CHAPTER V.

THE SECRET DOCTRINE (CONTINUED).
Science and Religion.
The Science and the Religion (Theology) of the West are in perpetual conflict. The genius of this religion discerns Faith and Miracle as its founda- tion. Science holds as its ideals Fact and Law. This religion is necessarily illogical, while science is materialistic, and, thanks to both, mankind is as far from any real knowledge of the nature and des- tiny of the soul as it was a thousand years ago. This conflict has long been maintained; it is a war to the death ; both religion and science are being re- formed, and long before the battle ceases, neither of the original champions will be found to exist, ex- cept in their progeny of doubtful extraction or for- eign parentage.
A reconciliation has sometimes been dreamed of, but placed a long way off. The theory or "working hypothesis" of Science is mechanical to the last de- gree. Matter, Force, Motion, and Law without an
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underlying Intelligence. Matter is said to be essen- tially dead and inert, and Mind is regarded as the fortuitous result of combination and aggregation, known as "organization." Evolution is regarded as the result of modification and improvement by use and selection, and the increment carried forward by heredity. In other words, of Autonomy.
The theory of Religion is that of a Personal God and an arbitrary and equally mechanical, though miraculous, creation; of a Revelation equally mi- raculous; of souls created as by arbitrary caprice of Deity, with the accidental co-operation of man, even in violation of Divine Law. It talks of Laws, but admits their abrogation through the Will (caprice) of God. It is true that neither Science nor Religion has openly formulated the foregoing creeds, but they are fair deductions from the postulates as- sumed, the logical results of a Nature without In- telligence; and a God who creates Laws only to annul them at His own good pleasure ! Reconcilia- tion between Science and Religion thus becomes impossible, because each is a contradiction to itself.
But a reconciliation was reached in the Secret Doctrine ages ago.
The old universal Wisdom Religion was scientific to the last degree ; for beneath both Science and Re-
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ligion was the Philosophy which discerned the or- derly processes of Eternal Nature, with no "missing links" in Evolution, and no caprice or contradictions anywhere in Cosmos.
The First Postulate of the Secret Doctrine, already referred to, lays the sure foundation of this old Philosophy.
An Omnipotent, Eternal, Boundless, and Im- mutable Principle, co-evil and co-extensive with Space: in All, through All, and over All: Divinity Immanent in Nature: Alike the Eternal Cause and Result, each without beginning or end, and each alternating forever !
Law in Nature is the Permanency, the Unchange- ableness of the Divine Being. Intelligence in Na- ture is the Harmony of the Divine Order. Hence, the "Kingdom," the "Foundation," the "Crown," the "Beauty," etc., of the Kabalistic Sephira, or Divine Attributes of Ain Soph, the Boundless. The doc- trine of Emanation, taught by Plato and held by the Gnostics and the early Christians, gave the key to cosmic and human evolution. Plotinus said: "God is not the principle of Beings, but the Principle of Principles." Universal Substance, Universal En- ergy* Universal Law, Universal Life, Universal In-
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telligence are all emanations or manifestations of the One Principle.
This is not Pantheism, but pure and unadulterated Theism.
The All is One, and that One is Divinity. Spinoza came, perhaps, as near the truth as any one since the days of the old Initiates.
Every atom of matter as every "spot" in space is full of Divinity.
There is neither time nor place where He ("It") is not. The Priest-Initiates among the Hebrews knew this doctrine, as they had it from Old Egypt ("Moses was skilled in all the wisdom of the Egyp- tians"), and neither Jehovah nor Adonai was the Nameless or the Boundless.
Here, in the First Postulate, lies the complete reconciliation of Science and Religion. Through the Divine Immanence in Nature, and within all, Space concealed, every atom of matter is endowed with Life and Intelligence and bound by Law. Evo- lution is a Formation, Transformation, and Re-for- mation, in endless succession, with the outposts of Creation continually drawn upward toward the center in Divinity. Or, Space Involves Divinity, and Evolves Cosmos. At the center of every atom or Sun lies Divinity (Unity) ; at the circumference
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unfolds Nature (Diversity) ; and these two are for- ever One and at-one.
How any rational mind can fail to see in this philosophy a complete Reconciliation of Religion and Science, it is difficult to understand.
In the beginning, when the world emanates, or begins to manifest visibly, space becomes turgid (called "curds" in the old Hindoo Cosmology) with substance. The invisible becomes visible. This is the first "Matter," and it is called Akasa. On the force side, coincident with this turgescence (prior to "nebula") "Absolute Abstract Motion, representing Unconditioned Consciousness," one of the two aspects of Beness — latent potential energy becomes active. Latent Consciousness becomes Cosmic Ideation. This primal energy is called Fohat, "the mysterious link between Mind and Matter, the animating principle electrifying every atom into life." We have now Matter, Force and Motion, with Law as the Guiding intelligence (active) and Consciousness (latent) as Cosmic Ideation, unfolding the Plan ; and all these in perfect concord evolving the Symphony of Creation. Of course this Cosmogenesis can be here but roughly outlined.
We have then Akasa, as the Universal Substance,
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and Fohat, as the Universal Energy, with Intelli- gence guiding them, Consciousness back of them, and the Roots of all in the Concealed Ain-Soph, the Unknowable. Professor Crooks has taken a long stride in this direction in his metaphysical excur- sion in search of the "Origin of the Elements," and in his postulation of Protyle. He has further touched the septenary key in the order of the ema- nation of the so-called elements known to modern science. It would be impossible in a work such as this, and equally out of place, to undertake to trace the process running through millions of years by which a planet is evolved ; how the turgescence gives rise to denser substance, "set on fire" by friction (Fohat), and how the "Fire-Mist" cools and hardens into Matter on our plane. Though appar- ent Chaos, here is Cosmos, order and formation, as much as now may be discerned in this present state of our Earth. The real Chaos is Space, which is but latent, potential Cosmos, or Creation asleep. Tracing this process of world-building from the "beginning," the One (negative), abstract Space and absolute Abstract Motion (the Ineffable Name, or Deity, lying still back of these, "Nameless" and never manifesting), now become active, and here lies the first "Manifestation," a duality: "Father-
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Mother;" Spirit and Matter; Consciousness and In- telligence. From a latent or potential duality, space and motion, there arises an active manifested dual- ity. Taking latency as the One, the First Logos, we have thus the first Triad, or the "Second Logos." As differentiation goes on the first Triad becomes the Modulus. Fohat "lights the fires," sets the "wheels" (atoms) in motion, and Cosmic Ideation (latent Consciousness becoming active) now gives form to evolving substance. Symbolize this and we have the first triad reflecting itself in matter a double triangle,* or a perfect square, with the In- effable Name inscribed in the first triangle;" which with the three reflected, making six, and the Name added making the First Septenary. This is the key- note of all that follows; the pitch, the rhythm, and the harmony of Creation: The first octave in the song of the Morning Stars. The first septenary in the Universal Spectrum of Color: and the first ex- pression of the form into which Matter is molded.
*In the Kabalah the "Ancient of Days;" the "Aged of the Aged;" "The Face reflected in the Waters." Akasa is also called "the pure waters of space."
t See Plate I.
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To synthesize all these movements in one word we have Fohat as the agent; and Vibration as the man- ifestation. The Master who knows the pitch, qual- ity and amplitude of this first vibration, who can produce this first septenary of sound, color, and form, can by so doing raise his Consciousness to that first or seventh (according as -we count from above downward or the reverse) plane. Such a one knows how to pronounce the Ineffable Name. It is not only a matter of pure science, dealing with laws of rhythm; a fact, and not a tradition or a senti- ment, but it implies absolute At-One-Ment in knowl- edge and power between all that goes to make up what we call man and all that we call Nature. It is the consummation of human evolution. Hence said the Christ: "It is finished." In giving himself to the world the perfect at-one-ment was attained. In the ethical sense, that is, on the plane of rela- tions of man to man, the Word is Renunciation, or self-sacrifice. In the Hindoo tradition regarding the Master's Word there are seven ways of pro- nouncing it, each involving a different potency and a different result. The Voice of the Silence says : "Before thou set'st thy foot upon the ladder's up- per rung, the ladder of the mystic sounds, thou hast
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to hear the voice of thy inner God (the Higher Self) in seven manners.
"The first is like the nightingale's sweet voice chanting a song of parting to its mate.
"The second comes as the sound of a silver cym- bal of the Dhyanis, awakening the twinkling stars.
"The next is as the plaint melodious of the ocean sprite imprisoned in a shell.
"And this is followed by the chant of Vina.
"The fifth like the sound of bamboo-flute shrills in thine ear.
"It changes next to a trumpet blast.
"The last vibrates like the dull rumbling of a thunder-cloud.
"The seventh swallows all the other sounds. They die, and then are heard no more.
"When the six are slain and at the Master's feet are laid, then is the pupil merged into the one, be- comes the one and lives therein."
While these descriptions are of symbols of sounds, they nevertheless represent definite vibrations in the Ether or Akasa, and he who can induce them in himself, can raise his consciousness plane after plane to the seventh, and become at-one with the All. If one has ever fainted or taken an anaesthetic, and re- members the rushing sound that precedes the silence,
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when consciousness ceases on the outer plane, he has a fact in his own experience giving him the key to Samadhi. If he can produce the same condition in himself without fainting or chloroform, for ex- ample, but by a knowledge of the laws of vibration, then is he an Adept, and has, and knows how to pronounce the Master's Word.
The ''designs on the Trestle-board for the build- ing of the Temple" are the laws that determine the evolution of the Higher Self in Man : while the exe- cution of the plan, or the construction of the temple, in accordance with the plan, means a transformation of the earthly tabernacle — the lower nature — into a likeness with "that other, spiritual temple, not made with hands, eternal in the heavens."
This is again symbolized by the triangle within the square.
The triangle in the square symbolizes potential Being before evolution: Man in the Garden of Eden. The square in the triangle symbolizes regen- eration; the purification of the lower earthly nature so that it may "ascend to the Father;" return to Paradise. This is symbolized by the careful posi- tion of the compass and square in relation to the Holy Bible, while the three Greater lights, and three Lesser lights again make a double triangle;
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one greater because above, one lesser because below, which every Mason will understand.
A few years ago these explanations would have seemed to the great majority of persons purely fanciful. But since the recent progress in electric- ity and photography; since thought and emotion, like light and shade, have been photographed by light emanating from the human body directed by the human Will, the philosophical synthesis of the forces in man is the next step in the search of science for the mystery of man.
It is precisely this synthesis which Masonry pos- sesses in its Symbolism, and we can only read the one by the light of the other, and check both by facts derived by experiments as science advances.
Passing now from these broader metaphysical as- pects to the complex nature of man, and we have also the key to his entire nature and evolution.
We begin with the fact of consciousness. Man is not merely a bundle of organs or faculties : he is es- sentially one. What else can be the meaning of the phrase "Made in the image of God" ?
Man is the image, God the reality. Divinity posits a center of consciousness and this evolves into man. Just as in Cosmogenesis, latent con- sciousness as abstract absolute motion, became with
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abstract space the Cosmic duality. We speak of this center of consciousness in man as a "spark of Divinity." What Divinity is to Cosmos this spark is to man. Concealed, never manifesting itself, but giving rise to all manifestations in man, it is the apex of the triangle, while Life and Thought are the other two angles.
Starting, then, with this metaphysical concept, we have the Divine Ego, the Higher Self; a metaphys- ical abstraction, it is .true, like the zero in mathe- matics, or like Motion and Space, yet the cause lying back of all phenomena, the potency of all actuality.
This is the Ego, the Thinker, the "I am I" in man. So far, it is not conscious, but consciousness; or the cause of it in man's complex nature. It is the "All-seeing Eye." It is Christos, potentially. It is Conscience; the "Sun of Righteousness," in man's world of being. It attaches to the body and the lower life through mind, of which it is the po- tency, but not the act; the Thinker, but not the Thought.
Mind is the immediate vehicle of consciousness, as matter is called the vehicle of Force.
Thus, from the three postulates of the Secret
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Doctrine we have, first: Divinity, and Nature at one; second, we have Spirit and Substance as the dual principle from which all Force and all Matter proceed; third, Religion and Science, are consistent, each with itself, and in perfect harmony with each other; fourth, we have a philosophy of the origin, nature, and destiny of Man, agreeing with, and fortified by all previous concepts. The First Postu- late teaches the origin and essential nature of all things. The Second Postulate teaches the Law of Cycles, and the process of world-building. The Third Postulate teaches, in harmony with the First and Second, the "fundamental identity" of all souls with the Universal Over-Soul ; Brotherhood and the Laws of Karma and Reincarnation, which are the factors in Human Evolution.
Going back, now, to the First Postulate, we find One Principle with whatever "aspects" or "man- ifestations" the human mind may conceive, and all things, all principles, potencies, powers, derived' from or manifestations of this One: whether it be Matter or Spirit; man or beast; angel or worm; every thing from the One; and, after all manifesta- tion, as before, the One is concealed; inexhaustible, unknowable. We know and can know only Its gar- ment, Its manifestations.
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Man is called the Microcosm, or little world. The One is in him, as in Nature, the cause of his Being; and as in the Macrocosm, or great world, the One manifests as the many by an orderly descent or dif- ferentiation, so in man, from the one principle we have first a triad, and then a quaternary. The three evolve four, making seven. Then from the first seven, "seven times seven," making the "49 fires"* of the older Hindu philosophy. Before the reader declares this conception to be altogether fanciful, let him turn to the investigations of modern physical science regarding Color and Sound. Helmholtz es- timated that between the highest rate of vibrations giving rise to sound waves apprehensible to the hu- man ear, and the lowest vibration of Light, giving rise to the red of the Solar Spectrum, there would intervene about thirty-four octaves of consonant or dissonant vibrations ; and unless there are great gaps in nature, these thirty-four octaves are concerned in producing the phenomena of Nature. It has, fur- thermore, been demonstrated that there is an exact equation between color and sound vibrations; and that colors have their complementary tones, and
*See Plates I and II.
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tones their complementary colors. In other words, we may see sounds and hear colors.
The modern theory (very old) of the Correlation and Conservation of Force, designates the various forces, as "Special Modes of Motion:" that is, defi- nite vibrations. All colors, sounds, and forms in nature, are the result of definite vibrations. Matter exists on different planes, having different densities, different atomic or molecular structure, and hence different vibrations. Change the plane, or rather transfer matter from one plane to another, and you change the inherent or normal vibration. Reverse the process, and change by any means the vibration, and you transfer the matter involved to another plane. We must go further. Observation and ex- periment have shown that as to these various planes we have not a single form of matter, with a single form of vibration, but every plane is complex and compound. All the colors of the spectrum, and all the tones in a musical scale, are resolvable into con- sonant series of octaves (septenaries). Hence on all the planes above referred to, there is an inter- penetration of planes and vibrations.
On each plane there is a dominant chord to which all vibrations conform. Just as we may have in an octave or throughout a symphony a dominant chord.
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The order of this interpenetration, however, is from above downward. The higher penetrate the lower, while the lower are only latent in the higher. Take, for example, seven planes of which the highest (sev- enth) represents spirit, and the lowest matter or physical substance. The first or lowest plane is altogether illusory. It has no permanent or real existence. It is not only in continual motion and continual change (Formation, Dissolution, and Re- formation) but these are its characteristics. Under certain conditions it disappears (dissolves) from the ist plane entirely, and passes to the 2d, and to the 3d, 4th, and so on. The greatest activity is on the higher planes, and is greatest on the highest; till all merge in, or return to, the One, and Change- less, from which they emanated. All known phe- nomena in nature testify to the existence of such a law. Hence the saying in the old philosophy: "Nature prefers that matter shall be eternal on the higher planes only."
The grossest physical substance, therefore, is penetrated or saturated with all the higher sub- stances and energies. These are held to sub- ordinate positions by the dominant chord, which is, say, "F," and so are latent or active as the theme unfolds, or as the combination varies. Can any one
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imagine such a complicated condition and such co- ordinate results as all the time occur, and yet be- lieve that there is no absolute law governing the whole process? It is not difficult in a general way to formulate the law.
Take the first or lowest plane. It is penetrated by matter of plane No. 2, the next higher. Let us say that each plane represents matter and force, the Cosmic duality. The so-called Force, of plane 1, is the so-called substance of plane 2. But plane 2 is in its turn saturated by the substance and energy of plane 3. Hence the force or energy of plane 2 is the substance of plane 3, while the Force side of plane 3 is latent on plane 2, but active on plane 3. The law, therefore, may be thus formulated: From highest to lowest, the lower is the vehicle (Upadhi) of the higher; and each plane in the ascending or- der derives its Force or Energy from the Substance of the next higher. In the last analysis, where all are merged in the one, Substance and Energy are seen to be but two aspects of the One Eternal Prin- ciple; the "Father-Mother" of the old philosophy.
Passing now from these general considerations to the organic nature of man, and applying these uni- versal laws to his physical, sensuous, intellectual, moral, and spiritual nature, we shall, find that they
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shed a flood of light on the problem of his nature, origin and destiny.
It is well to bear in mind that our idea of God, and our theory of Religion (theology) were the starting points in this philosophy. To deny the ex- istence of God, or to conceive one as illogical, un- just, capricious, personal, and endowed with all hu- man infirmities, equally lead to confusion, ignorance and discouragement, if not to despair.
This philosophy, here but crudely outlined, is not only the foundation of all the sacred books of all religions, but, while it was in them concealed beneath parable and allegory, in the Mysteries of each religion it was taught openly, and constituted the theoretical part of the genuine Initiations. Be- fore undertaking to show how far this philosophy is embodied in the symbols of Masonry, in the Build- ing of the Temple, and the Legend of Hiram, it will be necessary to further unfold the teaching in regard to the complex nature of man.
Man may be viewed from two standpoints: as a concrete whole (an Individual, a conscious unit), and as an aggregate of organs and faculties. An- atomically, man is composed of fluids, tissues, and organs. The fluids are resolvable into inorganic and organic compounds, and resolvable again into
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elements. The tissues and organs originate from cells, these from molecules, and these again are supposed to be composed of atoms or so-called elements. Physiology classifies the functions of man as organic — mere association of tissues en- dowed with life like the plant, hence sometimes called vegetative functions: as Animal — viewed from the sensuous plane, and common to all animal life: as Intellectual, in which are generally included the Moral and the Spiritual. Consciousness is usu- ally regarded as incidental, according as it appears or disappears on the physical plane. It has already been shown that in the Secret Doctrine, Conscious- ness is regarded as the permanent or basic factor in Man's Being. It is never destroyed, never sus- pended, but may retire from one plane to another. In this sense it may be withdrawn from the phys- ical plane. This old theory of the Ego, or Thinker, and its planes of consciousness on any of which it may be latent or active during its connection with the body, makes it possible or thinkable that the Ego may, in its states of consciousness, transcend the limits of the physical body altogether, and furnishes a conception of the nature and existence of the hu- man Soul. These elements of truth, be it observed, are derived from the phenomena and experiences of
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the T^go in the physical body, and the key to the problem lies in the planes of Consciousness. It is because modern materialistic science has overlooked the importance, and failed to understand the philos- ophy of Consciousness, that it denies or is agnostic regarding the existence of the soul. It should also be observed, that we do not put forth a theory of Consciousness as a working hypothesis, but start with Consciousness as an empirical fact in all hu- man experience. Regarding the nature of con- sciousness itself, we are agnostic enough to suit the Spencers and Huxleys of Science, for we have posited it as the highest point in the nature of man ; a "spark" from the Unknowable; the "forever Con- cealed."
As to changes in states and extension of the bounds of consciousness, this has already been proved empirically in the experiments in hypnotism. Beyond the field of touch, outside the range of sight or sound, as applied to the ordinary functions of the senses, Hypnotic Subjects have been influenced by the silent will, and become conscious of the unex- pressed thought of the Hypnotizer. Thus, even modern materialism with its mechanical working hypothesis has worked up to the problem of con- sciousness.
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Had anything been wanting in -this direction, the clues, at least, have been furnished by the experi- ments in Psychic photography of Dr. Baraduc, re- ported in the French Academy of Medicine, and many other experimenters are working on the same lines. If the reports are true, Dr. Baraduc has proved by photography the existence of the Mayavi- Rupa, the thought-body known to many Adepts of antiquity. Long before this, Mr. J. M. Rusk, of McConnelsville, Ohio, photographed a "thought form" by the light resulting from a strong concen- tration of the Will. Instances might be multiplied, but enough evidence has already been adduced to give the death-blow to Mechanico-materialistic hy- potheses of modern science, and to open the door for the Psychic Science of the East.
Now, the Anatomy and Physiology to which I have referred, offer a certain method of investigat- ing man, and while this method has given rise to magnificent results, it is not, by any means, the only one, nor the most fruitful for all purposes.
The Planes in Nature and in Man, to which I have referred, and the septenary principle in their divis- ions and relations, offer another method of investi- gation.
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