`The Secret Doctrine by H. P. Blavatsky -- Vol. 1
[[Vol. 1, Page]] 86 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.
STANZA IV.
COMMENTARY.
1. LISTEN, YE SONS OF THE EARTH,
TO YOUR INSTRUCTORS -- THE SONS OF THE FIRE
(a). LEARN THERE IS NEITHER FIRST NOR
LAST; FOR ALL IS ONE NUMBER, ISSUED FROM NO NUMBER (b).
(a) These terms, the "Sons of the Fire," the
"Sons of the Fire-Mist," and the like, require explanation.
They are connected with a great primordial and universal mystery,
and it is not easy to make it clear. There is a passage in the
Bhagavatgita (ch. viii.) wherein Krishna, speaking symbolically
and esoterically, says: "I will state the
times (conditions) . . . at which devotees departing (from this
life) do so never to return (be reborn), or to return (to incarnate
again). The Fire, the Flame, the day, the bright (lucky) fortnight,
the six months of the Northern solstice, departing (dying) in
these, those who know the Brahman (Yogis) go to the Brahman. Smoke,
night, the dark (unlucky) fortnight, the six months of the Southern
solstice, (dying) in these, the devotee goes to the lunar light
(or mansion the astral light also) and returns (is reborn). These
two paths, bright and dark, are said to be eternal in this world
(or great kalpa, 'Age'). By the one a man goes never to come back,
by the other he returns." Now these names, "Fire,"
"Flame," "Day," the "bright fortnight,"
etc., as "Smoke," "Night," and so on, leading
only to the end of the lunar path are incomprehensible without
a knowledge of Esotericism. These are all names of various
deities which preside over the Cosmo-psychic Powers. We often
speak of the Hierarchy of "Flames" (see Book II.) of
the "Sons of Fire," etc. Sankaracharya the greatest
of the Esoteric masters of India, says that fire means
a deity which presides over Time (kala). The able translator of
Bhagavatgita, Kashinath Trimbak Telang, M.A.,
of Bombay, confesses he has "no clear notion of the meaning
of these verses" (p. 81, footnote). It seems quite clear,
on the contrary, to him who knows the occult doctrine. With these
verses the mystic sense of the solar and lunar symbols are connected:
the Pitris are lunar deities and our ancestors, because
they created the physical man.
[[Vol. 1, Page]] 87 THE SEVEN MYSTIC SENSES.
The Agnishwatha, the Kumara (the seven mystic sages), are solar
deities, though the former are Pitris also; and these are the
"fashioners of the Inner Man." (See Book II.)
They are: --
"The Sons of Fire" -- because they are the first Beings
(in the Secret Doctrine they are called "Minds"), evolved
from Primordial Fire. "The Lord is a consuming Fire"
(Deuteronomy iv. 24); "The Lord (Christos) shall be revealed
with his mighty angels in flaming fire" (2 Thessal. i. 7,
8). The Holy Ghost descended on the Apostles like "cloven
tongues of fire," (Acts ii. v. 3); Vishnu will return on
Kalki, the White Horse, as the last Avatar amid
fire and flames; and Sosiosh will be brought down equally
on a White Horse in a "tornado of fire." "And I
saw heaven open and behold a white horse, and he that sat upon
him . . . . is called the Word of God," (Rev. xix. 13) amid
flaming Fire. Fire is AEther in its purest form, and hence is
not regarded as matter, but it is the unity of Aether -- the second
manifested deity -- in its universality. But there are two "Fires"
and a distinction is made between them in the Occult teachings.
The first, or the purely Formless and invisible Fire
concealed in the Central Spiritual Sun, is spoken
of as "triple" (metaphysically); while the Fire of the
manifested Kosmos is Septenary, throughout both the Universe and
our Solar System. "The fire or knowledge burns up all action
on the plane of illusion," says the commentary. "Therefore,
those who have acquired it and are emancipated, are called 'Fires.'
" Speaking of the seven senses symbolised as Hotris,
priests, the Brahmana says in Anugita: "Thus
these seven (senses, smell and taste, and colour, and
sound, etc., etc.) are the causes of emancipation;" and the
commentator adds: "It is from these seven from which the
Self is to be emancipated. 'I' (am here devoid of qualities) must
mean the Self, not the Brahmana who speaks." ("Sacred
Books of the East," ed. by Max Muller, Vol.
VIII., 278.)
(b) The expression "All is One Number, issued from
No Number" relates again to that universal and philosophical
tenet just explained in Stanza III. (Comm. 4). That which is absolute
is of course No Number; but in its later significance it has an
application in Space as in Time. It means that not only every
increment of time is part of a larger increment, up to the most
indefinitely prolonged duration conceivable by the human intellect,
but also that no manifested thing can
[[Vol. 1, Page]] 88 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.
be thought of except as part of a larger whole: the total aggregate
being the One manifested Universe that issues from the unmanifested
or Absolute -- called Non-Being or "No-Number," to distinguish
it from BEING or "the One Number."
-------
STANZA IV. -- Continued.
(2) LEARN WHAT WE, WHO DESCEND FROM THE PRIMORDIAL
SEVEN, WE, WHO ARE BORN FROM THE PRIMORDIAL
FLAME, HAVE LEARNED FROM OUR FATHERS
(a).
(a) This is explained in Book II., and
this name, "Primordial Flame," corroborates what is
said in the first paragraph of the preceding commentary on Stanza
IV.
The distinction between the "Primordial" and the subsequent
seven Builders is this: The former are the Ray and direct emanation
of the first "Sacred Four," the Tetraktis, that
is, the eternally Self-Existent One (Eternal in Essence note
well, not in manifestation, and distinct from the universal ONE).
Latent, during Pralaya, and active, during Manvantara, the "Primordial"
proceed from "Father-Mother" (Spirit-Hyle, or Ilus);
whereas the other manifested Quaternary and the Seven proceed
from the Mother alone. It is the latter who is the immaculate
Virgin-Mother, who is overshadowed, not impregnated, by the Universal
MYSTERY -- when she emerges from her state of Laya or undifferentiated
condition. In reality, they are, of course, all one; but their
aspects on the various planes of being are different. (See Part
II., "Theogony of the Creative Gods.")
The first "Primordial" are the highest Beings on the
Scale of Existence. They are the Archangels of Christianity, those
who refuse -- as Michael did in the latter system, and as did
the eldest "Mind-born sons" of Brahma (Veddhas) -- to
create or rather to multiply.
-------
STANZA IV. -- Continued.
3. FROM THE EFFULGENCY OF LIGHT -- THE RAY OF
THE EVER-DARKNESS -- SPRUNG IN SPACE THE RE-AWAKENED ENERGIES
(Dhyan Chohans): THE ONE FROM THE EGG, THE SIX AND THE
FIVE (a); THEN THE THREE, THE ONE,
[[Vol. 1, Page]] 89 THE VEHICLE OF THE UNIVERSE.
THE FOUR, THE ONE, THE FIVE -- THE TWICE SEVEN, THE SUM TOTAL
(b). AND THESE ARE: THE ESSENCES, THE FLAMES, THE ELEMENTS,
THE BUILDERS, THE NUMBERS, THE ARUPA (formless),
THE RUPA (with bodies), AND THE FORCE OR
DIVINE MAN -- THE SUM TOTAL. AND FROM THE DIVINE
MAN EMANATED THE FORMS, THE SPARKS, THE SACRED ANIMALS, AND THE
MESSENGERS OF THE SACRED FATHERS (the Pitris) WITHIN
THE HOLY FOUR.*
(a) This relates to the sacred Science of the
Numerals: so sacred, indeed, and so important in the study of
Occultism that the subject can hardly be skimmed, even in such
a large work as the present. It is on the Hierarchies and correct
numbers of these Beings invisible (to us) except upon very rare
occasions, that the mystery of the whole Universe is built. The
Kumaras, for instance, are called the "Four" though
in reality seven in number, because Sanaka, Sananda, Sanatana
and Sanat-Kumara are the chief Vaidhatra (their patronymic name),
as they spring from the "four-fold mystery." To make
the whole clearer we have to turn for our illustrations to tenets
more familiar to some of our readers, namely, the Brahminical.
According to Manu, Hiranyagarbha is Brahma the first male
formed by the undiscernible Causeless CAUSE in a "Golden
Egg resplendent as the Sun," as states the Hindu Classical
Dictionary. "Hiranyagarbha" means the golden, or rather
the "Effulgent Womb" or Egg. The meaning tallies awkwardly
with the epithet of "male." Surely the esoteric meaning
of the sentence is clear enough. In the Rig Veda it is said: --
"THAT, the one Lord of all beings . . . . the one
animating principle of gods and man," arose, in the beginning,
in the Golden Womb, Hiranyagarbha -- which is the Mundane Egg
or sphere of our Universe. That Being is surely androgynous, and
the allegory of Brahma separating into two and recreating in one
of his halves (the female Vach) himself as Viraj, is a proof of
it.
"The One from the Egg, the Six and the Five," give the
number 1065, the value of the first-born (later on the male and
female Brahma-Prajapati), who answers to the numbers 7, and 14,
and 21 respectively. The Prajapati are, like the Sephiroth, only
seven, including the
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------
* The 4, represented in the Occult numerals by the Tetraktis,
the Sacred or Perfect Square, is a Sacred Number with the mystics
of every nation and race. It has one and the same significance
in Brahmanism, Buddhism, the Kabala and in the Egyptian, Chaldean
and other numerical systems.
[[Vol. 1, Page]] 90 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.
synthetic Sephira of the triad from which they spring. Thus from
Hiranyagarbha or Prajapati, the triune (primeval Vedic
Trimurti, Agni, Vayu, and Surya), emanate the other seven, or
again ten, if we separate the first three which exist in one,
and one in three, all, moreover, being comprehended within that
one "supreme" Parama, called Guhya or " secret,"
and Sarvatma, the "Super-Soul." "The seven Lords
of Being lie concealed in Sarvatma like thoughts in one brain."
So are the Sephiroth. It is either seven when counting from the
upper Triad headed by Kether, or ten -- exoterically. In the Mahabharata
the Prajapati are 21 in number, or ten, six, and five (1065),
thrice seven.*
(b) "The Three, the One, the Four, the
One, the Five" (in their totality -- twice seven) represent
31415 -- the numerical hierarchy of the Dhyan-Chohans of various
orders, and of the inner or circumscribed world.** When placed
on the boundary of the great circle of "Pass not" (see
Stanza V.), called also the Dhyanipasa, the "rope of the
Angels," the "rope" that hedges off the phenomenal
from the noumenal Kosmos, (not falling within the range of our
present objective consciousness); this number, when not enlarged
by permutation and expansion, is ever 31415 anagrammatically and
Kabalistically, being both the number of the circle and the mystic
Svastica, the twice seven once more; for whatever way the two
sets of figures are counted, when added separately, one figure
after another, whether crossways, from right or from left, they
will always yield fourteen. Mathematically they represent the
well-known calculation, namely, that the ratio of the diameter
to the circumference of a circle is as 1 to 3.1415, or the value
of the (pi), as this ratio is called -- the symbol being
always used in
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------
* In the Kabala the same numbers are a value of Jehovah, viz.,
1065, since the numerical values of the three letters which compose
his name -- Jod, Vau and twice He -- are respectively 10 ( 
),
6 ( 
) and 5 ( 
);
or again thrice seven, 21. "Ten is the Mother of the Soul,
for Life and Light are therein united," says Hermes. "For
number one is born of the Spirit and the number ten from matter
(chaos, feminine); the unity has made the ten, the ten the unity"
(Book of the Keys). By the means of the Temura,
the anagrammatical method of the Kabala, and the knowledge of
1065 (21), a universal science may be obtained regarding Kosmos
and its mysteries" (Rabbi Yogel). The Rabbis regard the numbers
10, 6, and 5 as the most sacred of all.
** The reader may be told that an American Kabalist has now discovered
the same number for the Elohim. It came to the Jews from Chaldaea.
See "Hebrew Metrology" in the Masonic Review, July,
1885, McMillan Lodge, No. 141.
[[Vol. 1, Page]] 91 THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTIONS.
mathematical formulae to express it. This set of figures must
have the same meaning, since the 1 : 314,159, and then again 1
: 3 : 1,415,927 are worked out in the secret calculations to express
the various cycles and ages of the "first born," or
311,040,000,000,000 with fractions, and yield the same 13,415
by a process we are not concerned with at present. And it may
be shown that Mr. Ralston Skinner, author of The Source of
Measures, reads the Hebrew word Alhim in the same
number values, by omitting, as said, the ciphers and by permutation
-- 13,514: since 
(a) is
1 : 
(l) is 3 (or 30);
(h) is 5;
(i) 1 for 10; and 
(m) is
4 (40), and anagrammatically -- 31,415 as explained by him.
Thus, while in the metaphysical world, the circle with the one
central Point in it has no number, and is called Anupadaka (parentless
and numberless) -- viz., it can fall under no calculation, --
in the manifested world the mundane Egg or Circle is circumscribed
within the groups called the Line, the Triangle, the Pentacle,
the second Line and the Cube (or 13514); and when the Point having
generated a Line, thus becomes a diameter which stands for the
androgynous Logos, then the figures become 31415, or a triangle,
a line, a cube, the second line, and a pentacle. "When the
Son separates from the Mother he becomes the Father," the
diameter standing for Nature, or the feminine principle. Therefore
it is said: "In the world of being, the one Point fructifies
the Line -- the Virgin Matrix of Kosmos (the egg-shaped zero)
-- and the immaculate Mother gives birth to the form that combines
all forms." Prajapati is called the first procreating male,
and "his Mother's husband."* This gives the key-note
to all the later divine sons from immaculate mothers. It is greatly
corroborated by the significant fact that Anna (the name of the
Mother of the Virgin Mary) now represented by the Roman Catholic
church as having given birth to her daughter in an immaculate
way ("Mary conceived without sin"), is derived from
the Chaldean Ana, heaven, or Astral Light, Anima Mundi; whence
Anaitia, Devi-durga, the wife of Siva, is also called Annapurna,
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------
* We find the same expression in Egypt. Mout signifies, for one
thing, "Mother," and shows the character assigned to
her in the triad of that country. "She was no less the mother
than the wife of Ammon, one of the principle titles of the god
being "the husband of his mother." The goddess Mout,
or Mut, is addressed as "our lady," the "queen
of Heaven" and of "the Earth," thus "sharing
these titles with the other mother goddesses, Isis, Hathor, etc."
(Maspero).
[[Vol. 1, Page]] 92 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.
and Kanya, the Virgin; "Uma-Kanya" being her esoteric
name, and meaning the "Virgin of light," Astral Light
in one of its multitudinous aspects.
(c) The Devas, Pitris, Rishis; the Suras and the Asuras;
the Daityas and Adityas; the Danavas and Gandharvas, etc., etc.,
have all their synonyms in our Secret Doctrine, as well as in
the Kabala and the Hebrew Angelology; but it is useless to give
their ancient names, as it would only create confusion. Many of
these may be also found now, even in the Christian hierarchy of
divine and celestial powers. All those Thrones and Dominions,
Virtues and Principalities, Cherubs, Seraphs and demons, the various
denizens of the Sidereal World, are the modern copies of archaic
prototypes. The very symbolism in their names, when transliterated
and arranged in Greek and Latin, are sufficient to show it, as
will be proved in several cases further on.
The "Sacred Animals" are found in the Bible as well
as in the Kabala, and they have their meaning (a very profound
one, too) on the page of the origins of Life. In the Sepher Jezirah
it is stated that "God engraved in the Holy Four the throne
of his glory, the Ophanim (Wheels or the World-Spheres), the Seraphim,*
the Sacred Animals, and the ministering angels, and from these
three (the Air, Water, and Fire or Ether) he formed his habitation."
Thus was the world made "through three Seraphim -- Sepher,
Saphar, and Sipur," or "through Number, Numbers, and
Numbered." With the astronomical key these "Sacred Animals"
become the signs of the Zodiac.
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------
* This is the literal translation from the IXth and Xth Sections:
"Ten numbers without what? One: the spirit of the living
God . . . . who liveth in eternities! Voice and Spirit and Word,
and this is the Holy Spirit. Two: Spirit out of Spirit. He designed
and hewed therewith twenty-two letters of foundation, three Mothers
and seven double and Twelve single, and one spirit out of them.
Three: Water out of spirit; he designed and hewed with them the
barren and the void, mud and earth. He designed them as a flowerbed,
hewed them as a wall, covered them as a paving. Four: Fire out
of water. He designed and hewed therewith the throne of glory
and the wheels, and the seraphim and the holy animals and the
ministering angels, and of the three He founded his dwelling,
as it is said, He makes his angels spirits and his servants fiery
flames!" Which words "founded his dwelling" show
clearly that in the Kabala, as in India, the Deity was considered
as the Universe, and was not, in his origin, the extra-cosmic
God he is now.
[[Vol. 1, Page]] 93 THE POTENCY OF SPEECH AND SOUND.
STANZA IV. -- Continued.
4. THIS WAS THE ARMY OF THE
VOICE -- THE DIVINE SEPTENARY.
THE SPARKS OF THE SEVEN ARE SUBJECT TO, AND THE
SERVANTS OF, THE FIRST, SECOND, THIRD, FOURTH, FIFTH, SIXTH, AND
THE SEVENTH OF THE SEVEN (a). THESE ("sparks")
ARE CALLED SPHERES, TRIANGLES, CUBES, LINES, AND MODELLERS;
FOR THUS STANDS THE ETERNAL NIDANA
-- THE OI-HA-HOU
(the Permutation of Oeaohoo) (b).*
(a) This Sloka gives again a brief analysis
of the Hierarchies of the Dhyan Chohans, called Devas (gods) in
India, or the conscious intelligent powers in Nature. To this
Hierarchy correspond the actual types into which humanity may
be divided; for humanity, as a whole, is in reality a materialized
though as yet imperfect expression thereof. The "army of
the Voice" is a term closely connected with the mystery of
Sound and Speech, as an effect and corollary of the cause -- Divine
Thought. As beautifully expressed by P. Christian, the learned
author of "The History of Magic" and of "L'Homme
Rouge des Tuileries," the word spoken by, as well as the
name of, every individual largely determine his future fate. Why?
Because --
-- "When our Soul (mind) creates or evokes a thought, the
representative sign of that thought is self-engraved upon the
astral fluid, which is the receptacle and, so to say, the mirror
of all the manifestations of being.
"The sign expresses the thing: the thing is the (hidden or
occult) virtue of the sign.
"To pronounce a word is to evoke a thought, and make it present:
the magnetic potency of the human speech is the commencement of
every manifestation in the Occult World. To utter a Name is not
only to define a Being (an Entity), but to place it under and
condemn it through the emission of the Word (Verbum), to the influence
of one or more Occult potencies. Things are, for every one of
us, that which it (the Word) makes them while naming them. The
Word (Verbum) or the speech of every man is, quite unconsciously
to himself, a BLESSING or a CURSE; this is why our present ignorance
about the properties or attributes of the IDEA as well as about
the attributes and properties of MATTER, is often fatal to us.
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------
* The literal signification of the word is, among the Eastern
Occultists of the North, a circular wind, whirlwind; but in this
instance, it is a term to denote the ceaseless and eternal Cosmic
Motion; or rather the Force that moves it, which Force is tacitly
accepted as the Deity but never named. It is the eternal Karana,
the ever-acting Cause.
[[Vol. 1, Page]] 94 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.
"Yes, names (and words) are either BENEFICENT or MALEFICENT;
they are, in a certain sense, either venomous or health-giving,
according to the hidden influences attached by Supreme Wisdom
to their elements, that is to say, to the LETTERS which compose
them, and the NUMBERS correlative to these letters."
This is strictly true as an esoteric teaching accepted by all
the Eastern Schools of Occultism. In the Sanskrit, as also in
the Hebrew and all other alphabets, every letter has its occult
meaning and its rationale; it is a cause and an effect of a preceding
cause and a combination of these very often produces the most
magical effect. The vowels, especially, contain the most occult
and formidable potencies. The Mantras (esoterically, magical rather
than religious) are chanted by the Brahmins and so are the Vedas
and other Scriptures.
The "Army of the Voice," is the prototype of the "Host
of the Logos," or the "WORD" of the Sepher Jezirah,
called in the Secret Doctrine "the One Number issued from
No-Number" -- the One Eternal Principle. The esoteric theogony
begins with the One, manifested, therefore not eternal in its
presence and being, if eternal in its essence; the number of the
numbers and numbered -- the latter proceeding from the Voice,
the feminine Vach, Satarupa "of the hundred forms,"
or Nature. It is from this number 10, or creative nature, the
Mother (the occult cypher, or "nought," ever procreating
and multiplying in union with the Unit "I," one, or
the Spirit of Life), that the whole Universe proceeded.
In the Anugita a conversation is given (ch. vi., 15)
between a Brahmana and his wife, on the origin of Speech and its
occult properties.* The wife asks how Speech came into existence,
and which was prior to the other, Speech or Mind. The Brahmana
tells her that the Apana (inspirational breath) becoming
lord, changes that intelligence, which does not understand Speech
or Words, into the state of Apana, and thus opens the mind. Thereupon
he tells her a story, a dialogue between Speech and Mind. "Both
went to the Self of Being (i.e., to the individual Higher
Self, as Nilakantha thinks, to Prajapati, according to the commentator
Arjuna Misra), and asked him to destroy their doubts and decide
which of them preceded and was superior to the
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------
* Anugita forms part of the Asvamedha Parvan of the "Mahabharata."
The translator of the Bhagavatgita, edited by Max Muller, regards
it as a continuation of the Bhagavatgita. Its original is one
of the oldest Upanishads.
[[Vol. 1, Page]] 95 SPEECH AND MIND.
other. To this the lord said: 'Mind is Superior.' But Speech answered
the Self of Being, by saying: 'I verily yield (you) your desires,'
meaning that by speech he acquired what he desired. Thereupon
again, the Self told her that there are two minds, the 'movable'
and the 'immovable.' 'The immovable is with me,' he said, 'the
movable is in your dominion' (i.e. of Speech) on the
plane of matter. To that you are superior. But inasmuch, O beautiful
one, as you came personally to speak to me (in the way you did,
i.e. proudly), therefore, O, Sarasvati! you shall never
speak after (hard) exhalation." "The goddess Speech"
(Sarasvati, a later form or aspect of Vach, the goddess also of
secret learning or Esoteric Wisdom), "verily, dwelt always
between the Prana and the Apana. But O noble one! going with the
Apana wind (vital air), though impelled, without the Prana (expirational
breath), she ran up to Prajapati (Brahma), saying, 'Be pleased,
O venerable sir!' Then the Prana appeared again, nourishing Speech.
And, therefore, Speech never speaks after (hard or inspirational)
exhalation. It is always noisy or noiseless. Of these two, the
noiseless is the superior to the noisy (Speech) . . . . The (speech)
which is produced in the body by means of the Prana, and which
then goes (is transformed) into Apana, and then becoming assimilated
with the Udana (physical organs of Speech) . . . then finally
dwells in the Samana ('at the navel in the form of sound, as the
material cause of all words,' says Arjuna Misra). So Speech formerly
spoke. Hence the mind is distinguished by reason of its being
immovable, and the Goddess (Speech) by reason of her being movable."
This allegory is at the root of the Occult law, which prescribes
silence upon the knowledge of certain secret and invisible things
perceptible only to the spiritual mind (the 6th sense), and which
cannot be expressed by "noisy" or uttered speech. This
chapter of Anugita explains, says Arjuna Misra, Pranayama,
or regulation of the breath in Yoga practices. This mode, however,
without the previous acquisition of, or at least full understanding
of the two higher senses, of which there are seven, as will be
shown, pertains rather to the lower Yoga. The Hatha so
called was and still is discountenanced by the Arhats. It is injurious
to the health and alone can never develop into Raj Yoga. This
story is quoted to show how inseparably connected are, in the
metaphysics of old, intelligent beings, or rather "Intelligences,"
with every sense or
[[Vol. 1, Page]] 96 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.
function whether physical or mental. The Occult claim that there
are seven senses in man, as in nature, as there are seven states
of consciousness, is corroborated in the same work, chapter vii.,
on Pratyahara (the restraint and regulation of the senses, Pranayama
being that of the "vital winds" or breath). The Brahmana
speaks in it "of the institution of the seven sacrificial
Priests (Hotris). He says: "The nose and the eyes, and the
tongue, and the skin and the ear as the fifth (or smell, sight,
taste, touch and hearing), mind and understanding are the seven
sacrificial priests separately stationed"; and which "dwelling
in a minute space (still) do not perceive each other" on
this sensuous plane, none of them except mind. For mind says:
"The nose smells not without me, the eye does not take in
colour, etc., etc. I am the eternal chief among all elements (i.e.,
senses). Without me, the senses never shine, like an empty dwelling,
or like fires the flames of which are extinct. Without me, all
beings, like fuel half dried and half moist, fail to apprehend
qualities or objects even with the senses exerting themselves."*
This, of course, with regard only to mind on the sensuous
plane. Spiritual mind (the upper portion or aspect of the
impersonal MANAS) takes no cognisance of the senses in
physical man. How well the ancients were acquainted with the correlation
of forces and all the recently discovered phenomena of mental
and physical faculties and functions, with many more mysteries
also -- may be found in reading chapters vii. and viii. of this
(in philosophy and mystic learning) priceless work. See the quarrel
of the senses about their respective superiority and their taking
the Brahman, the lord of all creatures, for their arbiter. "You
are all greatest and not greatest," or superior to objects,
as A. Misra says, none being independent of the other. "You
are all possessed of one another's qualities. All are greatest
in their own spheres and all support one another. There is one
unmoving (life-wind or breath, the 'Yoga inhalation,'
so called, which is the breath of the One or Higher
SELF). That is the (or my) own Self, accumulated
in numerous (forms)."
This Breath, Voice, Self or "Wind" (pneuma?)
is the Synthesis of the Seven Senses, noumenally all
minor deities and esoterically -- the septenary and the
"Army of the VOICE."
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------
* This shows the modern metaphysicians, added to all past and
present Haegels, Berkeleys, Schopenhauers, Hartmanns, Herbert
Spencers, and even the modern Hylo-Idealists to boot, no better
than the pale copyists of hoary antiquity.
[[Vol. 1, Page]] 97 NATURE, THE PERPETUAL MOTION.
(b) Next we see Cosmic matter scattering and
forming itself into elements; grouped into the mystic four within
the fifth element -- Ether, the lining of Akasa, the Anima Mundi
or Mother of Kosmos. "Dots, Lines, Triangles, Cubes, Circles"
and finally "Spheres" -- why or how? Because, says the
Commentary, such is the first law of Nature, and because Nature
geometrizes universally in all her manifestations. There is an
inherent law -- not only in the primordial, but also in the manifested
matter of our phenomenal plane -- by which Nature correlates her
geometrical forms, and later, also, her compound elements; and
in which there is no place for accident or chance. It is a fundamental
law in Occultism, that there is no rest or cessation of motion
in Nature.* That which seems rest is only the change of one form
into another; the change of substance going hand in hand with
that of form -- as we are taught in Occult physics, which thus
seem to have anticipated the discovery of the "Conservation
of matter" by a considerable time. Says the ancient Commentary**
to Stanza IV.: --
"The Mother is the fiery Fish of Life. She scatters her
spawn and the Breath (Motion) heats and quickens
it. The grains (of spawn) are soon attracted
to each other and form the curds in the Ocean (of Space).
The larger lumps coalesce and receive new spawn -- in fiery dots,
triangles and cubes, which ripen, and at the appointed time some
of the lumps detach themselves and assume spheroidal form, a process
which they effect only when not interfered with by the others.
After which, law No. * * * comes into operation. Motion
(the Breath) becomes the whirlwind and sets
them into rotation."***
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------
* It is the knowledge of this law that permits and helps the Arhat
to perform his Siddhis, or various phenomena, such as
disintegration of matter, the transport of objects from one place
to another.
** These are ancient Commentaries attached with modern Glossaries
to the Stanzas, as the Commentaries in their symbolical language
are usually as difficult to understand as the Stanzas themselves.
*** In a polemical scientific work, "The Modern Genesis,"
the author, the Rev. W. B. Slaughter, criticising the position
assumed by the astronomers, asks: -- "It is to be regretted
that the advocates of this (nebular) theory have not entered more
largely into the discussion of it (the beginning of rotation).
No one condescends to give us the rationale of it. How
does the process of cooling and contracting the mass impart to
it a rotatory motion?" The question is amply treated in the
Addendum. It is not materialistic science that can ever solve
it. "Motion is eternal in the unmanifested, and periodical
in the manifest," says an Occult teaching. It is "when
heat caused [[Footnote continued on next page]]
[[Vol. 1, Page]] 98 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.
STANZA IV. -- Continued.
5. . . . . . WHICH IS: ----
"DARKNESS," THE BOUNDLESS
OR THE NO-NUMBER, ADI-NIDANA
SVABHAVAT: THE 
(for x, unknown quantity):
I. THE ADI-SANAT,
THE NUMBER, FOR HE IS ONE
(a).
II. THE VOICE OF THE WORD,
SVABHAVAT, THE NUMBERS, FOR
HE IS ONE AND NINE.*
III. THE "FORMLESS
SQUARE." (Arupa.) (b).
AND THESE THREE ENCLOSED WITHIN THE
(boundless circle), ARE THE SACRED FOUR, AND THE TEN
ARE THE ARUPA (subjective, formless)
UNIVERSE (c); THEN COME THE "SONS,"
THE SEVEN FIGHTERS, THE ONE,
THE EIGHTH LEFT OUT, AND HIS BREATH WHICH IS
THE LIGHT-MAKER (Bhaskara)
(d).
(a) "Adi-Sanat," translated literally is the
First or "primeval" ancient, which name identifies the
Kabalistic "Ancient of Days" and the "Holy Aged"
(Sephira and Adam Kadmon) with Brahma the Creator, called also
Sanat among his other names and titles.
Svabhavat is the mystic Essence, the plastic root of physical
Nature -- "Numbers" when manifested; the Number, in
its Unity of Substance, on the highest plane. The name is of Buddhist
use and a Synonym for the four-fold Anima Mundi, the Kabalistic
"Archetypal World," from whence proceed the "Creative,
Formative, and the
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------
[[Footnote continued from previous page]] by the descent of FLAME
into primordial matter causes its particles to move, which motion
becomes Whirlwind." A drop of liquid assumes a spheroidal
form owing to its atoms moving around themselves in their ultimate,
unresolvable, and noumenal essence; unresolvable for physical
science, at any rate.
* Which makes ten, or the perfect number applied to the "Creator,"
the name given to the totality of the Creators blended by the
Monotheists into One, as the "Elohim," Adam Kadmon or
Sephira -- the Crown -- are the androgyne synthesis of the 10
Sephiroth, who stand for the symbol of the manifested Universe
in the popularised Kabala. The esoteric Kabalists, however, following
the Eastern Occultists, divide the upper Sephirothal triangle
from the rest (or Sephira, Chochmah and Binah), which leaves seven
Sephiroth. As for Svabhavat, the Orientalists explain the term
as meaning the Universal plastic matter diffused through Space,
with, perhaps, half an eye to the Ether of Science. But the Occultists
identify it with "FATHER-MOTHER" on the mystic plane.
(Vide supra.)
[[Vol. 1, Page]] 99 THE OGDOAD AND HEPTAD.
Material Worlds"; the Scintillae or Sparks, -- the various
other worlds contained in the last three. The Worlds are all subject
to Rulers or Regents -- Rishis and Pitris with the Hindus, Angels
with the Jews and Christians, Gods, with the Ancients in general.
(b) This means
that the "Boundless Circle" (Zero) becomes a figure
or number, only when one of the nine figures precedes it, and
thus manifests its value and potency, the Word or Logos in union
with VOICE and Spirit* (the expression and source of Consciousness)
standing for the nine figures and thus forming, with the Cypher,
the Decade which contains in itself all the Universe. The triad
forms within the circle the Tetraktis or Sacred Four, the Square
within the Circle being the most potent of all the magical figures.
(c) The "One Rejected" is the Sun of our system.
The exoteric version may be found in the oldest Sanskrit Scriptures.
In the Rig Veda, Aditi, "The Boundless" or infinite
Space, translated by Mr. Max Muller, "the visible infinite,
visible by the naked eye (!!); the endless expanse beyond the
Earth, beyond the clouds, beyond the sky," is the equivalent
of "Mother-Space" coeval with "Darkness."
She is very properly called "The Mother of the Gods,"
DEVA-MATRI, as it is from her
Cosmic matrix that all the heavenly bodies of our system were
born -- Sun and Planets. Thus she is described, allegorically,
in this wise: "Eight Sons were born from the body of Aditi;
she approached the gods with seven, but cast away the eighth,
Martanda," our sun. The seven sons called the Aditya are,
cosmically or astronomically, the seven planets; and the Sun being
excluded from their number shows plainly that the Hindus may have
known, and in fact knew of a seventh planet, without calling it
Uranus.** But esoterically and theologically,
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------
* "In union with the Spirit and the Voice," referring
to the Abstract Thought and concrete Voice, or the manifestation
thereof, the effect of the Cause. Adam Kadmon or Tetragrammaton
is the Logos in the Kabala; therefore this triad answers in the
latter to the highest triangle of Kether, Chochmah and Binah,
the last a female potency and at the same time the male Jehovah,
as partaking of the nature of Chochmah, or the male Wisdom.
** The Secret Doctrine teaches that the Sun is a central Star
and not a planet. Yet the Ancients knew of and worshipped seven
great gods, excluding the Sun and Earth. Which was that "Mystery
God" they set apart? Of course not Uranus, discovered only
by Herschel in 1781. But could it not be known by another name?
Says the [[Footnote continued on next page]]
[[Vol. 1, Page]] 100 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.
so to say, the Adityas are, in their primitive most ancient meanings,
the eight, and the twelve great gods of the Hindu Pantheon. "The
Seven allow the mortals to see their dwellings, but show themselves
only to the Arhats," says an old proverb, "their dwellings"
standing here for planets. The ancient Commentary gives an allegory
and explains it: --
"Eight houses were built by Mother. Eight houses for
her Eight Divine sons; four large and four small ones. Eight brilliant
suns, according to their age and merits. Bal-ilu (Martanda)
was not satisfied, though his house was the largest. He began
(to work) as the huge elephants do. He breathed
(drew in) into his stomach the vital airs of
his brothers. He sought to devour them. The larger four were far
away; far, on the margin of their kingdom.* They were not robbed
(affected), and laughed. Do your worst, Sir,
you cannot reach us, they said. But the smaller wept. They complained
to the Mother. She exiled Bal-i-lu to the centre of her Kingdom,
from whence he could not move. (Since then)
he (only) watches and threatens. He pursues
them, turning slowly around himself, they turning swiftly from
him, and he following from afar the direction in which his brothers
move on the path that encircles their houses.** From that day
he feeds on the sweat of the Mother's body. He fills
himself with her breath and refuse. Therefore, she rejected him."
Thus the "rejected Son" being our Sun, evidently, as
shown above, the "Sun-Sons" refer not only to our planets
but to the heavenly bodies in general. Himself only a reflection
of the Central Spiritual Sun, Surya is the prototype
of all those bodies that evolved after him. In the Vedas he is
called Loka-Chakshuh, "the Eye of the World"
(our
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------
[[Footnote continued from previous page]] author of "Maconnerie
Occulte": -- "Occult Sciences having discovered through
astronomical calculations that the number of the planets must
be seven, the ancients were led to introduce the Sun into the
scale of the celestial harmonies, and make him occupy the vacant
place. Thus, every time they perceived an influence that pertained
to none of the six planets known, they attributed it to the Sun.
The error only seems important, but was not so in practical results,
if the ancient astrologers replaced Uranus by the Sun, which is
a central Star relatively motionless, turning only on its axis
and regulating time and measure; and which cannot be turned aside
from its true functions." . . . . . . The nomenclature of
the days of the week is thus faulty. "The Sun-Day ought to
be Uranus-day (Urani dies, Urandi)," adds the learned writer,
Ragon.
* Planetary System.
** "The Sun rotates on his axis always in the same direction
in which the planets revolve in their respective orbits,"
astronomy teaches us.
[[Vol. 1, Page]] 101 FIRE, THE GREAT SYMBOL OF DEITY.
planetary world), and he is one of the three chief deities. He
is called indifferently the Son of Dyaus and of Aditi,
because no distinction is made with reference to, or scope
allowed for, the esoteric meaning. Thus he is depicted as drawn
by seven horses, and by one horse with seven heads; the former
referring to his seven planets, the latter to their one common
origin from the One Cosmic Element. This "One Element"
is called figuratively "FIRE." The
Vedas (Aitareya-Brahmana of Haug also; p. i) teach "that
the fire verily is all the deities." (Narada in Anugita).
The meaning of the allegory is plain, for we have both the Dzyan
Commentary and modern science to explain it, though the two differ
in more than one particular. The Occult Doctrine rejects the hypothesis
born out of the Nebular Theory, that the (seven) great planets
have evolved from the Sun's central mass, not of this our visible
Sun, at any rate. The first condensation of Cosmic matter of course
took place about a central nucleus, its parent Sun; but our sun,
it is taught, merely detached itself earlier than all the others,
as the rotating mass contracted, and is their elder, bigger brother
therefore, not their father. The eight Adityas, "the gods,"
are all formed from the eternal substance (Cometary matter* --
the Mother) or the "World-Stuff " which is both the
fifth and the sixth COSMIC Principle, the Upadhi or basis of the
Universal Soul, just as in man, the Microcosm, Manas** is the
Upadhi of Buddhi.***
(d) There is a whole poem on the pregenetic battles fought
by the growing planets before the final formation of Kosmos, thus
accounting for the seemingly disturbed position of the systems
of several planets, the plane of the satellites of some (of Neptune
and Uranus, for instance, of which the ancients knew nothing,
it is said) being tilted over, thus giving them an appearance
of retrograde motion. These planets are called the warriors, the
Architects, and are accepted by the
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------
* This Essence of Cometary matter, Occult Science teaches, is
totally different from any of the chemical or physical characteristics
with which modern science is acquainted. It is homogeneous in
its primitive form beyond the Solar Systems, and differentiates
entirely once it crosses the boundaries of our Earth's region,
vitiated by the atmospheres of the planets and the already compound
matter of the interplanetary stuff, heterogeneous only in our
manifested world.
** Manas -- the Mind-Principle, or the human Soul.
*** Buddhi -- the divine Soul.
[[Vol. 1, Page]] 102 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.
Roman Church as the leaders of the heavenly Hosts, thus showing
the same traditions. Having evolved from Cosmic Space, and before
the final formation of the primaries and the annulation of the
planetary nebula, the Sun, we are taught, drew into the depths
of its mass all the Cosmic vitality he could, threatening to engulf
his weaker "brothers" before the law of attraction and
repulsion was finally adjusted; after which he began feeding on
"The Mother's refuse and sweat"; in other words, on
those portions of Ether (the "breath of the Universal Soul")
of the existence and constitution of which science is as yet absolutely
ignorant. A theory of this kind having been propounded by Sir
William Grove (see "Correlation of the Physical Forces,"
1843, p. 81; and "Address to the British Association,
1866"), who theorized that the systems "are gradually
changing by atmospheric additions or subtractions, or by accretions
and diminutions arising from nebular substances" . . . and
again that "the Sun may condense gaseous matter as it travels
in Space and so heat may be produced" -- the archaic teaching
seems scientific enough, even in this age.* Mr. W. Mattieu Williams
suggested that the diffused matter or Ether which is the recipient
of the heat radiations of the Universe is thereby drawn into the
depths of the solar mass. Expelling thence the previously condensed
and thermally exhausted Ether, it becomes compressed and gives
up its heat, to be in turn itself driven out in a rarified and
cooled state, to absorb a fresh supply of heat, which he supposes
to be in this way taken up by the Ether, and again concentrated
and redistributed by the Suns of the Universe.**
This is about as close an approximation to the Occult teachings
as Science ever imagined; for Occultism explains it by "the
dead breath" given back by Martanda and his feeding on the
"sweat and refuse" of "Mother Space." What
could affect Neptune,*** Saturn and Jupiter,
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------
* Very similar ideas in Mr. W. Mattieu Williams' "The
Fuel of the Sun;" in Dr. C. William Siemens'
"On the Conservation of Solar Energy"
(Nature, XXV., p. 440-444, March 9, 1882); and also
in Dr. P. Martin Duncan's "Address of the President of
the Geological Society," London, May, 1877.
** See "Comparative Geology,"
by Alexander Winchell, LL.D., p. 56.
*** When we speak of Neptune it is not as an Occultist but as
a European. The true Eastern Occultist will maintain that, whereas
there are many yet undiscovered planets in our system, Neptune
does not belong to it, his apparent connection with our sun and
the influence of the latter upon Neptune notwithstanding. This
connection is mayavic, imaginary, they say.
[[Vol. 1, Page]] 103 THE STELLAR "SONS OF LIGHT."
but little, would have killed such comparatively small "Houses"
as Mercury, Venus and Mars. As Uranus was not known before the
end of the eighteenth century, the name of the fourth planet mentioned
in the allegory must remain to us, so far, a mystery.
The "Breath" of all the "seven" is said to
be Bhaskara (light-making), because they (the planets) were all
comets and suns in their origin. They evolve into Manvantaric
life from primaeval Chaos (now the noumenon of irresolvable nebulae)
by aggregation and accumulation of the primary differentiations
of the eternal matter, according to the beautiful expression in
the Commentary, "Thus the Sons of Light clothed themselves
in the fabric of Darkness." They are called allegorically
"the Heavenly Snails," on account of their (to us) formless
INTELLIGENCES inhabiting unseen their starry and planetary homes,
and, so to speak, carrying them as the snails do along with themselves
in their revolution. The doctrine of a common origin for all the
heavenly bodies and planets, was, as we see, inculcated by the
Archaic astronomers, before Kepler, Newton, Leibnitz, Kant, Herschel
and Laplace. Heat (the Breath), attraction and repulsion -- the
three great factors of Motion -- are the conditions under which
all the members of all this primitive family are born, developed,
and die, to be reborn after a "Night of Brahma," during
which eternal matter relapses periodically into its primary undifferentiated
state. The most attenuated gases can give no idea of its nature
to the modern physicist. Centres of Forces at first, the invisible
sparks of primordial atoms differentiate into molecules, and become
Suns -- passing gradually into objectivity gaseous, radiant, cosmic,
the one "Whirlwind" (or motion) finally giving the impulse
to the form, and the initial motion, regulated and sustained by
the never-resting Breaths -- the Dhyan Chohans.
-------
STANZA IV. -- Continued.
6. . . . . THEN THE SECOND SEVEN,
WHO ARE THE LIPIKA, PRODUCED BY THE THREE (Word,
Voice, and Spirit). THE REJECTED
SON IS ONE, THE "SON-SUNS"
ARE COUNTLESS.
The Lipi-ka, from the word lipi, "writing,"
means literally the
[[Vol. 1, Page]] 104 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.
"Scribes."* Mystically, these Divine Beings are connected
with Karma, the Law of Retribution, for they are the Recorders
or Annalists who impress on the (to us) invisible tablets of the
Astral Light, "the great picture-gallery of eternity"
-- a faithful record of every act, and even thought, of man, of
all that was, is, or ever will be, in the phenomenal Universe.
As said in "Isis," this divine and
unseen canvas is the BOOK OF LIFE.
As it is the Lipika who project into objectivity from the passive
Universal Mind the ideal plan of the universe, upon which the
"Builders" reconstruct the Kosmos after every Pralaya,
it is they who stand parallel to the Seven Angels of the Presence,
whom the Christians recognise in the Seven "Planetary Spirits"
or the "Spirits of the Stars;" for thus it is they who
are the direct amanuenses of the Eternal Ideation -- or, as called
by Plato, the "Divine Thought." The Eternal Record is
no fantastic dream, for we meet with the same records in the world
of gross matter. "A shadow never falls upon a wall without
leaving thereupon a permanent trace which might be made visible
by resorting to proper processes," says Dr. Draper. . . .
"The portraits of our friends or landscape-views may be hidden
on the sensitive surface from the eye, but they are ready to make
their appearance as soon as proper developers are resorted to.
A spectre is concealed on a silver or a glassy surface, until,
by our necromancy, we make it come forth into the visible world.
Upon the walls of our most private apartments, where we think
the eye of intrusion is altogether shut out, and our retirement
can never be profaned, there exist the vestiges of all our acts,
silhouettes of whatever we have done."** Drs. Jevons and
Babbage believe that every thought, displacing the particles of
the brain and setting them in motion, scatters them throughout
the Universe, and they think that "each particle of the existing
matter must be a register of all that has happened." (Principles
of Science, Vol. II. p. 455.) Thus the ancient doctrine has begun
to acquire rights of citizenship in the speculations of the scientific
world.
The forty "Assessors" who stand in the region of Amenti
as the accusers of the Soul before Osiris, belong
to the same class of deities as the Lipika, and might stand paralleled,
were not the Egyptian gods so
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------
*These are the four "Immortals" which are mentioned
in Atharva Veda as the "Watchers" or Guardians
of the four quarters of the sky (see ch. lxxvi., 1-4, et seq.).
** "Conflict between Religion and Science."
-- Draper, pp. 132 and 133.
[[Vol. 1, Page]] 105 THE DIVINE RECORDERS.
little understood in their esoteric meaning. The Hindu Chitra-Gupta
who reads out the account of every Soul's life from his register,
called Agra-Sandhani; the "Assessors" who read theirs
from the heart of the defunct, which becomes an open book before
(whether) Yama, Minos, Osiris, or Karma -- are all so many copies
of, and variants from the Lipika, and their Astral Records. Nevertheless,
the Lipi-ka are not deities connected with Death, but with Life
Eternal.
Connected as the Lipika are with the destiny of every man and
the birth of every child, whose life is already traced in the
Astral Light not fatalistically, but only because the future,
like the PAST, is ever alive in the PRESENT -- they may also be
said to exercise an influence on the Science of Horoscopy. We
must admit the truth of the latter whether we will or not. For,
as observed by one of the modern adepts of Astrology, "Now
that photography has revealed to us the chemical influence of
the Sidereal system, by fixing on the sensitized plate of the
apparatus milliards of stars and planets that had hitherto baffled
the efforts of the most powerful telescopes to discover them,
it becomes easier to understand how our solar system can, at the
birth of a child, influence his brain -- virgin of any impression
-- in a definite manner and according to the presence on the zenith
of such or another zodiacal constellation."*
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------
** Les Mysteres de l'Horoscope, p. XI.
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