THE SECRET DOCTRINE:
THE SYNTHESIS
OF
SCIENCE, RELIGION, AND PHILOSOPHY.
by H. P. BLAVATSKY
COSMIC EVOLUTION.
---------------------
SEVEN STANZAS TRANSLATED WITH COMMENTARIES
FROM THE
SECRET BOOK OF DZYAN.
COSMIC EVOLUTION.
In Seven Stanzas translated from the Book of Dzyan.
---------------------
STANZA IV.
1. . . . LISTEN, YE SONS OF THE
EARTH, TO YOUR INSTRUCTORS -- THE SONS
OF THE FIRE. LEARN, THERE IS NEITHER
FIRST NOR LAST, FOR ALL IS ONE: NUMBER ISSUED FROM NO NUMBER.
2. LEARN WHAT WE WHO DESCEND FROM THE PRIMORDIAL
SEVEN, WE WHO ARE BORN FROM THE PRIMORDIAL
FLAME, HAVE LEARNT FROM OUR FATHERS. . . .
3. FROM THE EFFULGENCY OF LIGHT -- THE RAY OF THE
EVER-DARKNESS -- SPRUNG IN SPACE THE RE-AWAKENED ENERGIES; THE ONE FROM
THE EGG, THE SIX, AND THE FIVE. THEN THE THREE, THE
ONE, THE FOUR, THE ONE, THE FIVE -- THE TWICE SEVEN THE SUM TOTAL.
AND THESE ARE THE ESSENCES, THE FLAMES, THE ELEMENTS,
THE BUILDERS, THE NUMBERS, THE ARUPA, THE RUPA, AND THE FORCE OF
DIVINE MAN -- THE SUM TOTAL. AND FROM THE
DIVINE MAN EMANATED THE FORMS, THE SPARKS, THE SACRED ANIMALS, AND THE
MESSENGERS OF THE SACRED FATHERS WITHIN THE HOLY FOUR.
4. THIS WAS THE ARMY OF THE VOICE -- THE DIVINE
MOTHER OF THE SEVEN. THE SPARKS OF THE SEVEN ARE
SUBJECT TO, AND THE SERVANTS OF, THE FIRST, THE SECOND, THE THIRD, THE
FOURTH, THE FIFTH, THE SIXTH, AND THE SEVENTH OF THE SEVEN. THESE
"SPARKS" ARE CALLED SPHERES, TRIANGLES, CUBES, LINES, AND MODELLERS; FOR
THUS STANDS THE ETERNAL NIDANA -- THE
OEAOHOO, WHICH IS:
[[The Secret Doctrine, by H.P. Blavatsky, Vol. 1, Page]] 31 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.
5. "DARKNESS" THE BOUNDLESS, OR THE NO-NUMBER,
ADI-NIDANA SVABHAVAT:
--
I. THE ADI-SANAT,
THE NUMBER, FOR HE IS ONE.
II. THE VOICE OF THE LORD
SVABHAVAT, THE NUMBERS, FOR HE IS ONE AND NINE.
III. THE "FORMLESS SQUARE."
AND THESE THREE ENCLOSED WITHIN THE
ARE THE SACRED FOUR; AND THE TEN
ARE THE ARUPA UNIVERSE. THEN COME THE "SONS," THE SEVEN
FIGHTERS, THE ONE, THE EIGHTH LEFT OUT, AND HIS BREATH WHICH IS THE
LIGHT-MAKER.
6. THEN THE SECOND SEVEN, WHO ARE THE LIPIKA,
PRODUCED BY THE THREE. THE REJECTED SON IS ONE.
THE "SON-SUNS" ARE COUNTLESS.
-------
STANZA IV.
COMMENTARY.
1. LISTEN, YE SONS OF THE EARTH,
TO YOUR INSTRUCTORS -- THE SONS OF THE FIRE
(a). LEARN THERE IS NEITHER FIRST NOR LAST;
FOR ALL IS ONE NUMBER, ISSUED FROM NO NUMBER (b).
(a) These terms, the "Sons of the Fire," the "Sons of the
Fire-Mist," and the like, require explanation. They are connected with a
great primordial and universal mystery, and it is not easy to make it
clear. There is a passage in the Bhagavatgita (ch. viii.)
wherein Krishna, speaking symbolically and esoterically, says:
"I will state the times (conditions) . . . at which devotees
departing (from this life) do so never to return (be reborn), or to
return (to incarnate again). The Fire, the Flame, the day, the bright
(lucky) fortnight, the six months of the Northern solstice, departing
(dying) in these, those who know the Brahman (Yogis) go to the Brahman.
Smoke, night, the dark (unlucky) fortnight, the six months of the
Southern solstice, (dying) in these, the devotee goes to the lunar light
(or mansion the astral light also) and returns (is reborn). These two
paths, bright and dark, are said to be eternal in this world (or great
kalpa, 'Age'). By the one a man goes never to come back, by the other he
returns." Now these names, "Fire," "Flame," "Day," the "bright
fortnight," etc., as "Smoke," "Night," and so on, leading only to the
end of the lunar path are incomprehensible without a knowledge of
Esotericism. These are all names of various deities which
preside over the Cosmo-psychic Powers. We often speak of the Hierarchy
of "Flames" (see Book II.) of the "Sons of Fire," etc. Sankaracharya the
greatest of the Esoteric masters of India, says that fire means
a deity which presides over Time (kala). The able translator of
Bhagavatgita, Kashinath Trimbak Telang, M.A., of
Bombay, confesses he has "no clear notion of the meaning of these
verses" (p. 81, footnote). It seems quite clear, on the contrary, to him
who knows the occult doctrine. With these verses the mystic sense of the
solar and lunar symbols are connected: the Pitris are lunar
deities and our ancestors, because they created the physical man.
[[The Secret Doctrine, by H.P. Blavatsky, Vol. 1, Page]] 87 THE SEVEN MYSTIC SENSES.
The Agnishwatha, the Kumara (the seven mystic sages), are solar
deities, though the former are Pitris also; and these are the
"fashioners of the Inner Man." (See Book II.) They are: --
"The Sons of Fire" -- because they are the first Beings (in the
Secret Doctrine they are called "Minds"), evolved from Primordial Fire.
"The Lord is a consuming Fire" (Deuteronomy iv. 24); "The Lord
(Christos) shall be revealed with his mighty angels in flaming fire" (2
Thessal. i. 7, 8). The Holy Ghost descended on the Apostles like "cloven
tongues of fire," (Acts ii. v. 3); Vishnu will return on Kalki,
the White Horse, as the last Avatar amid fire and flames; and
Sosiosh will be brought down equally on a White Horse in a "tornado
of fire." "And I saw heaven open and behold a white horse, and he that
sat upon him . . . . is called the Word of God," (Rev. xix. 13) amid
flaming Fire. Fire is AEther in its purest form, and hence is not
regarded as matter, but it is the unity of Aether -- the second
manifested deity -- in its universality. But there are two "Fires" and a
distinction is made between them in the Occult teachings. The first, or
the purely Formless and invisible Fire concealed in the
Central Spiritual Sun, is spoken of as "triple"
(metaphysically); while the Fire of the manifested Kosmos is Septenary,
throughout both the Universe and our Solar System. "The fire or
knowledge burns up all action on the plane of illusion," says the
commentary. "Therefore, those who have acquired it and are emancipated,
are called 'Fires.' " Speaking of the seven senses symbolised
as Hotris, priests, the Brahmana says in Anugita:
"Thus these seven (senses, smell and taste, and colour, and
sound, etc., etc.) are the causes of emancipation;" and the commentator
adds: "It is from these seven from which the Self is to be emancipated.
'I' (am here devoid of qualities) must mean the Self, not the Brahmana
who speaks." ("Sacred Books of the East," ed. by Max
Muller, Vol. VIII., 278.)
(b) The expression "All is One Number, issued from No
Number" relates again to that universal and philosophical tenet just
explained in Stanza III. (Comm. 4). That which is absolute is of course
No Number; but in its later significance it has an application in Space
as in Time. It means that not only every increment of time is part of a
larger increment, up to the most indefinitely prolonged duration
conceivable by the human intellect, but also that no manifested thing
can
[[The Secret Doctrine, by H.P. Blavatsky, Vol. 1, Page]] 88 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.
be thought of except as part of a larger whole: the total aggregate
being the One manifested Universe that issues from the unmanifested or
Absolute -- called Non-Being or "No-Number," to distinguish it from
BEING or "the One Number."
-------
STANZA IV. -- Continued.
(2) LEARN WHAT WE, WHO DESCEND FROM THE PRIMORDIAL
SEVEN, WE, WHO ARE BORN FROM THE PRIMORDIAL
FLAME, HAVE LEARNED FROM OUR FATHERS (a).
(a) This is explained in Book II., and this
name, "Primordial Flame," corroborates what is said in the first
paragraph of the preceding commentary on Stanza IV.
The distinction between the "Primordial" and the subsequent seven
Builders is this: The former are the Ray and direct emanation of the
first "Sacred Four," the Tetraktis, that is, the eternally
Self-Existent One (Eternal in Essence note well, not in
manifestation, and distinct from the universal ONE). Latent, during
Pralaya, and active, during Manvantara, the "Primordial" proceed from
"Father-Mother" (Spirit-Hyle, or Ilus); whereas the other
manifested Quaternary and the Seven proceed from the Mother alone. It is
the latter who is the immaculate Virgin-Mother, who is overshadowed, not
impregnated, by the Universal MYSTERY -- when she emerges from her state
of Laya or undifferentiated condition. In reality, they are, of course,
all one; but their aspects on the various planes of being are different.
(See Part II., "Theogony of the Creative Gods.")
The first "Primordial" are the highest Beings on the Scale of
Existence. They are the Archangels of Christianity, those who refuse --
as Michael did in the latter system, and as did the eldest "Mind-born
sons" of Brahma (Veddhas) -- to create or rather to multiply.
-------
STANZA IV. -- Continued.
3. FROM THE EFFULGENCY OF LIGHT -- THE RAY OF THE
EVER-DARKNESS -- SPRUNG IN SPACE THE RE-AWAKENED ENERGIES (Dhyan
Chohans): THE ONE FROM THE EGG, THE SIX AND THE FIVE (a);
THEN THE THREE, THE ONE,
[[The Secret Doctrine, by H.P. Blavatsky, Vol. 1, Page]] 89 THE VEHICLE OF THE UNIVERSE.
THE FOUR, THE ONE, THE FIVE -- THE TWICE SEVEN, THE SUM TOTAL (b).
AND THESE ARE: THE ESSENCES, THE FLAMES, THE ELEMENTS, THE BUILDERS, THE
NUMBERS, THE ARUPA (formless), THE RUPA (with
bodies), AND THE FORCE OR DIVINE MAN -- THE SUM TOTAL.
AND FROM THE DIVINE MAN EMANATED THE FORMS, THE SPARKS,
THE SACRED ANIMALS, AND THE MESSENGERS OF THE SACRED FATHERS (the
Pitris) WITHIN THE HOLY FOUR.*
(a) This relates to the sacred Science of the
Numerals: so sacred, indeed, and so important in the study of Occultism
that the subject can hardly be skimmed, even in such a large work as the
present. It is on the Hierarchies and correct numbers of these Beings
invisible (to us) except upon very rare occasions, that the mystery of
the whole Universe is built. The Kumaras, for instance, are
called the "Four" though in reality seven in number, because Sanaka,
Sananda, Sanatana and Sanat-Kumara are the chief Vaidhatra (their
patronymic name), as they spring from the "four-fold mystery." To make
the whole clearer we have to turn for our illustrations to tenets more
familiar to some of our readers, namely, the Brahminical.
According to Manu, Hiranyagarbha is Brahma the first male
formed by the undiscernible Causeless CAUSE in a "Golden Egg resplendent
as the Sun," as states the Hindu Classical Dictionary. "Hiranyagarbha"
means the golden, or rather the "Effulgent Womb" or Egg. The meaning
tallies awkwardly with the epithet of "male." Surely the esoteric
meaning of the sentence is clear enough. In the Rig Veda it is said: --
"THAT, the one Lord of all beings . . . . the one animating
principle of gods and man," arose, in the beginning, in the Golden Womb,
Hiranyagarbha -- which is the Mundane Egg or sphere of our Universe.
That Being is surely androgynous, and the allegory of Brahma separating
into two and recreating in one of his halves (the female Vach) himself
as Viraj, is a proof of it.
"The One from the Egg, the Six and the Five," give the number 1065,
the value of the first-born (later on the male and female
Brahma-Prajapati), who answers to the numbers 7, and 14, and 21
respectively. The Prajapati are, like the Sephiroth, only seven,
including the
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------
* The 4, represented in the Occult numerals by the Tetraktis, the
Sacred or Perfect Square, is a Sacred Number with the mystics of every
nation and race. It has one and the same significance in Brahmanism,
Buddhism, the Kabala and in the Egyptian, Chaldean and other numerical
systems.
[[The Secret Doctrine, by H.P. Blavatsky, Vol. 1, Page]] 90 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.
synthetic Sephira of the triad from which they spring. Thus from
Hiranyagarbha or Prajapati, the triune (primeval Vedic
Trimurti, Agni, Vayu, and Surya), emanate the other seven, or again ten,
if we separate the first three which exist in one, and one in three,
all, moreover, being comprehended within that one "supreme" Parama,
called Guhya or " secret," and Sarvatma, the "Super-Soul." "The seven
Lords of Being lie concealed in Sarvatma like thoughts in one brain." So
are the Sephiroth. It is either seven when counting from the upper Triad
headed by Kether, or ten -- exoterically. In the Mahabharata the
Prajapati are 21 in number, or ten, six, and five (1065), thrice seven.*
(b) "The Three, the One, the Four, the One, the
Five" (in their totality -- twice seven) represent 31415 -- the
numerical hierarchy of the Dhyan-Chohans of various orders, and of the
inner or circumscribed world.** When placed on the boundary of the great
circle of "Pass not" (see Stanza V.), called also the Dhyanipasa, the
"rope of the Angels," the "rope" that hedges off the phenomenal from the
noumenal Kosmos, (not falling within the range of our present objective
consciousness); this number, when not enlarged by permutation and
expansion, is ever 31415 anagrammatically and Kabalistically, being both
the number of the circle and the mystic Svastica, the twice seven once
more; for whatever way the two sets of figures are counted, when added
separately, one figure after another, whether crossways, from right or
from left, they will always yield fourteen. Mathematically they
represent the well-known calculation, namely, that the ratio of the
diameter to the circumference of a circle is as 1 to 3.1415, or the
value of the (pi), as this ratio is called -- the symbol being always
used in
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------
* In the Kabala the same numbers are a value of Jehovah, viz., 1065,
since the numerical values of the three letters which compose his name
-- Jod, Vau and twice He -- are respectively 10 (
), 6 (
) and 5 (
); or again thrice seven, 21. "Ten
is the Mother of the Soul, for Life and Light are therein united," says
Hermes. "For number one is born of the Spirit and the number ten from
matter (chaos, feminine); the unity has made the ten, the ten the unity"
(Book of the Keys). By the means of the Temura, the
anagrammatical method of the Kabala, and the knowledge of 1065 (21), a
universal science may be obtained regarding Kosmos and its mysteries"
(Rabbi Yogel). The Rabbis regard the numbers 10, 6, and 5 as the most
sacred of all.
** The reader may be told that an American Kabalist has now
discovered the same number for the Elohim. It came to the Jews from
Chaldaea. See "Hebrew Metrology" in the Masonic Review, July, 1885,
McMillan Lodge, No. 141.
[[The Secret Doctrine, by H.P. Blavatsky, Vol. 1, Page]] 91 THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTIONS.
mathematical formulae to express it. This set of figures must have
the same meaning, since the 1 : 314,159, and then again 1 : 3 :
1,415,927 are worked out in the secret calculations to express the
various cycles and ages of the "first born," or 311,040,000,000,000 with
fractions, and yield the same 13,415 by a process we are not concerned
with at present. And it may be shown that Mr. Ralston Skinner, author of
The Source of Measures, reads the Hebrew word Alhim in
the same number values, by omitting, as said, the ciphers and by
permutation -- 13,514: since 
(a)
is 1 : 
(l) is 3 (or 30);
(h) is 5;
(i) 1 for 10; and
(m) is 4 (40), and
anagrammatically -- 31,415 as explained by him.
Thus, while in the metaphysical world, the circle with the one
central Point in it has no number, and is called Anupadaka (parentless
and numberless) -- viz., it can fall under no calculation, -- in the
manifested world the mundane Egg or Circle is circumscribed within the
groups called the Line, the Triangle, the Pentacle, the second Line and
the Cube (or 13514); and when the Point having generated a Line, thus
becomes a diameter which stands for the androgynous Logos, then the
figures become 31415, or a triangle, a line, a cube, the second line,
and a pentacle. "When the Son separates from the Mother he becomes the
Father," the diameter standing for Nature, or the feminine principle.
Therefore it is said: "In the world of being, the one Point fructifies
the Line -- the Virgin Matrix of Kosmos (the egg-shaped zero) -- and the
immaculate Mother gives birth to the form that combines all forms."
Prajapati is called the first procreating male, and "his Mother's
husband."* This gives the key-note to all the later divine sons from
immaculate mothers. It is greatly corroborated by the significant fact
that Anna (the name of the Mother of the Virgin Mary) now represented by
the Roman Catholic church as having given birth to her daughter in an
immaculate way ("Mary conceived without sin"), is derived from the
Chaldean Ana, heaven, or Astral Light, Anima Mundi; whence Anaitia,
Devi-durga, the wife of Siva, is also called Annapurna,
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------
* We find the same expression in Egypt. Mout signifies, for one
thing, "Mother," and shows the character assigned to her in the triad of
that country. "She was no less the mother than the wife of Ammon, one of
the principle titles of the god being "the husband of his mother." The
goddess Mout, or Mut, is addressed as "our lady," the "queen of Heaven"
and of "the Earth," thus "sharing these titles with the other mother
goddesses, Isis, Hathor, etc." (Maspero).
[[The Secret Doctrine, by H.P. Blavatsky, Vol. 1, Page]] 92 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.
and Kanya, the Virgin; "Uma-Kanya" being her esoteric name, and
meaning the "Virgin of light," Astral Light in one of its multitudinous
aspects.
(c) The Devas, Pitris, Rishis; the Suras and the Asuras; the
Daityas and Adityas; the Danavas and Gandharvas, etc., etc., have all
their synonyms in our Secret Doctrine, as well as in the Kabala and the
Hebrew Angelology; but it is useless to give their ancient names, as it
would only create confusion. Many of these may be also found now, even
in the Christian hierarchy of divine and celestial powers. All those
Thrones and Dominions, Virtues and Principalities, Cherubs, Seraphs and
demons, the various denizens of the Sidereal World, are the modern
copies of archaic prototypes. The very symbolism in their names, when
transliterated and arranged in Greek and Latin, are sufficient to show
it, as will be proved in several cases further on.
The "Sacred Animals" are found in the Bible as well as in the Kabala,
and they have their meaning (a very profound one, too) on the page of
the origins of Life. In the Sepher Jezirah it is stated that "God
engraved in the Holy Four the throne of his glory, the Ophanim (Wheels
or the World-Spheres), the Seraphim,* the Sacred Animals, and the
ministering angels, and from these three (the Air, Water, and Fire or
Ether) he formed his habitation." Thus was the world made "through three
Seraphim -- Sepher, Saphar, and Sipur," or "through Number, Numbers, and
Numbered." With the astronomical key these "Sacred Animals" become the
signs of the Zodiac.
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------
* This is the literal translation from the IXth and Xth Sections:
"Ten numbers without what? One: the spirit of the living God . . . . who
liveth in eternities! Voice and Spirit and Word, and this is the Holy
Spirit. Two: Spirit out of Spirit. He designed and hewed therewith
twenty-two letters of foundation, three Mothers and seven double and
Twelve single, and one spirit out of them. Three: Water out of spirit;
he designed and hewed with them the barren and the void, mud and earth.
He designed them as a flowerbed, hewed them as a wall, covered them as a
paving. Four: Fire out of water. He designed and hewed therewith the
throne of glory and the wheels, and the seraphim and the holy animals
and the ministering angels, and of the three He founded his dwelling, as
it is said, He makes his angels spirits and his servants fiery flames!"
Which words "founded his dwelling" show clearly that in the Kabala, as
in India, the Deity was considered as the Universe, and was not, in his
origin, the extra-cosmic God he is now.
[[The Secret Doctrine, by H.P. Blavatsky, Vol. 1, Page]] 93 THE POTENCY OF SPEECH AND SOUND.
STANZA IV. -- Continued.
4. THIS WAS THE ARMY OF THE
VOICE -- THE DIVINE SEPTENARY.
THE SPARKS OF THE SEVEN ARE SUBJECT TO, AND THE
SERVANTS OF, THE FIRST, SECOND, THIRD, FOURTH, FIFTH, SIXTH, AND THE
SEVENTH OF THE SEVEN (a). THESE ("sparks")
ARE CALLED SPHERES, TRIANGLES, CUBES, LINES, AND MODELLERS; FOR
THUS STANDS THE ETERNAL NIDANA -- THE
OI-HA-HOU (the
Permutation of Oeaohoo) (b).*
(a) This Sloka gives again a brief analysis of the
Hierarchies of the Dhyan Chohans, called Devas (gods) in India, or the
conscious intelligent powers in Nature. To this Hierarchy correspond the
actual types into which humanity may be divided; for humanity, as a
whole, is in reality a materialized though as yet imperfect expression
thereof. The "army of the Voice" is a term closely connected with the
mystery of Sound and Speech, as an effect and corollary of the cause --
Divine Thought. As beautifully expressed by P. Christian, the learned
author of "The History of Magic" and of "L'Homme Rouge des Tuileries,"
the word spoken by, as well as the name of, every individual largely
determine his future fate. Why? Because --
-- "When our Soul (mind) creates or evokes a thought, the
representative sign of that thought is self-engraved upon the astral
fluid, which is the receptacle and, so to say, the mirror of all the
manifestations of being.
"The sign expresses the thing: the thing is the (hidden or occult)
virtue of the sign.
"To pronounce a word is to evoke a thought, and make it present: the
magnetic potency of the human speech is the commencement of every
manifestation in the Occult World. To utter a Name is not only to
define a Being (an Entity), but to place it under and condemn it
through the emission of the Word (Verbum), to the influence of one
or more Occult potencies. Things are, for every one of us, that
which it (the Word) makes them while naming them. The Word (Verbum)
or the speech of every man is, quite unconsciously to himself, a
BLESSING or a CURSE; this is why our present ignorance about the
properties or attributes of the IDEA as well as about the attributes
and properties of MATTER, is often fatal to us.
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------
* The literal signification of the word is, among the Eastern
Occultists of the North, a circular wind, whirlwind; but in this
instance, it is a term to denote the ceaseless and eternal Cosmic
Motion; or rather the Force that moves it, which Force is tacitly
accepted as the Deity but never named. It is the eternal Karana,
the ever-acting Cause.
[[The Secret Doctrine, by H.P. Blavatsky, Vol. 1, Page]] 94 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.
"Yes, names (and words) are either BENEFICENT or MALEFICENT; they
are, in a certain sense, either venomous or health-giving, according
to the hidden influences attached by Supreme Wisdom to their
elements, that is to say, to the LETTERS which compose them, and the
NUMBERS correlative to these letters."
This is strictly true as an esoteric teaching accepted by all the
Eastern Schools of Occultism. In the Sanskrit, as also in the Hebrew and
all other alphabets, every letter has its occult meaning and its
rationale; it is a cause and an effect of a preceding cause and a
combination of these very often produces the most magical effect. The
vowels, especially, contain the most occult and formidable potencies.
The Mantras (esoterically, magical rather than religious) are chanted by
the Brahmins and so are the Vedas and other Scriptures.
The "Army of the Voice," is the prototype of the "Host of the Logos,"
or the "WORD" of the Sepher Jezirah, called in the Secret Doctrine "the
One Number issued from No-Number" -- the One Eternal Principle. The
esoteric theogony begins with the One, manifested, therefore not eternal
in its presence and being, if eternal in its essence; the number of the
numbers and numbered -- the latter proceeding from the Voice, the
feminine Vach, Satarupa "of the hundred forms," or Nature. It is from
this number 10, or creative nature, the Mother (the occult cypher, or
"nought," ever procreating and multiplying in union with the Unit "I,"
one, or the Spirit of Life), that the whole Universe proceeded.
In the Anugita a conversation is given (ch. vi., 15) between
a Brahmana and his wife, on the origin of Speech and its occult
properties.* The wife asks how Speech came into existence, and which was
prior to the other, Speech or Mind. The Brahmana tells her that the
Apana (inspirational breath) becoming lord, changes
that intelligence, which does not understand Speech or Words, into the
state of Apana, and thus opens the mind. Thereupon he tells her a story,
a dialogue between Speech and Mind. "Both went to the Self of Being (i.e.,
to the individual Higher Self, as Nilakantha thinks, to Prajapati,
according to the commentator Arjuna Misra), and asked him to destroy
their doubts and decide which of them preceded and was superior to the
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------
* Anugita forms part of the Asvamedha Parvan of the
"Mahabharata." The translator of the Bhagavatgita, edited by Max Muller,
regards it as a continuation of the Bhagavatgita. Its original is one of
the oldest Upanishads.
[[The Secret Doctrine, by H.P. Blavatsky, Vol. 1, Page]] 95 SPEECH AND MIND.
other. To this the lord said: 'Mind is Superior.' But Speech answered
the Self of Being, by saying: 'I verily yield (you) your desires,'
meaning that by speech he acquired what he desired. Thereupon again, the
Self told her that there are two minds, the 'movable' and the
'immovable.' 'The immovable is with me,' he said, 'the movable is in
your dominion' (i.e. of Speech) on the plane of matter. To that
you are superior. But inasmuch, O beautiful one, as you came personally
to speak to me (in the way you did, i.e. proudly), therefore,
O, Sarasvati! you shall never speak after (hard) exhalation." "The
goddess Speech" (Sarasvati, a later form or aspect of Vach, the goddess
also of secret learning or Esoteric Wisdom), "verily, dwelt always
between the Prana and the Apana. But O noble one! going with the Apana
wind (vital air), though impelled, without the Prana (expirational
breath), she ran up to Prajapati (Brahma), saying, 'Be pleased, O
venerable sir!' Then the Prana appeared again, nourishing Speech. And,
therefore, Speech never speaks after (hard or inspirational) exhalation.
It is always noisy or noiseless. Of these two, the noiseless is the
superior to the noisy (Speech) . . . . The (speech) which is produced in
the body by means of the Prana, and which then goes (is transformed)
into Apana, and then becoming assimilated with the Udana (physical
organs of Speech) . . . then finally dwells in the Samana ('at the navel
in the form of sound, as the material cause of all words,' says Arjuna
Misra). So Speech formerly spoke. Hence the mind is distinguished by
reason of its being immovable, and the Goddess (Speech) by reason of her
being movable."
This allegory is at the root of the Occult law, which prescribes
silence upon the knowledge of certain secret and invisible things
perceptible only to the spiritual mind (the 6th sense), and which cannot
be expressed by "noisy" or uttered speech. This chapter of Anugita
explains, says Arjuna Misra, Pranayama, or regulation of the breath
in Yoga practices. This mode, however, without the previous acquisition
of, or at least full understanding of the two higher senses, of which
there are seven, as will be shown, pertains rather to the lower Yoga.
The Hatha so called was and still is discountenanced by the
Arhats. It is injurious to the health and alone can never develop into
Raj Yoga. This story is quoted to show how inseparably connected are, in
the metaphysics of old, intelligent beings, or rather "Intelligences,"
with every sense or
[[The Secret Doctrine, by H.P. Blavatsky, Vol. 1, Page]] 96 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.
function whether physical or mental. The Occult claim that there are
seven senses in man, as in nature, as there are seven states of
consciousness, is corroborated in the same work, chapter vii., on
Pratyahara (the restraint and regulation of the senses, Pranayama being
that of the "vital winds" or breath). The Brahmana speaks in it "of the
institution of the seven sacrificial Priests (Hotris). He says: "The
nose and the eyes, and the tongue, and the skin and the ear as the fifth
(or smell, sight, taste, touch and hearing), mind and understanding are
the seven sacrificial priests separately stationed"; and which "dwelling
in a minute space (still) do not perceive each other" on this sensuous
plane, none of them except mind. For mind says: "The nose smells not
without me, the eye does not take in colour, etc., etc. I am the eternal
chief among all elements (i.e., senses). Without me, the senses
never shine, like an empty dwelling, or like fires the flames of which
are extinct. Without me, all beings, like fuel half dried and half
moist, fail to apprehend qualities or objects even with the senses
exerting themselves."*
This, of course, with regard only to mind on the sensuous plane.
Spiritual mind (the upper portion or aspect of the impersonal
MANAS) takes no cognisance of the senses in physical man. How well
the ancients were acquainted with the correlation of forces and all the
recently discovered phenomena of mental and physical faculties and
functions, with many more mysteries also -- may be found in reading
chapters vii. and viii. of this (in philosophy and mystic learning)
priceless work. See the quarrel of the senses about their respective
superiority and their taking the Brahman, the lord of all creatures, for
their arbiter. "You are all greatest and not greatest," or superior to
objects, as A. Misra says, none being independent of the other. "You are
all possessed of one another's qualities. All are greatest in their own
spheres and all support one another. There is one unmoving (life-wind or
breath, the 'Yoga inhalation,' so called, which is the
breath of the One or Higher SELF). That is the
(or my) own Self, accumulated in numerous (forms)."
This Breath, Voice, Self or "Wind" (pneuma?) is the
Synthesis of the Seven Senses, noumenally all minor deities and
esoterically -- the septenary and the "Army of the VOICE."
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------
* This shows the modern metaphysicians, added to all past and present
Haegels, Berkeleys, Schopenhauers, Hartmanns, Herbert Spencers, and even
the modern Hylo-Idealists to boot, no better than the pale copyists of
hoary antiquity.
[[The Secret Doctrine, by H.P. Blavatsky, Vol. 1, Page]] 97 NATURE, THE PERPETUAL MOTION.
(b) Next we see Cosmic matter scattering and
forming itself into elements; grouped into the mystic four within the
fifth element -- Ether, the lining of Akasa, the Anima Mundi or Mother
of Kosmos. "Dots, Lines, Triangles, Cubes, Circles" and finally
"Spheres" -- why or how? Because, says the Commentary, such is the first
law of Nature, and because Nature geometrizes universally in all her
manifestations. There is an inherent law -- not only in the primordial,
but also in the manifested matter of our phenomenal plane -- by which
Nature correlates her geometrical forms, and later, also, her compound
elements; and in which there is no place for accident or chance. It is a
fundamental law in Occultism, that there is no rest or cessation of
motion in Nature.* That which seems rest is only the change of one form
into another; the change of substance going hand in hand with that of
form -- as we are taught in Occult physics, which thus seem to have
anticipated the discovery of the "Conservation of matter" by a
considerable time. Says the ancient Commentary** to Stanza IV.: --
"The Mother is the fiery Fish of Life. She scatters her spawn and
the Breath (Motion) heats and quickens it. The grains
(of spawn) are soon attracted to each other and form
the curds in the Ocean (of Space). The larger lumps
coalesce and receive new spawn -- in fiery dots, triangles and cubes,
which ripen, and at the appointed time some of the lumps detach
themselves and assume spheroidal form, a process which they effect only
when not interfered with by the others. After which, law No. * * *
comes into operation. Motion (the Breath) becomes the
whirlwind and sets them into rotation."***
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------
* It is the knowledge of this law that permits and helps the Arhat to
perform his Siddhis, or various phenomena, such as
disintegration of matter, the transport of objects from one place to
another.
** These are ancient Commentaries attached with modern Glossaries to
the Stanzas, as the Commentaries in their symbolical language are
usually as difficult to understand as the Stanzas themselves.
*** In a polemical scientific work, "The Modern Genesis,"
the author, the Rev. W. B. Slaughter, criticising the position
assumed by the astronomers, asks: -- "It is to be regretted that the
advocates of this (nebular) theory have not entered more largely into
the discussion of it (the beginning of rotation). No one condescends to
give us the rationale of it. How does the process of cooling
and contracting the mass impart to it a rotatory motion?" The question
is amply treated in the Addendum. It is not materialistic science that
can ever solve it. "Motion is eternal in the unmanifested, and
periodical in the manifest," says an Occult teaching. It is "when heat
caused [[Footnote continued on next page]]
[[The Secret Doctrine, by H.P. Blavatsky, Vol. 1, Page]] 98 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.
STANZA IV. -- Continued.
5. . . . . . WHICH IS: ----
"DARKNESS," THE BOUNDLESS OR THE
NO-NUMBER, ADI-NIDANA
SVABHAVAT: THE (for
x, unknown quantity):
I. THE ADI-SANAT,
THE NUMBER, FOR HE IS ONE (a).
II. THE VOICE OF THE WORD,
SVABHAVAT, THE NUMBERS, FOR HE IS
ONE AND NINE.*
III. THE "FORMLESS
SQUARE." (Arupa.) (b).
AND THESE THREE ENCLOSED WITHIN THE
(boundless circle), ARE
THE SACRED FOUR, AND THE TEN ARE THE ARUPA (subjective,
formless) UNIVERSE (c); THEN COME THE "SONS,"
THE SEVEN FIGHTERS, THE ONE, THE
EIGHTH LEFT OUT, AND HIS BREATH WHICH IS THE LIGHT-MAKER
(Bhaskara) (d).
(a) "Adi-Sanat," translated literally is the First or
"primeval" ancient, which name identifies the Kabalistic "Ancient of
Days" and the "Holy Aged" (Sephira and Adam Kadmon) with Brahma the
Creator, called also Sanat among his other names and titles.
Svabhavat is the mystic Essence, the plastic root of physical Nature
-- "Numbers" when manifested; the Number, in its Unity of Substance, on
the highest plane. The name is of Buddhist use and a Synonym for the
four-fold Anima Mundi, the Kabalistic "Archetypal World," from whence
proceed the "Creative, Formative, and the
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------
[[Footnote continued from previous page]] by the descent of FLAME
into primordial matter causes its particles to move, which motion
becomes Whirlwind." A drop of liquid assumes a spheroidal form owing to
its atoms moving around themselves in their ultimate, unresolvable, and
noumenal essence; unresolvable for physical science, at any rate.
* Which makes ten, or the perfect number applied to the "Creator,"
the name given to the totality of the Creators blended by the
Monotheists into One, as the "Elohim," Adam Kadmon or Sephira -- the
Crown -- are the androgyne synthesis of the 10 Sephiroth, who stand for
the symbol of the manifested Universe in the popularised Kabala. The
esoteric Kabalists, however, following the Eastern Occultists, divide
the upper Sephirothal triangle from the rest (or Sephira, Chochmah and
Binah), which leaves seven Sephiroth. As for Svabhavat, the Orientalists
explain the term as meaning the Universal plastic matter diffused
through Space, with, perhaps, half an eye to the Ether of Science. But
the Occultists identify it with "FATHER-MOTHER" on the mystic plane.
(Vide supra.)
[[The Secret Doctrine, by H.P. Blavatsky, Vol. 1, Page]] 99 THE OGDOAD AND HEPTAD.
Material Worlds"; the Scintillae or Sparks, -- the various other
worlds contained in the last three. The Worlds are all subject to Rulers
or Regents -- Rishis and Pitris with the Hindus, Angels with the Jews
and Christians, Gods, with the Ancients in general.
(b) This means that
the "Boundless Circle" (Zero) becomes a figure or number, only when one
of the nine figures precedes it, and thus manifests its value and
potency, the Word or Logos in union with VOICE and Spirit* (the
expression and source of Consciousness) standing for the nine figures
and thus forming, with the Cypher, the Decade which contains in itself
all the Universe. The triad forms within the circle the Tetraktis or
Sacred Four, the Square within the Circle being the most potent of all
the magical figures.
(c) The "One Rejected" is the Sun of our system. The
exoteric version may be found in the oldest Sanskrit Scriptures. In the
Rig Veda, Aditi, "The Boundless" or infinite Space, translated by Mr.
Max Muller, "the visible infinite, visible by the naked eye (!!); the
endless expanse beyond the Earth, beyond the clouds, beyond the sky," is
the equivalent of "Mother-Space" coeval with "Darkness." She is very
properly called "The Mother of the Gods," DEVA-MATRI,
as it is from her Cosmic matrix that all the heavenly bodies of our
system were born -- Sun and Planets. Thus she is described,
allegorically, in this wise: "Eight Sons were born from the body of
Aditi; she approached the gods with seven, but cast away the eighth,
Martanda," our sun. The seven sons called the Aditya are, cosmically or
astronomically, the seven planets; and the Sun being excluded from their
number shows plainly that the Hindus may have known, and in fact knew of
a seventh planet, without calling it Uranus.** But esoterically and
theologically,
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------
* "In union with the Spirit and the Voice," referring to the Abstract
Thought and concrete Voice, or the manifestation thereof, the effect of
the Cause. Adam Kadmon or Tetragrammaton is the Logos in the Kabala;
therefore this triad answers in the latter to the highest triangle of
Kether, Chochmah and Binah, the last a female potency and at the same
time the male Jehovah, as partaking of the nature of Chochmah, or the
male Wisdom.
** The Secret Doctrine teaches that the Sun is a central Star and not
a planet. Yet the Ancients knew of and worshipped seven great gods,
excluding the Sun and Earth. Which was that "Mystery God" they set
apart? Of course not Uranus, discovered only by Herschel in 1781. But
could it not be known by another name? Says the [[Footnote continued on
next page]]
[[The Secret Doctrine, by H.P. Blavatsky, Vol. 1, Page]] 100 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.
so to say, the Adityas are, in their primitive most ancient meanings,
the eight, and the twelve great gods of the Hindu Pantheon. "The Seven
allow the mortals to see their dwellings, but show themselves only to
the Arhats," says an old proverb, "their dwellings" standing here for
planets. The ancient Commentary gives an allegory and explains it: --
"Eight houses were built by Mother. Eight houses for her Eight
Divine sons; four large and four small ones. Eight brilliant suns,
according to their age and merits. Bal-ilu (Martanda)
was not satisfied, though his house was the largest. He began (to
work) as the huge elephants do. He breathed (drew in)
into his stomach the vital airs of his brothers. He sought to devour
them. The larger four were far away; far, on the margin of their
kingdom.* They were not robbed (affected), and
laughed. Do your worst, Sir, you cannot reach us, they said. But the
smaller wept. They complained to the Mother. She exiled Bal-i-lu to the
centre of her Kingdom, from whence he could not move. (Since
then) he (only) watches and threatens. He
pursues them, turning slowly around himself, they turning swiftly from
him, and he following from afar the direction in which his brothers move
on the path that encircles their houses.** From that day he feeds on the
sweat of the Mother's body. He fills himself with her breath
and refuse. Therefore, she rejected him."
Thus the "rejected Son" being our Sun, evidently, as shown above, the
"Sun-Sons" refer not only to our planets but to the heavenly bodies in
general. Himself only a reflection of the Central Spiritual Sun,
Surya is the prototype of all those bodies that evolved after him.
In the Vedas he is called Loka-Chakshuh, "the Eye of the World"
(our
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------
[[Footnote continued from previous page]] author of "Maconnerie
Occulte": -- "Occult Sciences having discovered through astronomical
calculations that the number of the planets must be seven, the ancients
were led to introduce the Sun into the scale of the celestial harmonies,
and make him occupy the vacant place. Thus, every time they perceived an
influence that pertained to none of the six planets known, they
attributed it to the Sun. The error only seems important, but was not so
in practical results, if the ancient astrologers replaced Uranus by the
Sun, which is a central Star relatively motionless, turning only on its
axis and regulating time and measure; and which cannot be turned aside
from its true functions." . . . . . . The nomenclature of the days of
the week is thus faulty. "The Sun-Day ought to be Uranus-day (Urani
dies, Urandi)," adds the learned writer, Ragon.
* Planetary System.
** "The Sun rotates on his axis always in the same direction in which
the planets revolve in their respective orbits," astronomy teaches us.
[[The Secret Doctrine, by H.P. Blavatsky, Vol. 1, Page]] 101 FIRE, THE GREAT SYMBOL OF DEITY.
planetary world), and he is one of the three chief deities. He is
called indifferently the Son of Dyaus and of Aditi,
because no distinction is made with reference to, or scope allowed for,
the esoteric meaning. Thus he is depicted as drawn by seven horses, and
by one horse with seven heads; the former referring to his seven
planets, the latter to their one common origin from the One Cosmic
Element. This "One Element" is called figuratively "FIRE."
The Vedas (Aitareya-Brahmana of Haug also; p. i) teach "that the fire
verily is all the deities." (Narada in Anugita).
The meaning of the allegory is plain, for we have both the Dzyan
Commentary and modern science to explain it, though the two differ in
more than one particular. The Occult Doctrine rejects the hypothesis
born out of the Nebular Theory, that the (seven) great planets have
evolved from the Sun's central mass, not of this our visible Sun, at any
rate. The first condensation of Cosmic matter of course took place about
a central nucleus, its parent Sun; but our sun, it is taught, merely
detached itself earlier than all the others, as the rotating mass
contracted, and is their elder, bigger brother therefore, not their
father. The eight Adityas, "the gods," are all formed from the eternal
substance (Cometary matter* -- the Mother) or the "World-Stuff " which
is both the fifth and the sixth COSMIC Principle, the Upadhi or basis of
the Universal Soul, just as in man, the Microcosm, Manas** is the Upadhi
of Buddhi.***
(d) There is a whole poem on the pregenetic battles fought
by the growing planets before the final formation of Kosmos, thus
accounting for the seemingly disturbed position of the systems of
several planets, the plane of the satellites of some (of Neptune and
Uranus, for instance, of which the ancients knew nothing, it is said)
being tilted over, thus giving them an appearance of retrograde motion.
These planets are called the warriors, the Architects, and are accepted
by the
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------
* This Essence of Cometary matter, Occult Science teaches, is totally
different from any of the chemical or physical characteristics with
which modern science is acquainted. It is homogeneous in its primitive
form beyond the Solar Systems, and differentiates entirely once it
crosses the boundaries of our Earth's region, vitiated by the
atmospheres of the planets and the already compound matter of the
interplanetary stuff, heterogeneous only in our manifested world.
** Manas -- the Mind-Principle, or the human Soul.
*** Buddhi -- the divine Soul.
[[The Secret Doctrine, by H.P. Blavatsky, Vol. 1, Page]] 102 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.
Roman Church as the leaders of the heavenly Hosts, thus showing the
same traditions. Having evolved from Cosmic Space, and before the final
formation of the primaries and the annulation of the planetary nebula,
the Sun, we are taught, drew into the depths of its mass all the Cosmic
vitality he could, threatening to engulf his weaker "brothers" before
the law of attraction and repulsion was finally adjusted; after which he
began feeding on "The Mother's refuse and sweat"; in other words, on
those portions of Ether (the "breath of the Universal Soul") of the
existence and constitution of which science is as yet absolutely
ignorant. A theory of this kind having been propounded by Sir William
Grove (see "Correlation of the Physical Forces," 1843,
p. 81; and "Address to the British Association,
1866"), who theorized that the systems "are gradually changing by
atmospheric additions or subtractions, or by accretions and diminutions
arising from nebular substances" . . . and again that "the Sun may
condense gaseous matter as it travels in Space and so heat may be
produced" -- the archaic teaching seems scientific enough, even in this
age.* Mr. W. Mattieu Williams suggested that the diffused matter or
Ether which is the recipient of the heat radiations of the Universe is
thereby drawn into the depths of the solar mass. Expelling thence the
previously condensed and thermally exhausted Ether, it becomes
compressed and gives up its heat, to be in turn itself driven out in a
rarified and cooled state, to absorb a fresh supply of heat, which he
supposes to be in this way taken up by the Ether, and again concentrated
and redistributed by the Suns of the Universe.**
This is about as close an approximation to the Occult teachings as
Science ever imagined; for Occultism explains it by "the dead breath"
given back by Martanda and his feeding on the "sweat and refuse" of
"Mother Space." What could affect Neptune,*** Saturn and Jupiter,
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------
* Very similar ideas in Mr. W. Mattieu Williams' "The Fuel of the
Sun;" in Dr. C. William Siemens' "On the
Conservation of Solar Energy" (Nature, XXV., p.
440-444, March 9, 1882); and also in Dr. P. Martin Duncan's "Address
of the President of the Geological Society," London, May,
1877.
** See "Comparative Geology," by
Alexander Winchell, LL.D., p. 56.
*** When we speak of Neptune it is not as an Occultist but as a
European. The true Eastern Occultist will maintain that, whereas there
are many yet undiscovered planets in our system, Neptune does not belong
to it, his apparent connection with our sun and the influence of the
latter upon Neptune notwithstanding. This connection is mayavic,
imaginary, they say.
[[The Secret Doctrine, by H.P. Blavatsky, Vol. 1, Page]] 103 THE STELLAR "SONS OF LIGHT."
but little, would have killed such comparatively small "Houses" as
Mercury, Venus and Mars. As Uranus was not known before the end of the
eighteenth century, the name of the fourth planet mentioned in the
allegory must remain to us, so far, a mystery.
The "Breath" of all the "seven" is said to be Bhaskara
(light-making), because they (the planets) were all comets and suns in
their origin. They evolve into Manvantaric life from primaeval Chaos
(now the noumenon of irresolvable nebulae) by aggregation and
accumulation of the primary differentiations of the eternal matter,
according to the beautiful expression in the Commentary, "Thus the Sons
of Light clothed themselves in the fabric of Darkness." They are called
allegorically "the Heavenly Snails," on account of their (to us)
formless INTELLIGENCES inhabiting unseen their starry and planetary
homes, and, so to speak, carrying them as the snails do along with
themselves in their revolution. The doctrine of a common origin for all
the heavenly bodies and planets, was, as we see, inculcated by the
Archaic astronomers, before Kepler, Newton, Leibnitz, Kant, Herschel and
Laplace. Heat (the Breath), attraction and repulsion -- the three great
factors of Motion -- are the conditions under which all the members of
all this primitive family are born, developed, and die, to be reborn
after a "Night of Brahma," during which eternal matter relapses
periodically into its primary undifferentiated state. The most
attenuated gases can give no idea of its nature to the modern physicist.
Centres of Forces at first, the invisible sparks of primordial atoms
differentiate into molecules, and become Suns -- passing gradually into
objectivity gaseous, radiant, cosmic, the one "Whirlwind" (or motion)
finally giving the impulse to the form, and the initial motion,
regulated and sustained by the never-resting Breaths -- the Dhyan
Chohans.
-------
STANZA IV. -- Continued.
6. . . . . THEN THE SECOND
SEVEN, WHO ARE THE LIPIKA, PRODUCED BY THE
THREE (Word, Voice, and Spirit). THE
REJECTED SON IS ONE, THE "SON-SUNS"
ARE COUNTLESS.
The Lipi-ka, from the word lipi,
"writing," means literally the
[[The Secret Doctrine, by H.P. Blavatsky, Vol. 1, Page]] 104 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.
"Scribes."* Mystically, these Divine Beings are connected with Karma,
the Law of Retribution, for they are the Recorders or Annalists who
impress on the (to us) invisible tablets of the Astral Light, "the great
picture-gallery of eternity" -- a faithful record of every act, and even
thought, of man, of all that was, is, or ever will be, in the phenomenal
Universe. As said in "Isis," this divine and unseen
canvas is the BOOK OF LIFE. As it is
the Lipika who project into objectivity from the passive Universal Mind
the ideal plan of the universe, upon which the "Builders" reconstruct
the Kosmos after every Pralaya, it is they who stand parallel to the
Seven Angels of the Presence, whom the Christians recognise in the Seven
"Planetary Spirits" or the "Spirits of the Stars;" for thus it is they
who are the direct amanuenses of the Eternal Ideation -- or, as called
by Plato, the "Divine Thought." The Eternal Record is no fantastic
dream, for we meet with the same records in the world of gross matter.
"A shadow never falls upon a wall without leaving thereupon a permanent
trace which might be made visible by resorting to proper processes,"
says Dr. Draper. . . . "The portraits of our friends or landscape-views
may be hidden on the sensitive surface from the eye, but they are ready
to make their appearance as soon as proper developers are resorted to. A
spectre is concealed on a silver or a glassy surface, until, by our
necromancy, we make it come forth into the visible world. Upon the walls
of our most private apartments, where we think the eye of intrusion is
altogether shut out, and our retirement can never be profaned, there
exist the vestiges of all our acts, silhouettes of whatever we have
done."** Drs. Jevons and Babbage believe that every thought, displacing
the particles of the brain and setting them in motion, scatters them
throughout the Universe, and they think that "each particle of the
existing matter must be a register of all that has happened."
(Principles of Science, Vol. II. p. 455.) Thus the ancient doctrine has
begun to acquire rights of citizenship in the speculations of the
scientific world.
The forty "Assessors" who stand in the region of Amenti as
the accusers of the Soul before Osiris, belong to the
same class of deities as the Lipika, and might stand paralleled, were
not the Egyptian gods so
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------
*These are the four "Immortals" which are mentioned in Atharva
Veda as the "Watchers" or Guardians of the four quarters of the sky
(see ch. lxxvi., 1-4, et seq.).
** "Conflict between Religion and Science." -- Draper, pp.
132 and 133.
[[The Secret Doctrine, by H.P. Blavatsky, Vol. 1, Page]] 105 THE DIVINE RECORDERS.
little understood in their esoteric meaning. The Hindu
Chitra-Gupta who reads out the account of every Soul's life from
his register, called Agra-Sandhani; the "Assessors" who read theirs from
the heart of the defunct, which becomes an open book before (whether)
Yama, Minos, Osiris, or Karma -- are all so many copies of, and variants
from the Lipika, and their Astral Records. Nevertheless, the Lipi-ka are
not deities connected with Death, but with Life Eternal.
Connected as the Lipika are with the destiny of every man and the
birth of every child, whose life is already traced in the Astral Light
not fatalistically, but only because the future, like the PAST, is ever
alive in the PRESENT -- they may also be said to exercise an influence
on the Science of Horoscopy. We must admit the truth of the latter
whether we will or not. For, as observed by one of the modern adepts of
Astrology, "Now that photography has revealed to us the chemical
influence of the Sidereal system, by fixing on the sensitized plate of
the apparatus milliards of stars and planets that had hitherto baffled
the efforts of the most powerful telescopes to discover them, it becomes
easier to understand how our solar system can, at the birth of a child,
influence his brain -- virgin of any impression -- in a definite manner
and according to the presence on the zenith of such or another zodiacal
constellation."*
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------
** Les Mysteres de l'Horoscope, p. XI.
---------------------
[[The Secret Doctrine, by H.P. Blavatsky, Vol. 1, Page]] 106 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.
from
The Secret Doctrine,
by H. P. Blavatsky
**
**
The Spiritual Bookstore Online World Religion Library
Books by Jack Haas
Visit the Online Store
