II. And if such eye-witnesses are once admitted (unless retrospectii

clair\'oyance is granted), how can humanity and the first palsolithit men be no earlier than about the middle of the Tertiar>' period? Wc must bear in mind that most of the men of Science do not allow to have appeared before the Quaternary period, and thus shut him out completely from the Cainozoic times. Here we have extinct specie of animals, which disappeared from the face of the Earth millions years ago, described by, and known to, nations whose civilization, it said, could hardly have begun a few thousand years ago. How is ihisfj Evidently either the Mesozoic time has to be made to overlap ih«
* We trad in De Mirville's " MCmolrc & 1* Academic" (11.431} of the "n&Tve ostoaiahmetit of Gt St. Hiloire, whcD M. de Parawy showed to him, in some old Chinese works and Babylooian dragons, .... oniilhorhynchuses nnd saurian-H (aqualic niiimaNy^um/ only it Auitmhd], extinct animalB that he had thought unkoown on earth . . . . Ull bii* own day."
* See AduiA, XXX. 6: " The vijier and the flying serpent," and the fiery serpenU conqneredbyl brazen »erpcnt of Moses.
1 The fossils, rectnutructcd by Science which wc know, ought to be sufficient warront for the patrfj liility of e\-en a Levinthan. not lo mention Isaiah's flying serpents, or Saraph Mehophep. which are tran "Mehophep,'* flying. But. although ChrisUan Theology has always connected both Le\iathan Saraph Mehophep with the Devil, the expressions are metaphorical and have nought lo do with "Evil One." Nevertheless, the word "Dragon" has now become a synonym for the latter. BreUgne the word Oronk now signifies "Devil." whence, as we are told by Cambry {Afotfi Cfltiguet, p. a99J, the Devil's Tomb iu England, Drogbedonum Seputcrum. In Languedoc meteoric fires and wlll-o'-the-wisps are called Drac, and in BreUgue Dreag and Wr«ie or wraitki the cattle of Drogheda In Ireland meaning the De\irs ca.slle. iDc Mirville, ibid., ii. ^ay)
KIRCHBR S DRAGON.
217
Quaternary period, or man must be made the contemporarj' of the Pterodactyl and the Plesiosaurus.
It does not follow that, because the Occultists believe in and defend Ancient Wisdom and Science, even though winged saurians are called "fljnng camels" in the translations of the Zohar, we therefore as readily believe in all the stories which the Middle Ages give us of such dragons. Pterodactyls and Plesiosauri ceased to exist with the bulk of the Third Race. When, therefore, we are gravely asked by Roman Catholic writers to credit Christopher Scherer's and Father Kircher*s cock-and-bull stories of their having seen with their own eyes living fiery and flying dragons, respectively in 1619 and 1669, we may be allowed to regard their assertions as either dreams or fibs.* Nor shall we re- gard otherwise than as a "poetical license" the story told of Petrarch, who, while following one day his Laura in the woods and passing near a cave, is credited with having found a dragon, whom he forthwith stabbec) with his dagger and killed, thus preventing the monster from devouring the lady of his heart, t We would willingly believe the stor>' had Petrarch lived in the days of Atlantis, when such ante- diluvian monsters may still have existed. We deny their existence in our present era. The sea-serpent is one thing, the dragon quite another. The former is denied by the majority because it lives in the very depths of the ocean, is very scarce, and rises to the surface only when compelled, perhaps, by hunger. Thus keeping invisible, it may
• The ttltrunoQtJuie writen accept the whole series of draconian stories given by Kalher Kircher, in hi> (Edipms j^gy^iacits, " lie Geiiesi Draconum," quite seriously. AccortlinK to that Jesuit, he hitOKlf saw A dracon which was killed iu 1069 by a Roman peasant, as the director of the Museo Barberioi tent it to him, to take the beaiit's likeneas, which Father Kircher did and hud it published IB one of his in-fotios. AAcr this he received a letter from Christopher Schcrrr, Prefect of the Canton of Soleure, Suritzerlaad, in which that official certifier to his having accn hiniself. u/ilh his own eyts, one fine summer nl^bt in i6r9, a Hvinfir dragx>n. Havinjir remained on his tuilcony" to contemplate the perfect purity of the firmAmetit," he writes, "I »aw a fiery, shining draj^on rise from cue of the caves of Mount PilatuB and direct himself rapidly towards Pluclcn to the other end of the lake. Enormous in aiae, bin tail was still longer and his neck stretched out. His head and jaws wen those of a serpent. In flying, he eniittcd on his way numerous sparks (M/ .... I Uiought at 6rst I was seeing a meteor, but soon, looking more altentively. I was connnccd by hi.t flight and the conformation of his body that I saw a veritable dragon, I am happy to be thus able to enlighten your Reverence on the very real existence of those animals"— in dreanu, the writer ought to have added, of long past a^et. {md.,\i. AU-)
r As a convincing pnxif of the reality of the fact, a Roman Catholic refers the reader to the pictnre of the incident painted liy Simon dc Siennc. a friend of the poet, on the portal of the Cburcb Notre name du Don at AWgnon, notwithstanding the prohibition of the Sovereign Pontiff, who "would not allow this triumph of love to be enthroned in the holy place"; and adds: "Time has inji\red the work of art, but h:i.s not weakened its tradition." {.Ibid., p. 435.) Dc Mirville's "Dragon-Devils' oC our era seem to have no luck, as they disappear most mysteriously from the muMnims where they are said to have been. Thus the Dragon embalmed by Ulysses Aldovraudus and presented to the Musde du Scnat, either in Naples or Bologna, "was there still in 1700," bat is there no more, {fbid^
2TS
THB SECRET DOCTRINE.
exist and still be denied. But if there was such a thing as a dragou the above description, how could it have ever escaped detection? hi a creature contemporary with the earliest Fifth Race, and exists more.
The reader may enquire why we speak of dragons at all? answer: firstly, because the knowledge of such animals is a proof the enormous antiquity of the human race; and, secondly, to show difference between the real zoological meaning of the words "Dragoi "Naga," and *'Serpent." and the metaphorical meaning, when symbolically. The profane reader, who knows nothing of the mystt language, is likely, whenever he finds one of these words mention( to accept it literally. Hence, the quidproqxws and unjust accusati( A couple of instances will suffice.
"Sed et Serpens?" Aye: but what was the nature of the sei Mystics intuitionally see in the serpent of Genesis an animal embl and a high spiritual essence: a cosmic force, superintelligent, a *' fallen light,** a spirit, sidereal, aerial and tellurian at the same tii " whose influence circumambulates the globe " {jqiii dratviambvi icrram), as De Mirville,* a Christian fanatic of the dead-letter, lias and which only "manifested itself under the physical emblem wl agreed the better with its moral and intellectual coiW — r,^., under ophidian form.
But what will Christians make of the Brazen Serpent, the "Divi Healer," if the serpent is to be regarded as the emblem of cunnb and evil; the '*Evil One" itself? How can the line of demarcation be settled, when it is traced arbitrarily in a sectarian theological spi For, if the followers of the Roman Church are taught that Merc and j^sculapius, or Asclepios, who are. in truth, one, are "devils sons of devils," and the wand and serpent of the latter, the **Devi wand" ; how about the Brazen Serpent of Moses? Every scholar kaoi that both the Heathen "wand" and the Jewish "serpent" are one the same, namely, the Caduceusof Mercur>', son of Apollo- Python. It] easy to comprehend why the Jews adopted the ophidian shape for "seducer." With them it was ^}xrc\y physiolog'ical and phallic; and amount of casuistical reasoning on the part of the Roman Catholic Church can give it another meaning, once that the mystery language is well studied, and that the Hebrew scrolls are read numerically. The Occultists know that the Serpent, the Niga, and the Dragon have each
HAS SATAN ANT REALITV?
^9
a septenary meaning; that the Sun, for instance, was the astronomical and cosmic emblem of the two contrasted Lights and the two Serpents of the Gnostics, the good and the evil. They also know that, when geruralized, the conclusions of both Science and Theology present two most ridiculous extremes. For, when the former tells us that it is sufficient to trace the legends of the serpents to their primal source, the astronomical legend, and to meditate seriously on the Sun, the con- queror of Python, and the celestial Virgin in the Zodiac forcing back the devouring Dragon, if we would have the key of all the subsequent religious dogmas — it is easy to perceive that, instead of generalizing, the author simply has his eye on Christian religiou and Revelation. We call this the one extreme. We see the other when Theology, repeating the famous decision of the Council of Trent, seeks to con- vince the masses that:
From the fall of man until the hour of his baptism the Devil has full power over him, and possesses him by right — diabolum dominium ei poteslatetn super Aamittes hal^ere ei jure eos possidere*
To this Occult Philosophy answers: Prove first the existence of the Devil as an aitiiy, and then we may believe in such congenital posses- sion. A very small amount of observation and knowledge of human nature may be sufficient to prove the fallacy of this theological dogma. Had Satau any reality, in the objective or even subjective world (in the ecclesiastical sense), it is the poor Devil who would find himself chronically obsessed and even possessed by the wicked — hence by the bulk of mankind. It is humanity itself, and especially the clergy, headed by the haughty, unscrupulous and intolerant Roman Church, which has begotten, given birth to, and reared in love the Evil One. But this is a digression.
The whole world of thought is reproached by the Church with having adored the serpent.
The whole of humanity burnt incense to it or stoned it. The Zends speak of it as do tlie Kmgs and yedas, as the £dda . . . and the Bible. . . . Every- where the sacred serpent [the NAga] has its shrine and its priest; in Rome it is the Vestal who . . . prepares its meal with the same care that she bestows on the sacred fire. In Greece, j^sculapius cannot cure without its assistance, and dele- gates to it his prowers. Ever>' one has heard of the famous Roman embassy sent by the Senate to the god of medicine and its return T^-ith the not less famous serpent, which proceeded of its own will and by itself toward its master's temple on one of the islands of the Tiber. Not a Bacchante that did not wind it [the serpent] in her
• Jbi^., p. 43i.
aao
THE SECRET DOCTRINE.
hair, not an Aujafur but questione are free from its presence! The Cainites and the Ophites call it Creator, while recognizing, as Schclling did, that the serpent is "evil in substance and in person."*
Yes, the author is right, and if one would have a complete idea of the prestige which the serpent enjoys to our own day, he ought to study the matter in India and learn all that is believed about, and still attributed to, the NSgas (cobras) in that countr>'; one should also\nsit the Africans of WTiydah, the Voodoos of Port-au-Prince and Jamaica, the Nagals of Mexico, and the PI, or Men-serpents of China, etc. But why wonder that the serpent is *'adored" and at the same time cursed since we know that from the beginning it was a symbol? In every ancient language the word dragon signifted what it now does in Chinese iongoT "the being who excels in intelligence," and in Greek. Spoxur, or •'he who sees and watches.'*! Is it to the animal of this name that any of these epithets can apply? Is it not evident, wherever superstition and oblivion of the primitive meaning may have led savages now, that the above qualifications were intended to apply to the human originals who were s>Tnbolized by Serpents and Dragons? These origini called to this day in China the *' Dragons of Wisdom'* — were the : disciples of the Dhydnis, who were their Instructors; in short Primitive Adepts of the Third Race, and later, of the Fourth and Fl Races. The name became universal, and no sane man before Christian era would ever have confounded the man and the symbol
The symbol of Chnouphis, or the Soul of the World, writes CI poUion:
Is among others that of an enormous serpent standing on human legs: reptile, the emblem of the Good Genius, is a veritable Agathodaemon. It is
represented bearded This sacred animal, identical with the serpcatd
the Ophites, is found engraved on numerous Gnostic or Basilidean stones. The sequent has various heads, but is constantly inscribed with the letl XN0YBI2.i
Agathodaemon was endowed **with the knowledge of good and evi
* Ibid., pp. 43s future nrw crreeU, who was t>ent upon glorifying^ htt reli^on at the exp«nM of ancient Chi were to say: Kvcrywhrrt the quadruped lamb was adored. The nun, calling it the Agnus, platrdi^ on her bosom : the priest laid it on the altar. It figured in every Paschal meal, and was clarified loudly in every temple. And yet the Christians dreaded it and holed it. for they alew aad derottitA it. Heathens, at any rate, do not cat their sacred symbols. We know of no serpent or rrpiilc--catCi:^ except In Christian civilized countries, where they bcpin with frogs and eels, and must end with nd anakes, as they have bejpin with lamb aud ended with borse-fiesh.
t Ibid., p. 423. ^1
%OOtS OF MAGIC.
2ZZ
with Divine Wisdom, for without the latter the former is im- iible.* Repeating Jamblichus, ChampoUion shows him to be:
The deity called Ei^^y [or the Fire of the Celestial Gods— the Great Thot- BimesXt to whom Hermes Tmtnegistus attributes the invention of magic.|
^The "invention of magic"! A strange term to use, as though the nnveiliug of the eternal and actual mysteries of Nature could be ment^df As well attribute, millenniums hence, the invention instead of the discovery of radiant matter to Mr. Crookes. Hermes was not J^ inventor, or even the discoverer, for, as said in the last footnote but K, Thot-Hermes is a generic name, as is Enoch — Enoichion. the "inner, spiritual eye" — Nebo, the prophet and seer. etc. It is not the proper name of any one living man, but a generic title of many Adepts. Their connection with the serpent in symbolic allegories is due to their enlightenment by the Solar and Planetary Gods during the earliest intellectual Race, the Third. They are all the representative patrons of the Secret Wisdom. Asclepios is the son of the Sun-God Apollo, and he is Mercury; Nebo is the son of Bel-Merodach; Vaivasvata Mana. the great Rishi, is the son of Vivasvat — the Sun or Surya, etc. ^dwhile, astronomically, the Nagas along with the Rishis, the Gandh- Apsarases, Gramanis (or Yakshas. minor Gods), YatudhSnas Devas, are the Sun's attendants throughout the twelve solar iths; in theogony, and also in anthropological evolution, they are Is and Men — when incarnated in the Nether World. Let the reader reminded, in this connection, of the fact that Apollonius met in Xashmir Buddhist Nagas. These are neither serpents zoologically, nor jetlhe Nagas ethnologically, but ''wise men."
The Bibte^ from Genesis to Revelatioiiy is but a series of historical records of the great struggle between White and Black Mag:ic, between the Adepts of the Right Path, ♦he Prophets, and those of the Left, the levites, the clergy of the bruta masses. Even the students of Occult- ism, though some of them have more archaic MSS. and direct teaching
* The Solar Chnouphi<>, or Agathodscmun, u the Christoti of the Guoslics, as every scholar know?;. 8r » toUmately connected with the Seven Sons of Sophia (Wisdom), the Seven Sons of Aditl, ITni- •0»J Wisdom, her riRhCb being MirtUnda. the Sun. which Seven are Uie Seven Planetary Regents f Cenii. Therefore Chnouphis was the Spiritual Sun of EnlightcTinient.of Wisdom, hence the patron tfi&Uiefigyptian Initiates, as Bel-Merodach. or Bcl-Bclitanus, became later with the Chaldicanft.
♦ Bermea, or rather Thot. wax a generic name. Abul Feda Rhowi in his Historia Anti-Iilamilua, ■••Bennea, and the names of Hermes, Nebo, Tliot were given respectively in vnrioiw countries lo P^^ Initiatea. Thus Nctx), the son of Mcrodach and Zarpanitu. whom Herodotus calls Zeus-DeloA. V^ hb name to all the great Prophets, Se«re and Initiates. They were all "Serpent* of Wisdom," vnanccted with the Sun aatronomically, and with Wisdom spiHtmdly.
JAxUam, icxl 15-
»3
THE SECRBT DOCTRINK-
to rely upon, find it difficult to draw a line of demarcation between Sodales of the Right Path and those of the Left. The great scl that arose between the sons of the Fourth Race, as soon as the Temples and Halls of Initiation had been erected under the guidan( of the "Sons of God/' is allegorized in the Sons of Jacob, Tbatlh wer« two Schools of Magic, and that the orthodox Invites did I belong to the holy one, is shown in the words pronounced by the dyi Jacob. And here it may be well to quote a few sentences from Unveiled,^
The dying Jacob thus describes his sons: *^Dati/* he says^ "shall be & the way, an adder in the path, that btteth the horse-heels, so that his rider fall backwards [i.^.. he will teach candidates Bla£k Magic]. I hare waited fori salvation, O Lord!" Of Simeon and Levi the patriarch remarks that they brethren; instruments of cruelty are in their habitations. O my soul, comej then into their secret; unto their asiembly.^*\ Now in the original, the ••their secret" read— "their Sod.'* J And Sod was the name for the great Mi of BaaU Adonis and Bacchus, who were all Sun-Gods and had serpents for s>i The Kabalists explain the allegory of the liery serpents by saying that this was) name given to the tribe of Lev-i, to all the Lcvites. in short and that Moses chief of the Sodales. f
It is to the Mysteries that the original meaning of the Slayers" has to be traced, and the question is fully treated of h(
Meanwhile it follows that, if Moses was the Chief of the Myst he was the Hierophant thereof; and further, if, at the same time«] find the Prophets thundering against the "abominations" of the of Israel, that there were two Schools. "Fiery serpents*' was, simply the epithet given to the Levites of the priestly caste» they had departed from the Good Law, the traditional teachinj Moses, and to all those who followed Black Magic. Isaiah, wheaj ferring to the "rebellious children" who will have to carry their ri into the lands whence come "the viper and fiery flying serpent.
t GentiUf alia. 17, 18, and 5, 6.
i DnnUp, in his Introduction to Sod, the MysUriea of Adoni (xi). explains the word arcanum, rcUgtoua mystery, on the authority of Scbindlcr** f^nttglitit, ijoi. "The secret XfirA \» with them that fear him," uya PHalm, xxv. 14. Thi« is a mtstransUtion of the Chr it ought to rend: "Sod Ihoh (the Mysteries of Ihoh) are for those who /tar him.' "AI terrible in the great Sod of the Kede&him (the Pricala. the Huly, the Initiated)."— Ao/n, iibid.). The Kedealiim were very fzx from holy. See the Section on "The Holy of Uolica." in I uf thii Volume.
\ " The membcn of the Priert-CollegTS were called Sodales." nmyn Prcund's Lattm Lexitom iri, "Sodaliiics were constituted in the Idican UyBtcrica of the Miarhty Mother," writes Cicoco Semtciut*. (Dunlap, t'M., p. xiL)
ilxxa.6.
THK SEVENTH SON OF THE SEVENTH SON.
993
Baldsa and Egypt, whose Initiates had already greatlj' degenerated
■ his day (700 B.C.). meant the sorcerers of those lands.* But these
post be carefully distinguished from the "Fiery Dragons of Wisdom"
■d the "Sons of the Fire-Mist."
Ein the Gr^i Book of the Mysterus we are told that :
l^iSavTi Lords created seven Mat; three Lords \^Dhyan Chohans or Pitris\
mn holy and good , fotir less keaxfcnly atid full of passion The
mkayds [fihanfoms^ of the Fathers were as they.
iThis accounts for the differences in human nature, which is divided ■to seven gradations of good and evil. There were seven tabernacles lldy to be inhabited by Monads under seven different Karmic condi- kms. The Commentaries explain on this basis the easy spread of evil, ftsooa as the human Forms had become real men. Some ancient Idlosophers, however, in their genetical accounts, ignored the seven bd gave only four. Thus the Mexican local Getiesis has "four^c^^^ lent" described as the four real ancestors of the human race, "who ■re neither begotten by the Gods nor born of woman'*; but whose leation was a wonder wrought by the Creative Powers, and who were ■dc only after *' three attempts at manufactiirtng men had failed ^ The ■jrptians in their theology had only "four Sons of God" — whereas in ■Mani/crr seven are given — thus avoiding any mention of the evil P&re of man. When, however. Set from a God sank into Set- ■phon. he began to be called the "seventh son"; whence probably be the belief that "the seventh son of the seventh sou" is always a Ihiral-bom magician — though at first only a sorcerer was meant. BAp. the serpent symbolizing evil, is slain by Aker, Set's serpent;! before Set-Typhon could not be that evil. In the Book of the b^. it is commanded that Chapter clxiii should be read "in the bence of a serpent on two legs," which means a high Initiate, a ■crophant. for the discus and ram's horns J that adorn his "ser- Int's" head in the hieroglyphics of the title of the said chapter, bote this. Over the "serpent" are repr^ented the two mystic eyes EAmmon,§ the hidden "Mystery God.'* The above passages corro-
Bhe ptiesU of BoaI who jumped over Uie fires. Bnt this wss a Hebrew term and b local one. fpfc means " fiery or floiuing venom." BBmA of Ike Dtad. ch. xxxix.
Rbc «ame ram's honu are found on the heads of Moaes which wen Men on some old medals ■k writrr in Palestine, one of which is stlU in her posftcsfion. The homa, forming port of the ■he Bitivolc on the statue of Moscn in Kome by Michnel Angrlo, are vertical instead of beiuc K down to the ears, but the emblem i& the same ; hence the Brazen Serpent.
Bat sec Harris' Magic hip^tui. No. v, aud the ram-hesded Ammou manufacturing moi on a 'a wbccl.
i
224
THE SECRET DOCTRINB.
borate our assertiou, and show what the word "serpent" really meaot in antiquity.
But as to the Nagals and Nargals; whence came the similarity oi names between the Indian Nagas and the American Nagals?
The Nargal was the Chaldsan and Assyrian chief of the Magi [Rab-Mag], and the Nagal was Ihe chief sorcerer of the Mexican Indians. Roth derive their names from Nergal-Serezer. the Assyrian god, and the Hindfl N^gas. Both have the faculties and the power to have an attendant Dsmon, with whom they idc themselves completely. The Chaldaian and Assyrian Nargal kept his Dtemoo.! the shape of some animal considered sacred, inside the temple; the Indian Xa keeps his wherever he can — in the neighbouring lake, or wood, or in the house, the shape of some household animal.*
Such similarity cannot be attributed to coincidaue. A new world discovered, and we find that, for our forefathers of the Fourth Ri it was already an old one; that Aijuna, Krishna's companion ; Cliela. is said to have descended into Patala, the "antipodes" ; therein married Ulupi.t a NSga, or Nagi rather, the daughter of king of the Nagas, Kauravya.J
And now it may be hoped the ftdl meaning of the serpent emblem proven. It is neither that of evil, nor, least of all. that of the devil ; :s, indeed, the SEMES EIAAM ABPA2AE, the "Eternal Sun Abi the Central Spiritual Sun of all the Kabalists, represented in sot diagrams by the circle of Tiphereth.
And here, again, we may quote from our earlier volumes and en! into further explanations.
From this region of unfalhomuble Depth (Bylhos, Aditi, Shekinah, the Veil the Unknown) issues forth a Circle fonned of spirals. This is Tiphereth: whic in the language of symbolism, means a grand Cycle, composed of smaller oo Coiled within, so as to follow the spirals, lies the Serpent — emblem of Wisdom Eternity— the Dual Androgyne; the cycle representing Ennoia, or the Divine Mil (a Power which does not create but which must assimilate), and the Serpent, tB Agathodiemon, the Ophis, the Shadow of the Light (non-etcmal, yet the great Divine l^ight on onr plane). Both were the Ix>goi of the Ophites; or the Unityi Logos manifesting itself as a dou*ble principle of Good and Evil.$
* Brasseur de Bourboursr, Mejtique, pp. 135 and 574*
T cnap] (UlQpn Hm an entirely Atlantean rinfc about It. Ukc Atlantis, il is ncitlier a Gntk Kauskrit name, but rcmtads one of Mtrxicati names.
; AfahAbfidraiii, Adi Farva. Shiokas 77S«f, 7789. The BAd^avata Purona (ix. xx.. 31). ft« explataedl Shrldhara, the commentator, mak.rs IHupi the daug'hter ofthc Icing of ManlpQni (see Vishnft Put Wilson, iv. 160I; hut the Intc Pandit DayAnand ftnrasvatl, certainly the preatcirt Sanskrit and Pa»r aiiihoHty in India on such queslioati, personally corroborated that Uliipi was daug^hter of the kitif ^ the Nigaa in PitJlla, or America, 5,000 years as^, and tbol the N^j^as were Iniliatea.
I /rtf Umwtltdt ii. x^j.
BUDDHA'S GRBAT MOUNTAIN.
225
Were it Light alone, inactive and absolute, the human mind could lot appreciate nor even realize it. Shadow is that which enables Light manifest itself, and gives it objective reality. Therefore, Shadow is not evnl, but is the necessary and indispensable corollary which com- pletes Light or Good; it is its creator on Earth.
According to the views of the Gnostics, these two principles are im- 'mutable Light and Shadow; Good and Evil being virtually one and having existed through all eternity, as they will ever continue to exist so long as there are manifested worlds.
This symbol accounts for the adoration by this sect of the Sequent, as the Saviour, coiled either round the sacrameatal loaf, or a Tau (the phallic emblem). A« a unity, Ennoia and Ophis are the lyOgos, When separated, one is the Tree of Spiritual Life, the other, the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. Therefore, we find Ophis urging the first human couple — the material production of Ilda-baoth. but owing its spiritual principle to Sophia-Achatnoth — to eat of the forbidden fruit, although Ophis represents divine Wisdom.
The Serpent, the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, and the Tree of Life, are all symbols transplanted from the soil of India. The Arasa-maraui [?]. the banyan tree, so sacre tions, reposed under its mighty shade and there taught human philosophy and sciences — is called the Tree of Knowledge and the Tree of Life. Under the pro- tecting foliage of this king of the foresLs, the Gurus teach their pupils their first lessons on immortality and initiate them into the mysteries of life and death. The Java-.-Vlcim of the Sacerdotal College are said, in the Chaldcean tradition, to have taught the sons of men to become like one of them. To the present day Foh-tchou* who lives in his Foh-Maeyu, or the temple of Buddha, on the top of the Kouin- I,«ong-Sang.t the great mountain, produces his greatest religious miracles under a tree called in Chinese Sung-Ming-Shu, or the Tree of Knowledge and the Tree of Life, for ignorance is death, and knowledge alone gives immortality. This marvel- lous display takes place every three years, when an immense concourse of Chinese Bnddhists assembles in pilgrimage at the holy place.^
Now it may become comprehensible why the earliest Initiates and Adepts, or the "Wise Men," who are claimed to have been initiated into the Mysteries of Nature by the Universal Mind, represented by the highest Angels, were named the "Serpents of Wisdom" and " Dragons" ; and also how the first physiologically complete couples — after being initiated into the Mystery of Human Creation through Ophis, the Manifested I^ogos and the Androgyne, by eating of the fruit
* Poh-tchou, In Chint^e mraaini: liCerAUy BoddbA's lord, or the teacher of the doctiines of Soddba— Fob. t This motiatain is situated toutfa-west of China, almost between China and Tibet. J Ibid., pp. »93, 294.
236
THE SECRET DOCTRINB.
of knowledge — gradually began to be accused by the material spirit of posterity of having committed sin, of having disobeyed the "Lord God," and of having been tempted bj' the Serpent.
So little have the first Christians — who despoiled the Jews of their Bible — understood the first four chapters of Getiesis in their esoteric meaning, that they have never perceived that not only was no sin in- tended in this disobedience, but that the "Serpent" was actually the "Lord God" himself, who, as the Ophis, the Logos, or the bearer of divine creative wisdom, taught mankind to become creators in thd^ turn.* They never realized that the Cross was an evolution frora tl Tree and the Serpent, and thus became the salvation of mankind. this it would become the very first fundamental symbol of Creaiii Cause, applying to geometr>', to numbers, to astronomy, to meast and to animal reproduction. According to the Kabalah^ the cum man came with the formation ofwoman.\ The circle was separated froi its diameter line.
From the possession of the double principle in one, that is, the Androgyne ditioD, the separation of the dual principle was made, presenting two opposit whose destiny it was, for ever after, to seek, reiinion into the original one condit The curse was this, viz., that Nature, inipeUiug the search, evaded the d( result by the production of a new being, distinct from that reiinion or onei desired, by which the natural lonjfing to recover a lost state was and is for ci being cheated. It is by this tantalizing process of a continued curse that Ni lives. J
The allegory of Adam being driven away from the Tree of meatis, Esoterically, that the newly separated Race abused and dragf down the myster>' of Life into the region of animalism and bestialil For, as the Z(?Atfr shows, Matronethah — Shekinah, the wife of Metati symbolically — "is the way to the great Tree of Life, the Mighty Ti and Shekinah is Divine Grace. As explained, this Tree reaches
* Let the rrnder be reminded that in the Zohar. and alao in all the Kabaliatic wq^ks, it if i talned that " Metatron united with Sheldnah." Now Shekinah as the Veil [Grace) of Ain Suph, : •eating the Lopoa. \% that very Tree of Knowlcdffc; while ShamaM— the dark asptct of the occupies only Ihe bark of that tree, and haj the knowledge of evil alone. As l^coux, who saw in I scene of the Fall {Gentsii, iii) an incident pertaining^ to T^^ryptian Initiation, aaya: "The Tree ofl Plviiiation, or of the Knowledge of Good and Kvil .... is the science of Tiyphon. the Crf of Doubt, tty to teach, and phon, doubt. Txyphon tf one of the Alelm; we ifaall •« him under the namcof Nach, the tempter " {Lxs CEloim, vol. li. p. «iS). He is now known to Symbotc under the name of Jehovah.
♦ Thb in the view taken and adopted by all the Church Pathc™, but it is not the re«l Tcachini;:. The «rj^did not bcjio with the formation of either man or woman, for their was a natural sequence of evolution, but with the breaking t/ t/u taw.
t By which huwian nature lives; not even the anim&l— but the mUgiiided, •eosuAl and viciow aatnre, which mem, not Nature, created. See the Section " Cross and Circle."
SCIENTIFIC BEUBF IN "DRAGONS.
227
heavenly vale and is bidden between three mountains (the upper Triad of Principles, in man). From these three mountains, the Tree ascends above (the Adept's knowledge aspires heavenward), and then redescends below (into the Adept's Ego on earth). This Tree is rev^ealed in the day time and is hidden during the night, i.e., revealed to an enlightened mind and hidden to ignorance, which is night.* As says the Com- mentanr"
The Tree 0/ the Knowledge of the Good and the Evil grows from the roots cf the Tree of Life,
But then also, as the author of The Source of Measures writes: In the Kabalah it is plainly to be found that the *'Tree of Life" was the ansated cross in its sexual aspect, and that the "Tree of Knowledge" was the separation and the coming together again to fulfil the fatal condition. To display this in numbers the values of the letters composing the wonl Otz (15), tree, are 7 and 9, the seven being the holy feminine number and the nine the number of the phallic or male energj'. This ansated cross is the symbol of the Egyptian femal^-male, Isis-Osiris. the germinal principle in all forms, based on the primal manifestation applicable in all directions aud in all senses.
This is the Kabalistic view of the Western Occultists, and it differs from the more philosophical Eastern or Aryan views upon the sub- ject.f The separation of the sexes was in the programme of Nature and of natural evolution; and the creative faculty in male and female was a gift of Divine Wisdom. In the truth of such traditions the whole of Antiquity, from the patrician philosopher to the humblest spiritually inclined plebeian, has believed. And as we proceed, we may successfully show that the relative truth of such legends, if not their absolute exactness — vouched for by such giants of intellect as were Solon, Pythagoras. Plato, and others — begins to dawn upon more than one modem Scientist. He is perplexed; he stands startled and confused before proofs that are being daily accumulated before him; he feels that there is no way of solving the many historical problems that stare him in the face, unlc. s he begins by accepting ancient traditions. Therefore, in saying that we believe absolutely in ancient records and universal legends, we need hardly plead guilty before the impartial observer, for other and far more learned writers, and that too among those who belong to the modem Scientific School, evidently believe in much that the Occultists do — in "dragons," for instance, and not only symbolically, but also in their actual existence at one time, .
* 8e« Zokar, i. 17a, a and b.
t Compare the Sectioo on "The Mysteries oS the Hebdomad " Id Part n of thi« Voluuc
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THE SECRET DOCTRINE.
It would have indeed been a bold step for anyone, aome thirty years aji^o, to have thought of treating the public to a collection of stories ordinarily reputed fabu- lous, and of claiming for them the consideration due to genuine rclitiea, or to have advocated tales, time-honoured as fictions, as actual facts; and those of the nursery as being, in many instances, legends, more or less distorted, descriptive of real l>cings or events. Nowadays it is a less hazardous proceeding.*
Thus opens the Introduction to a recent (1886) and most interesting work by Mr. Charles Gould, called Afyihical Monsters, He boldly states his belief in most of these monsters. He submits that:
Many of the so-called mythical animals, which throughout long ages and in all nations have been the fertile subjects of fiction and fable, come legitimately withia the scope of plain matter-of-fact Natural History, and that they may be considered, uol as the outcome of exuberant fancy, but as creatures which really once existed, and of which, unfortunately, only imperfect and inaccurate descriptions have filtered down to us. probably very much refracted, through the mists of time; . . . traditions of creatures onc^ coexisting xvith man, sortie of which are so weird and terrible as to appear at first sight to be impassibte. . . .
For me the major part of those creatures are not chimeras but objects of rational study. The dragon, in place of being a creature evolved out of the imagination of Aryan man by the contemplation of lightning flashing through the caverns which he tenanted, as is held by some mythologists, is an animal which once lived and dragged its ponderous coils and perhaps flew. . . .
To me the specific existence of the unicorn seems not incredible, and, in fact, more probable than that theory which assigns its origin to a lunar myth.t . - .
For my part I doubt the general derivation of myths from "the contemplation of the visible workings of external nature." It seems to me easier to suppose that the palsy of time has enfeebled the utterance of these oft-told tales until their original appearance is almost unrecognizable, than that uncultured savages should possess powers of imagination and poetical invention far beyond those enjoyed by the most instructed nations of the present day; less hard to believe that these wonderful stories of gods an descriptions are transformations than to believe them to be invendons-X
It is shown by the same Geologist that:
Palaeontologists have successively traced back the existence of man to periods variously estimated at from thirty thousand to one million years — to periods when he coexisted with animals which have long since become extinct.^
These animals, "weird and terrible," were, to give a few instances: (i) The genus Cidastes, whose huge bones and vertebrae show them to have attained a length of nearly two hundred feet. The remains of
• Oonld'a Mytkital MoniUtt, p. i.
♦ The Unicorn: a MyUu>h^ical Investigation, Robert Brown, junr.. P.a.A. I Mythical Afotuttrt. pp. «'4.
I /bid., p. M.
Loodoa. 188c I
FLYING DRAGONS.
229
such monsters, no less than ten in number, were seen by Professor Marsh in the Mauvaises Terres of Colorado, strewn upon the plains.
(2) The Titanosaurus Montanus, reaching fifty or sixty feet in length.
(3) The Dinosaurians, in the Jurassic beds of the Rocky Mountains, of still more gigantic proportions. (4) The Atlantosaurus Immanis, a femur of which alone is over six feet in length, and which would be thus over one hundred feet in length. But even yet the line has not been reached* and we hear of the discovery of remEiins of such titanic proportions as to possess a thigh-bone over twelve feet in lengfth!* Then we read of the monstrous Sivatherium in the Himalayas, the four-homed stag, as large as an elephant, and exceeding the latter in height; of the gigantic Megatherium; of colossal flying lizards, Ptero- dact>'li, with crocodile jaws on a duck*s head, etc. AU these were co- existent with man, most probably attacked man, as man attacked thent. And we are asked to believe that the said man was no larger then than he is now! Is it possible to conceive that, surrounded in Nature with such monstrous creatures, man, unless himself a colossal giant, could have survived, while all his foes have perished? Is it with his stone hatchet that he had the best of a Sivatherium or a gigantic flying saurian? Let us always bear in mind that at least one great man of Science, de Quatrefages. sees no good scientific reasons why man should not have been "contemporaneous with the earliest mammalia and go back as far as the Secondary Period" f
The very conservative Professor Jukes writes:
It appears that the flying dragons of romance had something Ulte a real existence in former ages of the world. %
And the author goes on to ask.
Does the written history of man, comprising a few thousand years, embrace the . -whole course of his intelligent existence? Or have we ia the long mythical eras, extending over hundreds of thousands of years, and recorded in the chronologies of Chald^a and China, shadowy mementoes of prehistoric man. handed down by tradition, and perhaps transported by a few survivors to existing lauds, from others ■which, like the fabled Atlantis of Plato, may have been submerged, or the scene of some great catastrophe which destroyed them with all their civilization ?$
The few remaining giant animals, such as elephants — themselves smaller than their ancestors the Mastodons — and hippopotami, are the only snr\'iving relics, and tend to disappear more entirely every day. But even they have already had a few pioneers of their future genus.
• /W., pp. 36. 37. t ne Hitmam Sptew, p. ja J Manual o/ Geology, p. yn. \ ibid., p. 17,
330
THE SECRET DOCTRINE.
and have decreased in size in the same proportion as men have done. For the remains of a pigmy elephant, E. Falconeri, were found in the cave deposits of Malta; and the same author asserts that they were associated with the remains of pigmy hippopotami, the former bein^ only two feet six inches high. There is also the still existing Hippo- potamus (Choeropsis) I^iberiensis, "which M. Milne-Edwards figures as little more than two feet in height.'**
Sceptics may smile and denounce our work as full of nonsense of fairy-tales. But by so doing they only justify the wisdom of the Chinese philosopher Chuang, who said that:
The things that men do Icnow can in no way be compared, numerically spetb ing, to the things that are unknown. t
Thus they laugh only at their own ignorance '
THE "SONS OF GOD" AND THE "SACRED ISLAND."
The "legend" given in Isis UnveiUdX in relation to a portion of the globe which Science now concedes to have been the cradle of humanitr — though it was but one of the seven cradles, in truth — nms as follows :
Tradition says» and the records of the Great Book (the Book of Dzyan) cxpU that long before the daj-s of Ad-am, and his inquisitive wife, He-va, where nowi found but salt lakes and desolate barren deserts, there was a vast inland sea, wl extended over Middle Asia, north of the proud HimAlayan range, and its westi prolongation. In it an island, which, for its unparalleled beauty, had no rival the world, was inhabited by the last remnant of the Race which preceded ours.
"The last remnant" means the "Sons of Will and Yoga," who. a few tribes, survived the great cataclysm. For it was the Third inhabiting the great Leraurian Continent, which preceded the verital and complete human Races — the Fourth and the Fifth. Therefore it said in Isis Unveiled that:
This race could live with equal ease in water, air, or fire, for it had an unlit control over the elements. These were the "Sons of God"; not those -who saw daughters of men, but the real Elohim, though in the oriental Kabalah they another name. It was they who imparted Nature's most weird secrets to men« revealed to them the ineffable, and now lost "word."
* Ooiitd's Mythical MonsUn, p. 16. Sec also Kec/urch£s, etc.,
to I 874' -t Preface to the Sham Hai JITinf, or "Wooden by I^and and Sea." t Vol. i. pp. 5*9. «*««•
THE CONTINENT OP THE GODS.
Hi
!*he "Island,'* according to belief, exists to the present hour, as an oasis surrounded by the dreadful wildernesses of the great Gobi Desert — whose sands "no foot hath crossed in the memor>' of man."
This word, which is no word, has travelled once ronnd the globe, and atill lingers a3 a far-off dy-ing echo in the hearts of some privileged men. The hierophants of all the Sacerdotal Colleges were aware of the existence of this island; but the "word" was known oaly to the Java Aleim (Mah& Chuhan in another tongue^, or chief Lord of every College, and was passed to his successor only at the moment of death. There were many such Colleges, and the old classical authors speak of them.
There was no communication with the fair island bj' sea, but subterranean passages, known only to the chiefs, communicated with it in all directions.*
Tradition asserts, and Archjeology accepts the truth of the legend. that there is more than one city now flourishing in India, which is bwilt on several other cities, making thus a subterranean cit\' of six or seven stories high. Delhi is one of them, Allahabad another; examples being found even in Europe, e.£^., in Florence, which is built on several defunct Etruscan and other cities. Why, then, could not EUora, Ele- pbanta, Karli, and Ajunta have been built over subterranean labyrinths and passages, as it is claimed? Of course we do not allude to the caves which are known to every European, whether de visu or by hearsaj^ notwithstanding their enormous antiquity, though that even is disputed by modem Archaeology ; but to a fact, known to the initiated Br^hraans of India and especially to Yogis, viz., that there is not a cave-temple in the country but has its subterranean passages running in ever>' direc- tion, and that these underground caves and endless corridors have in their turn /kcir caves and corridors.
Who can tell whether the lost Atlantis — which is also mentioned in the Secret Book, but, again, under another name, peculiar to the sacred language — did not stiU exist in those days? —
we went on to ask. It did exist most assuredly, for it was approaching its greatest days of glory and civilization when the last of the Lemu- rian continents went down.
The great lost Continent might have, perhaps, l>eeD situated south of Asia, extending from India to Tasmania.t If the hypothesis — now so much doubted,
• There are Arclucologists, who. like Mr. Jninrs Ferjfusson. rcruae any great nntJquUy to erm one •ingle monument In India. In his work, lUvstrations oj the Rock-Cut Temples of India, he ventures to express the very extraordinary opinion that "Egypt had ceased to be a nation before the earliest of the cave-temples of India was excavated." In short, he docs not admit the existence of any cave- temple anterior to the rei^n of Aahoka. and aeems anxious to prove that most of these rock-cut temples were executed during' a period extending from the time of that pious Buddhist king until the destruction of the Andhra dynasty of Magndha, in the beginnings of the fifth cenliiry • We believe such a claim to be perfectly arbitrary. Further diacoveries will show that it is erroneous and un> warranted.
t America, at the time of its discovery, was called Atlanta by some native tribes.
332
THB SECRET D0CTR12
and positivel5' denied by some learned authors, who regard it as a joke of Plate ever verified, then, perhaps, will the Scientists believe that the description of God-inhabited continent was not altogether a fable.* And they may then perceive that Plato's guarded hiuts and bis attributing the narrative to Solon and Uie Egyptian priests, were but a prudent way of imparting the fact to the world, at the same time, by cleverly combining truth and fiction, of disconnecting bi self from a stor>* which the obligations imposed at luitialton forbailc himtodivtit|
To continue the tradition, we have to add that the class of hierupbants divided into two distinct categories;! those who were instructed by the "Soni God" of the island, and who were initiated in the divine doctrine of pure rei tion; and others who inhabited the lost Atlantis— if such must be its name— i who, being of another race (produced sexually but of divine parents), wen? with a sight which embraced all hidden things, and was independent of both disUu and material obstacle- In short, they were the Fourth Race of men mentioned the Popol Vuk^ whose sight was unlimited, and who knew all things at once.
In other words, they were the Lemuro-Atlanteans, the first who a Dynasty of Spirit- Kings; not of Maues, or ** Ghosts," as some belie\i but of actual living Devas, or Demi-gods or Augels, again, who assumed bodies to rule over this Race, and who, in their turn, structed them in arts and sciences. Only, as these Dhyanis were Rtl or material Spirits, they were not always good. Their King Thevd was one of the latter, and it is under the evil influence of this Kii Demon that the Atlantis-Race became a nation of wicked ** magician!
In consequence of this, war was declared, the story of which would be too loii| narrate; its substance may be found in the disfigured allegories of the race of the giants, and that of Noah and his righteous family. The conflict came to end by the submersion of Atlantis, which finds its imitation in the stories of ' Babylonian and Mosaic flood. The giants and magicians "and all flesh died . . and every man." All except Xisuthrus and Noah, who are substantially identi with the great Father of the Thlinkithians,} who, they say, also escaped in a 1« boat like the HindQ Noah — Vidvasvata.
If we believe the tradition at all, we have to credit the further story that, the intermarrying of the progeny of the hierophants of the island and the de dants of the Atlantean Noah, a mixed race of righteous and wicked sprang up. the one side the world had its Enochs, Moseses, various Buddhas. its numi *'Sftviour9," and great hierophants; on the other hand, its " natural magic who, through lack of the restraining power of proper spiritual enlightennit . . . . perverted their gifts to evil purposes.
* since then DonneUy's Atlantis has appcarrd, and soon its actual existence wtU have *scientific fact.
f It is fto dividMt to this day, and Throsophists and OccnlUsts, who have learned something of occult but undeoiable power of Dugpaship at their own expense, know thia but too well.
t See De Mlrrille's Pneumaioloffie : Des Esptiis, iii. 57, et itqg.
I See Max Muller, CAi>i, i. 339; "Ptipol Vuh." Compare also Hohnberff , Etknograpkitckt Abtr du t^diJker des Ruxsisdun A murika. HelsLngfors, tS^j.
THE TESTIMONY OP JACOLUOT.
233
We may supplement this by the testimony of some records and tradi- tions. \xi U Histoire des Vierges: les Pcupics et les Continenis Disparus^ Louis JacoUiot says:
One of the most aadent legends of India, preserved in the temples by oral and written tradition, relates that several hundred thonsand years ago there existed in the Pacific Ocean an immense continent, which was destroyed by geological up- heaval, and the fragments of which must be sought in Madagascar, Ceylon, Sumatra, Java, Borneo, and the principal isles of Polynesia.
The high plateaux of Hindustan and Asia, according to this hypothesis, would only have been represented in those distant epochs by great islands contiguous to the central continent. . . . According to the Br&hmans, this country had at- tained a high civilization, and the peninsula of HindOstau. enlarged by the displace- ment of the waters, at the time of the grand cataclysm, has but continued the chain of the primitive traditions lx)m in this place. These traditions give the name of Rutas to the peoples which inhabited this immense equinoctial continent, and from their speech wasderived the SanskriL The Indo-Hellenic tradition, preserved by the most intelligent population which emigrated from the plains of India, also relates the existence of a continent and a people to which it gives the name of Atlantis and Atlan- tides, and which it locates in the Atlantic in the northern portion of the Tropics.
Apart from this fact, the supposition of an ancient continent in those latitudes, the vestiges of which may be found in the volcanic islands and mountainous surface of the Azores^ the Canaries and Cape de Verd Islands, is not devoid of geographical probability. The Greeks, who, moreover, never dared to pass beyond the Pillars of Hercules, on account of their dread of the mysterious Ocean, appeared too late in antiquity for the stories preserved by Plato to Ije anything else than an echo of the Indian legend. Moreover, when we cast a look on a planisphere, at the sight of the islands and islets strewn from the Malayan Archipelago to Polynesia, from the Straits of Sunda to Easter Island, it is impossible, upon the hypothesis of continents preceding those which we inhabit, not to place there the most important of all.
A religious belief, common to Malacca and Polynesia, that is to say, to the two opposite extremes of the Oceanic world, affirms "that all these islands once formed two immense countries, inhabited by yellow men and black men, always at war; and that the gods, wearied with their quarrels, having charged Ocean to pacify them, the latter swallowed up the two continents, and, since then, it has been impossible to make him give up his captives. Alone, the mountain -peaks and high plateaux esca{>ed the flood, by the power of the gods, who perceived too late the mistake they had committed."
Whatever there may be in these traditions, and whatever may have been the place where a civilization more ancient than that of Rome, of Greece, of Egjrpt, and of India was developed, it is certain that this civilization did exist, and it is highly important to Science to recover its traces^ however feeble and fugitive they may be.*
This Oceanic tradition corroborates the legend given from the "Re- cords of the Secret Doctrine." The war mentioned between the yellow
• op. fi/., pp. 13-15-
234
THB SECRET DOCTRIKB.
1
and the black men, relates to a struggle between the "Sons of Gods and the "Sons of Giants," or the inhabitants and magicians of Atlantis
The final conclusion of the author, who personally visited all the islands of Polynesia, and devoted years to the study of the religi language, and traditions of nearly all the peoples, is as follows :
Aa to the Polynesian continent which (lisappeared at the time of the final gi lofincal cataclysms, its existence rests on such proofs that to be logical we can doal no longer.
The three summits of this continent, the Sandwich Islands, New Zealand, Boater Island, are distant from each other from fifteen to eighteen hundred leagues, and the groups of intermediate islands, Viti (Fiji). Samoa, Tonga, Foutouna (? Fou- touha), Ouvea Gamblers, are themselves distant from these extreme points from seven or eight hundred to one thousand leagues.
All navigators agree in saying tliat the extreme and the central groups could never have communicated in view of their actual geographical position, and irith the in- snflicient means they had at hand. It is physically impossible to cross such distances in a pirogue .... without a compass, and tra%'el months witliout provisions.
On the other hand, the aborigines of the Sandwich Islands, of Viti, of New Zealand, of the central groups, of Samoa, Tahiti, etc., had luver known each other, had never heard of each other^ before the arrival of the Europeans. And yet each of these people maintained that their island had at one time formed part of an immense stretch of land which extended towards the IVest on the side of Asia. And all, brought together, were found to spealc the same language, to have the same usagea, the same customs, the same religious belief. And all to the question. *' Wliere is the cradle of your race?" for sole response, extended their hatut toward tfte setting sun*
Geographically, this description clashes slightly with the facts in the Secret Records; but it shows the existence of such traditions, and this is all one cares for. For. as there is no smoke without fire, so a tradi^ tion must be based on some approximate truth. ^
In its proper place we will show Modern Science fully corroborating the above and other traditions of the Secret Doctrine with regard to the two lost Continents. The Easter Island relics, for instance, are the most astounding and eloquent memorials of the primeval giants. They are as grand as they are mysterious: and one has but to examine the lieads of the colossal statues, that have remained unbroken, to recog- nize at a glance the features of the type and character attributed to the Fourth Race giants. They seem of one cast though different in features — of a distinctly sensual type, such as the Atlanteans (the I/aityas and "Atalantians") are said to have had in the Esoteric Hindu books. Compare these with the faces of some other colossal
THE COU)SSI OP BAMIAN.
235
Etatues in Central Asia — those near Bamian, for instance — the portrait- statues, tradition tells us, of Buddhas belonging to previous Manvan- taras; of those Buddhas and heroes who are mentioned in the Buddhist and Hind^ works, as men of fabulous size,* the good and holy brothers of their wicked coiiterine brothers generally, just as Ravana, the giant king of Lankd, was the brother of Kumbhakarna; all descendants of the Gods through the Rishis, and thus, like "Titan and his enormous brood," ail "Heaven's first-bom." These "Buddhas/' though often spoilt by the sjrmbolical representation of great pendent ears, show a suggestive difference, perceived at a glance, in the expression of their faces from that of the Easter Island statues. They may be of one race — but the former are "Sons of Gods"; the latter the brood of mighty sorcerers. All these are reincamationa however, and, apart from unavoidable exaggerations in popular fancy and tradition, they are historical char- acters.\ When did they live? How long ago lived the two Races, the Third and Fourth; and how long after did the various tribes of the Fifth begin their strife, the wars between Good and E^'il? We are assured by the Orientalists that chronolog>' is both hopelessly mixed and absurdly exaggerated in the Purdjias and other Hindu Scriptures. We feel quite prepared to agree with the accusation. But, if Ar>'an writers have occasionally allowed their chronological pendulum to swing too far one way, beyond the legitimate limit of fact; neverthe- less, when the distance of that deviation is compared with the distance of the Orientalists' deviation in the opposite direction, moderation will be found on the BrShmanical side. It is the Pandit who will, in the long run, be found more truthful and nearer to fact than the Sanskritist. The San.skritist's curtailing — even when proved to have been resorted to in order to fit a personal hobby — is regarded bv Western public opinion as "a cautious acceptance of facts," whereas the Pandit is brutally treated in print as a '^tiar'^ But, surely^ this is no reasou why everyone should be compelled to see this in the same light! An im- partial observer may judge it otherwise. He may either proclaim both unscrupulous historians, or justify both, each on his respective ground, and say: Hindu Ar>^ans wrote for their Initiates, who read truth be- tween the lines ; not for the inasses. If they did mix up events and
* Aq approach to the statturs at Bamian— bImu a. Buddha aoo f«ct high — is Tound near a Jaio aelUe- meat In Soulhcra India, and appears to be the only one that remains at present.
t Even Wilson admits that Rlma and Rlvana were penonaffes founded on hisloiHcal facts. "The traditions of the South of India uniformly ascribe its dvilixation . . . and the eetUcmcnt of civili«d Hind&s [the Kiflh Race] to the conquest of Lanki by Rima" ( i^izhnu Purdna, iii. 31S)— the inctory of the "Sons of Gods " orer the Atlantean sorcerers, says Uie trHt tradition.
236
THB SECRET DOCTRINE.
confuse Ages inieniionally, it was not with the view of deceiving one, but in order to preserve their knowledge from the prying eye of the foreigner. But, to him who can count the generations from the Manus, and the series of incarnations specified in the cases of some heroes.* in the Purdnas, the meaning and chronological order are ver>' clear. As for the Western Orientalist, he must be excused, on account of his undeniable ignorance of the methods used by archaic Esotericisra. But such existing prejudices will have to give way and disappear very soon before the light of new discoveries. Already Dr. Weber^ftjl and Prof. Max Miiller's favourite theories — namely, that writing was not known in India, even in the days of Panini (!); that the Hindus had all their arts and sciences — even to the Zodiac and their architeoS ture (Fergusson) — from the Macedonian Greeks; these and other such cock-and-bull hypotheses, are threatened with ruin. It is the ghost of old Chaldasa that comes to the rescue of truth. In his third Hibbert Lecture (1887) Professor Sayce of Oxford, speaking of newly-dis-^ covered Assyrian and Babylonisr. cylinders, refers at length to Ea," the God of Wisdom, now identified with the Oannes of Berosus, the half-man, half-fish, who taught the Babylonians culture and the art of writing. This Ea, to whom, thanks only to the Biblical Deluge, an antiquity of hardly 1,500 B.C. had been hitherto allowed, is now spoken of in the following terms, to summarize from the Professor: ^|
The city of Ea was Eridu, which stood 6,000 years ago on the shores of the Persian Gulf The name means "the good city," a particularly holy spot, since it was the centre from which the earliest Chaldo^an civilir.ation made its way to the north. As the culture-god was represented as coming from the sea, it was possible that the culture of which Eridu was the seat was of foreign importation. We now know that there was intercourse at a very early period between Chaldsea and the Sinaitic peninsula, as well as with India. The statues discovered by the French at Tcl-loh (dating from at latest B.C. 4,000) were made of the extremely hard stone known as diorite, and the inscriptions on them stated the dionte to have been brought from Magan — i.e., the Sinaitic peninsula, which was then ruled by the Pharaohs. The statues are known to resemble in general style the diorite statue, Kephren, the builder of the second Pyramid, while, according to Mr. Petrie, the unit of measurement marked on the plan of the city, which one of the Tel-loh figures holds on his lap, is the some as that employed by the P}'ramid builders.
* Thus wc are ihown one hrro, to irlvc an InsUnce, lint bom u the ** unri^teoiu btst vallaat motiarch" (Puruaha} of the Dnitjnut, Hirviyakashipu, slain by the AvaUra Nara-«inha (Men-lion). Tfaeti he was bom as Klvana, the Riant king- of I^oki, and killed by Rima : arier which he U reborn aa Shithupilo, the sou oT Rnjarshi (Kinif Rishi) Damaghosha, when he is afpaln killed by Krishna, the laat incftmation of Vishnu. Tbi« parallel evolution of Viabnu (Spirit) with a Daitya, as man. may Mem meaainfrleu, yet tt ^\-ai ua the key oot only Lo the reipecttrc dates of Rima and Krishna bu: even to a certain paycbolofpcal myatery.
THB MOON-COLOURliD RACE.
237
Teak irood has be«n found at Mugheir. or Ur of the Chaldees, although that wood is an Indian special product; add to this that an ancient Babylonian list of clothing mcntoia simiAu or "muslin," explained as "vegetable cloth."*
Muslin, best known now as Dacca muslin, known in Chaldaea as Hindu (Sindhu), and teak wood used 4,000 years B.C., and yet the Hindus, to whom Chaldsea owes its civilization, as has been well proven by Colonel Vans Kennedy, were tptorant of the art of writing before the Greeks taught them their alphabet — if, at least, we have to believe Orientalists!
THE
STANZA X. HISTORY OF THE FOURTH RACE.
H 38- The birth of the Fourth (Atlauteaii) Race. 39. The aab-races of the Fourth H Bamaoity begin to divide and interblend; they form the first mixed races of ^ TtnoM colours. 4a The superiority of the Atlantean over other Races. 41. They Tall tnto vin and beget children and monsters. 42. The &rst germs of anthropo- morphism and sexual religion. They lose their "third eye."
38. Thus, two by two, on thk sevkn Zonks, the Third Race gave birth to thb fourth; the scra became a-sura.f
39. The F1RST4 ON EVERY Zone, was moon-colourkd;§ tue
SkCOXD YELLOW UKE GOLD; THE THIRD RED; THE FOURTH BROWN, WHICH BECAME BLACK WITH SIN. l| ThK FIRST SEVEN HUMAN SHOOTS WERE AaOP ONE COMPLEXION. Tl ThK NEXT SEVEN,** BEGAN MIXING-ft
To understand Shloka 38, it must be read together with the Shlokas of Stanza IX. Up to this point of evolution man belongs more to meta-
* Compuv ffihbni Ltdura, 1B77. Sayce, pp. 134-136.
* The Cods became No-Gods. : Race.
I Vtllow.whitr.
i Strictly tpea Icing, it U only from the time of the Atlantean, brown and yellow giant races, that bought to apeak of man, since it was the Fourth Race only which was the first compUtely human Ihdta, however much larger In use than we afe now. In Man .- FragmmU of Forgotten HiUory (by l*a QwUs), alt that is said of the Atlantcana is qoitc correct. It ia chiefly this Race which bccnmc "Uick with stn/* th&t brought the divine names of the Asnras, the Rlkshasaa and the Daityaa, into ^bvpute. and passed them on to posterity as the nsmes of ftends. For, as said, the Suras, Cods or I^if, baring incarnated in the wise men of Atlantis, the names of Asuras and RAkshasas were b>ai to the ordinary Atlanteans. Owing to the incessant conflicts of the tatter with the last RBnaats of the Tfainl Race and the "Sons of Wilt and Yoga," ihrir name* have led to the later tfcgoriea about thera in the Pur^nas. " Asura was the generic appellation of all the Atlantcana who vnUic enemies of the spiritual heroes of the Aryans (Oods)," ^/fan, p. 77.) ▼ tn the ticginDing. •• The aob- races. TT Tbexr colours.
238
THE SECRET DOCTKINE.
i
physical than physical Nature. It is only after the so-called "Fall'* that the Races began to develop rapidly into a purely human shape. In order that the student may correctly comprehend the full meaning of the Fall— so mystic and transcendental in its real significance— he must at once be told the details which preceded it. seeing that modem Theology has made of the event a pivot on which its most pemicioos and absurd dogmas and beliefs are made to turn.
The Archaic Commentaries, as the reader may remember, explain that, of the Host of DhySnis, whose turn it was to incarnate as the Egos of the immortal, but, on this plane, senseless Monads — some "obeyed" (the Law of Evolution) immediately the men of the Third Race became physiologically and physically ready, j.^., when they had separated into sexes. These were those early conscious Beings who, now adding conscious knowledge and will to their inherent divine purity, "created" by Kriyashakti the semi-divine man, who became the Seed on Earth for future Adepts. Those, on the other hand, who. jealous of their intellectual freedom — unfettered as it then was by the bonds of Matter — said: "We can choose, ... we have wisdom,"* and so incarnated far later — these had their first Karmic punishment prepared for them. They got bodies inferior (physiologically) to their Astral Models, because their Chhiyas had belonged to Progenitor* of an inferior degree in the seven Classes. As to those "Sons of Wisdom" who "deferred" their incarnation till the Fourth Race, which was already tainted (physiologically) with sin and impurity, these pro* duced a terrible cause, the Karmic result of which weighs on them to this day. It was produced in themselves, and they became the carriers of that seed of iniquity for aeons to come, because the bodies they had to inform had become defiled through their own procrastination.!
This was the "Fall of the Angels," owing to their rebellion ag^nsV Karmic Law. The "fall of man" was no fall, _/!?/' h^ was irresponsitli^ But "creation" having been invented on the dualistic system as the "prerogative of God alone" — the legitimate aitribiiic patented bv Theology in the name of an infinite Deity of their own making — the power of Kriytshakti had to be regarded as "Satanic,** and as > usurpation of divine rights. Thus, in the light of such narrow views, the foregoing must naturally be considered as a terrible slander on man. "created in the image of God," and a still more dreadful blas- phemy in the face of the dead-letter dogma. "Your doctrine." the
* Siaua VU, Sblokt m-
t Sec Shioku 3t, 34
THE MYSTERISS AMONG THE MAYAS.
239
Occultists have already been told, *' makes of man, created out of dust in the likeness of his God, a vehicle of the Devil, from the first." "Why do you make of your God a Devil — both, moreover, created in your own image?'* — is our reply. The Esoteric interpretation of the Bible, however, sufficiently refutes this slanderous invention of Theology; the Secret Doctrine must some day become the just Karma of the Churches— more anti-Christian than the representative assemblies of the most couErmed Materialists and Atheists.
The true meaning of the old doctrine of the '* Fallen Angels," in its anthropological and evolutionary sense, is contained in the Kahalak, and explains the Bible, It is found preeminently in Gefiesis when the latter is read in a spirit of research for truth, with no eye to dogma, and in no mood of preconception. This is easily proven. In Genesis (vi), the " Sons of God" — B'ne Aleim — ^become enamoured of the daughters of men, marr>', and reveal to their wives the mysteries unlawfully learnt by them in Heaven, according to Enoch; and this is the "Fall of the Angels."* But what, in reality, isthe. Book of Ejioch itself, from which the author of Revelation and even the St. John of the Fourth Gospel t have so profusely quoted? Simply a Book of Initiaiiofi, giving out in allegory and cautious phraseology the programme of certain Archaic Mysteries performed in the inner Temples. The author of the Sacred Mysteries affumg the Mayas and Quichis very justly suggests that the so-called
• In general, the M>-CBlletl orthodox Christian concepUoas about the " fallen " Angrla or Satan, are as ranarkable as they are absurd. About a dosen could be died, of the moat varied characler as lo detaiU.and all from the pens of educated lay authon, "university ^sduates" of the prcseut quarter of our century. Thus, the anthor of Earth's EariUst Agfa, O. H. Pembcr. M.A.. drvotcB a thick volume to proving Theosophists, Spiritualists, AgTiostics, Mystics, metaphysicians, poets, and every coutcmpornry auibor on Oriental speeulatious, to be the devoted servants of the " Prince of the Air," and irrctrievAbly damned. He deMcribcs Satan and his Antichrist in this wise:
"Satan is the 'Anointed Cherub' of old. . . . God created Satan, the fairest and wisest of all Hia cicaturcs in this part of His Universe, and made him Prince of the World, and of the Power of tb€ Air. ... He was placed In an Bdco, which was both far anterior to the Bdeti of Genesis .... and of an ajto^etber different and more substantial character, resembling the New Jerusalem. Thus, Satan being perfect in wisdom, and beauty, his vast empire is our earth, if not the whole solar system. . . . Certainly no other angelic power of greater or even equal dignity has been revealed to us. The Arcbaagel Michael himself is quoted by Jude as preserving towards the Prince of Darkness the respect duf to a svperior, however wicked he may be, until God has formally commanded his deposition." Then we are informed that "Satan was from the moment of his creation surrounded by the insigHia of royaity" (! t): that he "awoke to consdouaness to 6nd the air filled with the rejoidug music of those whom Cod had appointed." Then the Devil "passes from the royally to his pruslly digntty" (! I I). "Satan was also a pnest of tht Afast /fiffM." etc., etc. And vow— " Antichrist will be Satan incarnate." [Chap. UI and pp. 56-59.) llie pioneers of the coming ApoUyon have already appeared— they arc the Theosophists, the Occultists, the antbora of the Ptrfect iVay, of Jsu UnvetUd, of the MysUry of the Agei, and even of the Ltght 0/ Asia I .' Tlie author notes the " avowed origin " of Theoaophy from the "descending angels," from llie"Nephillm." or the Angels of Genetis ivi), aud the Giants. He ought to note his own descent from them also, as our Secret £>octrtHe endeavours to show— unless he refuses to belong to the present humanity.
♦ Compare x. 8, where it speaks of all who have come before Jesus, being "thieves and robtjcrm."
240
THE SECRET DOCTRINE.
"Visions" of Enoch relate to his (Enoch's) experience at Initiation, antf what he learned in the Mysteries; while he very erroneously states his opinion that Enoch had learned them before being converted to Chris- tianity (! !): furthermore, he believes that this book was written "at beginning of the Christian era, when .... the customs and religit of the Eg>'ptians fell into decadency"! This is hardly possible, sim Jude, in his Epistle,* quotes from the Book of Enoch; and. thereforfi aS Archbishop I^aurence, the translator of the Book of Enoch from th« Ethiopic version, remarks, it " could not have been the production a writer who lived after .... or was even coeval with" the writers the New Testamtiti, unless, indeed, Jude and the Gospels, and all follows, were also a production of the already established Churcl which, some critics say, is not impossible. But we are now conceni* with the "Fallen Angels" of Enoch, rather than with Enoch himself
In Indian exotericism, these Angels (Asuras) are also denounced the "enemies of the Gods"; those who oppose sacrificial worshi] offered to the Devas. In Christian Theology they are broadly refei to as the "Fallen Spirits," the heroes of various conflicting and tradictory legends, gathered from Pagan sources. The coluber toriuoi the "tortuous snake" — a qualification said to have originated with thi Jews — had quite another meaning before the Roman Church distortc it; among others, a purely aj/r^Tn^Mww'fl/ signification.
The "Serpent" fallen from on high {deorsum fiuens) was credit! with the possession of the Keys of the Empire of the Dead (tdu Bcurit apx^) to the day when Jesus saw it fall "as lightning . . . . froi heaven,"t notwithstanding the Roman Catholic interpretation of " debat ul fulgur.** It means indeed that even "the devils are subject' to the Logos — who is Wisdom, but at the same time, as the opponeiil of ignorance, Satan or Lucifer. This remark refers to divine Wisdc falling like lightning on, and so quickening, the intellects of those wl fight the devils of ignorance and superstition. Up to the time wh Wisdom, in the shape of the incarnating Spirits of Mahat, descend( from on high to animate and call the Third Race to real conscioi life — Humanity, if it can be so called in its animal, senseless state. of course doomed to moral as well as to physical death. The Anj fallen into gefieration are referred to metaphorically as Serpents Dragons of Wisdom. On the other hand, regarded in the light of Logos, the Christian Saviour, like Krishna, whether as man or Log
• VexKM.
♦ Luke, *- 18.
SATANIC MYTHS.
241
may be said to have saved those who believed in the Secret Teach- ings, from "eternal death," and to have conquered the Kingdom of Darkness, or Hell, as every Initiate does. This is the human, terres- trial forra of the Initiates, and also — because the Logos is Christos — that "principle" of our inner nature which develops in us into the Spiritual Ego — the Higher Self— formed of the indissoluble union of Buddhi, the sixth, and the spiritual eflBorescence of Manas, the fifth "principle."* "The Logos is passive Wisdom in Heaven and con- scious, self-active Wisdom on Earth,'* we are taught. It is the Mar- riage of the "Heavenly Man" with the "Virgin of the World," or Nature, as described in Pymander; the result of which is their pro- geny—immortal man. It is this which is called in St. John's Revela- iion\ the marriage of the Lamb with his Bride. This "wife" is now identified with the Church of Rome owing to the arbitrary interpretations of her votaries. But they seem to forget that her "linen" may be "clean and white" outwardly^ like the "whited sepulchre," but that the rotten- ness she is inwardly filled with, is not the "righteousness of saints," J but rather the blood of the saints she has "slain upon the earth." § Thus the remark made by the great Initiate, in Luke — referring allegori- cally to the ray of enlightenment and r^^son, falling like lightning from on high into the hearts and minds of the converts to the old Wisdom- Religion, then presented in a new form by the wise Galilean Adept H —
* It is not correct to ivfer to Christ— as some TheosophUts do— as Buddhi, the iixth principle in man. The latter pe* jf is a po&atTC and latent principle, the Spiritual Vehicle of Atml, tDaeiiarable from the xnanifcstcd Universal Soul. It is only in union and in conjunction with SHf-consciounuu that Buddhi becomes the Higher Self and the I>tTine, discnminating Soul. Christos is the seventh principle, if anything.
t xix. 7,
J /btd.,vcncS.
i xviii. 14.
a To make it phiiner. any one who reads the paasagre in Luif, will ftce Ihat the remark follows the report of the jev^niy, who rejoice that "even the devils [the spirit of contro\'ersy and reasoning:, or the oppanng power, since Satan means simply 'adversary' or ' opponent '] are subject unto us through thy name." [Lukr, x. 17.) Now. "thy name" means the name of ChriAtos, or Logt», or the Spiril of tnie Dix-ine Wisdom, as distinct from the spirit of intellectual or mere materialistic reasoninp— the Higher Self in short. And when Jeeus remarks on this that he bas "beheld Satan na lightning fall from heaven," it Ls a mere statement of his clairvoyant powers, notifying to them that he already knew it. and a rcferrnce to the incarnation of the Divine Ray— the Gods or Angela— which faiii into ^rnrraft'on. For not all men, by any means, benefit by that incarnation, and with some tiie power remains latent and dead during tbr whole life. Truly "no man knoweth who the Son is, but tlic Father; and who the Father is, but the Son," as added by Jesus then and there (verse aa)— the "Church of Christ" leas than anyone else. The Initiates alone understood the secret meaning of the terms "Father" and " Son," and knew that it rcfentrd to Spirit and Soul on the Earth. For the teachings of Christ were Occult teachings, which could only be explained at Initiation, They were never intended for the masses, for Jesus forbade the Ivrclve to go to the CcntileTi and the Samaritans- {MaUh., X. 5), and nrpeatcd to his disciples that the "mystery of the kingdom of God" was for them alone, not for the multitudes {Mark, Iv. 11).
fi42
THE SECRET DOCTRINE.
-was distorted out of all recognition, as was also his own personality and made to Bt in with one of the most cruel and the most pernicioui cf all theological dogmas. m
But if Western Theology alone holds the patent and copyright of Satan — in all the dogmatic horror of that fiction— other nationalities and religions have committed equal errors in their misinterpretation of a tenet, which is one of the most profoundly philosophical and ideal conceptions of ancient thought. They have both disfigured, and hinted at. the correct meaning of it in their numerous allegories on the subject Nor have the semi-esoteric dogmas of PaurSnic Hinduism failed lo •evolve very suggestive symbols and allegories concerning the rebellii and fallen Gods. The Purdnas teem with them; and we find a hint at the truth in the frequent allusions of Parashara, in the V'h Purdna, to all those Rudras, Kishis, Asuras, Kumdras and Munis, have to be bom in every age — to reincarnate in every Manvantara. Esoterically, is equivalent to saying that the "Flames" bom of Universal Mind, or Mahat, owing to the m\'Sterious workings of Ki Will and the impulse of Evolutionary Law, had— without any gradtni transition — landed on this Earth, after having, as in Pymander^ bi through the "Seven Circles of Fire," or, in short, the seven ioi mediate Worlds.
There is an Eternal Cyclic Law of Re-births, and the series is h( at every new Manvantaric Dawn by those who have enjoj^ed their from reincarnations in previous Kalpas for incalculable i^ons — by highest and the earliest Nir\'anis. It was the turn of these "Gods' incarnate in the present Manvantara; hence their presence on and the ensuing allegories; hence, also, the perversion of the orij meaning.* The Gods who had ^^/aliefi into generation.*' whose mii it was to complete Divine Man, are found represented later oni Demons, Evil Spirits, and Fiends, at feud and war with Gods, or
" So, for iusUncc, in the Puwanai. Pulastya, a PrajApati, or son of Brahml— the progmitor Rihshasaa, and the grandfather of Ravana, the great kiag: of I^nki in the JiAmayana~yi%t,\ Jormer birik, asotiHiamed DattoH, "who is now known as the sai^e Agastya," says V'itkHm He ii called retpccttvely, Dattoti. Dattili, DatlotU, Dattotri, Dattobhd Datnbhobhi and These seven Tsriants have each a secret sense, and refer in the Saotcnc Commentaries to ethnological classifications, and also to physiologrical and anthropological mysteries of the prii races. Pot, surely, the Rilubasas are not Demons, but simply the primitive and ferodons GUbU. the Atlanteans, who were scattered on the face of the Globe, as the PifUi Race is now. Vasi«hths i a warrant of this, if his words addreued to Parishara, who attempted a bit of Jadoo (aorcety), wtM be calls "sacrifice," for the destruction of the Kikshasas, mean anything. For he aays: "Letji^ more of these unoffending ' Spirits of Darkneat ' be consomed." (See for details, MaMdkirvic^mk Parvaa, s. 176; a2«o Ltm^a /^rdMa, PArr&rdha, s. 64; Wilson, t^itf., i. 6, 9} V
irresponsible agents of the one Eternal Law. But no conception of such creatures as the Devils and the Satan of the Christian, Jewish, and Mahommedan religions was ever intended by these thousand and one Aryan allegories.*
The true Esoteric view about "Satan," the opinion held on this subject by the wliole of philosophic antiquity, is admirably brought out in an Appendix, entitled "The Secret of Satan," to the second editioa of Dr. A. Kingsford's Perfect Way,\ No better and clearer indication of the truth could be offered to the intelligent reader, and it is there- fore quoted here at some length:
1. And on the seventh day [seventh creation of the llindfts],! there went fortJi from the presence of God a mighty Angela full of wrath and consuming, and God gave him the dominion of the outermost sphere.^
2. Eternity brought forth Time; the Boundless gave birth to Limit; Being de- scended into generation.il
4- Among (he Gods is none like unto Aim, into whose hands are committed the kingdoms, the power and the glory of the worlds :
5. Thrones and empires, the dynasties of kings.1F the fall of nations, the birth of churches, the triumphs of Time.
For, as is said in Hermes:
SQL Satan is the door-keeper of the TempU of the King; he standeth in Solomon's
porch; he holdeth th^ Keys of the Sanctuary:
21. That no man may enter therein save the anointed, having the arcanum of Hermes.
These suggestive and majestic verses had reference, with the ancient Egyptians and other civilized peoples of antiquity, to the creative and
* We bftve II passage from a Master's letter which haa a direct bcariug upon these iocaniating Angels. Says the letter: "Now there are. and there must be, failures in the ethereal Races of the many Classes of Dhyln Chohnns, or Dcvas [prvgresied entities of a. previous Planeury Period], as well as ainoDg oicii. But Atill, as the failurex are too far progrtaaed and spiritualixed to lie thrown back foTxably from Dhy4a-Chohanshlp into the rortc* of a new primordial e\-oluliou ihrough the lower Kiagdoms, this then happens. Where a new Solar Systeui bas to be evolved, the»e Dhyin Cfaohans are t>ome in by influx ' ahead ' of the Elemcntala [entitles ... to be dcrcloped into hutnnnity at ^future time] and remain as n latent or inactive spiritual force, in the Aura of a nascent World . . . until the stage of human cvoluLion is reached. . . . Then they become an acUve force and commingle with the Elementals, to drutlop Utile by UlUe the full type 0/ humanity." That ifl to say» Ic develop in man, and endow him with his Self-conscious Miod, or Manas.
T Appendix XV, pp. 369, et se^g.
; when the Harth with its Planetary Chnin and Man were to appear.
I Oar Earth and the physical plane of consciousness.
II When the pure, celestial Beings or Dhyln Chobaos, and the great Pilris of various classes were commisaioned—the one to evolve their Images or Chhiy£s, and make of them physical man. Uic others to inform and thus endotr him with dinae intelligence and the comprehcuaon of the Mysterie* of Creation.
51 The "dynasties of kings " who all regard themselves as the " anointed," reigning by the " Grace off God/' whereas in truth, they reign by the grace of Matter, the Great Illusion, the Deceiver.
244
THE SECRBT DOCTRINK,
gcfteraiive Light of the Logos — Horus, Brahma, Ahura Mazda, etc., primeval manifestations of the Ever-unmanifested Principle, whethi called Ain Suph, Parabrahman, or ZeruSna Akeme, or Boundless" Time, Kila — but the meaning is now degraded in the Kabatah. The "Anointed" — who has the secrets and mysteries of Hermes, or Budha, Wisdom, and who alone is entrusted with the "Keys pf the Sanctuary, the Womb of Nature, in order to fructify it and call to active life anJ being the whole Kosmos — has become, with the Jews, Jehovah, the - "God of Generation" on the Lunar Mountain — Sinai, the Mountain ^^| the Moon (Sin). The "Sanctuary" has become the "Holy of Holies.^i and the arcanum has been anthropomorphized, and "phallicized," and dragged down into Matter, indeed. Hence arose the necessity making of the "Dragon of Wisdom," the "Serpent" of Genesis; oft conscious God who needed a body to clothe his too subjective divini Satan. But the "innumerable incarnations of Spirit," and "the less pulse and current of Desire,"* refer, the first, to our doctrine o Karmic and Cyclic Rebirths, the second — to Eros, not the later God of material, physiological love, but to the Divine Desire in the Gods, as well as in all Nature, to create and g^ve life to Beings. This, the Rays of the one "Dark," because invisible and incomprehensible, "Flame" could achieve only by themselves descending into Matter. Therefore, as continued iu the Appendix:
13. Many names hath God given him [Satan], names of mystery, secret and terrible.
13. . . . The Adveraary, because Matter opposeth Spirit, and Time accu even the saints of the Ivord.
3S. Stand in awe of him, and sin not: speak his name with trembling. . .
29. For Satan is the magistrate of the Justice of God [Karma]; he beareth balance and the sword.
31, For to him are committed iVei^ht and Measure and Numi^er,
Compare the last sentence with what the Rabbi, who explains the Kabalah to the Prince in the Book of Al Chazari, says, and it will be found that Weight and Measure and Number are, in the Scpherjeizirak, the attributes of the Sephiroth (the three Sephrim, or figures, ciphers), covering the whole collective number of 10; and that the Sephiroth are the collective Adam Kadmon, the "Heavenly Man" or the Logos. Thus Satan and the Anointed were identified in ancient thought. Therefore:
m
* ihid.. toe. cit.. vcne to.
1
^^^F HOLY SATAN. 245
33. Satan is the minister of God, Lord of the seven mansions of Hades, the Angi vf the manifest Worlds.
The seven Lokas, or Saptaloka, of the Earth with the Hindus; for Hades, or the Limbo of Illusion, of which Theology makes a region bordering on Hell, is simply our Globe, the Earth, and thus Satan is called the ** Angel of the manifest Worlds."
It is "Satan who is the God of our planet and tkt only God," and this without any metaphorical allusion to its wickedness and depravity. For he is one with the Logos.
The firet and "eldest of the gods," in the order of microcosmic [divine] evolu- Qoa, Saturn (Satan) [astronomically] is tlie seventh and last in the order of macro- cosmic emanation, being the circumference of the Kingdom of which Phcebos [the light of Wisdom, also the Sun] is the centre. •
The Gnostics were right, then, in calling the Jewish God an "Angel
of Matter." or he who breathed (conscious) life into Adam, and whose Planet was Saturn.
}4. And God hath put a girdle about his loins [the rings of Saturn], and the name of the girdle is Death.
[n Anthropogony this "girdle" is the human body with its two lower iciples. These three die, while the innermost Man is immortal, now we approach the secret of Satan.
. , . Upon Satan only is the shame of generation.
He hath lost his virginal estate [so hath the KumAra, by incarnating]: »n- t^ heavenly secrets, he hath entered into bondage. He encompasaeth with bonds and limits all things. . . . [43. Twain are the armies of God: in heaven the hosts of Michael ; in the abyss manifested world] the legions of Satan.
These are the Unmanifest and the Manifest; the free and the bound [in r]: the virginal and the fallen. And both are the ministers of the Father, fulfilling the Word divine.
*herefore :
Holy and venerable is the Sabbath of God: blessed and sanctiJUd is the name Angel of Hades [Satan].
The glory of Satan is the shadow of the Lord [God in the manifested World]: [throne of Satan is the footstool of Adonai [the whole Kosmos].
ten the Church, therefore, curses Satan, it curses the Kosmic re- ion of God; it anathematizes God made manifest in Matter or in ic objective; it maledicts God, or the ever-incomprehensible Wisdom,
246
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revealing itself as Ligbt and Shadow, Good and Evil in Nattire, in only manner comprehensible to the limited intellect of Man.
This is the true philosophical and metaphysical interpretation Samael, or Satan, the Adversary in the Kabalak; the same tenets spirit being found in the allegorical interpretations of ever>' oil ancient religion. This philosophical view does not interfere, howe\ with the historical records connected with it. We say "historii because allegory and mj-thical ornamentation round the kerne! tradition, in nowise prevent that kernel being a record of real eveni Thus, the Kabalah, repeating the time-honoured revelations of the universal history of our Globe and the evolution of its Races, has pf sented it under the legendary form of the various records which bai formed the Bible. Its historical foundation, in however imperfect] form, is now offered in these pages from the Secret Doctrine of East; and thus the allegorical and symbolical meaning of tlie Serpentl Genesis is found explained by the "Sons of Wisdom" — or Angels higher Spheres, though all and each pertain to the Kingdom of Sat or Matter — revealing to men the mysteries of Heaven. Hence, all the so-called myths of the Hindu, Grecian, Chaldaean, and Jewii Pantheons are found to be built on fact and truth. The Giants Gettesis are the historical Atlanteans of I^nka, and the Greek Tit
Who can forget that Troy was once upon a time proclaimed a m>i and Homer a non-existent personage, while the existence of such cit as Herculaneum and Pompeii was denied, and attributed to m* fairy legends? Yet Schliemann has proved that Troy did really and the two latter cities, though buried for long ages under Vesuvian lava, have had their resurrection day, and live again on surface of the Earth. How many more cities and localities "fabulous" are on the list of future discoveries, how many more sonages regarded as mythical* will one day become historical, alone can tell who read the decrees of Fate in the Astral Light.
As the tenets of the Eastern Doctrine, however, have always kept secret, and as the reader can hardly hope to be shown the origil texts unless he becomes an accepted disciple, let the Greek and scholar turn to the original texts of Hermetic literature. Let him, instance, read carefully the opening pages of the Pymandcr of Hei Trismegistus, and he will see our doctrines corroborated therein* h( ever veiled its text. There also he will find the evolution of
CAPUT ANGELORUM.
247
fSiverse, of our Earth, called "Nature" in Pyniander^ as of everything tlsc, from the '*Moyst Principle," or the great Deep, Father-Mother — the first differentiation in the manifested Kosmos. First the "Uni- versal Mind," which the hand of the Christian translator has meta- niorphosed in the earliest renderings into God, the Father; then the •'Heavenly Man/'* the great Total of that Host of Angels, which was too pure for the creatiou of the inferior Worlds or of the Men of our >be, but which nevertheless fell into Matter by virtue of that same »lution, as the Second I^gos of the "Father."! Synthetically, every Creative Logos, or "the Son who is one with the ler," is the Host of the Rectores Mundi in itself. Even Christian )log5' makes of the seven "Angels of the Presence" the Virtues, or the personified attributes, of God, which, being created by him, as the Manas were by Brahmd, became Archangels. The Roman Catholic Theodice itself, recognizing in its creative Verbum Princeps the Head of these Angels (caput angeloruni) and the Angel of the great Counsel {mapii consilii angeltis), thus recognizes the identity of Christ with them. "The Sura became --^-Sura" — the Gods became No-Gods — says the lert; xV., Gods became Fiends — Satan, when read literally. But Satan ^U now be shown, in the teaching of the Secret Doctrine, to be alle- gorized as Good and Sacrifice, a God of Wisdom, under different names. The Kahalak teaches that Pride and Presumption — the two chief prompters of Selfishness and Egotism — are the causes that emptied Heaven of one-third of its divine denizens, mystically, and of one-third of the stars, astronomically; in other words, the first statement is an allegory, and the second a fact. The former, nevertheless, is, as shown, intimately connected with humanity.
In their turn the Rosicrucians, who were well acquainted with the •ecret meaning of the tradition, kept it to themselves, teaching merely tltat the whole of "creation" was due to, and the result of, that
^71w "BoTCiily Man." pleue mark o^aln Che word, is the "Logos" or the "Son" BsoteriaUly. focT, oner that the title waj applied to Christ, who was declared to b« God aod the very God r. Christian Theology had no choice. lu order to support its dofpna of a personal Trinity it V> proclaim, as it still does, that the Christian l,o{os lu the only tmc one. and that all the Logoi reUgrions arv false, and are only the masquerading Evil Principle, Satan. See whereto this Western Theology f 'For the Mind, a deity aboandiag In both sexes, being Ijght and Ufe. brought forth by its Word Mind or Workman; which, being Cod of the Pire and the Spirit, fashioned and formed lodkcr Governors, which in their Circloi contain the Fbenomenal World, and whoae disposition Fate or I>estiny." (Sect. ix. c. \\ ed, of 1579.) ''Ben it is erideot that Mind, the Primeral Uaivcrsal EMvine Thought, is neither the Unknown Dii- aaauft^ted One, since it abounds in botii sexps— in male and female — nor yet the Christian "Father." iilbc Utter is a male aod not an androgyne. The fact is that the "Patbcr." "I>an." and "Man" at« mixed up in the tranftlatioas of Pymandet.
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legendary "War in Heaven/* brought on by the rebellion of the Angels* against Creative Law, or the Demiurge. The statement is correct, but the inner meaning is to this day a mystery. To elude further explana- tion of the diflSculty. by appealing to divine mystery, or to the sin of prying into its policy — is to say nothing at all. It may prove suflSdent for believers in the Pope's infallibility, but will hardly satisfy the philo- sophical mind. Yet the truth, although known to most of the high( Kabalists, has never been told by any of their number. One and Kabalists and Symbologists, have shown an extraordinary reluctani to confess the primitive meaning of the Fall of the Angels. In Christian such silence is only natural. Neither Alchemist nor Phili sopher during the Mediaeval Ages could have uttered thatf which in sight of Orthodox Theology was terrible blasphemy, for it would hai
* The tllegoTT of Uie fire of Prometheus Is another venlon of the rvbeUion of the proud Ln who wma harled down to the "bottomlnt* pit," or simply oa to our Earth, to live as man. The! Tvucifer, the Mahlaura, is also said to have become envious of the Creator's reAplendcot Light, ind,! the head of inferior Asuras (not Gods, but Spirits), to have rebelled a^iiiDSt Brahmi ; for which &M hurled him down to PltUa. Bat. as philosophy ^oes hand in hand with allegorical fiction In i myths, the " Deril " in made to repent, and la afforded the opportunity to propress : he is a aioftil 1 eioUricaily. and can by Yojra. devotion, and adeptabip, reach his status of "one with the ddl more. Hercules, the Sun-God, desccuds to Hades (the Cave of Initiation) to deliver the vie their tortures, etc. The Christian Church alone creates ftrrnal torment for the Devil and the 1 that she has Invented.
♦ why, for instance, should Elipbas Wvi, the very fearless and outspoken Kabalist, have he»lt to divulge the mystery of the Fallen Angels ao-callcd? That be knew the fact and the real mcaill of the allegory, both In its religious and mystical, as well as in its physiolof^cal sense, is prowd his volnminouH writings and frequent alluMona and hlnti. Vet Alphas, after having alluded toHi hundred times in his pre\ious works, says ia his later //ittoirc de la Magu (pp. zao, ui) : " We pnitc with all our might against the sovereignty and the ubiquity of Satan. We pretend neitJur t« nor affirm here the iraditt'on on the -FaJi of the A ngth. . . . B»t if ao . . . then the priattl the Angelic Rebels can be at best the last and the most powerleaa among the condemned— now 1 he is separated from deity— which is the principle of every power." This is haiy and evasive eoe but .see whut Hargrave Jcnningii writes in his weird, staccato-like style:
"Uoth Saint Michael and Saint George are types. They are sainted personages, or heroes, or powers apothecaiaed. They are each represented with their appropriate faculties flttribiites. Tliese are reproduced and stand multiplied — distinguished by different names to aB mythologies [including the ChrislianJ. But the idea regarding each Is a general one. This idea 1 representative notion Is that of the all-powerful champion— child-like in bts 'virgin innocence'- powerful that this God-filled innocence (the Seraphim 'know most,' the Cherubim 'lore mo»t'| shatter the world [articulated— «o to use the word — in the magic of Lucifer, but condemned), in • flltiun to the artful constructions, won out of the permission of the Supreme — artful coustructic ('this side life')— of the magnificent apostate, the mii^hly rebel, bat yet, at the same time, the 'I bringer,' the Lucifer— the 'Homing Star,' the 'Son of the Morning'— the very highest title 'otl hea\*cn,* for lu heaven it cannot be, but out of heaven it is everything. In an apparently side of his character— for let the reader carefully remark that qualities are of no sex— this Arrf Saint Michael is the invincible, sexless, celestial 'Bnergy '— to dignify him by his grand chi ties — the invincible 'Virgiti'Combalaut,' clothed . . . and at the same time armed, in the des] mail of the Gnostic 'refusal to create.' This is another iqyth, a 'myth within myths,' . btupendous ' mystery of mysteries,' because it is so impossible and contradictory. UnexplainaUc 1 the Apocalypse. TJ 11 reveal able a» the ' Revelation.' " {Phallitixm, pp. aij, »ij.)
Nevcrthclcas, this unexplainabU and untefealadlt m>-stcry will now be cxptaiacd and revealed' the doctrines of the Rast. Though, of course, as the very erudite, but still more paacUng auUiorj f^aliicum gives it, no uninitiated mortal would ever understand hia real dri/L
THROLOGICAI, SNUFPHRS.
349
i
I
led them direcUj' through the "Holy" Ofl&ce of the Inquisition, to rack and stake. But for our modern Kabalists and Freethinkers the case is differeul. With the latter, we fear, it is merely human pride, vanity based on a loudly rejected but ineradicable superstition. Since the Church, in her struggle with Manicheeism. invented the Devil, and by placing a theological extinguisher on the radiant Star-God Lucifer, the "Son of the Morning," thus created the most gigantic of all her para- doxes, a black and teitcbrous Light — the myth has struck its roots too deeply into the soil of blind faith to permit, in our age, even those, who do not acquiesce in her dogmas, and laugh at her homed and cloven- footed Satan, to come out bravely and confess the antiquit)' of the oldest of all traditions. In a few brief words it is this. Semi-exoteri- cally, the *' First-bom" of the Almighty — Fiat Lux^r the Angels of Primordial Light, were commanded to "create"; one-third of them rebelled and "refused"; while those who "obeyed" as Fetahil did — JaiUd most signally.
To realize the refusal and failure in their correct physical meaning, one must study and understand Eastern Philosophy; one has to be acquainted ^\'ith the fundamental m>'stical tenets of the Veddntins, as to the utter fallacy of attributing functional activity to the Infinite and Absolute Deit>'. Esoteric Philosophy maintains that during the Sandhyis, the "Central Sun" emits Creative Light — passively, so to say. Causality is latent. It is only during the active periods of Being that it gii'es rise to a stream of ceaseless Energy, whose vibrating currents acqirire more activity and potency with every rung of the hebdomadic ladder of Being which they descend. Hence it becomes comprehensible how the process of " creating," or rather of fashioning, the organic Universe, with all its units of the seven kingdoms, necessi- tated intelligent Beings — who became collectively a Being or Creative God. differentiated already from the One Absolute Unity, unrelated as the latter is to conditioned "creation."*
Now the Vatican MS. of the Kabaiak — the only copy of which (in Europe) is said to have been in the possession of Count St. Germain — contains the most complete exposition of the doctrine, including the peculiar version accepted by the Luciferiansf and other Gnostics; and
* " Cmtion "—out of prcCxisteti t eternal SuhsUncv. or Matter, of coune. which Substance, according %o our teacbinf;:s, Is Boundless, Kver-existinf; Space.
t The Lucifcrians, a stct of the fourth century who arc alleged to have taught that the »onl was • tfwrna/body transmitted to the chitd by Us father, and the Lucianistfi, another and earlier sect of the -Ihird century \.o., who tuiught all thin, and further, that the animal soul was not immortal, philo- ^ophixcd oo the grounds of the real Kaboliatic and Occult Icachiogs.
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THB SECRET DOCTRINE-
in that parchment the "Seven Suns of Life" are given in the order in which they are found in the Saptasur\'a. Only four of these, however, are mentioned in the editions of the Knbalah which are procurable in public libraries, and that even in a more or less veiled phraseologr. Nevertheless even this reduced number is amply suflScient to show identical origin, as it refers to the quaternary group of the Dh] Chohans, and proves the speculation to have had its origin in Secret Doctrines of the Ar>-ans. As is well known, the Kabalak not originate with the Jews, for the latter got their ideas from Chaldaeans and the Egj^ptians.
Thus even the exoteric Kabalistic teachings speak of a " Central Si and of three secondary Suns in each Solar System — our own indudt As shown in that able though too materialistic work, New AspecU\ Life and Reii^on, which is a synopsis of the views of the Kabalistsl an aspect deeply thought out and assimilated:
The central sun . . . was to them [as much aa to the Aryans] the £)n^|
rest: the centre to which all motion was to be ultimately referred. Round central sun . . . "the first of three systemic suns . . . revolved on b plane . . . the second, on an equatorial plane '* . . . and the third oal; was our visible sun. These four solar bodies were "/A^ orj^ans on whose actum man calls the creation, the evolution of life on the planet earth, depends** channels through which the influence of these bodies was conveyed to the ti they [the Kabalists] held to be electrical. . . . The radiant energy flowing the central sun* called the earth into being as a watery globe, . . . [who tendency], as the nucleus of a planetary body, was to rush to Uie (central) .... witliin the sphere of whose attraction it had been created. . the radiant energy, similarly electrifying both, withheld the one from the ot and so changed motion towards into motion round the centre of attraction, whit the revolving planet [earth] thus sought to reach.
In the organic cell the insible sun found its own proper matrix, and produ through this the animal [while maturing the vegetable] kingdom, finally pli man at its head, in whom, through the animating action of that kingdom, it nated the psychic cell. But the man so placed at the head of the animal kin{ at the head of the creation, was the animal, the soul-less, the perishable man.
* This "Ccntrfll Sun " of the Occultists even Sdencc U obliged to accept astmnoiniciilly. Arj caonot deny the preseoce in ndereal space- of a central body in the Milky Way, a pc^nt unaecai myBteriouB, thr cvrr-hiddcn centre of attraction of our Sun and System. But ihift "Sun" U differently by the Occultists of the Rast. While the Western and Jewish Kuhati^tt^ — and evn pious modem Astronomers— claim that in this Sun the Ood-hcad is flpecially present, referriuc the volitional acts of God— the Eofitem Initiates maintain that, as the Supra-divine Kssencc of I Unknown Absolute is equally in every domain and place, the " Central Sun " is siinply the ccntrti UniveraiU Life-Electricity: the rcserroir Mfithin which that Dirine Radiance, already differentiat the beginning- of every " creation," is focuued. Thoueh still in a Lays, or nevtral coodiUoo* nevcrlhclcss, the one attrRCllng;, a* alio the ever-emitting, I4fc-Centre.
PRINCIPLES EXPLAINED.
Hence man. although apparently its crowo, would, by his advent have marked tlie close of creation; since creation, culminating in him, would at his death have entered on its decline.*
This Kabalistic view is here quoted, to show its perfect identity iu spirit with the Eastern Doctrine. Explain, or complete the teaching of the Seven Suns with the seven systems of Planes of Being, of wbicli tlie "Suns*" are the central bodies, and you have the seven Angelic Planes, whose "Host" collectively are the Gods thereoff They are the Head Group divided into four Classes, from the Incorporeal down to the Semi-corporeal. These Classes are directly connected — though in very different ways as regards voluntary connection and functions — with our mankind. They are three, synthesized by the fourth, the first and highest, which is called the "Central Sun" in the Kabalistic doc- trine just quoted. This is the great difference between the Semitic and the Aryan Cosmogony — one materializing, humanizes the mysteries of Nature; the other spiritualizes Matter, and its physiology is always made subservient to metaphysics. Thus, though the seventh ''prin- ciple" reaches man through all the phases of Being, pure as an indis- crete element and au impersonal unit>-, it passes through — the Kabalah teaches yVw« — the Central Spiritual Sun and Group the Second, the Polar Sun, which two radiate on man his AtmS. Group Three, the Equatorial Sun, cements the Buddhi to Atman and the higher attri- butes of Manas; while Group Four, the Spirit of our visible Sun, eniiows him with his Manas and its vehicle, the KIma RCipa, or body of passions and desires — the two elements of Ahamkdra which evolve tjuiividualized consciousness^ the personal Ego. Finally, it is the Spirit of the Earth, in its triple unity, that builds the Physical Body, attract- ing to it the Spirits of Life and forming his Linga Sharira.
Bat everything proceeds cyclically, the evolution of man like every- Uiing else, and the order in which he is generated is described fully in ihe Eastern Teachings, whereas it is only hinted at in the Kabalak, Sits the Book of Dzyan with regard to Primeval Man when first pro- jected by the "Boneless," the Incorporeal Creator:
Finty ike Breath, then Buddhi, and the Shadow-Son \^lke Body\ wc*-€ ^tTmied:' But where was the Pivot [the Middle Principie, Manas'}? Man hd99mid, IVhen alone, the Indiscrete [ Undifferaitiated Eiemati] and tlu reim {^Buddhi] — the Cause of the Causeless — break asunder from mans- fesudtife.
■
* op. eii., pp. sd7>j^.
T Sec CommenLtry to SUnu VII, Volume I.
H
25*
THE SECRET DOCTRINE.
''Unless^' explains the Commentary:
Unless canenfed and held logether by the Middle Principle, the Vek of the personal consciousness ofjtva.
In other words, the two higher "principles" can have no individn on Earth, cannot be man, unless there is (a) the Mind, the Mauas-£^ to cognize itself, and {l>) the terrestrial false Personality, or the Body egotistical desires and personal Will, to cement the whole, as \{ rot a Pivot — which it is, truly — to the physical form of man. It is theyj^ and th^ fomih ''principles"* — Manas and K^ma Rupa — that con! the dual Personality; the real immortal Ego, if it assimilates itself the two higher, and the false and transitory' Personality, the MSyari Astral Body, so-called, or the Animal-human Soul — the two havii to be closely blended for purposes of a full terrestrial existence. Il carnate the Spiritual Monad of a Newton, grafted on that of greatest saint on Earth, in a physical body the most perfect you think of— i.tf., in a two or even a three-principled Body composed of Sthula Sharira, Prana (Life-principle) and Linga Sharira — and, if lacks its middle and fifth "principles," you will have created an — at best a beautiful, soul-less, empty and unconscious appearonf *' Cogiio — ergo sum*' can find no room in the brain of such a creatai not on this plane, at any rate.
There are students, however, who have long ago understood philosophical meaning underlying the allegory — so tortured and di figured by the Roman Church — of the "Fallen Angels."
The kingdom of spirits and spiritual action, which flows from and is the prodi of spirit volition, is outside and contrasted with and in contradiction to the dom of [divine] souls and divine action. t
As said in the text of Commentary xiv:
Like produces like and no more at (he genesis of Being, and evolui with its limited condiiioyied laws comes later. The Self-Existent^ called ** Creations *^ for they appear in the Spirit-Ray, manifested /hi the potency inherent in its Unborn Nature, which is beyond Time [limited or conditioned'] Space. Terrene products, animate and inanh including mankind, are falsely called creation and creatures; they an development [evolution'] of the Discrete Elements.
* The fourth and the fi/th from Mow beffinniiig' with the PhysiciU Body ; the third and Uie If we reckon from Atml.
♦ New Aspects of Life.
t An^eUc. Spiritual Essences, immortal In their Beinp, because oncondiUoned in Btemity; periodical and condiUooed in their Manvuitaric msnircftatioiu.
MAN, THE PAXB SHADOW OF GOD,
a55
Again:
7^he Heavenly Rupa \^Dhyan Chohan\ creates [«»a«] in his own form; it is a spiritual ideation consequent on the first differentiation and awakett- ing of the universal [^manifested] Substance; that form is the ideal Shadov of Itself: and this is the Man of the First Race,
To express it in still clearer form, limiting the explanation to this Earth only, it was the duty of the first "differentiated" Kgos — the Church calls them Archangels — to imbue Primordial Matter with the evolutionao' impulse and guide its formative powers in the fashioning of its productions. This it is which is referred to in the sentences both in the Eastern and Western tradition — "the Angels were com- manded to create** After the Earth had been made ready by the lower and more material Powers, and its three Kingdoms fairly started on their way to be "fruitful and multiply," the higher Powers, the Arch- angels or DhySnis, were compelled by the Evolutionary Law to descend on Earth, in order to construct the crown of its evolution — Man. Thus the "Self-created" and the "Self-existent" projected their pale Shadows; but Group the Third, the Fire- Angels, rebelled and refused to- join their fellow Devas.
Hindu exotericism represents them all as Yogins, whose piety in- spired them to refuse to "create," as they desired to remain eternally KumSras, "Virgin Youths," in order, if possible, to anticipate their fellows in progress towards Nin'Sna — the final liberation. But, agree- ably to Esoteric interpretation, it was a self-sacrifice for the benefit of mankind. The "Rebels" would not create will-less irresponsible men, as the "obedient" Angels did; nor could they endow human beings with even the temporary* reflections of their own attributes; for the latter, belonging to another and a so much higher plane of conscious- ness, would leave man still irresponsible, hence interfere with any possibility of higher progress. No spiritual and psychic evolution is possible on Earth — the lowest and most material plane— for one who, on that plane at all events, is inherently perfect and cannot accumulate either merit or demerit. Had Man remained the pale Shadow of the inert, immutable, and motionless Perfection, the one negative and passive attribute of the real / am that I am, he would have been doomed to pass through life on Earth as in a heavy dreamless sleep; lence a failure on this plane. The Beings, or the Being, collectively called Elohira, who first pronounced (if. indeed, they ever were pro- nounced) the cruel words, " Behold, the man is become as one of us, to-
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THE SECRET DOCTRINE.
icnow good and evil; and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take aiso of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever . . . " — must have been indeed the Ilda-baoth, the Demiurge of the Nazarenes, filled with ragt and envy against his own creature, the reflection of which created Ophiomorphos. In this case it is but natural— even from the dead- letter standpoint — to view Satan, the Serpent of GtnesiSf as the real creator and benefactor, the Father of Spiritual Mankind. For it is he who was the "Harbinger of Light," bright radiant Lucifer, who opend the eyes of the automaton "created" by Jehovah, as alleged. And he who was the first to whisper, "in the day ye eat thereof ye shall be as Elohim, knowing good and evil," can only be regarded in the light of a Saviour. An "Adversary" to Jehovah, the *' personating spirit," he still remains in Esoteric Truth the ever- loving "Messenger," the Aogel. the Seraphim and Cherubim who both "knew" well, and "loved" still more, and who conferred on us Spiritual, instead of Physical Immor- tality— the latter a kind of static immortality that would have trans formed man into an undying "Wandering Jew."
As narrated in King's Gnostics and their Remains concerning B "baoth. whom several sects regarded as the God of Moses:
Iltlabaoth was far from being a pure spirit: ambition and pnde dominated in composition. He therefore resolved to break off all connection with his moth Achamoth, and to create a world entirely for himself. Aided by his own Spirits, he created Man, intending him for the image of his power; but he \itlerly in his work, his Mun proving a vast, soulless monster, crawling upon earth. The Six Spirits were obliged to bring their work again before their fnlh to be animated: he did so by communicating the ray of Divine Light which himself had inherited from Achamoth, who by this loss punished him for his pi a.nd self-sufficiency.
Man, thus favoured by Achamoth at the expense of her own son, followed impulse of the Divine Light that slie had transferred to him, collected a supply out of the creation with which it was intermingled, and began to pi not the image of his creator ndabaoth, but rather that of the Supreme Being, *' Primal Man." At this spectacle the Demiurgus was filled with rage and eo at having produced a being so superior to himself. His looks, inspired by passions, were reflected in the Abyss, as in a mirror, the image became instil .■with life, and forth arose "Satan Serpent-fonned,'* Ophiomorphos, the emtx>dimi •of envy and cunning.*
This is the exoteric rendering of the Gnostics, and the allcj though a sectarian version, is suggestive, and seems true to life. It' the natural deduction from the dead-letter text of Chapter iii of G€n
SATAN, A CENTRIPETAI, FORCE.
25r
Hence the allegory of Prometheus, who steals the Divine Fire so ar to allow men to proceed consciously on the path of Spiritual Evohition, thus transforming the most perfect of animals ou Earth into a potential God, and making him free to "take the kingdom of heaven by violence.'* Hence, also, the cjtrse pronounced by Zeus against Prometheus, and by Jehovah-Ilda-baoth against his "rebellious son," Satan. The cold» pure snows of the Caucasian mountain and the never-dying, singeing" fire and flames of an inextinguishable Hell, two poles, yet the same idea, the dual aspect of a refined torture; a *• Fire-producer" — the personi- fied emblem of *oi£r in the Anima Muudi (that Element of which the German materialist philosopher Molcschott said : '*ohne Phosphor kein Gedanke," or *' without phosphorus no thought") — burning in the fierce Flames of his terrestrial Passions; the conflagration fired by his Thought, dis- cerning as it now does good from evil, and yet a slave to the passions of its earthly Adam; feeling the vulture of doubt and full conscious- ness gnawing at its heart — a Prometheus indeed, because a conscious, and hence a responsible entity.* The curse of life is great, yet, with the exception of some Hindu and Sufi mystics, how few are those who -would exchange all the tortures of conscious life, all the evils of a responsible existence, for the unconscious perfection of a passive (ob- jectively) incorporeal Being, or even the universal static Inertia personi- fied in Brahma during his "Night's" Rest. For, to quote from an able article by onef who, confusing the planes of existence and conscious- ness, fell a victim thereto:
Satan [or Lncifer] represents the Active, or, as [M. Jules] Baissac calls it, the "CeuUifugal" Eiierjo' of the Universe [in a cosmic sense]. He is Fire, Light, Life, StrngKle, Effort, Thought, Coasciousness, Progress, Cirilization, Liberty, Indepen- dence. At the same time he is Pain^ which is the Reaction of the Pleasure of Action, and Death — which is the Revolution of /.yt^^atan, burning in his own Hell, produced hy the fury of his own momentuTu — the expansive disintegration of the Nebula which is to concentrate into New Worlds. And fitly is he again and
• The hi-story of Prometheus, Karma, and human consciousness. U to be found In Part IT, Section V.
t By aa HnsUshtnAn whose erratic genius killed him. The son of a Protestant clergyman, he- became a MuhnnnncditT] ; then a rabid Atheist; after meeting: with a Mnftter, a Ouru, he became a Mystic: then a Thcosophist who doubted, despaired— threw up whiU for black magric, went insice- aadjoiued the Roman Church. Then again turning* round, anathematlxed her, re-becnrac nn Atheist, and died curHinf: humanity, knowledge, and God, in whom he had ceased to be1ie\'c. Furnished with sll the Esoteric data to write his "War in Heaven," he made a semi-poUticoI article out of it, mixing- Malthus with Satan, and Darwin with the Astral light. Peace be to his— 5V//. He i» a warning to the Chclis who fail. His forgotten tomb may now be seen in the Mussulman burial ground of Jootuu- ghur, Kathiawar, India.
256
THB SECRBT DOCTRINK.
again bnffled by the Eternal Inertia of the Passive Energy of the Kosmoa — the inexorable "/ af«" — the Flint from which the sparks are beaten out. And fitly , . . . are he and his adherents .... consij^ed to the *'Sea of Fire" — because it is the San [in one sense only in the cosmic allegory], the Fount of Life in iw*r system, where they are purified (meaning thereby disintegrated) and churned up to rearrange them far another life |the Resurrection}— that Sun which, as the Origin of the Active Principle of our Earth, is at once the Hotne and the Source of the Mundane Satan. . . .
Furthermore, as if to demonstrate the accuracy of Baissac's general theory [in Le DiabU ei Saian\ cold is known to have a "Centripetal** effect. Under the influence of Cold everytliing contracts. . . . Under it Life hybemaies, or dies out. Thought congeals, and Fife is extinguished. Satan is immortal in his own Fire-Sea— it is only in the "Nifl-Heim" [the cold Hell of the Scantlinaviaii Eddas\ of the •'/ aw" that be cannot exist. But for all that there is a kind of Imniortai Existence in Nifl*Iieim. and that Existence must be Painless and Peaceful^ because it is Unconscious and Inactive. In the Kingdom oi Jehovah [if this God were all that the Jews and Christians claim for him] there is no misery, no war, no marrying and giving in marriage, no change, no Tndividual Consciotismss* All w absorbed in the spirit of the Most Powerful. // is emphatically a Kingdom of Peace and loyal Submissimi^ as that of the " Arch-/SebeP* is one of War and Pevolution. , . , It [the former] is in fact what Theosophy calls Nirvflna. But then Theosophy teaches that Separation from the Primal Source having" once occurred, Reiinion can only be achieved by H'ill-Effori — which is distinctly Satanic in the sense of this essay.t
It is "Satanic" from the standpoint of orthodox Romanism, for it is owing to the prototype of that which became in time the Christian Devil — to the Radiant A^changels^ Dhy^n Chohans, who refused to create, because they wanted Man to become his own creator and an im- mortal God — that men can reach Nirvina and the Haven of heavenly Divine Peace.
To close this rather lengthy comment, the Secret Doctrine teaches that the Fire-Devas, the Rudras. and the Kiuuaras, the "Virgin- Angels," (to whom the Archangels, Michael and Gabriel, both belong,) the Divine "Rebels" — called by the all-materializing and positive Jews, the Nahash or "Deprived" — preferred the curse of incamaticm and the long cycles of terrestrial existence and rebirths, to seeing the misery, even if unconscious, of the beings who were evolved as Shadows out of their Brethren, through the semi-passive energy of their loo spiritual Creators. If "man's uses of life should be such as neither to auimalize
* Thr anthor talks of Uie active, fighiing, damalnjf Jehovah u Uioujch he laere i, synooTin Of Parnbrahnuui ) We hiive quoted rrom thin article to show where It diuentjt rrom Theoflophic leachlnss; othenriAc it would be quoted •ome day agaioct ua. as ererythinx published in tba ThfOiofiAiii generally ia.
t The TJuoaopkisI, vol. iU. p. 68.
THE SACRIFICK OP THK ITHRT ANGEtS.
^57
nor to spiritualize, but to humanize Self."* to do so, he must be bom human not angelic. Hence, tradition shows the celestial Yogis offer- ing themselves as voluntary victims in order to redeem Humanity, which was created god-like and perfect at first, and endow him with human affections and aspirations. To do this they had to give up their natural status, descend on our Globe, and take up their abode on it for the whole cycle of the Mahdyuga, thus exchanging their impersonal Individualities for jndi\'idual Personalities — the bliss of sidereal exist- ence for the curse of terrestrial life. This voluntary sacrifice of the Fiery Angels, whose nature was Knowledge and LovCy has been con- strued by the exoteric theologies into a statement that shows "the Rebel Angels hurled down from Heaven into the darkness of Hell" — our Earth. Hindu Philosophy hints at the truth by teaching that the Asuras, hurled down by Shiva, are only in an iniervicdiaic slaie^ in which they prepare for higher degrees of purification and redemption from their wretched condition; but Christian Theology — claiming to be based on the rock of the di\'ine love, charit>*, and justice of him it appeals to as its Saviour — to paradoxically enforce that claim, has invented the dreary dogma of Hell, that Archimedean lever of Roman Catholic philosophy.
Whereas Rabbinical wisdom — than which there is none more positive, materialistic, or grossly terrestrial, as it brings everything down to physiological mysteries — calls these Beings, the "Evil One"; and the Kabalists — Nahash, "Deprived," as just said, and the Souls that iiave, after having been alienated in Heaven from the Holy Oney thrown them- selves into an Abyss at the dawn of their very existence, and have anticipated the time when they are to descend on Earth. t
And let mc explain at once that our quarrel is not with the Zohar or any other book »of the Kabalak in its right interpretation — for the latter is the same as our own — but only with the gross, pseudo- esoteric explanations of the later, jiid especially of the Christian Kabalists.
* Estplfllnins: the Kabalah^ Dr. Henry Pratt says: "Spirit wan to ihmq [to the Jewish Rabbin, fBtherl} s bodiless, diacmbodied, or deprived, and de^rraded bciD^r, and hence woa termed b)' the ideograph Nahash, 'Deprived'; rcpreaentcd a» uppcarinf^ to aud seduciag Ihv human rwx — man IhrDogh the wotnau. ... In the picture from this Nahash, this spirit waa reprtAented by a «erpent, iKcausc from its destilutxon of bodily members, the serpent wan looked upon aa a deprived and depraved and dcRraded crcaturr." {Nnv As^ecls of Life, p. 235.) Symbol for symbol there air those who would prefer that of the ttcrpeiit — the symbol of wisdom and eternity, deprived of limbs aa it i»— to the Jod p)— the poetical ideograph of Jebovah In Uie A'adoAzA— the Ood of the male symbol of grurratioii.
V Zohar, iii. 6if.
258
THE SECRET DOCTRINE.
Says the Commentary:
Our carih and man \art\ ikft products of the three Fires.
The names of these three answer, in Sanskrit, to the "Electric Fire." the "Solar Fire," and the "Fire produced by Friction." Explaii on the cosmic and human planes, these three Fires are Spirit, Soul. Body, the three great Root Groups, with their four additional divisi These var>' with the Schools, and — according to their applications-' become the Upadhis and the Vehicles, or the Noumena of these. lai the exoteric accounts, they are personified by the "three sons of sur-J passing brilliancy and splendour" of Agni Abhimanin, the eldest soa( Brahma, the Cosmic Logos, by Svaha, one of Daksha's* daught In the metaphysical sense, the "Fire by Friction" means the ui between Buddhi, the sixth, and Manas, the fifth "principle," which are united or cemented together, the fifth merging partially into becoming part of the Monad; in the physical, it relates to the "crea spark," or germ, which fructifies and generates the human being, three Fires, whose names are Pavaka, Pavamaua and Shuchi. condemned, it is said, by a curse of Vasishtha, the great Sage. *'to' born over and over again,"! This is clear enough.
Therefore, the Flames, whose functions are confused in the exot books, and who are called iudifierently Prajapatis, Pitris, Mi Asuras, Rishis, Kumaras.J etc., are said to incarnate personally in Third Root-Race and thus find themselves "reborn over and again." In the Esoteric Doctrine they are generally named Asi or the Asura Devata or Pitar Devata (Gods), for, as said, they were Gods — and the highest — before they became •'A'17-Gods," and had Spirits of Heaven fallen into Spirits of Earth§ — txotericatiy, note in orthodox dogma.
* DfUuha, the " intelli^rat. Uie competent." "This aune generally carries with It tbe ! crtotive fowet** He is a son of Brahrai and of Adltl, and agreeably to other vendoiu. a Miff power, which, like Minerva, sprang from hi« fnther's body. He i» the chief of the Pmjll Lords or Creators of BeinK. In Vuhntt Purina. Por&shara says of him : " In every Kalpa [ori vantaia] Daksba and the rest are bom sad are again destroyed." And the Rtg I'tda "Daksha sprang from Adit! and Aditi from Dakaha," a reference to the eternal cyclic re-birth i same divine Essence.
+ Rhagavata Purama, iv. 14, 4.
t No one of Uiesc Orders is distinct from the Pitris or Progenitora. As sayv Mann titt. ifti) : wise call our fathers Vasos; our paternal grandfothers. Kudrvs: our paternal grcfii gni Adityaa; agreeably to a text of the Vc^los." "This is an everlasting Vedic text," says translation.
I As now discmTfcd by the late G. Smith in the Babylonian cylinder literatnre, it was ihei ChnldiEan Tbeogony. Ishlar, "eldest of Heaven and of Earth." Below him the Igigi or llcnven, and the AnOnaki. or Augels of Rarth. Below these again various dajurs of Spii "Genii" called Sadu, Vadukku. Ekirau. Gollu-^f which some were good, some eviL \i Babytofiian Mythology, also Sayce's Hibbrrt teciures, p. 141.)
THE "CONSCIOUS ENTITY."
25C
"No Theologian or Orientalist can ever understand the genealogfies if the Prajapatis, the Manus, and the Rishis, or the direct connec- ion of these — their correlation rather — with the Gods, unless he has fhe key to the old primitive Cosmogony and Theogony, which all nations originally had in common. All these Gods and Demi-gods are id reborn on Earth, in various Kalpas and in as various characters; moreover, having his Kamta distinctly traced, and every effect to its cause. jfore other Stanzas could be explained, it was, as may be seen, lately necessary to show that the Sons of "Dark Wisdom," though [cntical with the Archangels which Theology has chosen to call the "Fallen/* are as divine and as pure, iT not more pure, than all the Michaels and Gabriels so glorified in the Churches. The "Old Book" also goes into various details of Astral Life, which at this juncture ^ould be quite incomprehensible to the reader. It must, therefore, be Itft for later explanation, and the First and Second Races will now ticcive only bare notice. Not so the Third Race — the Root-Race
(ihich separated into sexes, and which was the first to be endowed with reason ; men evolving pari passu with the Globe, and the latter kving "incrustated" more than a hundred millions of years before the , first human sub-race had yet begun to materialize or solidify, so to say. as the Stanza has it:
Inner Man [the Conscious £niity^ was not.
lis "Conscious Entity" Occultism saj's. comes from, nay, in many
M, the very essence and esse o( the high Intelligences, condemned,
undeviating law of Karmic evolution, to reincarnate in this
ivantara.
Shloka 39 relates exclusively to the racial divisions. Strictly
:ing, Esoteric Philosophy teaches a modified polygenesis. For,
it assigns to humanity a oneness of origin, in so far that its Fore-
rers or '* Creators" were all Divine Beings — though of different
or degrees of perfection in their Hierarchy^t teaches that men
nevertheless born at seven different centres of the Continent of
period. Though all were of one common origin, yet, for reasons
U their potentialities and mental capabilities, outward or physical
and future characteristics, were very different.* As to their
the
nvperfor. oUwn infeHor, /o rmtt ike A^arma o€ the Tsrlotu rcTncamatinir Monada, which aU br of the same- de^rre or purity in their last births in other Worlda. This accounts for ICC of races, the inferiority of the cavage and other human varieties.
26o
THE SECRET DOCTRINE.
complexions, there is a suggestive allegory told in Lin^a Purdna. The Kumiras — ihe Rudra Gods, so called — are described as iiicamatiuus of Shiva, the Destroyer (p^ outward forms), called also Vamadeva. The latter, as a Kumara, the "Etenial Celibate." the chaste Virgin Youti, springs from Brahma in each great Mauvantara, and "again hecomej four" ; a reference to the four great divisions of the human Races, regards complexion and type — and the three chief variations of th* Thus in the twenty-ninth Kalpa — in this case a reference to the formation and evolution of the human form, which Shiva ever desti and remodels periodically down to the great Manvantaric turning poil about the middle of the Fourth (Atlantean) Race — in the twenty-nil Kalpa, Shiva, as Shvetalohita, the Root-Kumara, from moon-colooi becomes white; in his next transformation, he is red (and in this exoteric version differs from the Esoteric Teaching); in the ihii yellow; in the fourth, black,
Esotericism now classes these seven variations, with their four divisions, into only three distinct primeval Races — as it does not into consideration the First Race, which had neither type nor cole and a hardly objective, though colossal, form. The evolution of Races, their formation and development, proceeded on parallel lil with the evolution, formation, and development of three geoloj strata, from which the human complexion was as much derived was determined by the climates of these zones. The Esoteric Teachi names three great divisions, namely, the red-yellow, the blacky and brown-while,* The Arj-an races, for instance, now varj'ing from brown, almost black, red-brown-yellow, down to the whitest cres colour, are nevertheless all of one and the same stock, the Fifth Race, and spring from one single Progenitor, called in Hindu exoi cism by the generic name of Vaivasvata Manu; the latter, rememl being that Generic Personage, the Sage, who is said to have lived oi 18,000,000 years ago, and also 850,000 years ago — at the time of sinking of the last remnants of the Great Continent of Atlantis,t
* "There are," sayi Topinard in the En^Uab edition of hia AtUkropoi*^y, wiUi a preface hf fefloor Broca. " ikitt fundamcntnl elements of colour in the human organ ura— namely, the r«^1 yellow, and the black, which, mixed in variable quantities vrith the white of the tismies, five thoae numrrouA thade* Hem in the human family." Here is Scieucr again unintentionally vx\ Occultism.
T It must be remembered that the " last remnants " here spoken of, refer to those purtiooa "Great Continent" which «tiU remained, and not to any of the numerous i;«lands which conlcmporaneonsly with the Continent. Pinto's "i«)i\ud." for instance, was one of such remi the othen haviajc siink at various periods previousLy. An Occult " tradition " t«achea that sucftj meraiona occur whenever there is an eclipse of tiic " Spiritual Sun."
ANSWERS TO OBJECTIONS.
261
wno is said to live even now in his mankind .♦ The light yellow is the colour of the first solid human race, which appeared after the middle of the Third Root- Race — after its fall into generation, as just explained — bringing ou the final changes. For, it is only at that period that the last transformation took place, which brought forth man as he is now, only on a magnified scale. This Race gave birth to the Fourth Race; "Shiva" gradually transforming that portion of Humanity which be- came "black with sin'* into red-yellow, of which the red Indians and the Mongolians are the descendants, and finally into brown-white races — which now. together with the yellow races, form the great bulk of Humanity. The al!egor>' in Linga Purdna is curious, as showing the great ethnological knowledge of the ancients.
When reading of the "last transformation," which is said to have taken place 18.000,000 years ago. let the reader at this juncture, con- sider how many millions more it must have required to reach that final stage. And if Man, in his gradual consolidation, developed pari passu with the Earth, how many millions of years must have elapsed during the First, Second, and the first half of the Third Race. For the Earth was in a comparatively ethereal condition before it reached its last consolidated state. The Archaic Teachings, moreover, tell us that, during the middle period of the Lemuro-Atlantean Race, three and a half Races after the Genesis of Man, the Earth, Man, and everything on the Globe, were of a still grosser and more material nature, while such things as corals and some shells were still in a semi-gelatinous, astral state. The cj'cles that have intervened since then, have already carried us onward, on the opposite ascending arc, some steps toward our "dematerializatiou," as the Spiritualists would say. The Earth, ourselves, and all things have softened since then — aye, even our brains. But it has been objected by some Theosophists that an ethereal Earth even some 15 or 20,000,000 5'ears ago, "does not square with Geolog>'," which teaches us that winds blew, rains fell, waves broke on the shore, sands shifted and accumulated, etc. ; that, in short, all natural causes now in operation were then in force, "in the very earliest ages of geological time, aye, that of the oldest palaeozoic rocks." To this the following answers are given. Firstly, what is the date assigned by Geology to these "oldest palaeozoic rocks*'? And secondly, Tvhy could not the winds blow, rain fall, and waves — of "carbonic acid"
* See IHe remarks on the Root and Seed Hanus tV/n-a. and the Section on " The Primeval Maniu of Humaoity," at the cod of the CDmmenlaries on this Stanaa.
262
THE SECRET DOCTRINE.
apparently, as Science seems to imply — break on the shore, on an Eai semi-astral, i.e., viscid? The word *• astral" does not necessarily, in Occult phraseology, mean as thin as smoke, but rather •*starr>'," shining or pellucid, in various and numerous degrees, from a quite filmy to a \ viscid state, as just observed. But it is further objected: "How could an astral Earth have affected the other Planets in this System ? Would ! not the whole process get out of gear now if the attraction of one Planet were suddenly removed?" The objection is evidently invalid, since our System is composed of older and younger Planets, some dead — like the Moon — others in process of formation, for all that Astronomy knows to the contrary. Nor has the latter ever affirmed, so far aswc know, that all the bodies of our System have sprung into existence and developed simultaneously. The Cis-Himilayan Secret Teachings differ from those of India in this respect. Hindu Occultism teaches that the Vaivasvata Manu Humanity is 18,000,000 and odd years old. Wc say, yes; but only so far as physical or approximately physical* Man is concerned, who dates from the close of the Third Root-Race. Beyond that period Man.^ or his filmy image, may have existed for 300,000,000 years, for all we know; since we are not iaughi Jigurcs which are and will remain secret with the Masters of Occult Science, as justly stated in Esoteric Buddhism. Moreover, whereas the Hindu Purines speak of one Vaivasvata Manu, we affirm that there were several, the name being a generic one.
We must now say a few more words on the physical evolution man.
ARCHAIC TEACHINGS IN THE "PURANAS" AND •'GENESIS.* PHYSICAL EVOLUTION.
The writer cannot give too much proof that the system of Cosmoj and Anthropogony above described actually existed, that its recoi arc preserved, and that it is found mirrored even in the modem versi( of ancient Scriptures.
The Ptirdnas on the one hand, and the Jewish Scriptures on other, are based on the same scheme of evolution, which, if read terically and expressed in modern language, would be found to be qi OS scientific as much of what now passes current as the final word recent discovery. The only difference between the two schemes that the Purdnas, giving as much, and perhaps more, attention causes than to effects, allude to the pre-cosmic and pre-genetic pei
MR. GLADSTONE KILLS "GENESIS.
263
rather than to those of so-called "creation," whereas the Bible^ after saying only a few words on the former period, plunges forthwith into material genesis, and, while almost skipping the Pre-Adamic races, proceeds with its allegories concerning the Fifth Race.
Now, whatever the onslaught made on the "order of creation" in Gaiesis — and its dead-letter account certainly lends itself admirably to criticism* — the Hindfi Puranas^ notwithstanding their allegorical exaggerations will be found quite in accordance with Physical Science.
Even what, on the face of it, appears to be the perfectly nonsensical Allegory of Brahma assuming the form of a Boar to rescue the Earth from under the waters, finds a perfectly scientific explanation in the Secret Commentaries, relating as it does to the many risings and sink- ings, tlie constant alternation of water and land from the earliest to the latest geological periods of our Globe; for Science teaches us now that nine-tenths of the stratified formations of the Earth's crust have been gradually constructed beneath the water at the bottom of the seas. The ancient Ar>'ans are credited with having known nothing whatever of Natural History, Geology, and so on. The Jewish race is, on the other hand, proclaimed even by its severest critic, an uncompromising opponent of the BibUy to have the merit of having conceived the idea of monotheism "earlier, and retained it more firmly, than any of the less philosophical and more immoral rtiigious (! !) of the ancient world."! Only, while in biblical Esotericism, we find physiological sexual mys- teries symbolized, and very little more, something for which very* little real Philosophy is requisite — in the Purdnas one can find the most scientific and philosophical "dawn of creation," which, if impartially analyzed and rendered into plain language from its fairy-tale-like allegories, would show that modem Zoology, Geology, Astronomy, and
* Mr. GUdstone's unfortunate attcmpl to reconcile the Gcaetic account with Science (ace his *'nawn of Creation" and "Proetii to Genesis," in 71u SUnfteemtk Cmtury, i8fl6), has brought upon Um the Jovian thondcrbolt hurled by Air. Huxley. The dead-letter account warranted no such ■tlenipt ; and his fourfold order, or division, of animated creation, has turned iato the stone which, faistead of killing' the fly un the flerping- friend's brow, killed the man himself. Mr. Gladstone haa kjUcd Crmsts for ever. But this docs not prove that there is no Ksotericism in the latter. The fact thst the Jews and all the Christinmi, the modern aA well as the early sects, have accepted tlie oarra- tive litfrali/ for two thousand years, proves only their ignorance, and shows the great lugenuity and constructive ability of the Initiated Kahhts, who built the two accounts— the Elohistic and Jebo^nstic —Esotcrically, and purposely confused the meaning by tbe voweUess glyphs or word-fiis:ns in Uic oriifinal text. The blx days (Vomf of creation do mean six periods of evolution, and the seventh day la that of culmination, of perfection— not of rest. Thcac refer to the seven Rounds and the seven Races with a distinct "crvation " In each ; though the use of the words Boker. "dawn" or "morning," and Breb, "evening twilight "—which have Esoterically the same meaning as .Sandhyi, "twilight," in Sanskrit— have led to a charge of the most crass igaorance of tbe order of evolution.
i Modem ScUnc
264
THE SECRET DOCTRINE.
nearly all the branches of modem knowledge, have been anticipated in ancient Science, and were known to ancient Philosophers in their general features, if not in such detail as at present.
PaurSnic Astronomy, with all its deliberate concealment and con- fusion for the purpose of leading the profane ofiF the real track, has been shown even by Bentley to be a real science; and those who arc versed in the mysteries of Hindu astronomical treatises, will prove i\ the modern theories of the progressive condensation of nebulae, tiebc lous stars and suns, with the most minute details about the cyclic pi grass of asterisms for chronological and other purposes — far more coi than Europeans have even now — were known in India to perfection.
If we turn to Geology and Zoology we find the same. Wliat are all the myths and endless genealogies of the seven PrajSpatis, of their sons, the seven Rishis or Manus, and of their wives, sons and progeny, but a vast detailed account of the progressive development and evolu- tion of animal creation, one species after the other? Were the highly philosophical and metaphysical Aryans — the authors of the most perfect philosophical system of transcendental Psychology, of codes of Ethics, of such a grammar as Pauini's, of the Sankhya and Vedanta systems^ of a moral code (Buddhism), proclaimed by Max Miiller the most perfect on earth — were the Ar>'ans such fools, or children, as to lose their time in writing "fairy tales," such as the Purdnas now seem to be in the eyes of those who have not the remotest idea of their secret meaning? \\Tiat is the '* fable," the genealogy and origin of Kashyapa, with his twelve wives by whom he had a numerous and diversiticil progeny of serpents (Nagas), reptiles, birds, and all kinds of living things, who was thus the "father" of all kinds of animals, but a vfUei record of the order of evolution in (his Round? So far, we do not see that any Orientalist has ever had the remotest conception of the truths concealed under the allegories and personifications. The Shatapalha Brdhmana, says one, gives **a not very intelligible account" of Ki yapa's origin.
According to the Mahdbhdrata, the J^drndyanOy and the Put-dnas. he was the of Marichi. the son of Brahmd, the father of Vivasvfit. the father of Manu, progenitor of mankind.
According to the Shatapaiha Brahm&na: Having assumed the form of a torl Prajftputi created offspring. That which he created he made {akatvt): hence word Mrma (tortoise). Kashyapa means tortoise: hence men say, "AU creat are descendants of Kashyapa."*
A UvSSOK IN NATURAL HISTORY.
265
He was all this; he was also the father of the bird Garuda, the *• king of the feathered tribe/' who descends fronty and is of one stock with the reptiles, the Ndgas, and who becomes their mortal enemy subsequently — as he is also a cycle, a period of time, when, in the course of evolution, the birds which developed from reptiles in their "struggle for life" and "sunrival of the fittest," etc., turned in preference on those from whom they issued to devour them, perhaps prompted by natural law, in order to make room for other and more perfect species.
In that admirable epitome, Modern Seiaice and Modern Thought, a lesson in Natural History is offered to Mr. Gladstone, showing the utter variance of the Bibie with it. The author remarks that Geology traces the "dawn of creation" through a line of scientific research:
Commencing with the earliest known fossil, the Eozoon Canadense of the Laureotian, and continued iu a chain, every link of which is firmly welded, through the Silurian, with its abundance of molluscous, crustacean, and vermiform life, and first indication of fishes; the Devonian, with its predominance of fish and first appearance of reptiles: the Mesozoic with its halrachians; the Secondary forma- tions, in which reptiles of the sea, land and air preponderated, and the first humble forms of vertebrate land animals began to appear; and finally the Tertiar}', in which mammalian life has become abundant, and type succeeding to type and species to species, are gradually differentiated and specialized, through the Eocene, Miocene, and Pliocene periods, until we arrive at the Glacial and Prehistoric periods, and at positive proof of the existence of man.*
The same order, plus the description of animals iniknown to Modern Science, is found iu the Commentaries on the Purdnas in general, and in the Book of Dzyan especially. The only difFerence— a grave one, no doubt, as implying a spiritual and divine nature of man independent of his physical body in this illusiouary world, in which Wiq false person- ality and its cerebral basis alone is known to orthodox Psycholog>' — is as follows. Having been in all the so-called seven ''creations," which stand allegorically for the seven evolutionary changes, or sub-races, as we may call them, of the First Root- Race of Mankind — Man has been on Earth in this Round from the beginning. Having passed through all the Kingdoms of Nature in the previous three Rounds,! his physical
• O^. eil.. p. 335.
t "FoUow the law of analogy"— the Masters temcb. Almi-Buddhl ii dual and Muuui ia triple, busmnch as the former hms two aKpcct», und thtf latter three, t>., a« a "principle" per j^, which XnvitAtrs. in its higher aspect, to Atm&>Bufldhi, aud foUown, in its lower nature, Kama, the scat of terKslrial and animal dcAire^i and passions. Now compare the evolution of the Races, the First and the Second of which are of the nature of Atml-Buddhi, of which they are the passive Spirituid progeny, while the Tliird Root-Race shows three distinct divisions cv aspects physiologically and pCTchicaLly -the earliest ainlc:is, the middle portions awakening to intelligence, and the third and decidedly animal, i.e., Manas succumbs to the temptations of Kama.
266
THE S^RKT DOCTRINK.
frame — one adapted to the thermal conditions of those early perio was ready to receive the Divine Pilgrim at the first dawn of hum; life, i.e., 18,000.000 years ago. It is only at the mid-point of the Thii Root-Race that man was endowed with Manas. Once united, the Tfl and then the Three made One; for though the lower animals, from tl amceba to man. received thdr Monads, in which all the higher qualiti are potential^ these qualities have to remain dormant till the anic reaches its human form, before which stage Manas (mind) has development in them. In the animals every principle is paralyzi and in a foetus-like state, save the second, the Vital, and the third, tf Astral, and the rudiments of the fourth, Kama, which is desire, instincT — whose intensity and development varies and changes with the speci To the materialist wedded, to the Darwinian theory, this will read li a fairy-tale, a mystification ; to the believer in the inner, spiritual m, the statement will have nothing unnatural in it.
As Commentary ix says:
Men are made complete only during their Third, toTpard the fourth Cyck [Ra€e~\. Tliey are made **Gods^' for good and evil, and responsible, only when the two arcs meet \afler three and a half Rounds towards the Fifth Raee\ They are made so by the Nirmdnakdya [Spintual or Astral remaitisl of the Rudra-A'timdras, ' ctirsed to be reborn on Earth agaiw*^ [tncaning — doomed in their natural turn to reincarnation in the hi^* ascefiding arc of the terrestrial Cycle\
Now the writer is certain to be met with what will be termed insnpd able objections. We shall be told that the line of embryology, ih gradual development of every individual life, and the progress of wb is known to take place in the order of progressive stages of specialitf tion — that all this is opposed to the idea of man preceding mammAl! Man begins as the humblest and most primitive vermiform creature:
Prom the primitive speck of protoplasm, and the nucleated cell in which life originates .... and "is developed through stages undistinguishabtc those of fish, reptile and mammal, until the cell finally attains the highly sj cialized development of the quadnimanous, and, last of all. of the human type.**
This is perfectly scientific, and we have nothing against that; for all relates to the shell of man— his body, which, in its growth, is su ject, of course, like every other once so-called morphological unit, such metamorphoses. It is not those who teach the transformation the mineral atom through crystallization — which is the same functio
I^ng, op. dt.t ibid.
THE CONTRADICTIONS OK SCIENCE.
267
■
and bears the same relation to its so-called inorganic Upadhi, or basis, as the formation of ceiis to their organic nuclei, through plant, insect and animal into man — it is not they who will reject this theory, as it will finally lead to the recognition of a Universal Deity in Nature, ever-present, and as ever invisible and unknowable, and of intra-cosmic Gods, who were all once men.*
But we would ask, what does Science and its exact discoveries and now axiomatic theories prove against our Occult theory? Those who believe in the law of evolution and gradual progressive development from a cell — which from a vital became a morphological cell, until it finally awoke as protoplasm pure and simple — can surely never limit their belief to one line of evolution ! The types of life are innumerable ; and the progress of evolution, moreover, does not go at the same rate in every kind of species. The constitution of primordial matter in the Silurian age — we mean the "primordial" fnatler of Science— was the same in ever>' essential particular, save its degree of present grossness, as the primordial living matter of to-day. Nor do we find that which ought to be found, if the now orthodox theory of evolution were quite correct, namely, a constant, ever-flowing progress in every species of being. lustead of this, what does one see? While the intermediate groups of animal beings all tend toward a higher type, and while specializations, now of one type and now of another, develop through the geological ages, change forms, assume new shapes, appear and dis- appear with a kaleidoscopic rapidity, in the description of Palseontolo- gists from one period to another, the two solitary exceptions to the general rule are those at the two opposite poles of life and type, namely — man and the lower genera of being!
Certain well-marked forms of living beings have existed through enormous epochs, surviving not only the changes of physical conditions, Ifui persisting com- paratively unaltered^ while other forms of life have appeared and disappeared. Such forms may be termed "persistent types" of life; and examples of them are abundant enough in both the animal and the vegetable worlds.t
Nevertheless, we are not given any good reason why Darwin links together reptiles, birds, amphibians, fishes, mollusca, etc., as off-shoots of a moneric ancestr>'. Nor are we told whether reptiles, for instance, are direct descendants of the amphibia, the latter of fishes, and fishes
■ The whole trouble is this: neithn- Phyaiologrists nor Pathologists will recognise that the ceLl- cerminsting sutwtance, the Cyloblnstema, and the molhcr-lye from which crystals originate, are oac and the same essence, save In differentia Uun fur certain purposes.
t Huxley, Proceedings of the Royat instiiuiion, lli. ijt.
268
THE SECRET DOCTRINE.
of lower forms — ^which tliey certainly are. For the Monads have passed through all these forms of being up to Man, on every Globe, in the ihra preceding Rounds; every Round, as well as every subsequent Globe, from A to G, having been, and still having to be, the arena of the same evolution, only repeated each time on a more solid material basis. Therefore the questiou, "What relation is there between tbe, Third Round astral prototypes and ordinary physical development the course of the origination of pre-raammalian organic species ?'*- easily answered. One is the shadowy prototype of the other, the p liminar>-, hardly defined, and evanescent sketch on the canvas, of jects which are destined to receive their final and vivid form under brush of the painter. The fish evolved into an amphibian — a frog- the shadows of ponds, and man passed through all his metamorphi on this Globe in the Third Round as he did in this, his Fourth Cyt The Third Round tv^^cs contributed to the formation of the types the present Round. Ou strict analogy, the cycle of seven Rounds their work of the gradual formation of man through every Kingdom Nature, is repeated on a microscopical scale in the first seven mont of gestation of a future human being. Let the student think over work out this analogy. As the seven months' old unborn baby, tboi quite ready, yet needs two months more in which to acquire stren| and consolidate; so man, having perfected his evolution during se\ Rounds, remains two periods more in the womb of Mother-Nature be he is bom, or rather reborn a Dhyini, still more perfect than he before he launched forth as a Monad on the newly built Chain of Worl Let the student ponder over this mystery, and then he will easily vince himself that, as there are also physical links between many cli so there are precise domains wherein the Astral merges into Physi( Evolution. Of this Science breathes not one word. Man has evoh with and from the monkey, it says. But now see the contradiction. Huxky proceeds to point out plants, ferns, club-mosses, some them generically identical with those now living, which are met in the Carboniferous epoch, for:
The cone of the oolitic Araucaria is hardly distinguishable from that of ea
flpccies Sub-kingdoms of animals yield the same instances.
Globigerina of the Atlantic soundings is identical with the cretaceous spe the same genns . . . the tabulate corals of the Silurian epoch are wondei like the millepores of our own seas. . . . The Araclinida, the highest groups which, the scorpions, is represented in the coal by a genus differing from its lii congeners only in . , . the eyea. [etc.]
THB "ABSOLUTE RCXE" OF SCIENCE NOT BORNE OUT BY FACTS. 269
All of which may be closed with Dr. Carpenter's authoritative state- ment about the Foraminifera:
There is no evidence of any fundamental modification or advance in the forami- nifexous type from the palairozoic period lo the present time. . . . The forami- ciferoos fauna of our own series probably present a greater range of variety than oristcd at any previous period; but there is no tndicattQH of any tendency to elevation tmcrds a higher type,*
Kfow, as in the Foraminifera, Protozoa of the lowest type of life, nthless and eyelesis, there is no indication of change except their now greater variety — so man, who is on the uppermost rung of the ladder of being, indicates still less change, as we have seen; the skeleton of his palaeolithic ancestor being even found superior in some respects to his present frame. Where it, then, the uniformity of law which is claimed —the absolute rule for one species shading off into another and thus, by insensible gradations, into higher types? We see Sir William Thom- son admitting as much as 400,000,000 years for the time since the surface of the Globe became sufficiently cool to permit of the presence of li\'ing things;t and during that enormous lapse of time in the litic period alone, the so-called '^Age of Reptiles," we find a most trdinao' variety and abundance of Saurian forms, the Amphibian reaching iti highest development. We learn of Ichthyosauri and iosauri in the lakes and rivers, and of winged crocodiles or lizards ig in the air. After which, in the Tertiar>' period :
We find the Mammalian type exhibiting remarkable divergences from previously wiiting forms . , . . Mastodons, Megatheriums, and other unwieldy denizens of the ancient forests and plains.
I And, subsequently, we are notified of:
\ The gradual mo
i*dcr, into those beings from whom primeval Man himself may claim to have been \ «olved.J
He may; but no one. except a Materialist, can see why he should; as ! there is not the slightest necessity for it, nor is such an evolution Warranted by facts, for those most interested in the proofs thereof con- fess their utter failure to find one single fact to support their theory. There is no need for the ntimberless types of life to represent the JBCmbers of one progressive series. They are "the protlucts of various
^HUfrvtfw^lVM to Iht Study 0/ th4 Fttraminifn-a, p. xi.
^KTVamjaic/ioNJ of the Geological Society 0/ Glai^ow, vol. iii. Vrry stmagely, however, be hlS ^fcuy asraiti changed his opinion. The Sun. he uys, ifl only 15,000,000 years old. ; BactJan, The BtMinnings of Lift, ii. 634.
a7o
THE SECRET nOCTRINK.
and different evolutional divergences, taking place now in one direc- tion and now in another.'* Therefore it is far more justifiable to say that the monkey evolved into the quadrumanous order, than that primeval man — who has retnained stationary in his human specialization since the first fossil skeleton found in the oldest strata, and of whom no variety is found save in colour and facial type — has developed from a common ancestor together with the ape.
That man originates like other animals in a cell and develops "through stages indistinguishable from those of fish, reptile, and mammal until the cell attains the highly specialized development of the quadrumanous and at last Ihc human type," is an Occult axionij thousands of years old. The Kabalistic axiom: "A stone becomes tj plant; a plant a beast; a beast a man; a nian a God," holds goodj throughout the ages. Hasckel, in his Schdp/ungsgeschichte, shows double drawing representing two embryos — that of a dog six weel old, and that of a man, eight weeks. The two, with the exception of « slight difference in the head, which is larger and wider about the brain in the man, are indistinguishable.
In fact, we may say that every human being passes through the stage of fish «fli reptile before arriving at that of mammal, and finally of man.
If we take him up at the more advanced stage, where the embryo has alRtdf passed the reptilian form, we find that for a considerable time, the line of develop- ment remains the same as that of other mammalia. The rudimentary limbs iit exactly similar, the five fingers and toes develop in the same way, and the resem- blance after the first four weeks' growth betwcai the cnibryo of a man and a dog «] sucA that it is scarcely possible to distinguish them. Even at the age of eight wceb the embryo man is an animal with a tail, hardly to be distinguished from an embov puppy.-
Why. then, not make man and dog evolve from a common ancestor,^ or from a reptile — a Naga. instead of coupling man with the Quadra* mana? This would be just as logical as the latter, if not more so. The shape and the stages of the human embryo have not changed sin historical times, and these metamorphoses were known to JEsculapii and Hippocrates as well as to Mr. Huxley. Therefore, since Kabalists had remarked it from prehistoric times, it is no new di covery-t
As the embryo of man has no more of the ape in it than of any othi mammal, but contains in itself the totality of the kingdoms of siatut
' I^inp. Modern Scirncc and Modern Thoufcht, p. 171,
t In Am UnvHUd, vol. L p. 369. Uiia is DoUccd and half expUined.
and since it seems to be a "persistent type" of life, far more so than even the Foraminifera, it seems as illogical to make him evolve from the ape as it would be to trace his origin to the frog or the dog. Both Occult and Eastern Philosophies believe in Evolution, which Manu and Kapila* give with far more clearness than any Scientist does at present. No need to repeat what has been fiilly debated in /sis Unveiled, as the reader may find all these arguments and the description of the basis on which all the Eastern doctrines of Evolution rest, in our earlier volumes.! But no Occultist can accept the unreasonable proposition that all the now existing forms, "from the structureless Amoeba to man." are the direct lineal descendants of organisms which lived millions and millions of years before the birth of man. in the pre- Silurian epochs, in the sea or land-mud. The Occultists believe in an Inherent Law of Progressive Devehptnetit.X Mr. Darwin never did, and says so himself; for we find him stating that, since there can be no advantage "to the infusorian animalcule or an intestinal worm . . . to become highly organized," therefore. ** natural selection," not neces- sarily including progressive devc/opment— leaves the animalcule and the worm, the "persistent types." quiet.§
There does not appear much uniform law in such behaviour of Nature; and it looks more like the discriminative action of some super-- physical selection ; perhaps, that aspect of Karma, which Eastern Oc- cultists would call the "Law of Retardation." may have something to do with it.
But there is every reason to doubt whether Mr. Darwin himself ever gave such an importance to his law as is now given to it by his atheistic followers. The knowledge of the various li\'ing forms in the geological periods that have gone by is ver>' meagre. The reasons given for this by Dr. Bastian are very suggestive:
First, on account of the imperfect manner in which the several forma may be represented in the strata pertaining to the period ; secondly, on account of the extremely Umited nature of the explorations which have been made in these im-
:
* Hence tbe ptaDoaopby in the allefrory of the 7*10, aod finally it, Prajipalis. Rifthis. Munis, etc., ^rtio an are tnadr the " faUicra*' of various 1>ctti^ and thtORS. The order of the sev«n classes, or orders of planU, animals, and even inanimate thing^s, griven at random in the PurAnai, \% found in several commentariea in the correct rotation. Thus, Prithu is the rather of the Barth. He " tnilks" her, and makes her bear every kind of j^rain and vegetable, all enumerated and specified. Kaahyapa is the " father" of all tbe reptilcB. snakes, demons, etc
» See vol, i. pp. 151. */ u^., conceminic the *" Tree of Evolution "—the *' Mundane Tree."
t Checked and modified, however, by the Law of Retardation, which imposes a restriction on the advance of all species when a higher type makes its appcmrance.
) See Origin of ^ecitt, p. 145.
97^
DOCTRINE.
perfectly representative strata; and. thirdly, because so many parts of the recor are absolutely inaccessible to us — nearly all beneath the Silurian system bavin; been blotted out by time, whilst those two-thirds of the earth's surface in which tbi remaining strata are to be found are now covered over by seas. Hence Mr. Darwit says : "For my part, following out I^yell's metaphor, I look at the geological recon. as a history of the world rraperfectly kept and written iu a changing dialect; oj this history wc possess the tast voiufne alone, relating only to two or three coaatries. Of this volume, on/y here and there a short chapter has beat preserved; and of each page ott/y hetv and there a few lines."*
It is not on such meagre data, certainly, that the last word of Sciet can be said. Nor is it on any ground of human pride, or unreasonal belief in man's representing even here on Earth — in our period, perhi — the highest type of life, that Occultism denies that all the prea forms of human life belonged to types lower than our own ; for it is so. But simply because the "missing link." which will prove the exist- ing theory undeniably, will never be found by Palaeontologists. Believ? ing as we do that man has, during the preceding Rounds, evoh from, and passed through, the lowest forms of every life, vegetal and animal, on Earth, there is nothing very degrading in the idea having the Orang Outang as an ancestor of our physical form. Qui^ the reverse; as it would most irresistibly forward the Occult Doclr with regard to the final evolution of everything in terrestrial nat into man. One may even enquire how it is that Biologists and thropologists, having once firmly accepted the theory of the descenti man from the ape — how it is that they have hitherto left untouched future evolution of the existing apes into man? This is only a logi( sequence of the first theory — unless Science would make of man. pri\'ileged being, and his evolution a «t>«-precedent in Nature, quite] special and unique case. And that is what all this leads Physic Science to. The reason, however, why the Occultists reject the winian, and especially the Hseckelian, hypothesis is because it is U ape, not man, which is, in sober truth, a special and unique instant The Pithecoid is an accidental creation, a forced growth, the result of unnatural process.
The Occult Doctrine is. we think, more logical. It teaches a cy never var>'ing Law in Nature, the latter having no personal **sp( design," but acting on a uniform plan that prevails through the wh( Manvantaric period and deals with the land-worm as it deals with m\ Neither the one nor the other have sought to come into being, h
BuUan, B
KATCRB IS UNIFORM.
aTS
both are under the same Evolutionary' Law. and both have to progress according to Karraic Law. Both have started from the same Neutral Centre of Life aiid both have to re-merge into it at the consummation of the Cycle.
It is not denied that in the preceding Round man was a gigantic ape-like creature: and when we say **man" we ought perhaps to say, the rough mould that was developing for the use of man in this Round only — the middle, or the transition, point of which we have hardly reached. Nor was man during the first two and a half Root-Races what he is now. That point he reached, as said before, only 18,000,000 years ago, during the Secondary period, as we claim.
Till then he was, according to tradition and Occult Teaching, "a God on Earth who had fallen into Matter," or generation. This may or may not be accepted, since the Secret Doctrine does not impose itself as an infallible dogma, and since, whether its prehistoric records are accepted or rejected, it has nothing to do with the question of the ttciua/ Man and his Inner Nature; the Fall mentioned above having left no *'original sin" on Humanity. But all this has been sufficiently dealt with.
Furthermore, we are taught that the transformations through which nan passed on the descending arc — which is centrifugal for Spirit and Centripetal for Matter — and those he is preparing to go through, hence- forward, on his ascending path, which will reverse the direction of the Jwo forces — viz.. Matter will become centrifugal and Spirit centripetal
that all such transformations are next in store for the anthropoid apes all those, at any rate, who have reached the remove next to man
this Round — for these will all be men in the Fifth Round, just as present men inhabited ape-like forms in the Third» the preceding
mnd.
Behold, then, in the modern denizens of the great forests of Sumatra
*e degraded and dwarfed examples — "blurred copies,** as Mr. Huxley it— of ourselves, as we (the majority of mankind) were in the
rliest sub-races of the Fourth Root-Race during the period of what
called the **fall into generation.*' The ape we know is not the luct of natural evolution but an accident^ a cross-breed between an
lirnal being, or form, and man. As has been shown in the present
lume, it is the speechless animal that first began sexual connection, it was the first to separate into male and female. Nor was it
^4
THE SECRET DOCTRINE.
intended by Nature that man should follow this bestial example — as is now shown by the comparatively painless procreation of their species by animals, and the terrible suffering and danger of the same in woman. The ape is, indeed, as remarked in /sis Unveiled:
A transformation of species most directly connected with that of the hutniD family — a bastard branch engrafted on their oztm stock be/ore the final perfection of the latter .•
The apes are millions of years later than the speaking human beinG and are the latest contemporaries of our Fifth Race. Thus, it is m( important to remember that the "Egos" of the apes are entities coi pelled by their Karma to incarnate in the animal forms, which result from the bestialit>' of the latest Third and the earliest Fourth Rat men. They are entities who had already reached the "human stage*' before this Round. Consequently, they form an exception to general rule. The numberless traditions about Satyrs are no fabl but represent an extinct race of animal men. The animal "Eves' were their foremothers, and the human "Adams" their forefalliei hence the Kabalistic allegory of Lilith or Lilatu, Adam's first wife whom the Talmud describes as a "charming" woman, "with lon( wavy hair," i. still a female animal, who in the Kabalistic and Talraudic allegories called the female reflection of Samael, Samael-LiHth, or raan-animJ united, a being called, in the Zokar, Hayo Bischat, the Beast or E^ Beast. It is from this unnatural union that the present apes descendc The latter are truly "speechless men," and will become spealui animals, or men of a lower order, in the Fifth Round, while the Adept of a certain School hope that some of the *' Egos" of the apes of a high intelligence will reappear at the close of the Sixth Root- Race, their form will be is of secondan' consideration. The form m nothing. Genera and species of the flora, fauna, and the highe animal, its crown — man, change and vary according to the enviroi ments and climatic variations, not only with every Round, but evei Root-Race likewise, as well as after every geological cataclysm puts an end to, or produces a turning point in, the latter. In the Su Root-Race, the fossils of the Oraug, the Gorilla and the Chimpam will be those of extinct quadrumanous mammals; and new foi though fewer and ever wider apart as ages pass on and the close of
• Vol. ii. p. 27B.
Manvantara approaches — will develop from the "cast off" types of the human races as they revert once again to astral, out of the mire of physical, life. There were no apes before man, and they will be extinct before the Seventh Race develops. Karma will lead on the Monads of the unprogressed men of our Race and lodge them in the newly evolved human frames of the thus physiologically regenerated Baboon.
This will take place, of course, millions of years hence. But the picture of this cyclic precession of all that lives and breathes now on Earth, of each species in its turn, is a true one, and needs no *• special creation" or miraculous formation of man, beast, and plant ex nihilo.
This is how Occult Science explains the absence of any link between ape and man, and shows the former evolving from the latter.
A PANORAMIC VIEW OF THE EARLY RACES.
There is a period of a few millions of years to cover between the first **raindless" race and the highly intelligent and intellectual later Lemurians; there is another between the earliest civilization of the Atlanteans and the historic period.
As witnesses to the Lemurians but a few silent records in the shape of half a dozen broken colossi and old cyclopean ruins are left. These are not allowed a hearing, as they are ••productions of blind natural forces," we are assured by some; "quite modem" we are told by others. Tradition is lefl contemptuously unnoticed by Sceptic and Materialist, and made subservient to the Bible in every case by the too zealous Churchman. Whenever a legend, however, refuses to fit in with the Noachian Deluge theory', it is declared by the Christian clergy to be "the insanely delirious voice of old superstition." Atlantis is denied, when not confused with Lemuria and other departed Continents, because, perhaps, Lemuria is half the creation of Modem Science, and has, therefore, to be believed in; while Plato's Atlantis is regarded by most of the Scientists as a dream.
Atlantis is often described by believers in Plato as a prolongation of Africa. An old continent is also suspected to have existed on the Eastern coast. But Africa, as a continent, was never part and parcel of either Lemuria or Atlantis, as we have agreed to call the Third and
276 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.
Fourth Continents. Their archaic appellations are never mentioned the Puranas, nor anywhere else. But with only one of the Esot keys in hand, it becomes an easy task to identify these departed h in the numberless "Lands of the Gods/* Devas and Munis described; the Purdnas, in their Varshas, Dvipas. and 2^nes. Their Shv« dvipa, during the early days of Lemuria, stood out like a giant-j from the bottom of the sea; the area between Atlas and Mada^ being occupied by the waters till about the early period of Atlant after the disappearance of Lemuria, when Africa emerged from bottom of the ocean, and Atlas was half-sunk.
It is of course impossible to attempt, within the compass of several volumes, a consecutive and detailed account of the evolut and progress of the first three Races — except so far as to give a gen( view of it, as will be done presently. Race the First had no history! its own. Of Race the Second the same may be said. We shall hai therefore, to pay careful attention to the Lemurians and the Atll teans only, before the history of our own Race, the Fifth, can attempted.
What is known of other Continents, besides our own, and what history know or accept of the early Races? Everything outside repulsive speculations of Materialistic Science is daubed with the templuous term *' superstition/' The wise men of to-day will btlie^ nothing. Plato's "winged" and "hermaphrodite" races, and Golden Age, under the reign of Saturn and the Gods, are quiet brought back by Haeckel to their new place in Nature; our Dint Races are shown to be the descendants of Catarrhine apes, and 01: ancestor, a piece of "sea slime"!
Nevertheless, as expressed by Faber:
The Jiclions of ancient poetiy .... will be found to comprehend portion of histoncal truth.
However one-sided the efforts of the learned author of A Diss^ritdi on the Afysieries of the Cabiri — efforts directed throughout his volumes to constrain the classical myths and symbols of old Pagani "to bear testimony to the truth of Scripture" — time and further search have avenged, partially at least, that "truth" by showinj unveiled. Thus it is the clever adaptations of Scripture, on the trary, which are made to bear evidence to the great wisdom of Ar( Paganism. This, notwithstanding the inextricable confusion ii which the truth about the Kabiri — the most mysterious Gods of antfc-
BAIIXY AND FABER.
ity — has been thrown by the wild and contradictory speculations Bishop Cumberland, Dr. Shuckford, Cudworth, Vallancey, etc.,
id finally by Faber. Nevertheless, all of these scholars, from first last, had to come to a certain conclusion framed by the latter, as
Hows :
Jv have no reason to think that the idolatry of the Gentile world was of a
ly arbitrary contrivance; on the contrary, it seems to have been built, almost
ly, npon a traditional remembrance of certain real events. These events I
\rtJund to be th€ destruction of the first [the Fourth in Esoteric Teaching] race of
inJhind by the waters of the Deluge,*
To this, Faber adds:
am persuaded that the tradition of the sinking of the Phlegyan isle is the yery
»c as that of the sinkiug of the island Atlantis. They both appear to me to
allude to one great event, the sinking of the whole world beneath the waters of the
ddnge, or, if we suppose the arch of the earth to have remained in its original
ion, the rising of the central water above it. M. Bailly indeed in his work
the Atlantis of Plato, the object of wliich is evidently to depreciate the
Ithority of the scriptural chronology, labours to prove that the Atlantians were a
ancient northern nation, long prior to the Hindoos, the Phenicians, and tlie
itians.t
In this Faber is in agreement with Bailly, who shows himself more led and intuitional than those who accept biblical chronology. [or is the latter wrong when saying that the Atlanteans were the same the Titans and the Giants.J Faber adopts the more willingly the )inion of his French confrhre^ as Bailly mentions Cosmas Indico- leustes, who preserved an ancient tradition about Noah — that he 'formerly inhabited the island Atlantis." This island, whether it was iC'Poseidonis" mentioned in Esoteric Buddhism, or the Continent of Ltlantis, does not much matter. The tradition is there, recorded by a
istian.
^fo Occultist would ever think of dispossessing Noah of his pre- itives if he is claimed to be an Atlantean; for this would simply )w that the Israelites repeated the story of Vaivasvata Manu, iuthrus, and so many others, and that they only changed the name, :h they had the same right to do as any other nation or tribe. It we object to is the literal acceptation of biblical chronolog)^ it is absurd, and in accord with neither geological data nor reason. ^er, if Noah was an Atlantean, then he was a Titan, a Giant,
• op. fit; t 9-
-r Ibid., ii. 083, tS4
} See bis LeUrts sur tAttantida.
278
THE SECRET DOCTRINE.
as Paber shows; and if a Giant, then why is he not shown as such in Genesis ?*
Bailly's mistake was to reject the submersion of Atlantis, and to the Atlanteans simply a Northern and post'diluvian nation, whicl however, as he says, certainly flourished before the foundation of Hindu, Egyptian, and Phoenician empires. In this, had he only kno\ of the existence of what we have agreed to call Lemuria, he woi have again been right. For the Atlanteans were post-diluvian to tl Lemurians. and Lemuria was not submerged as Atlantis was, but sunk under the waves, owing to earthquakes and subterranean fires. Great Britain and Europe will be one day. It is the ignorance of men of Science, who will accept neither the tradition that sev( Continents have already sunk, nor the periodical law which throughout the Manvantaric Cycle — it is this ignorance that is the cause of all the confusion. Nor is Bailly wrong again in assuring that the Hindus, Eg>'ptians, and Phoenicians came after the Atlantcai for the latter belonged to the Fourth, while the Aryans and tin Semitic Branch are of the Fifth Race. Plato, while repeating the stof as narrated to Solon by the priests of Eg>'pt. intentionally confu* as every Initiate would — the two Continents, and assigns to the smi island which last sunk, all the events pertaining to the two enormoi Continents, the prehistoric and traditional. Therefore, he descril the Jirst coupU, from whom the whole island was peopled, as beii formed of the Earth. In so saying, he means neither Adam and nor yet his own Hellenic forefathers. His language is simply allc gorical, and by alluding to ** Earth," he means Matter, as the Atl( teans were really the first purely human and terrestrial Race that preceded it being more divine and ethereal than human and solirf
Yet Plato must have known, as would any other initiated Ad about the history of the Third Race after its **Fall," though as 01 pledged to silence and secrecy he never showed his knowledge in many words. Nevertheless, it may become easier now, after acquaint* ing oneself with even the approximate chronology of the Eastern nations — all of which was based upon, and followed the early Aryan
• This is abown by Paher. neniii a pious OmstiMn, who say« thiit : " The Noetic family also bore the appcllntions of Atlaatians and Titans ; »nd the ereal patriarch hiniKlf was called, by of rrnlDCnce. Attas nnd Titan." {fbid., ii. 385.) And if so, then, accordit^ to tkr SibU. No>ah have been the progeny of the Son* of God, the Fallen Anyels. agreenhly to the lunte nuthority, of the ""doutrliteniof men vrhowere fair." {Sfx Gemtit, si.] And why not, since his father L^m slew a mnn, and was, witb all his sons and daughtcra, who perished in the Deluge, ■■ bad as the reft of mankind ?
ittie^^
THB NATURAL "PAIX.
279^
calculations — to realize the immense periods of time that must have eiapsed since the separation of the sexes, without mentioning the First or even the Second Root-Races. As these must remain beyond the comprehension of minds trained in Western thought, it is found use- less to speak in detail of the First and Secoud, and even of the Third Race in its earliest stage * It is only when the latter has reached its fiill human period that a beginning can be made, without the unini- tiated reader finding himself hopelessly bewildered.
The Third Race fell — and created no longer; it begat its progeny. Being still mindless at the period of separation, it begat, moreover, anomalous offspring, until its physiological nature had adjusted its instincts in the right direction. Like the *' Lords Gods" of the Bible^ the "Sons of Wisdom," the Dhyan Chohans, had warned it to leave alone the fruit forbidden by Nature; but the warning proved of no value. Men realized the unfitness — we must not say sin — of what Ihey had done, only when too late; after the Angelic Monads from higher Spheres had incarnated in, and endowed them with understand- ing. To that day they had remained simply physical, like the animals generated from them. For what is the distinction? The Doctrine teaches that the only difference between animate and inanimate objects on Earth, between an animal and a human frame, is that in some the various "Fires" are latent, and iu others they are active. The Vital Fires are in all things and not an atom is devoid of them. But no animal has the three higher "principles" awakened in him; they are simply potential, latent, and thus non- existing. And so would the animal frames of men be to this day, had they been left as they came out from the bodies of their Progenitors, whose Shadows they were, to grow, unfolded only by the powers and forces immanent in Matter. But as said in Pymandcr:
This is a Mystery that to this day was sealed and bidden. Nature t being BiDgled with Mant brought forth a wondrous miracle; the harmonious coin- BingltDg of the essence of the Seven [Pitris. or Governors] and her own; the Fire ttd the Spirit and Nature [the Noumenon of Matter]; which [commingling] forth-
* to that wonderful Tolume of Donnell7, Attaniit, Ike AnUdiluviam H^orUL, the author. speaUaff (rflbe kxymn colonies from AlUntu, and of the aru and science* — the legacy of our Fourth Race — Nvidy announccB that "the roots of the infititntionA of to-day reach back to the Miocene a(re." T)A» it an enomious allowance for a modem Kholar to make; but civUizaUon dates still further back Xhxa the Miocene Athuiteans. Secondary- period man wilt be diacovcrcd, aud with him hia lon^ farrottra civilixatioD. * Natvrr i« the Natural Body, the Shadow of the Progcnitoia. I Maa is the "Heavenly Bten," as already stated.
28o
THE SECRET DOCTRtNE.
with brought forth seven nieu of opposite sexes [negative and positive] accordiuf to Uie essences of the Seven Governors.*
Thus saith Hermes, the thrice great laitiate.f the "Power of the
Thought Divine.'* St. Paul, another Initiate, called our World, **lhe
enigmatical mirror of pure truth," and St. Gregor>' of Nazianzefl
corroborated Hermes by stating that:
Things visible are but the shadow and delineation of things that we cannot see.
It is an eternal combination, and images are repeated from the higher rung of the I^adder of Being down to the lower. The *'FalI of the Angels," and the "War in Heaven" are repeated on every plane, the^ lower "mirror" disfiguring the image of the superior "mirror,* each repeating it in its own way. Thus the Christian dogmas are the reminiscences of the paradigms of Plato, who spoke of these thin) cautiously, as every Initiate would. But it is all as expressed in tl few sentences of the Desaiir:
All that is on earth, saith the Lord [Ormazd], is the shadow of something thatu\ the superior spheres. This lurainious object [light, fire, etc.] is the shadow of which is still more luminous than itself, and so on till it reaches me, who am light of lights.
In the Kabalistic^vbooks, in the Zokar preeminently, the idea ever\' objective thing on Earth or in this Universe is the "Shadowl (Dyooknah) of the eternal Light or Deity, is very strong.
The Third Race was preeminently the bright "Shadow," at first, the Gods, whom tradition exiles on to the Earth after the allegoric War in Heaven. This became still more allegorical on Earth, for was the War between Spirit and Matter. This War will last till Inner and Divine Man adjusts his outer terrestrial self to his o\ spiritual nature. Till then the dark and fierce passions of that will be at eternal feud with his Master, the Divine Man. But animal will be tamed one day, because its nature will be changed,
• Divine Pyma*iUt. \. 16.
t The Pymandir of our miucums and libraries is an abridfinent of a riiitonist of AlexAntlria. In the Third Century It fra« remodetled after old Hebrew «nd MSS. tiy a Jewish Ksbalint. and called the G how cloAcly its text agrres with the Archaic Doctrine, as 15 shown in the creation of the Si Creators and Sevm PrimiLive Men. -^ to Enoch, Thoth or ilermes, Orpbeni and Cadmus, thevci all urnerie nnmc4, braucties and oilxhootA of the tieven primordial fUges— Incarnated DhyAn ChobI or rievQft. in tUnuvt, nut mortal bodies— who tauffht Humanity all it knew, and who«e earliest plea ruMumeil their Mojiter's names. Thin custom passed from the Fotirlfa to the FiAto Race. Hi the aamenem of the traditions about Ucrmea — of whom Egyptologrittta count fiic— Enoch, etc.; arv all Inventora of letters; none of them die; they still lire, and are the 5rst Initiators into, FoiittdcrM uf, tlic Mysterictt. It was only very lately that the Cmena of Enock disappeared ntiintiK Ihr Kithallsta. CutUnume Postel aaw it. It waa moat certainty in a great measure a trai fiwui the Uooka of Hermea. and for anterior to the Booka of Moaes, as Etiphaa X^vi tcUa hia
THE SYBffBOUSM OF CRONUS.
381
'barmoay will reign once more between the two as before the "Fall,** when even mortal man was '* created" by the Elements and was not born.
The above is made clear in all the great Theogonies, principally in the Grecian, as iu that of Hesiod. The muiUaiion of Uranus by his SOD Cronus, who thus condemns him to impotency, has never been
I understood by the modem Mythographers. Yet, it is ver>' plain; and I ' '
as it was universal* it must have contained a great abstract and philo- sophical idea, now lost to our modem sages. This punishment in the allegon.' marks, indeed, "a new period, a second phase in the develop- ment of creation,*' as justly remarked by Decharme,! who, however, does not attempt to explain it. Uranus tried to oppose an impediment to that development, or natural evolution, by destroying all his children Uf iocm. as bom, Uranus, who personifies all the creative powers of, wnd in, Chaos — Space, or the Unmanifested Deit>* — is thus made to pay the penalty; for it is these powers which cause the Pitris to evolve Iprimordial "men** from themselves — as. later on, these men, in their turn, evolve iheir progeny — without any sense or desire for procreation. The work of generation, suspended for a moment, passes into the hands of Cronns {Ckronos) TimcJ who unites himself with Rhea (the Earth — in Esotericism, Matter iu general), and thus produces celestial and ter- t«lrial Titans. The whole of this symbolism relates to the mysteries Of evolution.
Tliis allegory is the exoteric version of the Esoteric Doctrine given ni this part of our work. For iu Cronus we see the same slory repeated *gain. As Uranus destroyed his children by Gaea (one in the world of i&auifestation with Aditi. or the Great Cosmic Deep), by confining
I* Otxaus is a tnodificci Varuna, the "univ«"sal cncompaMer," Ihc "all-cmhraccr," and one of the Mart uf Uk Ve Wfor itsi aeed. It is uulv later that Varuua became the chief of the Adityas aud a tdnd of Neptune
^^ttar OD the " Leviathan "— Makara. now the most sacred and mysterious of the Si^s of the Zodiac.
^^nai, withont whom " no creatuR- can even wink." was degraded like rrantis, and, like him. feli fnuratien ; hi* function*—" the gmndctl cosmicnl functions," as Muir calls them— having been
-^psded from Heaven to Karth by exoteric aiithropomorpbisra. Aa the same Orientalist sa>*a: " The
'VAMcs and fuocliona ascribed to Varuna [In the Vedos] imparl to his character a moral elevation Wl miAity far aitrpasaing that attributed to any other Vedic Deity." But to undcrslnnd correctly icuoa of his fall. like aa that of Uranus, one has to see in CTery exoteric religion the imperfect
^4nfnl work of man's fancy, and alao to study the mysteries which Varuna is said to have imported
Itruiahllia. Only "his secrets and those of Mitra ar« not to be reveatat to tAtJMiik." ' Mytkota^ir tU la GrHe Antt^uf, p. 7.
I Qonna is not only Xpovoc, Time, but also, as Brial showed, in his HfrcuU etCacux (p. 57^, comes 5o» the root kat, "to make, to create." Whether Br^al and Decharmc, who quotes him, air as right ■ asyiag HiaI in the VedAi. Kriinan {sits i* a Creative God, we have our doubts. Bn^al probably MBSt Kar^a, or rather Visvakamuui, the Creative God. tbe "ouaificeal " and the " great architect r Ike world."
383
THE SECRET DOCTRINE.
them in the bosom of the Earth, Titsea, so Cronus, at this second stage of creation, destroyed his children by Rhea — by devouring them. This is an allusion to the fruitless efforts of Earth, or Nature, alone to create real hufnan "men/** Time swallows its own fruitless work. Then comes Zeus, Jupiter, who dethrones his father in his tum.f Jupiter the Titan, is Prometheus, in one seuse,J and varies from Zeus, the great "Father of the Gods." He is the "disrespectful son" in Hesiod. Hermes calls him the "Heavenly Man" in Pymander; and even in the Bible he is found again under the name of Adam, and, later on — by transmutation — under that of Ham. Yet these are all personifications of the "Sons of Wisdom." The necessary corroboration that Jupiter belongs to tlie purely human Atlautean Cycle— if Uranus and Cronus who precede him are found insufiBcient — may be read in Hesiod, who tells us that:
The Immortals made the race of the Goldeu and Silver Age [Firat and Second Races]; Jupiter mode the generation of Bronze [an admixture of two clemcnu], that of the Heroes, and of the Iron Age.^
After this he sends his fatal present. Pandora, to Epimetheus.il Hesiod calls this present of ^\\^ first woman "a fatal gift." It was a punishment, he explains, sent to man "for the theft of [divine creative] fire." Her apparition on Earth is the signal for eveo' kind of evil. Before her appearance, the human races lived happy, exempt from sick- ness and suffering — as the same races are made to live under Yima's rule, in the Mazdean Vendldad.
Two'Deluges may also be traced, in universal tradition, by carefully comparing Hesiod, the J^i^ Veda, the Zend Avesia, etc., but no first man is ever mentioned in any of the Theogonies save in the BibU.^ Every- where the man of our Race appears after a cataclysm of water. After this, tradition mentions only the several designations of continents and
" See Stansu III— X. ti s«iq.. and alao BcrtMtu' account of primeval creation.
t The Tlutilc stniKffle. In Thcostiny at least, la the fight for supremacy betmen the chfldren of Uranuii and Gwa (or licNven aiu] ICrtrth iu thdr atjatract acnac), the Titaait, again«t the children of CroDUS, whose chief is Zeus. It is the everlasting struggle going oo to this day between Ihe Spiritual laner Han and the man of flesh, in one sense.
: Just as the "Lord God," or Jehovah, is Cain, esoterically. and the "tempting serpent" oa well; tlie male portion of the androgynous Eve— before her "Uall," the female portion of Adam Kadmoa— Uie left Hide, or Biaah, of the right side, Chokmah, in the first Sephirothal Triad.
I Dechanue, op. cit., p. 3S4.
II In the Kn-ptiiUi legend, called the "Two DroUicrs," Iranilated by M. Maapiro (the ex the Doulaq Museum), the original of Pandora is given. Noom. the famous heavenly orlist. creatra • marvellous beauty. R girl whom he sends to Batoo. after which thr happinms of the latter Is UcstroyetL Datoo te man. and the girl &vc. of course. {Sec ifevue Afckiologtque, March, 1878, and also Dcct j*»tf.. p. aftj.)
1 Vuna Ls not the "first man" in the fVwOiUtf, Iwt only In the Uieoriet of the Orientaliata.
I
*HE RACKS IN GRK^Z M\*TH6I.0GY.
283
■
islands which sink under the ocean waves in due time.* Gods and mortals have one common origin according to Hesiodif and Pindar echoes the statement.^ Deucalion and Pyrrha. who escape the Deluge by constructing an Ark hke Noah's,§ ask Jupiter to reanimate the human race whom he had made to perish under the waters of the Flood. In the Slavonian Hi>'thology all men are drowned, and two old people, a man and his wife, alone remain. Then Prara*zimas, the "master of all/' advises them to jump seven times on the rocks of the Earth, and seven new races (couples) are bom, from which come the nine Lithuanian tribes.d As well understood by the author of Mythologie de ia Grkce Aniiquc — the Four Ages signify periods of time, and are also an allegorical allusion to the Races. As he says:
The successive races, destroyed and replaced by others, without any period of transition, are characterized in Greece by the name of metals, to express their ever-decreasing value. Gold, the most brilliant and precious of all, symbol of brightness , . . qualifies the first race, . . . The men of the second race, those of the Age of Silver, arc already far inferior to the first. Inert and wealc creatures, all their life ia no better than a long and stupid infancy. . . . They disappear. . . . The men of the Age of Bronze are robust and violent [the Third Race]; . . . their strength is extreme. "They had anna madp of bronze, habitations of bronze; used nought but bronze. Iron, the black metal, was yet unknown."1I The fourth race ia. with Hesiod, that of the heroes who fell before Thebes,** or under the walls of Troy.tt
Thus, as the four Races are found mentioned by the oldest Greek poets, though very much confused and anachronistically, our doctrines are once more corroborated in the classics. But this is all "mythology" and poetry. What can Modern Science have to say to such a euheme- rizatiou of old fictions? The verdict is not difficult to foresee. There- fore, an attempt must be made to answer by anticipation, and to prove that so much of the domain of this same Science is taken up by fictions and empirical speculations that none of the men of learning have the slightest right, with such a hea\'y beam in their own eye, to point to the speck in the eye of the Occultist, even supposing that speck were not a figment of their own imagination.
■ Bceotia was submerged and sutMieqnently sncient Atbens and Eleiuis. ♦ opera et Dies. t. 108. t Ntm,, VI. i.
} See Apoiiod., i. 7, 1 ; and Ovid. hUiam. . i. 360, ff segq.
II DeuUdu Mytkol., i. 545. 3rd edit., and Hanusch Schlavfiicke Myth., p. 335. Sec I>ccltanne, ibuk^ p. 368, who gives *' nine times," and not aeren. V Hesiod, opera et Dies. 143-155. ^ See ..^schj-lus, Septem contra Tlitbas. rr Dcchanne, tbid.^ pp. aSg, 190.
384
THE SECRET DOCTRINE.
40, Then the Third and Fourth* became tall with pridb. "We are the KINGS; t WE are the gods" (a).
41, They took wives pair to look upon. Wives from the
MINDLESS, THE NARROW-HEADED. ThEY BRED MONSTERS, WICKSD DEMONS, MALE AND FEMALE, ALSO KhADCJ WITH LITTLE MINDS {b]>
42, They built temples for the human body. Male ajo)
FEMALE THEY WORSHIPPED (c). ThEN THE ThIRD EyE ACTED NO LONGER (d).
{a) Such were the first truly physical men, whose first characteristic was — pride! It is the memor>' of this Third Race and the gigantic Atlanteans, which has lingered from one generation and race to another generation and race down to the days of Moses, and has found au objective form in those antediluvian giants, those terrible sorcerers and magicians, of whom the Roman Church has preserved such vivid, and at the same time distorted, legends. Anyone who has read and studied the Commentaries on the Archaic Doctrine, will easily recog- nize in some of these Atlanteans the prototypes of the Nimrods, ihc Builders of the Tower of Babel, the Hamitcs, and all those /«/// guajiti of "accursed memory," as theological literature expresses it; of those, in short, who have furnished posterity with the orthodox types of Satan. And this naturally leads us to enquire into the religious elhii of these early Races, mythical as they may be.
What was the religion of the Third and Fourth Races? In common acceptation of the term, neither the Lemurians, nor yet tbi progeny, the Lemuro-Atlanteans, had any; for they knew no dogffli nor had they to believe on faith. No sooner had the mental eye man been opened to understanding, than the Third Race felt itself 01 with the ever-present, as also the ever to be unknown and invisib! All, the One Universal Deity. Endowed with divine powers, and fed' ing in himself his rV/wrr God, each felt he was a Man-God in his nati though an animal in his physical self. The struggle between the ti began from the very day they tasted of the fruit of the Tree of Wisdoi a struggle for life between the spiritual and the psychic, the psyd and the physical. Those who conquered the lower "principles" obtaining mastery over the body, joined the *'Sons of Light.* Those who fell victims to their lower natures, became the slaves of Matter. From "Sons of Light and Wisdom" they ended by becoming the "Sous of Darkness." They fell in the battle of mortal life with Life Immortal,
THE GOLDEN AGE.
285
id all those so fallen became the seed of the future generations of Allan leans*
tki the dawn of his consciousness, the man of the Third Root-Race d thus no beliefs that could be called religion. That is to say, he was apt only ignorant of "gay religious, full of pomp and gold'* but even of ■ysystem of faith or outward worship. But if the term is to be defined Hthe binding together of the masses in one form of reverence paid Hthose we feel higher than ourselves, of piet>' — as a feeling expressed Ba child toward a loved parent — then even the earliest Lemurians from the very beginning of their intellectual life, had a religion, and a most beautiful one. Had they not their bright Gods of the Elements around them, and even within themselves?! Was not their childhood passed Kth, nursed and tended by, those who had given them being and called Tnem forth to intelligent, conscious life? We are assured it was so, and we believe it. For the evolution of Spirit into Matter could never have been achieved, nor would it have received its first impulse, had not the bright Spirits sacrificed their own respective super-ethereal essences to animate the man of clay, by endowing each of his inner '*principles" with a portion, or rather, a reflection, of that essence. The DhySnIs the Seven Heavens — the seven planes of Being — are the Noumena jthe actual and the future Elements, just as the Angels of the Seven rers of Nature — the grosser effects of which we perceive in what ice is pleased to call "modes of motion," the imponderable forces what not — are the still higher Noumena of still higher Hierarchies. I It was the "Golden Age" in those days of old, the Age when the iBods walked the earth, and mixed freely with the mortals." When it ^nsed. the Gods departed — i.e., became invisible — and later generations ended by worshipping their kingdoms — the Elements.
It was the Atlanteans. the first progeny of serai-divine man after his separation into sexes — hence the first-begotten and humanly-born ' mortals — who became the first "sacrificers" to the God of Matter. They stand, in the dim far-away past, in ages more than prehistoric, as prototype on which the great symbol of Cain was built,J as the
I They stan ite protot
^Hbe lume WnnnU Ute
ts used here in Ihe sense, and u a synonym, of "sorcettrra." Tlic Atmntean Races d Uieir evolution lasted Tor millions of years. All of ttaem were not bad, bnt became ihe end of their cycle, as we, the Finh Race, arc nuw fast becoming. * The "Coda of the Klemenla" arc by uo means the EtcmentaU. The latter are at best used by ttoo ■• irefaiclea aud materials In which to clothe themfielvca.
tOiia was the "vwrrifker." as shown at first in Chap. tv. of Genesis, of "the fniit of the f^round," if nllkih be ma the^n/ tilUr. while Abel "brought of the firstlings of hi« flock" to the U>rd. Cain vtbr fyrabol of the first male, Abel of the first female humanity, Adam and five beiofr the typea ot be Third Race. The " murdering" is bltxKl-Bbedding, but nut taking life.
286
THR SECRET DOCTRINE.
first Anlhropomorphists who worshipped Form and Matter — a worship which very soon degenerated into self-worship, and thence led to phalli- cism, which reigns supreme to this day in the symbolism of every exoteric religion of ritual, dogma, and form. Adam and Eve became matter, or furnished the soil, Cain and Abel — the latter the life-bearing soil, the former "the tiller of that ground or field/*
Thus the first Atlantean races, born on the Lemurian Continent, separated from their earliest tribes into the righteous and the un- righteous; into those who worshipped the one unseen Spirit of Nature, the Ray of which man feels within himself — or the Pantheists, and those who offered fanatical worship to the Spirits of the Earth, the dark, cosmic, anthropomorphic Powers, with whom they made alliance. These were the earliest Gibbortm, the *' mighty men . . . ; of renown" in those days,* who become with the Fifth Race the Kabirim, Kabiri with the Egyptians and the Phoenicians, Titans with the Greeks, and Rakshasas and Daityas with the Indian races.
Such was the secret and mysterious origin of all the subsequent and modern religions, especially of the worship of the later Hebrews for their tribal God, At the same time this sexual religion was closely allied to, based upon, and, so to say, blended with, astronomical pheno- mena. The I^murians gravitated toward the North Pole, or the Heaven of their Progenitors — the Hyperborean Continent; the Atlan- teans, toward the South Pole, the "Pit'' cosmically and terrestrially — whence breathe the hot passions blown into hurricanes by the cosmic Elemeutals. whose abode it is. The two Poles were denominated, by the Ancients, Dragons and Serpents — hence good and bad Dragons and Serpents, and also the names given to the '*Sons of God" — Sons of Spirit and Matter — the good and bad Magicians. This is the origin of the dual and triple nature in man. The legend of the "Fallen Angels" in its Esoteric signification^ contains the key to the manifold contra- dictions of human character; it points to the secret of man's self-con- sciousness; it is the support on which hinges his entire Life-Cycle — the histor\' of his evolution and growth.
On a firm grasp of this doctrine depends the correct understanding of Esoteric Anthropogenesis. It g^ives a clue to the vexed question of the Origin of Evil; and shows how man himself is the separator of the One into various contrasted aspects.
The reader, therefore, will not be surprised if so much space is
OUTSIDE HCTMANTTY.
P
devoted to an attempt to elucidate this difficult and obscure subject every time it presents itself. A good deal must necessarily be said on its symbological aspect; because, by so doing, hints are given to the thoughtful student for his own investigations, and more light can thus be suggested than it is possible to convey in the technical plirases of a more formal, pliilosophical ex]>osition. The " Fallen Augels," so-called. are Iltimaniiy itself. The Demon of Pride. Lust, Rebellion, and Hatred, had no being before the appearance of physical conscious man. It is man who has begotten and nurtured the fiend, and allowed it to develop in his heart; it is he, again, who has contaminated the Indwelling God in himself, by linking the pure Spirit with the impure Demon of Matter. And, if the Kabalistic saying, ^^ Demon est Deus inversus^** finds its metaphysical and theoretical corroboration in dual manifested Nature, nevertheless, its practical application is found in Mankind alone.
Thus it has now become self-evident that, postulating as we do, (a) the appearance of Man before that of other Mammalia, and even before the Ages of the huge Reptiles; (*) Periodical Deluges and Glacial Periods owing to the Karmic disturbance of the axis; and chiefly {c) the birth of man from a Superior Being, or what Materialism would call a "supernatural" Being, though it is only super-Awwaw — our teachings have very few chances of an impartial hearing. Add to it the claim that a portion of Mankind in the Third Race — all those Monads of men who had reached the highest point of Merit and Karma in the preced- ing Manvantara — owed their psychic and rational natures to divine Beings '*h>'postasizing*' into their Fifth Principles, and the Secret Doctrine must lose caste in the eyes of not only Materialism but even of dogmatic Christianity. For, no sooner will the latter have learned that these Angels are identical with their "Fallen** Spirits, than the Esoteric tenet will be proclaimed most terribly heretical and pernicious.* The Divine Man dwelt iu the animal, and therefore, when the physio- logical separation took place in the natural course of evolution — when also "all the animal creation was untied'* and males were attracted to females — that race fell; not because they had eaten of the Fruit of
• II is, pn-hapfl, with an eye lo this tUgrattation of the highest and purest Spirits, wh" broke through the intermediate planes of lower conociousnesi. the "Seven Circle* of Pirc" of /\mamitrr, lfc«l St. James U made to say "This wisdom Isc^ta) deacendeth not from above, but Is earthly. Bensnal. lUvtluk"; now this Sophia is Manas, the "Human Soul," the Spiritual Wisdom or Soul bciof; Buddhi, which beinir so near the Absolute, is. per se, only laUnt conaciouancaa, and is dependent upon Manaa fur inuiifc*ta.tioa beyond It* o*^ alane.
288
THE SKCRHT DOCTRINE.
Knowledge and knew Good from Evil, but because they knew no better. Propelled by the sexless creative instinct, the early sub-races had evolved an intermediate race in which, as hinted in the Stanzas, the higher Dhyan Chohans had incarnated.* "When we have ascer- tained the extent of the universe (and learnt to know all that there is in it) we will multiply our race," answer the Sons of Will and Yoga to their brethren of the same race, who invite them to do as they do. This means that the great Adepts and Initiated Ascetics will "multiplr,"* i.e,, once more produce "mind-bom*' immaculate sons — in the Seventh Root- Race.
It is so stated in the I'ishnit and Brahma Pttrdn-as, in the Ma^ bhdraia^ and in the Hafivamsha. In one portion of the Pttski Makatmya, moreover, the separation of the sexes is allegorized Daksha, who, seeing that his will-bom progeny, the "Sons of passi Yoga,** will not create men, ^*convcrls half himself into a femoi whom he begets daughters/* the future females of the Third which begat the Giants of Atlantis, the Fourth Race, so called, the Vishnu Purdna it is simply said that Daksha, the father of ms kind, established sexual intercourse as the means of peopling world 4
Happily for the Human Race the "Elect Race" had already becoi the vehicle of incarnation of the highest Dhyinis (intellectually spiritually) before Humanit>' had become quite material. When last sub-races — save some of the lowest — of the Third Race perished with the great Lemurian Continent, the "Seeds of the of Wisdom" had already acquired the secret of immortality on Ea that gift which allows the same Great Personality to step ad libit from one worn-out body into another.
(Jf) The first War that Earth knew, the first shedding of human was the result of man's eyes and senses being opened, which made hi see that the daughters of his brethren were fairer than his ovra. — a their wives also. There were rapes committed before that of Sabines. and Mcnclauses robbed of their Helens before the Fifth
• This is the " Cndytag Race," u it ia called in E*oterici«iu. aiid cxotcrically the fniUles* Uon of the first progeny of Daksha. who curses Nirsda. the divine Rishi. for having dissuaded* Har^'aslivas and the Shal>aliUhva5 (the sons of Daksha) from procreatin? their spedes, by aaj '• Be bom in the womb; there shall not be a resting place for thee in all these regions." After Narada. the represenutlve of Uiat race oSfruitUss ascetics, is aaid« as soon as be dies in one be reborn in another.
> Adi Parviin, p. 113.
4 yukuu Atr.1iia. Wilsoa'sTmia., ii. u.
THE GIA^S^^^^^^^^^^^ jrfSfl
■^vas bom. The Titans or Giants were the stronger; their a'^versaries, the wiser. This took place during the Fourth Race — inat of the Giants.
For "there ivert Giants*' in the days of old, indeed.* The evolu- tionary series of the animal world is a warrant that the same thing took place within the human races. Lower still in the order of crea- tion we find witnesses for the same proportionate size in the flora going fan passu with the fauna. The pretty ferns we collect and dry among the leaves of our favourite volumes ai;e the descendants of the gigantic ferns which grew during the Carboniferous period.
Scriptures, and fragments of philosophical and scientific works — in short, almost every record that has come down to iis from antiquity — contain references to Giants. No one can fail to recognize the Atlan- teans of the Secret Doctrine in the Rakshasas of Lanka — the opponents conquered by RSma Are these accounts no better than the produc- tion of empty fancy? Let us give the subject a few moments' attention.
ARE GIANTS A FICTION?
Here, again, we come into collision with Science, which so far denies that man has ever been much larger than the average of tall and powerful men now met with occasionally. Dr. Henry Gregor de- nounces the traditions of Giants as resting upon ill-digested facts, and instances of mistaken judgments are brought forward as disproof of such traditions. Thus, in 1613, in a locality, called from time imme- morial the "Field of Giants," in Lower Dauphinc. France, four miles from St. Romans, enormous bones were found deeply buried in the sandy soil. They were attributed to human remains, and even to Teutobodus, the Teuton chief slain by Marius. But Cuvier*s later research proved them to be the fossil remains of the Dinotherium Giganteum, i8 feet long. Ancient buildings are pointed to as an
• The traditions of every country and nation point lo thin fact. Donnelly quotes from Father DurAD'ft Historia Antifrua de la Nueva Jufiafia of 1SS5. in which a ttatirc of Chohila. n centenarian, accounts for the butlding^ of the great pyramid of Cholula, as foltonv : " tn the befrinninK. before tlie liKht of the sun had been crrated, this land [Cholul«J was in ohscnrity and darkncM .... but immediately afitr the light of Ike sun arose in the East, there appeared jOE^anlic men .... who tiuilt the said pyramid, iu builders beingr scattered after that to all parte of the earth."
"A great deal of the Central Ajnerican hi-itory is taken ap with the doings of an ancient nic* of '^anticaUed Quinanea," says the author of AUantis (p. 204).
•9^
TRB SBCEET DOCTSUXK.
evidence that oar earliest ancestors were not much larger than we ar?, the entrance doors being of no larger size then than now. The tallest man of antiquity known to as, we are tol Maximas, whose height was only seven and a half feet, Xeverthcless, in our modem day. every year we see men taller than this. The Hungarian who exlilbited himself in the London Pavilion was nearlT 9 feet high. In America a giant was shown g feet 6 inches tall: llie Montenegrin Danilo was 8 feet 7 inches. In Russia and Germany one often sees men in the lower classes above 7 feet. Now, as the ape- theorists are told by Mr. Darwin that the species of animals whidi result from cross breeding always betray "a i^idency to nvert to original type^ they ought to apply the same law to men. Had been no giants as a type in ancient days, there would be now.
All this applies only to the historic period. And if the skeleto the prehistoric ages have failed so far to prove undeniably in opinion of Science .the claim here advanced, it is but a questiofl time. We. however, positively deny the reality of the failure. Mi over, as already stated, human stature is little changed since the Racial Cycle. The giants of old are all buried under the oceans, hundreds of thou.sands of years of constant friction by water reduce to du.st a brazen, much more a huraau skeleton. And wh the testimony of well-known classical writers, of philosophers and who. otherwise, never had the reputation for lying? Let us bear mind, furthermore, that before the year i847» when Boucher de Pi forced it upon the attention of Science^ hardly anything was known fossil mail, for Archaeolog>' complacently ignored his existence, giants who were "in the earth iu those days" of old, the Bible al had spoken to the wise men of the West; the Zodiac being the soli witness called upon to corroborate the statement iu the persons Orion or Atlas, whose mighty shoulders were said to support world.
Nevertheless, even the giants have not been left \vithout witnesses, and one may as well examine both sides of the ques The three Sciences — geological, sidereal and scriptural, the latter its universal character — may furnish us with the needed proofs begin with Geologj^ it has already confessed that the older the \-ated skeletons, the larger, taller and the more powerful their struc This is already a certain proof in hand. Frederic de Rougemont, whdj
THK TESTIMONY OF ANTIQUITY.
igi
ihotigh believing too piously in the Bidfeaud Noah's Ark» is none the less a scientific witness, writes:
All tbose bones, found in the Departments of the Gard. in Austria, Li^ge, etc, those skulls which all remind one of the negro type . . . and which by reason of their type might t>e mistaken for animals, have all belonged to men o/ high stature.*
The same is repealed by Lartet, an authority, who attributes a "tall stature" to those who were submerged in the Deluge — not necessarily '*Koah*s*' — and a smaller stature to the races which lived subse- quently.
As for the evidence furnished by ancient writers, we need not trouble ourselves with that of Tertullian, who assures us that in his day a number of giants were found at Carthage — for, before his testimony can be accepted, his own identity ,f if not actual existence, would have to be proven. We may, however, turn to the papers of 1858, which speak of a "sarcophagus of giants" found that year on the site of this same city. As to the ancient Pagan writers, we have the evidence of Philostratus, who speaks of a giant skeleton twenty-two cubits long, as well as of another of twelve cubits, seen by himself on the promontory of Sigaeum. This skeleton may perhaps not have belonged, as believed by Protesilas, to the giant killed by Apollo at the siege of Troy; never- theless, it was that of a giant, as was that of the other discovered by Messecrates of Stira, in Lemnos — "horrible to behold,*' according to Philostratus.J Is it possible that prejudice would carry Science so far as to class all these men as either fools or liars?
Pliny speaks of a giant in whom he thought he recognized Orion, or Otus. the brother of Ephialtes.§ Phitarch declares that Sertorius saw the tomb of Antaeus, the Giant; and Pausanias vouches for the actual existence of the tombs of Asterius and of Geryon, or of Hillus, son of Hercules — all Giants, Titans and mighty men. Finally the Abbe Pegues, affirms in his curious work, Les Volcans de la Grh^, that:
In the neighbourhood of the volcanoes of the isle of Thera, giants with enor- nious skulls were found laid out under colossal stones, the erection of which in
• HistMre df ta Tfrrt, p. 154.
■* ThcTT arc critlcB who, findiiiK no evidence for Ihe exiitence of Tertullian nave In Uie vrtitings of jSiuehiu*. "Uie veracious," are inclined to doubt it- X fftfoica . p. 35.
39^
THE SECRET DOCTRINE-
every place must have necessitated the iise of titanic powers, and which tradition associates in all countries with the ideas almut giants, volcanoes and zna^c*
In the same work above cited, the author wonders why in the BiHi and tradition the Gibborim, the jsriants or the ** mighty ones." the Rephaim, the spectres or the ''phantoms," the Nephilim, or the "fallen ones" (imtenies), are shown as if identical, though they are '*all ffw»," since the Bible calls them the primitive and the mighty ones— ^./^ Nimrod. The Secret Doctrine explains the secret. These names* which belong by right only to the four preceding Races and the earliesl beginning of the Fifth, alhide ver>' clearly to the first two PHantm (Astral) Races, to the ■* Fallen" Race— the Third, and to the Raced the Atlantean Giants — the Fourth, after which "men began to decrease, in stature."
Bossuet sees the cause of subsequent universal idoIatr>' in •^original sin." "Ye shall be as Gods," says the Serpent of Genesis Eve, thus laying the first germ of the worship of false divinitit Hence, he thinks, came idolatry, or the cult and adoration of imai of anthropomorphized or human figures. But, if it is this that idolat is made to rest upon, then the two Churches — the Greek, and Latin especially — are as idolatrous and pagan as any other relight It was only in the Fourth Race that men, who had lost all right to considered divine, resorted to body worship, in other words to pi cism. Till then, they had been truly Gods, as pure and as dime their Progenitors, and the expression of the allegorical "Serpent,' has been sufficiently shown in the preceding pages, does not refer all to the physiological "Fall" of men, but to their acquiring Knowledge of Good and Evil; and this knowledge came to them pt to their fall. It must not be forgotten that it is only after his foi expulsion from Eden that "Adam knew Eve his wife." We shall however, check the tenets of the Secret Doctrine by the dead-let of the Hebrew Bible^ but rather point out the great similarities betw the two in their Esoteric meaning.
■ ftcr ftw the above De MirviUe, PneumatotogU .- D^s Espiits, iiL 46-4*.
♦ ItUvations, p. 56,
: Antl that, notwithstandia? the fonnoJ prohibition nt the sreat Church Council of Elji A.D. 303, when it wfts declared that " the fonn of God. which ts imroatcriat and invisible, tliall limited by &^re or Ahapc." In 693, the Council of Constantinople similarly prohibited the **lo paint or represent Jesus as a lamb," as aUo "to bow the Icnec In pra>*tnK, as it is the idolatry." But the Council of Ntai:a ^787) brought this idolatr>- back, while that of Rome («^j conuuunicaLcd John, the Patriarch of Constantinople, for showin|p himaclf on encaiy of wonhip.
FOURTH RACK GIANTS.
^93
Tt was only after his defection from the Neo-PIatonists, that Clement of Alexandria began to translate giganics by serpentes, explaining that "serpents and giants signify dtmofis."*^
We may be told that, before we draw parallels between our tenets and those of the Bible, we have to show better evidence of the existence of the Giants of the Fourth Race than the reference to them found in Genesis. We answer, that the proofs we give are more satisfactory, at any rate are supported by more literary and scientific evidence, than those of Noah's Deluge will ever be. Even the historical works of China are full of such reminiscences about the Fourth Race. In the French translation of the Shco-King^f we read:
When the Miao-tse (that antediluvian and per>'erted race [explains the annotalor] which retired in the days of old to the rocky caves, and the descendants of whom are said to be still found in the neighbourhood of Canton), J according io our attciefti doatments. had, owing to the beguilements of Tchy-Yeoo. troubled all the earth, it became full of brigands. . , . The Lord {Chang-ty [a King of the Divine Dynasty]) cast his eyes over the people, and saw no longer among them any trace of virtue. Then he commanded Tchong and Ly [two tower Dhy&a Chobans] to cut
* GfiesU, V. Treating of the Chinese Dragon and the Ilterattuc of China, Mr. Charles Gould, in Itis Mythical Monsteri ;p ais), writet: "It« in>'tfaologie9, histories, rellgiuu*, popular sloricB, and proTcrhs, all teem with refereoccTt to a mysterious being who hoi a physical natuft and ipiritual tUtributti. Oifled with an accrptcd form, which he has the supcmatuml power of costing off Tor the aasutnption of others, he has the power of influencing the weather, producing droughts or rcrtJliaing nina %\ plcasurr, of raising tempests and allaying them. Volumes could be compiled from the scattered legends which everywhere abound nrlating to this sub|ect."
Thift "myslerioiu lieing" is the mythical Oregon. i>., the symbol of the hidaricol and actual Adept, the Master and l*rofc!tnor of Occult Sciences of old. 11 has already be«n stated cljewhere. that the great "Magicians" of the Fourth and Fifth Rac«s were generally colled "Serpents" and ■'*DrHgon»" after their Progenitors. All these belonged to the Hierarchy of the so-caltrd "Fiery Dragons of Wisdom," the Dhyin Chohans. answering to the Agnishv&tta Pilris, the Maruts and Rudras generally, as the issue of Rudni their father, who is identified with the Cod of Fire. More is aold in the text. Now Clement, an initiated Nco-Plntunist, knew, of course, the origin of the word "Dragon." and why the initiated Adepts were so called, as he knew the secret of the Agathodannon, the Christ, the seven-Towelled Serpent of the Gnostics. He knew that the dogma of his new faith required the transformation of all the riva/s of Jehovah — the Angels supposed to have retiellcd against that "Elohbn," .is the Titan Prometheus rebelled against Zeus, the usurper of his father's kingdom — and that "Dragon" was the mystic appellation of the "Sons of Wisdom"; from this knowledge came his definition, as cruel as it was arbitrary, "serpents and giants signify dlrmfMu," i^.. not "Spirits," but DevtU, in Church parlance.
* Part IV. Ch. xxvii. p. 191.
t "What would you say to oar affirmation that the Chinese— I now speak of the inland, the true Chinamen, not of the hybrid mixture between the Fourth and Fifth Races now occupying the throoc — the aborigines who belong In their unallied nationality wholly to the highest and last branch of the Fourth Race, reached their highest civilisation when the Fifth had hardly appeared in Asia." {EiaUric Urnddhnm. p. Ci;.) And this handful of the intend Chinese are all of a very high statnre. Could the raoiit ancient MSS. in the I^lo language (that of the aborigines of China) be got at and correctly trauslatcJ , many a priceless piece of evidence would be fovind. But they are as rare as their language is unintelligitile. So for, oae or two Bttropeen ArchKOloglflts only have bees able to procnre such pdccleas works.
«9*
THE SECRET DOCTRINE.
away every communication between heaven and earth. Since then, there has
no more going up and down /•
"Going up and doum*' means an untrammelled communication ui intercourse between the two Worlds.
As we are not in a position to give out a full and detailed history the Third and Fourth Races, as many isolated facts concerning thei as are permitted must be now collated together, especially those roborated by direct as well as by inferential evidence found in anci( literature and history. As the *'coats of skin*' of men thickened, they fell more and more into physical sin, the intercourse betw Physical and Ethereal Divine Man was stopped. The Veil of Matt between the two planes became too dense for even the Inner Man penetrate. The Mysteries of Heaven and Earth, revealed to the TI Race by their Celestial Teachers in the days of their purity, became] great focus of light, the rays from which became necessarily weakeni as they were diffused and shed upon an uncongenial, because material, soil. With the masses they degenerated into Sorcery, laltit later on the shape of exoteric religious, of idolatry full of superstiti and man-, or hero-worship. Alone a handful of primitive men- whom the spark of Divine Wisdom burnt bright, and became oi strengthened in its intensity as it got dimmer and dimmer with ev( age in those who turned it to evil purposes — remained the elect cus diaus of the Mysteries revealed to mankind by the Divine Teach There were those among them, who remained in their KaumSric dition from the beginning; and tradition whispers, what the Se( Teachings afBrm, namely, that these Elect were the germ of a Hierai •which has never died since thai period. As the Catechism of the Schools says:
The Inner Man of the First * ♦ ♦ oniy changes his body from to time; he is ever the same, knowiiig neither rest nor Nirvana, sfiumi* Devachan and rctnaining constant ty on Earth for the salvation o/mankii . . . . Out of the seven Virgin-men \^Kumdra]'\ four sacrijiced tl selves/or the sins of the worid and the instruction of the ignorant, to titi the end of the present Manva7itara. Though unseeti, they are present. When peopte say of one of the^n, ^^ He is dead"; behold, heisai
* Qaot£d in De MlrvUle^ o>. eit., iii. $j,. Remember the same sUtemeot in Uie Bo&k ^ also the ladder seen by Jaosb in his dream. The " two worlds '* mean, of coarve, the two ^i ConsciotUQCW and Being. A iceT can commuue with Bdn^ of ■ higher plane tlian the Earth. out qoitUnsr his arm-chair.
*» Sec the Commentary on the Pour Raccft— and on the "Sons of Will aad Yoga." the imi progeny of the Androgynous Third Race.
THE SACRED FOUR.
^5
and under another form. These are the Head, the Hearty the Sou/, and the Seed o/ undying Knoufled^ \^Jiiana\ Thou shait never speak, O Lanoo, of 4hese great ones [Mahd . . . "] before a muliitudej mentioning thetn by their nanus. The wise alont will understand,*
It is these sacred "Four" who have been allegorized and symbolized in the Linga Puraiia^ which states that Vamadeva (Shiva) as a Kumara is reborn in each Kalpa (Race, in this instance), as four youths — four, white; four, red; four, yellow; and four, dark or brown. Let us remember that Shiva is preeminently and chiefly an ascetic, the patron of all Yogis and Adepts, and the allegor>' will become quite comprehen- sible. It is the spirit of Divine Wisdom and chaste Asceticism itself which incarnates in these Elect. It is only after getting married and being dragged by the Gods from his terrible ascetic life, that Rudra becomes Shiva, a God — and not one of a very virtuous or merciful type — in the Hindu Pantheon. Higher than the **Four" is only One on Earth as in Heavens — that still more mysterious and solitary Being described in Volume I.
We have now to examine the natureof the ••Sons of the Flame" and of " Dark Wisdom,'* as well as the^/vi and cons of the Satanic assumption.
Such broken sentences as could be made out from the fragments of the tile, which George Smith calls "The Curse after the Fall,"t are of course allegorical; yet they corroborate that which is taught of the true nature of the Fall of the Angels in our Books. Thus, it is said that the "Lord of the Earth his name called out, the Father Elu [Elohim]/* and pronounced his "curse," which "the God Hea heard, and his liver was angry, because his man [Angelic Man] had corrupted his purity,** for which Hea expresses the desire that ^'wisdom and knowiedgi hostilely may they injure him [man]." J
The latter sentence points to the direct connection of the Chaldaean with the Genetic account. While Hea tries to bring to nought the wisdom and knowledge gained by man, through his newly-acquired intellectual and conscious capacity of creating in his turn — thus taking the monopoly of creation out of the hands of God (the Gods) — the Elohim do the same in the third chapter of Genesis. Therefore the Elohim sent him out of Eden.
But this was of no avail. For the Spirit of Divine Wisdom being
* In the fCabalah the pronanciatioo of the four-lettered in^abU Name is " a most secret arcanum' — **■ secret of aecret»."
T Tli€ CAakUaH AcatutUo/ Gemesii, p. Bi. t /bid., p. ^4. lines ii, 14 and 15.
«6
THE SECRET DOCTRINE.
upon and in man — verily the Serpent of Eternity and all Knowldj that MSnasic Spirit, which made him learn the secret of "creation the KriySshaktic, and of procreation on the Earthly planes — led him naturally to discover his way to immortality, notwithstanding jealousy of all the Gods.
The early Allan to- Lemurians are charged with taking unto tlK selves (the divine incarnations) wives of a lower race, namely, the of the hitherto mindless men. Every ancient Scripture has the sa more or less disfigured, legend. Primarily, the Angelic '*Fall/* whi has transformed the "First-bora" of God into the Asuras, or into Ahriman or Typhon of the "Pagans'* — f>., if the accounts given in Book of Enoch ^^ and in Hermes^ in Puranas and Bible are taken lit* — has, when read Esoterically, the following simple signification:
Sentences such as, *'In his [Satan's] ambition he raises his hi against the Sanctuary of the God of Heaven," etc., ought to Prompted by the Law of Eternal Evolution and Karma, the Ani incarnated on Earth in Man ; and as his Wisdom and Knowledge still divine, although his Body is earthly, he is (allegorically) acci of divulging the Mysteries of Heaven. He combines and uses the for purposes of human, instead of super-human, procreation. H forth, "man will begets not creaie^^\ But as, by so doing, he has to
" Returning once more to thff most important subject In Archaic Cosmogony, even in the i legends, in the Sacrrd Scrolls of tlic fioddcss Sega, »r find Loki, the brother by blood of OdlD- S9 Typhon. AJiriman. and others are rcspectixxly brothcn of Osiris and Ormazd— becomlnK crdl Inter, when he had minsrled too long with humanity. lake all other !• ire or I«ieht Godft—Pire I and destroying mt well «s worming and giving llfr — he ended by being nrgnrdcd in the d« fcnse of " Fire." The name Uikt, we leom from Asgard and the Gods (p. 350). has been dcrivedl the old word liuhaH, to enlighten. It has, therefore, the ume origin as the Mtin tuje, light. Loki is identical with I.ucifcr or Ught-liringtr. This title. Inring given to the Prince of Darl very suggestive and is in itself a vindication ngninst theological slander. But Lold is *till closely related to Prometheus, for he ia shown chained to a 6har|) rock, while Ludfer, aUo i with Satan, wait chained down in Hell ; a circumstance, however, which prevented neither of\ from acting with all freedom on Harth, if we accept the theological paradox in its fulness. beneficent, generoua and powerful God in the beginnings of time, and the principle of good, amll of evil, in early Scandinavian Theogony.
1- The Creek mythos alluded to a few pages back, namely the mutilation of tTranus hy Cronus, is an allusion to this "theft" of the divine creative Fire by the Son of the Earlb Ucavcna. If Uranus, the personification of the Celestial Powers, has to cease creating (he i» impotent by Cronmi (Chronos), the Ood in Timet, so. in the Egyptian Cosmogony, it is Thot, JMi of Wisdom, who regulates this fight between Horns and Set, the latter being Berred by the fo Uranus is by Cronus. iSce Book of the Dead, xvii. line j6.1 In the Babylonian account it is the Zu, who strips the " Father of the Gods" of" umsimt "—the ideal creative organ, not the "crow«" oa G. Smith thought {of, cit., pp. 115, tib). For, in the fragment K. 3454 (British Museum), it is very clearly, that Zu having stripped the " venerable of heaven" of his desire, he carried at •■ umsimt of the gods." and burnt thereby "the trrett [the power) of all the gods." tbos "1 the wtiole of the jffrfof all the angels." As the umsimi wtixi " on the jra/ '* of Bel, It could hai the " crown." A fourth version is in the Bible, Ham is the Chaldiean Zu, and both are cnncd fo same allegurically described crime.
THB CHItDREN OF BRAHMA.
^
his weak Body as the means of procreation, that Body will pay the penalty for this Wisdom, carried from Heaven down to the Earth; hence the corruption of physical purity will become a temporary curse. The Mediaeval Kabalists knew this well, since one of them did not fear to write :
The Kabalah was first taught by God himself to a select Company of Angels who formed a Iheosophic school in Paradise. After the Fall the Angels most graciously communicated this heavaily doctrine to the disobedient child of Earth, to furnish the protoplasts vrith the means of reluming to their pristine nobility and felicity. •
This shows how the incident of the Sons of God, marrying and imparting the Divine Secrets of Heaven to the Daughters of Men — as allegorically told by Enoch and in the sixth chapter of Gmesis — was interpreted by the Christian Kabalists. The whole of this period may be regarded as the ;>r(?-human period, that of Divine Man, or as plastic Protestant Theologj' now has it^the /'/r-Adamite period. But even Genesis begins its real history (Chap, vi) by the giants of "those days'* and the "sons of God" marrying and teaching their wives — the •'daughters of men.*'
This period is the one described in the Purdnas: and relating as it does to days lost in archaic ages, hence pre-historic, how can any Anthropologist feci certain whether the mankind of that period was or was not as he knows it now? The whole persoruiel of the Brdhmanas
id Purdnas — the Rishis, Prajapatis, Manus, their wives and progeny ^—belong to that pre-human period. All these are the Seed of Hu- manit>', so to speak. It is around these "Sons of God," the "mind- bom*' astral Children of Brahmt, that our physical frames have grown and developed to what they are now. For, the Pauranic histories of all those men are those of our Monads, in their various and numberless incarnations on this and other Spheres, events perceived by the "Shiva Eye" of the ancient Seers — the ''Third Eye" of our Stanzas — and de- scribed allegorically. Later on, they were disBgured for sectarian pur- poses; mutilated, but still left with a considerable ground-work of truth in them. Nor is the philosophy less profound in such allegories for being so thickly veiled by the overgrowth of fancy.
But with the Fourth Race we reach the purely human period. Those who were hitherto semi-divine Beings, self-imprisoned iu bodies which wete human only in appearance, became physiologically changed and
■ Quoted by Christian Ginsburr from the Kabatah.
^m
398
THE SECRET DOCTRINE.
took unto themselves wives who were entirely human and fair to look upon, but in whom tower^ more maienai^ though sidereal, Beings had incaniated. These Beings in female forms — Lililh is the prototype of them in the Jewish traditions — are called in the Esoteric accounts Khado (DSkini, in Sanskrit). Allegorical legends call the Chief of these Liliths Sangye Khado (Buddha Dikiui, in Sanskrit); all are credited with the art of "walking in the air/* and the "greatest kind* ness to mortals;** but with no mittd — only animal instinct.*
{c) This is the beginning of a worship which, ages later, was doomed to degenerate into phalUcism and sexual worship. It began by the worship of the human body — that "miracle of miracles/* as an English author calls it — and ended by that of its respective sexes. The wor- shippers were giants in stature; but they were not giants in knowledge and learning, though it came to them more easily than it does to the men of our modem times. Their science was innate in them. The Lemuro-Atlanteau had no need of discovering and fixing in his memory that which his informing principle hiav at the moment of its incarna- tion. Time alone, and the ever-growing obluseness of the Matter in which the "principles" had clothed themselves, could, the one, weaken the memory of their pre-natal knowledge, the other, blunt and even extinguish every spark of the spiritual and divine in them. Therefore had they, from the first, fallen victims to their animal natures and bred "monsters*' — i.e,^ men of distinct varieties from themselves.
Speaking of the Giants, Creuzcr well describes them in saying that:
Those children of Heaven and Earth were endowed at tht:ir birth by the Sovertif^n Powers^ the authors of their being, with extraordinary faculties both moral and physical. They commanded the Elcnufits, knetv the secrets of Heaven and the Earthy of tite sea and the whole world, and read futurity in the stars. ... It seems, in- deed« as though, when reading of them, one has to deal not with men as we are but with Spirits of the Elements sprung from the bosom of Nature and having full away over her. . . . All these beings are marked with a character of tnagic and sorcery. . , ,
And so they were, those now legendary heroes of the pre-historic^ still once really existing, races. Creuzer was wise in his generation, for he did not charge with deliberate deceit, or dulness and super- stition, an endless series of recognized Philosophers, who mention
* SeblagiDlwvlt, BvddMiim in Tiiei, p. 248. These arr the ficinffs whose legendary existence has •erved m» s ground-work upon whtch to build the Kabbinical Ulltli, and whnt the believers in the BtSUviouiA leriD the Antediluvian women, and the Kabalists the Pr«- Adamite races. They are ao fiction— Uiis U certain, taowcro^ fsntsslic the exuberance of later p-owlh.
HUMAN AXD AKtMAL CROSS-BREEDING.
2«
these races and assert that, even in their own time, they had seen their fossils. There were sceptics in days of old — as many and great as they arenow. But even a Lucian, a Democritus and an Epicurus, yielded to thec\'idence ol facts and showed the discriminative capacity of really great intellects, which can distinguish fiction from fact, and truth from exaggeration and fraud. Ancient writers were no more fools than are oar modern wise men; for, as well remarked by the author of *' Notes On Aristotle's Psychology in Relation to Modern Thought," in Mind:
The common division of history iuto ancient and modem is ... . mialead- ing. The Greeks in the fourth century, B.C., were in many respects modems; espe- cially, we may add, in their scepticism. They were not very likely to accept fabUs wcMily.
Yet the Lemurians and the Atlanteans, those "children of Heaven and Earth/' were indeed marked with a character of sorcery; for the Esoteric Doctrine charges them precisely with what, if believed, would put an end to the difficulties of Science with regard to the origin of man, or rather, his anatomical similarities to the anthropoid ape. It accuses them of having committed the (to us) abominable crime of breeding with so-called *' animals," and thus producing a truly pithe- coid species, now extinct. Of course, as also in the question of spon- taneous generation — in which Esoteric Science believes, and which it leaches — the possibility of such a cross-breed between man and au animal of any kind w^ill be denied. But apart from the consideration that in those early days, as already remarked, neither the human Atlantean Giants, nor yet the **animals," were the physiologically perfect meu and mammalians that are now known to us, the modern notions upon this subject — those of the Physiologists included — are too uncertain and fluctuating to permit them an absolute h priori denial of such a fact,
A careful perusal of the Commentaries would make one think that the Being with which the new "Incarnate" bred, was called an "animal," not because he was no human being, but rather because he was so dis- amilar physically and mentally to the more perfect races, which had developed physiologically at an earlier period. Remember Stanza VII and what is said in Shloka 24, viz., that when the "Sons of Wisdom" came to incarnate the first time, some of them incarnated fully, others projected into the forms only a Spark, while some of the Shadows were Wt over from the filling and perfecting, till the Fourth Race. Those faces, then, which "remained destitute of knowledge," or those again which were left '* mindless," remained as they were, even after the
30O
THE SECRET DOCTRINE.
natural separation of the sexes. It is these who committed the fit cross-breeding, so to speak, and bred monsters; and it is from descendants of these that the Atlanteans chose their wives. Adam Eve, with Cain and Abel, were supposed to be the only human fami on Earth. Yet we see Cain going to the land of Nod and taking th a wife. Evidently one race only was supposed perfect enough to called human; and, even in our own day, while the Sinhalese rega the Veddhas of their jungles as speaking animals and no more, so British people, in their arrogance, firmly believe that every otl human family— especially the dark Indians — is an inferior race. Men over there are Naturalists who have seriously considered the probl whether some savage tribes — like the Bushmen, for instance — can l regarded as men at all. The Commentarj' says, in describing tla species (or race) of animals "fair to look upon," as a biped:
Having human shape, but having th^ lower extrcniiiies, from the u% doum, covered with hair.
Hence the race of the satyrs, perhaps.
If men existed two million years ago, they must have been — -just were the animals— quite different physically and anatomically fral what they have now become, and nearer then to the type of pfl mammalian animal than they are now. Anyhow, we learn that tl animal world has bred strictly inter se — i.e., in accordance with gen and species — only since the appearance on this Earth of the Atlan' Race. As demonstrated by the author of that able work, ModA Seience and Modern Thought, this idea of the refusal to breed wi! another species, or that sterility is the only result of such breedifl "appears to be a prima facie deduction rather than an absolute la' even now. He shows that:
Different species do, in fact, often breed together, as is seen in the Caniili instance of the horse and ass. It is true that in this case the mule is sterile. . But this rule is not universal, and quite recently one new hybrid race, that of leporine, or hare-rabbit, has been created which is perfectly fertile.
The progeny of wolf and dog is also instanced, as also that , several other domestic animals; foxes and dogs again, and the mod Staiss cattle shown by Riitimeyer as descended from '*three distij species of fossil-oxen, the Bos primigeniiis, Bos longifrons and i frontosus"^ Yet some of those species, as the ape family^ which clearly resembles man in physical structure, contain, we are told.
* op' C/t., pp. lOI, 103
THE DUMB MAN WHO WAI^S ON AIX FOURS.
3Pt
rmnerous braoclies, which graduate into one another, but the extremes of which :r more widely than man does from the highest of the ape seriea.
The gorilla and chimpanzee, for instance.
Thus Mr. Darwin's remark — or shall we say the remark of Linnaeus? Ma/i/ra non facit salium, is not only corroborated by Esoteric Science out would — were there any chance of the real doctrine being accepted by any others than its direct votaries — reconcile the modem evolution theory, in more than one way, if not entirely, with facts, as also with the absolute failure of the Anthropologists to meet with the "missing ti"V" in our Fourth Round geological formations.
P We will show elsewhere that Modern Science, however unconsciously
to itself, pleads our case by its own admissions, and that de Quatrefages
is perfectly right, when he suggests in his last work, that it is far more
likely that the anthropoid ape should be discovered to be the descen-
daniof marty than that these two types should Ijave a common^ fantastic
I and nowhere-to-be-found ancestor. Thus the wisdom of the compilers
pf the old Stanzas is vindicated by at least one eminent man of Science,
Bid the Occultist prefers to believe, as be has ever done, that, as the
w)mmentary says:
Afan was the first and highest \manimalian\ animal that appeared in
tEr [Fourth Rou7id^ creation. Then came still huger afiimals; and last at! the dumb man who ivalks on alt fours. [For^ the Rdkshasas [Giani- ^onons] and Daiiyas [Titans'] of the U-Tiite Dvipa [Continent^ spoiled ^f [the dumb man's"] sires.
•Furthermore, as we see, there are Anthropologists who have traced ■m back to an epoch whicli goes far to break down the apparent Jtrier that exists between the chronologies of Modem Science and Ihe Archaic Doctrine. It is true that English Scientists generally have declined to commit themselves to the sanction of the hypothesis of even a Tertiary man. They, each and all, measure the antiquity of Homo Primigenius by their own lights and prejudices. Huxley, indeed, ventures to speculate on a possible Pliocene or Miocene man. Prof. Steman and Mr. Grant Allen have relegated his advent to the Eocene,
tt, speaking generally. English Scientists consider that we cannot ely go beyond the Quaternar>'. Unfortunately, the facts do not accommodate the too cautious reserve of these latter. The French school of Anthropology, basing their views on the discoveries of TAbbe Bourgeois, Capellini, and others, has accepted, almost without excep- I, the doctrine that the traces of our ancestors are certainly to be
3D2
THE SECRET DOCTRIKE.
found in the Miocene, while M. de Quatrefages now inclines to postu late a Secondar>'-Age man. Further on we shall compare such esti- mates with the figures given in the Biahmanical exoteric books which approximate to the Esoteric Teaching. ■
(d) '*Then the Third Eye acted no longer," says the Shloka, because Man had sunk too deep into the mire of Matter.
What is the meaning of this strange and weird statement in Shloka 42, concerning the Third Eye of the Third Race which had died acted no longer?
A few more Occult Teacliings must now be given with reference this point as well as some others. The histor>' of the Third and Foui Races must be amplified, in order that it may throw some more light on the development of our present humanity; and .show how the faculties, called into activity by Occult training, restore man to the position he previously occupied in reference to spiritual perception and conscious- ness. But the phenomenon of the Third Eye has to be first explained.
THE RACES WITH THE "THIRD EYE." The subject is so unusual, the paths pursued so intricate, so full dangerous pitfalls prepared by adverse theories and criticism, thatgoc reasons have to be given for ever>- step taken. While turning the ligl of the bull's-eye, called Esotericism, on almost every inch of the Occt ground travelled over, we have also to use its lens to throw in! stronger objectivity the regions explored by exact Science; this, nC only in order to contrast the two. but to defend our position.*
It may be complained by some that too little is said of the physical,^ human side of the extinct races, in the history of their growth and cvi lution. Much more might be said, assuredly, if simple prudence d\i
* For MiggMtiveness, we would reconimeDd a short article by Viaconde de PiK&ni^rv, P.T.ft.> In T^Mjo/Af x/, aiUUe to the world a new idea— "tbe progress of the Mooad coccaniui; with the retrotrasion of Ponnj with decrease of the vis formati-va," (Vol. viil. p. 666.) He say*. "Who know* what shape vt\A the V.ipi in remote riaffa [Rounds, or Racea?)? .... May not man's type .... have that of the StmiadEln iU variety? Mlerht not the Monkejr-klnf^dom of RArailyana fame rcstoai far-off tradition rrlatinK to a period when that was the coraraon lot. or rather aspect, of man \ the author winds up a very clever, though too short, expoftitiou of his theory by saying that every true Occultist will endorse; "With physico -ethereal man there must be invotutiom of sex. phyaico- astral man depended on entities of the sub-human class (erotved from animal prot for rebirth, so will physico-ethcreol man find among the frraceful. shapely orders iasuiog (n>tD aiV-ptane, one or more which will be developed for his succeasive ombodimeuU wMen firocrfated^ are given — a proceaa which will include all mankind only very gradually. The [/V/- }] Adunic : I^3st-Adamic races were giants; their ethereal counterparts may possibly be UUpuUuu— bcaatroiti, liuninotia, diaphaaoua— but will aamredly be glanU Ln miiid" (p. t>;t).
MAN, THB STOREHOUSE OP AU. THE SEEDS OP UPE. $0$
not make us hesitate at the threshold of every new revelation. All that finds possibility and landmarks in the discoveries of Modern Science, is given; all that of which exact knowledge knows nothing and upon which it is unable to speculate — and therefore denies as fact in nature — is withheld.
But even such statements as, for instance, that, of all the mamma- lians, man was the earliest, that it is man who is the indirect ancestor of the ape, and that he was a kind of Cyclops in days of old — all will be contested ; yet Scientists will never be able to prove, except to their own satisfaction, that fV zvas not so. Nor can they admit that the first two Races of men were too ethereal and phantom-like in their consti- tution, organism, and shape even, to be called physical men. For, if they do, it will be found that this is one of the reasons why their relics can never be expected to be exhumed among other fossils. Neverthe- less all this is maintained. Man was the Store-house, so to speak, of aii the seeds of life for this Round, vegetable and animal alike.* As Ain Suph is "One, notwithstanding the innumerabU forms which are in him"\ so is man, on Earth the microcosm of the macrocosm.
As soon as man appeared, everything was complete .... for everyllilng ia comprised in man. He uftites in himself atl forms.X
The mystery of the earthly man is afler the mystery of the Heavenly Mau.^
The human form — so called because it is the vehicle (under whatever shape) of the DivineWzn — is, as so intuitionally remarked by the author of "Esoteric Studies," the new type^ at the beginning of every Round.
As man never can be. so he never has been, manifested in a shape belonging to the animal kingdom in esse, i.e.. he never formed pEirt of that kingdom. Derived, only derived, from the most finished class of the latter, a new human form must always have been the new type of the cycle. The human shape in one ring [?], as I imagine, becomes cast-off clothes in the next; it is then appropriated by the highest order in the servant-kingdom below. [)
If the idea is what we understand it to mean — for the "rings" spoken of somewhat confuse the matter — then it is the correct Esoteric Teaching.
* It may be objected that this i» a contradictioti. That, a« the first Root>Racc appeami SDo.ooo.cno year* after the vefretation had evolved, the Seed of vegetable life could not l>e In the Piret Race. We aay it could; for up lo mnn'a appearance in this Round, the vegelatioa waa of quite another kind to what it ie now. and quite ethereal ; ibis, for the Mtnple reason that no gnaa or plants could have been physical, t>efore there were nninial or other orfEiinisnii to tnrathe out the carbonic acid which vegetation has Lo imbibe for its developiiueat, ita nutrition and growth. They arc inter- dependent in their physicaJ and achieved forms.
^ Zokar, i. tia.
{ Ibid., iii. 4Bd.
\ ibid,, i\. 76a.
ft/., p. 666.
ao4
THE SECRET DOCTRINE.
Having appeared at the very beginniug, aud at the head of sentient and conscious life, Man — the Astral, or the "Soul.** for the Zohar, re- peating the Archaic Teaching, distinctly says that "the rral man is the soul, and his material frame no part of him" — Man became the living and animal Uftii, from which the " cast-off clothes*' determined the shape of every life and animal in this Round.*
Thus, he '* created," for ages, the insects, reptiles, birds, and animals, unconsciously to himself, from his remains and relics from the Third and the Fourth Rounds. The same idea and teaching are as distinctly given in the Vendiddd of the Mazdeans, as they are in the Chaldaean and Mosaic allegory of the Ark, all of which are tlie many national versions of the original legend given in the Hindu Scriptures. It is found in the allegor>' of Vaivasvata Manu and his Ark with the Seven Rishis, each of whom is shown the Father and Progenitor of specified animals, reptiles, and even monsters, as in the Vishnu and other Pnrdnas, Open the Mazdean Vendiddd^ and read the command of Ahura Mazda to Yima, a Spirit of the Earth, who symbolizes the three Races, aRer telling him to build a Vara — "an enclosure," an Argha or Vehicle.
Thither [into the Vara] thou shalt bring the seeds oftnai and womctt, of the greatest, best, and finest kinds on this earth ; thither thou shalt bring the seeds of every kind of cattle, etc ... All those seeds shalt Uiou bring, two of every kind lo be kept itu.xhausHbU there, so long as those nwn shall stay in the Vara A
Those "men" in the "Vara" are the "Progenitors," the Heavenly Men or Dhyauis, the future Egos who are commissioned to inform man- kind. For the Vara, or Ark, or again the Vehicle, simply means Man.X
Thou shalt seal up the Vara [after filling;; it up with the seeds], and thou shalt make a door, and a window setf-shining within [which is the Soul].^
And when Yima enquires of Ahura Mazda how he shall manage to make tliat Vara, he is answered:
Crush the earth .... and knead it with thy hands, as the potter docs when kneading the potter's clay.fl
* It if otatcd in the Zohar that the " piimordial woridi " (•pnrks) could not continue because mam IMM noi as yet. "The human form contains rvrrything; andakit did not as yet exist, tlie world* were destroyed."
♦ "The Sacred Books of the Ba«l." toI. iv; Tha WendidAd. J. Danneiteter: Par^ard U.tv. t? I70) and 3S (74).
i Thl« in the meaning when the atlcgorr and nymbol are ofK-ncd and read hy means of the human key. or the key to Tem-strial Anthroposophy. Thia inierpTctotion of the "Ark" symboliain does not In the least Interfere with lis aslronoinical. or even theogonlc keys; nor with any of the other six niranlnj^. Nor does it seem less scientific than the modem Uteoric& about the origin of man. As said, it has seven keys to it, like the rat.
» /i»rf..v. 30(87).
I /»(
MA2T)EAN SYMBOLISM.
305
The Egyptian ram-headed God makes man of clay on a potter's vheel, and so in Genesis do the Elohim fashion him out of the same material.
When the *• Maker of the material world," Ahura Mazda, is askea. 'liirthennore, what is to give light "to the Vara which Yima made," he : answers that:
There are uncrraUd lights and created lights. There [in Airyana Vatjft, where fira is built], the stars, the moon, and the sun are only once (a year) seen to rise id set, and a year seems only as a day f"r.r:d night}.*
This is a clear reference to the "Land of the Gods" or the (now) Polar Regions. Moreover another hint is contained in this verse, a distinct allusion to the "uncreated lights" which enlighten man within —bis "principles." Otherwise, no sense or reasoa could be found in Mazda's answer which is forthwith followed by the words-:
Ewry fortieth year, to every conple [henn aphrodite] hvo are bom, a male and ImaJf.f
The latter is a distinct echo of the Secret Doctrine, of a Stanza which
says: Ai the expiration of every forty [annual ~\ Suns, at the end of every \nicth Day, the double one becomes four ; male and female in one^ in tfu
fat and second and the third. . . , This is clear, since ever\' "Sun" meant a whole year, the latter being imposed of one Day then, as in the Arctic Circle it is now composed six months. According to the old teaching, the axis of the Earth lually changes its inclination to the ecliptic, and at the period fcrred to, this inclination was such that a polar Day lasted during whole period of the Earth's revolution about the Sun. when a kind
Bf twilight of very short duration intervened; after which the polar id resumed its position directly under the solar rays. This may be ilrary to Astronomy as now taught and understood; but who can lythat changes in the motion of the Earth, which do not take place )w, did not occur millions of 3'ears back?
Returning once more to the statement that Vara meant the Man of it Fourth Round, as much as the Earth of those days, the Moon, and
tren Noah's Ark. if one will so have it — this is again shown in the
dialogue between Ahura Mazda and Zarathushtra. Thus when the
latter asks :
Ibid.,y. ^o (13L).
t sec alio Bumd,, xv.
306
THE SECRET DOCTRINE.
O Maker of the material world, thou Holy One ! Who u he who brought t^e iaw of Mazcla into the Vara which Yima made? Ahura Maxda answered: *'lt was the bird Karshipta, O holy Zarathushtra!
And the note explains:
The bird Karshipta dwells in the heavens: were he living on the earth, he would be king of birds. He brought the law into the Var of Yima, and recites the Avesta in the tanguage of birds.f
This again is an allegory and a symbol misunderstood by the Orien- talists only, who see in this bird **an iacarnatiou of liglitning,'* and say its song was **often thought to be the utterance of a god and a revelation." and what not. Karshipta is the human Mind-Soul, and the deity thereof, symbolized in ancient Magianism by a bird, as the Greeks symbolized it by a butterfly. No sooner had Karshipta entered the Vara or Man, than he understood the law of Mazda, or Divine Wisdom. In the "Book of Concealed Mystery" it is said of the Tree, which is the Tree of knowledge of good and evil:
In its branches the birds lodge and build their nests (the sou/s and the angels have their place). t
Therefore, with the Kabalists it was a like symbol. "Bird** was a ChaUlsean, and has become a Hebrew, synonym and symbol for Angel, a Soul, a Spirit, or Deva; and the "Bird's Nest" was, with bolh» Heaven, and is God's Bosom, in the Zohar. The perfect Messiah enters Eden "into that place which is called the Bird's Nest."§
"Like a bird that is flying from its nest," and that is the Soul from which the She'khecn-ah [divine wisdom or grace] does not move away.(|
The Nesi of the Eternal Bird, ike flutter of whose wings produces Life, is boundless Space, — says the Commentary, meaning Hamsa, the Bird of Wisdom.
It is Adam Kadmon who is the tree of the Scphiroth. and it is he who becomes the *'tree of knowledge of good and evil," Esoterically. And that "tree hath around it seven columns [seven pillars] of the world, or Rectorcs [the same Progenitors or Sepbiroth againj, operating through the respective orders of Angels in the spheres of the seven planets." etc., one of which orders begets Giants (Nephilim) on Earth.
It was the belief of all antiquity, Pagan and Christian, that tae
• /Wrf..4»(i.17».
* Bund., xix und xxlv.
I 6. t„ MacGreiror Mathers. Kabbalah VmtteiUd, p. 104- I Zokar. it. %b. I Zohar, iii. »7Ba; Myer's Qabbalah^.^. ai;.
THREE-EYED" MORTALS.
307
€»rliest mankind was a race of giants. Certain excavations in America in mounds and in caves, have already, iu isolated cases, yielded groups of skeletons of nine and twelve feet high.* These belong to tribes of the early Fifth Race, now degenerated to an average size of between five aud six feet. But we can easily believe that the Titans and Cyclopes of old really belonged to the Fourth (Atlantean) Race, aud that all the subsequent legends and allegories found in the Hindu Purarias and the Greek poems of Hesiod and Homer, were based on the hazy reminiscences of real Titans — men of a tremendous super- human physical power, which enabled them to defend themselves, and hold at bay the gigantic monsters of the Mesozoic and early Cenozoic times — and of actual Cyclopes, "three-eyed" mortals.
It lias been often remarked by observant writers, that the "origin of nearly every popular myth and legend could be traced invariably to a fact in Nature."
Iu these fantastic creations of an exuberant subjectivism, there is always an element of the objective and real. The imagination of the masses, di.sorderly and ill-regulated as it may be, could never have conceived and fabricated ex nihilo so many monstrous figures, such a Wealth of extraordinary tales, had it not had, to serve It as a central Dadeus, those floating reminiscences, obscure and vague, which unite the broken links of the chain of time to form with them the mys- tenous, dream foundation of our collective consciousness.!
The evidence for the Cyclopes — a race of Giants — will, in forth- coming Sections, be pointed out in the Cyclopean remnants, which are so called to this day. An indication that the early Fourth Race — dnring its evolution and before the final adjustment of the human organism, which became perfect and symmetrical only in the Fifth ^ Race — may have been three-eyed, without having necessarily a third tye in the middle of the brow, like the legendary Cyclops, is also famished by Science.
To Occultists who believe that spiritual and psychic involuiian pro- tteds on parallel lines with physical evolution — that the inner senses,
* Dtrwiniui BvotntioaiftU who arc *o wont to refer to the evidence oT rrversion to /y^#— the faU Mttin^ of which, in the cane of humnn monstcm, i% mibraccd in the Esoteric solution of the NtrTolo^cal problem — as proof of their arirumenta, woald da welt to enquire iato those instances of **'■ giants who aie often S, 9, and even 11 feet hiffh. Such r^vrnodj arc imperfect, yet untleniaWe ^todoctiofu of the original towering man uf [primeval timen. * See Mythical Momters. by Ch. Gould, from whose interestingr and icieiitific volume a few pouaget ftc quoted further on. See also, in A. P. Sinnett's Occult Wofid, the description of a cmvem in the filled with relics of fiant bumui aad animal bones.
3o8
THK SBCRBT DOCTRINE.
innate in the first human races, atrophied during racial growth and the material development of the outer senses — to the students of Esoteric symbology the above statement is no conjecture or possibility, but simply a phase of the law of growth^ a proven fact, in short. They understand the meaning of the passage in the Commentaries which says :
There were four-amied human creatures in those early days of the tnale- females [hennaphrodilcs^ ; 7vilh one head, yet three eyes. They could see before them and behind Ihcni.^ A Kalpa later [after the separation of the sexes] men having fallen into matter, their spiritual vision became dim; and coordinatciy the Third Eye cotmnenced to lose its power. . . . ll^'hen the fourth [Race] arrived at its middle age^ the Inner Vision had to be awakened^ and acquired by artificial stim.uliy the process of which was known to the old Sages.f .... The Third Eye, likewise, getting gradually petrified^X soon disappeared. The double-faced became the one- faced, and the eye was drawn deep into the head and is now buried under the hair. During the activity of the Inner Man [during trances and spiritual visions] the eye swells and expands. The Arhat sees and feels it^ and regttlates his action accordingly. , . . The nndefiled Lanoo [/>;>- ciplCt Chela] need fear no danger i he who keeps himself not in purity [w/to is not chaste] ztnlt receive no help from the "^ Deva Eye.'^
Unfortunately not. The *'Deva Eye*' exists no more for the majority of mankind. The Third Eye is dead, and acts no longer; but it has lefl behind a witness to its existence. This witness is now the Pineal Gland. As for the "four-armed'* men, it is they who became the proto- types of the four-armed Hindu Gods, as shown in a preceding footnote.
Such is the mystery of the human eye that some Scientists have been forced to resort to Occult explanations in their vain endeavours to ex- plain and account for all the difficulties surrounding its action. The development of the human eye gives more support to Occult Anthro-
• I.f., the TTiird Rye wag nt Ihe back of the head. The »tatement that the latent hennaphrixlite humanity was "fonr-anned," unriddles probably the mystery of all the repreaenta lions and idola of the cxotrric Gods uf India. On the Acropolla of Argua, there wa» a ^oavov, a rudely carved wooden atatue. attributed to Diednluft, representing^ a Ihree-eyed colotuus. which wnH consecrated to Zeus Tri&p*«, the "Three-eyed." The head of the "god" baa two eyes tu its face and one above on the top of the forehead. It is conMdercd the meet archaic of all the ancient statnea. {Sehol. yattc. ad £nrifi. Troad., m.)
T The tnner vision could henceforth he acquired only through training and initiation, uve is the caaes of " natural aiid l»um magiciona" — scnsilivvs and mediunu, as they are called now.
t This expression "i>ctn6cd" instead of "oasified" iacnrious. The"bnck eye," which is of courae the Pineal Gland, so-called, the amall pea-like maaa of grey nervous matter attached to the back of the thinl ventricle of the brain, ia aaid to ohnoat iavariably cnntain wnturai amcretitms and sand, and "noUiing more."
OCCULT PHYSIOIXJGY.
3P9
polog)' than to that of the Materialistic Physiologists. "The eyes in
the human embr>'o grow /rom iviikin withotW* — out of the brain,
instead of being part of the skin, as in the insects and cuttlefish.
Professor Lankester — thinking the brain a queer place for the eye» and
empting to explain the phenomenon on Darwinian lines — suggests
e curious \new that "our" earliest vertebrate ancestor was a **irans-
i" creature and hence did not miud where the eye was! And so
man a "transparent creature" once upon a time, we are taught;
d hence our theor>' holds good. But how does the Lankester
thesis square with the Hseckelian view that the vertebrate eye
originated by changes tn ike epidermis^ If it started inside^ the latter
ineory goes into the waste basket. This seems to be proved by embry-
olog)-. Moreover. Professor Lankester*s extraordinary suggestion — or
t shall we say admission? — is perhaps rendered necessary by evolutionist necessities. Occultism, with its teaching as to the gradual develop- ment of senses ''from zvithhi without i^ from astral prototypes, is far tuore satisfactory. The Third Eye retreated inwards when its course wsran — another point in favour cf Occultism. - The allegorical expression of the Hindu mystics who speak of the pEye of Shiva," the Tri-lochana. or "three-eyed," thus receives its JQstification and raison d'etre: the transference of the Pineal Gland (once that Third Eye) to the forehead, being an exoteric licence. This throws also a light on the myster>' — incomprehensible to some — of the wnnection between abnormal^ or spiritual Seership, and the physio- li>pcaJ purity of the Seer. The question is often asked: Why should Cfclibacy and chastity be a %ine qua non condition of regular Chelaship^ or the development of psychic and occult powers? The answer is con- tained in the Commentary. Wlien we learn that the Third Eye was once a physiological organ, and that later on, owing to the gradual "lisappearance of spirituality and increase of materiality, the spiritual Mture being extinguished by the physical, it became an atrophied Organ, as little understood now by Physiologists as is the spleen — when *t learn this, the connection becomes clear. During human life the ptatest impedimAit in the way of spiritual development, and espe- t^Uy to the acquirement of Yoga powers, is the activity of our physio- logical senses. Sexual action also being closely connected, by inter- action, with the spinal cord and the grey matter of the brain, it is useless to give any longer explanation. Of course, the normal and abnormal state of the brain, and the degree of active work in the Medulla Ob-
^lO THE SECRET DOCTRINE.
longata, reacts powerfully on the Pineal Gland, for, owing to thenu ber of "centres" in that region, which controls by far the great number of the physiological actions of the animal economy, andai owing to the close and intimate neighbourhood of the two, a T powerful "inductive" action must be exerted by the Medulla on I Pineal Gland.
All this is quite plain to the Occultist, but is very vague in the si] of the general reader. The latter must then be shown the possibill of a three-eyed man in Nature, in those periods when his formal was yet in a comparatively chaotic state. Such a possibility may inferred from anatomical and zoological knowledge, first of all, then it may rest on the assumptions of Materialistic Science itself
It is asserted upon the authority of Science, and upon e\'idea which is this time not merely a fiction of theoretical speculation, t many of the animals — especially among the lower orders of the vei brata — have a third eye, now atrophied, but which was necessiui active in its origin.* The Hatteria species, a lizard of the order Lac* lilia, recently discovered in New Zealand — a part of ancient Lcntufis called^ mark well — presents this peculiarity in a most extraordinu manner; and not only the Hatteria Punctata, but the Chameleon, certain reptiles, and even fishes. It was thought, at first, that this no more than the prolongation of the brain which ended with a s protuberance, called Epiphysis, a little bone separated from the ml bone by a cartilage, and found in every animaK But it was soon foi to be more than this. As its development and anatomical structa showed, it offered such an analog>' with that of the eye, that it found impossible to see in it an>^hing else. There are Palaeontologi who to this day feel convinced that this Third Eye originally functioB' and they are certainly right. For this is what is said of the Pim Gland in Quain's Anatomy:
It is from this part constitutinpj at first the whole and subsequently t part of the anterior priinar>' encephalic vosicle, that the optic vesicles are in the earliest period, and the fore part is that in connection with which the bral hemispheres and accompanying parts are formed. The- thalamus opti
* "Deet^y placed within the head, covered by thick skin and muKles, true eyes, thit caof arc fountl ill certain animals," says Hocckel. " Among the Vertebrata there are blind moIc« and mice, blind unakes and Uutrds. . . . They shun the daylight, dwelling . . . under the groaol . . . [They] were not originally blind, but have evolved from auceslors that lived in the ligtit at had well -developed eyes. The atrophied eye beneaUi the opaque akin may be fouud in the»e blii beingB in every ?tnge orrrvendon." (Hxckcl, Btdlgree of Mam, "Sense Organs," p. 343: Ai Trona.) And if two eyes could become so atrophied in lower animals, why not om ey«— tlie Gland~ia man, who is but a higher animal in hla physical aspect ?
THE SEAT OF THE SOUL.
311
■
cacli side is formed by a lateral thickening of the inedunar>' wall, while the intcn'al between, descending towards the base, constitutes the cavity of the third ventricle with its prolongution in the infundibuluni. The grey commissure afterwards
stretches across the ventricular cavity The hinder part of the roof is
developed by a peculiar process to be noticed later into the pineal gland, which remains united on each side by its pedicles to the thalamus, and behind these & transverse band is formed as posterior contniissure.
The lamina termtnalis (lamina cincrea) continues to close the third ventricle ia front, below it the optic commissure forms the floor of the ventricle, and further back the infnndibulum descends to be united in the sella turcica with the tissue adjoining the posterior lobe of the pituitary body.
The two optic thalmni, formed from the posterior and outer part of the anterior vesicle, consist at first of a single hollow sac of nervous matter, the cavity of which communicates on each side in front with that of the commencing cerebral hemi- spheres, and behind with that of the middle cephalic vesicle (corpora quadrige- mina). Soon, however, by increased deposit taking place in their interior behind, below, and at the sides, the thalami become solid, and at the same time a clefl or fissure appears between them above, and penetrates down to the internal cavity, which continues open at the back part opposite the entrance of the Sylvian aque- duct This cleft or fissure is the third ventricle. Behind, the two thalami continue united by the posterior commissure, which is distinguishable about the end of the third month, and also by the peduncles of the pineal gland. . .
At an early period the optic tracts may be recognized as hollow prolongations from the outer part of the wall of the thalami while they are still vesicular. At the fourth month these tracts are distinctly formed. They subsequently are prolonged backwards into connection with the corpora quadrigemina.
The formation of the pineal gland and pituitary body presents some of the most interesting phenomena which are connected with the development of the thala- mencephalon.*
The al>ove is specially interesting when it is remembered that, were it not for the development of the posterior part of the cerebral hemi- spheres, the Pineal Gland would be perfectly visible on the removal of the parietal bones. It is very interesting also to note the obvious con- nection which can be traced between the originally hollow Optic Tract and the Eyes anteriorly, and the Pineal Gland and its Peduncles posteriorly, and between all of these and the Optic Thalami. So that the recent discoveries in connection with the third eye of Hatteria Punctata have a very important bearing on the history of the develop- ment of the human senses, and on the Occult assertions in the text.
It is well known that Descartes saw in the Pineal Gland the S^al of ike Send, though this is now regarded as a fiction by those who have ceased to believe ia the existence of an immortal principle in man.
op. cii., il. &J0, 831, nintli ediUoa; " The ThaUmeoccpbalon or Inlcr-bntia.
312
THE SECRET DOCTRINE.
Although the Soul is joined to every part of the body, he said, there isj one special portion of the latter in which the Soul exercises its functions more specially than in any other. And, as neither the heart, nor yet the brain could be that ''special'* locality, he concluded that it was thatlittle«| gland which was tied to the brain, and yet had an action independent' of it, as it could easily be put into a kind of swinging motion **by tlie animal spirits* which cross the cavities of the skull in ever>' sense."
Unscientific as this may appear in our day of exact learnin^^ Descartes was yet far nearer the Occult trut-h than is any Hajcki For the Pineal Gland is, as shown, far more closely connected wit Soul and Spirit than with the physiological senses of man. Had the leading Scientists a glimmer of the real processes employed by the, Evolutionary Impulse, and the winding cyclic course of this great Lai they would know instead of conjecturing, and would feel certain oft! future physical transformations which await the human kind by the' knowledge of its past forms. Then would they see the fallacy and the absurdity of their modem ** blind-force" and ''mechanical" processes of Nature; and, in consequence of such knowledge, would realirt that the said Pineal Gland, for instance, could not but be disabled for physical use at this stage of cur Cycle. If the odd "eye" is now atrophied in man, it is a proof that, as in the lower animal, it ha once been active; for Nature never creates the smallest, the most itti significant, form without some definite purpose and for some use. was an active organ, we say, at that stage of evolution when spiritual element in man reigned supreme, over the hardly nascent it tellectual and psychic elements. And, as the Cycle ran down towai that point where the physiological senses were developed by, and w pari passu with, the growth and consolidation of physical man— tb( interminable and complex vicissitudes and tribulations of zoological development — this median "eye" at last atrophied together with ibc early spiritual and purely psychic characteristics in man. The eye js the mirror and also the window of the Soul, says popular wisdom, f aut^ Vox populi^ vox Dei.
* The "nervotu cUier" of Dr. D. W. Richardson, F.R^. : the nerre.atira of Occnltism. Xb^ ""animal spiHts" (?) arr equivalent to the cnrrenta of nerve-auric compound cErculation.
T I^t u» remember that the Firxt Rnce '\% shown, In Occult Science, aA etpirituiU wiUiin tnd eihocal without: the .S/CL'/frf. psycho-spiritual mentally, and ctbereo- physical bodily: the Tjt in/, still beirft or intellect in its bcj^iiuinR*, is astro-phy^tical in it5 tKxly, and lives an inner liTe, in which Uie psrcbo- hjiiritiinl rrleincnt is tu no way as yel lutcrfrrcd with by the hardly ua&cent physlotogical scnsea. Its two front eyes look before them wiUiout aceinir either past or future But Uie Third Eye **#ar- bracti EUrnity."
THE EVOLDTION OF THK EYE.
313
In the beginning, ever>- class and family of the living species was nnaphrodite and objectively one-eyed. In the animal — whose form as ethereal (astrally) as that of man, before the bodies of both n to evolve their ''coats of skin," viz., to evolve, from within with- wr/. the thick coating of physical substance or matter with its internal physiological mechanism — the Third Eye was primarily, as in man, the ooly seeing organ. The two physical front eyes only developed* later ua in both brute and man, whose organ of physical sight was, at the commencement of the Third Race, in the same position as that of some of the blind vertebrates, in our day, i.^., beneath an opaque skin.f Only, ik stages of the odd, or primeval, eye, in man and brute, are now in- verted, as the former has already passed that animal non-rational stage in the Third Round, and is ahead of mere brute creation by a whole plane of consciousness. Therefore, while the Cyclopean eye was, and still H, in man the organ of %piritiuil sight, in the animal it was that of objective vision. And this eye, having performed its function, was replaced, in the course of physical evolution from the simple to the complex, by two eyes, and thus was stored and laid aside by Nature for iurther use in aeons to come.
This explains why the Pineal Gland reached its highest development proportionately with the lowest physical development. It is in the Vertebrata that it is the most prominent and objective, whereas in nan it is most carefully hidden and inaccessible, except to the Anato- mist. No less light, however, is thereby thrown on the future physical, ^piritnal, and intellectual state of mankind, in periods corresponding on parallel lines with other past periods, and always oh the lines of as- «nding and descending cyclic evolution and development. Thus, a centuries before the Kali Yuga — the Age which began nearly 5,000
* Bat Hi A very di^rent nuuincT to that pictured by Hieckel aa on "evotutiom by JVaturat Siteciiom
«/4^rfr^£yfryfcr txisttnct" {Pedigree of Man. ••S«i*eOrgonfi,"p. 335: Av«ling*8 TraoB.). The mere
'themul •eiuribiUty of the flcin," to hypothetical H;ht-wave«, U absurdly incompelcnt lo account for
'hbeaatiful combination of adaptations existing in the eye. We have shoiwH that "natanil aelcc-
1*"li« pure myth when credited with the orijcinalioit of variations, aa the "survival of the fittest"
^ only take place after useful variations have Kpruuff up, together with improved org'aiiisnis.
**aiwcame the "useful variations," which developed the eyer Ooly from "blind forcea ....
•ittoot lim. without dcsifrn " ? The argument is puerile. The true solution of the mystery la to be
**BdiB the impenional nivine Wicdoin, in it» Ideation— reflected through Matter.
' PalKoatolo^ has aacertained thnt in the animaln of the Mcsoxolc a^^v — the -Saurian* esipecially,
•Khu the antediluvian labyrinth od on, whose fossil skull exhlbiU a perforation otherwise incxplic-
»4fc— the third, or odd eye raunt have been niuch developed. Several Naturalists, amon^ others
£ Korscheldt. feel convinced that whereas, notwith.tLnndJnK the opaque sltin covering It, such an
ne in the reptiles of the present perio
ryt% do when bound with a handkerchief, or even tightly cloecdt, in the now extinct aniinals that eye
«d ood was a real organ of Titfion.
314
THE SECRET DOCTRINB
years ago — it was said in Commentary Twenty, if it is paraphrased into comprehensible sentences:
IVe \^lhe Fifih Root-Race'] in our first lialf{of duration] onward \on the now ascending arc of the Cycle] are on the mid point of {or between] the First and Second Races— falling downward [f.«r., the Races were then on ih€ descending arc of the Cycle] . . . Calculate for thyself Lanoo, and see.
Calculating as advised, we find that during that transitional period — namely, in the second half of the First spiritual ethereo-astral Race — nascent mankind was devoid of the intellectual brain element, as it was on its descendingMn^, And as we are parallel to it, on the ascending.
Evolution of Root-Races in the Fourth Round.
VII
>. >»
o
2 to
MKRIDIAJ* OP RACES.
■we are, therefore, devoid of the spiritual clement, which is now replaced by the intellectual. For, remember well, as we are in the Manasa period of our Cycle of Races, or in the Fifth, we have, therefore, crossed the meridian point of the perfect adjustment of Spirit and Matter — or the equilibrium between brain intellect and spiritual percep- tion. One important point, has, however, to be borne in mind.
We are only in the Fourth Round, and it is in the Fifth that the full flevelopment of Manas, as a direct ray from the Universal Mahat — a ray unimpeded by Matter — will be finally reached. Nevertheless, as every sub- race and nation have their cycles and stages of evolutionary develop- ment repeated on a smaller scale, much more must it be so in the case of
«
THE ODD ETB IS NOW A OlAXD.
3»5
a Root-Race. Our Race then has. as a Root- Race, crossed the equatorial line and :s cycling onward on the spiritual side; but some of our sub- races still find tbemselres on the shadowy descending arc of their respec- tive national cycles; while others again — the oldest — having crossed the crucial point, which alone decides whether a race, a nation, or a tribe. will live or perish, are at the apex of spiritual development as sub-races.
It now becomes comprehensible why the Third Eye wa^i gradually transformed into a simple gland, after the physical Fall of those we have agreed lo call the Lemurians.
It is acurious fact that in human beings the cerebral hemispheres and the lateral ventricles have been especially developed, whereas it is the Optic Thalami. Corpora Quadrigemina. and Corpora Striata whicli are the principal parts developed in other mammalian brains. Moreover, it is asserted that the intellect of a man may, to some extent, be gaug by the de\-elopment of the central convolutions and the fore part of ilie cerebral hemispheres. It would seem a natural corollary to this that if the development of the Pineal Gland may be considered to be an ittUex of the astral capacities and spiritual proclivities of any man, there will be a corresponding development of that part of the cranium, or an increase in the size of the Pineal Gland at the expense of the posterior part of the cerebral hemispheres. This is a curious speculation and would receive confirmation in the present case. We should see, below and behind, the cerebellum which has been held lo be the seal of all the animal proclivi- ties of the human being, and which is allowed by Science to be the great centre for all the physiologically coordinated movements of the body, such as walking, eating, etc.; in front, tlie fore-part of the brain, tlie cerebral hemispheres, the part especially connected with the develop- ment of the inlellectual powers in man; and in the middle, dominaiiug them both, and especially the animal functions, the developed Pineal Glaud, in connection with the more highly evolved, or spiritual man.
It must be remembered that these are only physical correspomlcuce*; just as the ordinar>' human brain is the registering organ of memory. but not memor>' itself.
This is. then, the organ which has given rise lo so many legends and traditions, among others to that of men with one head biJMwo face«. These legends may be found in several Chinese works, besidea being referred to in the Chaldean fragments. Apart from the work nirrndy cited, the Shan Hai King, compiled by Kung Chia from eugruviiiKu itii nine urns made by the Emperor Yia, 2,255 b^., they may be fouii»t in
3i6
THE SECRET DOCTRINE.
another work, called the Bamboo Books^ and in a third, the ' Rh Ya, whosej author was ''initiated according to tradition by Chow Kung, uncle of U'tt' Wang, the first Emperor of the Chow Dynasty, i.t22 B.C.'* The Bam\m\ Books contain the ancient annals of China, found a.d. 279 on opening j the grave of King Seang of Wei, who died 295 b.c * Both these works mention men with two faces on one head — one in front and one behind.
Now what students of Occultism ought to know is that the Third: Eye is indissolubty c&nnected 7viih Kantia. The tenet is so mystcriousj that very few have heard of it.
The "Eye of Shiva" did not become entirely atrophied before thej close of the Fourth Race. UTieu spirituality and all the divine po^ and attributes of the Deva-Man of the Third Race had been made hand-maidens of the newly-awakened physiological and psychic pas^' sions of the physical man, instead of the reverse, the Eye lost i3| powers. But such was the law of evolution, and it was. in strii accuracy, no Fall. The sin was not in using those newly-devel( powers, but in misitsing them; in making of the tabernacle, design* to contain a God, the fane of every spirilual iniquity. And if we sa\ "sin" it is merely that ever>'one should understand our meaning. forj Karmaf would be the more correct term to use in this case; moreo\ the reader who should feel perplexed at the use of the term "spiritual' instead of "physical" iniquity, is reminded of the fact that there cs be no physical iniquity. The body is simply the irresponsible orgai the tool of the Psychic, if not of the Spiritual, Man. And in Ihecs of the Atlanteans, it was precisely the Spiritual Being which sinnetLJ the Spirit Element being still the "Master" Principle in man, in the days. Thus it is in those days that the heaviest Karma of the Fif Race was generated by our Monads.
As this sentence may again be found puzzling, it is better that should be explained for the benefit of those who are ignorant of Th( sophical Teachings.
Questions with regard to Karma and Re-births are constantly b put forward, and great confusion seems to exist upon the snbj Those who are bom and bred in the Christian faith, and have trained in the idea that a new Soul is created by God for every newlj
* Gould's Mythical MotnUts, p. -jj.
■i Karma is a word of masy mraningrs, and has a spedol term for almost every one of iu i As ■ ajmonym of sitx, it roeaas the performuuce of Kome action for the sttainTneut of an object aior/(f/y, lirnce srljisk, dtsirc. which cannnt fnil to br hurtful to somebody else. Karma is action. ' cause ; and Karma again \t, the " Law of Ktliicat Cauuation " : the tffeci of an act produced eg( in face of the gTOt ^^' ^^ Hanuony which depends on altruism^.
^^^V THK NUMBBR OP MONADS IS UMITED. 3I7
"born infant, are among the most perplexed. They ask whether the number of Monads incarnating on Earth is limited; to which they are answered in the affirmative. For, however countless, in our concep- tion, the number of the incarnating Monads, still, there must be a limit. This is so even if we take into account the fact that ever since the Second Race, when their respective seven Groups were furnished with bodies, several births and deaths may be allowed for every second of time in the seons already passed- It has been stated that Karma- Nemesis, whose bond-maid is Nature, adjusted everything in the most harmonious manner; and that, therefore, the fresh pouring-in» or arrival of new Monads, ceased as soon as Humanity had reached its full physical development. No fresh Monads have incarnated since the middle-point of the Atlanteans. Let us remember that, save in the case of young chil- dren, and of individuals whose lives have been violently cut off by some accident, no Spiritual Entity can reincarnate before a period of many centuries has elapsed, and such gaps alone must show that the number of Monads is necessarily finite and limited. Moreover, a reasonable time must be given to other animals for their evolutionary progress.
Hence the assertion that many of us are now working off the effects of the evil Karmic causes produced by us in Atlauteau bodies. The Law of Karma is inextricabl}' interwoven with that of Reincarnation.
It is only the knowledge of the constant re-births of one and the same Individuality throughout the Life-Cycle; the assurance that the same Monads — among whom are many Dhyan Chohans, or the ''Gods" themselves — have to pass through the "Circle of Necessity," rewarded or punished by such rebirth for the suffering endured or crimes com- mitted in the former life; that those very Monads, which entered the empty, senseless Shells, or Astral Figures of the First Race emanated by the Pitris, are the same who are now amongst us — nay, ourselves, perchance; it is only this doctrine, we say, that can explain to us the mysterious problem of Good and E\al, and reconcile man to the terrible apparent injustice of life. Nothing but such certainty can quiet our revolted sense of justice. For, when one unacquainted ^vith the noble doctrine looks around him, and observes the inequalities of birth and fortune, of intellect and capacities: when one sees honour paid to fools and profligates, on whom fortune has heaped her favours by mere privilege of birth, and their nearest neighbour, \vith all his intellect and noble virtues — far more deserving in every way — perishing of want and for lack of sympathy; when one sees all this and has to turn away.
I
THB SECRET DOCTRINE.
helpless to relieve the undeserved suffering, one*s ears ringing and heart aching with the cries of pain around him — that blessed know- ledge of Karma alone prevents him from cursing life and men, as well as their supposed Creator.*
Of all the terrible blasphemies and what are virtually accusations thrown at their God by the Monotheists, none is greater or more un- pardonable than that (almost always) false humility which makes the presumably '*pious" Christian assert, in the face of everj' evil and undeserved blow, that "such is tfie will oi God."
Dolts and hypocrites! Blasphemers and impious Pharisees who speak in the same breath of the endless merciful love and care of their God and Creator for helpless man, and of that God scourging the fpod^ ike very best of his creatures, bleeding them to death like an insatiable Moloch / Shall we be answered to this, in Congreve's words: But who shall dare to tax Ktemal Justice?
Logic and simple common sense, we answer. If we are asked to believe in "original sin," in one life 07iiyo\i this Earth for even^ Soul, and in an anthropomorphic Deity, who seems to have created some men only for the pleasure of condemning them to eternal hell-fire — and this whether they be good or bad. says the Predestinarianf — why should not everyone of us who is endowed with reasoning powers, condemn in his turn such a villainous Deity? Life would become unbearable, if one had to believe in the God created by man's unclean fancy. Luckily he exists only in human dogmas, and in the unhealthy imagination of some poets, who believe they have solved the problem by addressing him as;
Thou great Mysterious Power, who hast involved
The pride of human wisdom, to confound
The daring scrutiny and prove the faith
or Xhy presuming CTVLR\xiT^^\
Truly a robust "faith*' is required to believe that it is "presumption" to question the justice of one, who creates helpless little man but to "per- plex" him. and to test a " faith" wth which that " Power," moreover, may have forgotten, if not neglected, to endow him, as happens sometimes.
Compare this blind faith with tlje philosophical belief, based on every
* Objrcta» to the doctrinv of Karma shotild recall the fact that it is ftbKrtut to attempt a reply to the PeaaiuUsts on other daia. A firm grasp of the prindplea of Karmk Law ki)ix:ka away the whole hasia of the impoaing fabric reared by the diadt^ea of Schopenhauer and Von Hartmann.
t The doctrine and theology of the CalviiUsts. " The purpose of God /ram eternity rc»pecUng^ all cveuti "—which become* faialism ond kjUs free will, or any attempt of excrtinp it for good. " 11 ia the prcfloaiffninent or allotment of men to crerlosling hsppineaa or miMry." {Cattchism.) A noble and encouraging d&clritie this! y
THB lAW OF RETRIBUTION.
319
reasonable evidence and on life-experience, in Karma- Nemesis, or the Law of Retribution. This Law — whether Conscious.or Unconscious — predestines nothing and no one. It exists from and in Eternity, truly. for it is Eternity itself; and as such, since no act can be coequal with Eternity, it cannot be said to act, for it is Action itself. It is not the n^ave which drowns a man, but the personal action of the Tvretch who goes deliberately and places himself under the imperzonal action of the laws that govern the ocean's motion. Karma creates nothing, nor does it design. It is man who plans and creates causes, and Karmic Law adjusts the effects, which adjustment is not an act, but univensal harmony, tending ever to resume its original position, like a bough, which, bent down too forcibly, rebounds with corresponding vigour. If it happen to dislocate the arm that tried to bend it out of its natural position, shall we say that it is the bough which broke our arm. or that our own folly has brought us to grief? Kanua has never sought to destroy intellectual and individual liberty, like the God invented by the Monotheists. It has not involved its decrees in darkness purposely to perplex man ; nor shall it punish him who dares to scrutinize its mys- teries. On the contrar>-, he who through study and meditation unveils its intricate paths, and throws light on those dark ways, in the windings of which so many men perish owing to their ignorance of the labynuth of life — is working for the good of his fellow-men. Karma is an Absolute and Eternal Law in the World of Manifestation; and as there can only be one Absolute, as One eternal ever-present Cause, believers in Karma cannot be regarded as Atheists or Materialists — still less as Fatalists,*
* In order to m«ke Kaniu raore comprchnuible to the We«tem mind, which U better acquainted with the Creek than with Aryan philosophy, some TheoMphi*tA have made an attempt to (rana* late it by Netncsis. Had r the Iniltale, this translation of the term would be unobjectionable. A.« it is. Nemesis has been too much aulhro|)omorphizcd by Creek fancy to permit our ualn^ it without an elaborate cxplanAtioa. With the early Greeks, " from Uomer to Henxlotua, she vran nu god'lsu, but a moral /teling mthcr." aays Uecharmc; the barrier to evil and immorality. Ue who tranAffre the eye* of the Gods, and is pursued by Nemcaia. But. with time, that " feelinfc " was deified, and its persosiificatioD became an ever-fatal and punishing Coddp"*- Thrrcforr, if wr would connect Karma with Nemesis, we must do so in her triple character as Nemesis, Adrastda and Themis. I'or. while the lost is the Goddess of Universal Order and Harmony, who, like Nemesis, is c0mmis!ihmed to repress every exceaa, and keep man within the limits of Nature and righleousnifiui under severe penally, Adrosteia, the "inevitable," represents Nemesis as the immutable effect of cnuscs created by man himnclf. Nemesis, as the daughter of Dikd. ia the equitable Goddess reservinfr her wralb for thoae atone who are maddened with pride, cgoT'tra, and impiety. (See Mesomed., Hjunn. Nfmei., v. z, Irom Brunck. Anatecta II. p. 292; quoted in 4\fytAolotnit Nemesis is a mythological, exoteric Goddess, or A>Tt>er, personified and anthropomorphized in it.4 various aspects, Kamia i-s a highly philoAophtcfll troth, a most dfriiie and noble Fx;irrsAion of the primitive intuiUon of man conccming^ Deity. It is a doctrine which explains the origin of Kvit, and ennobles onr conceptions of w^at divine immutable Justice ought to be, instead of degradiiitc the unknown and unknowable Deity by making it the whiniikal,cnKlityrant, which we call " Providence.'*
u
3M
THE SECRET DOCTRINK.
for Kanna is one with the Unknowable, of which it is aii aspect, in its effects in the phenomenal world.
Intimately, or rather indissolubly, connected with Karuia, then, is the Law of Re-birth, or of the reincarnation of the same spiritual Indi- viduality in a long, almost interminable, series of Personalities. The latter are like the various characters played by the same actor, with each of which that actor identifies himself and is identified by the public, for the space of a few hours. The inner, or real Man. wbo personates those characters, knows the whole time that he is Hamlet only for the brief space of a few acts, which, however, on the plane of human illusion, represent the whole life of Hamlet. He knows also that he was, the night before, King Lear, the transformation in his turn of the Othello of a still earlier preceding night. And though the cater, I visible character is supposed to be ignorant of the fact, and in actual life that ignorance is, unfortunately, but too real, nevertheless, the permanent Individuality is fully aware of it, and it is through the atrophy of the ''spiritual" Eye in the physical body, that that know- ledge is unable to impress itself on the consciousness of the false Personality. !
The possession of a physical Third Eye. we are told, was enjoyed by I the men of the Third Root-Race down to nearly the middle period of the ; third sub-race of the Fourth Root-Race, when the consolidation and i perfectiou of the human frame caused it to disappear from the outward anatomy of man. Psychically and spiritually, however, its mental and visual perception lasted till nearly the end of the Fourth Race, wben its functions, owing to the materiality and depraved condition of man- kind, died out altogether. This was prior to the submersion of the bulk of the Atlantean Continent. And now we may return to Deluges and their many "Noahs."
The student has to bear in mind that there were mauy such Del as that mentioned in Genesis, and three far more important ones, wh: will be mentioned and described in the Section of Part III devi to the subject of pre-historic "Submerged Continents." To a erroneous conjectures, however, with regard to the claim that Esoteric Doctrine has much in common with the legends contained the Hindu Scriptures; that, again, the chronology of the lattec, almost that of the former — only explained and made clear; and t! finally the belief that Vaivasvata Manu — a generic term indeed! — ' the Noah of the Ar>'ans and the prototype of the biblical patriarch.
THE SEVEN AND FOURTEEN MANUS.
321
this — as pertaining also to the belief of the Occultists— necessitates 3 new explanation at this juncture.
THE PRIMEVAL MANUS OF HUMANITY.
Those who are aware that the "Great Flood/' which was connected with the sinking of an entire Continent (save only a few islands) could not have happened so far back as i8,cx)0.ooo years ago, and that Vaivas- vata Manu is the Indian Noah connected with the Matsya, or the Fish, Avatara of Vishnu, may feel perplexed at the apparent discrepancy between the facts stated and the chronology previously given. But there is no discrepancy in truth. The reader is asked to turn to The TheoiophUt of July, 1883, for by studying the article therein, on "The Septenary Principle in Esotericism," tlie whole question can be ex- plained to him. It is in the explanation there given, I believe, that the Occultists differ from the Brahmans.
For the benefit of those, however, who may not have The Tkeoscphisi of that date to hand, a passage or two may now be quoted from it:
Who was Manu, the son of SvAyambhuva? The Secret Doctrine tells us that iht^ Manu was no man. but the representation of the first human races, evolved with the help of the Dhy4n Chohans (Devas), at the beginning of the First Round. But we arc told in his Imws (\. So) that there are fourteen Manus for every Kalpo, or "interval from creation to creation" — read rather interval from one minor Pralaya to another*— and that "in the present divine age, there have been as yet Sfvtn Manus." Those who know that there are seven Rounds, of which we have passed three, and ore now in the Fourth; and who are taught that there are seven
* Prmlaya— « watA already explained— is not a term that applies omfy to every " NiKht of Brabml," or thc World's I^MOlUtion foUinrinK rvrry Uanvautara, equal to 71 Mahiyu^na. It applies also to each " Obscuration" as weU, and crea to every Cataclysm that pats an end, by Fire or by Water in turn, lo each Root-Race. Pralaya is ■ geuerml term like the word "Manu"— the ^neric nsme for the Shishta*, who. under the appellation of "Kingfi." are aald in the Pttrtnai to be preserved "irith the seed of all things, in an ark, from the waters of that inundation [or the fires of a general volcanic confla^ation. the commencement of which we already sec for our Fil\h Race in the terrible earth- quakes and eruptiotts of these late years, and especially in the present year (i&H8>], which, in the ^anuoa of a Pmlaya overspreads the world [the Earth]." ( t^isMnn Purdna. Wilson's Trans.. I. Ixwri.) ime ts Duly a form of Vishnu— truly, as Par&shara uys in the yiihmu PuvAna. In the Hindi) Vtigas rasid Kalpas, we hare the regular descending aeriM 4. 3, 1, with ciphers, multiplied, as occasion IscqBlres, for Ksoteric purpoaes. but not. as Wilson and other Orientalists thought, for "sectarian [«mheIKshments." A Kalpa may be an Age, or Day of Brahml, or a sidereal Kalpa, astrtraomical and Lcarthly. These calcnlationa are found in all the PitrAitat, but some differ— as for instance, the "Year hef the seven Rltihifi," ^.oy) mortal years, and the " Year of I>hruva," 9,090, in the Ltnga fiurdma, which [are again Esoteric, and do represent actual (and lecrct) chronology. A* said in the Brahma t'aivar/a: 'Chronologer^ cccnpute a Kalpa by the life of Drahml. Afimcr Kalpas, as Samvarta and the rest, are [jmraerous." "Minor Kalpas" denote here every period of DestmcUon, as was well noderstood by ' WiLvin himself, who explains the latter as " thoM in which the SamvarU wind or other deatructtve h«gcsta operate." yfbid., p. 54.)
J
THE SECRET DOCTUXB.
Dmmtm wad Mrvcn TwiligbU, or fourteen MAnT«Bt«n»: tkat M. 0rary Moaad and st the rnd. and on. and between, the r»*«rMs [fThiw ■] 1 "mwakaun^ to iUuiwe life." and an "awakening to rmi life*; ant thA, tiwrt ar* Root- Manna, and what we have to cliunfily tnaal Mttdt /or the human rtues of the forthcoming Ronnd {or the flti««t * ; a jnyRtcry divulged only to those who have pairrd tlftexr thifd InitiationHthoiK who have learned all this will be better prcp«T^ to the mcjiiiing of the following. We are told in the Hindd Sacred Scrrptmes **The firit Miuiu produced ux other Manua [iOfcn primary Wa«»«i i^ ^^ waA protliivrd tn their turn each seven other Manus*'t iBkHgm» i. 6z-^l — tlie ijori of the latter atanding in the Occult treatises as 7 ^7. Tfaas it becov 1hu( Mniiu— the laat one, tlie Progenitor of our Fourth-Roood Hvaaaztr- iMt llir xet'vnth, dincc we arc on our Fourth Round,; and there ts a Rooi- i\\*i\rv A, und M .SVrfAMunu at Globe G. Just as each plauetorT Rovad with the apjHraraucc of a Root-Monu (DhyAn Cfaohon) and ckiaes with a .JManii. no M Koot- ntid a Sced-Manu appear respectively at the beginning sod tartiilnadon nf the human period on any particular planet [Globe}.f It viU' ffiiiily arrn from the foregoing statement that a Manvantaric period rMona- tiieana, liA the lenn inipIicH, the time between the appearance of two Uanu f>hyAii Cliohan«i and hence a Minor Manvantara is Uic duration of the vcva [Oil uiiy purllculiir planet [Glol>e], and a Major Manvantara is the period of illiiniiin Round along the I'lnnetary Clmin. Moreover, as it is said that each of!
Munua crtates 7x7 Munus and that there are 49 Root-Races on the pIlTirtii ffttoltt'iil during each Round, then every Root-Race has its Mann, yprtiwiil nirvenlh Manu is called "Vaivasvata" and stands In the exoteric texts ItllAl Mauii who In India repreacnta the Babylonian XisuUxrus and the Jewish Nc
* All iMliilllnii rtiiil n pFfAcnlliucnt of the Shishta^i may Ix found in Mr. Sinnett's Esaitwic Um> (If* lliv " AttuiMiitlnttii" llir " NtNili's Ark Tlit^ry," pp. i^b, 147, fiAta edition.
) 'ritr liu I (IihI Maiiii lilninrir !« tnnric to flrcUrr that tit was created by Virlj, «nd Unlkcl liMiiliiitil llir |»ti I'mJApntU, who nsaln produced A^ven Manus. vrho in their tnra ^w birtlitel Mlhi'i MNiiit* (it/dHM, t. \y I'f) rrlnlrnt tnuihrr Htill earlier mysteries, and is al the same time a wlllt >*Ki*('il I" III*' diM-lHiteuf (he Septenary Chain, and the simultaneous evolntioa of sews f|ra,iir Mm. Ilnwrver, Ihr prrwrtil wurk U written on the records of Cis-Himilayui Sccrrt Tc •itil Ml AliMiNiilt til l(ao|fTlc riilloiwphy may now difier in fonn as does the Kabaloli. Dvc ikqr lilritlli hI III liimry iiiitl
1 Tliviv In nihil Im-i iCwttrHi rrnann ItcitldrM thiii for it. A VaiTasvata is the jmm/A Mnna, IhJN Mill Unuiid. MllliMtiult the l^'niiit)), I* In the ^>y.i«>/ »^%>rmtk ■taa« "f (NMlTittlltv ur pliyMli-ulily. The clotie of its middle racial point occarrvil dii I'^tntlt ttivii Haiv, wIivii Man aiitt all Natnrr reachc tliuf, t,f., Ituih Ihr mil of the llirrv iihI a half knees. Humanity and Kature entered on Uie : ■ri- iif thrlr Knrlal Cvolv,
I Thr liilervnl llmt prrctdwi faCk Vur* )• catted a Bandhyl, composed of as maay hi y««ra aa Ihete are thoiiManda In the Vuifn; and that which follows the Utter la named Sandh; and Is of •Imllar diimlliin, a« wv nrr told in Visknm /'HrAna. "The interval between the; and thr KaiidhyAmsha la the Yu|« denoortnatcd Krila, TreU, etc. The [four] Krita. Tivti. and KaH coiiftlltuie a arrcat nfr«. or OffrtVatt of four nicu : a thousand such afunTfratet aic •' Prmhmt ; and fmirteeti Manut rt%gm wftAtn tkatttrm." (0>. nV., ihid., p. 49,) Now had wctflj this lllerally then (here would lie only one Manu for every 4.3»,ooo,ooo years. As it took ,^00 millioti y«an for the Iwo lower klnffdonu to evolve, and that car Humanity laj and lomeodd mtUtons old— where were the other Munus tipoken of, unlets the aUegiory me«aa the EK>leric Doctrine tcache* a* to Ibc 14 being each mulUplicd by 49>
THE "BUNDS" OF EXOTERICISM.
323
But in the Esoteric books we are told that Manu Vaivnsvata, the progenitor of our Fifth Race — who saved it from the flood that nearly exterminated the Fourth or Atlautean — is not the seventh Manu. mentioned in the nomenclature of the Root or Primitive Manus, but one of the 49 Manus emanated from this Root-Manu.
For clearer comprehension we here ^ve the names of the 14 Modus in their respective order and in their relation to each Round:
1st (Root) Ailanu on Planet A — Svflyambhuva.
1st Round and Round 3rd Round j 4th Round 5th Round 6th Round 7th Ronnd
1st (Seed) 3nd (R)
2nd
3rd
( 3rd
4th
4lh
5th
5ih I 6th ( 6th ( 7th \ 7th
(S) (R) IS) (R) (S) (R) (S) (R) (S) (R) (S)
G — Svdrochi, or SvArochisha.
A — Auttami.
G — T&masa.
A— Raivato.
(3— ChAkshusha.
A — Vaisvasvata (our Progenitor).
G— Savarna,
A— Daksha-sAvama.
Cj — Brahma -sAvarna.
A — Dharm a>sA vama.
G — Rudra-sAvarna.
A — Rauchya*
G — Bhautya.
Vaivasvata, thus, though seventh in the order given, is the primitive Root-Manu of our Fourth Human Wave (the reader must always remember that Manu is not a man but collective humanity), while our Vaivasvata was but one of the seven Minor Manus, who are made to preside over the seven Races of this our planet [Globe]. Each of these has to become the witness of one of the periodical and ever- recurring cataclysms (by fire and water) that close the cycle of every Root- Race. And it is this Vaivasvata — the Hindft ideal cmlwdiment, called respectively Xisuthms, Deucalion, Noah and other names— who is the allegorical "Man" who rescued our Race, when nearly the whole population of one hemisphere perished by water, while the other hemisphere was awakening from its temporary obscuration.*
Thus it is shown that there is no real discrepancy in speaking of the Vaivasvata Manvautara (Manu-antara, lit., '"between two Manus*') as 18,000,000 odd years ago, when physical, or the truly human, Man first appeared in his Fourth Round on this Earth; and of the other Vaivas-
♦ The word* "Creation." "Duwwlution," etc., do nol correctly render the right mcuning of either Maarantara or PnUya. The KuA«w Afana cnameralesKventl: "Thedissolntion of Kit ihingsis of four kinds," Parlshara 1b made lossy: Noimittika (Occa«ioaat). when Brahmd alumbers {bis Night, when, "at the end of this Day occurs a rc-coolcsceticc of tKe Universe, called Brahmi's contingent rc-coalcirccoce," Iwcause Brahmi is this Univerae itself): Prakritika (Elcmmtal). when the return of this rnirerse to ila original naturr ia partial and physical; Atyantika (Absolute), identi6cation of the Embodied with the incorporeal Saprcme Spirit— Mahatmic state, whether temporary or until the following Maha Knlpa: also Absolute Obacuration— as of a whole Houetary Chain, etc.; and Nitya (Perpetual), Mafal Pralaya for the L'nivcree. Death—tm man. Nitya i» the extinction o^ life, like the "extipction of a lamp," also "in sleep at nighl." Nitya Sarga is "constant or perpetual creation." as Nitya lYalaya is "constant or perpetual destruction of all that is bom." "That which ensues after a minor dissolution is calletl ephemeral creation." ( VUhnv Farina, Wilson's Trans., i. 113. ir4.) The cubject is so difficult that we arc obliged to repeat ouTBtalemcnts.
THE SECRET DOCTRINE.
5. e.g., the Manu of the Great Cosmic or Sidereal Flood — a n , again the Manu Vaivasvata of the submerged Atlantis, when the Racial Vaivasvata saved the elect of Humanity, the Fifth Race, from utter destruction. As these several and quite distinct events are purposely blended in the Vishnu and other Puranas in one narrative, there may yet be a great deal of perjilexity left in the profane reader's mind. Therefore, as constant elucidation is needed, we must be for- given unavoidable repetitions. The "blinds** which conceal the real mysteries of Esoteric Philosophy are great and puzzling, and even now the last word cannot be given. The veil, however, may be a little more removed, and some explanations, hitherto denied, may now be offe to the earnest student.
As Colonel Vans Kennedy, if we do not mistake, remarked ; *' first principle in Hindu religious philosophy is unity in diversity'* all those Manus and Rishis are called by one generic name, it is du the fact that they are one and all the manifested Energies of one the same Logos, the celestial as well as the terrestrial Messengers ai Permutations of that Principle which is ever in a state of activ conscious during the period of Cosmic Evolution, unconscious (i our point of view) during Cosmic Rest — for the Logos sleepeth in bosom of That which "sleepeth not," nor is it ever awake, for it is or **Be-ness/* not a Being. It is from It that issues the great Um Logos, who evolves all the other Logoi; the Primeval Manu who being to the other Manus, who emanate the universe and all in collectively, and who represent in their aggregate the Afanifaii Logos.* Hence we learn in the Commentaries that while no Dhl Chohan. not even the highest, can realize completely
The condition of the preceding Cosmic Evolution^ . . . ih^ retain a knowtedge of their experiaiccs in all the Cosmic Evolui throughout Eternity.
This is very plain: the first Manu is called SvSyambhuva, the " manifested," the Son of the Unmanifested Father. The Manus ar Creators of the Creators of our First Race — the Spirit of Manki which does not prevent the seven Manus from having been the fii "Pre-Adamic" Men on Earth.
Manu declares himself created by VirSj.f or Vaishvanara, the Spil
• Bnt see the mipcrb definitions of ParabrAhman and the Lo^oe in T. Snbba Roir't l,eGtures Bhagavad GJia in the early numbers of TV Throsophisi of 1887.
* Sec preceding- fool- note.
THE FOUR EARLIER RACKS.
325
of Humanity,* which means that his Monad emanates from the never
resting Principle in the beginning of even' new Cosmic Activity' — that
Logos or Universal Monad (collective Elohim) which radiates from.
ithin himseif all those Cosmic Monads that become the centres of
tivity — Progenitors of the numberless Solar Systems as well as of the
undifferentiated human Monads of Planetary Chains as well as of
being thereon. Svayambhuva, or Self-born, is the name of every
wmic Monad which becomes ilie Centre of Force, from within which
rgcs a Planetary Chain (of which Chains there are seven in our
item). And the radiations of this Centre become again so many
tanus Svayambhuva (a mysterious generic name, meaning far more
m appears), each of them becoming, as a Host, the Creator of his
rn Humauit>\
As to the question of the four distinct Races of mankind that
seeded our Fifth Race, there is nothing mystical in the subject,
A the ethereal bodies of the first Races; and this is a matter of
idary, nevertheless very correct, history. The legend is universal.
id if the Western savant pleases to sec in it only a myth, it does not
:e the slightest difference. The Mexicans had, and still have, the
ition of the fourfold destruction of the world by fire and water, just
the Eg>'ptians had, and the Hindus have, to this day.
•Trying to account for the community of legends held by Chinese,
laldaeans, Egyptians, Indians and Greeks, in remote antiquity, and
the absence of any certain vestige of civilization more ancient than
years, the author of Myihicat Monsters remarks that:
Jt must .... not be surprised if we do not ixnme
Eiges of the people of ten, fifteen, or twenty thousand years ago. With an
leral architecture .... [as in China], the sites of vast cities may have
le entirely lost to recollection in a few thou&ands of years from natural decay,
bow much more . . . if . . . minor cataclysms have intervened, such as
inundations, earthquakes, deposition of volcanic ashes the spreaii
sandy deserts, destruction of life by deadly pestilence, by miasma, or by the >urof sulphurous fumes.t
[ow many of such cataclysms have changed the whole surface of earth may be inferred from the following Stanza of Commentary ity-two:
Ma»m, i. 3>. 33. VaJiihTinani is, in uiothM- Araw, the IMtiR magnetic fire Ihst pervades the
Solar System. It Is the most objective {thouffh to us the reverse) and ever present aspect
One lit«, for it is the Vital Principle. (See Tkfotophist, July, 1M3, p. a^q.) It is oIjk) m name of
« Op. dt., pp. 134. 135-
326
THB SECRET DOCTRINE.
During (k^ first seveti crons [^yo^ooo.ooo years'] of ike Kalpa the Earth and its two Kingdoms \jnineral and vegetable], one already having achieved Us seventh circle, the other, hardly nascent, are luminous and semi-ethereal, cold, lifeless, and transtucid. In the eleventh avre* the Mother [^Earth'] grorvs opaque, and in the fourteenth \ the throes of adolescence take place. These cmivulsions of Nature [geological changes] last till her twentieth crore of years, U7iinterruptedly, after which they become periodical^ and at long intervals,
The last change took place nearly twelve crores [120,000^000] of years ago. But the Earth with everything on her face had become cool, hard and settled ages earlier.
Thus, if we are to believe Esoteric Teaching, universal geological disturbances and changes have not occurred for the last 120 million years, but the Earth, even before that time, was ready to receive her humau stock. The appearance of the latter, however, in its full physical development, as already stated, took place only about r8,ooo.ooo years ago. after the first great failure of Nature to create beings alone — i.e.y without the help of the divine "Fashioners" — had been followed by the successive evolution of the first three Races.J The actual duration of the first two and a half Races is withheld from all but the higher Initiates. The history of the Races begins at the separation of the sexes, when the preceding egg-bearing androgynous Race perished rapidly, and the subsequent sub-races of the Third Root- Race appeared as an entirely new r^LCt physiologically. It is this "Destruction** which is allcgorically called the great "Vaivasvata Manu Deluge," when the account shows Vaivasvata Manu, or Humanity, remaining alone on Barth in the Ark of Salvation towed by Vishnu in the shape of a
• TTiis— In the pcHwl of SfcondaryQna^ion, so called. Of the Pnmary, when Knrth i» in pofum- ffion of the thrc« EUmental Kiii^oma, wc cannot s(icak fur Kvrral rrasonK, one of which U, that, no one bul a (TCat «ccr, or one naturally intuiUonal, will lie able to realize that which can never be rxprcswd in any cziaUnE temiH.
Y Hippocrates aaid thai numlier ieven "by its occult virtues len things, to be the dispmiier of life and fountnin of all its clianfres." The life of man he divided into ■even ajces, as did Shakespeare, for " as Uic moon chongnt her phases every seven days, this numbn influences all sublunary bclnffs," and even the Karih, a* we know, The teeth of a child appear in the seventb month, and he sheds thera at seven years ; at twice seven puberty befirins, at three time* seven bia mental and vital powers are developed, at four times seven he is iu his full strength, at five tinea aevcn his posaiotu are most developed, etc. Thus aUo for the Earth : it is now in its middle age, yet very little wiser for it. The Tctraffrsmmaton, the four-lettered sacred name of the Deity, can be resolved on RArth only by becoming: srplenary Ihroiifth the manifest Trinnt:le proceeding from the concealed Tctmktys. Therefore, the number seven has to tie adopted on this plane. A« written in the JfabataA {" The Greater Holy As»enit>ly," v. it6i] : " For assuredly there is no stability in thoae six, save (what they derive) from the seventh. Por aU lAin^t depend from the i^ventA*" (6. U. MacGreRor Mathers' Kabbatah, p. 155.)
$ Compare Stanza* IU. ei legg.
THE BSOTERIC MEANING OF "FISH."
327
monstrous 6sh, and the Seven Rishis "with him." The allegory is Tcry plain.
In the symbolism of every nation, the "Deluge" stands for chaotic unsettled Matter — Chaos itself; and Water for the Feminine Prin- ciple—the "Great Deep." As the Greek Lexicon of Parkhurst jives it;
*kp)(r} answers to the Hebrew rasif. or Wisdom , . . , and [at the same time] loihe emblem of the female generative power, the ar£^ or area, in which the germ ofnatare [and of mankind] floats or broods on the great abyss of the waters, during the bterval which takes place after every mundane [or racial] cycle.
Arch^ {*Apxrf) or Ark is also the mystic name of the Divine Spirit of Life which broods over Chaos. Now Vishnu is the Divine Spirit, as an abstract principle, and also as the Preserver and Generator, or Giver of Life— the third Person of the Trimurti^composed of BrahmS. the Creator, Shiva, the Destroyer, and Vishnu, the Preserver. Vishnu is I, in the allegory, under the form of a FtsA^ guiding the Ark of Faivasvata Manu across the Waters of the Flood. There is no use iu )atiating upon the esoteric meaning of the word Fis/t (as Payne light, Inman, Gerald Massey, and others have done). Its theological leaning is phallic, but the metaphysical, divine. Jesus was called the I, as were Vishnu and Bacchus; IHZS, the "Saviour" of Mankind, ig but the monogram of the God Bacchus, who was also called the Fish.* Moreover, the Seven Rishis in the Ark .symbolized seven "principles," which became complete in man only after he separated, and become a human^ and thus ceased to be a divine iture.
But to return to the Races; details as to the submersion of the mtinent inhabited by the Second Root-Race are not numerous. The >ry of the Third, or Lemuria, is given, as is also that of Atlantis, the others are only alluded to. Lemuria is said to have perished mt 700,000 years before the commencement of what is now called Tertiary Age (the Eocene).t During this Deluge — an actual >logical deluge this time — Vaivasvata Manu is also shown saving inkind. allcgorically — in reality, a portion of it, the Fourth Race— as he saved the Fifth Race during the destruction of the last
Aagutin uyi of Jmtt : " Re i« a Ask that lives In the nddM of waters." Chrtitian* called lve» " Uttle Fifthc!* "— AicMn/i— in tbeir sacred Mysleric*. " So niAny fiihei bred in the waUr, by oni grtal ^sh," aayt Tertullian of the Christiaoa and Christ and the Church. T BtaUric Buddkum, p. 55,
328
THB SECRET DOCTRINE.
Atlanteans, the remnants that perished 850,000 years ago,* after which there was no great submersion until the day of Plato's Atlantis, or Poseidonis, which was known to the Eg>*ptians only because it happened in such relatively recent times.
It is the submersion of the great Atlantis which is the most interesting. This is the Cataclysm of which the old records, as in the Book of Enoch, say, 'Hhe ends of the Earth got loose"; and upon which have been built the legends and allegories of Vaivasvata, Xisu- thrus, Noah, Deucalion and all the iuUi quajiti of the Elect Saved. Tradition, not taking into account the difference between sidereal and geological phenomena, calls both "Deluges" indifferently. Yet there is a great difference. The Cataclysm which destroyed the huge Continent of which Australia is the largest relic, was due to a series of subterranean convulsions and the breaking asunder of the ocean floors. That which put an end to its successor — the Fourth Continent — was brought on by successive disturbances in the axial rotation. It began during the earliest Tertiary periods, and, continuing for long ages, carried away successively the last vestige of Atlantis, with the excep- tion, perhaps, of Ceylon and a small portion of what is now Africa. It changed the face of the globe, and no memory of its flourishing continents and isles, of its civilizations and sciences, have remained in the annals of history, save in the Sacred Records of the East.
Hence. Modem Science denies the existence of Atlantis. It even denies any violent shiftings of the Earth's axis, and would attribute the change of climate to other causes. But this question is still an open one. If Dr. Croll will have it that all such alterations can be accounted for by the effects of nutation and the precession of the equinoxes, there are others, such as Sir Henry James and Sir John Lubbock. t who feel more inclined to accept the idea that they are due to a change in the position of the axis of rotation. Against this the majority of the Astronomers are again arrayed. But then, what have they not denied before now, and what have they not denounced^-only to accept it later on, whenever the hypothesis became undeniable fact?
How far our figures agree, or rather disagree, with Modern Science
• Thi* event— vi«., the destmclion of the famous Island of Ruta and the smaller inland Duttya— which occurred 850.000 yean ago in the later Pliocene limes, must not be confounded with the «ub- tneraion of the main Continent of Atlantis during the Miocene period. GeologiatB cannot bring the Miocene so near aa 8 that the main Atlflnlia periahed.
^ See n* Athtmaum^ Aug. ijtta, 1660.
inll be seen further in the Addenda to this Volume, where the Geology and Anthropology of our modem day are carefully compared with the teachings of Archaic Science. At any rate, the period assigned by the Secret Doctrine for the sinking of Atlantis, does not seem to disagree very much with the calculations of Modem Science, which, however, calls Atlantis *'Lemuria" whenever it accepts such a submerged Conti- nent. With regard to the pre-human period, all that can be said, at present, is, that even prior to the appearance of the "mindless" First Race, the Earth was not without its inhabitants. We might, however, add that what Science, which recognizes physical man mUy, has a right to regard as the pre-human period, may be conceded to have extended from the First Race down to the first half of the Atlantean Race, since it is only then that man became the "complete organic being he is now." And this would make Adamic Man no older than a few millions of years.*
The author of the Qabbalah truly remarks that: "Man to-day, as an individual, is only a concatenation of the being-hood of precedent human life," or lives^ rather.
Accordiug to the Qabbalah, the soul sparks contained in Adam, went into three principal classes correspondiag to Uis three sons, viz.: '//««/, Habel, Gt^boor-ah^ Qai-Tnn and Ra''h'fHin Seth. These three were divided into .... 70 species, called; the principal roots of the human racc.t
Said Rabbi Yehudah; "How many garments [of the incorporeal man] are these which are crowned (from the day man was created)?" Said R. Kl'azar: "The mountains of the world (the great men of the generation) are in discussion upon it, but there are three: one to clothe in that garment the Rua'h spirit, which is in the garden (of Hden) on earth: one which is more precious than all, in which the Neshamah is clothed in that Bundle of Life, between the angels of the Kings . . . . : and one outside garment which exists and docs not exist, is seen and not seen. In that garment, the Nephesh is clothed, and she goes and flies in it, to and fro in the world." J
This relates to the Races, their "garments," or degree of materiality, and to the three "principles" of man in their three vehicles.
* Mr. Huxle)- divides these races Into the quintuple ^roup of Australoida, Negroids, Mooffoloids, Xaflthochroics and Melanochtxiic»— all ixsuing from iiuugiuary AoUiropoids. And yet, while prg- tHtlng against Ihofie who say " that Ihe structural diScrmccs between man and apes are small and in«ifri)tficant," and uddiug that "e\'ery bone of the gorilla bears a mark by which it can be distia- gui&he-d from a corresponding human bone, and thai in the present state of cnratioa, at least, no intermediary being fills the gap which separates the man from the troglodyte "—the great Anatoml'ft goes on speaking or the iimian choracteristlca in man I tSee de Qtiatrefoges, The Human Spea4s^ P-113)
■r O/. nV., Isaac Myer, p. 4u.
X Zokar, i. 1196, col. 475 ; ibid., p. 41X.
I
i
330 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.
STANZA XI.
THE CIVILIZATION AND DKSTRUCTION OF THE FOURTH AND FIFTH RACKS.
43. The Lcmuro-Atlonteans build cities and spread civilization. The incipient stage of anlhropoinorphiam. 44. Slatuca. witneasea to the size of the Lemuro- Atlanteans. 45. Ivcmuria destroyed by fire, Atlantis by water. The Flood- 46. The destruction of the Fourth Race and of the lost antedilnvian monster-animalA.
43. ThEV* BUILT HUGE CITIES. Ov RARE EARTHS AND METALS THEY BUILT. Out of the PIRESt VOMITKD. OUT OP THE WHITE STONE t OP THE MOUNTAINS AND OP THE BLACK STONE,§ THEY CUT THRIR OWN IMAGES. IN THEIR SIZE AND LIKENESS, AND WORSHIPPED THEM.
At this point, as the histoid' of the first two human races — the last of the Leniuriaus and the first of the future Atlanteans — proceeds, we have to blend the two. and speak of them for a. time collectively.
Here reference is also made to the divine Dynasties, which were claimed by the Egyptians, Chaldasans, Greeks, etc., to have preceded their human Kings. These are still believed in by the modern Hindus, and are enumerated in their sacred books. Of these, however, we shall treat in their proper place. What remains to be shown is, that our modem Geologists are now being driven into admitting the demon- strable existence of submerged continents. But to confess the exist- ence of the continents is quite a different thing from admitting that there were men on them during the early geological periods Ij — -ay, men and civilized nations, not Palaeolithic savages only; who, under the
* The Lunoriaiu.
t La^a.
I Marble.
\ Of the sobterranean fim.
I Thiflia thefcaaoD, perhap«, why even Rajtter Inlnnd. vHth lUwmidroua firlRQti*^^^ Atatuea— n apeak* ing witocM to a submerged continent with a cirilizcd mankind un It— is hardly mentioned anywhere In modem Encyclopiediaa. It* mention ia carefully avoided except in aome books or travels'. Modern Science ha«i an undeniable pTedilcction for furring h^'pothesea, built 00 personal hobbiea, upou the cultured public, as well-established evidence; for oflTcnnip it fuesset instead of knowledge, and calling them "scientific conclusions." Ita spedallsta tvitl evolve a thousand and ooe contra- dictory speculations rather than ran fess an awkward i*//.*wia>i»/ /ac/— preeminent among sucj- tpcdalists being Haeckel and hia Bnglish admirers and co-thinkers. Yet " they are authoriUea"— we are ■tenUy reminded. What of that ? The Pope of Rome is also an anthority and an iofatlible one — for Hix followers ; whereas the remarkable fallibility of scienUGc speculations la being proren periodically with every change of the moou.
PRESENTMENTS OP TRUTHS.
331
guidance of their divine Rulers, built large cities, cultivated Arts and Sciences, and knew Astronomy, Architecture and Mathematics to per- fection. The primeval civilization of the Lemurians did not, as one may think, immediately follow their physiological transformation. Between the final physiological evolution and the first city built, many hundred thousands of years had passed. Nevertheless, we find the Lemurians in their sixth sub- race building their first rock-cities out of stone and lava * One of these great cities of primitive structure was built entirely of lava, some thirty miles west from where Easter Island now stretches its narrow strip of sterile ground, and was totally de- stroyed by a series of volcanic eruptions. The oldest remains of Cyclopean buildings were all the handiwork of the last sub-races of the Lemurians; and an Occultist, therefore, shows no surprise on learning that the stone relics which were found on the small piece of land called Easter Island by Captain Cook, are
Very much like the walls of the Temple of Pachacatnac or the Ruins of Tia. Uuanaco in Pcru^t
and also that they are in the Cyclopean style. The first large cities, however, were built in that region of the Continent which is now known as the island of Madagascar. There were civilized people and savages in those days as there are now. Evolution achieved its work of perfection on the former, and Karma — its work of destruction on the latter. The Australians and their like are the descendants of those,
* Our beat tdodem novelists, aUhou^h they are neither Theosophists nor Spiritualists, ne^'crlhetcas begin to have very peychologiciil and sagge«tively Occult dreams; witness Mr. Robert Louis Steven- son and his Strange Case 0/ Dr.Jekylland Mr. Hyd^, than which no grander psychological es-Stty on Occult lines exists. Has the rising novelist Mr. Rider Haggard also had a prophetic, or rather a retrospective, clairvoyant dream ticfoie he wrote Sht f His imperial Kor, the great city of the dead, whose surviving inhabitants sailed northwards aAcr the plagae h&d killed almost a whole nation, seems, hi its general outlines, to step out from the intperishable pages uf the old archaic records. A.yesha suggests " that thoM men who sailed north may have been the fathers of the first Egyp- tians"; and then seems to attempt ■ synopsis of certain letters of a Master quoted in Esottric Buddhism, for, she says: "Time after time have nations, ay, and rich and strong nations, learned Id the arts, been, and passed away, and been forgotten, so that no memory of them remains. This {the nation of Kor) is but one of several ; for lime eats up the work of man unless, indeed, he digs in caves like the people of Kor, and ihtn mayhap tht sea rwallows them, or the earthquake shakes them in. . . . Vet were not these people utterly cities, for their cities were many. But the barbarians . . . came down upon them, and took their women to wife, and the race of the Amahngger that is now is a bastard brood of the mighty sons of KoT, and behold it dwclleth in the lorobs with its fathers' bones" tpp. 180, ifti).
Here the clever novelist seems to repeat the history of all the now degraded and down -fallen races of humanity. Geologists and Anthropologists would place at the bead of humanity— as descendants of Homo Primigeniua— the ape-man. of which " »o /ossi'l remains are as yet know* to us," thougta tbey " were ;>nJ*aWv akin to the Gorilla and Orang 0/ the present day " (Hackel). In answer to whose "probably." Occultists point to another and a greater probability— vU., the one given in our text.
T Robert Brown. The Countries 0/ the Wortd, vol. iv. p. 43.
*
332
THE SECRET DOCTRINE.
who, instead of vivifying the Spark projected into them by the "Flames," extinguished it by long generations of bestiality.* Whereas the Aryan nations could trace their descent through the Atlanteaus from the more spiritual races of the Lemuriaus, in whom the "Sons of Wisdom" had personally incarnated.!
It is with the advent of the divine Dynasties that the first civiliza- tions were started. And while, in some regions of the Earth, a portion of mankind preferred leading a nomadic and patriarchal life, and in others savage man was hardly learning to build a fire and to protect himself against the Elements — his brothers, more favoured than he by their Karma, and helped by the divine intelligence which informed them, built cities, and cultivated Arts and Sciences. Never- theless, notwithstanding civilization, while their pastoral brethren en- joyed wondrous powers as their birthright, the '^builders" could now obtain their powers only gradually; even those they did obtain being generally used for conquest over physical nature and selfish and unholy purposes. Civilization has ever developed the physical and the intel- lectual at the cost of the psychic and spiritual. The command over and the guidance of one's own psychic nature, which foolish men now asfK)ciate with the supernatural, were with early Humanity innate and congenital, and came to man as naturally as walking and thinking.
* See Stanza It. ThU would account for the varialinn nnri grrat difTcrtrnce lirtwrcn the intpUectual CAp*ciUea of race*, natloiu, and individnal men. Wtailtr iucamating talo, and in oilier coses only intoning, the human vehicles evolved by ihe first brainless {"manos-Iess"] Race, the Incamalinfir rowvrv and Principle* had to take into account, and make their choice between, the past Kamias of the MLmad*. tietwrrn which and their bodies they had to become the connecting link. Moreover, as rorrrclly «(rt(ed in /itot/rtc Buddhism iBAj^ty of mankind i« not even yet fully developed."
t n la aftld by the liicaruatc Loffo*. Krishna, in the Bhagavad Glti. "The seven rroit Ri^fais. the four precedlnc ManuN, partakinif of my nature, were l>ora from my mind; from them sprmnf [rnianated or were born] the hitman race and the world " (x. 6).
Here, by the acveii (Ircat Rliihis, the seven great Hiipa Hierarchies or Classes of Dhyin Cbohana, ■rr meant. lyrt un bear In mind that the seven Ri.this, Snptnrshl, are the Re^fents of the seven stars of the Gfeal Hcnr, and therefore, of the wnie nature as the Angels of the Planets, or the seven Rival Planetary bplrita. They were all reborn as men on Earth in various Kalpas and Races. Moreover, •'the four precedlnK Manus" atr the four classes of the originally Ajupa G(k1^— the KunUras, the RiidrsM, the AiiurnR, etc.; who are alno said to kattc incarnaU-d. They are not I>nij4patis, as are the first, but their Infonning "principles"— some of which ha\-e incamalcd In men. while others have made other men simply the vehicles of their " rrflectians." As Kri.thna tnily says— the same wonU bring tcpeated later by another vekicJe of the Logos—" 1 am the the same to all beings . . . those who worship me (the sixth principle or the divine Intellectnar Soul, Buddhi. made conscious by Its union with the higher faculties of Manas] orr IS wv, ai«f/n*» c 'A/M." (/Ajrf.,K. 19,) The Logos, being no "{KTSonality " but the Uuiversal Principle, is represented by all the divine Powers, *ora 0/ m Mind-tbe pure Flames, or, as they ate called In Occultism, the "Intellectual Breaths"— those Angels who are sold to have madt /A/ ., p«»Bed from the passive and qaicsceut. Into the active state of .Self-Consciousnes.4. When this is recognised, the true meaning of Krishna liecoraea comprehensible. But sec Mr. Subba Row's excellent l^eclureon xhK Bhagavcd CXUKThto- »»0ki*t, April, i6tf7. P- 444)-
DEGEI^RATION OF MAXmiTD.
333
"There is no such thing as magic'* philosophizes "She" — the author forgetting that " magic" in early days still meant the great Science of Wisdom, and that Ayesha could not possibly know anything of the modem perversion of thought— " though,'* she adds, "there is such a thing as knowledge of the Secrets of Nature.'** But they have become "Secrets*' only in our Race, and were public property with the Third.
Gradually, mankind decreased in stature, for, even before the real advent of the Fourth or Atlantean Race, the majority of mankind had fallen into iniquity and sin. save only the Hierarchy of the "Elect," the followers and disciples of the "Sons of Will and Yoga** — called later the "Sous of the Fire-Mist.*'
Then came the Atlanteans; the grants whose physical beauty and strength reached their climax, in accordance with evolutionar>' law, toward the middle period of their fourth sub-race. But, as said in the Commentary:
Tiu last survivors of the fair child of the Wkiie Island [^ihe primitive Shveta-dvipa] had perished ages before. Their \^Leniuri(£s\ Elect y had lakai shelter on. the Sacred Island [now the **fabled" Shamballahy in the Gobi Desert], while some of their accursed races, separating from the main stocky now lived in the jungles and underground [** cave-men* 'l^, when the golden yellow Race S^the Fourth] became in its turn "^ black with sin." From pole to pole the Earth had changed her face for the third time, and was no longer inhabited by the Sons of Shveta-dvtpa, the blessed, and Adbhitanya [/], east and west, the first, the one and the pure, had become corrupted. , , . The Demi-Gods of t lie Third had made room- for the Serni'Dcmons of the Fourth Race. Shvela-dvipa,\ the White Island, had veiled her face. Her children now lived on the Black Land, wherein, later on, Daityas from the seventh Dvipa (Pushkara) atid Rdkshasas from the seventh ctifnate replaced the Sddhus and the Ascetics of the Third Age, who had descended to them from other and higher regions, . . .
In their dead letter, the Purdnas, in general, read like an absurd tissne of fairy tales and no better. And if one were to read the first three chapters of Book II of Vishnu Purdna and accept verbatim the geo- graphy, geodesy, and ethnology in the account of Priyavrata*s seven sons among whom their father di%ddes the seven Dvipas (Islands or
• Op.cit., p. 151.
* It was ifac nortbrm parts of the Toylmbudhi, or sea of fresh water, in Shvctn-dvipa, which the acvro Kum4ras — Sanaka, Sauands, Saallana. Sauatkumara, J4tR. Vodha, nnd PanchaHhikha— visited aerecably with exoteric tradition. (Sec tbe Uttara Khanda of the f^dma FurAna, Asmtick /ieuartJkes, vol. xi. pp. qq, toe.)
334
THE SECRET DOCTRIXE.
Continents); and then proceed to stndy how his eldest son, Agnsdhra, the King of Jambu-d\ipa, apportioned Jamba-dvipa among his nine sons; and then how Xibhi, Jkis son, bad a hundred sons and apportioned lands to all these in his turn — he would most likely throw the book away and pronounce it a farrago of nonsense. But the student oi Esoteiicism will understand that, when the Parmnas were written. their true meaning was intended to be clear only to the Initiated Brlthmans, and so the compilers wrote these works allegorically and would not give the wko/e truth to the masses. And he will farther. explain to the Orientalists — who, beginning with Colonel Wilford and ending with Professor Weber, hare made and still are making such a mess of it — that the first three chapters purposely confuse the following subjects and events: