THE SECRET DOCTRINE:
THE SYNTHESIS
OF
SCIENCE, RELIGION, AND PHILOSOPHY.
by H. P. BLAVATSKY
SUMMING UP.
"The History of Creation and of this world from its beginning up to
the present time is composed of seven chapters. The
seventh chapter is not yet written."
(T. Subba Row, Theosophist, 1881.)
THE first of these Seven chapters has been attempted
and is now finished. However incomplete and feeble as an exposition, it
is, at any rate, an approximation -- using the word in a mathematical
sense -- to that which is the oldest basis for all the subsequent
Cosmogonies. The attempt to render in a European tongue the grand
panorama of the ever periodically recurring Law -- impressed upon the
plastic minds of the first races endowed with Consciousness by those who
reflected the same from the Universal Mind -- is daring, for no human
language, save the Sanskrit -- which is that of the Gods -- can
do so with any degree of adequacy. But the failures in this work
must be forgiven for the sake of the motive.
As a whole, neither the foregoing nor what follows can be found in
full anywhere. It is not taught in any of the six Indian schools of
philosophy, for it pertains to their synthesis -- the seventh, which is
the Occult doctrine. It is not traced on any crumbling papyrus of Egypt,
nor is it any longer graven on Assyrian tile or granite wall. The Books
of the Vedanta (the last word of human knowledge) give out but
the metaphysical aspect of this world-Cosmogony; and their priceless
thesaurus, the Upanishads -- Upa-ni-shad being a compound word
meaning "the conquest of ignorance by the revelation of secret,
spiritual knowledge" -- require now the additional possession of a
Master-key to enable the student to get at their full meaning. The
reason for this I venture to state here as I learned it from a Master.
The name, "Upanishads," is usually translated "esoteric
doctrine." These treatises form part of the Sruti or "revealed
knowledge," Revelation, in short, and are generally attached to
the Brahmana
[[The Secret Doctrine, by H.P. Blavatsky, Vol. 1, Page]] 270 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.
portion of the Vedas,* as their third division. There are over 150
Upanishads enumerated by, and known to, Orientalists, who
credit the oldest with being written probably about 600 years
B.C.; but of genuine texts there does not exist a fifth of the
number. The Upanishads are to the Vedas what the Kabala is to the Jewish
Bible. They treat of and expound the secret and mystic meaning of the
Vedic texts. They speak of the origin of the Universe, the nature of
Deity, and of Spirit and Soul, as also of the metaphysical connection of
mind and matter. In a few words: They CONTAIN the beginning and the
end of all human knowledge, but they have now ceased to
REVEAL it, since the day of Buddha. If it were otherwise, the
Upanishads could not be called esoteric, since they are now
openly attached to the Sacred Brahmanical books, which have, in our
present age, become accessible even to the Mlechchhas (out-castes)
and the European Orientalists. One thing in them -- and this in all
the Upanishads -- invariably and constantly points to their
ancient origin, and proves (a) that they were written, in some
of their portions, before the caste system became the
tyrannical institution which it still is; and (b) that half of
their contents have been eliminated, while some of them were rewritten
and abridged. "The great Teachers of the higher Knowledge and the
Brahmans are continually represented as going to Kshatriya (military
caste) kings to become their pupils." As Cowell pertinently remarks, the
Upanishads "breathe an entirely different spirit" (from other
Brahmanical writings), "a freedom of thought unknown in any earlier work
except in the Rig Veda hymns themselves." The second fact is explained
by a tradition recorded in one of the MSS. on Buddha's
life. It says that the Upanishads were originally attached to their
Brahmanas after the beginning of a reform, which led to the
exclusiveness of the present caste system among the Brahmins, a few
centuries after the invasion of India by the "twice-born." They were
complete in those days, and were used for the instruction of the chelas
who were preparing for their initiation.
* "The Vedas have a distinct dual meaning -- one expressed by the
literal sense of the words, the other indicated by the metre and the
swara -- intonation -- which are as the life of the Vedas. . . .
Learned pundits and philologists of course deny that swara has
anything to do with philosophy or ancient esoteric doctrines; but the
mysterious connection between swara and light is one
of its most profound secrets." (T. Subba Row, Five Years of
Theosophy, p. 154.)
[[The Secret Doctrine, by H.P. Blavatsky, Vol. 1, Page]] 271 OCCULTISM IN THE UPANISHADS.
This lasted so long as the Vedas and the Brahmanas remained in the
sole and exclusive keeping of the temple-Brahmins -- while no one else
had the right to study or even read them outside of the sacred
caste. Then came Gautama, the Prince of Kapilavastu. After learning
the whole of the Brahmanical wisdom in the Rahasya or the
Upanishads, and finding that the teachings differed little, if
at all, from those of the "Teachers of Life" inhabiting the snowy ranges
of the Himalaya,* the Disciple of the Brahmins, feeling indignant
because the sacred wisdom was thus withheld from all but the Brahmins,
determined to save the whole world by popularizing it. Then it was that
the Brahmins, seeing that their sacred knowledge and Occult wisdom was
falling into the hands of the "Mlechchhas," abridged the texts
of the Upanishads, originally containing thrice the matter of the Vedas
and the Brahmanas together, without altering, however, one word of the
texts. They simply detached from the MSS. the most
important portions containing the last word of the Mystery of Being. The
key to the Brahmanical secret code remained henceforth with the
initiates alone, and the Brahmins were thus in a position to publicly
deny the correctness of Buddha's teaching by appealing to their
Upanishads, silenced for ever on the chief questions. Such is the
esoteric tradition beyond the Himalayas.
Sri Sankaracharya, the greatest Initiate living in the historical
ages, wrote many a Bhashya on the Upanishads. But his original
treatises, as there are reasons to suppose, have not yet fallen into the
hands of the Philistines, for they are too jealously preserved in his
maths (monasteries, mathams). And there are
still weightier reasons to believe that the priceless Bhashyas
(Commentaries) on the esoteric doctrine of the Brahmins, by their
greatest expounder, will remain for ages yet a dead letter to most of
the Hindus, except the Smartava Brahmins. This sect, founded by
Sankaracharya, (which is still very powerful in Southern India) is now
almost the only one to produce students who have preserved sufficient
knowledge to comprehend the
[[Footnote(s) -------------------------------------------------]]
* Also called "the Sons of Wisdom," and of the "Fire-Mist" and the
"Brothers of the Sun" in the Chinese records. Si-dzang (Tibet)
is mentioned in the MSS. of the sacred library of the
province of Fo-Kien, as the great seat of Occult learning from time
immemorial, ages before Buddha. The Emperor Yu, the "great" (2,207 years
B.C.), a pious mystic and great adept,
is said to have obtained his knowledge from the "great teachers of the
Snowy Range" in Si-dzang.
[[The Secret Doctrine, by H.P. Blavatsky, Vol. 1, Page]] 272 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.
dead letter of the Bhashyas. The reason of this is that they alone, I
am informed, have occasionally real Initiates at their head in their
mathams, as for instance, in the "Sringa-giri," in the Western Ghats of
Mysore. On the other hand, there is no sect in that desperately
exclusive caste of the Brahmins, more exclusive than is the Smartava;
and the reticence of its followers to say what they may know of the
Occult sciences and the esoteric doctrine, is only equalled by their
pride and learning.
Therefore the writer of the present statement must be prepared
beforehand to meet with great opposition and even the denial of such
statements as are brought forward in this work. Not that any claim to
infallibility, or to perfect correctness in every detail of all that
which is herein said, was ever put forward. Facts are there, and they
can hardly be denied. But, owing to the intrinsic difficulties of the
subjects treated, and the almost insurmountable limitations of the
English tongue (as of all other European languages) to express certain
ideas, it is more than probable that the writer has failed to present
the explanations in the best and in the clearest form; yet all that
could be done was done under every adverse circumstance, and this is the
utmost that can be expected of any writer.
Let us recapitulate and show, by the vastness of the subjects
expounded, how difficult, if not impossible, it is to do them full
justice.
(1.) The Secret Doctrine is the accumulated Wisdom of the Ages, and
its cosmogony alone is the most stupendous and elaborate system:
e.g., even in the exotericism of the Puranas. But such is the
mysterious power of Occult symbolism, that the facts which have actually
occupied countless generations of initiated seers and prophets to
marshal, to set down and explain, in the bewildering series of
evolutionary progress, are all recorded on a few pages of geometrical
signs and glyphs. The flashing gaze of those seers has penetrated into
the very kernel of matter, and recorded the soul of things there, where
an ordinary profane, however learned, would have perceived but the
external work of form. But modern science believes not in the "soul of
things," and hence will reject the whole system of ancient cosmogony. It
is useless to say that the system in question is no fancy of one or
several isolated individuals. That it is the uninterrupted record
covering thousands of generations of Seers whose respective experiences
were made to test and to verify the
[[The Secret Doctrine, by H.P. Blavatsky, Vol. 1, Page]] 273 THE PITH AND MARROW OF OCCULTISM.
traditions passed orally by one early race to another, of the
teachings of higher and exalted beings, who watched over the childhood
of Humanity. That for long ages, the "Wise Men" of the Fifth Race, of
the stock saved and rescued from the last cataclysm and shifting of
continents, had passed their lives in learning, not teaching.
How did they do so? It is answered: by checking, testing, and verifying
in every department of nature the traditions of old by the independent
visions of great adepts; i.e., men who have developed and
perfected their physical, mental, psychic, and spiritual organisations
to the utmost possible degree. No vision of one adept was accepted till
it was checked and confirmed by the visions -- so obtained as to stand
as independent evidence -- of other adepts, and by centuries of
experiences.
(2.) The fundamental Law in that system, the central point from which
all emerged, around and toward which all gravitates, and upon which is
hung the philosophy of the rest, is the One homogeneous divine
SUBSTANCE-PRINCIPLE, the one radical cause.
. . . "Some few, whose lamps shone brighter, have been led
From cause to cause to nature's secret head,
And found that one first Principle must be. . . ."
It is called "Substance-Principle," for it becomes "substance" on the
plane of the manifested Universe, an illusion, while it remains a
"principle" in the beginningless and endless abstract, visible and
invisible SPACE. It is the omnipresent Reality: impersonal, because it
contains all and everything. Its impersonality is the fundamental
conception of the System. It is latent in every atom in the
Universe, and is the Universe itself. (See in chapters on Symbolism,
"Primordial Substance, and Divine Thought.")
(3.) The Universe is the periodical manifestation of this unknown
Absolute Essence. To call it "essence," however, is to sin against the
very spirit of the philosophy. For though the noun may be derived in
this case from the verb esse, "to be," yet IT cannot be
identified with a being of any kind, that can be conceived by
human intellect. IT is best described as neither Spirit nor matter, but
both. "Parabrahmam and Mulaprakriti" are One, in reality, yet two in the
Universal conception of the manifested, even in the conception of the
One Logos, its first manifestation, to which, as the able lecturer in
the "Notes on the Bhagavadgita" shows, IT appears from the objective
standpoint of
[[The Secret Doctrine, by H.P. Blavatsky, Vol. 1, Page]] 274 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.
the One Logos as Mulaprakriti and not as Parabrahmam; as its veil
and not the one REALITY hidden behind, which is unconditioned and
absolute.
(4.) The Universe is called, with everything in it, MAYA, because all
is temporary therein, from the ephemeral life of a fire-fly to that of
the Sun. Compared to the eternal immutability of the ONE, and the
changelessness of that Principle, the Universe, with its evanescent
ever-changing forms, must be necessarily, in the mind of a philosopher,
no better than a will-o'-the-wisp. Yet, the Universe is real enough to
the conscious beings in it, which are as unreal as it is itself.
(5.) Everything in the Universe, throughout all its kingdoms, is
CONSCIOUS: i.e., endowed with a consciousness of its own kind
and on its own plane of perception. We men must remember that because
we do not perceive any signs -- which we can recognise -- of
consciousness, say, in stones, we have no right to say that no
consciousness exists there. There is no such thing as either "dead"
or "blind" matter, as there is no "Blind" or "Unconscious" Law. These
find no place among the conceptions of Occult philosophy. The latter
never stops at surface appearances, and for it the noumenal
essences have more reality than their objective counterparts; it
resembles therein the mediaeval Nominalists, for whom it was
the Universals that were the realities and the particulars which existed
only in name and human fancy.
(6.) The Universe is worked and guided from within
outwards. As above so it is below, as in heaven so on earth; and
man -- the microcosm and miniature copy of the macrocosm -- is the
living witness to this Universal Law, and to the mode of its action. We
see that every external motion, act, gesture, whether voluntary
or mechanical, organic or mental, is produced and preceded by
internal feeling or emotion, will or volition, and thought or mind.
As no outward motion or change, when normal, in man's external body can
take place unless provoked by an inward impulse, given through one of
the three functions named, so with the external or manifested Universe.
The whole Kosmos is guided, controlled, and animated by almost endless
series of Hierarchies of sentient Beings, each having a mission to
perform, and who -- whether we give to them one name or another, and
call them Dhyan-Chohans or Angels -- are "messengers" in the sense only
that they are the agents of Karmic and Cosmic Laws. They vary infinitely
in their
[[The Secret Doctrine, by H.P. Blavatsky, Vol. 1, Page]] 275 THE NATURE OF THE CELESTIAL MEN.
respective degrees of consciousness and intelligence; and to call
them all pure Spirits without any of the earthly alloy "which time is
wont to prey upon" is only to indulge in poetical fancy. For each of
these Beings either was, or prepares to become, a man, if not
in the present, then in a past or a coming cycle (Manvantara). They are
perfected, when not incipient, men; and differ morally
from the terrestrial human beings on their higher (less material)
spheres, only in that they are devoid of the feeling of personality and
of the human emotional nature -- two purely earthly
characteristics. The former, or the "perfected," have become free from
those feelings, because (a) they have no longer fleshly bodies
-- an ever-numbing weight on the Soul; and (b) the pure
spiritual element being left untrammelled and more free, they are less
influenced by maya than man can ever be, unless he is an adept
who keeps his two personalities -- the spiritual and the physical --
entirely separated. The incipient monads, having never had terrestrial
bodies yet, can have no sense of personality or EGO-ism. That which is
meant by "personality," being a limitation and a relation, or, as
defined by Coleridge, "individuality existing in itself but with a
nature as a ground," the term cannot of course be applied to non-human
entities; but, as a fact insisted upon by generations of Seers, none of
these Beings, high or low, have either individuality or personality as
separate Entities, i.e., they have no individuality in the
sense in which a man says, "I am myself and no one else;" in
other words, they are conscious of no such distinct separateness as men
and things have on earth. Individuality is the characteristic of their
respective hierarchies, not of their units; and these characteristics
vary only with the degree of the plane to which those hierarchies
belong: the nearer to the region of Homogeneity and the One Divine, the
purer and the less accentuated that individuality in the Hierarchy. They
are finite, in all respects, with the exception of their higher
principles -- the immortal sparks reflecting the universal divine flame
-- individualized and separated only on the spheres of Illusion by a
differentiation as illusive as the rest. They are "Living Ones," because
they are the streams projected on the Kosmic screen of illusion from the
ABSOLUTE LIFE; beings in whom life cannot become extinct, before the
fire of ignorance is extinct in those who sense these "Lives." Having
sprung into being under the quickening influence of the uncreated beam,
the reflection of the great Central Sun that
[[The Secret Doctrine, by H.P. Blavatsky, Vol. 1, Page]] 276 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.
radiates on the shores of the river of Life, it is the inner
principle in them which belongs to the waters of immortality, while its
differentiated clothing is as perishable as man's body. Therefore Young
was right in saying that
"Angels are men of a superior kind"
and no more. They are neither "ministering" nor "protecting" angels;
nor are they "Harbingers of the Most High" still less the "Messengers of
wrath" of any God such as man's fancy has created. To appeal to their
protection is as foolish as to believe that their sympathy may be
secured by any kind of propitiation; for they are, as much as man
himself is, the slaves and creatures of immutable Karmic and Kosmic law.
The reason for it is evident. Having no elements of personality in their
essence they can have no personal qualities, such as attributed by men,
in their exoteric religions, to their anthropomorphic God -- a jealous
and exclusive God who rejoices and feels wrathful, is pleased with
sacrifice, and is more despotic in his vanity than any finite foolish
man. Man, as shown in Book II., being a compound of the essences of all
those celestial Hierarchies may succeed in making himself, as such,
superior, in one sense, to any hierarchy or class, or even combination
of them. "Man can neither propitiate nor command the Devas," it
is said. But, by paralyzing his lower personality, and arriving thereby
at the full knowledge of the non-separateness of his higher
SELF from the One absolute SELF, man can, even during his terrestrial
life, become as "One of Us." Thus it is, by eating of the fruit of
knowledge which dispels ignorance, that man becomes like one of the
Elohim or the Dhyanis; and once on their plane the Spirit of
Solidarity and perfect Harmony, which reigns in every Hierarchy, must
extend over him and protect him in every particular.
The chief difficulty which prevents men of science from believing in
divine as well as in nature Spirits is their materialism. The main
impediment before the Spiritualist which hinders him from believing in
the same, while preserving a blind belief in the "Spirits" of the
Departed, is the general ignorance of all, except some Occultists and
Kabalists, about the true essence and nature of matter. It is on the
acceptance or rejection of the theory of the Unity of all in Nature,
in its ultimate Essence, that mainly rests the belief or
unbelief in the existence around us of other conscious beings besides
the Spirits of the Dead.
[[The Secret Doctrine, by H.P. Blavatsky, Vol. 1, Page]] 277 MANY BODIES BUT ONE SOUL.
It is on the right comprehension of the primeval Evolution of
Spirit-Matter and its real essence that the student has to depend for
the further elucidation in his mind of the Occult Cosmogony, and for the
only sure clue which can guide his subsequent studies.
In sober truth, as just shown, every "Spirit" so-called is either a
disembodied or a future man. As from the highest Archangel
(Dhyan Chohan) down to the last conscious "Builder" (the inferior class
of Spiritual Entities), all such are men, having lived aeons
ago, in other Manvantaras, on this or other Spheres; so the inferior,
semi-intelligent and non-intelligent Elementals -- are all future
men. That fact alone -- that a Spirit is endowed with intelligence
-- is a proof to the Occultist that that Being must have been a man,
and acquired his knowledge and intelligence throughout the human
cycle. There is but one indivisible and absolute Omniscience and
Intelligence in the Universe, and this thrills throughout every atom and
infinitesimal point of the whole finite Kosmos which hath no bounds, and
which people call SPACE, considered independently of anything contained
in it. But the first differentiation of its reflection in the
manifested World is purely Spiritual, and the Beings generated in it are
not endowed with a consciousness that has any relation to the one we
conceive of. They can have no human consciousness or Intelligence before
they have acquired such, personally and individually. This may be a
mystery, yet it is a fact, in Esoteric philosophy, and a very apparent
one too.
The whole order of nature evinces a progressive march towards a
higher life. There is design in the action of the seemingly
blindest forces. The whole process of evolution with its endless
adaptations is a proof of this. The immutable laws that weed out the
weak and feeble species, to make room for the strong, and which ensure
the "survival of the fittest," though so cruel in their immediate action
-- all are working toward the grand end. The very fact that
adaptations do occur, that the fittest do survive in
the struggle for existence, shows that what is called "unconscious
Nature"* is in reality an aggregate of forces mani-
[[Footnote(s) -------------------------------------------------]]
* Nature taken in its abstract sense, cannot be
"unconscious," as it is the emanation from, and thus an aspect (on the
manifested plane) of the ABSOLUTE consciousness. Where is that daring
man who would presume to deny to vegetation and even to minerals a
consciousness of their own. All he can say is, that this
consciousness is beyond his comprehension.
[[The Secret Doctrine, by H.P. Blavatsky, Vol. 1, Page]] 278 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.
pulated by semi-intelligent beings (Elementals) guided by High
Planetary Spirits, (Dhyan Chohans), whose collective aggregate forms the
manifested verbum of the unmanifested LOGOS, and constitutes at
one and the same time the MIND of the Universe and its immutable LAW.
Three distinct representations of the Universe in its three distinct
aspects are impressed upon our thought by the esoteric philosophy: the
PRE-EXISTING (evolved from) the EVER-EXISTING; and the PHENOMENAL -- the
world of illusion, the reflection, and shadow thereof. During the great
mystery and drama of life known as the Manvantara, real Kosmos is like
the object placed behind the white screen upon which are thrown the
Chinese shadows, called forth by the magic lantern. The actual figures
and things remain invisible, while the wires of evolution are pulled by
the unseen hands; and men and things are thus but the reflections,
on the white field, of the realities behind the snares of
Mahamaya, or the great Illusion. This was taught in every
philosophy, in every religion, ante as well as post
diluvian, in India and Chaldea, by the Chinese as by the Grecian Sages.
In the former countries these three Universes were allegorized, in
exoteric teachings, by the three trinities emanating from the Central
eternal germ and forming with it a Supreme Unity: the initial,
the manifested, and the Creative Triad, or the three
in One. The last is but the symbol, in its concrete expression, of the
first ideal two. Hence Esoteric philosophy passes over the
necessarianism of this purely metaphysical conception, and calls the
first one, only, the Ever Existing. This is the view of every one of the
six great schools of Indian philosophy -- the six principles of
that unit body of WISDOM of which the "gnosis,"
the hidden knowledge, is the seventh.
The writer hopes that, superficially handled as may be the comments
on the Seven Stanzas, enough has been given in this cosmogonic portion
of the work to show Archaic teachings to be more scientific (in
the modern sense of the word) on their very face, than any other ancient
Scriptures left to be regarded and judged on their exoteric aspect.
Since, however, as confessed before, this work withholds far more
than it gives out, the student is invited to use his own
intuitions. Our chief care is to elucidate that which has already been
given out, and, to our regret, very incorrectly at times; to supplement
the knowledge hinted at -- whenever and wherever possible -- by addi-
[[The Secret Doctrine, by H.P. Blavatsky, Vol. 1, Page]] 279 HERMES, OR ARISTOTLE?
tional matter; and to bulwark our doctrines against the too strong
attacks of modern Sectarianism, and more especially against those of our
latter-day Materialism, very often miscalled Science, whereas, in
reality, the words "Scientists" and "Sciolists" ought alone to bear the
responsibility for the many illogical theories offered to the world. In
its great ignorance, the public, while blindly accepting everything that
emanates from "authorities," and feeling it to be its duty to regard
every dictum coming from a man of Science as a proven fact --
the public, we say, is taught to scoff at anything brought forward from
"heathen" sources. Therefore, as materialistic Scientists can be fought
solely with their own weapons -- those of controversy and argument -- an
Addendum is added to every Book contrasting our respective views
and showing how even great authorities may often err. We believe that
this can be done effectually by showing the weak points of our
opponents, and by proving their too frequent sophisms -- made to pass
for scientific dicta -- to be incorrect. We hold to Hermes and
his "Wisdom" -- in its universal character; they -- to Aristotle as
against intuition and the experience of the ages, fancying that Truth is
the exclusive property of the Western world. Hence the disagreement. As
Hermes says, "Knowledge differs much from sense; for sense is of things
that surmount it, but Knowledge (gyi) is the end of sense" -- i.e.,
of the illusion of our physical brain and its intellect; thus
emphasizing the contrast between the laboriously acquired knowledge of
the senses and mind (manas), and the intuitive omniscience of the
Spiritual divine Soul -- Buddhi.
Whatever may be the destiny of these actual writings in a remote
future, we hope to have proven so far the following facts:
(1) The Secret Doctrine teaches no Atheism, except in the
Hindu sense of the word nastika, or the rejection of idols,
including every anthropomorphic god. In this sense every Occultist
is a Nastika.
(2) It admits a Logos or a collective "Creator" of the Universe; a
Demi-urgos -- in the sense implied when one speaks of
an "Architect" as the "Creator" of an edifice, whereas that Architect
has never touched one stone of it, but, while furnishing the plan, left
all the manual labour to the masons; in our case the plan was furnished
by the Ideation of the Universe, and the constructive labour was left to
the Hosts of intelligent Powers and Forces. But that Demiurgos
is no
[[The Secret Doctrine, by H.P. Blavatsky, Vol. 1, Page]] 280 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.
personal deity, -- i.e., an imperfect
extra-cosmic god, -- but only the aggregate of the Dhyan-Chohans
and the other forces.
As to the latter --
(3) They are dual in their character; being composed of (a)
the irrational brute energy, inherent in matter, and (b)
the intelligent soul or cosmic consciousness which directs and guides
that energy, and which is the Dhyan-Chohanic thought reflecting the
Ideation of the Universal mind. This results in a
perpetual series of physical manifestations and moral effects
on Earth, during manvantaric periods, the whole being subservient to
Karma. As that process is not always perfect; and since, however many
proofs it may exhibit of a guiding intelligence behind the veil, it
still shows gaps and flaws, and even results very often in evident
failures -- therefore, neither the collective Host (Demiurgos), nor any
of the working powers individually, are proper subjects for divine
honours or worship. All are entitled to the grateful reverence of
Humanity, however, and man ought to be ever striving to help the divine
evolution of Ideas, by becoming to the best of his ability a
co-worker with nature in the cyclic task. The ever unknowable
and incognizable Karana alone, the Causeless Cause of
all causes, should have its shrine and altar on the holy and ever
untrodden ground of our heart -- invisible, intangible, unmentioned,
save through "the still small voice" of our spiritual consciousness.
Those who worship before it, ought to do so in the silence and the
sanctified solitude of their Souls*; making their spirit the sole
mediator between them and the Universal Spirit, their good
actions the only priests, and their sinful intentions the only visible
and objective sacrificial victims to the Presence. (See
Part II., "On the Hidden Deity.")
(4) Matter is Eternal. It is the Upadhi (the
physical basis) for the One infinite Universal Mind to build thereon its
ideations. Therefore, the Esotericists maintain that there is no
inorganic or dead matter in nature, the distinction between the
two made by Science being as unfounded as it is arbitrary and devoid of
reason.
[[Footnote(s) -------------------------------------------------]]
* "When thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are . . .
but enter into thine inner chamber and having shut thy
door, pray to thy Father which is in secret." Matt.
vi.). Our Father is within us "in Secret," our 7th
principle, in the "inner chamber" of our Soul perception. "The Kingdom
of Heaven" and of God "is within us" says Jesus, not
outside. Why are Christians so absolutely blind to the
self-evident meaning of the words of wisdom they delight in mechanically
repeating?
[[The Secret Doctrine, by H.P. Blavatsky, Vol. 1, Page]] 281 MATTER IS THE SHADOW OF SPIRIT.
Whatever Science may think, however -- and exact Science is
a fickle dame, as we all know by experience -- Occultism knows and
teaches differently, from time immemorial -- from Manu and
Hermes down to Paracelsus and his successors.
Thus Hermes, the thrice great Trismegistus, says: "Oh, my son, matter
becomes; formerly it was; for matter is the vehicle of
becoming."* Becoming is the mode of activity of the uncreate deity.
Having been endowed with the germs of becoming, matter (objective) is
brought into birth, for the creative force fashions it according to
the ideal forms. Matter not yet engendered had no form; it becomes
when it is put into operation." (The Definitions of Asclepios,
p. 134, "Virgin of the World.")
"Everything is the product of one universal creative effort. . . .
There is nothing dead, in Nature. Everything is organic and
living, and therefore the whole world appears to be a living
organism." (Paracelsus, "Philosophia ad Athenienes," F.
Hartmann's translations, p. 44.)
(5.) The Universe was evolved out of its ideal plan, upheld through
Eternity in the unconsciousness of that which the Vedantins call
Parabrahm. This is practically identical with the conclusions of the
highest Western Philosophy -- "the innate, eternal, and self-existing
Ideas" of Plato, now reflected by Von Hartmann. The "unknowable" of
Herbert Spencer bears only a faint resemblance to that transcendental
Reality believed in by Occultists, often appearing merely a
personification of a "force behind phenomena" -- an infinite
and eternal Energy
[[Footnote(s) -------------------------------------------------]]
* To this the late Mrs. (Dr.) Kingsford, the able translator and
compiler of the Hermetic Fragments (see "The Virgin of the
World") remarks in a foot-note; "Dr. Menard observes that in Greek
the same word signifies to be born and to become. The
idea here is that the material of the world is in its essence eternal,
but that before creation or 'becoming' it is in a passive and motionless
condition. Thus it 'was' before being put into operation; now it
'becomes,' that is, it is mobile and progressive." And she adds the
purely Vedantic doctrine of the Hermetic philosophy that "Creation is
thus the period of activity (Manvantara) of God, who, according to
Hermetic thought (or which, according to the Vedantin) has two
modes -- Activity or Existence, God evolved (Deus explicitus);
and Passivity of Being (Pralaya) God involved (Deus
implicitus). Both modes are perfect and complete, as are
the waking and sleeping states of man. Fichte, the German philosopher,
distinguished Being (Seyn) as One, which we know only through existence
(Dasein) as the Manifold. This view is thoroughly Hermetic. The 'Ideal
Forms' are the archetypal or formative ideas of the Neo-Platonists; the
eternal and subjective concepts of things subsisting in the divine mind
prior to 'becoming'" (p. 134).
[[The Secret Doctrine, by H.P. Blavatsky, Vol. 1, Page]] 282 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.
from which all things proceed, while the author of the "Philosophy of
the Unconscious" has come (in this respect only) as near to a solution
of the great Mystery as mortal man can. Few were those, whether
in ancient or mediaeval philosophy, who have dared to approach the
subject or even hint at it. Paracelsus mentions it inferentially. His
ideas are admirably synthesized by Dr. F. Hartmann, F.T.S., in his "Life
of Paracelsus."
All the Christian Kabalists understood well the Eastern root
idea: The active Power, the "Perpetual motion of the great Breath" only
awakens Kosmos at the dawn of every new Period, setting it into motion
by means of the two contrary Forces,* and thus causing it to become
objective on the plane of Illusion. In other words, that dual motion
transfers Kosmos from the plane of the Eternal Ideal into that of finite
manifestation, or from the Noumenal to the Phenomenal
plane. Everything that is, was, and will be, eternally
IS, even the countless forms, which are finite and perishable only in
their objective, not in their ideal Form. They existed as
Ideas, in the Eternity,** and, when they pass away, will exist as
reflections. Neither the form of man, nor that of any animal, plant or
stone has ever been created, and it is only on this plane of
ours that it commenced "becoming," i.e., objectivising into its
present materiality, or expanding from within outwards,
from the most sublimated and supersensuous essence into its
grossest appearance. Therefore our human forms have existed in
the Eternity as astral or ethereal prototypes; according to which
models, the Spiritual Beings (or Gods) whose duty it was to bring them
into objective being and terrestrial Life, evolved the protoplasmic
forms of the future Egos from their own essence. After
which, when this human Upadhi, or basic mould was ready, the
natural terrestrial Forces began to work on those supersensuous moulds
which contained, besides their own, the elements
of all the past vegetable and future animal forms of
this globe in them. Therefore, man's outward shell passed
through every vegetable and animal body before it assumed the human
shape. As this will be fully
[[Footnote(s) -------------------------------------------------]]
* The centripetal and the centrifugal forces, which are male and
female, positive and negative, physical and spiritual, the two being the
one Primordial Force.
** Occultism teaches that no form can be given to anything, either by
nature or by man, whose ideal type does not already exist on the
subjective plane. More than this; that no such form or shape can
possibly enter man's consciousness, or evolve in his imagination, which
does not exist in prototype, at least as an approximation.
[[The Secret Doctrine, by H.P. Blavatsky, Vol. 1, Page]] 283 PARACELSUS ANTICIPATED TYNDALL.
described in Book II., with the Commentaries thereupon, there is no
need to say more of it here.
According to the Hermetico-Kabalistic philosophy of Paracelsus, it is
Yliaster -- the ancestor of the just-born Protyle, introduced
by Mr. Crookes in chemistry -- or primordial Protomateria that
evolved out of itself the Kosmos.
"When Evolution took place the Yliaster divided itself. . . . melted
and dissolved, developing from within itself the Ideos or
Chaos, called respectively Mysterium magnum, Iliados, Limbus Major,
or Primordial Matter. This Primordial essence is of a monistic
nature, and manifests itself not only as vital activity, a spiritual
force, an invisible, incomprehensible, and indescribable power, but also
as vital matter of which the substance of living beings consists." In
this Ideos of primordial matter, or the proto-ilos --
which is the matrix of all created things -- is contained the substance
from which everything is formed. It is the Chaos . . . out of which the
Macrocosm, and, later on, by evolution and division in Mysteria
Specialia,* each separate being, came into existence. "All things
and all elementary substances were contained in it in potentia
but not in actu" -- which makes the translator, Dr. F.
Hartmann, justly observe that "it seems that Paracelsus anticipated the
modern discovery of the 'potency of matter' three hundred years ago" (P.
42).
This Magnus Limbus, then, or Yliaster of Paracelsus, is simply our
old friend "Father-Mother," within, before it appeared in
Space, of the second and other Stanzas. It is the universal matrix of
Kosmos, personified in the dual character of Macro- and Microcosm (or
the Universe and our Globe)** by Aditi-Prakriti, the Spiritual and the
physical nature. For we find it explained in Paracelsus that "the Magnus
Limbus is the nursery out of which all creatures have grown, in the same
sense as a tree grows out of a small seed; with the difference, however,
that the great Limbus takes its origin from the Word, while the Limbus
minor (the terrestrial seed or sperm) takes it from the earth.
[[Footnote(s) -------------------------------------------------]]
* This word is explained by Dr. Hartmann from the original texts of
Paracelsus before him, as follows. According to this great Rosicrucian:
"Mysterium is everything out of which something may be developed, which
is only germinally contained in it. A seed is the 'Mysterium' of a
plant, an egg that of a living bird, etc."
** It is only the mediaeval Kabalists who, following the Jewish and
one or two Neo-Platonists, applied the term Microcosm to man.
Ancient philosophy called the Earth the Microcosm of the Macrocosm, and
man the outcome of the two.
[[The Secret Doctrine, by H.P. Blavatsky, Vol. 1, Page]] 284 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.
The great Limbus is the seed out of which all beings have come, and
the little Limbus is each ultimate being that reproduces its form, and
that has itself been produced by the 'great.' The latter possesses all
the qualifications of the great one, in the same sense as a son has an
organization similar to that of his father." (See Comment. Book II.
para. iii.) . . . "As Yliaster dissolved, Ares,
the dividing, differentiating, and individualising power (Fohat,
another old friend,) . . . began to act. All production took place
in consequence of separation. There were produced out of the Ideos, the
elements of Fire, Water, Air and Earth, whose birth, however, did not
take place in a material mode, or by simple separation," but by
spiritual and dynamical, not even complex, combinations -- e.g.,
mechanical mixture as opposed to chemical combination
-- just as fire may come out of a pebble, or a tree out of a seed,
although there is originally no fire in the pebble, nor a tree in the
seed. Spirit is living, and Life is Spirit, and Life and Spirit (Prakriti
Purusha) (?) produce all things, but they are essentially
one and not two. . . . The elements too, have each one its own Yliaster,
because all the activity of matter in every form is only an effluvium of
the same fount. But as from the seed grow the roots with their fibres,
and after that the stalk with its branches and leaves, and lastly the
flowers and seeds; likewise all beings were born from the elements, and
consist of elementary substances out of which other forms may come into
existence, bearing the characteristics of their parents." ("This
doctrine, preached 300 years ago," remarks the translator, "is identical
with the one that has revolutionized modern thought, after having been
put into new shape and elaborated by Darwin. It was still more
elaborated by Kapila in the Sankhya philosophy") . . . . The elements as
the mothers of all creatures are of an invisible, spiritual nature,
and have souls.* They all spring from the "Mysterium Magnum."
(Philosophia ad Athenienses.)
Compare this with Vishnu Purana.
"From Pradhana (primordial substance) presided over by
Kshetrajna (embodied Spirit?) proceeds the evolution of those
qualities....... From the great Principle Mahat (Universal
Intellect, or mind)..... proceeds
[[Footnote(s) -------------------------------------------------]]
* The Eastern Occultist says -- "are guided and informed by the
Spiritual Beings" the Workmen in the invisible worlds and behind the
veil of Occult nature, or nature in Abscondito.
[[The Secret Doctrine, by H.P. Blavatsky, Vol. 1, Page]] 285 HERMES CHRISTIANIZED.
the origin of the subtle elements and from these the organs of sense
(Book I., ii.).
Thus it may be shown that all the fundamental truths of nature were
universal in antiquity, and that the basic ideas upon spirit, matter,
and the universe, or upon God, Substance, and man, were identical.
Taking the two most ancient religious philosophies on the globe,
Hinduism and Hermetism, from the scriptures of India and Egypt, the
identity of the two is easily recognisable.
This becomes apparent to one who reads the latest translation and
rendering of the "Hermetic Fragments" just mentioned, by our late
lamented friend, Dr. Anna Kingsford. Disfigured and tortured as these
have been in their passage through Sectarian Greek and Christian hands,
the translator has most ably and intuitionally seized the weak points
and tried to remedy them by means of explanations and foot-notes. And
she says:.......... The creation of the visible world by the 'working
gods' or Titans, as agents of the Supreme God,* is a thoroughly Hermetic
idea, recognisable in all religious systems, and in accordance
with modern scientific research (?), which shows us everywhere the
Divine power operating through natural Forces."
"That Universal Being, that contains all, and which is all, put into
motion the Soul and the World, all that nature comprises, says Hermes.
In the manifold unity of universal life, the innumerable individualities
distinguished by their variations, are, nevertheless, united in such a
manner that the whole is one, and that everything proceeds from Unity."
(Asclepios, Part I.)
"God is not a mind, but the cause that the mind is; not a spirit,
but the cause that the Spirit is; not light, but the cause that the
Light is." (Divine Pymander, Book IX., v. 64.)
The above shows plainly that "Divine Pymander," however much
distorted in some passages by Christian "smoothing," was nevertheless
written by a philosopher, while most of the so-called "hermetic
Fragments" are the production of sectarian pagans with a tendency
towards an anthropomorphic Supreme Being. Yet both are the echo of the
Esoteric philosophy and the Hindu Puranas.
Compare two invocations, one to the Hermetic "Supreme All," the
[[Footnote(s) -------------------------------------------------]]
* A frequent expression in the said Fragments, to which we take
exception. The Universal Mind is not a Being or "God."
[[The Secret Doctrine, by H.P. Blavatsky, Vol. 1, Page]] 286 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.
other to the "Supreme All" of the later Aryans. Says a Hermetic
Fragment cited by Suidas (see Mrs. Kingsford's "The Virgin of the
World"): -
"I adjure thee, Heaven, holy work of the great God; I adjure thee,
Voice of the Father, uttered in the beginning when the universal world
was framed; I adjure thee by the word, only Son of the Father who
upholds all things; be favourable, be favourable."
This just preceded by the following: "Thus the Ideal Light was before
the Ideal Light, and the luminous Intelligence of Intelligence was
always, and its unity was nothing else than the Spirit enveloping
the Universe. Out of whom is neither God nor Angels, nor any other
essentials, for He (It?) is the Lord of all things and the power
and the Light; and all depends on Him (It) and is in Him (It), etc." (Fragments
of the writings of Hermes to Ammon.)
This is contradicted by the very same Trismegistos, who is
made to say: "To speak of God is impossible. For corporeal cannot
express the incorporeal. . . . . That which has not any body nor
appearance, nor form, nor matter, cannot be apprehended by sense. I
understand, Tatios, I understand, that which it is impossible to define
-- that is God." (Physical Eclogues, Florilegium of Stobaeus.)
The contradiction between the two passages is evident; and this shows
(a) that Hermes was a generic nom-de-plume used by a
series of generations of mystics of every shade, and (b) that a
great discernment has to be used before accepting a Fragment as esoteric
teaching only because it is undeniably ancient. Let us now compare the
above with a like invocation in the Hindu Scriptures -- undoubtedly as
old, if not far older. Here it is Parasara, the Aryan "Hermes"
who instructs Maitreya, the Indian Asclepios, and calls upon
Vishnu in his triple hypostasis.
"Glory to the unchangeable, holy, eternal Supreme Vishnu, of one
universal nature, the mighty over all; to him who is Hiranyagarbha,
Hari, and Sankara (Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva), the creator, the
preserver, and the destroyer of the world; to Vasudeva, the liberator
(of his worshippers); to him whose essence is both single and manifold;
who is both subtile and corporeal, indiscreet and discreet; to Vishnu
the cause of final emancipation, the cause of the creation, existence,
the
[[The Secret Doctrine, by H.P. Blavatsky, Vol. 1, Page]] 287 ALONE THE ETERNAL IS REST.
end of the world; who is the root of the world, and who
consists of the world." (Vish. Purana, Book L.)
This is a grand invocation, full of philosophical meaning underlying
it; but, for the profane masses, as suggestive as is the first of an
anthropomorphic Being. We must respect the feeling that dictated both;
but we cannot help finding it in full disharmony with its inner meaning,
even with that which is found in the same Hermetic treatise where it is
said:
"Reality is not upon the earth, my son, and it cannot be thereon. . .
. Nothing on earth is real, there are only appearances. . . He (man) is
not real, my son, as man. The real consists solely in itself and remains
what it is. . . Man is transient, therefore he is not real, he is but
appearance, and appearance is the supreme illusion.
Tatios: Then the celestial bodies themselves are not
real, my father, since they also vary?
Trismegistos: That which is subject to birth and to change
is not real. . . . . There is in them a certain falsity, seeing that
they too are variable.......
Tatios: And what then is the primordial Reality?
Trismeg.: That which is one and alone, 0 Tatios; That which
is not made of matter, nor in any body. Which has neither colour nor
form, which changes not nor is transmitted but which always is."
This is quite consistent with the Vedantic teaching. The leading
thought is Occult; and many are the passages in the Hermetic Fragments
that belong bodily to the Secret Doctrine.
The latter teaches that the whole universe is ruled by intelligent
and semi-intelligent Forces and Powers, as stated from the very
beginning. Christian Theology admits and even enforces belief
in such, but makes an arbitrary division and refers to them as "Angels"
and "Devils." Science denies the existence of such, and ridicules the
very idea. Spiritualists believe in the Spirits of the Dead, and,
outside these, deny entirely any other kind or class of invisible
beings. The Occultists and Kabalists are thus the only rational
expounders of the ancient traditions, which have now culminated in
dogmatic faith on the one hand, and dogmatic denials on the other. For,
both belief and unbelief embrace but one small corner each of the
infinite horizons of spiritual and physical manifestations; and thus
both are right from
[[The Secret Doctrine, by H.P. Blavatsky, Vol. 1, Page]] 288 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.
their respective standpoints, and both are wrong in believing that
they can circumscribe the whole within their own special and narrow
barriers; for -- they can never do so. In this respect Science,
Theology, and even Spiritualism show little more wisdom than the ostrich
does, when it hides its head in the sand at its feet, feeling sure that
there can be thus nothing beyond its own point of observation and the
limited area occupied by its foolish head.
As the only works now extant upon the subject under consideration
within reach of the profane of the Western "civilized" races are the
above-mentioned Hermetic Books, or rather Hermetic Fragments, we may
contrast them in the present case with the teachings of Esoteric
philosophy. To quote for this purpose from any other would be useless,
since the public knows nothing of the Chaldean works which are
translated into Arabic and preserved by some Sufi initiates. Therefore
the "Definitions of Asclepios," as lately compiled and glossed by Mrs.
A. Kingsford, F.T.S., some of which sayings are in remarkable agreement
with the Esoteric Eastern doctrine, have to be resorted to for
comparison. Though not a few passages show a strong impression of some
later Christian hand, yet on the whole the characteristics of the genii*
and gods are those of eastern teachings, while concerning other things
there are passages which differ widely in our doctrines. The following
are a few:--
[[Footnote(s) -------------------------------------------------]]
* The Hermetic philosophers called Theoi, gods, Genii and
Daimones (in the original texts), those Entities whom we call Devas
(gods), Dhyan Chohans, Chitkala (Kwan-yin, the Buddhists
call them), and by other names. The Daimones are -- in the
Socratic sense, and even in the Oriental and Latin theological sense --
the guardian spirits of the human race; "those who dwell in the
neighbourhood of the immortals, and thence watch over human affairs," as
Hermes has it. In Esoteric parlance, they are called Chitkala,
some of which are those who have furnished man with his fourth and fifth
Principles from their own essence; and others the Pitris
so-called. This will be explained when we come to the production of the
complete man. The root of the name is Chiti, "that by
which the effects and consequences of actions and kinds of knowledge are
selected for the use of the soul," or conscience the inner Voice in man.
With the Yogis, the Chiti is a synonym of Mahat, the
first and divine intellect; but in Esoteric philosophy Mahat is
the root of Chiti, its germ; and Chiti is a quality of
Manas in conjunction with Buddhi, a quality that attracts to itself
by spiritual affinity a Chitkala when it develops sufficiently
in man. This is why it is said that Chiti is a voice acquiring
mystic life and becoming Kwan-Yin.
[[The Secret Doctrine, by H.P. Blavatsky, Vol. 1, Page]] 289 A FEW OCCULT APHORISMS.
EXTRACTS FROM A PRIVATE COMMENTARY,* hitherto
secret:--
(xvii.) "The Initial Existence in the first twilight of the
Maha-Manwantara (after the MAHA-PRALAYA
that follows every age of Brahma) is a CONSCIOUS
SPIRITUAL QUALITY. In the manifested WORLDS (solar systems)
it is, in its OBJECTIVE SUBJECTIVITY, like the film from a
Divine Breath to the gaze of the entranced seer. It spreads as it issues
from LAYA** throughout infinity as a
colourless spiritual fluid. It is on the SEVENTH PLANE, and in
its SEVENTH STATE in our planetary world.***
(xviii.) "It is Substance to OUR spiritual sight. It
cannot be called so by men in their WAKING STATE; therefore
they have named it in their ignorance 'God-Spirit.'
(xix.) "It exists everywhere and forms the first UPADHI
(foundation) on which our World (solar system)
is built. Outside the latter it is to be found in its pristine purity
only between (the solar systems or) the Stars of the
Universe, the worlds already formed or forming; those in LAYA
resting meanwhile in its bosom. As its substance is of a different kind
from that known on earth, the inhabitants of the latter, seeing
THROUGH IT, believe in their illusion and ignorance that it is empty
space. There is not one finger's breath (ANGULA) of
void Space in the whole Boundless (Universe).........
(xx.) "Matter or Substance is septenary within
our World, as it is so beyond it. Moreover, each of its states or
principles is graduated into seven degrees of density. SURYA
(the Sun), in its visible reflection, exhibits the
first, or lowest state of the seventh, the highest state of the
Universal PRESENCE, the pure of the pure, the first manifested
Breath of the ever Unmanifested SAT (Be-ness).
All the Central physical or objective Suns are in their substance the
lowest state of the first Principle of the BREATH. Nor are any
of these any more than the REFLECTIONS of their PRIMARIES
which are concealed from the gaze of all but the Dhyan Chohans,
whose Corporeal substance belongs to the fifth division of the seventh
Principle of the Mother substance, and is,
[[Footnote(s) -------------------------------------------------]]
* This (teaching) does not refer to Prakriti-Purusha beyond the
boundaries of our small universe.
** The ultimate quiescent state: the Nirvana condition of
the seventh Principle.
*** The teaching is all given from our plane of consciousness.
[[The Secret Doctrine, by H.P. Blavatsky, Vol. 1, Page]] 290 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.
therefore, four degrees higher than the solar reflected
substance. As there are seven Dhatu (principal
substances in the human body) so there are seven Forces in Man
and in all Nature.
(xxi.) "The real substance of the concealed (Sun)
is a nucleus of Mother substance.* It is the heart and the
matrix of all the living and existing Forces in our solar universe.
It is the Kernel from which proceed to spread on their cyclic
journeys all the Powers that set in action the atoms in their
functional duties, and the focus within which they again meet in their
SEVENTH ESSENCE every eleventh year. He who tells thee
he has seen the sun, laugh at him** as if he had said that the
sun moves really onward on his diurnal path . . . .
(xxiii). "It is on account of his septenary nature that
the Sun is spoken of by the ancients as one who is driven
by seven horses equal to the metres of the Vedas; or,
again, that, though he is identified with the SEVEN "Gaina"
(classes of being) in his orb, he is distinct
from them,*** as he is, indeed; as also that he has SEVEN
RAYS, as indeed he has . . . .
(xxv.) "The Seven Beings in the Sun are the Seven Holy Ones,
Self-born from the inherent power in the matrix of Mother
substance. It is they who send the Seven Principal Forces,
called rays, which at the beginning of Pralaya will centre into
seven new Suns for the next Manvantara. The energy from which they
spring into conscious existence in every Sun, is what some people call
Vishnu (see foot-note below), which is the
Breath of the ABSOLUTENESS.
We call it the One manifested life -- itself a reflection of the
Absolute.........
(xxvi.) "The latter must never be mentioned in words or speech
LEST IT SHOULD TAKE AWAY SOME OF OUR SPIRITUAL ENERGIES THAT ASPIRE
towards ITS state, gravitating ever onward unto IT
spiritually, as the whole physical universe gravitates towards ITS
manifested centre -- cosmically.
(xxvii.) "The former -- the Initial existence -- which may be
called while in
[[Footnote(s) -------------------------------------------------]]
* Or the "dream of Science," the primeval really homogeneous matter,
which no mortal can make objective in this Race or Round
either.
** "Vishnu in the form of the Solar active energy, neither ever rises
nor sets, and is at once, the sevenfold Sun and distinct from
it," says Vishnu Purana (Book II., Chap. 1 1).
*** "In the same manner as a man approaches a mirror placed upon a
stand, beholds in it his own image, so the energy or reflection of
Vishnu (the Sun) is never disjoined but remains in the Sun as in a
mirror that is there stationed" ("Vishnu Purana").
[[The Secret Doctrine, by H.P. Blavatsky, Vol. 1, Page]] 291 OCCULT APHORISMS.
this state of being the ONE LIFE,
is, as explained, a FILM for creative or
formative Purposes. It manifests in seven states, which, with their
septenary sub-divisions, are the FORTY-NINE
Fires* mentioned in sacred books . . . . . .
(xxix.) "The first is the . . . . 'Mother'
(prima MATERIA). Separating itself into its primary seven
states, it proceeds down cyclically; when** having consolidated itself
in its LAST principle as GROSS MATTER, it revolves
around itself and informs, with the seventh emanation of the last, the
first and the lowest element (the Serpent biting its own tail).
In a hierarchy, or order of being, the seventh emanation of her last
principle is: --
(a) In the mineral, the spark that lies latent in it,
and is called to its evanescent being by the POSITIVE
awakening the NEGATIVE (and so forth)
. . . .
(b) In the plant it is that vital and intelligent Force
which informs the seed and develops it into the blade of grass, or the
root and sapling. It is the germ which becomes the UPADHI
of the seven principles of the thing it resides in, shooting them
out as the latter grows and develops.
(c) In every animal it does the same. It is its life
principle and vital power; its instinct and qualities; its
characteristics and special idiosyncrasies . . . .
(d) To man, it gives all that it bestows on all the rest
of the manifested units in nature; but develops, furthermore, the
reflection of all its FORTY-NINE FIRES
in him. Each of his seven principles is an heir in full to, and a
partaker of, the seven principles of the "great Mother."
The breath of her first principle is his spirit (Atma).
Her second principle is BUDDHI (soul).
We call it, erroneously, the seventh. The third furnishes him with
(a) the brain stuff on the physical plane, and (b)
with the MIND that moves it [which is the human soul. --
H. P. B.] -- according to his organic capacities.
(e) It is the guiding Force in the Cosmic and
terrestrial elements. It resides in the Fire provoked out of its latent
into active being; for the whole of the seven subdivisions of the * *
* principle reside in the terrestrial Fire. It whirls in the
breeze, blows with the hurricane, and sets the air in motion, which
element participates in one of its principles also.
Proceeding cyclically, it regulates the motion
[[Footnote(s) -------------------------------------------------]]
* In "Vishnu" and other Puranas.
** See the Hermetic "Nature," "Going down cyclically into matter when
she meets 'heavenly man.' "
[[The Secret Doctrine, by H.P. Blavatsky, Vol. 1, Page]] 292 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.
of the water, attracts and repels the waves* according to fixed
laws of which its seventh principle is the informing soul.
(f) Its four higher principles contain the germ that
develops into the Cosmic Gods; its three lower ones breed the lives of
the Elements (Elementals).
(g) In our Solar world, the One Existence is Heaven and
the Earth, the Root and the flower, the Action and the Thought. It is in
the Sun, and is as present in the glow-worm. Not an atom can escape it.
Therefore, the ancient Sages have wisely called it the manifested God in
Nature. . . ."
It may be interesting, in this connection, to remind the reader of
what Mr. Subba Row said of the Forces -- mystically defined. See "Five
Years of Theosophy" and "The Twelve Signs of the Zodiac."
Thus he says:
"Kanya (the sixth sign of the Zodiac, or Virgo)
means a Virgin, and represents Sakti or Mahamaya. The sign . .
. is the 6th Rasi or division, and indicates that there are six
primary forces in Nature (synthesized by the Seventh)" . . . These Sakti
stand as follows: -
(1.) PARASAKTI. Literally the great or Supreme Force
or power. It means and includes the powers of light and heat.
(2.) JNANASAKTI. . . . The power of intellect, of
real Wisdom or Knowledge. It has two aspects:
The following are some of its manifestations when placed
under the influence or control of material conditions. (a) The
power of the mind in interpreting our sensations. (b) Its power in
recalling past ideas (memory) and raising future expectation. (c) Its
power as exhibited in what are called by modern psychologists "the laws
of association," which enables it to form persisting
connections between various groups of sensations and possibilities of
sensations, and thus generate the notion or idea of an external object.
(d) Its power in connecting our ideas together by the mysterious link of
memory, and thus generating the notion of self or individuality;
some of its manifestations when liberated from the bonds of
matter are -- (a) Clairvoyance, (b) Psychometry.
(3.) ITCHASAKTI -- the power of the Will.
Its most ordinary manifesta-
[[Footnote(s) -------------------------------------------------]]
* The writers of the above knew perfectly well the physical cause of
the tides, of the waves, etc. It is the informing Spirit of the whole
Cosmic solar body that is meant here, and which is referred to whenever
such expressions are used from the mystic point of view.
[[The Secret Doctrine, by H.P. Blavatsky, Vol. 1, Page]] 293 THE SEVEN POWERS.
tion is the generation of certain nerve currents which set in motion
such muscles as are required for the accomplishment of the desired
object.
(4.) KRIYASAKTI. The mysterious power of thought
which enables it to produce external, perceptible, phenomenal results by
its own inherent energy. The ancients held that any idea will
manifest itself externally if one's attention is deeply
concentrated upon it. Similarly an intense volition will be
followed by the desired result.
A Yogi generally performs his wonders by means of Itchasakti and
Kriyasakti.
(5.) KUNDALINI SAKTI. The power or
Force which moves in a curved path. It is the Universal life-Principle
manifesting everywhere in nature. This force includes the two great
forces of attraction and repulsion. Electricity and magnetism are but
manifestations of it. This is the power which brings about that
"continuous adjustment of internal relations to external relations"
which is the essence of life according to Herbert Spencer, and that
"continuous adjustment of external relations to internal relations"
which is the basis of transmigration of souls, punar janman
(re-birth) in the doctrines of the ancient Hindu philosophers. A
Yogi must thoroughly subjugate this power before he can attain Moksham.
. . .
(6.) MANTRIKA-SAKTI. The force or power of letters,
speech or music. The Mantra Shastra has for its subject-matter
this force in all its manifestations......... The influence of melody is
one of its ordinary manifestations. The power of the ineffable name is
the crown of this Sakti.
Modern Science has but partly investigated the first, second and
fifth of the forces above named, but is altogether in the dark as
regards the remaining powers. The six forces are in their unity
represented by the "Daiviprakriti" (the
Seventh, the light of the LOGOS).
The above is quoted to show the real Hindu ideas on the same. It is
all esoteric, though not covering the tenth part of what might be
said. For one, the six names of the Six Forces mentioned are those
of the six Hierarchies of Dhyan Chohans synthesized by their
Primary, the seventh, who personify the Fifth Principle of
Cosmic Nature, or of the "Mother" in its Mystical Sense. The enumeration
alone of the yogi Powers would require ten volumes. Each of
these Forces has a living Conscious Entity at its head, of
which entity it is an emanation.
[[The Secret Doctrine, by H.P. Blavatsky, Vol. 1, Page]] 294 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.
But let us compare with the commentary just cited the words of
Hermes, the "thrice great":--
"The creation of Life by the Sun is as continuous as his
light; nothing arrests or limits it. Around him, like an army of
Satellites, are innumerable choirs of genii. These dwell in the
neighbourhood of the Immortals, and thence watch over human things. They
fulfil the will of the gods (Karma) by means of storms, tempests,
transitions of fire and earthquakes; likewise by famines and wars,
for the punishment of impiety.* . . . It is the sun who preserves and
nourishes all creatures; and even as the Ideal World which environs the
sensible world fills this last with the plenitude and universal variety
of forms, so also the Sun, enfolding all in his light, accomplishes
everywhere the birth and development of creatures." . . . "Under his
orders is the choir of Genii, or rather the choirs, for there
are many and diverse, and their number corresponds to that of the stars.
Every star has its genii, good and evil by nature, or rather by
their operation, for operation is the essence of the genii. . .
. All these Genii preside over mundane affairs,** they shake
and overthrow the constitution of States and of individuals; they
imprint their likeness on our Souls, they are present in our
nerves, our marrow, our veins, our arteries, and our very
brain-substance . . . at the moment when each of us receives life
and being, he is taken in charge by the genii (Elementals) who preside
over births,*** and who are classed beneath the astral powers
(Superhuman astral Spirits.) They change perpetually, not always
identically, but revolving in circles.**** They permeate by the body two
parts of the Soul, that it may receive from each the impress of his own
energy. But the reasonable part of the Soul is not subject to the genii;
it is designed
[[Footnote(s) -------------------------------------------------]]
* See Stanzas III. and IV. and the
Commentaries thereupon, especially the Comments on Stanza IV.
"the Lipika and the four Maharajas," the agents of Karma.
** And "Gods" or Dhyanis, too, not only the genii or "guided Forces."
*** The meaning of this is that as man is composed of all the Great
Elements: Fire, Air, Water, Earth and Ether -- the ELEMENTALS which
belong respectively to these Elements feel attracted to man by reason of
their co-essence. That element which predominates in a certain
constitution will be the ruling element throughout life. For instance,
if man has a preponderance of the Earthly, gnomic element, the gnomes
will lead him towards assimilating metals -- money and wealth, and so
on. "Animal man is the son of the animal elements out of which his Soul
(life) was born, and animals are the mirrors of man," says Paracelsus (De
Fundamento Sapientiae). Paracelsus was cautious, and
wanted the Bible to agree with what he said, and therefore did not say
all.
**** Cyclic progress in development.
[[The Secret Doctrine, by H.P. Blavatsky, Vol. 1, Page]] 295 UNIVERSAL ILLUSION.
for the reception of (the) God,* who enlightens it with a sunny ray.
Those who are thus illumined are few in number, and from them the genii
abstain: for neither genii nor Gods have any power in the presence of a
single ray of God.** But all other men, both soul and body, are directed
by genii, to whom they cleave, and whose operations they
affect........... The genii have then the control of mundane things and
our bodies serve them as instruments...........
The above, save a few sectarian points, represents that which was a
universal belief common to all nations till about a century or so back.
It is still as orthodox in its broad outlines and features among pagans
and Christians alike, if one excepts a handful of materialists and men
of Science.
For whether one calls the genii of Hermes and his "Gods," "Powers of
Darkness" and "Angels," as in the Greek and Latin Churches; or "Spirits
of the Dead," as in Spiritualism or, again, Bhoots and
Devas, Shaitan or Djin, as they are still called in India
and Mussulman countries -- they are all one and the same thing --
ILLUSION. Let not this, however, be misunderstood in the sense into
which the great philosophical doctrine of the Vedantists has been lately
perverted by Western schools.
All that which is, emanates from the ABSOLUTE, which, from
this qualification alone, stands as the one and only reality -- hence,
everything extraneous to this Absolute, the generative and causative
Element, must be an illusion, most undeniably. But this is only
so from the purely metaphysical view. A man who regards himself as
mentally sane, and is so regarded by his neighbours, calls the visions
of an insane brother -- whose hallucinations make the
victim either happy or supremely wretched, as the case may be --
illusions and fancies likewise. But, where is that madman for whom the
hideous shadows in his deranged mind, his illusions, are not,
for the time being, as actual and as real as the things which his
physician or keeper may see? Everything is relative in this Universe,
everything is an illusion. But
[[Footnote(s) -------------------------------------------------]]
* The God in man and often the incarnation of a God, a highly
Spiritual Dhyan Chohan in him, besides the presence of his own seventh
Principle.
** Now, what "god" is meant here? Not God "the Father," the
anthropomorphic fiction; for that god is the Elohim collectively, and
has no being apart from the Host. Besides, such a god is finite and
imperfect. It is the high Initiates and Adepts who are meant here by
those men "few in number." And it is precisely those men who believe in
"gods" and know no "God," but one Universal unrelated and unconditioned
Deity.
[[The Secret Doctrine, by H.P. Blavatsky, Vol. 1, Page]] 296 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.
the experience of any plane is an actuality for the percipient being,
whose consciousness is on that plane; though the said experience,
regarded from the purely metaphysical standpoint, may be conceived to
have no objective reality. But it is not against metaphysicians, but
against physicists and materialists that Esoteric teachings have to
fight, and for these Vital Force, Light, Sound, Electricity, even to the
objectively pulling force of magnetism, have no objective being, and are
said to exist merely as "modes of motion," "sensations and
affections of matter."
Neither the Occultists generally, nor the Theosophists, reject, as
erroneously believed by some, the views and theories of the modern
scientists, only because these views are opposed to Theosophy. The first
rule of our Society is to render unto Caesar what is Caesar's. The
Theosophists, therefore, are the first to recognize the intrinsic value
of science. But when its high priests resolve consciousness into a
secretion from the grey matter of the brain, and everything else in
nature into a mode of motion, we protest against the doctrine as being
unphilosophical, self-contradictory, and simply absurd, from a
scientific point of view, as much and even more than from the
occult aspect of the esoteric knowledge.
For truly the astral light of the derided Kabalists has strange and
weird secrets for him who can see in it; and the mysteries concealed
within its incessantly disturbed waves are there, the whole
body of Materialists and scoffers notwithstanding.* These secrets, along
with
[[Footnote(s) -------------------------------------------------]]
* The astral light of the Kabalists is very incorrectly translated by
some "AEther;" the latter is confused with the hypothetical Ether of
Science, and both are referred to by some theosophists as synonymous
with Akasa. This is a great mistake.
"A characteristic of Akasa will serve to show how inadequately it is
represented by Ether," writes the author of Rational Refutations, thus
unconsciously helping Occultism. "In dimension it is infinite; it is not
made up of parts; and colour, taste, smell, and tangibility do not
appertain to it. So far forth it corresponds exactly to time, space,
Isvara, ("The Lord," but rather creative potency and soul --
anima mundi). Its speciality, as compared therewith,
consists in its being the material cause of sound. Except for
its being so, one might take it to be one with vacuity" (p.
120.)
It is vacuity, no doubt, especially for Rationalists. At any
rate Akasa is sure to produce vacuity in the brain of a materialist.
Nevertheless, though Akasa is not that Ether of Science, not even the
Ether of the Occultist, who defines the latter as one of the principles
of Akasa only, it is as certainly, together with its primary, the cause
of sound, only a physical and spiritual, not a material cause by any
means. The relations [[fn continued]]
[[The Secret Doctrine, by H.P. Blavatsky, Vol. 1, Page]] 297 NOTHING NEW UNDER THE SUN.
many other mysteries, will remain non-existent to the materialists of
our age, in the same way as America was a non-existent myth for
Europeans during the early part of the mediaeval ages, whereas
Scandinavians and Norwegians had actually reached and settled in that
very old "New World" several centuries before. But, as a Columbus was
born to re-discover, and to force the Old World to believe in Antipodal
countries, so will there be born scientists who will discover the
marvels now claimed by Occultists to exist in the regions of Ether, with
their varied and multiform denizens and conscious Entities. Then,
nolens volens, Science will have to accept the old "Superstition,"
as it has several others. And having been once forced to accept it --
judging from past experience -- its learned professors will, in all
probability, as in the case of MESMERISM and Magnetism,
now re-baptised Hypnotism, father the thing and reject its name. The
choice of the new appellation will depend, in its turn, on the "modes of
motion," the new name for the older "automatic physical processes among
the nerve fibrils of the (Scientific) brain" of Moleschott; as also,
very likely, upon the last meal of the namer; since, according to the
Founder of the new Hylo-Idealistic Scheme, "Cerebration is generically
the same as chylification."* Thus, were one to believe this preposterous
proposition, the new name of the archaic thing would have to take its
chance, on the inspiration of the namer's liver, and then only would
these truths have a chance of becoming scientific!
But TRUTH, however distasteful to the generally blind majorities, has
always had her champions, ready to die for her, and it is not the
Occultists who will protest against its adoption by Science under
whatever new name. But, until absolutely forced on the notice and
acceptance of Scientists, many an Occult truth will be tabooed, as the
phenomena of the Spiritualists and other psychic manifestations were, to
be finally appropriated by its ex-traducers without the least
acknowledgment or thanks. Nitrogen has added considerably to chemical
knowledge, but its discoverer, Paracelsus, is to this day called a
"quack."
[[Footnote(s) -------------------------------------------------]]
[[fn back]] of Ether to Akasa may be defined by applying to both
Akasa and Ether the words said of the god in the Vedas, "So himself was
indeed (his own) son," one being the progeny of the other and yet
itself. This may be a difficult riddle to the profane, but very easy to
understand for any Hindu -- though not even a mystic.
* National Reformer, January 9th, 1887. Article
"Phreno-Kosmo-Biology," by Dr. Lewins.
[[The Secret Doctrine, by H.P. Blavatsky, Vol. 1, Page]] 298 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.
How profoundly true are the words of H. T. Buckle, in his admirable "History
of Civilization" (Vol. I., p. 256), when he says: -
"Owing to circumstances still unknown (Karmic provision, H.P.B.)
there appear from time to time great thinkers, who, devoting their lives
to a single purpose, are able to anticipate the progress of mankind, and
to produce a religion or a philosophy by which important effects are
eventually brought about. But if we look into history we shall clearly
see that, although the origin of a new opinion may be thus due to a
single man, the result which the new opinion produces will depend on the
condition of the people among whom it is propagated. If either a
religion or a philosophy is too much in advance of a nation it can do no
present service but must bide its time* until the minds of men are ripe
for its reception. . . . Every science, every creed has had its martyrs.
According to the ordinary course of affairs, a few generations pass
away, and then there comes a period when these very truths are looked
upon as commonplace facts, and a little later there comes another period
in which they are declared to be necessary, and even the dullest
intellect wonders how they could ever have been denied."
It is barely possible that the minds of the present generations are
not quite ripe for the reception of Occult truths. Such will be the
retrospect furnished to the advanced thinkers of the Sixth Root Race of
the history of the acceptance of Esoteric Philosophy -- fully and
unconditionally. Meanwhile the generations of our Fifth Race will
continue to be led away by prejudice and preconceptions. Occult Sciences
will have the finger of scorn pointed at them from every street corner,
and everyone will seek to ridicule and crush them in the name, and for
the greater glory, of Materialism and its so-called Science. The
Addendum which completes the present Book shows, however, in an
anticipatory answer to several of the forthcoming Scientific objections,
the true and mutual positions of the defendant and plaintiff. The
Theosophists and Occultists stand arraigned by public opinion, which
still holds high the banner of the inductive Sciences. The latter have,
then, to be examined; and it must be shown how far their achievements
and discoveries in the realm of natural laws are opposed, not so much to
our claims, as to the facts in nature. The hour has now struck to
ascertain whether the
[[Footnote(s)]]-------------------------------------------------
* This is Cyclic law, but this law itself is often defied by human
stubbornness.
[[The Secret Doctrine, by H.P. Blavatsky, Vol. 1, Page]] 299 MEN WELCOME ERROR, AND CRUCIFY THE TRUTH.
walls of the modern Jericho are so impregnable that no blast of the
Occult trumpet is ever likely to make them crumble.
The so-called Forces, with Light and Electricity heading
them, and the constitution of the Solar orb must be carefully examined;
as also Gravitation and the Nebular theories. The Natures of Ether and
of other Elements must be discussed: thus contrasting scientific with
other Occult teachings, while revealing some of the hitherto secret
tenets of the latter. (Vide Addendum.)
Some fifteen years ago, the writer was the first to repeat, after the
Kabalists, the wise Commandments in the Esoteric Catechism. "Close thy
mouth, lest thou shouldst speak of this (the mystery), and thy
heart, lest thou shouldst think aloud; and if thy heart has escaped
thee, bring it back to its place, for such is the object of our
alliance." (Sepher Jezireh, Book of Creation.) And
again: -- "This is a secret which gives death: close thy mouth lest thou
shouldst reveal it to the vulgar; compress thy brain lest something
should escape from it and fall outside." (Rules of Initiation.)
A few years later, a corner of the Veil of Isis had to be lifted; and
now another and a larger rent is made. . . .
But old and time-honoured errors -- such as become with every day
more glaring and self-evident -- stand arrayed in battle-order now, as
they did then. Marshalled by blind conservatism, conceit and prejudice,
they are constantly on the watch, ready to strangle every truth, which,
awakening from its age-long sleep, happens to knock for admission. Such
has been the case ever since man became an animal. That this proves in
every case moral death to the revealers, who bring to light any
of these old, old truths, is as certain as that it gives LIFE and
REGENERATION to those who are fit to profit even by the little that is
now revealed to them.
---------------------
from
The Secret Doctrine,
by H. P. Blavatsky
**
**
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