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 VI.
1. BY THE POWER OF THE MOTHER OF
MERCY AND KNOWLEDGE -- KWAN-YIN
-- THE "TRIPLE" OF KWAN-SHAI-YIN,
RESIDING IN KWAN-YIN-TIEN, FOHAT,
THE BREATH OF THEIR PROGENY, THE
SON OF THE SONS, HAVING CALLED FORTH,
FROM THE LOWER ABYSS, THE ILLUSIVE FORM OF SIEN-TCHANG
AND THE SEVEN ELEMENTS:*
2. THE SWIFT AND RADIANT
ONE PRODUCES THE SEVEN LAYA
CENTRES, AGAINST WHICH NONE WILL PREVAIL TO THE GREAT
DAY "BE-WITH-US," AND SEATS THE
UNIVERSE ON THESE ETERNAL FOUNDATIONS
SURROUNDING TSIEN-TCHAN WITH THE
ELEMENTARY GERMS.
3. OF THE SEVEN -- FIRST ONE
MANIFESTED, SIX CONCEALED, TWO MANIFESTED, FIVE CONCEALED; THREE
MANIFESTED, FOUR CONCEALED; FOUR PRODUCED, THREE HIDDEN; FOUR AND ONE
TSAN REVEALED, TWO AND ONE HALF CONCEALED; SIX TO BE MANIFESTED, ONE
LAID ASIDE. LASTLY, SEVEN SMALL WHEELS REVOLVING; ONE
GIVING BIRTH TO THE OTHER.
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------
* Verse 1 of Stanza VI. is of a far later date than the other
Stanzas, though still very ancient. The old text of this verse, having
names entirely unknown to the Orientalists would give no clue to the
student.
[[The Secret Doctrine, by H.P. Blavatsky, Vol. 1, Page]] 33 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.
4. HE BUILDS THEM IN THE LIKENESS OF OLDER WHEELS,
PLACING THEM ON THE IMPERISHABLE CENTRES.
HOW DOES FOHAT BUILD THEM? HE
COLLECTS THE FIERY DUST. HE MAKES BALLS OF FIRE, RUNS
THROUGH THEM, AND ROUND THEM, INFUSING LIFE THEREINTO THEN' SETS THEM
INTO MOTION; SOME ONE WAY, SOME THE OTHER WAY. THEY ARE
COLD, HE MAKES THEM HOT. THEY ARE DRY, HE MAKES THEM
MOIST. THEY SHINE, HE FANS AND COOLS THEM. THUS
ACTS FOHAT FROM ONE TWILIGHT TO THE OTHER, DURING
SEVEN ETERNITIES.
5. AT THE FOURTH, THE SONS ARE TOLD TO CREATE THEIR
IMAGES. ONE THIRD REFUSES -- TWO OBEY.
THE CURSE IS PRONOUNCED; THEY WILL BE BORN ON THE
FOURTH, SUFFER AND CAUSE SUFFERING; THIS IS THE FIRST WAR.
6. THE OLDER WHEELS ROTATED DOWNWARDS AND UPWARDS. .
. . THE MOTHER'S SPAWN FILLED THE WHOLE. THERE
WERE BATTLES FOUGHT BETWEEN THE CREATORS AND THE
DESTROYERS, AND BATTLES FOUGHT FOR SPACE; THE SEED
APPEARING AND RE-APPEARING CONTINUOUSLY.
7. MAKE THY CALCULATIONS, LANOO, IF
THOU WOULDEST LEARN THE CORRECT AGE OF THY SMALL WHEEL. ITS
FOURTH SPOKE IS OUR MOTHER. REACH THE FOURTH "FRUIT" OF
THE FOURTH PATH OF KNOWLEDGE THAT LEADS TO NIRVANA, AND
THOU SHALT COMPREHEND, FOR THOU SHALT SEE . . . . .
-------
STANZA VI.
1. BY THE POWER OF THE MOTHER OF
MERCY AND KNOWLEDGE (a),
KWAN-YIN,* THE "TRIPLE"
OF KWAN-SHAI-YIN,
RESIDING IN KWAN-YIN-TIEN
(b), FOHAT, THE BREATH OF THEIR PROGENY, THE
SON OF THE SONS, HAVING CALLED FORTH
FROM THE LOWER ABYSS (chaos) THE ILLUSIVE FORM OF
SIEN-TCHAN (our Universe)
AND THE SEVEN ELEMENTS: --
(a.) The Mother of Mercy and Knowledge is called "the
triple" of Kwan-Shai-Yin because in her correlations, metaphysical and
cosmical, she is the "Mother, the Wife and the Daughter" of the
Logos, just as in the later theological translations she
became "the Father, Son and (the female) Holy Ghost" -- the Sakti
or Energy -- the Essence of the three. Thus in the Esotericism of
the Vedantins, Daiviprakriti, the Light manifested
through Eswara, the Logos,** is at one and the same time the
Mother and also the Daughter of the Logos or Verbum of Parabrahmam;
while in that of the trans-Himalayan teachings it is -- in the hierarchy
of allegorical and metaphysical theogony -- "the MOTHER"
or abstract, ideal matter, Mulaprakriti, the Root of Nature; -- from the
metaphysical standpoint, a correlation of Adi-Bhuta, manifested in the
Logos, Avalokiteshwara; -- and from the purely occult and
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------
* This stanza is translated from the Chinese text, and the names, as
the equivalents of the original terms, are preserved. The real esoteric
nomenclature cannot be given, as it would only confuse the reader. The
Brahmanical doctrine has no equivalent to these. Vach seems, in many an
aspect, to approach the Chinese Kwan-yin, but there is no regular
worship of Vach under this name in India, as there is of Kwan-Yin in
China. No exoteric religious system has ever adopted a female Creator,
and thus woman was regarded and treated, from the first dawn of popular
religions, as inferior to man. It is only in China and Egypt that
Kwan-Yin and Isis were placed on a par with the male gods. Esotericism
ignores both sexes. Its highest Deity is sexless as it is formless,
neither Father nor Mother; and its first manifested beings, celestial
and terrestrial alike, become only gradually androgynous and finally
separate into distinct sexes.
** The "Theosophist" of February, 1887, p. 305, first lecture on the
Bhagavadgita.
[[The Secret Doctrine, by H.P. Blavatsky, Vol. 1, Page]] 137 THE MYSTERY OF THE FEMALE LOGOS.
Cosmical, Fohat,* the "Son of the Son," the androgynous energy
resulting from this "Light of the Logos," and which manifests in the
plane of the objective Universe as the hidden, as much as the revealed,
Electricity -- which is LIFE.
(b) Kwan-Yin-Tien means the "melodious heaven of
Sound," the abode of Kwan-Yin, or the "Divine Voice"
literally. This "Voice" is a synonym of the Verbum or the Word:
"Speech," as the expression of thought. Thus may be traced the
connection with, and even the origin of the Hebrew Bath-Kol,
the "daughter of the Divine Voice," or Verbum, or the male
and female Logos, the "Heavenly Man" or Adam Kadmon, who is at the same
time Sephira. The latter was surely anticipated by the Hindu Vach, the
goddess of Speech, or of the Word. For Vach -- the daughter and the
female portion, as is stated, of Brahma, one "generated by the gods" --
is, in company with Kwan-Yin, with Isis (also the daughter,
wife and sister of Osiris) and other goddesses, the female
Logos, so to speak, the goddess of the active forces in
Nature, the Word, Voice or Sound, and Speech. If Kwan-Yin is the
"melodious Voice," so is Vach; "the melodious cow who milked forth
sustenance and water" (the female principle) -- "who yields us
nourishment and sustenance," as Mother-Nature. She is associated in the
work of creation with the Prajapati. She is male and female ad
libitum, as Eve is with Adam. And she is a form of Aditi
-- the principle higher than Ether -- in Akasa, the synthesis
of all the forces in Nature; thus Vach and Kwan-Yin are both the magic
potency of Occult sound in Nature and Ether -- which "Voice" calls forth
Sien-Tchan, the illusive form of the Universe out of Chaos and the Seven
Elements.
Thus in Manu Brahma (the Logos also) is shown dividing his
body into two parts, male and female, and creating in the latter, who is
Vach, Viraj, who is himself, or Brahma again -- it is in this way a
learned Vedantin Occultist speaks of that "goddess," explaining the
reason why Eswara (or Brahma) is called Verbum or Logos;
why in fact it is called Sabda Brahmam: --
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------
* Says the lecturer on p. 306: "Evolution is commenced by the
intellectual energy of the Logos, not merely on account of the
potentialities locked up in Mulaprakriti. This light of the
Logos is the link . . . between objective matter and the subjective
thought of Eswara (or Logos). It is called in several Buddhist
books Fohat. It is the one instrument with which the Logos
works."
[[The Secret Doctrine, by H.P. Blavatsky, Vol. 1, Page]] 138 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.
"The explanation I am going to give you will appear thoroughly
mystical; but if mystical, it has a tremendous significance when
properly understood. Our old writers said that Vach is of four
kinds (see Rig Veda and the Upanishads). Vaikhari-Vach is what
we utter. Every kind of Vaikhari-Vach exists in its
Madhyama, further in its Pasyanti, and
ultimately in its Para form.* The reason why this Pranava is
called Vach is this, that the four principles of the great Kosmos
correspond to these four forms of Vach. Now the whole
manifested solar System exists in its Sukshma form in the light
or energy of the Logos, because its energy is caught up and
transferred to Cosmic matter. . . . The whole Kosmos in its objective
form is Vaikhari-Vach, the light of the Logos is the
Madhyama form, and the Logos itself the Pasyanti form,
and Parabrahm the Para form or aspect of that Vach. It is by
the light of this explanation that we must try to understand certain
statements made by various philosophers to the effect that the
manifested Kosmos is the Verbum manifested as Kosmos" (see
Lecture on the Bhagavadgita, referred to above).
-------
STANZA VI. -- (Continued.)
2. THE SWIFT AND THE RADIANT
ONE PRODUCES THE SEVEN Layu** (a)
CENTRES, AGAINST WHICH NONE WILL PREVAIL TO THE GREAT DAY "BE
WITH US" -- AND SEATS THE UNIVERSE ON THESE ETERNAL FOUNDATIONS,
SURROUNDING SIEN-TCHAN WITH THE
ELEMENTARY GERMS (b).
(a.) The seven Layu centres are the seven Zero
points, using the term Zero in the same sense that Chemists do, to
indicate a point at which, in Esotericism, the scale of reckoning of
differentiation begins. From the Centres -- beyond which Esoteric
philosophy allows us to perceive the dim metaphysical outlines of the
"Seven Sons" of Life and Light, the Seven Logoi of the Hermetic and all
other philosophers -- begins
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------
* Madhya is said of something whose commencement and end are
unknown, and Para means infinite. These expressions all relate to
infinitude and to division of time.
** From the Sanskrit Laya, the point of matter where every
differentiation has ceased.
[[The Secret Doctrine, by H.P. Blavatsky, Vol. 1, Page]] 139 FROM NO-NUMBER TO NUMBER SEVEN.
the differentiation of the elements which enter into the constitution
of our Solar System. It has often been asked what was the exact
definition of Fohat and his powers and functions, as he seems to
exercise those of a Personal God as understood in the popular religions.
The answer has just been given in the comment on Stanza V. As well said
in the Bhagavadgita Lectures, "The whole Kosmos must necessarily exist
in the One Source of energy from which this light (Fohat)
emanates." Whether we count the principles in Kosmos and man as
seven or only as four, the forces of, and in, physical Nature are Seven;
and it is stated by the same authority that "Pragna,
or the capacity of perception, exists in seven different aspects
corresponding to the seven conditions of matter" (Personal and
impersonal God). For, "just as a human being is composed
of seven principles, differentiated matter in the Solar System exists in
seven different conditions" (ibid). So does Fohat.* He
is One and Seven, and on the Cosmic plane is behind all such
manifestations as light, heat, sound, adhesion, etc., etc., and is the
"spirit" of ELECTRICITY, which is the LIFE
of the Universe. As an abstraction, we call it the ONE
LIFE; as an objective and evident Reality, we speak of
a septenary scale of manifestation, which begins at the upper rung with
the One Unknowable CAUSALITY, and ends as Omnipresent
Mind and Life immanent in every atom of Matter. Thus, while science
speaks of its evolution through brute matter, blind force, and senseless
motion, the Occultists point to intelligent LAW
and sentient LIFE, and add that Fohat is the
guiding Spirit of all this. Yet he is no personal god at all, but the
emanation of those other Powers behind him whom the Christians call the
"Messengers" of their God (who is in reality only the Elohim, or rather
one of the Seven Creators called Elohim), and we, the "Messenger of the
primordial Sons of Life and Light."
(b.) The "Elementary Germs" with which he fills
Sien-Tchan (the "Universe") from Tien-Sin (the "Heaven of Mind,"
literally, or that which is absolute) are the Atoms of Science and the
Monads of Leibnitz.
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------
* "Fohat" has several meanings. (See Stanza V., Commentary et
infra). He is called the "Builder of the Builders," the
Force that he personifies having formed our Septenary chain.
[[The Secret Doctrine, by H.P. Blavatsky, Vol. 1, Page]] 140 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.
STANZA VI. -- Continued.
3. OF THE SEVEN (elements) --
FIRST ONE MANIFESTED, SIX CONCEALED; TWO MANIFESTED -- FIVE CONCEALED;
THREE MANIFESTED -- FOUR CONCEALED; FOUR PRODUCED -- THREE HIDDEN; FOUR
AND ONE TSAN (fraction) REVEALED -- TWO AND
ONE HALF CONCEALED; SIX TO BE MANIFESTED -- ONE LAID ASIDE (a).
LASTLY, SEVEN SMALL WHEELS REVOLVING; ONE GIVING BIRTH TO THE OTHER (b).
(a.) Although these Stanzas refer to the whole Universe
after a Mahapralaya (universal destruction), yet this sentence, as any
student of Occultism may see, refers also by analogy to the evolution
and final formation of the primitive (though compound) Seven Elements on
our Earth. Of these, four elements are now fully manifested, while the
fifth -- Ether -- is only partially so, as we are hardly in the second
half of the Fourth Round, and consequently the fifth Element will
manifest fully only in the Fifth Round. The Worlds, including our own,
were of course, as germs, primarily evolved from the ONE Element in its
second stage ("Father-Mother," the differentiated World's Soul, not what
is termed the "Over-Soul" by Emerson), whether we call it, with modern
Science, Cosmic dust and Fire Mist, or with Occultism -- Akasa, Jivatma,
divine Astral Light, or the "Soul of the World." But this first stage of
Evolution was in due course of time followed by the next. No world, as
no heavenly body, could be constructed on the objective plane, had not
the Elements been sufficiently differentiated already from their
primeval Ilus, resting in Laya. The latter term is a
synonym of Nirvana. It is, in fact, the Nirvanic dissociation of all
substances, merged after a life-cycle into the latency of their primary
conditions. It is the luminous but bodiless shadow of the matter
that was, the realm of negativeness -- wherein lie latent
during their period of rest the active Forces of the Universe. Now,
speaking of Elements, it is made the standing reproach of the Ancients,
that they "supposed their Elements simple and undecomposable."* Once
more this is an unwarrantable state-
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------
* The shades of our pre-historical ancestors might return the
compliment to modern physicists, now that new discoveries in chemistry
have led Mr. Crookes, F.R.S., to admit that Science is
yet a thousand leagues from the knowledge of the compound nature of the
simplest molecule. From him we learn that such a thing as a really
simple [[Footnote continued on next page]]
[[The Secret Doctrine, by H.P. Blavatsky, Vol. 1, Page]] 141 WERE THE ANCIENTS IGNORANT OF THE PHYSICAL
SCIENCES?
ment; as, at any rate, their initiated philosophers can hardly come
under such an imputation, since it is they who have invented allegories
and religious myths from the beginning. Had they been ignorant of the
Heterogeneity of their Elements they would have had no personifications
of Fire, Air, Water, Earth, and AEther; their Cosmic gods and goddesses
would never have been blessed with such posterity, with so many sons and
daughters, elements born from and within each respective
Element. Alchemy and occult phenomena would have been a delusion
and a snare, even in theory, had the Ancients been ignorant of the
potentialities and correlative functions and attributes of every element
that enters into the composition of Air, Water, Earth, and even Fire
-- the latter a terra incognita to this day to modern Science,
which is obliged to call it Motion, evolution of light and heat, state
of ignition, -- defining it by its outward aspects in short, and
remaining ignorant of its nature. But that which
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------
[[Footnote continued from previous page]] molecule entirely
homogeneous is terra incognita in chemistry. "Where are we to
draw the line?" he asks; "is there no way out of this perplexity? Must
we either make the elementary examinations so stiff that only 60 or 70
candidates can pass, or must we open the examination doors so wide that
the number of admissions is limited only by the number of applicants?"
And then the learned gentleman gives striking instances. He says: "Take
the case of yttrium. It has its definite atomic weight, it behaved in
every respect as a simple body, an element, to which we might indeed
add, but from which we could not take away. Yet this yttrium, this
supposed homogeneous whole, on being submitted to a certain method of
fractionation, is resolved into portions not absolutely identical among
themselves, and exhibiting a gradation of properties. Or take the case
of didymium. Here was a body betraying all the recognised characters of
an element. It had been separated with much difficulty from other bodies
which approximated closely to it in their properties, and during this
crucial process it had undergone very severe treatment and very close
scrutiny. But then came another chemist, who, treating this assumed
homogeneous body by a peculiar process of fractionation, resolved it
into the two bodies praseodymium and neodymium, between which certain
distinctions are perceptible. Further, we even now have no certainty
that neodymium and praseodymium are simple bodies. On the contrary, they
likewise exhibit symptoms of splitting up. Now, if one supposed element
on proper treatment is thus found to comprise dissimilar molecules, we
are surely warranted in asking whether similar results might not be
obtained in other elements, perhaps in all elements, if treated in the
right way. We may even ask where the process of sorting-out is to stop
-- a process which of course pre-supposes variations between the
individual molecules of each species. And in these successive
separations we naturally find bodies approaching more and more closely
to each other." (Presidential address before the Royal Society of
Chemists, March, 1888.)
[[The Secret Doctrine, by H.P. Blavatsky, Vol. 1, Page]] 142 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.
modern Science seems to fail to perceive is that, differentiated as
may have been those simple chemical atoms -- which archaic philosophy
called "the creators of their respective Parents," fathers, brothers,
husbands of their mothers, and those mothers the daughters of their own
sons, like Aditi and Daksha, for example -- differentiated as these
elements were in the beginning, still, they were not the compound bodies
known to science, as they are now. Neither Water, Air, Earth (synonym
for solids generally) existed in their present form, representing the
three states of matter alone recognised by Science; for all these are
the productions already recombined by the atmospheres of globes
completely formed -- even to fire -- so that in the first periods of the
earth's formation they were something quite sui generis. Now
that the conditions and laws ruling our solar system are fully
developed; and that the atmosphere of our earth, as of every other
globe, has become, so to say, a crucible of its own, Occult Science
teaches that there is a perpetual exchange taking place in space of
molecules, or of atoms rather, correlating, and thus changing their
combining equivalents on every planet. Some men of Science, and those
among the greatest physicists and chemists, begin to suspect this fact,
which has been known for ages to the Occultists. The spectroscope only
shows the probable similarity (on external evidence) of terrestrial and
sidereal substance; it is unable to go any farther, or to show whether
atoms gravitate towards one another in the same way and under the same
conditions as they are supposed to do on our planet, physically and
chemically. The scale of temperature, from the highest degree to the
lowest that can be conceived of, may be imagined to be one and the same
in and for the whole Universe; nevertheless, its properties, other than
those of dissociation and reassociation, differ on every planet; and
thus atoms enter into new forms of existence, undreamt of, and
incognizable to, physical Science. As already expressed in "Five Years
of Theosophy," the essence of Cometary matter, for instance, "is totally
different from any of the chemical or physical characteristics with
which the greatest chemists and physicists of the earth are acquainted"
(p. 242). And even that matter, during rapid passage through our
atmosphere, undergoes a certain change in its nature. Thus not alone the
elements of our planets, but even those of all its sisters in the Solar
System, differ as widely from each other in their combinations, as from
the Cosmic elements beyond our
[[The Secret Doctrine, by H.P. Blavatsky, Vol. 1, Page]] 143 THE SLEEP OF THE ETERNAL MOTHER.
Solar limits.* Therefore, they cannot be taken as a standard for
comparison with the same in other worlds.** Enshrined in their virgin,
pristine state within the bosom of the Eternal Mother, every atom born
beyond the threshold of her realm is doomed to incessant
differentiation. "The Mother sleeps, yet is ever breathing." And every
breath sends out into the plane of manifestation her Protean products,
which, carried on by the wave of the efflux, are scattered by Fohat, and
driven toward and beyond this or another planetary atmosphere. Once
caught by the latter, the atom is lost; its pristine purity is gone for
ever, unless Fate dissociates it by leading it to "a current of EFFLUX"
(an occult term meaning quite a different process from that which the
ordinary term implies); when it may be carried once more to the
borderland where it had perished, and taking its flight, not into Space
above but into Space within, it will be
brought under a state of differential equilibrium and happily
re-absorbed. Were a truly learned Occultist-alchemist to write the "Life
and Adventures of an Atom" he would secure thereby the eternal scorn of
the modern chemist, perchance also his subsequent
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------
* This is again corroborated by the same man of science in the same
lecture, who quotes Clerk Maxwell, saying "that the elements are not
absolutely homogeneous." He writes: "It is difficult to conceive of
selection and elimination of intermediate varieties, for where can these
eliminated molecules have gone to, if, as we have reason to believe, the
hydrogen, &c. of the fixed stars is composed of molecules identical in
all respects with our own." And he adds: "In the first place we may call
in question this absolute molecular identity, since we have hitherto had
no means for coming to a conclusion save the means furnished by the
spectroscope, while it is admitted that, for accurately comparing and
discriminating the spectra of two bodies, they should be examined under
identical states of temperature, pressure, and all other physical
conditions. We have certainly seen, in the spectrum of the sun, rays
which we have not been able to identify."
** "Each world has its Fohat, who is omnipresent in his own sphere of
action. But there are as many Fohats as there are worlds, each varying
in power and degree of manifestations. The individual Fohats make one
Universal, Collective Fohat -- the aspect-Entity of the one absolute
Non-Entity, which is absolute Be-Ness, 'SAT.' "Millions and billions of
worlds are produced at every Manvantara" -- it is said. Therefore there
must be many Fohats, whom we consider as conscious and intelligent
Forces. This, no doubt, to the disgust of scientific minds.
Nevertheless the Occultists, who have good reasons for it, consider all
the forces of Nature as veritable, though supersensuous, states of
Matter; and as possible objects of perception to Beings endowed with the
requisite senses.
[[The Secret Doctrine, by H.P. Blavatsky, Vol. 1, Page]] 144 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.
gratitude.* However it may be, "The Breath of the Father-Mother
issues cold and radiant and gets hot and corrupt, to cool once
more, and be purified in the eternal bosom of inner Space,"
says the Commentary. Man absorbs cold pure air on the mountain-top,
and throws it out impure, hot and transformed. Thus -- the higher
atmosphere being the mouth, and the lower one the lungs of every globe
-- the man of our planet breathes only the refuse of "Mother";
therefore, "he is doomed to die on it."**
(b) The process referred to as "the small wheels
giving birth, one to the other," takes place in the sixth region from
above, and on the plane of the most material world of all in the
manifested Kosmos -- our terrestrial plane. These "Seven Wheels" are our
planetary chain (see Commentary Nos. 5 and 6). By "Wheels" the various
spheres and centres of forces are generally meant; but in this case they
refer to our septenary ring.
-------
STANZA VI. -- Continued.
4. HE BUILDS THEM IN THE LIKENESS OF OLDER WHEELS
(worlds), PLACING THEM ON THE IMPERISHABLE CENTRES (a).
HOW DOES FOHAT BUILD THEM?
HE COLLECTS THE FIERY DUST. HE MAKES BALLS OF
FIRE, RUNS THROUGH THEM AND ROUND THEM, INFUSING LIFE THEREINTO; THEN
SETS THEM INTO MOTION, SOME ONE, SOME THE OTHER WAY. THEY
ARE COLD -- HE MAKES THEM HOT. THEY ARE DRY -- HE MAKES
THEM MOIST. THEY SHINE -- HE FANS AND COOLS THEM (b).
THUS ACTS FOHAT FROM ONE
Twilight TO THE OTHER DURING SEVEN ETERNITIES.***
(a) The Worlds are built "in the likeness of older Wheels"
-- i.e., those that existed in preceding Manvantaras and went
into Pralaya,
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------
* Indeed, if such an imaginary Chemist happened to be intuitional,
and would for a moment step out of the habitual groove of strictly
"Exact Science," as the Alchemists of old did, he might be repaid for
his audacity.
** He who would allotropise sluggish oxygen into Ozone to a
measure of alchemical activity, reducing it to its pure essence (for
which there are means), would discover thereby a substitute for an
"Elixir of Life" and prepare it for practical use.
*** A period of 311,040,000,000,000 years, according to Brahminical
calculations.
[[The Secret Doctrine, by H.P. Blavatsky, Vol. 1, Page]] 145 THE COSMIC PLANE, AN ILLUSION.
because the LAW for the birth, growth, and decay of
everything in Kosmos, from the Sun to the glow-worm in the grass, is
ONE. It is an everlasting work of perfection with every
new appearance, but the Substance-Matter and Forces are all one and the
same. But this LAW acts on every planet through minor
and varying laws. The "imperishable Laya Centres" have a great
importance, and their meaning must be fully understood if we would have
a clear conception of the Archaic Cosmogony, whose theories have now
passed into Occultism. At present, one thing may be stated. The worlds
are built neither upon, nor over, nor in the
Laya centres, the zero-point being a condition, not any
mathematical point.
(b) Bear in mind that Fohat, the constructive Force of
Cosmic Electricity, is said, metaphorically, to have sprung like Rudra
from Brahma "from the brain of the Father and the bosom of the Mother,"
and then to have metamorphosed himself into a male and a female,
i.e., polarity, into positive and negative electricity. He has
seven sons who are his brothers; and Fohat is forced to be
born time after time whenever any two of his son-brothers indulge in
too close contact -- whether an embrace or a fight. To avoid this,
he binds together and unites those of unlike nature and separates those
of similar temperaments. This, of course, relates, as any one can see,
to electricity generated by friction and to the law involving attraction
between two objects of unlike, and repulsion between those of like
polarity. The Seven "Sons-brothers," however, represent and personify
the seven forms of Cosmic magnetism called in practical Occultism
the "Seven Radicals," whose co-operative and active progeny are,
among other energies, Electricity, Magnetism, Sound, Light, Heat,
Cohesion, etc. Occult Science defines all these as Super-sensuous
effects in their hidden behaviour, and as objective phenomena in the
world of senses; the former requiring abnormal faculties to perceive
them -- the latter, our ordinary physical senses. They all pertain to,
and are the emanations of, still more supersensuous spiritual qualities,
not personated by, but belonging to, real and conscious CAUSES. To
attempt a description of such ENTITIES would be worse than useless. The
reader must bear in mind that, according to our teaching which regards
this phenomenal Universe as a great Illusion, the
nearer a body is to the UNKNOWN SUBSTANCE,
the more it approaches reality, as being removed the
farther
[[The Secret Doctrine, by H.P. Blavatsky, Vol. 1, Page]] 146 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.
from this world of Maya. Therefore, though the molecular
constitution of their bodies is not deducible from their manifestations
on this plane of consciousness, they nevertheless (from the standpoint
of the adept Occultist) possess a distinctive objective if not material
structure, in the relatively noumenal -- as opposed to the phenomenal --
Universe. Men of science may term them Force or Forces generated by
matter, or "modes of its motion," if they will; Occultism sees in the
effects "Elemental" (forces), and, in the direct causes producing them,
intelligent DIVINE Workmen. The intimate connection of
those Elementals (guided by the unerring hand of the Rulers) -- their
correlation we might call it -- with the elements of pure Matter,
results in our terrestrial phenomena, such as light, heat, magnetism,
etc., etc. Of course we shall never agree with the American
Substantialists* who call every Force and Energy -- whether Light, Heat,
Electricity or Cohesion -- an "Entity"; for this would be equivalent to
calling the noise produced by the rolling of the wheels of a vehicle an
Entity -- thus confusing and identifying that "noise"
with the driver outside, and the guiding Master Intelligence
within the vehicle. But we certainly give that name to the "drivers"
and to these guiding Intelligences -- the ruling Dhyan Chohans, as
shown. The "Elementals," the Nature-Forces, are the acting, though
invisible, or rather imperceptible, secondary Causes and in themselves
the effects of primary Causes behind the Veil of all terrestrial
phenomena. Electricity, light, heat, etc., have been aptly termed the
"Ghost or Shadow of Matter in Motion," i.e., supersensuous
states of matter whose effects only we are able to cognize. To expand,
then, the simile given above. The sensation of light is like the sound
of the rolling wheels -- a purely phenomenal effect, having no existence
outside the observer; the proximate exciting cause of the sensation is
comparable to the driver -- a supersensuous state of matter in motion, a
Nature-Force or Elemental. But, behind even this, stand -- just as the
owner of the carriage directs the driver from within -- the higher and
noumenal causes, the Intelligences from whose essence
radiate these States of "Mother," generating the
countless milliards of Elementals or psychic Nature-Spirits, just as
every drop of water generates its physical
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------
* See "Scientific Arena," a monthly Journal devoted to current
philosophical teaching and its bearing upon the religious thought of the
Age. New York: A. Wilford Hall, Ph.D., LL.D., Editor. (1886, July,
August, and September.)
[[The Secret Doctrine, by H.P. Blavatsky, Vol. 1, Page]] 147 PRIMORDIAL SUBSTANCE, A REALITY.
infinitesimal Infusoria. (See "Gods, Monads, and Atoms," in Part
III.) It is Fohat who guides the transfer of the principles from one
planet to the other, from one star to another -- child-star. When a
planet dies, its informing principles are transferred to a laya
or sleeping centre, with potential but latent energy in it, which is
thus awakened into life and begins to form itself into a new sidereal
body. (Vide infra, "A Few Theosophical Misconceptions,
etc.")
It is most remarkable that, while honestly confessing their entire
ignorance of the true Nature of even terrestrial matter -- primordial
substance being regarded more as a dream than as a sober reality -- the
physicists should set themselves up as judges, nevertheless, of that
matter, and claim to know what it is able and is not able to do, in
various combinations. Scientists know it (matter) hardly skin-deep, and
yet they will dogmatise. It is "a mode of motion" and nothing else. But
the force that is inherent in a living person's breath, when
blowing a speck of dust from the table, is also, and undeniably, "a mode
of motion"; and it is as undeniably not a quality of the matter, or the
particles of that speck, and it emanates from the living and thinking
Entity that breathed, whether the impulse originated consciously or
unconsciously. Indeed, to endow matter -- something of which nothing is
known so far -- with an inherent quality called Force, of the nature of
which still less is known, is to create a far more serious difficulty
than that which lies in the acceptation of the intervention of our
"Nature-Spirits" in every natural phenomenon.
The Occultists, who do not say -- if they would express themselves
correctly -- that matter, but only the substance or
essence of matter, is indestructible and eternal, (i.e.,
the Root of all, Mulaprakriti): assert that all the
so-called Forces of Nature, Electricity, Magnetism, Light, Heat, etc.,
etc., far from being modes of motion of material particles, are in
esse, i.e., in their ultimate constitution, the
differentiated aspects of that Universal Motion which is discussed and
explained in the first pages of this volume (See Proem).
When Fohat is said to produce "Seven Laya Centres," it means that
for formative or creative purposes, the GREAT LAW
(Theists may call it God) stops, or rather modifies its perpetual motion
on seven invisible points within the area of the manifested Universe. "The
great Breath digs through Space seven holes into Laya to cause them to
circumgyrate during Manvantara" (Occult Catechism). We
[[The Secret Doctrine, by H.P. Blavatsky, Vol. 1, Page]] 148 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.
have said that Laya is what Science may call the Zero-point or line;
the realm of absolute negativeness, or the one real absolute Force, the
NOUMENON of the Seventh State of that which we ignorantly call and
recognise as "Force"; or again the Noumenon of Undifferentiated Cosmic
Substance which is itself an unreachable and unknowable object to finite
perception; the root and basis of all states of objectivity and
subjectivity too; the neutral axis, not one of the many aspects, but its
centre. It may serve to elucidate the meaning if we attempt to imagine a
neutral centre -- the dream of those who would discover perpetual
motion. A "neutral centre" is, in one aspect, the limiting point of any
given set of senses. Thus, imagine two consecutive planes of matter as
already formed; each of these corresponding to an appropriate set of
perceptive organs. We are forced to admit that between these two planes
of matter an incessant circulation takes place; and if we follow the
atoms and molecules of (say) the lower in their transformation upwards,
these will come to a point where they pass altogether beyond the range
of the faculties we are using on the lower plane. In fact, to us the
matter of the lower plane there vanishes from our perception into
nothing -- or rather it passes on to the higher plane, and the state of
matter corresponding to such a point of transition must certainly
possess special and not readily discoverable properties. Such "Seven
Neutral Centres,"* then, are produced by Fohat, who, when, as Milton has
it --
"Fair foundations (are) laid whereon to build . . ."
quickens matter into activity and evolution.
The Primordial Atom (anu) cannot be
multiplied either in its pregenetic state, or its primogeneity;
therefore it is called "SUM TOTAL," figuratively, of course, as that
"SUM TOTAL" is boundless. (See Addendum to this Book.) That which is the
abyss of nothingness to the physicist, who knows only the world of
visible causes and effects, is the boundless Space of the Divine
Plenum to the Occultist. Among many other objections to the
doctrine of an endless evolution and re-involution (or re-absorption) of
the Kosmos, a process which, according to the Brahminical and Esoteric
Doctrine, is without a beginning or an end, the Occultist is told that
it cannot be, since "by all the admissions of
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------
* Such, we believe, is the name applied by Mr. Keely, of
Philadelphia, the inventor of the famous "Motor" -- destined, as his
admirers have hoped, to revolutionise the motor power of the world -- to
what he again calls the "Etheric Centres."
[[The Secret Doctrine, by H.P. Blavatsky, Vol. 1, Page]] 149 THE MOON IS NOT DEAD, BUT ONLY SLEEPETH.
modern scientific philosophy it is a necessity of Nature to run
down." If the tendency of Nature "to run down" is to be considered so
forcible an objection to Occult Cosmogony, "How," we may ask, "do your
Positivists and Free-thinkers and Scientists account for the phalanx
around us of active stellar systems?" They had eternity to "run down"
in; why, then, is not the Kosmos a huge inert mass? Even the moon is
only hypothetically believed to be a dead planet, "run down," and
astronomy does not seem to be acquainted with many such dead planets.*
The query is unanswerable. But apart from this it must be noted that the
idea of the amount of "transformable energy" in our little system coming
to an end is based purely on the fallacious conception of a "white-hot,
incandescent Sun" perpetually radiating away his heat without
compensation into Space. To this we reply that nature runs down and
disappears from the objective plane, only to re-emerge after a time of
rest out of the subjective and to reascend once more. Our Kosmos and
Nature will run down only to reappear on a more perfect plane after
every PRALAYA. The matter of the Eastern
philosophers is not the "matter" and Nature of the Western
metaphysicians. For what is Matter? And above all, what is our
scientific philosophy but that which was so justly and so politely
defined by Kant as "the Science of the limits to our
Knowledge"? Where have the many attempts made by Science to bind, to
connect, and define all the phenomena of organic life by mere physical
and chemical manifestations, brought it to? To speculation generally --
mere soap-bubbles, that burst one after the other before the men of
Science were permitted to discover real facts. All this would have been
avoided, and the progress of knowledge would have proceeded with
gigantic strides, had only Science and its philosophy abstained from
accepting hypotheses on the mere one-sided Knowledge of their
Matter.**
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------
* The moon is dead only so far as regards her inner
"principles" -- i.e., psychically and spiritually,
however absurd the statement may seem. Physically, she is only as a
semi-paralysed body may be. She is aptly referred to in Occultism as the
"insane mother," the great sidereal lunatic.
** The instance of Uranus and Neptune, whose satellites, four and one
respectively, revolved, it was thought, in their orbits from East to
West, whereas all the other satellites rotate from West to East, is a
very good one, as showing how unreliable are all a priori
speculations even when based on the strictest mathematical analysis. The
famous hypothesis of the formation of our Solar System out of the
nebulous rings, put [[Footnote continued on next page]]
[[The Secret Doctrine, by H.P. Blavatsky, Vol. 1, Page]] 150 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.
If no physical intellect is capable of counting the grains of sand
covering a few miles of sea-shore; or to fathom the ultimate nature and
essence of those grains, palpable and visible on the palm of the
naturalist, how can any materialist limit the laws changing the
conditions and being of the atoms in primordial chaos, or know anything
certain about the capabilities and potency of their atoms and molecules
before and after their formation into worlds? These changeless and
eternal molecules -- far thicker in space than the grains on the ocean
shore -- may differ in their constitution along the line of their planes
of existence, as the soul-substance differs from its vehicle, the body.
Each atom has seven planes of being or existence, we are taught; and
each plane is governed by its specific laws of evolution and absorption.
Ignorant of any, even approximate, chronological data from which to
start in attempting to decide the age of our planet or the origin of the
solar system, astronomers, geologists, and physicists are drifting with
each new hypothesis farther and farther away from the shores of fact
into the fathomless depths of speculative ontology.* The Law of Analogy
in the plan of structure between the trans-Solar systems and the
intra-Solar planets, does not necessarily bear upon the finite
conditions to which every visible body is subject, in this our plane of
being. In Occult Science this law is the first and most important key to
Cosmic physics; but it has to be studied in its minutest details and,
"to be
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------
[[Footnote continued from previous page]] forward by Kant and
Laplace, was chiefly based on the above fact that all the planets
revolved in the same direction. It is on this fact, mathematically
demonstrated during the time of Laplace, that this great astronomer,
calculating on the theory of probabilities, offered to bet three
milliards to one that the next planet discovered would have in its
system the same peculiarity of motion Eastward. The immutable laws of
scientific mathematics got "worsted by further experiments and
observations," it was said. This idea of Laplace's mistake prevails
generally to this day; but some astronomers have finally succeeded in
demonstrating (?) that the mistake had been in accepting Laplace's
assertion for a mistake; and steps to correct it without attracting
general attention to the bevue are now being taken. Many such unpleasant
surprises are in store for hypotheses of even a purely physical
character. What further disillusions, then, may there not be in
questions of a transcendental, Occult Nature? At any rate, Occultism
teaches that the so-called "reverse rotation" is a fact.
* The Occultists, having most perfect faith in their own exact
records, astronomical and mathematical, calculate the age of Humanity,
and assert that the latter (as separate sexes) has existed in this Round
just 18,618,727 years, as the Brahmanical teachings and even some Hindu
calendars declare.
[[The Secret Doctrine, by H.P. Blavatsky, Vol. 1, Page]] 151 NATURE CAN NEVER CEASE.
turned seven times," before one comes to understand it. Occult
philosophy is the only science that can teach it. How, then, can anyone
hang the truth or the untruth of the Occultist's proposition that "the
Kosmos is eternal in its unconditioned collectivity, and finite but in
its conditioned manifestations" on this one-sided physical enunciation
that "it is a necessity of Nature to run down?"
---------------------
With these verses -- the 4th Sloka of Stanza VI. -- ends that portion
of the Stanzas which relates to the Universal Cosmogony after the last
Mahapralaya or Universal destruction, which, when it comes, sweeps out
of Space every differentiated thing, Gods as atoms, like so many dry
leaves. From this verse onwards, the Stanzas are concerned only with our
Solar System in general, with the planetary chains therein,
inferentially, and with the history of our globe (the 4th and its chain)
especially. All the Stanzas and verses which follow in this Book I.
refer only to the evolution of, and on, our Earth. With regard to the
latter, a strange tenet -- strange from the modern scientific
stand-point only, of course -- is held, which ought to be made known.
But before entirely new and rather startling theories are presented
to the reader, they must be prefaced by a few words of explanation. This
is absolutely necessary, as these theories clash not only with modern
science, but contradict, on certain points, earlier statements made by
other Theosophists, who claim to base their explanations and renderings
of these teachings on the same authority as we do.*
This may give rise to the idea that there is a decided contradiction
between the expounders of the same doctrine; whereas the difference, in
reality, arises from the incompleteness of the information given to
earlier writers, who thus drew some erroneous conclusions and indulged
in premature speculations, in their endeavour to present a complete
system to the public. Thus the reader, who is already a student of
Theosophy, must not be surprised to find in these pages the
rectification of certain statements made in various Theosophical works,
and also the explanation of certain points which have remained obscure,
because they were necessarily left incomplete. Many are the questions
upon which even the author of "Esoteric Buddhism" (the best and
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------
* "Esoteric Buddhism" and "Man."
[[The Secret Doctrine, by H.P. Blavatsky, Vol. 1, Page]] 152 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.
most accurate of all such works) has not touched. On the other hand,
even he has introduced several mistaken notions which must now be
presented in their true mystic light, as far as the present writer is
capable of doing so.
Let us then make a short break between the Slokas just explained and
those which follow, for the Cosmic periods which separate them are of
immense duration. This will afford us ample time to take a bird's eye
view of some points pertaining to the Secret Doctrine, which have been
presented to the public under a more or less uncertain and sometimes
mistaken light.
-------
[[The Secret Doctrine, by H.P. Blavatsky, Vol. 1, Page]] 152 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.
[[This page continued from
previous
section]]
A FEW EARLY THEOSOPHICAL MISCONCEPTIONS
CONCERNING PLANETS, ROUNDS, AND MAN.
Among the eleven Stanzas omitted* there is one which gives a full
description of the formation of the planetary chains one after another,
after the first Cosmic and Atomic differentiation had commenced in the
primitive Acosmism. It is idle to speak of "laws arising when
Deity prepares to create" for (a) laws or rather LAW
is eternal and uncreated; and (b) that Deity is Law, and
vice versa. Moreover, the one eternal LAW unfolds
everything in the (to be) manifested Nature on a sevenfold principle;
among the rest, the countless circular chains of worlds, composed of
seven globes, graduated on the four lower planes of the world of
formation (the three others belonging to the Archetypal Universe). Out
of these seven only one, the lowest and the most material
of those globes, is within our plane or means of
perception, the six others lying outside of it and being therefore
invisible to the terrestrial eye. Every such chain of worlds is the
progeny and creation of another, lower, and dead chain
-- its reincarnation, so to say. To make it clearer:
we are told of the planets -- of which seven only were held as
sacred, as being ruled by the highest regents or gods, and not at all
because the ancients knew nothing of the others** -- that each of these,
whether known or unknown, is a septenary, as is the chain to which the
Earth belongs (see "Esoteric
[[Footnote(s)]] to diagram
* See the note which follows the Commentary on the preceding page,
and also the summary of the Stanzas in the Proem, page 22.
** Many more planets are enumerated in the Secret Books than in
modern astronomical works.
[[The Secret Doctrine, by H.P. Blavatsky, Vol. 1, Page]] 153 DESCENDING AND RE-ASCENDING STATES.
Buddhism"). For instance, all such planets as Mercury, Venus, Mars,
Jupiter, Saturn, etc., etc., or our Earth, are as visible to us as our
globe, probably, is to the inhabitants of the other planets, if any,
because they are all on the same plane; while the superior fellow-globes
of these planets are on other planes quite outside that of our
terrestrial senses. As their relative position is given further on, and
also in the diagram appended to the Comments on Verse 7 of Stanza VI., a
few words of explanation is all that is needed at present. These
invisible companions correspond curiously to that which we call "the
principles in Man." The seven are on three material planes and one
spiritual plane, answering to the three Upadhis (material
bases) and one spiritual vehicle (Vahan) of our seven
principles in the human division. If, for the sake of a clearer mental
conception, we imagine the human principles to be arranged as in the
following scheme, we shall obtain the annexed diagram of
correspondences: --
DIAGRAM I.
[[Footnote(s) to diagram]]
-------------------------------------------------
*As we are proceeding here from Universals to Particulars, instead of
using the inductive or Aristotelean method, the numbers are reversed.
Spirit is enumerated the first instead of seventh, as is usually done,
but, in truth, ought not to be done.
† Or as usually named after the manner of Esoteric Buddhism
and others: 1, Atma; 2, Buddhi (or Spiritual Soul); 3, Manas (Human
Soul); 4, Kama Rupa (Vehicle of Desires and Passions); 5, Linga Sarira;
6, Prana; 7, Sthula Sarira.
[[The Secret Doctrine, by H.P. Blavatsky, Vol. 1, Page]] 154 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.
The dark horizontal lines of the lower planes are the Upadhis in one
case, and the planes in the case of the planetary chain. Of course, as
regards the human principles, the diagram does not place them quite in
order, yet it shows the correspondence and analogy to which attention is
now drawn. As the reader will see, it is a case of descent into matter,
the adjustment -- in both the mystic and the physical senses -- of the
two, and their interblending for the great coming "struggle of life"
that awaits both the entities. "Entity" may be thought a
strange term to use in the case of a globe; but the ancient
philosophers, who saw in the earth a huge "animal," were wiser in their
generation than our modern geologists are in theirs; and Pliny, who
called the Earth our kind nurse and mother, the only element which is
not inimical to man, spoke more truly than Watts, who fancied that he
saw in her the footstool of God. For Earth is only the footstool of man
in his ascension to higher regions; the vestibule --
". . . . . . . to glorious mansions,
Through which a moving crowd for ever press."
But this only shows how admirably the occult philosophy fits
everything in Nature, and how much more logical are its tenets than the
lifeless hypothetical speculations of physical science.
Having learned thus much, the mystic will be better prepared to
understand the occult teaching, though every formal student of modern
science may, and probably will, regard it as preposterous nonsense. The
student of occultism, however, holds that the theory at present under
discussion is far more philosophical and probable than any other. It is
more logical, at any rate, than the theory recently advanced which made
of the moon the projection of a portion of our Earth extruded when the
latter was but a globe in fusion, a molten plastic mass.*
It is said that the planetary chains having their "Days" and their
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------
* Says the author of "Modern Science and Modern Thought," Mr. Samuel
Laing: "The astronomical conclusions are theories based on data so
uncertain, that while in some cases they give results incredibly short,
like that of 15 millions of years for the whole past process of
formation of the solar system, in others they give results almost
incredibly long, as in that which supposes the moon to have been
thrown off when the Earth was rotating in three hours, while
the utmost actual retardation obtained from observation would require
600 millions of years to make it rotate in twenty-three hours
instead of twenty-four" (p. 48). And if physicists persist, why should
the chronology of the Hindus be laughed at as exaggerated?
[[The Secret Doctrine, by H.P. Blavatsky, Vol. 1, Page]] 155 EXCHANGE OF LIFE-PRINCIPLES.
"Nights" -- i.e., periods of activity or life, and of
inertia or death -- and behave in heaven as do men on Earth: they
generate their likes, get old, and become personally extinct, their
spiritual principles only living in their progeny as a survival of
themselves.
Without attempting the very difficult task of giving out the whole
process in all its cosmic details, enough may be said to give an
approximate idea of it. When a planetary chain is in its last Round, its
Globe 1 or A, before finally dying out, sends all its energy
and "principles" into a neutral centre of latent force, a "laya centre,"
and thereby informs a new nucleus of undifferentiated substance or
matter, i.e., calls it into activity or gives it life.
Suppose such a process to have taken place in the lunar "planetary"
chain; suppose again, for argument's sake (though Mr. Darwin's theory
quoted below has lately been upset, even if the fact has not yet been
ascertained by mathematical calculation) that the moon is far older than
the Earth. Imagine the six fellow-globes of the moon -- aeons before the
first globe of our seven was evolved -- just in the same position in
relation to each other as the fellow-globes of our chain occupy in
regard to our Earth now. (See in "Esoteric Buddhism," "The Constitution
of Man," and the "Planetary Chain.") And now it will be easy to imagine
further Globe A of the lunar chain informing Globe A of the terrestrial
chain, and -- dying; Globe B of the former sending after that its energy
into Globe B of the new chain; then Globe C of the lunar, creating its
progeny sphere C of the terrene chain; then the Moon (our Satellite*)
pouring forth into
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------
* She is the satellite, undeniably, but this does not invalidate the
theory that she has given to the Earth all but her corpse. For Darwin's
theory to hold good, besides the hypothesis just upset (vide last
footnote), other still more incongruous speculations had to be invented.
The Moon, it is said, has cooled nearly six times as rapidly as the
Earth (Winchell's "World-Life"): "The Moon, if the earth is 14,000,000
years old since its incrustation, is only eleven and two thirds millions
of years old since that stage . . ." etc. And if our Moon is but a
splash from our Earth, why can no similar inference be established for
the Moons of other planets? The Astronomers "do not know." Why should
Venus and Mercury have no satellites, and by what, when they exist, were
they formed? Because, we say, science has only one key -- the key of
matter -- to open the mysteries of nature withal, while occult
philosophy has seven keys and explains that which science fails to see.
Mercury and Venus have no satellites but they had "parents" just as the
earth had. Both are far older than the Earth and, before the latter
reaches her seventh Round, her mother Moon will have dissolved
[[Footnote continued on next page]]
[[The Secret Doctrine, by H.P. Blavatsky, Vol. 1, Page]] 156 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.
the lowest globe of our planetary ring -- Globe D, our Earth -- all
its life, energy and powers; and, having transferred them to a new
centre becoming virtually a dead planet, in which
rotation has almost ceased since the birth of our globe. The Moon is now
the cold residual quantity, the shadow dragged after the new body, into
which her living powers and "principles" are transfused. She now is
doomed for long ages to be ever pursuing the Earth, to be attracted by
and to attract her progeny. Constantly vampirised by her child,
she revenges herself on it by soaking it through and through with the
nefarious, invisible, and poisoned influence which emanates from the
occult side of her nature. For she is a dead, yet a
living body. The particles of her decaying corpse are full of
active and destructive life, although the body which they had formed is
soulless and lifeless. Therefore its emanations are at the same time
beneficent and maleficent -- this circumstance finding its parallel on
earth in the fact that the grass and plants are nowhere more juicy and
thriving than on the graves; while at the same time it is the graveyard
or corpse-emanations, which kill. And like all ghouls or vampires, the
moon is the friend of the sorcerers and the foe of the unwary. From the
archaic aeons and the later times of the witches of Thessaly, down to
some of the present tantrikas of Bengal, her nature and
properties were known to every Occultist, but have remained a closed
book for physicists.
Such is the moon from the astronomical, geological, and physical
standpoints. As to her metaphysical and psychic nature it must remain an
occult secret in this work, as it was in the volume on "Esoteric
Buddhism," notwithstanding the rather sanguine statement made therein on
p. 113 (5th edition) that "there is not much mystery left now in the
riddle of the eighth sphere." These are topics, indeed, "on which the
adepts are very reserved in their communications to uninitiated pupils,"
and since they have, moreover, never sanctioned or permitted any
published speculations upon them, the less said the better.
Yet without treading upon the forbidden ground of the "eighth
sphere," it may be useful to state some additional facts with regard to
ex-monads of the lunar chain -- the "lunar ancestors" -- as they play a
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------
[[Footnote continued from previous page]] into thin air, as the
"Moons" of the other planets have, or have not, as the case may be,
since there are planets which have several moons -- a mystery
again which no OEdipus of astronomy has solved.
[[The Secret Doctrine, by H.P. Blavatsky, Vol. 1, Page]] 157 OPINIONS DIFFER AND YET AGREE.
leading part in the coming Anthropogenesis. This brings us
directly to the septenary constitution of man; and as some discussion
has arisen of late about the best classification to be adopted for the
division of the microcosmic entity, two systems are now appended with a
view to facilitate comparison. The subjoined short article is from the
pen of Mr. T. Subba Row, a learned Vedantin scholar. He prefers the
Brahmanical division of the Raja Yoga, and from a metaphysical point of
view he is quite right. But, as it is a question of simple choice and
expediency, we hold in this work to the "time-honoured" classification
of the trans-Himalayan "Arhat Esoteric School." The following table and
its explanatory text are reprinted from the "Theosophist" of Madras, and
they are also contained in "Five Years of Theosophy": --
SEPTENARY DIVISION IN DIFFERENT INDIAN SYSTEMS.
"We give below in a tabular form the classifications adopted by the
Buddhist and Vedantic teachers of the principles of man: --
[[Footnote(s) to table]]
* Kosa (kosha) is "Sheath" literally, the sheath of every principle.
† "Life."
‡ The astral body or Linga Sarira.
§ Sthula-Upadhi, or basis of the principle.
|| Buddhi.
[[The Secret Doctrine, by H.P. Blavatsky, Vol. 1, Page]] 158 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.
From the foregoing table it will be seen that the third principle in
the Buddhist classification is not separately mentioned in the Vedantic
division, as it is merely the vehicle of Prana. It will also be seen
that the Fourth principle is included in the third Kosa (Sheath), as the
same principle is but the vehicle of will-power, which is but an energy
of the mind. It must also be noticed that the Vignanamaya Kosa is
considered to be distinct from the Manomaya Kosa, as a division is made
after death between the lower part of the mind, as it were, which has a
closer affinity with the fourth principle than with the sixth; and its
higher part, which attaches itself to the latter, and which is, in fact,
the basis for the higher spiritual individuality of man.
We may also here point out to our readers that the classification
mentioned in the last column is, for all practical purposes, connected
with Raja Yoga, the best and simplest. Though there are seven principles
in man, there are but three distinct Upadhis (bases), in each of which
his Atma may work independently of the rest. These three Upadhis can be
separated by an Adept without killing himself. He cannot separate the
seven principles from each other without destroying his constitution."
The student will now be better prepared to see that between the three
Upadhis of the Raja Yoga and its Atma, and our three Upadhis, Atma, and
the additional three divisions, there is in reality but very little
difference. Moreover, as every adept in cis-Himalayan or trans-Himalayan
India, of the Patanjali, the Aryasanga or the Mahayana schools, has to
become a Raja Yogi, he must, therefore, accept the Taraka Raja
classification in principle and theory whatever classification he
resorts to for practical and occult purposes. Thus, it matters very
little whether one speaks of the three Upadhis with their three
aspects and Atma, the eternal and immortal synthesis, or calls them
the "seven principles."
For the benefit of those who may not have read, or, if they have, may
not have clearly understood, in Theosophical writings, the doctrine of
the septenary chains of worlds in the Solar Kosmos, the teaching is
briefly thus: --
1. Everything in the metaphysical as in the physical Universe is
septenary. Hence every sidereal body, every planet, whether visible
[[The Secret Doctrine, by H.P. Blavatsky, Vol. 1, Page]] 159 THE TRANSMIGRATIONS OF THE EGO.
or invisible, is credited with six companion globes. (See Diagram No.
3, after verse 6 of this commentary.) The evolution of life proceeds on
these seven globes or bodies from the 1st to the 7th in Seven ROUNDS
or Seven Cycles.
2. These globes are formed by a process which the Occultists call the
"rebirth of planetary chains (or rings)." When the seventh and last
Round of one of such rings has been entered upon, the highest or first
globe "A," followed by all the others down to the last, instead of
entering upon a certain time of rest -- or "obscuration," as in their
previous Rounds -- begins to die out. The "planetary" dissolution (pralaya)
is at hand, and its hour has struck; each globe has to
transfer its life and energy to another planet. (See diagram No. 2
infra, "The Moon and the Earth.")
3. Our Earth, as the visible representative of its invisible superior
fellow globes, its "lords" or "principles" (see diagram No. 1), has to
live, as have the others, through seven Rounds. During the first three,
it forms and consolidates; during the fourth it settles and hardens;
during the last three it gradually returns to its first ethereal form:
it is spiritualised, so to say.
4. Its Humanity develops fully only in the Fourth -- our present
Round. Up to this fourth Life-Cycle, it is referred to as "humanity"
only for lack of a more appropriate term. Like the grub which becomes
chrysalis and butterfly, Man, or rather that which becomes man, passes
through all the forms and kingdoms during the first Round and through
all the human shapes during the two following Rounds. Arrived on our
Earth at the commencement of the Fourth in the present series of
life-cycles and races, MAN is the first form that appears thereon, being
preceded only by the mineral and vegetable kingdoms -- even the latter
having to develop and continue its further evolution through man.
This will be explained in Book II. During the three Rounds to come,
Humanity, like the globe on which it lives, will be ever tending to
reassume its primeval form, that of a Dhyan Chohanic Host. Man tends to
become a God and then -- GOD, like every other atom in
the Universe.
"Beginning so early as with the 2nd round, Evolution proceeds already
on quite a different plan. It is only during the 1st round that
(heavenly) man becomes a human being on globe A (rebecomes) a mineral, a
plant, an animal, on globe B and C, etc. The process changes
[[The Secret Doctrine, by H.P. Blavatsky, Vol. 1, Page]] 160 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.
entirely from the second round -- but you have learned prudence . . .
and I advise you to say nothing before the time for saying it has
come. . ." (Extract from the Teacher's letters on various topics.)
5. Every life-cycle on Globe D (our Earth)* is composed of seven
root-races. They commence with the Ethereal and end with the spiritual
on the double line of physical and moral evolution -- from the beginning
of the terrestrial round to its close. (One is a "planetary round" from
Globe A to Globe G, the seventh; the other, the "globe round," or the
terrestrial).
This is very well described in "Esoteric Buddhism" and needs no
further elucidation for the time being.
6. The first root-race, i.e., the first "men" on earth
(irrespective of form) were the progeny of the "celestial men," called
rightly in Indian philosophy the "Lunar Ancestors" or the Pitris, of
which there are seven classes or Hierarchies. As all this will be
sufficiently explained in the following sections and in Book II., no
more need be said of it here.
But the two works already mentioned, both of which treat of subjects
from the occult doctrine, need particular notice. "Esoteric Buddhism" is
too well known in Theosophical circles, and even to the outside world,
for it to be necessary to enter at length upon its merits here. It is an
excellent book, and has done still more excellent work. But this does
not alter the fact that it contains some mistaken notions, and that it
has led many Theosophists and lay-readers to form an erroneous
conception of the Secret Eastern Doctrines. Moreover it seems, perhaps,
a little too materialistic.
"MAN," which came later, was an attempt to present
the archaic doctrine from a more ideal standpoint, to translate some
visions in and from the Astral Light, to render some teachings partly
gathered from a Master's thoughts, but unfortunately misunderstood. This
work also speaks of the evolution of the early Races of men on Earth,
and contains some excellent pages of a philosophical character. But so
far it is only an interesting little mystical romance. It has failed in
its mission, because the conditions required for a correct translation
of these visions were not present. Hence the reader must not wonder if
our Volumes contradict these earlier descriptions in several
particulars.
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------
* We are not concerned with the other Globes in this work except
incidentally.
[[The Secret Doctrine, by H.P. Blavatsky, Vol. 1, Page]] 161 A RE-ADJUSTMENT OF FACTS.
Esoteric "Cosmogony" in general, and the evolution of the human Monad
especially, differ so essentially in these two books and in other
Theosophical works written independently by beginners, that it
becomes impossible to proceed with the present work without special
mention of these two earlier volumes, for both have a number of admirers
-- "Esoteric Buddhism" especially. The time has arrived for the
explanation of some matters in this direction. Mistakes have now to be
checked by the original teachings and corrected. If one of the said
works has too pronounced a bias toward materialistic science, the other
is decidedly too idealistic, and is, at times, fantastic.
From the doctrine -- rather incomprehensible to western minds --
which deals with the periodical "obscurations" and successive "Rounds"
of the Globes along their circular chains, were born the first
perplexities and misconceptions. One of such has reference to the "Fifth-"
and even "Sixth-Rounders." Those who knew that a Round was
preceded and followed by a long Pralaya, a pause of
rest which created an impassable gulf between two Rounds until the time
came for a renewed cycle of life, could not understand the "fallacy" of
talking about "fifth and sixth Rounders" in our
Fourth Round. Gautama Buddha, it was held, was a Sixth-Rounder,
Plato and some other great philosophers and minds, "Fifth-Rounders." How
could it be? One Master taught and affirmed that there were such
"Fifth-Rounders" even now on Earth; and though understood to say
that mankind was yet "in the Fourth Round," in another place he
seemed to say that we were in the Fifth. To this an "apocalyptic
answer" was returned by another Teacher: -- "A few drops of rain do not
make a Monsoon, though they presage it." . . . "No, we are not in the
Fifth Round, but Fifth Round men have been coming in for the last few
thousand years." This was worse than the riddle of the Sphinx! Students
of Occultism subjected their brains to the wildest work of speculation.
For a considerable time they tried to outvie OEdipus and reconcile the
two statements. And as the Masters kept as silent as the stony Sphinx
herself, they were accused of inconsistency, "contradiction," and
"discrepancies." But they were simply allowing the speculations to go
on, in order to teach a lesson which the Western mind sorely
needs. In their conceit and arrogance, as in their habit of
materializing every metaphysical conception and term without allowing
any margin for Eastern
[[The Secret Doctrine, by H.P. Blavatsky, Vol. 1, Page]] 162 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.
metaphor and allegory, the Orientalists have made a jumble of the
Hindu exoteric philosophy, and the Theosophists were now doing the same
with regard to esoteric teachings. To this day it is evident that the
latter have utterly failed to understand the meaning of the term "Fifth
and Sixth Rounders." But it is simply this: every "Round" brings about a
new development and even an entire change in the mental, psychic,
spiritual and physical constitution of man, all these principles
evoluting on an ever ascending scale. Thence it follows that those
persons who, like Confucius and Plato, belonged psychically, mentally
and spiritually to the higher planes of evolution, were in our Fourth
Round as the average man will be in the Fifth Round, whose mankind is
destined to find itself, on this scale of Evolution, immensely higher
than is our present humanity. Similarly Gautama Buddha -- Wisdom
incarnate -- was still higher and greater than all the men we have
mentioned, who are called Fifth Rounders, while Buddha and Sankaracharya
are termed Sixth Rounders, allegorically. Thence again the concealed
wisdom of the remark, pronounced at the time "evasive" -- that a few
drops of rain do not make the Monsoon, though they presage it."
And now the truth of the remark made in "Esoteric Buddhism" by its
author will be fully apparent: --
"It is impossible, when the complicated facts of an entirely
unfamiliar science are being presented to untrained minds for the first
time, to put them forward with all their appropriate qualifications
. . . and abnormal developments. . . . We must be content to take the
broad rules first and deal with the exceptions afterwards, and
especially is this the case with study, in connection with which the
traditional methods of teaching, generally followed,
aim at impressing every fresh idea on the memory by provoking the
perplexity it at last relieves."
As the author of the remark was himself, as he says, "an untrained
mind" in Occultism, his own inferences, and his better knowledge of
modern astronomical speculations than of archaic doctrines led him quite
naturally, and as unconsciously to himself, to commit a few mistakes of
detail rather than of any "broad rule." One such will now be noticed. It
is a trifling one, still it is calculated to lead many a beginner into
erroneous conceptions. But as the mistaken notions of the earlier
editions were corrected in the annotations of the fifth
edition, so the sixth may be revised and perfected. There were several
reasons
[[The Secret Doctrine, by H.P. Blavatsky, Vol. 1, Page]] 163 LIKE QUESTIONS, LIKE ANSWERS.
for such mistakes. (1) They were due to the necessity under which the
teachers laboured of giving what were considered as "evasive answers":
the questions being too persistently pressed to be left unnoticed,
while, on the other hand, they could only be partially answered.
(2) This position notwithstanding, the confession that
"half a loaf is better than no bread" was but too often misunderstood
and hardly appreciated as it ought to have been. As a result thereof
gratuitous speculations were sometimes indulged in by the European
lay-chelas. Among such were (a) the "Mystery of the Eighth Sphere" in
its relation to the Moon; and (b) the erroneous statement that two of
the superior Globes of the terrestrial chain were two of our well-known
planets: "besides the Earth . . . there are only two other worlds of
our chain which are visible. . . . Mars and Mercury. . . ." (Esoteric
Buddhism; p. 136.)
This was a great mistake. But the blame for it is to be attached as
much to the vagueness and incompleteness of the Master's answer as to
the question of the learner itself, which was equally vague and
indefinite.
It was asked: "What planets, of those known to ordinary science,
besides Mercury, belong to our system of worlds?" Now if by "System of
Worlds" our terrestrial chain or "string" was intended in the
mind of the querist, instead of the "Solar System of Worlds," as it
should have been, then of course the answer was likely to be
misunderstood. For the reply was: "Mars, etc., and four other planets of
which astronomy knows nothing. Neither A, B, nor YZ are known nor can
they be seen through physical means however perfected." This is plain:
(a) Astronomy as yet knows nothing in reality of the planets, neither
the ancient ones, nor those discovered in modern times. (b) No
companion planets from A to Z, i.e., no upper globes of
any chain in the Solar System, can be seen.* As to Mars, Mercury, and
"the four other planets," they bear
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------
* With the exception of course of all the planets which come
fourth in number, as our earth, the moon, etc., etc. Copies of all
the letters ever received or sent, with the exception of a few private
ones -- "in which there was no teaching" the Master
says -- are with the writer. As it was her duty, in the beginning, to
answer and explain certain points not touched upon, it is more than
likely that notwithstanding the many annotations on these copies, the
writer, in her ignorance of English and her fear of saying too much, may
have bungled the information given. She takes the whole blame for it
upon herself in any and every case. But it is impossible for her to
allow students to remain any longer under erroneous impressions, or to
believe that the fault lies with the esoteric system.
[[The Secret Doctrine, by H.P. Blavatsky, Vol. 1, Page]] 164 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.
a relation to Earth of which no master or high Occultist will ever
speak, much less explain the nature.*
Let it now be distinctly stated, then, that the theory broached is
impossible, with or without the additional evidence furnished by modern
Astronomy. Physical Science can supply corroborative, though still very
uncertain, evidence, but only as regards heavenly bodies on the same
plane of materiality as our objective Universe. Mars and Mercury, Venus
and Jupiter, like every hitherto discovered planet (or those still to be
discovered), are all, per se, the representatives on our plane
of such chains. As distinctly stated in one of the numerous letters of
Mr. Sinnett's "Teacher," "there are other and innumerable Manvantaric
chains of globes which bear intelligent Beings both in and outside our
solar system." But neither Mars nor Mercury belong to our chain.
They are, along with the other planets, septenary Units in
the great host of "chains" of our system, and all are as visible as
their upper globes are invisible.
If it is still argued that certain expressions in the Teacher's
letters were liable to mislead, the answer comes: -- Amen; so it was.
The author of "Esoteric Buddhism" understood it well when he wrote that
such are "the traditional modes of teaching . . . by provoking the
perplexity" . . . they do, or do not relieve -- as the
case may be. At all events, if it is urged that this might have been
explained earlier, and the true nature of the planets given out as they
now are, the answer comes that: "it was not found expedient to do so at
the time, as it would have opened the way to a series of additional
questions which could never be answered on account of their esoteric
nature, and thus would only become embarrassing." It had been
declared from the first and has been repeatedly asserted since that
(1st) no Theosophist, not even as an accepted chela --
let alone lay students -- could expect to have the secret
teachings explained to him thoroughly and completely, before he
had irretrievably pledged himself to the Brotherhood and passed through
at least one initiation, because no figures and numbers
could be given to the public, for figures and numbers are the key to the
esoteric system. (2.) That
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------
* In this same letter the impossibility is distinctly stated: -- . .
. "Try to understand that you are putting me questions pertaining to the
highest initiation; that I can give you (only) a general view, but
that I dare not nor will I enter upon details . . ." wrote one of
the Teachers to the author of "Esoteric Buddhism."
[[The Secret Doctrine, by H.P. Blavatsky, Vol. 1, Page]] 165 AN AUTHORITATIVE LETTER.
what was revealed was merely the esoteric lining of that which is
contained in almost all the exoteric Scriptures of the world-religions
-- pre-eminently in the Brahmanas, and the Upanishads of the Vedas and
even in the Puranas. It was a small portion of what is divulged far more
fully now in the present volumes; and even this is very incomplete and
fragmentary.
When the present work was commenced, the writer, feeling sure that
the speculation about Mars and Mercury was a mistake, applied to the
Teachers by letter for explanation and an authoritative
version. Both came in due time, and verbatim extracts from
these are now given.
". . . . . It is quite correct that Mars is in a state of
obscuration at present, and Mercury just beginning to get out
of it. You might add that Venus is in her last Round. . .
. . . . . . . . If neither Mercury nor Venus have
satellites, it is because of the reasons . . . (vide
footnote supra, where those reasons are given), and also because
Mars has two satellites to which he has no right. . . . .
Phobos, the supposed INNER satellite, is no
satellite at all. As remarked long ago by Laplace and now by Faye (see
COMPTES RENDUS, Tome XC., p.
569), Phobos keeps a too short periodic time, and
therefore there 'must exist some defect in the mother idea of
the theory' as Faye justly observes. . . . . Again,
both (Mars and Mercury) are septenary chains,
as independent of the Earth's sidereal lords and superiors as
you are independent of the 'principles' of Daumling
(Tom Thumb) -- which were perhaps his six brothers,
with or without night-caps. . . . . . . . . . 'Gratification of
curiosity is the end of knowledge for some men,' was said by Bacon,
who was as right in postulating this truism, as those who were
familiar with it before him were right in hedging off
WISDOM from Knowledge, and tracing limits to that
which is to be given out at one time. . . . Remember: --
'. . . . . . . . . . . knowledge dwells
In heads replete with thoughts of other men,
Wisdom in minds attentive to their own. . . .'
You can never impress it too profoundly on the minds of those to
whom you impart some of the esoteric teachings. . ."
Again, here are more extracts from another letter written by the same
authority. This time it is in answer to some objections laid before the
Teachers. They are based upon extremely scientific, and as
[[The Secret Doctrine, by H.P. Blavatsky, Vol. 1, Page]] 166 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.
futile, reasonings about the advisability of trying to reconcile the
Esoteric theories with the speculations of Modern Science, and were
written by a young Theosophist as a warning against the "Secret
Doctrine" and in reference to the same subject. He had declared that if
there were such companion Earths "they must be only a wee bit less
material than our globe." How then was it that they could not be seen?
The answer was: --
". . . . Were psychic and spiritual teachings more fully
understood, it would become next to impossible to even imagine
such an incongruity. Unless less trouble is taken to reconcile the
irreconcileable -- that is to say, the metaphysical
and spiritual sciences with physical or natural philosophy,
'natural' being a synonym to them (men of
science) of that matter which falls under the perception of
their corporeal senses -- no progress can be really achieved. Our Globe,
as taught from the first, is at the bottom of the arc of
descent, where the matter of our perceptions exhibits itself in
its grossest form. . . . . . . Hence it only stands to reason
that the globes which overshadow our Earth must be on different and
superior planes. In short, as Globes, they are in
CO-ADUNITION but not IN CONSUBSTANTIALITY WITH OUR EARTH
and thus pertain to quite another state of consciousness. Our planet
(like all those we see) is adapted to the peculiar
state of its human stock, that state which enables us to see
with our naked eye the sidereal bodies which are co-essential with our
terrene plane and substance, just as their respective
inhabitants, the Jovians, Martians and others can
perceive our little world: because our planes of consciousness,
differing as they do in degree but being the same in kind, are
on the same layer of differentiated matter. . . . . What I
wrote was 'The minor Pralaya concerns only our little
STRINGS OF GLOBES.' (We called chains 'Strings' in
those days of lip-confusion.) . . . 'To such
a string our Earth belongs.' This ought to have shown plainly that the
other planets were also 'strings' or
CHAINS. . . If he (meaning the objector)
would perceive even the dim silhouette of one of such 'planets'
on the higher planes, he has to first throw off even the thin
clouds of the astral matter that stands between him and the next plane.
. . . ."
It becomes patent why we could not perceive, even with the help of
the best earthly telescopes, that which is outside our world of matter.
Those alone, whom we call adepts, who know how to direct their mental
vision and to transfer their consciousness -- physical and psychic both
--
[[The Secret Doctrine, by H.P. Blavatsky, Vol. 1, Page]] 167 PRICELESS ADVICE, NEGLECTED.
to other planes of being, are able to speak with authority on such
subjects. And they tell us plainly: --
"Lead the life necessary for the acquisition of such knowledge
and powers, and Wisdom will come to you naturally. Whenever
your are able to attune your consciousness to any of the seven chords of
'Universal Consciousness,' those chords that run along
the sounding-board of Kosmos, vibrating from one Eternity to
another; when you have studied thoroughly 'the music of the
Spheres,' then only will you become quite free to share your
knowledge with those with whom it is safe to do so. Meanwhile,
be prudent. Do not give out the great Truths that are the inheritance of
the future Races, to our present generation. Do not attempt to
unveil the secret of being and non-being to those unable to see the
hidden meaning of Apollo's HEPTACHORD -- the lyre of
the radiant god, in each of the seven strings of which dwelleth
the Spirit, Soul and Astral body of the Kosmos, whose
shell only has now fallen into the hands of Modern Science. . . . .
. Be prudent, we say, prudent and wise,
and above all take care what those who learn from you believe in; lest
by deceiving themselves they deceive others . . . . . for such
is the fate of every truth with which men are, as yet,
unfamiliar. . . . Let rather the planetary chains and other
super- and sub-cosmic mysteries remain a dreamland for those
who can neither see, nor yet believe that others can. . .
."
It is to be regretted that few of us have followed the wise advice;
and that many a priceless pearl, many a jewel of wisdom, has been cast
to an enemy unable to understand its value and who has turned round and
rent us.
" 'Let us imagine,' wrote the same Master
to his two 'lay chelas,' as he called the author of 'Esoteric Buddhism'
and another gentleman, his co-student for some time -- 'let us
imagine THAT OUR EARTH IS ONE OF A GROUP OF SEVEN PLANETS OR
MAN-BEARING WORLDS. . . . . . (The SEVEN planets are the
sacred planets of antiquity, and are all septenary.)
Now the life-impulse reaches A, or rather that which is
destined to become A, and which so far is but cosmic dust
(a "laya centre") . . etc.' "
In these early letters, in which the terms had to be invented and
words coined, the "Rings" very often became "Rounds," and the "Rounds"
life-cycles, and vice versa. To a correspondent who called a
"Round" a "World-Ring," the Teacher wrote: "I believe this will lead to
a further confusion. A Round we are agreed to call the passage
[[The Secret Doctrine, by H.P. Blavatsky, Vol. 1, Page]] 168 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.
of a monad from Globe A to Globe G or Z. . . The 'World-Ring' is
correct. . . Advise Mr. . . . strongly, to agree upon a nomenclature
before going any further. . . "
Notwithstanding this agreement, many mistakes, owing to this
confusion, crept into the earliest teachings. The Races even were
occasionally mixed up with the "Rounds" and "Rings," and led to similar
mistakes in "Man." From the first the Master had written --
"Not being permitted to give you the whole truth,
or divulge the number of isolated fractions . . . I am unable to satisfy
you."
This in answer to the questions, "If we are right, then the total
existence prior to the man-period is 637," etc., etc. To all the queries
relating to figures, the reply was, "Try to solve the problem of 777
incarnations. . . . Though I am obliged to withhold information
. . . yet if you should work out the problem by yourself,
it will be my duty to tell you so."
But they never were so worked out, and the results were --
never-ceasing perplexity and mistakes.
Even the teaching about the Septenary constitution of the sidereal
bodies and of the macrocosm -- from which the septenary division of the
microcosm, or Man -- has until now been among the most esoteric. In
olden times it used to be divulged only at the Initiation and along with
the most sacred figures of the cycles. Now, as stated in one of the
Theosophical journals,* the revelation of the whole system of Cosmogony
had not been contemplated, nor even thought for one moment possible, at
a time when a few bits of information were sparingly given out in answer
to letters written by the author of "Esoteric Buddhism," in which he put
forward a multiplicity of questions. Among these were questions on such
problems as no MASTER, however high and
independent he might be, would have the right to answer,
thus divulging to the world the most time-honoured and archaic of the
mysteries of the ancient college-temples. Hence only a few of the
doctrines were revealed in their broad outlines, while details were
constantly withheld, and all the efforts made to elicit more information
about them were systematically eluded from the beginning. This is
perfectly natural. Of the four Vidyas -- out of the seven branches of
Knowledge mentioned in the Puranas -- namely, "Yajna-Vidya" (the
performance of religious rites in order to
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------
* "Lucifer," May, 1888.
[[The Secret Doctrine, by H.P. Blavatsky, Vol. 1, Page]] 169 THE SEVEN BRANCHES OF THE TREE OF KNOWLEDGE.
produce certain results); "Maha-Vidya," the great (Magic) knowledge,
now degenerated into Tantrika worship; "Guhya-Vidya," the science of
Mantras and their true rhythm or chanting, of mystical incantations,
etc. -- it is only the last one, "Atma-Vidya," or the true Spiritual
and Divine wisdom, which can throw absolute and
final light upon the teachings of the three first named. Without the
help of Atma-Vidya, the other three remain no better than surface
sciences, geometrical magnitudes having length and breadth, but no
thickness. They are like the soul, limbs, and mind of a sleeping man:
capable of mechanical motions, of chaotic dreams and even sleep-walking,
of producing visible effects, but stimulated by instinctual not
intellectual causes, least of all by fully conscious spiritual impulses.
A good deal can be given out and explained from the three first-named
sciences. But unless the key to their teachings is furnished by
Atma-Vidya, they will remain for ever like the fragments of a mangled
text-book, like the adumbrations of great truths, dimly perceived by the
most spiritual, but distorted out of all proportion by those who would
nail every shadow to the wall.
Then, again, another great perplexity was created in the minds of
students by the incomplete exposition of the doctrine of the evolution
of the Monads. To be fully realised, both this process and that of the
birth of the Globes must be examined far more from their metaphysical
aspect than from what one might call a statistical standpoint, involving
figures and numbers which are rarely permitted to be broadly used.
Unfortunately, there are few who are inclined to handle these doctrines
only metaphysically. Even the best of the Western writers upon our
doctrine declares in his work that "on pure metaphysics of that sort we
are not now engaged," when speaking of the evolution of the Monads
("Esoteric Buddhism," p. 46). And in such case, as the Teacher remarks
in a letter to him, "Why this preaching of our doctrines, all this
uphill work and swimming in adversum flumen? Why should the
West . . . learn . . . from the East . . . that which can never meet the
requirements of the special tastes of the aesthetics?" And he draws his
correspondent's attention "to the formidable difficulties encountered by
us (the Adepts) in every attempt we make to explain our metaphysics to
the Western mind."
And well he may; for outside of metaphysics no occult
philosophy, no esotericism is possible. It is like trying to explain the
aspirations and affections, the love and hatred, the most private and
sacred workings in
[[The Secret Doctrine, by H.P. Blavatsky, Vol. 1, Page]] 170 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.
the soul and mind of the living man, by an anatomical description of
the chest and brain of his dead body.
Let us now examine two tenets mentioned above and hardly alluded to
in "Esoteric Buddhism," and supplement them as far as lies in our power.
---------------------
[[The Secret Doctrine, by H.P. Blavatsky, Vol. 1, Page]] 170 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.
[[This page continued from
previous
section]]
ADDITIONAL FACTS AND EXPLANATIONS CONCERNING
THE GLOBES AND THE MONADS.
Two statements made in "Esoteric Buddhism" must be noticed and the
author's opinions quoted. On p. 47 (fifth edition) it is said: --
" . . . the spiritual monads . . . do not fully complete their
mineral existence on Globe A, then complete it on Globe B, and so on.
They pass several times round the whole circle as minerals, and then
again several times round as vegetables, and several times as animals.
We purposely refrain for the present from going into figures," etc.,
etc.
This was a wise course to adopt in view of the great secrecy
maintained with regard to figures and numbers. This reticence is now
partially relinquished; but it would perhaps have been better had the
real numbers concerning Rounds and evolutional gyrations been either
entirely divulged at the time, or as entirely withheld. Mr. Sinnett
understood this difficulty well when saying (p. 140) that: "For reasons
which are not easy for the outsider to divine, the possessors of occult
knowledge are especially reluctant to give out facts relating to
Cosmogony, though it is hard for the uninitiated to understand why they
should be withheld."
That there were such reasons is evident. Nevertheless, it is to this
reticence that most of the confused ideas of some Eastern as well as
Western pupils are due. The difficulties in the way of the acceptance of
the two particular tenets under consideration seemed great, just because
of the absence of any data to go upon. But there it was. For the figures
belonging to the Occult calculations cannot be given -- as the Masters
have many times declared -- outside the circle of pledged chelas, and
not even these can break the rules.
To make things plainer, without touching upon the mathematical
aspects of the doctrine, the teaching given may be expanded and some
obscure
[[The Secret Doctrine, by H.P. Blavatsky, Vol. 1, Page]] 171 THE MYSTERY OF THE MOON, UNVEILED.
points solved. As the evolution of the Globes and that of the Monads
are so closely interblended, we will make of the two teachings one. In
reference to the Monads, the reader is asked to bear in mind that
Eastern philosophy rejects the Western theological dogma of a
newly-created soul for every baby born, as being as unphilosophical as
it is impossible in the economy of Nature. There must be a limited
number of Monads evolving and growing more and more perfect through
their assimilation of many successive personalities, in every new
Manvantara. This is absolutely necessary in view of the doctrines of
Rebirth, Karma, and the gradual return of the human Monad to its source
-- absolute Deity. Thus, although the hosts of more or
less progressed Monads are almost incalculable, they are still finite,
as is everything in this Universe of differentiation and finiteness.
As shown in the double diagram of the human "principles" and the
ascending Globes of the world-chains, there is an eternal concatenation
of causes and effects, and a perfect analogy which runs through, and
links together, all the lines of evolution. One begets the other --
globes as personalities. But, let us begin at the beginning.
The general outline of the process by which the successive planetary
chains are formed has just been given. To prevent future misconceptions,
some further details may be offered which will also throw light on the
history of humanity on our own chain, the progeny of that of the Moon.
In the diagrams on p. 172, Fig. 1 represents the "lunar-chain" of
seven planets at the outset of its seventh or last Round; while Fig. 2
represents the "earth-chain" which will be, but is not yet in existence.
The seven Globes of each chain are distinguished in their cyclic order
by the letters A to G, the Globes of the Earth-chain being further
marked by a cross -- + -- the symbol of the Earth.
Now, it must be remembered that the Monads cycling round any
septenary chain are divided into seven classes or hierarchies according
to their respective stages of evolution, consciousness, and merit. Let
us follow, then, the order of their appearance on planet A, in the first
Round. The time-spaces between the appearances of these hierarchies on
any one Globe are so adjusted that when Class 7, the last, appears on
Globe A, Class 1, the first, has just passed on to Globe B, and so on,
step by step, all round the chain.
Again, in the Seventh Round on the Lunar chain, when Class 7, the
[[The Secret Doctrine, by H.P. Blavatsky, Vol. 1, Page]] 172 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.
last, quits Globe A, that Globe, instead of falling asleep, as it had
done in previous Rounds, begins to die (to go into its planetary
pralaya);* and in dying it transfers successively, as just said, its
"principles," or life-elements and energy, etc., one after the other to
a new "laya-centre," which commences the formation of Globe A of the
Earth Chain. A similar process takes place for each of the Globes of the
"lunar chain" one after the other, each forming a fresh Globe of the
"earth-chain." Our Moon was the fourth Globe of the series, and was
on the same plane of perception as our Earth. But Globe A of the
lunar chain is not fully "dead" till the first Monads of the first class
have passed from Globe G or Z, the last of the "lunar chain," into the
Nirvana
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------
* Occultism divides the periods of Rest (Pralaya) into several kinds;
there is the individual pralaya of each Globe, as humanity and
life pass on to the next; seven minor Pralayas in each Round; the
planetary Pralaya, when seven Rounds are completed; the
Solar Pralaya, when the whole system is at an end; and finally
the Universal Maha -- or Brahma -- Pralaya at the close of the "Age of
Brahma." These are the three chief pralayas or "destruction
periods." There are many other minor ones, but with these we are not
concerned at present.
[[The Secret Doctrine, by H.P. Blavatsky, Vol. 1, Page]] 173 THE EARTH, THE CHILD OF THE MOON.
which awaits them between the two chains; and similarly for all the
other Globes as stated, each giving birth to the corresponding globe of
the "earth-chain."
Further, when Globe A of the new chain is ready, the first class or
Hierarchy of Monads from the Lunar chain incarnate upon it in the lowest
kingdom, and so on successively. The result of this is, that it is only
the first class of Monads which attains the human state of development
during the first Round, since the second class, on each planet, arriving
later, has not time to reach that stage. Thus the Monads of Class 2
reach the incipient human stage only in the Second Round, and so on up
to the middle of the Fourth Round. But at this point -- and on this
Fourth Round in which the human stage will be fully developed
-- the "Door" into the human kingdom closes; and henceforward the number
of "human" Monads, i.e., Monads in the human stage of
development, is complete. For the Monads which had not reached the human
stage by this point will, owing to the evolution of humanity itself,
find themselves so far behind that they will reach the human stage only
at the close of the seventh and last Round. They will, therefore, not be
men on this chain, but will form the humanity of a future Manvantara and
be rewarded by becoming "Men" on a higher chain altogether, thus
receiving their Karmic compensation. To this there is but one
solitary exception, for very good reasons, of which we
shall speak farther on. But this accounts for the difference in the
races.
It thus becomes apparent how perfect is the analogy between the
processes of Nature in the Kosmos and in the individual man. The latter
lives through his life-cycle, and dies. His "higher principles,"
corresponding in the development of a planetary chain to the cycling
Monads, pass into Devachan, which corresponds to the "Nirvana" and
states of rest intervening between two chains. The Man's lower
"principles" are disintegrated in time and are used by Nature again for
the formation of new human principles, and the same process takes place
in the disintegration and formation of Worlds. Analogy is thus the
surest guide to the comprehension of the Occult teachings.
This is one of the "seven mysteries of the Moon," and it is now
revealed. The seven "mysteries" are called by the Japanese
Yamaboosis, the mystics of the Lao-Tze sect and the
ascetic monks of Kioto, the Dzenodoo -- the "seven jewels." Only the
Japanese and the Chinese
[[The Secret Doctrine, by H.P. Blavatsky, Vol. 1, Page]] 174 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.
Buddhist ascetics and Initiates are, if possible, even more reticent
in giving out their "Knowledge" than are the Hindus.
But the reader must not be allowed to lose sight of the Monads, and
must be enlightened as to their nature, as far as permitted, without
trespassing upon the highest mysteries, of which the writer does not in
any way pretend to know the last or final word.
The Monadic Host may be roughly divided into three great classes: --
1. The most developed Monads (the Lunar Gods or "Spirits," called, in
India, the Pitris), whose function it is to pass in the first Round
through the whole triple cycle of the mineral, vegetable, and animal
kingdoms in their most ethereal, filmy, and rudimentary forms, in order
to clothe themselves in, and assimilate, the nature of the newly formed
chain. They are those who first reach the human form (if there can be
any form in the realm of the almost subjective) on Globe A in the first
Round. It is they, therefore, who lead and represent the human element
during the second and third Rounds, and finally evolve their shadows at
the beginning of the Fourth Round for the second class, or those who
come behind them.
2. Those Monads that are the first to reach the human stage during
the three and a half Rounds, and to become men.*
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------
* We are forced to use here the misleading word "Men," and this is a
clear proof of how little any European language is adapted to express
these subtle distinctions.
It stands to reason that these "Men" did not resemble the men of
to-day, either in form or nature. Why then, it may be asked, call them
"Men" at all? Because there is no other term in any Western language
which approximately conveys the idea intended. The word "Men" at least
indicates that these beings were "MANUS," thinking entities, however
they differed in form and intellection from ourselves. But in reality
they were, in respect of spirituality and intellection, rather "gods"
than "Men."
The same difficulty of language is met with in describing the
"stages" through which the Monad passes. Metaphysically speaking, it is
of course an absurdity to talk of the "development" of a Monad, or to
say that it becomes "Man." But any attempt to preserve
metaphysical accuracy of language in the use of such a tongue as the
English would necessitate at least three extra volumes of this work, and
would entail an amount of verbal repetition which would be wearisome in
the extreme. It stands to reason that a MONAD cannot
either progress or develop, or even be affected by the changes of states
it passes through. It is not of this world or plane,
and may be compared only to an indestructible star of divine light and
fire, thrown down on to our [[Footnote continued on next page]]
[[The Secret Doctrine, by H.P. Blavatsky, Vol. 1, Page]] 175 THE CLASSIFICATION OF THE MONADS.
3. The laggards; the Monads which are retarded, and which will not
reach, by reason of Karmic impediments, the human stage at all during
this cycle or Round, save one exception which will be spoken of
elsewhere as already promised.
Now the evolution of the external form or body round the
astral is produced by the terrestrial forces, just as in the case
of the lower kingdoms; but the evolution of the internal or real MAN is
purely spiritual. It is now no more a passage of the impersonal Monad
through many and various forms of matter -- endowed at best with
instinct and consciousness on quite a different plane -- as in the case
of external evolution, but a journey of the "pilgrim-soul" through
various states of not only matter but
Self-consciousness and self-perception, or of perception from
apperception. (See "Gods, Monads and Atoms.")
The MONAD emerges from its state of spiritual and
intellectual unconsciousness; and, skipping the first two planes -- too
near the ABSOLUTE to permit of any correlation with anything on a lower
plane -- it gets direct into the plane of Mentality. But there is no
plane in the whole universe with a wider margin, or a wider field of
action in its almost endless gradations of perceptive and apperceptive
qualities, than this plane, which has in its turn an appropriate smaller
plane for every "form," from the "mineral" monad up to the time when
that monad blossoms forth by evolution into the DIVINE MONAD. But all
the time it is still one and the same Monad, differing only in its
incarnations, throughout its ever succeeding cycles of partial or total
obscuration of spirit, or the partial or total obscuration of matter --
two polar antitheses -- as it ascends into the realms of mental
spirituality, or descends into the depths of materiality.
To return to "Esoteric Buddhism." It is there stated with regard to
the enormous period intervening between the mineral epoch on Globe A,
and the man-epoch,* that: "The full development of the
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------
[[Footnote continued from previous page]] Earth as a plank of
salvation for the personalities in which it indwells. It is for the
latter to cling to it; and thus partaking of its divine nature, obtain
immortality. Left to itself the Monad will cling to no one; but, like
the "plank," be drifted away to another incarnation by the unresting
current of evolution.
* The term "Man epoch" is here used because of the necessity of
giving a name to that fourth kingdom which follows the animal. But in
truth the "Man" on Globe A during the First Round is no Man, but only
his prototype or dimensionless image from the astral regions.
[[The Secret Doctrine, by H.P. Blavatsky, Vol. 1, Page]] 176 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.
mineral epoch on Globe A, prepares the way for the vegetable
development, and, as soon as this begins, the mineral life-impulse
overflows into Globe B. Then, when the vegetable development on Globe A
is complete and the animal development begins, the vegetable
life-impulse overflows to Globe B, and the mineral impulse passes on to
Globe C. Then finally comes the human life-impulse on Globe A." (Page
49.)
And so it goes on for three Rounds, when it slackens, and finally
stops at the threshold of our Globe, at the Fourth Round; because the
human period (of the true physical men to be), the seventh, is now
reached. This is evident, for as said, " . . . there are processes of
evolution which precede the mineral kingdom, and thus a wave of
evolution, indeed several waves of evolution, precede the mineral wave
in its progress round the spheres" (ibid).
And now we have to quote from another articl
