must be so called; for, in the esoteric\nlanguage, it is not the form of flesh, blood, and bones, now referred\nto as Man, which is in any way the **M**AN, but the\ninner divine **M**ONAD with its manifold principles\nor aspects.\n\nThe lecture referred to, however, much as it opposes \"Esoteric\nBuddhism\" and its teachings, is an eloquent answer to those\nwho have tried to represent the whole as a newfangled doctrine.\nAnd there are many such, in Europe, America, and even India. Yet,\nbetween the esotericism of the old Arhats, and that which has\nnow survived in India among the few Brahmins who have seriously\nstudied their Secret Philosophy, the difference does not appear\nso very great. It seems centred in, and limited to, the question\nof the order of the evolution of cosmic and other principles,\nmore than anything else. At all events it is no greater divergence\nthan the everlasting question of the *filioque *dogma,\nwhich since the **XII**th. century has separated\nthe Roman Catholic from the older Greek Eastern Church. Yet, whatever\nthe differences in the forms in which the septenary dogma is presented,\nthe substance is there, and its presence and importance in the\nBrahminical system may be judged by what one of India's learned\nmetaphysicians and Vedantic scholars says of it: --\n\n\"The real esoteric seven-fold classification is one of the\nmost important, if not the most important classification, which\nhas received its arrangement from the mysterious constitution\nof this eternal type. I may also mention in this connection that\nthe four-fold classification claims the same origin. The light\nof life, as it were, seems to be refracted by the treble-faced\nprism of Prakriti, having the three Gunams for its three faces,\nand divided into seven rays, which develop in course of time the\nseven principles of this classification. The progress of development\npresents some points of similarity to the gradual development\nof the rays of the spectrum. While the four-fold classification\nis amply\n\n####### [[Vol. 2, Page]] 636 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\nsufficient for all practical purposes, this real seven-fold classification\nis of great theoretical and scientific importance. It will be\nnecessary to adopt it to explain certain classes of phenomena\nnoticed by occultists; and it is perhaps better fitted to be the\nbasis of a perfect system of psychology. It is not the peculiar\nproperty of 'the trans-Himalayan esoteric doctrine.' In fact,\nit has a closer connection with the Brahminical Logos than with\nthe Buddhist Logos. In order to make my meaning clear I may point\nout here that the Logos has seven forms. In other words, there\nare seven kinds of Logoi in the Cosmos. Each of these has become\nthe central figure of one of the seven main branches of the ancient\nWisdom-religion. This classification is not the seven-fold classification\nwe have adopted. I make this assertion without the slightest fear\nof contradiction. The real classification has all the requisites\nof a scientific classification. It has seven distinct principles,\nwhich correspond with seven distinct states of Pragna or consciousness.\nIt bridges the gulf between the objective and subjective, and\nindicates the mysterious circuit through which ideation passes.\nThe seven principles are allied to seven states of matter, and\nto seven forms of force. These principles are harmoniously arranged\nbetween two poles, which define the limits of *human* consciousness.\"*\n\nThe above is perfectly correct, save, perhaps, one point. The\n\"sevenfold classification\" in the esoteric system has\nnever been claimed (to the writer's knowledge) by any one belonging\nto it, as \"the peculiar property of the Trans-Himalayan esoteric\ndoctrine\"; but only as having survived in that old school\nalone. It is no more the property of the* trans, *than\nit is of the *cis*-Himalayan esoteric doctrine, but is\nsimply the common inheritance of all such schools, left to the\nsages of the Fifth Root Race by the great Siddhas** of the Fourth.\nLet us remember that the Atlanteans became the terrible sorcerers,\nnow celebrated in so many of the oldest **MSS**.\nof India, only toward their fall, the submersion of their continent\nhaving been brought on by it. What is claimed is simply the fact\nthat the wisdom imparted by the \"Divine Ones\" -- born\nthrough the *Kriyasakti powers *of the Third Race before\nits Fall and Separation into sexes -- to the adepts of the early\nFourth Race, has remained in all its pristine purity in a certain\nBrotherhood. The said\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n** The Theosophist, *1887 (Madras).\n\n** According to *Svetasvatara-Upanishad *(357) the Siddhas\nare those who are possessed from birth of *superhuman *powers,\nas also of \"knowledge and indifference to the world.\"\nAccording to the Occult teachings, however, Siddhas are the *Nirmanakayas*\nor the \"spirits\" (in the sense of an individual, or\n*conscious *spirit) of great sages from spheres on a higher\nplane than our own, who voluntarily incarnate in mortal bodies\nin order to help the human race in its upward progress. Hence\ntheir innate knowledge, wisdom and powers.\n\n####### [[Vol. 2, Page]] 637 AN ALLEGORY IN THE ANUGITA.\n\nSchool or Fraternity being closely connected with a certain island\nof an inland sea, believed in by both Hindus and Buddhists, but\ncalled \"mythical\" by geographers and Orientalists, the\nless one talks of it, the wiser he will be. Nor can one accept\nthe said \"sevenfold classification\" as having \"a\ncloser connection with the Brahminical Logos than with the Buddhist\nLogos,\" since both are identical, whether the one \"Logos\"\nis called *Eswara *or* Avalokiteswara, *Brahma or\nPadmapani. These are, however, very small differences, more fanciful\nthan real, in fact. Brahmanism and Buddhism, both viewed from\ntheir orthodox aspects, are as inimical and as irreconcilable\nas water and oil. Each of these great bodies, however, has a vulnerable\nplace in its constitution. While even in their esoteric interpretation\nboth can agree but to disagree, once that their respective vulnerable\npoints are confronted, every disagreement must fall, for the two\nwill find themselves on common ground. The \"heel of Achilles\"\nof orthodox Brahmanism is the Adwaita philosophy, whose followers\nare called by the pious \"Buddhists in disguise\"; as\nthat of orthodox Buddhism is Northern mysticism, as represented\nby the disciples of the philosophies of Aryasanga (the Yogacharya\nSchool) and Mahayana, who are twitted in their turn by their correligionists\nas \"Vedantins in disguise.\" The esoteric philosophy\nof both these can be but one if carefully analysed and compared,\nas Gautama Buddha and Sankaracharya are most closely connected,\nif one believes tradition and certain esoteric teachings. Thus\nevery difference between the two will be found one of form rather\nthan of substance.\n\nA most mystic discourse, full of septenary symbology, may be found\nin the *Anugita.* *There the Brahmana narrates the bliss\nof having crossed beyond the regions of illusion, \"in which\nfancies are the gadflies and mosquitoes, in which grief and joy\nare cold and heat, in which delusion is the blinding darkness,\navarice, the beasts of prey and reptiles, and desire and anger\nare the obstructors.\" . . . . The sage describes the entrance\ninto and exit from the forest (a symbol for man's life-time) and\nalso that forest itself:**\n\n\"In that forest are seven large trees (the Senses, Mind and\nUnderstanding, or Manas and Buddhi included), seven fruits and\nseven guests; seven hermitages, seven (forms of) concentration,\nand seven (forms of) initiation. This is the description of the\nforest. That forest is filled with trees producing splendid flowers\nand fruits of five colours.\"\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n*\" The Sacred Books of the East,\" vol. viii. *Anugita,\n*p. 284, *et seq.*\n\n** I propose to follow here the text and the editor's commentaries,\nwho accepts Arjuna Misra and Nilakantha's *dead-letter explanations.\n*Our Orientalists never trouble to think that if a native\ncommentator is a non-initiate, he could not explain correctly,\nand if an *Initiate, *would not.\n\n####### [[Vol. 2, Page]] 638 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\n\"The senses,\" says the commentator, \"are called\ntrees, as being producers of the fruits . . . . pleasures and\npains; the *guests *are the powers of each sense personified\n-- they receive the fruits above described; the hermitages are\nthe trees, in which the guests take shelter. The seven forms of\nconcentration are the exclusion from the self of the seven functions\nof the seven senses, etc., already referred to; the seven forms\nof initiation refer to the initiation into the higher life . .\n. by repudiating as not one's own the actions of each member out\nof the group of seven.\" (See Khandagya, p. 219, and Com.)\n\nThe explanation is harmless, if unsatisfactory.\n\nSays the Brahmana continuing his description: --\n\n\"That forest is filled with trees producing flowers and fruits\nof four colours. That forest is filled with trees producing flowers\nand fruits of three colours, and mixed. That forest is filled\nwith trees producing flowers and fruits of two colours, and of\nbeautiful colours. That forest is filled with trees producing\nflowers and fruits of one colour and fragrant. That forest is\nfilled (instead of seven) with two large trees producing numerous\nflowers and fruits of undistinguished colours (*mind and understanding\n-- the two higher senses, *or theosophically, 'Manas-Buddhi').\nHere is one Fire (Self) here connected with the Brahman* and having\na good mind (or *true knowledge, *according to Arjuna Misra).\nAnd there is fuel here, namely, the five senses (or human passions).\nThe Seven (*forms of*)* *emancipation from them\nare the Seven (*forms of*)* *initiation. The qualities\nare the fruits. . . . There, the great Sages receive hospitality.\nAnd when they have been worshipped and have disappeared, another\nforest shines forth, in which *intelligence is the tree, *and\nemancipation the fruit, and which possesses shade (*in the\nform of*)* *tranquillity, which depends on Knowledge,\nwhich has contentment for its water, and the **K**SHETRAGNA\n(the \"*Supreme ***S**ELF,\" says\nKrishna, in the Bhagavad Gita, p. 102* et seq.*) within\nfor the Sun.\"\n\nNow, all the above is very plain, and no theosophist, even among\nthe least learned, could fail to understand the allegory. And\nyet, we see great Orientalists making a perfect mess of it in\ntheir explanations. The \"great sages\" who \"receive\nhospitality\" are explained as meaning *the senses, *\"which,\nhaving worked *as unconnected with the self *are finally\nabsorbed into it.\" But one fails to understand, if the senses\nare \"unconnected\" with the \"Higher Self,\"\nin what manner can they be\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* The English editor explains here, saying, \"I presume devoted\nto the Brahman.\" This would be a very poor devotion, indeed,\nin the accomplishment of the gradually emancipating process of\nYoga. We venture to say that the \"Fire\" or Self is the\nhigher real **S**ELF \"connected with,\"\nthat is to say *one with Brahma, *the One Deity. The \"Self\"\nseparates itself no longer from the universal Spirit.\n\n####### [[Vol. 2, Page]] 639 THE ALLEGORY EXPLAINED.\n\n\"absorbed into it.\" One would think, on the contrary,\nthat just because the personal senses gravitate and strive to\nbe connected with the *impersonal *Self, that the latter,\nwhich is **F**IRE, burns the lower five and purifies\nthereby the higher two, \"mind and understanding\" or\nthe higher aspects of *Manas* *and* Buddhi. *This*\n*is quite apparent from the text. The \"great sages\"\n*disappear *after having \"been worshipped.\" Worshipped\nby whom if they (the presumed senses) are \"unconnected with\nthe self\"? By** M**IND, of course; by Manas\n(in this case merged in the *sixth sense*)* *which\nis not, and cannot be, the Brahman, the **S**ELF,\nor Kshetragna -- the soul's spiritual sun. Into the latter, in\ntime, Manas itself must be absorbed. It has worshipped \"great\nsages\" and given hospitality to *terrestrial *wisdom:\nbut once that \"another forest shone forth\" upon it,\nit is Intelligence (Buddhi, the 7th sense, but 6th principle)\nwhich is transformed into *the* tree -- that tree whose\nfruit is emancipation -- which finally destroys the very roots\nof the Aswattha tree, the symbol of *life *and of its illusive\njoys and pleasures. And therefore, those who attain to that state\nof emancipation have, in the words of the above-cited sage, \"no\nfear afterwards.\" In this state \"the end cannot be perceived\nbecause it extends on all sides.\"\n\n\"There always dwell seven females there,\" he goes on\nto say, carrying out the imagery. These females, who, according\nto Arjuna Misra, are the Mahat, Ahamkara and five Tanmatras, have\nalways their faces turned downwards, as they are obstacles in\nthe way of spiritual ascension.\n\n\"* *. . . . In that same (Brahman, the 'Self') the\nSeven perfect Sages, together with their chiefs, abide and again\nemerge from the same. Glory, brilliance and greatness, enlightenment,\nvictory, perfection and power -- these seven rays follow after\nthis same Sun (Kshetragna, the Higher Self). . . . Those whose\nwishes are reduced (unselfish). . . . whose sins (passions) are\nburnt up by restraint, merging the Self in the Self,t**devote\nthemselves to Brahman. Those people who understand the forest\nof Knowledge (Brahman, or **S**ELF) praise tranquillity.\nAnd aspiring to that forest, they are (re-) born so as not to\nlose courage.\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* As Mahat (universal intelligence) is first born, or manifests,\nas Vishnu, and then, when it falls into matter and develops self-consciousness,\nit becomes Egoism, Selfishness, so *Manas *is of a dual\nnature. It is respectively under the sun and moon, for as Sankaracharya\nsays \"The moon is the mind, and the sun the understanding.\"\nThe sun and moon are the deities of our planetary Macrocosmos,\nand therefore Sankara adds that \"the mind and the understanding\nare the respective deities of the (human) organs\" (*vide*\nBrihadaranyaka, pp. 521,* et seq*.) This is perhaps why\nArjuna Misra says that the moon and the *Fire *(the self,\nthe sun) constitute the universe.\n\n** \"The body in the Soul,\" as Arjuna Misra is credited\nwith saying, or rather the \"Soul in the Spirit,\" and\non a still higher plane of development: \"the **S**ELF\nor Atman in the Universal Self.\"\n\n####### [[Vol. 2, Page]] 640 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\nSuch indeed, is this holy forest . . . . and understanding it,\nthey (the Sages) act accordingly, being directed by the **K**SHETRAGNA.\n. . . \"\n\nNo translator among the Western Orientalists has yet perceived\nin the foregoing allegory anything higher than mysteries connected\nwith sacrificial ritualism, penance, or ascetic ceremonies, and\n*Hatha Yoga. *But he who understands symbolical imagery,\nand hears the voice of **S**ELF WITHIN **S**ELF,\nwill see in this something far higher than mere ritualism, however\noften he may err in minor details of the philosophy.\n\nAnd here, we must be allowed a last remark. No true theosophist,\nfrom the most ignorant up to the most learned, ought to claim\ninfallibility for anything he may say or write upon occult matters.\nThe chief point is to admit that, in many a way, in the classification\nof either cosmic or human principles, in addition to mistakes\nin the order of evolution, and especially on metaphysical questions,\nthose of us who pretend to teach others more ignorant than ourselves\n-- are all liable to err. Thus mistakes have been made in \"Isis\nUnveiled,\" in \"Esoteric Buddhism,\" in \"Man,\"\nin \"Magic: White and Black,\" etc., etc.; and more than\none mistake is likely to be found in the present work. This cannot\nbe helped. For a large or even a small work on such abstruse subjects\nto be entirely exempt from error and blunder, it would have to\nbe written from its first to its last page by a great adept, if\nnot by an Avatar. Then only should we say, \"This is verily\na work without sin or blemish in it!\" But, so long as the\nartist is imperfect, how can his work be perfect? \"Endless\nis the search for truth!\" Let us love it and aspire to it\nfor its own sake, and not for the glory or benefit a minute portion\nof its revelation may confer on us. For who of us can presume\nto have the *whole *truth at his fingers' ends, even upon\none minor teaching of Occultism?\n\nOur chief point in the present subject, however, was to show that\nthe Septenary doctrine, or division of the constitution of man,\nwas a very ancient one, and was not invented by us. This has been\nsuccessfully done, for we are supported in this, consciously and\nunconsciously, by a number of ancient, mediaeval, and modern writers.\nWhat the former said, was well said; what the latter repeated,\nwas generally distorted. An instance: Read the \"Pythagorean\nFragments,\" and compare the Septenary man as given by the\nRev. G. Oliver, the learned mason, in his \"Pythagorean Triangle\"\n(ch. on \"*Science of Numbers,*\"* *p. 179).\n\nHe speaks as follows: --\n\n\"The Theosophic Philosophy counted SEVEN *properties *(or\nprinciples), in Man, viz.: --\n\n(1.) The divine golden Man;\n\n(2.) The inward holy body from fire and light, like pure silver;\n\n[[Vol. 2, Page]] 641 HYPNOTISM IS -- SATANISM.\n\n(3.) The elemental man;\n\n(4.) The mercurial paradisiacal man;\n\n(5.) The martial Soul-like man;\n\n(6.) The passionate man of desires;\n\n(7.) The Solar man; a witness to and inspector of the wonders\nof the Universe. They had also *seven fountain *Spirits,\nor Powers of Nature.\"\n\nCompare this jumbled account and distribution of Western theosophic\nphilosophy with the latest theosophic explanations by the Eastern\nSchool of Theosophy, and then decide which is the more correct.\nVerily: --\n\n\"Wisdom hath builded her house,\n\nShe hath hewn out her *seven pillars.*\"* -- *(*Prov.\nix, *1*.*)\n\nAs to the charge that our School has not adopted the Seven-fold\nclassification of the Brahmins, but has confused it, it is quite\nunjust. To begin with, the \"School\" is one thing, its\nexponents (*to Europeans*) quite another. The latter have\nfirst to learn the A B C of practical Eastern Occultism, before\nthey can be made to understand correctly the tremendously abstruse\nclassification based on the seven distinct states of* Pragna\n*(consciousness); and, above all, to realize thoroughly *what\nPragna is, *in the Eastern metaphysics. To give a Western\nstudent that classification is to try to make him suppose that\nhe can account for the origin of consciousness, by accounting\nfor the process by which a certain knowledge, through *only\none of the states *of that consciousness, came to him; in\nother words, it is to make him account for something he knows\non *this *plane, by something he knows nothing about on\nthe other planes; *i.e.*, to lead him from the spiritual\nand the psychological, direct to the ontological. This is why\nthe primary, old, classification was adopted by the Theosophists,\nof which classifications there are many.\n\nTo busy oneself, after such a tremendous number of independent\nwitnesses and proofs have been brought before the public, with\nan additional enumeration from theological sources, would be quite\nuseless. The seven capital sins and seven virtues of the Christian\nscheme are far less philosophical than even the Seven Liberal\nand the Seven Accursed Sciences -- or the Seven Arts of enchantment\nof the Gnostics. For one of the latter is now before the public,\npregnant with danger in the present as for the future. The modern\nname for it is **H**YPNOTISM. In the ignorance of\nthe seven principles, and used by scientific and ignorant materialists,\nit will soon become **S**ATANISM in the full acceptation\nof the term.\n\n------\n\nNext Section\n\nContents",
    "project_translation": false,
    "license": null,
    "methodology_url": null
  }
}